“Former FBI director Robert Mueller died last week at the age of 81. The New York Times eulogized him as a ‘button-down, lockjawed, rock-ribbed exemplar of a vanishing caste.’ In reality, Mueller was simply a twenty-first century version of J. Edgar Hoover, trampling the Constitution and seizing new power on any pretext.” (03/23/26)
“Ukraine has struck Russia’s largest western export terminal in an effort to stifle Moscow’s windfall from rising global oil prices. A wave of drones targeted the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, which exports one million barrels of crude a day and serves as a hub for the Kremlin’s sanctions-busting ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers. Satellite images showed a huge fire and thick plumes of smoke above the facility near Finland, 570 miles from the Ukrainian border, after several fuel reservoirs were hit. Ukrainian drones struck Primorsk last September, but the considerably more explosive results of the latest attack have fuelled speculation missiles were used, specifically the new Flamingo weapon, which has a 1,150kg warhead. An oil refinery in the central Russian city of Ufa was also targeted and forced to suspend operations.” (03/23/26)
“I’d kind of assumed that the frontier AI labs (Anthropic, OpenAI, X) would reap the financial rewards of frontier AI development. But that might not be correct. AI might be more like electricity than Google. After all, who profited from electrification? It certainly wasn’t the inventors. Or their companies. The people who got rich from electricity were the ones who used it to make other things. Profits went to the factory owners who electrified their factories and the folks who sold light bulbs. The electric companies became utilities. I had assumed that the companies currently building AI would become the next Google and Bing. However, many believe that the actual models are more likely to become cheap and interchangeable, like electricity. Or Wi-Fi. Or railroads.” (03/23/26)
“At least 66 people have died and dozens of others have been wounded after a Colombian military plane with 125 people on board crashed after takeoff in the south of the country, officials have said. The Lockheed Martin-built C-130 Hercules aircraft went down on Monday shortly after it had departed from Puerto Leguizamo, near the southern border with Ecuador and Peru, strewing burning wreckage on the jungle floor.” (03/24/26)
“In democracies, rulers require the consent of the governed. Even within elite theories of democracies, some sort of common consent is necessary. The easiest way to secure such consent is to persuade the people that you are really one of them. Politicians from elite backgrounds work to appear as if they are unafraid of working a day in McDonald’s, or plead for the fortunes of a favourite football team. They are not ‘regular people,’ but they try to look like they belong. These efforts cut across ideology as attempts to cultivate authenticity emerge on both the left and right. But politics cannot be defined by personality alone.” (03/23/26)
“The Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary on Monday, following a fiery hearing last week where Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) claimed his colleague was too angry for the promotion. In a 54-45 vote, the Oklahoma Republican senator was approved to lead the beleaguered Department of Homeland Security, where carrying out the president’s ‘mass deportations’ actions has led to low public approval in the second year of his term. … two Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) — supported Mullin to helm DHS, along with 52 Republicans. Paul was the lone GOP ‘no’ vote on his confirmation.” (03/23/26)
“Jimmy Carter in 1977 cut the size of the White House staff by 30%. Coming just two years after Nixon’s resignation, Carter’s election coincided with a series of legislative reforms to tame the imperial presidency. Carter for a brief shining time seemed to embody that smaller presidency. He announced on his inauguration day that, ‘I would never permit my White House staff to try to run the major departments of government.’ We’ve endured nine withering years of Trump’s America (including what we now realize was but a fleeting interregnum under Biden). The idea that the presidency should be an executive with cabinet secretaries and independent agencies constrained strictly to statute and the constitution seems distant. Instead, the American imperial executive is led now by a few unaccountable staffers in the West Wing with the opaque character of a monarch’s courtiers.” (03/23/26)
“China took steps to cushion the impact of rising fuel prices on Monday, increasing the regulated ceiling prices for retail gasoline and diesel but limiting the hike to about half what would normally be applied under the government’s pricing mechanism. The adjustments brought on by rising oil prices linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran were still the largest on record, however, lifting price limits close to levels seen in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. State planner the National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday it would raise the maximum retail prices for gasoline and diesel by 1,160 yuan ($168) per metric ton and 1,115 yuan per metric ton, respectively, starting from Monday midnight.” (03/23/26)
“The news that the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) might be headed to the Middle East to reinforce the 31st MEU, which was already ordered there, raises the odds that ground troops might play a part in President Trump’s war with Iran. … We all know of Joe Rosenthal’s famous picture of the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Trump will want to have a similar image to get the American public hyped about an unpopular war and to boost his own image as a warfighting President along the likes of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. But what Trump needs to understand is what happened after the Iwo Jima photo was released to the public.” (03/23/26)
