“For good or ill, individuals differ in all sorts of ways, many of them relevant to their ability to please us, the consumers. No need to stop the presses—we all know this. Yet many intellectuals want a social system premised on the principle that people are ‘equal’ not as a moral/legal presumption, but equal in intelligence, talent, energy, time preference, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, etc.—and therefore deserving of more or less equal incomes, outcomes, and opportunities. Anything short of their ideal (‘disparate outcomes’), the egalitarians tell us, must be chalked up to past or present injustice (racism, for example) and privilege, requiring coercive government intervention. That’s wokeism. People who are honest with themselves know those intellectuals are worse than wrong and that the record of their ideal in practice has been bloody beyond belief.” (09/25/26)
“SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 ship Saturday morning from California with a secret mission for the U.S. military. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 7 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the USSF-385 mission. The rocket went in a southerly direction after launch from Space Launch Complex 4-East, according to Space Flight Now. … This mission for the U.S. Space Force is believed to be the third in a series of flights to send satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield, which is a version of a Starlink satellite for government use.” (09/26/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“When J.D. Vance was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, he won his race by a healthy 6-point margin. Four years later, his successor in that seat—Sen. John Husted (R-OH)—is down by between 4 and 8 points, depending on the poll. Midterms are always hard for the party in power, and GOP candidates this year face a number of headwinds. But let’s be honest: It’s the war, stupid. Voters in Ohio, like voters across the country, are furious at paying more for gas (and everything else) because the president got us into an unwinnable Mideast conflict at the behest of a foreign country. They’re tired of bearing the costs, and they’re tired of being lied to. So Husted has sought to distance himself from this debacle.” (09/25/26)
“Despite rising political anxiety over the Iran war, senators on Thursday narrowly rejected a war powers resolution seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in gas prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election. The Senate tally, 49-50, coming days after Trump’s bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to ‘annihilate’ Iran, was likely the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. … This was the 14th time the Senate has considered a war powers resolution since Trump launched the conflict on Feb. 28.” (09/25/26)
“How could anyone possibly object to this image? You want immigrants to work hard and play by the rules? These guys managed to get into the flagship campus of the University of Texas. You want them to assimilate to American culture? These guys are all wearing their school colors, roaring their excitement at their football team’s amazing victory. Several are wearing cowboy hats. If you asked an A.I. for an image that would reinforce the view that South Asian immigration is nothing to worry about, this would be the image it would create. Yet this is the image Bo French used to argue that ‘the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,’ said problem being ‘Americans’ being displaced by ‘foreigners.'” (09/24/26)
“Fighting for his political life back home, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel gave a pugnacious address at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, casting his nation as falsely accused of genocide and his people as indomitable fighters against terrorism and antisemitism. At times pounding the lectern and raising his voice, Mr. Netanyahu took aim at Israel’s military enemies like Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and their allied forces in Yemen and Iraq. But he also assailed Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Western European leaders he said had ‘chosen to succumb to the antisemitic mob.’ As the Israeli leader took the podium, many of the international diplomats filed out of the hall, as they have in the past, but his speech seemed tuned far more to a domestic audience than an international one.” (09/24/26)
“Since the early days of the American Republic, political parties have been vehicles through which people of modest means can participate effectively in politics. Like churches, families, associations, and corporations, parties are mediating organizations between the individual and government. And like other mediating organizations, parties have come under fierce attack from the left. One form of attack has been promotion of state election laws allowing non-party members to vote for party nominees. But on June 30, the Supreme Court issued a case that brought it one step closer to ruling that such laws violate the Constitution’s First Amendment, as incorporated against the states by the Fourteenth.” (09/24/26)
“New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Thursday evening that she gave Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell ‘until tomorrow’ to resign after an investigation found he had violated state ethics and harassment policy. … The state said this month that it had hired a law firm to investigate allegations against Caldwell, a Democrat who was elected on the ticket with Sherrill last year, claiming that he had behaved inappropriately toward women. … Sherrill said Caldwell’s ‘ethical lapses persisted despite multiple warnings and trainings.’ … Lawyers for Caldwell, who has denied the allegations, said in a statement Thursday night that they ‘strongly disputed the three findings in the investigation,’ as its conclusions ‘go further than the evidence supports.'” (09/24/26)
