“In the first article of this series, I introduced capability-based budgeting: aligning funding to outcomes, not just projects. At the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we tested this idea against the realities of the federal budget process — rigid cycles, entrenched habits, and layers of oversight. What we learned were hard but valuable lessons on how to realign dollars around enduring capabilities and cut through the procedural bloat that holds agencies back.” (10/02/25)
“Factual information about Israel and Palestine may soon be outlawed in the California K-12 school system. Assembly Bill 715 is currently on Governor Newsom’s desk. The legislation was recently rushed through the California legislature, amended just days before passage, and voted on at 1 a.m. with almost no time for public comment. The hurry is intentional because opposition grows whenever people learn about it. … If passed, AB715 will result in strict regulation of education and educational material that might subject Jewish students to ‘unlawful discrimination.’ Facts and informed opinions about the reality in Israel and Palestine may be considered ‘antisemitic’ or likely to cause discomfort.” (10/02/25)
“Missouri’s Medicaid enrollment numbers are telling a story, but it may not be one that the federal government wants to hear. Late last year, I wrote about a sharp and troubling decline in the number of permanently and totally disabled (PTD) Missourians enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program. Since then, the enrollment numbers have continued their downward trend, and now have fallen by more than 30,000, or 20%, since 2019, which is significantly lower than any point Missouri has seen in the last two decades. At first glance, some might assume this drop is simply a byproduct of the state’s post-pandemic Medicaid redeterminations. But as I’ve written before, I fear that explanation doesn’t add up. Permanently disabled recipients aren’t people you expect to lose coverage once their eligibility is established, given that they’re unlikely to re-enter the workforce. Instead, the data and a new quote suggest a different story: PTD shifting.” (10/01/25)
“A website specializing in data visuals offered a helpful graphic on global inflation, 2020-2025, with no other comment about how or why this happened. The results are eye-popping and amazing, and a reminder that hardly anyone has fully come to terms with what transpired over five years. Most currencies in the world took a 25-35 percent haircut, Far East excepted. That’s a technical description that obscures what actually happened. The measures by which most people in the world hold the liquid part of their worldly possessions – the money they earned through hard work and saving – was robbed by a quarter and more. Where did it go? After all, the wealth didn’t sink in the ocean. It was transferred from one group to another. It went from the poor and middle class to the elites in well-connected industries and government.” (10/01/25)
“After Hamas'[s] horrific Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Jews and the seizure of 250 Jewish hostages, the headlines cried out in shock, anger and astonishment. The New York Times wrote, ‘As world leaders condemned the attacks — and questions arose about how Israeli intelligence had been so surprised — ordinary citizens tried to make sense of what was happening.’ On Oct. 7, 2023, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote: ‘Thanks to defensive systems like Iron Dome, Hamas’s punches, while frequent and menacing, rarely landed. For Israelis, Gaza seemed relatively contained. That was, until this weekend. Whatever happens next in the current war, this concept (to borrow another term from the Yom Kippur War era, related to Israel’s confidence that it wouldn’t be attacked) has clearly failed. Israel has a clear interest not just in punishing Hamas but also in ending its rule for good.'” (10/02/25)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler MacQueen
“Much has been made about the financial implications of Trump’s shocking movie mandate. But beyond the economic concerns, both the industry and elected officials alike have failed to consider the broader constitutional implications of the president’s chaotic posts, should the tariffs actually be implemented. Nestled in his posts, declaring offshore film productions a ‘National Security threat,’ Trump further justified the tariffs this year by labeling foreign films as ‘propaganda.’ For any American who cares about free speech, that should be the cue to jump up and holler, ‘Cut!’” (10/01/25)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Thorin Klosowski
“The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better. The demand uses a power called a ‘Technical Capability Notice’ (TCN) in the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act. At the time of its signing we noted this law would likely be used to demand Apple spy on its users. After the U.K. government first issued the TCN in January, Apple was forced to either create a backdoor or block its Advanced Data Protection feature — which turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud — for all U.K. users. The company decided to remove the feature in the U.K. instead of creating the backdoor.” (10/01/25)
“The consistent rhetoric around government shutdowns, even if the parties and issues are reversed, betrays a common view of Congress’ role in our constitutional design: Lawmakers should shut up and fund the government. When they don’t do that, and the government shuts down, they’ve failed to do their job. This view couldn’t be more backwards about how our constitutional scheme, with its separate branches, divided powers, and limits on the power of the executive and majority parties, is supposed to work. The whole reason for Congress having the power of the purse and holding regular votes on how much money to give the president to spend is to give it the opportunity to say no sometimes.” (10/02/25)
“There’s a joke about three mathematicians who spot a black cow on a train ride through Scotland. One of them says ‘I see the cows in Scotland are black.’ The second objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one black cow in Scotland.’ The third objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one cow in Scotland, at least one side of which is black.’ This is the level of paranoia we should deploy against claims of ‘over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses.’ Technically, we only know that there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses!’ (technically, you just know that Astral Codex Ten says there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred fifty eyewitnesses.’)” (10/01/25)
