“The companies that once competed primarily on mining outcomes are increasingly being judged by a broader set of capabilities: infrastructure control, power access, cooling capacity and the ability to serve demand beyond Bitcoin alone. In other words, Bitcoin mining is evolving from a pure commodity hash business into a broader energy-backed compute infrastructure industry.” (05/28/26)
“Donald Trump’s America is a scary place in significant part thanks to an unholy alliance of MAGA devotees who don’t believe in science and see intellectuals as public enemy number one, and a gaggle of Silicon Valley militarists who think that they’re the smartest people in the room, if not the universe. Add in White Christian nationalists who abuse religious precepts to sow hatred and division and you have the foundations of the political base that elected Donald Trump (twice!). And worse yet, those groupings are likely to be with us long after our current president has gone off to that great cheeseburger stand in the sky.” (05/28/26)
“Media outlets are filled with stories about how AI is taking all the jobs. There are also plenty of stories telling us that soaring deficits and rising debt are going to bankrupt the government. These problems are 180-degree opposites, sort of like saying that someone is seriously overweight, but needs to put on a few pounds. Either can be true, but they can’t both possibly be true. There is zero recognition of this fact in elite intellectual circles. To make the logic clearer, the AI taking all the jobs story is one of abundance. … The out-of-control debt and deficit story is one of scarcity.” (05/28/26)
“The ideas that transformed the world — free trade, limited government, and individual liberty — are now treated as relics rather than the radical achievements they truly are.” (05/28/26)
“Babones argues that ‘India’s democracy is in better shape than that of just about any other developing country.’ His central claim is that India’s democracy is historically exceptional. He emphasizes that India is the only large, poor, post‑colonial society to maintain continuous electoral democracy for more than seven decades. Unlike Western democracies, which evolved gradually over centuries, India launched universal suffrage at independence despite widespread illiteracy and immense cultural diversity. For Babones, this makes India not a fragile democracy but an extraordinary one – a global outlier whose success cannot be understood through Western liberal frameworks.” (05/27/26)
“Recently I read Ray Kurzweil’s book The Singularity is Nearer, a look at artificial intelligence and what it holds for the future. Kurzweil is very optimistic about AI and believes it will usher in an era of untold wealth and prosperity. Moreover, he believes the exponential growth of AI power will lead to revolutionary advances in medicine and the extension of human life expectancy to 120 and beyond. Not in the far distant future but within the next twenty to forty years. Older folks like me may or may not live long enough to benefit, but our children and grandchildren surely might.” (05/27/26)
“On the morning of May 18, 2026, on the granite steps of Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building, three chic women arranged themselves like starlets at Cannes. The heels. The practiced hip-thrust. Weight cocked to one side, chin down, eyes up. With enough mascara between them to repaint Gracie Mansion. But the most revealing part, the part that showed the most skin, was the laminated press credential blessed by the office of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It certified they were card-carrying members of the working press. Only they were not here to cover a criminal. Luigi’s Angels, or as they call themselves, more affectionately, the Mangionistas, were there to worship a charismatic idol and to defend his violence.” (05/28/26)
“The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are negotiating a new housing bill as Americans have become increasingly concerned with affordability. Unfortunately, any federal housing bill would do little to make housing more affordable and could even worsen the situation.” (05/27/26)
“It is now unlawful, upheld by a judge and jury, in Northern Ireland, to preach a sermon about God’s love within earshot of a hospital. Over the centuries, English kings, queens, nobles, and lower classes have arrested, tried, convicted, imprisoned, fined, and even executed men (and women) for preaching something that the powers that be, including the established Church, didn’t want preached. The 78-year-old Cleve Johnstone was not killed: merely jailed and fined. Most folks believed that sort of nonsense went about a good 200 years (or more) ago.” (05/27/26)
