AI vs. the railroads

Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith

“A year and a half ago, the AI boom was still significantly smaller than the railroad boom of the late 1800s, as a percent of GDP. Now, there’s an active argument as to which one is bigger. This debate doesn’t really matter, because the basic message is just ‘Wow, it’s a lot of money.’ But it’s fun to look at the numbers people are throwing around.” (10/15/26)

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/ai-vs-the-railroads

UK: Publisher, author bend the knee to regime censorship

Source: Associated Press

“British booksellers are caught up in a battle over terrorism and free speech after Irish novelist Sally Rooney said her books can no longer be sold in the U.K. because she financially supports the banned group Palestine Action. … The [regime’s] ban makes membership in or support for Palestine Action a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. … After the U.K. banned Palestine Action in July 2025, Rooney said she would use proceeds from her books and their TV adaptations to support the group. On Wednesday her U.K. publisher, Faber, said that paying her royalties could violate the terror ban and it had ‘taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the U.K. in any format.’ It said the decision had been made with Rooney’s agreement.” (10/15/26)

https://apnews.com/article/sally-rooney-palestine-action-what-to-know-caaf01b4b1968df5abee3c51832f3d31

Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/15/26

Source: Freedom’s Phoenix

“Shari Brown (Harvard-Educated Mathematician; Religious Scholar) on her book Seven Commandments for Happiness and Prosperity: Where Spirituality and Science Merge.” (10/15/26)

https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/402575-2026-10-14-2026-10-15-ernest-hancock-and-shari-sharifi-brown.htm

Licensure Is a Protection Racket for Lawyers

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“To get a government-issued license to practice law, one generally has to pass a state bar examination. The California bar exam is one of the hardest in the country to pass. That ensures that fewer people are able to secure law licenses. The notion is that a state-issued law license protects the public from incompetent and unethical lawyers. How’s that working out? It seems to me that there are lots of incompetent and unethical lawyers in every state of the United States. Why did the state issued licenses to them to practice law? In actuality, difficult bar exams and licensure requirements are nothing more than a protection racket.” (10/15/26)

https://www.fff.org/2026/10/15/licensure-is-a-protection-racket-for-lawyers/

El-Sayed’s own words reveal a radical plan to dismantle the Second Amendment

Source: Fox News
by JP Pichardo

“‘What if we tweaked the Constitution, amended the Second Amendment, and instead of the right to bear arms, we change it to the right to have healthcare?’ That is not a college activist. That is Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Michigan, talking into his own camera, on his own channel. And it is one of many videos that he quietly made private from his channel once he decided he wanted a seat in the world’s most powerful legislative body. A U.S. Senate nominee from one of the two major national parties, who has a legitimate chance to win, actively floated the idea of replacing the Second Amendment — not merely regulating it, which would be bad enough. This is not your typical anti-gun Democrat rhetoric. This is a dangerous and new precedent coming from far-left Democrats.” (10/15/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/el-sayed-words-reveal-radical-plan-dismantle-second-amendment

Microsoft’s president warns White House against skilled immigration crackdown

Source: Politico

“Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith delivered a broadside Wednesday against President Donald Trump’s push to block the path to permanent residency for highly-skilled immigrants, warning the White House that its plan could cripple the U.S. tech sector for over a generation. In an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO, Microsoft’s informal No. 2 suggested it was ironic that the White House chose to target his company’s foreign workers on the same day it gave a medal to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a former H-1B skilled visa holder from India. ‘We should consider the fact that when the president honored six Americans with these technology and science medals, five of the six had come to the United States as immigrants,’ Smith told Decoded on the sidelines of the International AI Summit in Dublin, Ireland.” (10/15/26)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/15/microsofts-president-warns-white-house-against-skilled-immigration-crackdown-01119727

$90? Call me when Trump’s midterm voter bribes get better

Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke

“The bad news for Republicans is that the last inflation report before the midterm elections showed that overall prices in September were nearly 4% higher than the same time last year, and gas prices specifically surged 34%. The good news is that Republican candidates, whose operating philosophy seems to be ‘eating is overrated,’ have President Donald Trump on the midterms campaign trail offering voters all kinds of free things. … With just under three weeks to go until the Nov. 3 midterms, and with polling looking horrendous for Republicans, possibly because everything is terrible, I have a suggestion for my fellow opportunistic voters: Hold out! Better bribes are coming. I don’t need a pardon (that I know of), I don’t for a second believe Trump will give me $5,000 after the election (I wasn’t born yesterday), and $90 or $500 bribes are for rubes and desperate ne’er-do-wells.” (10/15/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/10/15/trump-rally-pardons-bribes-voters-midterms/92248709007/

Free Enterprise Transformed the American South

Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul McDonnold

“In the Old South, what had mattered was blood and land. It was a quasi-feudal society where it was difficult to rise above the station you inherited, nearly impossible if you were black. And when the tension created by slavery in a nation founded on freedom became untenable, the Civil War broke out, and the South was crushed. The Union’s victory owed at least as much to economic superiority as military proficiency. Though it took roughly a century, transforming the Southern economy required replacing its agrarian, slave-based order with a more modern, freer, more diversified system. In Houston, the transformation was spurred by the oil industry. In Charlotte, it was banking. And in northwest Arkansas, it was retail, with Walmart founder Sam Walton becoming the richest person in the United States in 1982.” (10/15/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/free-enterprise-transformed-the-american-south/