We Need to Do Nothing About AI

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Man Basharzad

“The mindset that governments must immediately regulate AI may prove more dangerous than AI itself. Markets generally adapt to technological change. When genuine market failures emerge, there is a case for government intervention. But where, exactly, is the market failure in AI today that demands immediate regulation?” (08/12/26)

https://fee.org/articles/we-need-to-do-nothing-about-ai/

Joe Biden Should Be Dying Of Cancer In The Hague

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“Joe Biden’s cancer is moving into the advanced stages, according to the former president’s son Hunter. … I’ve seen a lot of people on social media expressing sadness and grief at the news of Biden’s situation, and I agree it is very sad that this is happening. Joe Biden shouldn’t be sitting at home dying of cancer, he should be sitting in a cell at The Hague dying of cancer. The world is a mess because men like Joe Biden get to die peacefully in their homes of cancer. They live long lives free from consequences for their monstrous actions. They don’t spend their final days rotting in a cage for war crimes. Nobody makes them pay for what they did.” (08/12/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/08/12/joe-biden-should-be-dying-of-cancer-in-the-hague/

Lebanon: Parliament passes long-sought amnesty law, a day after death penalty repeal

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“Lebanon’s parliament has approved a general amnesty law that is expected to benefit thousands of convicted prisoners, detainees and wanted people. The legislation passed Wednesday in a ‘show-of-hands vote’, reported Lebanon’s official National News Agency. It is the first law of its kind since 1991. … Long demanded by numerous Lebanese political factions, the amnesty law aims to reduce overcrowding in prisons, where many inmates await trial for years. However, it has faced backlash from some family members of Lebanese soldiers and servicemen killed in attacks, who fear the perpetrators could receive undue leniency.” (08/12/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/12/lebanon-passes-long-sought-amnesty-law-a-day-after-death-penalty-repeal

Accountability Will Be the Dividing Issue in the Midterms

Source: American Greatness
by Raw Egg Nationalist

“Over Easter, Matt Ford suggested Donald Trump might one day soon be hunted down by the International Criminal Court and put on trial like a mass-murdering warlord from the Balkans or the Congo. ‘There will be no post-presidential peace for Donald Trump,’ Ford thundered in the pages of The New Republic, before providing a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors that would justify a meeting with fate at The Hague. ‘The shuttering of the Kennedy Center may be the least of Trump’s second-term sins,’ Ford opined. ‘In the first year since returning to power, Trump and his subordinates have pushed the country toward fascism and oligarchy. He has turned Washington into an orgy of corruption and self-dealing beyond even the most cynical observer’s imagination.'” (08/12/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/12/battle-lines-accountability-will-be-the-dividing-issue-in-the-midterms/

Hume’s Perplexing Priorities

Source: Law & Liberty
by Graham McAleer

“By focusing on Hume’s ideas about why we enter association and follow norms, [Max] Skjönsberg nicely puts in relief how Hume’s theory of historical association differs from the rationalism of the social contract theories of Hobbes and Locke: a motif of slow, uncertain growth marks Hume’s idea, whilst the mood of a blueprint marks social contract theory. Skjönsberg’s portrait also delivers a populist Hume which, I think, is something of a mischaracterization. Like other members of the Scottish Enlightenment, Hume makes establishment basic to governance.” (08/12/26)

https://lawliberty.org/forum/humes-perplexing-priorities/

Reading the TA leaves: How technical assistance can improve the odds of successful policy implementation

Source: Niskanen Center
by Amanda Patarino, Ross Apter, Jacqueline Maffucci, & Luca Giobbio

“It has been said that Congress is not one institution but ‘535 small businesses.’ When you add the dozens of congressional committees, there is no one standard operating procedure for legislative work. That’s particularly true when it comes to writing legislation that delivers intended outcomes. Certainly, marshalling the support to get a bill through the committee process with sufficient backing to carry it through final passage and signed into law are baseline metrics for legislative success. But if the purpose of legislation is to get policy implemented successfully, then the political process is just the start. No less important, if much less visible, is writing legislation that actually enables outcomes.” (08/12/26)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/ta/

Putin just showed the world how afraid he is of his own people

Source: Washington Post
by Vladimir Kara-Murza

“When Russian authorities registered Yabloko for the parliamentary ballot in late July, the Kremlin’s thinking was not hard to read. After all, it had everything under control: the media, the electoral commissions, the repressive apparatus of the state. Why not allow an anti-war party on the ballot, announce its official result at 2 percent, and show to the world that — as Putin had said so many times — the Russian people overwhelmingly back his war in Ukraine? But things began to go wrong. What the regime failed to grasp was that Yabloko was no longer just a small liberal party ….It was now the only avenue for Russian citizens to express opposition to the war. They seized on it. Yabloko exploded on social media, overtaking pro-Kremlin parties in the number of subscribers. … And Putin panicked.” (08/12/26)

https://archive.is/feLzJ

Putin Says Russia Will Respond in Kind if EU Nations Seize Russian Vessels

Source: US News & World Report

“Russian President ⁠Vladimir ⁠Putin said on Wednesday ⁠that Russia will respond in kind if ​European countries seize ussian merchant vessels, the TASS state ‌news agency reported. The comments ‌come as the EU intensifies pressure on Russia’s ⁠so-called ⁠shadow fleet, expanding sanctions against hundreds of vessels and ​detaining some ships and their crews for checks. Some European governments have said they are exploring tougher maritime enforcement ​measures against ships suspected of sanctions evasion.” (08/12/26)

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-08-12/putin-says-russia-will-respond-in-kind-if-eu-nations-seize-russian-vessels