“As the age of artificial intelligence dawns, the various people who make a living as Blobsters — the think tankers, the past and present government officials, the military-industrial-complex titans, the influential media figures — show few signs of getting the picture. Whereas the atomic age spawned lots of creative and even enlightened thinking about its revolutionary implications for national and international security, the age of AI seems so far to be having roughly the opposite effect.” (04/25/26)
“I suspect that, considering how most commentators talk about the matter, many people think the U.S. tax system favors the rich, the public’s favorite scapegoat. But according to Adam N. Michel, the Cato Institute’s director of tax policy studies, ‘We actually have one of the most progressive income taxes in the developed world.’ … The average tax rate on upper-tier earners is as high as 33.4 percent. ‘[A]s a share of adjusted gross income (AGI), the top half of income earners paid 97.1 percent of federal income taxes.’ That leaves less than 3 percent for the rest.” (04/24/26)
“The contrast between Washington’s caution in dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea and the flagrant U.S. coercion of Iran, which possesses no such weapons, could hardly be more striking. It has not gone unnoticed. Pyongyang’s successful defiance of the United States regarding the nuclear issue could well produce an important lesson for Iran’s leaders. Pyongyang has covertly built a small arsenal of approximately 50 nuclear warheads and an increasingly sophisticated fleet of ballistic missiles to deliver them. U.S. and other leaders now treat North Korea with caution and restraint, however grudgingly. Conversely, an Iran without nuclear weapons is being pounded severely. Iranian leaders would be obtuse not to at least try to acquire (through construction or purchase) a modest deterrent similar to North Korea’s.” (04/24/26)
“When you break a promise as clear as ‘No new wars,’ you shouldn’t be surprised when even your most loyal supporters revolt. And that’s exactly what is happening to President Trump. One such disillusioned supporter is Tucker Carlson — who on a recent podcast with his brother Buckley admitted, in essence, ‘My bad.’ … let’s be clear-eyed about what Carlson is — and isn’t — saying here. Specifically, it’s worth noting that the apology doesn’t extend to validating those of us who opposed Trump from the beginning. In fact, it almost can’t. Doing that would require the confessor to reinterpret not just Trump’s presidency, but also the entire ecosystem that made supporting Trump a viable option in the first place. It would mean admitting that the framework he used to evaluate Trump was flawed, not just the outcome.” (04/24/26)
“British-American philosopher Mick Jagger put it best: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ A universal verity. But what about a sadder situation? ‘You must always get what you don’t want.’ Only the deepest pessimist thinks this pertains to our lives, our ‘lived experience’ in even these our mixed-up times. But it does apply to one huge domain of life: our representation in Congress.” (04/24/26)
“Last week, The New York Times divulged a fresh trove of confidential internal memoranda between the Supreme Court justices. The documents allegedly show that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues have abused the Court’s technical procedures to block the agenda of Democratic presidents and to favor Republicans. While this accusation can only succeed by ignoring the broader context of the Court’s work, it heralds the latest progressive attack on the Court as a stabilizing institution in our national politics.” (04/25/26)
“With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, President Donald Trump’s reversal from opponent to supporter of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) seemed certain to guarantee renewal of the law. That’s not what happened. Instead, Section 702 of the controversial spying legislation won only a temporary extension, to April 30, as civil libertarians and surveillance-state supporters from both major parties continue to battle. Hopefully, the outcome is the long-deserved demise of surveillance practices that threaten the privacy of Americans.” (04/24/26)
