Source: The Daily Economy
by Karl-Friedrich Israel
“Official inflation calculations exclude taxes and asset prices. Add them in, and three decades of modest paycheck gains become losses.” (09/21/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/hidden-from-cpi-these-costs-are-eating-away-at-real-wages/
Source: American Greatness
by Stephen Soukup
“Almost exactly a month ago (about a fraction of a second before the issue exploded into the public consciousness) I attempted to address the moral peculiarities of ‘Effective Altruism’, the philosophy-based behavioral code that animates and governs the lives of the tech elites who dominate AI. In retrospect, that column was not my finest. It was a bit of a mess …. In short, in an attempt to discredit the entirety of the Effective Altruism movement, I failed to pick a single target and, as a result, failed to make a particularly effective case against any of it.” (09/21/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/21/those-who-walk-away-from-ai/
Source: Washington Post
by Mike Hilgers
“The U.S. Supreme Court in October will hear oral arguments in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, a case arising from climate litigation but presenting a much older constitutional question: How far may one state extend its law into the affairs of another? Boulder County seeks to use Colorado public nuisance law to pursue energy companies for their alleged contribution to global climate change. The Colorado Supreme Court allowed those claims to move forward. On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Suncor and ExxonMobil argue that Boulder’s claims are blocked by the Constitution and federal law, because greenhouse gas emissions transcend state boundaries.” (09/21/26)
Sourc: Law & Liberty
by Luke C Sheahan
“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)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-one-the-many-and-the-in-between/
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Harrison Berger
“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)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pentagon-artificial-intelligence/
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (09/21/26)
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“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)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño
“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)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/donald-rumsfelds-new-europe-is-waiting-for-its-second-act
Source: Common Dreams
by John Perry
“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)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/marco-rubio-s-intentions-in-nicaragua
Source: Foreign Policy
by Mohamed Elgohari
“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)