“Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an extraordinary attempt by members of the president’s own party to oust a Pentagon chief. The articles are for high crimes and misdemeanors, including the war in Iran, the Trump administration’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Hegseth’s alleged suppression of free speech in his fight with Democrats over their calls for troops to refuse illegal orders. Massie’s effort is unlikely to succeed in a GOP-controlled Congress. But the nature of the resolution means the House will be forced to vote on it this week, setting up a politically complicated vote for Republicans right before the midterm elections.” (09/15/26)
“I have studied scaremongering and the culture of fear for almost three decades. It’s clear to me that the current AI doomsday narrative recycles several older panics simultaneously. Just as with the invention of the nuclear bomb, humanity feared an invention it could not control. When computers and the internet were created, we feared technological displacement. And there is the older philosophical fear that humanity’s own intelligence could be the source of its undoing. Each time, a rational assessment of the potential risks is shoved aside in favour of a narrative of an impending apocalypse. Yet when it comes to AI, I have found the evolution of this carefully staged exercise in scaremongering different in some respects.” (09/15/26)
“The intelligence services of the Russian Federation are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the United States and in European nations supporting Ukraine, federal authorities said Tuesday as they announced charges against five people who remain at large. An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court said a network of the intelligence services has paid and attempted to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries to surveil targets to be killed with plans to then kill them. … James C. Barnacle, Jr., head of New York’s FBI office, said the FBI disrupted the plans ‘through relentless work’ as members of the Russian Intelligence Services and their affiliates ‘conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on U.S. soil and around the world.'” (09/15/26)
“On the right, the postliberal right or ‘beefsteak socialists’ (brownish on the outside, red on the inside) propose to use tariffs as devices for reorganizing industries, promoting civic virtues, and protecting workers from ‘globalists.’ … On the left, the Democratic Socialists of America are no longer a mere ragtag bunch of campus activists. They have great electoral visibility and competitiveness. … Normally, we could dismiss them all as cranks on the margin. However, the problem is that their views and policy proposals are frequently advanced in public.” (09/15/26)
“Sweeping travel restrictions on Chinese citizens came into effect on Tuesday, including exit bans for people considered to have endangered China’s ‘industrial or technological security.’ The new exit-and-entry rules, which were passed in July, apply to citizens deemed to have violated technology import and export regulations, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence. The State Council in Beijing said the new rules were formulated to ‘safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.’ The regulations apply not only to people within China but also to Chinese citizens deemed to have committed criminal acts abroad.” (09/15/26)
“The Fourteenth Amendment is at the heart of many of the most controversial issues that will land before the Supreme Court today. In his new book, David Upham argues that many of the legal theories about it are not deeply rooted enough in the history or text of the amendment itself.” (09/15/26)
“This is the ordinary grammar of attribution in the sabotage era. A government states that its services and their partners have reached a judgement, allied governments affirm the judgement, the proof stays classified; and the citizen is invited to supply the trust that the missing evidence would otherwise earn. It may be that the classified material is overwhelming. It may be that it is thin. The structure is identical either way, which is precisely the problem. A public asked to accept an attribution on faith has no way to tell a strong case from a convenient one.” (09/15/26)
“In 1978-9, before the election of Margaret Thatcher, the top rate of UK income tax was 83%, and any income from investment was called ‘unearned income’ and had a 15% surcharge added, giving a top tax rate of 98%. At that time, the top 1% of taxpayers contributed 11% of income tax revenue, and the top 10% contributed 35%. Today the top rate of income tax is 45%. Now, using the most recently published data for the 2023-2024 tax year, the top 1% of taxpayers paid 28-29% of all income tax, and the top 10% of taxpayers paid 59-60% of all income tax. … When people talk of having rich pay their fair share, I imagine very few of them have any idea of what share ‘the rich’ are already paying. If the top 10% paying 60% of the total is not a fair share, perhaps we should ask them what figure they would consider fair?” (09/15/26)
“Government borrowing costs hit their highest since the 2008 financial crisis on Tuesday, with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields now above 5%, increasing pressure on heavily indebted borrowers that so far have been shielded by resilient economic growth. The average 10-year yield for the Group of Seven largest economies hit 4.285%, the highest since mid-2008 and a full percentage point above where it was prior to the start of the war in the Middle East. … The bond selloff has raised the cost for governments to borrow new money, but also left them with higher interest bills that siphon funds from social, defence and other programmes, which in turn raises questions as to the sustainability of their debt burdens.” (09/15/26)
“With all the bad news swirling around us, it’s easy to forget what an amazing world we live in. Paul Rosenberg’s gentle reminder not to discount the future, is a message many of us sorely need to hear.” (09/15/26)
