After the end of history

Source: Asia Times
by Jan Krikke

“As the war in Ukraine grinds into its fifth winter, the collapse of recent diplomatic initiatives and Washington’s explicit pivot from arming Kyiv to brokering a territorial freeze have laid bare a stark new reality. In February 2022, Western leaders predicted that sanctions would cripple Russia within months and that a united West would see Ukraine through to victory. More than four years later, Russia’s economy has bent but not broken. The United States has turned from Ukraine’s chief backer into a reluctant broker. Europe is paying for a war it cannot win.” (10/14/26)

https://asiatimes.com/2026/10/after-the-end-of-history/

Talafreakout: Should There Be a Mental-Health Requirement for Lawmakers?

Source: American Greatness
by Raw Egg Nationalist

“Since the Second World War, the left has done its very best to pathologize being right-wing: not just explicit identification with parties of the right, but also the basic attitudes, beliefs, and stances associated with being of a conservative temperament. The goal of that endeavor is to discourage and even punish right-wing affiliation, to the social and electoral benefit of the left. Theodor Adorno, of the Frankfurt School, landed some heavy early blows with his 1950 book, The Authoritarian Personality. Rooted in Freudian ideas of repression and the Oedipus complex, the book argued for the existence of a specific personality structure that predisposes people to undemocratic and fascist beliefs. The book produced a special tool called the F-Scale (literally, the ‘Fascism Scale’) that measured nine key components of the authoritarian personality.” (10/14/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/14/talafreakout-should-there-be-a-mental-health-requirement-for-lawmakers/

Omar investigated in DC, Minnesota over inflating net worth, immigration fraud

Source: New York Post

“Rep. Ilhan Omar is the target of at least two federal investigations related to possible immigration fraud and inflation of her net worth by tens of millions of dollars in House disclosure forms, according to sources familiar with the probes and an administration official. DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed Tuesday on Fox News’ ‘America Reports’ that ‘there are several investigations going on’ related to the Minnesota Democrat, adding that potential civil or criminal immigration violations as well as Omar’s claim of being worth up to $30 million were also under scrutiny. Sources familiar with the cases disclosed that the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office was leading the probe into alleged immigration fraud, possibly involving false statements about Omar’s birth date, while Pirro’s office in DC was taking on the inquiry into the finances of Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett.” (10/14/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/10/14/us-news/rep-ilhan-omar-investigated-in-dc-minnesota-over-inflating-net-worth-immigration-fraud-sources/

The Search for a Post-Enlightenment Democracy

Source: Persuasion
by Martin Gurri

“That liberal democracy is in a state of terminal decline I take to be beyond dispute. Like Alice in the rabbit hole, those of us who dwell in democratic societies suffer from a nauseating sense of falling without ever landing on solid ground. The usual suspects blamed for this tumble—populism, inequality, the economy—are mere surface symptoms of an internal breakdown. We have arrived at the conclusion of a world-historical cycle. Liberal democracy is the procedural embodiment of Enlightenment ideology—and after two centuries of dominance, that ideology has lost all purchase and stands utterly exhausted. Radical alternatives confront us. Either we reorient our system to post-Enlightenment principles or we risk staggering into the nihilist’s paradise I have called the Endarkenment.” (10/13/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-search-for-a-post-enlightenment

US regime delays release of IRS data showing impact of GOP tax cuts [sic]

Source: Politico

“The Trump administration is delaying the release of detailed data showing how Republicans’ 2025 tax cuts affected millions of Americans’ taxes, even as it tries to sell voters on the law ahead of the midterm elections. The numbers document which tax breaks were claimed by people in different income brackets, as well as information like how much they paid in taxes. The IRS typically releases the data in the wake of each filing season, but this year’s rollout is more anticipated because it’s expected to provide the first detailed look at how taxpayers are taking advantage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including its new deductions for overtime wages and tipped income.” [editor’s note: There are no “tax cuts.” If spending is going up, taxes are going up. Borrowing is just taxation with deferred payment (and interest) – TLK] (10/14/26)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/14/administration-delays-irs-data-gop-tax-cuts-01116807

World’s oldest shipwreck found off coast of Turkey

Source: BBC News [UK state media]

“The world’s oldest shipwreck has been discovered off the coast of Turkey, archaeologists say. They have dated it to between 4,400 and 4,700 years old, which is the Early Bronze Age, and is around the same time that the Great Pyramid was being built. The ship’s wooden structure has not survived, but the ceramic storage pots it was carrying were lying on the sea floor and, remarkably, some still contain traces of what they held inside. The archaeologists who found the ship say it was about 10m in length and was a trade vessel carrying cargo across the Mediterranean Sea. ‘The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea’, said Prof Hakan Öniz, from Akdeniz University in Turkey, who led the Mediterranean Archaeology Association expedition.” (10/14/26)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6gr80rk1yyko

Privacy’s Defenders Podcast: No Privacy Without Encryption

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

“The ruling in Bernstein v. Department of Justice held that code is speech and so is protected by the First Amendment – a precedent that underpins the internet as we know it today. This landmark case was led by Cindy Cohn, then a young pro bono lawyer working on behalf of EFF, who went on to become EFF’s legal director and then executive director.” (10/13/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/privacys-defenders-podcast-no-privacy-without-encryption