“Administered in responsible therapeutic settings, entheogens could be a path to reckoning with the profound changes ahead. Indeed, when we realize that personality is one of the strongest determinants of cultural values, we might conclude that psychedelics could be yet another technology for the coming era—whether in preparing for or catalyzing it. We needn’t belabor this idea, though. The point is that it will be important to open our minds, consider new perspectives, and embrace new values even if it means going against the grain a little.” (08/31/26)
“The president himself will remain a disruptive—and potentially destructive—presence on the world stage. He still has more than two years left in office and powerful economic tools to wield as cudgels against allies and adversaries alike. Yet countries and companies will learn that he has peaked. His coercive capacity, so potent last year, seems lessened from overuse. This realization will alter the very nature of Trump’s power—and the discussions about a world order to come.” (08/31/26)
“On the one side, conservatives are frustrated because, to them, the Arday case is emblematic: universities today are overwhelmingly leftist; leftists dominate the humanities and liberal arts faculties, and leftists are rewarded for poor or even fraudulent scholarship simply because it reinforces the preexisting beliefs of their contemporaries and superiors. On the other side, progressives and other leftists insist that the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment is definitionally a left-leaning enterprise, at least in contemporary society. Of course, leftists are overrepresented in academia; leftists seek awareness and understanding, while conservatives are simply less inquisitive and less interested in attaining knowledge, both temperamentally and practically, the latter for fear of learning that what they perceive as fairness and equality is, in reality, prejudice and discrimination.” (08/31/26)
“You already know the ads. They appear each fall, a sign of the season as familiar as apple cider donuts and the changing of the leaves. A former quarterback or an actor from a venerable TV show looks straight in the camera and says, warmly: you may be entitled to benefits you aren’t getting today: dental, vision, a card for groceries, a ride to your doctor. Seniors at home just have to call the number on the screen to sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan today. Operators are standing by. They certainly are, but their primary aim isn’t to find the best plan for their caller’s needs. It’s to get them to sign up for the plan that’s most profitable for them.” (08/31/26)
“Cate Hall’s You Can Just Do Things: How High-Agency People Get What They Want Out of Life sounds like a book designed to tell me what I want to hear. I’ve long believed in: 1. Literal free will. … 2. Widespread overestimation of constraints relative to preferences. … 3. Most humans are deeply conformist. … Nevertheless, reading Hall’s book starkly reminded me of the dangers of high agency.” (08/31/26)
“On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) added his voice to expand the Supreme Court to a ‘baker’s dozen’, or thirteen members to allow Democrats to add justices who agree with him and Democratic members on how the law must be interpreted. In the meantime, as discussed earlier, court packing is being pushed as the new litmus test for any Democratic candidates. Clyburn’s ‘baker’s dozen’ is a telling description of an effort to bake in partisan views on a Court expanded to create an instant liberal majority. In defending this hostile takeover of the Court, Clyburn bizarrely insisted that the failure to do so might lead to a return to antebellum conditions when blacks were being given fewer rights than whites.” (08/31/26)
“What do Darth Vader, the ACLU and some Democrats and Republicans have in common? They hate Flock cameras. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is launching an investigation into Flock Safety, demanding answers about how the company retains data and tracks vehicles. Politicians aren’t the only ones worried. The AI-powered surveillance cameras track, scan and preserve license plate numbers, feeding them into a searchable database that law enforcement and others can access. Citizens in blue and red states alike are protesting cameras that were installed to make them safer. I’d expect pushback from Republicans, who tend to be wary about anything resembling a surveillance state. I’m more surprised by the resistance from the left.” [editor’s note: Republicans, for the most part, seem to LOVE the surveillance state these days – TLK] (08/31/26)
“Count the decades. Seventy-five years of confrontation, and Washington cannot point to a single durable peace agreement with North Korea. Diplomacy alone will not close that gap. The United States must pursue the only strategy that has never been tried, a full withdrawal from the Korean peninsula and the complete repeal of every sanction it has imposed on the North. The Cold War is finished. North Korea poses no threat to Americans. The Pacific Ocean serves as a moat no army has ever crossed, and the American nuclear stockpile outmatches Pyongyang’s many times over. The idea that North Korea threatens the American mainland is risible. Let the sleeping dog lie and let a new era of peace begin.” (08/31/26)
“A full 45% of American adults identify as political independents. That’s far higher than the share – 27% each – who say they are either Democrats or Republicans, according to a 2026 report by Gallup. Nationally, according to another source, one-fifth of voters ‘are so independent that they do not vote consistently for one party or the other.’ Yet only three out of 535 members of Congress are independents – two senators (one each from Maine and Vermont) and one representative (from California). This growing gap between public preference and the composition of Congress has prompted a retired senator, Joe Manchin, and his daughter Heather to launch an initiative to spur more election bids by candidates not tied to a party. The aim of their Independent Leadership Council is to mentor, fund, and otherwise support independent candidates for Congress.” (08/27/26)
