“The midterm elections are six weeks away. Suddenly, a debate has erupted over the existential dangers of artificial intelligence. Jacob Coxon, a little-known Silicon Valley researcher who worked at OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned and went public with a dire warning: AI now threatens the future of the world. Shortly beforehand, news broke of the Hugging Face episode, in which OpenAI’s advanced AI ‘agents’ autonomously hacked another company’s computers. Almost on cue, Democrats seized on the alarm as a new cause célèbre, accusing Donald Trump and the MAGA movement of recklessly courting Armageddon. The Left demanded international treaties, ignoring the dismal record of such globalist projects: the League of Nations, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Washington Naval Treaty, the Versailles Treaty, the Munich Agreement, the Paris Climate Accord, and the UN Human Rights Council.” (09/22/26)
“In the early morning hours of August 30, a baby petting zoo donkey named Heehaw was gunned down by a Cedartown, Georgia police officer Trenton Garner in his own pasture. Reports suggest that Cedartown officers were assisting Polk County Police with locating a missing person. The officers had entered his owner’s property without ‘permission or warning.’ When the baby donkey approached them in the dark, braying — as donkeys tend to do — an officer opened fire. HeeHaw’s owner, Hannah Israel, has vowed legal action. While such a high-profile case may induce the city to settle, absent a settlement offer, the doctrine of qualified immunity largely puts justice out of reach. But it wasn’t supposed to be this way. In 1982, contrary to congressional command, the Supreme Court inserted the words ‘“clearly established’ into the text of Section 1983 in the Civil Rights Act of 1871.” (09/21/26)
“It has been very hard for people not obsessively focused on the subject of artificial intelligence to come away with reasonable opinions about what the future holds. There have been so many extreme predictions of both a positive and negative sort that broad skepticism about anything said on the subject is fully warranted. But while that skepticism is healthy, I have to admit my own views have evolved significantly just over the past few months.” (09/21/26)
“Democratic candidates and activists appear all-in on ‘Medicare for All.’ Many supporters of the idea envision a nationwide universal healthcare system that would be financed primarily by increasing taxes on the super-rich. A recent Echelon Insights poll, for example, found that 74% of voters who support Medicare for All believe it could be financed entirely by raising taxes on billionaires. This is a pipe dream. No country in the world makes health care universally free, paid solely by their wealthiest taxpayers.” (09/21/26)
“In 2008 Californians approved a $10 billion bond measure as down payment on a $45 billion, 800-mile bullet-train system. At the time, a policy analyst suggested that many people ‘sense that maybe that [bullet train] is something I can use at some point. It’s something they can relate to.’ Hence the 52.7% support. … It’s become clear that the only likely result of California’s ‘high-speed’ project, in addition to lining the pockets of the politically well-connected, will be duplicating and interrupting an already-existing service.” (09/21/26)
“AI may be deadly but not because of anything intrinsic to AI programs or apps, but because humans make mistakes and misuse it. In other words, just like firearms, automobiles, pots and pans, and anything else that humans have invented and use.” (09/21/26)
“In 1910, the British journalist Norman Angell published a book called The Great Illusion, in which he argued that recent economic developments had made war a senseless proposition. Economic relationships were so delicate and easily disrupted, and modern militaries were so expensive and destructive, that any war between major powers was certain to be an enormous net cost for both combatants. There was simply no way to make a big profit, à la Julius Caesar, by conquering some other nation and coming back home with some tigers and a big sack of booty. It followed, Angell reasoned, that if a war did break out, it would likely not last very long. Angell was half right and half wrong. Just four years later, a giant war sucked in all the major powers of the world, and sure enough, it shattered the economies of every combatant that saw serious fighting.” (09/22/26)
“One criticism of House Republicans is that they haven’t really done much with their majority. The Wall Street Journal notes that House Republican leadership has canceled 63 voting days since the beginning of the 119th Congress. Congress really hasn’t done much to address the issues that are at the forefront of voters’ minds, such as affordability, inflation, and the economy. During an interview on Newsmax 2 with Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to deflect the criticism, claiming that the House has been on a record pace in terms of passing legislation. … Johnson’s version of events is almost comically self-congratulatory. It’s campaign rhetoric, and it’s disingenuous.” (09/21/26)
“About 4,000 people in America die every year while waiting for kidney transplants. More than 95,000 currently need regular dialysis to stay alive while waiting for transplants. The average person who needs a kidney must endure the discomfort and restrictions of dialysis for three to five years during the wait. Most countries have organ-donation systems like America’s—and long waitlists. Iran, by contrast, legalized payment to kidney donors in 1988; within 11 years the country eliminated its waitlist. Payment compensates donors for their time, pain, and risk; it also increases the supply of willing donors.” (09/21/26)
“President Trump, speaking at the Republicans’ midterm convention, pledged that if Republicans maintained control of the Congress in the November election every adult American will receive 5,000 dollars from the government. … Some commentators have expressed outrage over President Trump’s attempt to bribe voters. These commentators have tended to ignore the fact that, since the rise of the welfare-warfare-regulatory state, most political campaigns are little more than legalized bribery.” (09/21/26)
