“The attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night shouldn’t surprise us. Not only does America have the world’s most active small-arms industry that essentially controls the GOP (the reporters got a taste of what American — and only American — schoolkids experience every few months from their ‘realistic’ active shooter drills), but we also host the world’s largest and most profitable hate-amplification industry. Algorithms that amplify hate and division in order to “increase engagement” have made Mark Zuckerberg into one of the richest people on the planet, complete with a super-yacht and a doomsday bunker estate in Hawaii; Elon Musk’s X has turned into a sewer of Nazi-style rhetoric while Musk himself has posted, according to The Washington Post, nakedly white supremacist slogans and statements over 850 times just in the past seven months.” (04/27/26)
A messy fight over whether the U.S. government can conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens could come down to whether four Democrats endorse Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s latest plan. Johnson was stymied this month when he attempted to push through a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The roadblock came thanks to opposition from most Democrats, plus 20 hard-right members of the GOP caucus. Still, four Democrats crossed party lines to vote for a procedural motion to advance the bill, despite instructions from House Democratic leaders to the contrary. Whether those four support Johnson during a vote this week could prove crucial.” (04/27/26)
“While there is a disconnect between the general public and our professional warrior class, and one hears now and again that it would be good for our public to understand military life better, mandatory service would more likely create a false sense of understanding of our professional military that would be more irritating and divisive for everyone. Regarding the premise that mandatory service would build character, this is on its face nonsense.” (04/27/26)
“One of the important conclusions to draw from the Iran War is how much importance Tehran attaches to Hezbollah, its long-time Lebanese Shiite ally. This is not to be dismissed as business as usual, but rather reflects a major shift whereby supporting Hezbollah has become even more necessary for Iran’s national security.” (04/27/26)
“Something very strange is shifting in the darker corners of the internet. Something serpentine slick and black as ink. While Donald Trump moves farther and farther to the right and much of his cultish base mindlessly follows him into the abyss, the farthest of the far-right appear to be turning against Orange-Man-Fash with a vengeance. The brazenly Zionist massacre in Iran was certainly the last straw, but this subterranean sea change was a longtime coming.” (04/26/26)
“It is difficult to determine whether the bizarro worldview of the current Democrat-media nexus can simply be attributed to its generic Trump Derangement Syndrome — but the crazy world of the left [sic] increasingly bears scant resemblance to reality. In this alternate universe, Eric Swalwell was a liberal [sic] icon and invaluable asset for years, though admittedly a bit randy and occasionally a serial sexual predator. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was, at last, the left’s [sic] ‘real thing’, the white working-class liberal stiff who could win back the hoi polloi — although he can’t get his story straight on whether his Nazi tattoo was an accident or proof that he was brainwashed by the toxic US military.”[editor’s note: I admit I can’t contest Hanson’s credentials when it comes to expertise in inhabiting strange alternate realities – TLK] (04/27/26)
“In an earlier age, gatekeepers existed to stop morons with puerile or reprehensible views from being heard. I’m not the first (or even the hundredth) person to note that all the gatekeepers are gone and we now live in a permissionless, anything-goes media environment. The death of gatekeepers is why you’re reading this blog on Substack, it’s why I can make my living from writing here and podcasting over at the New Liberal Podcast. There are real benefits to allowing anyone to create and distribute their work without having to break through a stultifying, bureaucratic system. But the death of gatekeepers also has downsides. Today, even the New York Times seems to be chasing clicks any way they can. Invite the hot doofus on your show to say blowing up stuff is cool and shoplifting is good but plastic cups are a moral travesty. Why not? That’ll go viral.” (04/26/26)
“At the beginning of 2022, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in many European countries started to decrease dramatically. A rapid and unexpected decline in TFR has occurred in all the Baltic states, across Northern Europe, Central Europe, and in all major countries of Western Europe. Only Greece, Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Romania did not exhibit such dramatic declines, while Portugal and Bulgaria even experienced TFR growth …. This dramatic and unexpected change in TFR dynamics that occurred synchronously across most of Europe begs for an explanation. Several mechanisms have been proposed in the mainstream media.” (04/26/26)
