Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“Candidates for Congress, governor, and various state offices promise to make California affordable again, build new housing, fight the ‘special interests,’ and so forth. Missing in the rhetoric are the powerful agencies that operate beyond the reach of the voters. Consider, for example, the California Air Resources Board.” (05/28/26)
“There’s a common trope among people who have collateralized debt that, until the debt is cleared, they never truly own their property. For example, the bank holds the mortgage, and if mortgage payments aren’t made, the bank can seize the house. The trope says that the ‘pay to stay’ nature of the loan means the bank truly owns the house, not the person who purchased it using their mortgage. Despite how common this trope is, it is incorrect. It fundamentally misunderstands the legal nature of ownership.” (05/28/26)
“Last week, OpenAI announced that an internal AI model had disproved the Erdős unit distance conjecture, a famous problem in discrete geometry that had stumped human mathematicians for the last 80 years. … It’s arguably the first time that an AI system has found a proof resolving a major open conjecture. That’s impressive, but I don’t view it as a radical break from the previous trajectory of AI progress in mathematics.” (05/28/26)
“Russia has claimed it has found evidence of a US-backed bioweapons programme operating in Ukraine. The country’s Investigative Committee has alleged that Ukraine’s Health Ministry was involved in projects funded by the US Department of Defence. The committee’s official spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, said the findings were based on documents and materials allegedly recovered during Russian military operations, according to Sputnik India. … In 2022, the Joe Biden administration rejected claims made by Russia and China that the US owned or operated secret chemical or biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine.” (05/28/26)
“Republicans who have tried to walk a careful line with President Donald Trump are having a rough stretch in primary season. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn both lost to Trump-backed challengers despite years of attempting, in different ways, to accommodate the president politically. But accommodation is rarely enough with Trump. Republican senators hoping selective loyalty will protect them should pay attention to what happened to Cassidy and Cornyn: If Trump decides you are insufficiently loyal, you are replaceable no matter how often you vote with him. Republican senators deciding whether and when to break with Trump should take that lesson seriously. The time to do it is when you still hold power, not once you’ve become a lame duck. The former requires courage. The latter does not.” (05/28/26)
“Jay Noone (Man Camp; Local Silver Mint) on the upcoming Man Camp at Porcfest 2026. Porcfest will not be held at Roger’s Campground, but rather in locations all over New Hampshire from June 21-28, 2026.” (05/28/26)
“The companies that once competed primarily on mining outcomes are increasingly being judged by a broader set of capabilities: infrastructure control, power access, cooling capacity and the ability to serve demand beyond Bitcoin alone. In other words, Bitcoin mining is evolving from a pure commodity hash business into a broader energy-backed compute infrastructure industry.” (05/28/26)
