“September 1 is the anniversary of the start of World War II in Europe. On that date in 1939, Nazi Germany launched an invasion of Poland from the west and a few weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed a non-aggression pact shortly before they carved up Poland but that ceasefire didn’t last beyond June 1941. World War II has been heralded for more than fifty years as the ‘Good War’—in contrast to subsequent U.S. military debacles in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. But World War II cannot be glorified without hiding a heap of lies and millions of corpses.” (09/01/26)
“Twentieth-century liberal intellectuals stood firm against the totalizing ideologies of left and right. Their insights remain valuable today.” (08/31/26)
“As Donald Trump engages in the bold midterm election strategy of telling 75 percent of the country that they will be ‘backwards and poor’ if they refuse to allow substantial portions of land to be handed over to data centers, he’s one expression of transpartisan outrage behind. Anger is building just as persistently about Flock cameras, the automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) powered by artificial intelligence and the data centers that make AI run, which are used increasingly by law enforcement to surveil and track citizens, often improperly. ‘This is a deeply un-American thing that is being done,’ said Will Lawrence, the congressional candidate in Michigan who has been well ahead of the political class on identifying and acting on technology products that inflame local communities, from data centers to Flock. ” (09/01/26)
“Reality doesn’t always line up with our wishes. For Pete Hegseth, this lesson has been learned the hard way. Six months into his war with Iran, top military officials are warning the Secretary of Defense that prolonged fighting would be ‘unsustainable,’ according to new reporting from The Washington Post. These officials are echoing sentiments that have been repeated for months within the administration. Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had advised the White House before the conflict that a large-scale military confrontation with Iran posed serious risks, particularly because of the U.S.’ depleted munitions stockpiles and a lack of support from regional partners. Rather than heed these warnings, Washington foreign policy elites chose to proceed with a reckless disregard for the facts, guided by an ideological drive to reshape the world in our image – or, perhaps more accurately, Israel’s.” (09/01/26)
“Before last week, Milo Yiannopoulos was one of the most noxious, divisive, and broadly unpopular far-right figures in the country, having whittled down his allies in the movement over the past decade with a combination of exuberant misogyny and bigotry, catty infighting, an infamous moment of pedophilia apologism, and increasingly pointed criticism of Donald Trump. Now, he’ll have to settle for being a broadly divisive and unpopular figure in the UK, having been swiftly and very publicly deported …. while Yiannopoulos’ deportation contains an extremely rich vein of schadenfreude—he previously called for deporting ‘millions and millions of people’ and joked about masturbating while witnessing ICE raids—it’s also indicative of how power, punishment, and influence currently work in the MAGA movement, and broader crackup within that feud-heavy world, where fragile alliances are constantly being made, broken and remade anew.” (08/31/26)
“People are emailing right and left about this proposed Executive Order from President Trump giving farmers and ranchers the right to process their animals on their own properties for their consumption. Duh, that is already legal. What is NOT legal is doing this and SELLING the meat. Be assured that this whole thing has been conceived as an olive branch after the 300,000 metric ton below-market (subsidized?) tariff-free import of ground beef product (what’s with the ‘product?’) for 90 days, coinciding with the midterm elections. It’s not just about red tape. It’s about rights. Secretary Rollins doesn’t seem to understand this either.” (09/01/26)
“I recently wrote about a new elite strategy of peppering us with anti-Arab, anti-Muslim propaganda ahead of the 2026 elections. Since then, we’ve also started to hear quite a lot about a sinister ‘red-green’ coalition—red for communists, green for Islamists—threatening the very existence of our republic. The propagandists making this pitch employ astonishingly broad definitions …. It should be clear to all of us, of course, that this new ‘red-green’ canard is not a native-grown, conservative defense of our constitutional order from outside enemies. On the contrary, it’s nothing less than an attempt by our ruling class to force our own coalition to dismantle itself—less than two years after we handily won the 2024 election.” (09/01/26)
“For most people, the story of the medieval world was one of cramped cities, constant violent crime, and episodic outbreaks of deadly plagues—the dividends of unclean urban conditions, rotting food, fouled water, open sewage, and unchecked rats, fleas, and lice. Most of each day was spent simply trying to survive until the next. Castles and walls dotted the landscape to protect kingdoms from marauding tribes and foreign invaders. City gates were usually closed at dusk to keep out nocturnal marauders. Public executions drew massive crowds. And religious schisms and conflicts often turned deadly. In other words, it was not altogether unfamiliar to the world we are becoming today. Yet meanwhile, science advanced quietly among true elites at universities, courts, and monasteries, producing windmills, mechanical clocks, and eyeglasses.” (09/01/26)
“Desensitization is one of Donald Trump’s most powerful tools: Through repetition, he acclimates Americans to troubling and dangerous ideas. Occasionally, though, his statements and actions are so outrageous that they can still provide a shock. The president’s hostility toward the media is familiar, but this weekend provided a clear reminder that Trump hates freedom of the press and will use any government power at his disposal to try to get rid of it.” (08/31/26)
