“Intuitively, we tend to think that power flows from an ability to inflict punishment. Governments have power because they will imprison you or confiscate your property if you break the law. Employers have power because they will fire or demote you if you disobey orders. Teachers have power because they will give you a bad grade if you don’t do your work. Parents have power because they will ground you or take away your allowance if you don’t do what you’re told. What Milgram shows, however, is that this is only part of the story.” (10/20/26)
“Paris is burning. So is much of France and other places across Europe. What was billed as a ‘student protest’ was soon overrun with communist and Palestinian flags (but I repeat myself), Arafat doilies draped over heads and shoulders, and ‘newly arrived’ Muslims from across the Mediterranean Sea. Unless schools are very different in France, I don’t think we’re dealing with students here. It is, as it is every single time you find violence, the radical left. Crazy, evil leftists willing to blindly throw bricks at police, loot stores, pummel anyone deemed impure and to do it all with a sense of superiority.” (10/20/26)
“Documents obtained by Cato via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that more than a year before the 2026 midterms, the FBI was quietly building two election-related capabilities at once. The first was a set of internal ‘triggers’ that told field agents when they could investigate AI-generated or ‘synthetic’ political content — rules the Bureau is still keeping secret. The second was an apparently new headquarters post called the ‘FBI Election Executive,’ who stood up in mid-2025 to ‘handle preparations for the 2026 midterm cycle.’ In the months since that ‘Election Executive’ position became public, nearly every public trace of the official who holds it has disappeared — her LinkedIn profile has been taken down, and there is no findable record of her on the FBI’s own website.” (10/20/26)
“‘This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she’s looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy.’ With this debate response to Minnesota Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan’s protestations of concern over access to benefits for the very poor, Republican nominee for Senate Michele Tafoya sealed her status as ‘rookie of the year’ in American politics. A longtime NFL broadcast professional, Tafoya demonstrated decades of quick on-camera thinking in her debate last week with Flanagan and combined it with a deft slash at Flanagan’s greatest vulnerability: Flanagan’s apprenticeship as lieutenant governor to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the tidal wave of fraud that swept across Minnesota after COVID-era ‘look-the-other-way’ policies became a feature, not a bug, in Minnesota’s vast system of ‘safety net’ programs.” [editor’s note: At the moment, Flanagan seems to be polling ahead of Tafoya, but not by a lot. It will be about turnout – TLK] (10/20/26)
“Just a year ago, governments across the region were condemning Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarianism, questioning the legitimacy of his electoral victories and supporting international pressure on Caracas. Today, many engage directly with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president and Venezuela’s interim president. The region has moved from demanding democratic change in Caracas to normalizing relations with the very political establishment it once sought to isolate.” (10/20/26)
“Californians have been told for months or even years: Noncitizen voting is as mythical as Bigfoot. Well, we just had a few sightings. As the California Post reported, federal authorities on Monday charged 28 foreign nationals with alleged election-related crimes, including illegally registering to vote and, in some cases, casting votes in past elections. The feds called ‘Operation Protect the Vote’ the largest voter fraud bust in state history. And it underscores a basic truth in California: Fraud of all kinds has run amok for years; it needs to end; and state voters in November would do well to support Prop. 39, the Voter ID act — to help ensure that at least part of it does.” [editor’s note: Prosecutors claim 21 of those charged voted illegally. So slightly fewer than one one-millionth of registered California voters -TLK] (10/19/26)
“hat should the principles of development policy be? In light of the often-dark history of Western attempts to develop other parts of the world—from the conquest of the Americas and the colonization of Africa and Asia to the more banal ‘development’ policies of the twentieth century—what regularly went wrong in this history? What was lacking in allegedly benevolent policies that turned into tyranny and oppression? And how can development economics prevent this history from continuing? These are the questions at the heart of William Easterly’s Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest.” (10/20/26)
“Imagine you’re walking through a quiet park with your best friend. You lower your voices and speak privately about something very personal and sensitive. You need no government permission to have this conversation. You do not expect an intelligence agency to listen in and decide whether your conversation sounds suspicious. You’re just two friends, talking. Why shouldn’t we expect the same freedom to speak freely and privately when we communicate online? Wednesday, Oct. 21, is Global Encryption Day, an occasion to defend the technology that makes digital conversations as private as those you have with your friends and family. But encryption is in danger of being broken by demands from governments at home and abroad.” [editor’s note: Congress or no Congress, we can defend our own rights by using encryption with or without permission – TLK]
“AI can be extremely valuable as a ‘library’ of what is already known. When used as a tool in the Simple and Complicated domains, it streamlines the understanding of the problem. However, it can be counterproductive in the Complex Domain, as the journey to asking the right question is just as important as obtaining the right answer. Its utility in the Chaotic Domain is still nebulous. When faced with a ticking time bomb, it is not important that the wiring be understood but that the bomb be rapidly defused with a water disrupter. Analysis can come later.” (10/20/26)
“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI] has added schoolyard taunts to his call to pack the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority. Last week, Whitehouse denounced former President Joe Biden and other Democrats for being ‘too chicken’ to pack the Court and, in the view of many of us, destroy the institution that has been critical to the success of this Republic for 250 years. The Lever’s David Sirota, a former speechwriter and adviser to Bernie Sanders, set the table for Whitehouse by asking him about how the public can join the resistance to the Court, which is ‘enabling an anti-democratic project.'” (10/20/26)
