TechTank, season 5, episode 37
Source: Brookings Institution
“What to expect from the India AI Impact Summit.” (02/16/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/what-to-expect-from-the-india-ai-impact-summit
The SAVE Act Presents Creates Paperwork Burdens for Some Voters
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“Several days ago, I wrote about some of the problems the SAVE Act. Specifically, I explained that the SAVE Act marks a radical shift for Republicans. When I was the vice president for legislative affairs at FreedomWorks, I attended meetings hosted by Republican leadership in 2019 in which they railed against House Democrats’ For the People Act. They complained that various aspects of the bill violated the core tenets of federalism and that others were unconstitutional. Although the SAVE Act isn’t as comprehensive as the For the People Act, it still encroaches on an area traditionally reserved for the states.” (02/15/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-save-act-presents-creates-paperwork
Marco Rubio delivers tough love to Europe, and overgrown teenage brats know “Dad” is right
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“An American statesman was born on a German stage over the weekend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s impressive performance at the Munich Security Conference gives us an alluring glimpse of the president he could be one day. Rubio drew a standing ovation from the assembled European heads of state, intelligence chiefs, and military leaders for a speech that was no less forceful or frank than VP JD Vance’s address that jarred the same forum last year, but was delivered with a mellifluous voice and calm humility that disarmed even the most arch Euro-socialist. Rubio was warm and reassuring rather than sneering and contemptuous. But that was no accident. He was playing ‘good cop’ to Vance’s ‘bad cop’, a strategy that paid off with the collective ‘sigh of relief’ that conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger expressed afterward, as he motioned to the audience to sit and praised Rubio’s ‘message of reassurance’.” (02/15/26)
Study: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Intermittent fasting may not help people who are overweight or obese lose weight, a large review suggests. The researchers say the popular practice of fasting on some days of the week and eating normally on others ‘may make little to no difference to weight loss and quality of life’. But they say intermittent fasting could still improve overall health through helpful changes to some body functions, though more evidence is needed. Examples of intermittent fasting include the 5:2 diet and restricting eating to a short window – often about eight hours – every day. The research team looked at the results of 22 previous studies involving nearly 2,000 adults to find out if short-term intermittent fasting (over a period up to 12 months) was better at helping adults lose weight than standard dietary advice, or no advice at all.” (02/16/26)
Pakistan: Motorcycle bomb at police station kills at least two
Source: Seattle Times
“Explosives rigged to a motorcycle went off near the gate of a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least two people, including a child, and wounding several others, police and rescue officials said. The blast also damaged nearby shops. The attack took place in Bannu, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, local police official Fida Mohammad said. He did not provide any further details and only said the dead and wounded had been taken to a nearby hospital. Though no group immediately claimed responsibility, suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP.” (02/15/26)
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 02/16/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Burkeans, Nutcases, and Originalists | Interview: Cass Sunstein.” (02/16/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/burkeans-nutcases-and-originalists-interview-cass-sunstein/
Why New Atheism Crumbled
Source: The Dispatch
by Nick Pompella
“It may not feel like it, but atheism in the United States appears to have hit its ceiling. According to the Pew Research Center, 2 percent of the country was actively, openly nonreligious in 2011. That number rose to 4 percent by 2021—but has remained constant since. America’s oft-discussed ‘decline in religion’ is actually a story about a decline in church attendance; one’s investment in an institutional religious community is separate from belief in a god (or gods) of any variety.” (02/15/26)
It’s the Epstein Files, Stupid: Using Empire to Distract from Vice
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“After months of empty promises to the toxic online manosphere largely responsible for the Donald’s post-January 6 rehabilitation, the fact finally became inescapable even for the most heavily deluded of MAGAloids that their hero was indeed the dog who didn’t bark and he wasn’t about to release the Epstein Files that prove it. Trump, misdiagnosing this flip flop as just another in a long line of broken campaign promises, essentially told his personality cult to chill the fuck out and get over it. This is when Trump’s approval ratings cratered and the people he had storm the Capitol began to call for his combover. And then Donald Trump began bombing dinghies in the Caribbean before pounding his chest over the footage of these war crimes on live television while barking ‘I am not a pedophile!'” (02/16/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/02/its-epstein-files-stupid-using-empire.html
Working from home is welfarism for the middle class
Source: spiked
by Andrew Orlowski
“That working from home is now an expected entitlement is the result of a changing business culture and company structures. In FTSE 100 companies, you will find tiers of well paid employees who are not exactly stretched to breaking point, some preoccupied by what David Graeber called ‘bullshit jobs’ or what the sociologist Roland Paulsen called ‘empty labour’. Examples can be seen in the ever-burgeoning human-resources departments. This growth of non-jobs and sinecures has wiped out the gains expected from productivity improvements and the adoption of new technologies. What’s more, as long as CEOs equate prestige with head count, these jobs look impervious to technological changes such as AI. It was the management and executive class who revelled in the opportunity to work from home when lockdowns were declared in 2020 – and who were the biggest beneficiaries.” [editor’s note: I have a feeling this will be the dumbest article I read this week – TLK] (02/15/26)
US regime conducts first air transport of nuclear microreactor in bid to show technology’s viability
Source: Reuters
“The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. … The microreactor in Sunday’s event, a little larger than a minivan, can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating in July at 100 kilowatts and peak at 250 kilowatts this year before ramping up to full capacity, he said.” (02/16/26)