“The structure of digital interaction in social media draws us into abstract communities, offering a false sense of belonging while at the same time separating us from true belonging in a concrete community. None of this is psychologically or spiritually healthy. One of the most disturbing facts is that of social contagion in the digital age. We’ve known of social contagions for a long time, such as the dancing plague of 1518 that erupted in Strasbourg.” (09/21/26)
“The risks presented by superintelligent and uncontrollable artificial intellifence are real, but the security appartatus is already colloborating closely with these firms.” (09/21/26)
“Former Trump staffer Michael Caputo endured a decade of lawfare that he says forced him out of his home and gave him cancer from all the stress. But just when he thought the Russiagate nightmare was over, he was slapped in the face this month with a lawsuit cooked up by a former DOJ lawyer from the ‘national security’ unit that hounded him and other Trump associates over alleged foreign agent violations without laying a single charge. It’s a simple $100,000 contract dispute case, but Jack Korba, formerly a prosecutor in the small national security section of the District of Columbia US Attorney’s Office and now in private practice in Washington, DC, has filed a complaint packed with gratuitous smears of Caputo that rehash elements of the DOJ’s failed Russiagate probe.” (09/20/26)
“On January 22, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld stepped behind the podium at the Foreign Press Center in Washington and, with one answer to a Dutch public television reporter, redrew the map of Europe. The reporter wanted to know why so many Europeans trusted Saddam Hussein more than then-President George W. Bush. The defense secretary fired back with words the Pentagon transcript preserved in full: ‘Now, you’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don’t. I think that’s old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east. And there are a lot of new members.’ … Esteemed diplomat George Kennan saw where this road led.” (09/21/26)
“After Venezuela and Cuba, will the Trump administration turn its spotlight onto Nicaragua? Secretary of State Rubio has just finished a tour of three Latin American countries now allied with Trump (Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) and was asked about US policy towards Cuba and Nicaragua, and what he would do ‘to finally bring those dictatorships to an end’. Accusing left-wing governments of ‘destroying’ their countries and bringing ‘misery’ to their citizens, and in some cases of posing a security threat to the United States, Rubio said that the problem can now be addressed ‘in partnership with other presidents and other leaders in this region that feel the same way’. Back in July, after media claims that Nicaragua’s Sandinista government plans to abolish elections completely, Rubio said that Nicaragua was ‘thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere.'” (09/21/26)
“While answering a question in July about the prospects for negotiations with Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a dismissive reference to an ongoing series of AI-generated Lego animation clips produced in Iran that mock U.S. and Israeli officials. Iran will be ready to do a deal soon, Rubio suggested, because ‘the price they are paying is very high, despite their tough talk and their flowery language and their stupid Lego videos they put out.’ Rubio, speaking to reporters at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Manila, hadn’t even been asked about the propaganda campaign. That a sitting U.S. secretary of state felt compelled to address a cartoon campaign produced by a small group of individuals at an international security forum is itself revealing.” (09/21/26)
“This Nation is now over 40 trillion in debt. We simply cannot afford this one trillion, five hundred billion Secretary Hegseth and the Pentagon want. Yet the Congress voted this past Wednesday to spend an additional $73 billion on this unpopular, unnecessary war in Iran. Most of the votes came from Republicans, even though this war is really hurting our Party.” (09/21/26)
“President Donald Trump just secured nine new pricing agreements with drug manufacturers that could help reduce what Americans pay for many prescription medicines. The deals demonstrate Trump’s commitment to lowering drug prices for patients. The president’s dedication – and his desire to negotiate with companies individually, rather than imposing broad mandates – is commendable. But his efforts would be better directed at the root cause of high drug prices: foreign countries free-riding on American drug innovation. To deliver lasting price reductions while protecting U.S. leadership in biomedical innovation, the Trump administration must focus its negotiating strategy overseas – and intensify its push to make other countries pay their fair share for the medicines America develops.” (09/21/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren
“Experience has taught me to distinguish between genuine danger and apocalyptic rhetoric. So forgive me if I am a little skeptical that AI will, as the latest crop of doom-saying scientists now warn, wipe out the human race within a decade. But I recognize that I am not an AI expert. So I did what anyone might do in response: I asked AI directly, ‘How could AI plausibly cause human extinction?’ The machine had a few scarily plausible ideas—ones that seem far more likely than car emissions to end our civilization.” (09/21/26)
