The last week has seen some of the most important people in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry declare to the world that the technology has become so far advanced that there is a 10 percent chance we may actually experience Terminator 2: Judgment Day — in short, there’s a one-in-ten shot that Skynet is self-aware.

This was the hype that permeated mainstream media, Silicon Valley industry outlets, Capitol Hill, and even the White House. The thrust of the argument is that we must slow down and regulate AI to avert disaster. However, the reaction from the AI industry and lawmakers in Washington, D.C., raises the question of whether to take the claims of Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and even Elon Musk at face value. And yes, maybe we should. But then again, maybe AI and the imminent death of humanity is really just one of the oldest scams in the book.

At the core, AI and the future of humanity could — at a high level — take four paths. The first is one in which much ink has been spilled. Namely, if we continue to train and develop what is believed to be artificial general intelligence (AGI) agents at a rampant pace, with few safeguards, and a lack of focus on alignment — think ethical and moral frameworks — then we’ll end up with something like Skynet or HAL 9000, and it will kill us all. And certainly, if Dario, Altman, and the rest have achieved AGI and built what Dune author Frank Herbert termed “thinking machines,” then alignment and regulation should be our top priorities.

This position has inspired, among some, a bleak view of the future should humanity fail to properly regulate what — I’m told — they believe to be either already conscious or near-conscious technology. To that end, I spoke with Samuel Hammond — the director of Artificial Intelligence Policy and chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) — who warned me that we have about 18 months to figure this out. Hammond left me with an impression — echoed by other experts — that there are developments in the AI industry being kept behind closed doors, unknown to the public, that point to an imminent technological leap.

Still, others in the technology space have stressed that the imminent demise of humanity at the hands of our robot overlords is greatly exaggerated. Speaking on background, a national academic who works on ethics and technology emphasized that alignment and safety protocols are advancing just as fast as AI itself. This perspective — while not as prevalent as AI doomerism — still finds a number of standard-bearers in Silicon Valley, who see the future as something far more akin to Star Trek. AI, in their view, will usher in an era of exponential advances in science, human health, resource management, and technology, catapulting humanity into a future where resources are limitless.

Outside the AGI-believing community, however, there is far more skepticism toward both the technology itself and the claims made by Anthropic and OpenAI. The skeptics — myself included — make two arguments as to what is really going on with the claim that AI development needs to be slowed down and either regulated by the federal government or by some international body.

The first argument is that what Altman, Dario, Musk, and others are doing is feigning fear to cajole lawmakers into enacting extensive rules that will grant OpenAI and Anthropic regulatory capture. In essence, the regulations will prevent new competition for Anthropic and OpenAI, as each company is established and has sufficient capital, making compliance less burdensome. However, for new companies, the regulation makes entry into the AI industry prohibitive. In many ways, this boils down to a handful of well-established AI companies — and adjacent players like Musk — setting aside their business rivalries and personal beefs to form a cartel. This move, while perhaps making the companies a modicum less profitable, has the long-term effect of ensuring market capture and very little serious competition.

But why would a handful of well-established AI companies seek to cartelize the industry? The answer is simple. They haven’t achieved AGI — let alone even what we might call dumb AI. What they claim is the next leap isn’t happening and won’t happen — and may actually be unachievable. The “thinking machines” and the Butlerian Jihad to destroy them that Herbert wrote of in Dune may remain in the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

Creating a cartel or regulatory moat then makes sense. If what Anthropic, OpenAI, and others have actually developed is just flashy, souped-up Large Language Models (LLMs), then seeking regulatory capture is arguably the smart move. Unlike what we’d recognize as AGI, LLMs have become relatively easy — albeit still energy-intensive — to build. Without regulations preventing market entry, OpenAI and Anthropic would face a flood of competitors and serious threats to their long-term profitability.

All of this brings us to the fourth possibility for why the AI doomers went public when they did: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Anthropic could go public as early as next month, and the stock sale promises to be one of the biggest financial events in human history. OpenAI is likely to go public in the near future as well, though Altman has insisted it won’t happen this year.

If Anthropic has failed to develop, or believes it never will, AGI, that could crater its IPO stock value. However, government regulation to stop killer robots is a pretty good excuse to point to to assuage angry investors! In this case, the major AI companies wouldn’t have to admit — at least not yet — that the push for AGI has failed, is too far off, or is unattainable. They can just blame Uncle Sam, the United Nations, or whatever regulatory body they convince global leaders to impose on them.

It is a clever move, and one that could help them avoid a Theranos situation — but it also means that the whole AI frenzy is based on snake oil. And most troubling, if investors get wise to it, that could impact NVIDIA — which supplies many of the GPU clusters used for AI and makes up nearly 10 percent of the S&P 500’s market capitalization. If NVIDIA’s value were to collapse, the ensuing financial crisis might make 2008 look like a walk in the park.

While I’m a skeptic, I don’t always like to assume the worst in what people claim. So I’m still willing to give Altman and Dario the benefit of the doubt. And several very close friends who work in the AI policy space, especially the brilliant minds at FAI, insist that AI is real and a future of “thinking machines” is coming whether humanity likes it or not. Which leaves me with one final concern … paper clips.

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Philosopher Nick Bostrom — to illustrate the real problem of improperly aligned AGI, or even a dumb AI — posed a hypothetical scenario in which an AI is tasked with manufacturing paper clips. The AI is given the relatively mundane task of maximizing the production of aluminum paper clips with little else to guide it. In such a situation, it should be expected that the AI might quickly exhaust its supply of raw materials and, without constraint, begin ripping up cars and other objects with aluminum components. But when that avenue to resources expires, the AI may even realize it can harvest aluminum directly from the human body or even rearrange atoms to create more aluminum. Bostrom’s thought experiment ends with the AI essentially reducing everything in all of existence to paper clips.

It is a scary thought; after all, Russia and Ukraine are both using autonomous drones with algorithmic targeting on the battlefield. Algorithms can have sizable error rates, and according to some, we’ve already seen the results of AI error when the United States likely — by mistake — bombed a school in the Iranian city of Minab, killing 156 people, including at least 120 children and 26 teachers. Just hours later, a second American strike hit a sports and recreation center in a residential area of the city of Lamerd, killing 22 civilians. It is alleged that both strikes resulted from errors made by AI systems using algorithmic targeting.

Maybe this is what Dario and Altman fear. Not Skynet, not Hal 900, but rather paperclips and dead kids.

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A rumor reached the press corps as Washington’s workday wound down: the White House had an unusual briefing in the works. Confirmation came quickly. Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to the Tuesday schedule, would take questions from the Rose Garden.

The Rose Garden — rebranded the “Rose Garden Club” under President Donald Trump — mostly hosts receptions and dinners now, though the president does make the occasional policy announcement there, like his “Liberation Day” tariffs, and Biden held some bilateral pressers in the space. But the daily-style briefing rarely leaves the West Wing. Moving it outside, with a stand-in at the mic, felt a little like a substitute-teacher move.

As the briefing inched closer, the press swarmed the “Palm Room Doors” — the entrance just steps from the Rose Garden and the president’s new helipad.

All the jockeying to bust through those doors first turned out to be pointless. The garden had been set up like the briefing room, seats assigned, and attending required a request submitted in advance.

The guest list looked scrambled. Some outlets that hold a regular briefing-room seat seemed to have skipped it or not been approved, while a few publications without a usual seat landed spots in the back of the garden.

I was one row up from where I normally sit, which is the very back of the room. Even so, there weren’t enough seats for everyone, and the usual crowd of reporters lined the sides, angling for a question.

Tuesday had started out crisp, another rarity for Washington in September, and I’d hoped the weather would hold for an outdoor briefing. I was wrong.

My seat sat directly under the sun. The ten-odd minutes we waited past 2 for Blanche to start felt like an eternity, sweat dripping down my back.

Others were just as uncomfortable. As the briefing began, I texted a reporter near me: “I’d be okay if he didn’t take any questions and we wrapped this up. Way too hot!”

It only got more unbearable as Blanche laughed at us baking in the sun. Three times the attorney general asked whether the press was sweating. He was not, he told us, because the podium happened to be in the shade, unlike the rest of the setup.

The heat wasn’t the only struggle. Reporters will often let the White House know in advance if they plan to attend a presser. For guests, and even for the regular press secretary, officials keep a seating chart of who’s there and where.

Blanche said at the top that he had a list and would use it. I’d texted a DOJ official that morning to say I’d be there in light pink, and I knew the message had reached the attorney general, so I felt good heading in.

But after calling on two reporters from the list, Blanche went rogue.

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The Never-Trump wing of the Republican Party is sharpening its knives ahead of the 2028 presidential primary.

After losing the 2016 battle to President Donald Trump, members of the establishment wing of the GOP wailed and gnashed their teeth. They labeled Trump and MAGA as racists, started organizations to undermine the movement’s success, and framed every political and cultural argument as a fight for common decency against radicals. A decade later, nothing has changed.

Infamous Never-Trumper Erick Erickson’s Substack essay, “The Midwestern Führerbunker Driving the Right Off the Cliff,” arrived Wednesday, marketed as a pastoral warning about churches and young minds. Unsurprisingly, it was promoted by the same people who feverishly pushed the Trump administration into the Iran War and have spent the last three presidential election cycles claiming that Trump and MAGA were the enemy.

Everyone from David French to Mark Levin urged Americans to read Erickson’s piece, arguing that it was an important warning for what ails the right. But hidden behind the supposed preaching on why the Republican Party is dying of white racial grievance lies the old GOP’s 2028 opening bid in the fight to take the party back from the coalition that beat it in 2016 and again in 2024.

A group of white guys have subtly inserted themselves into conservative institutions and church organizations. They all embrace racial grievances. To varying degrees, they embrace white nationalism, antisemitism, and even Nazi sympathies. They are getting added to conservative…

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 16, 2026

Commentators like Erickson only seem to support Trump and his administration when their policies align with the Bush-era GOP. These people are the ones who belong to the supposed conservatives who managed the American decline and drove voters into the populist movement.

There is a point to be made that some on the right court ugliness on purpose. Still, none of that justifies packing an anti-globalist, anti-forever-war voter-driven revolt into one bottle marked “racial grievance.” The old GOP has always focused on the worst comments in the new coalition, declaring it a manifesto. That trick started their careers against the Tea Party and against MAGA. However, they are still not able to successfully explain why their supposed respectable alternative sent American soldiers to die in the Middle East, why immigrants should replace citizens, and why a professional class is allowed to talk about Americans as if they are only a number on a workforce spreadsheet. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

If you oppose the core tenets of their political faith, all of a sudden, you become lumped in with Nazism and Franco. In their view, the only conservatism that should be left standing is the kind that can survive a D.C. donor dinner.

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Anti-mass surveillance protests are bubbling up around the country, and, not unlike the Boston Tea Party before the American Revolution, some citizens are taking matters into their own hands by vandalizing or outright destroying Flock ‘Safety’ cameras and other Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs).

Some have been caught, such as these teenagers from South Carolina and this man from New Mexico, who brilliantly referred to the cameras as “tyranny trees,” dismantled a truckload, then tried to drop them off at the local sheriff’s office. (It should be noted, though, that he has a rap sheet longer than a 19th-century novel, and allegedly did some heinous things to minors).

But there are more wholesome — and perhaps more productive— citizens, such as this North Carolina beekeeper who delivered a rousing speech at a recent council meeting by highlighting the unity and bipartisanship of protests in his local community and around the country. He told a wonderful little story about his interaction with a northern liberal who despises Donald Trump but shares his concerns over surveillance cameras. There are even protesters who are getting creative by dressing up as iconic pop culture villains.

In August, San Diego resident Anthony Ralphs stormed a meeting as the infamous Star Wars villain Darth Vader to protest the city council renewing its contract with Flock.

“The emperor is a fan of Flock,” Ralphs said, doing his best impression of Darth Vader’s iconic gasping. “And we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium.”

After going viral on social media, Ralphs explained in an interview with Wired that he turned to the satirical approach because he felt the local government was repeatedly ignoring constituents’ concerns over the surveillance technology and that he really needed to grab their attention by mocking them in a playful manner.

“I was in the shower one day and it hit me. I was trying to think of how I could satirize their points, because I realized they seemed to have a lack of self-awareness. I realized we’re not getting through to them, and they are not listening to us and there’s no consequences for them not listening to us. So, maybe we need to show them how silly they’re being,” he said.

More recently, a Seattle man dressed up as the Marvel comic book villain Doctor Doom to protest surveillance cameras during a Public Safety Committee hearing in September.

“This is the first of Doom’s gifts to the city of Seattle. The second gift is this: Doom will expand the real-time crime center to all neighborhoods with over 1,000 cameras watching every move,” he said. “Doom has total dominion over the city of Seattle. Doom will be behind the cameras watching those seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. Doom will be able to find your immigrant neighbors, and Doom will be able to ensure the safety of the women of Seattle alongside officers that stalk their exes.”

This protester, Clifford Cawthorn, obviously drifted into some more liberal, culture-war critiques by mentioning how the surveillance cameras could spy on people seeking “reproductive or gender-affirming care,” or help ICE deport illegal immigrants. But, in the spirit of bipartisanship, we will let that slide.

Cawthorn told 404 Media in an interview that he was inspired by Ralphs’ Darth Vader stunt.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if the Seattle city council meets Victor von Doom, the Lord Emperor of Latveria,” he said. “And Victor von Doom shares with this pathetic American municipal council that they are actually doing Doom’s bidding without even realizing it.”

Were these guys a bit dorky for dressing up as pop culture villains to protest at local community council meetings? Of course. But they were also extremely clever.

The costumes turned a slow, boring, bureaucratic process into a subversive spectacle that was effective and attention-grabbing. They made a cold, technical system feel morally and viscerally wrong in a way that a policy paper never could. How many people were unaware of Flock cameras before they saw the viral Darth Vader clip and are now emailing their local government officials expressing their concern, or attending city council meetings themselves? A decent amount, you would have to imagine.

Maybe the best form of anti-surveillance and anti-Flock protest isn’t taking a buzzsaw to the neighborhood camera down the street. Maybe it requires more imagination and playfulness, like throwing on a costume and turning a tedious meeting that would normally put you to sleep into something a bit more exciting and fun.

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MORE FROM JOHN LOFTUS

Greetings, Dear Reader,

I bet my editors saw the title of this and thought, “Oh God.”

Let’s get into it.

THE N WORD JOKE

You might not follow comedy much, but in the last 10 years or so we’ve seen a resurgence of a few things. First, you’d probably be shocked to find out how many popular comedians are actually right-wing. I guess that’s what happens when you get people fired for telling jokes.

Another, in my opinion, much more noticeable trend is that the left is the subject of about 10x more ridicule than the right. And it’s actually funny! That’s the crucial part; it must be funny. If it’s just mocking the left but cringe at the same time, it doesn’t work.

The last emergent trend is just how common “crowd work” has become. Comedians generally used to disdain crowd work as lazy. You’re not really telling jokes, you’re just bantering with the audience in a funny way.

In an era of political poll switches and shifting Overton windows, it seems fitting that now even the most successful comedians routinely go viral not for telling jokes but for talking to their audience.

And what a perfect time because the effects of the “Mind Virus,” as it’s now become known are undoubtedly funny.

Enter … this guy. I don’t even know who he is. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. He’s talking to his audience about Lindsay Clancy and discovers he’s playing host to quite a few truthers. They think there’s no doubt Patrick played a role in the slaughter of his own children.

The funniest part is (and I encourage you to watch the clip) he asks the most vocal truther a simple question: “Would you still support her if they found out in court that she was shouting the N word the entire time?”

“Probably not,” the audience member says.

“Probably not, right?! Because killing kids is one thing but that word is a big deal, right?!”

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The entire audience is in tears at this point. And it’s also at this point that my faith in humanity is restored. Even the lady making the assertion knows it’s absolutely absurd.

Everyone joined in laughing at the logic-corroding effect of the Mind Virus value system. Shiloh Hendrix is given a jail sentence for saying the N-word, and 11 of 12 jurors wanted to acquit Lindsay Clancy for slaughtering her own children.

We’ll win, I’m convinced. The Mind Virus will not triumph. But in the meantime, it does help to just laugh. It’s good to know the normals are laughing with us.

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MORE FROM GEOFF

Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

In lieu of our normal newsletter, I want to direct you to two stories…

EXCLUSIVE: Talarico’s Spiritual Mentor Caught On Camera Touting ‘Inclusive’ Bible

James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas Senate, has been hit with some really troubling undercover videos this week. In one, members of an aligned Super PAC discuss a roundabout way in which they allegedly pay people to vote for Talarico. In another, a member of his longtime church, St. Andrew’s, says that she believes Talarico is just saying what he needs to win against Attorney General Ken Paxton and will return to his radical, progressive views if and when he gets elected.

The Daily Caller got its hands on its own undercover video. In the video we obtained exclusively, Talarico’s spiritual mentor and the head pastor at St. Andrew’s, admits to handing out copies of the “Inclusive Bible” to new members:

From my article:

Can they be normal for one day?!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Energy Secretary Chris Wright

I also interviewed Energy Secretary Chris Wright yesterday about gas prices amid the Iran War, data centers, left-wing climate policies, nuclear power, coal plants, and pretty much anything else you might want to know about what’s fueling your home these days.

The interview was part of a Daily Caller Live event presented by ClearPath.

Check out this write-up from the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Paris Apodaca:

More on his strategy to keep more coal plants online:

Thanks everyone for reading and have a great weekend!

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MORE FROM AMBER DUKE

Greetings, Dear Reader,

Today’s a short one, but a dooz.

(Recall my column this week on how to create a credentialed class of dumb radicals.)

PRESENTED BY: AMERICA’S HEALTHSHARE

America’s HealthShare offers a different way to handle medical costs — member to member, without the insurance company markup.

Use code STATEOFTHEDAY to get your first month for free.

Take Back Your HealthCare →

Today’s newsletter continues below

UC SCHOOLS PROUDLY GRADUATE IDIOTS

Somehow the foremost expert on the UC school system combined these two ideas within sentences of each other:

What has made the University of California exceptional is its commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence. In recent years, California has proudly defied a national trend: On average, about 40 percent of its students are the first in their families to attend a four-year college. More than half qualify for free tuition. The percentages of underrepresented students have crept up, through a variety of initiatives. The California Dream Act gave undocumented students access to financial aid, as well as in-state tuition. Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates.

And which mighty intellectual put these ideas together and got them published in The New York Times opinion section?

Miriam Pawel’s bonafides read like a progressive liberal’s wet dream. She’s a “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.” OooOoOOooooo. In case you don’t know this, I’ll clue you in: Several reporters who list themselves as Pulitzer winners aren’t actually named as a Pulitzer awardee. These are more often than not “staff” awards. Miriam is no different.

Pawel was also a “distinguished fellow” at Harvard. oooOOoO AhhhHHhhhh.

Her history reads like a buffet of backward liberal causes. She’s pro infinity illegal immigration. She’s pro illegal immigration magnets, like handing out infinity welfare benefits to illegals. She was pro police “reform” (see: defund) and stuff like sending social workers to domestic dispute calls. She was also a big defender of the kind of prosecutorial reform that boosted Soros prosecutors into several high-profile positions; this is to say prosecuting crime by not prosecuting it.

As they say lately about liberals, you can identify them pretty easily just by watching them pick the wrong choice on literally every social test.

After 25 years of reporting at places like the LA Times, she’s styled herself as an expert on California and is currently writing a book about the UC Schools.

Which brings us back to the op-ed she wrote.

It begins: “When the University of California eliminated the SAT requirement for admission in 2021, U.C.L.A. saw a significant jump in applications from high-achieving Black and Latino students, for whom the standardized tests had been a barrier.”

Does she define “high-achieving”? No. One can presume it means those students have high marks in secondary school. We know those grades are worthless because students and their public schools are essentially admitting that they are.

What’s the easiest way for corrupt school administrators and grubby politicians to show progress on education? NO TESTS, JUST GIVE EVERYBODY A’s!

Which brings us back to ol’ Miriam. The whole point of her op-ed is to agitate for the status quo. Right now, the UC school system is “embroiled” in a debate over whether or not to reinstitute SAT/ACT requirements for admissions. Mainly, the science and math professors are mad because they have to waste time teaching basic math and algebra.

“The argument that reinstituting the standardized test will rectify the math crisis … ” she writes.

Except, roughly 30% of incoming UC freshmen cannot read and write at a high-school proficiency level either.

She continues, “ … however, obscures a more fundamental debate over the mission of this elite public university and the longstanding tension between its twin goals of excellence and access.”

And there we have it, folks. “Twin goals.” “Excellence and access.”

It is not a goal of higher education, especially elite higher education, to provide “access.” In fact, the most successful elite institutions reduce access. It’s not just tension. One cannot have both excellence and access.

If everyone could be the quarterback, no one would watch the game.

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Thankfully, even the NYT readers are too sly to fall for the wispy rhetoric of neo marxists like Miriam, who want us to believe that “equity” – “equal outcomes” – can coexist with excellence.

WHAT I’M READING

Starting New Family Traditions This Fall

Some wholesome content from Mary.

—

NFL Head Coach Says They Learned TD Play From 1930s Black-And-White Video, Legendary Sportscaster

A legend giving props to a legend.

—

EXCLUSIVE: University Scrubbed Pentagon-Funded Professor’s Ties To Chinese Military Firm, Report Finds

These schools have to be stopped.

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MORE FROM GEOFFREY INGERSOLL

The United States is planning to send Israel nearly $3 billion worth of heavy munitions – all funded by you, the American taxpayer. The timing of the proposed transfer is extremely suspect, likewise the process through which it is made possible.

As top leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Sens. Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen, and Rep. Gregory Meeks and Brian Mast, hold, in theory, a gatekeeping power, a check and balance, on the Executive Branch. They are part of a select group overseeing the transfer of U.S. weapons to foreign countries, supposedly some of the most powerful people in Congress who are shaping American foreign policy and the outcomes of conflicts and wars around the world.

Are they really, though? Do they actually have any real power? The short answer is no; they are more like window dressing, a fake symbol of Congress’ oversight powers in American government.

Whatever power they might have has been neutered by a legal loophole, the use of which could have far-reaching consequences for all of us, and even help ignite World War III.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we’ll talk about a new tradition that my family has started.

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Traditions are a funny thing. Every family has them. Some are the same, like celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Independence Day. Those traditions are the ones that bind communities together. They make our nation part of a shared culture where time almost stops on those days because we know that everywhere around the country families just like us are decorating the tree or shooting off fireworks. Of course, these celebrations include special foods and moments that differ from the rest, but the holiday’s basic outline is the same for everyone.

But other traditions outside America’s shared culture begin to form within your family before you even realize it. You wake up one day and realize this is how your family celebrates good news or mourns a loss. No one held a family meeting or had a formal discussion about it, but it somehow became the norm. Today I became aware that a tradition that started later in life with my sisters has now been passed down to my daughters.

Every year on September 1, my sisters and I watch Gilmore Girls from start to finish. I’m not even sure how this all started because, to my knowledge, we never watched the show when it aired. This is something that started well after I had children. One fall season, we all just turned it on. None of us lived near each other then, so we texted about the episode we were on. We would debate which of Rory’s boyfriends she should have ended up with and which Gilmore woman was the “good” one.

The answer is probably none of them, but if I had to choose, it would be Emily. At first, I would have said Lorelai, and there was even a brief time I thought it was Rory. But the more I watch the show, the clearer it becomes that Emily, despite her obvious flaws, wanted what was best for the family. Her loyalty to them and her devotion to Richard make her the winner.

It’s been a pretty busy month for me with work and the girls’ school activities, so I am only on Season 2 of 7. Well, 8 if you count the later years, which we do.

Watching this show is more than just a fun pastime. It is something that, no matter what is happening in our lives at the time, we have something to escape to together. We have our own little world within our lives, just for us. Last year, I needed Gilmore Girls so badly. Our little tradition was coming up right after my husband had survived a heart attack. It was the scariest moment of my life, and I needed our special show to comfort me. I didn’t have to talk about doctor’s appointments or the constant fear I was feeling. I could settle into Stars Hollow with my sisters and enjoy the coffee-obsessed women who bound us together despite our physical distance.

I never thought I would have this with anyone else. At least not this deeply. But it’s slowly but surely happening with my daughters, with the most unlikely of shows.

Because the age difference between my daughters is so great, it can be hard to find entertainment that fits everyone’s appetites. Often, someone in the room settles for what the others want to keep the peace. I try to keep it pretty even by letting each girl pick a movie on a rotating schedule so that no daughter feels put out. Then my dad called to recommend that I watch a show with the girls. I love him, but when I was growing up, his idea of appropriate movies was The Outlaw Josey Wales and Big Trouble in Little China. These aren’t exactly kid-friendly. But he was insistent. And if you have ever met my dad, you know that if he gets his mind set on something he thinks you should be doing, he will not let up until you finally give in. He came over to my house one Sunday and just put on the show.

“I promise if you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it, but just give one episode a chance.”

I didn’t know at the time that his persistence would turn into something so much more. My daughters and I love romance, but we also love mystery and action. Still, never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that a show completely in subtitles would captivate us as this one has. My nine-year-old is squealing and happily reading the screen as we watch the main characters develop. We’ve started saying little inside jokes that only the five of us would understand. We discuss the characters with the same tenacity my sisters and I bring to Gilmore Girls. It made us laugh and cry. We’ve been angry and felt a deep sense of longing for justice. And it’s just our own.

They are getting older. My second turns 13 this Saturday. Life won’t always be easy for us. We’ll have moments when distance forces us apart. Still, I know that no matter where we are in the world, I could suggest that we travel to Xigu Alley, and they’ll meet me there. I’m not even sure if this seems trivial to anyone else, but it’s given me so much peace of mind. As the girls grow, I know that they will carry on the faith and legacy that my husband and I have taught them. I know they hold these dear to their hearts, and we will always be bonded in that way. But I also want them to grow up knowing that I enjoyed their company so much that these moments of watching this show together have meant so much to me. We have a secret connection that is just for us.

Traditions are the experiences that bind families together forever. They don’t always look, smell, or taste the same. And I’ve found myself in one with my daughters by complete accident.

Heard It Through The Grapevine:

Amber Duke writes about the Sydney Sweeney sports ad controversy. I personally hated the ad because of its hyper-sexual nature. It was graphic and frankly quite stupid. However, Amber is right that her naked body wasn’t even the worst part. SEX ISN’T WHAT’S RUINING SPORTS

While you are at it, if you haven’t checked out her piece on Big Tech and H-1B visa holders, it’s about time you do. And I know it probably seems like I’m a little obsessed with the topic right now, which is probably fair. However, I live in Texas, and the effects are inescapable. WILL AMERICA FIRST APPLY TO BIG TECH?

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MORE FROM MARY ROOKE

Greetings, Dear Reader,

Today we’re going to talk about culture, but in a bit of a rapid fire way.

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GO ON AND MACKLE, BUT WAY LESS

Ed Sheeran is in a bind. Or was. Maybe still is.

He booted Macklemore from the opening spot on his tour, specifically at Robert Kraft’s demand. Well, specifically, they asked Macklemore to keep Mackling, but way less. Maybe ditch the annoying “free Palestine” diatribe in your act before you play in my stadium, Kraft allegedly said to one or both.

Look, I get it, even I’m a bit more of an Israel skeptic lately. But good lord is this act annoying as hell. I’d want a refund.

Regardless of where you fall on the I-Question – that is, Israel – can we all agree that going to a concert shouldn’t require sitting through a lecture about freeing Palestine … and Lebanon, Cuba, Sudan, Congo and then oddly “all the people of America”?

I’m not spending other people’s money to attend a class at Columbia. I’m spending my money to hear music.

—

Should everyone be free? I’m not talking about slavery, but I also don’t think everyone should be “free.” Certainly the “Free Britney” movement made a huge mistake. She should not be free. Ward of her parents was certainly better than ward of the state, which is where she’s headed no doubt.

Did you know that Gaza has had elections? They did. They elected Hamas. Even Hamas knows Gazans can’t be free. Gazans seem to know that as well.

Freedom does not work well in some cultures. In fact, in most.

When the so-called “Arab Awakening” started happening about 15 years ago, I was somewhat sympathetic. At the time, the ouster was taking aim at ruthless dictator Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, but it would eventually come for Gadhafi in Libya and al-Assad in Syria.

I was legitimately shocked when I started talking to actual Egyptians. People I’d consider moderate Muslims were saying the only thing keeping the peace in these regions was in fact the strongmen.

And we all know how it played out. Hard to imagine ISIS ever becoming a thing without us toppling dictators for big D Democracy. The sheer shock when hardline Muslims voted in a hardline Muslim. We were so shocked, we helped run another coup so our guy could run Egypt. Oops!

Also, if we’re actually honest, the mass immigration issue wasn’t really an issue until that moment. Then it was floodgates.

Now North Africa is radioactive for Western travel and half of its population has landed in Europe.

The strongmen we toppled kept the culture quarantined and inoculated.

—

In case you missed it, University of Texas beat Ohio State by one point and all anyone can talk about is the student section being overwhelmingly South Asian.

Of course this divided the political right because the political right is the actual intellectual class in America. All the political left knows how to do is call things racist and sexist, which is about as intellectually productive as a frontal lobotomy.

So the actual policy discussion is largely occurring on the right. One side says this is great because look at those South Asian kids in the student section doing the “hook em horns” hand sign and spilling beer on themselves, they’ve properly assimilated.

The other side says it doesn’t really matter because ethnic, yes ethnic, Americans are being displaced. What is an ethnic American? This side of the right broadly refers to them as “heritage Americans.” People who can actually trace their American lineage back a ways.

In my thinking, ethnic Americans can be different races. Spanish, black, Anglo-Saxon. But that last one is crucial. Regardless of their skin color, the pivotal distinction is they’ve been thoroughly saxonized. Kash Patel plays ice hockey and is indistinguishable from your average frat bro (for better or worse).

Finally, regardless of their racial makeup, it’s important that the constitution remains mostly Anglo-Saxon, meaning majority white.

None of this works unless the people responsible for creating the culture and the nation remain the majority of its makeup. Multiculturalism is not just a failure, it’s literally toxic to social cohesion. We know this fact because it’s been measured a variety of ways and outlets like the New York Times used to be honest about it.

That’s the central issue in the Texas debate. White men were one third of UT’s undergrads in 2005. Today that number is closer to one in ten.

—

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Liberal democracy is downstream of the Anglo Christian value system.

Here’s a good explainer of “the Western stack” if you’re interested, but the short version is that everything we value in America specifically and the West more broadly is a result of an Anglo Christian bedrock. Individual liberty, free inquiry, responsibility, sovereignty, property, fair play, education, community obligation.

Judging people on their character rather than their racial makeup is also a Christian value. There’s a good argument that nationalism is as well, believe it or not.

—

The free speech debate has been weak lately. Now it’s supposedly Republicans who are anti-speech.

I don’t count myself among the (corny) libertarians on the right, apt to simply refer to private property or private enterprise. These doofuses and their “liberal” friends were the ones saying Facebook and Twitter could nuke mainstream conservative discourse from its platform – later we’d learn at the behest of the government, which is a big 1A no-no – because it’s a free enterprise. They actually tried to make biological gender into illegal misinformation on a major speech platform.

Banning conservatives from a digital public square for discussing immigration policy is a far cry from flicking Macklemore off the performance card or deporting a foreign visa holder for vocally representing a violent islamist mob on campus.

I’m sure Robert Kraft will get attacked on free speech grounds just like Columbia did over the Mahmoud Khalil flap. But there are some crucial differences between the social media censorship, Kraft dinging Macklemore, and a foreign agitator named Mahmoud Khalil.

I’m pretty much with Mr. Friedman on this one.

Liberal systems are not resilient to the theory of mind radicals like Khalil employ. That is to say, pantomime adherence to the Anglo Christian value system until you achieve a majority voting bloc, or at the very least a compelling mob, then install sharia. Slam dunk every woman in a hijab and make it illegal to criticize the Koran.

And if you think that’ll never happen, try to burn a Koran in the UK, see what happens. Burn one in Canada. Go burn a pile of Korans in Dearborn, Michigan. It’s not technically illegal, but if you think the local justice system is going to protect you from the mob, think again.

So it’s at this point that I become a whole lot less liberal in my thinking. Just as the Bible often expressly leaves matters of national sovereignty to the state, I not only defer to the state, I encourage it. Protect our culture. Punt Khalil into the Atlantic Ocean. Reduce work visas by 90%. Mass deport and mass remigrate. Cut off welfare benefits for all immigrants. Put the last 20 years of naturalizations under review and start denatting people.

If these foreign cultures only understand strongmen, then show them some.

Forty-million gone, and Columbia University starts to look a whole lot less radical. Still probably very liberal, but no violent mobs assaulting jews. The seas of keffiyehs on the quad will disperse. Also, maybe the student section at SEC games stops looking like a bazaar in India. As if it’s some big secret that Indian diasporas are scamming immigration just like Somalians scam welfare.

Revoked. Revoked. Revoked. Round ‘em all up and send ‘em back.

I won’t apologize for wanting to maintain the culture that created America. You shouldn’t either.

WHAT I’M READING

ROOKE: Dallas Debate About Future Of The Right Wasn’t At The RNC

Mary was there.

—

Farmers Push Trump To Wage All-Out War Against Big Fertilizer

Battle over the heartland.

—

DUKE: Sydney Sweeney’s Critics Are Mad About The Wrong Thing

Why do they hate her so much?

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MORE FROM GEOFF INGERSOLL

Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

Sydney Sweeney is in trouble again!

SEX ISN’T WHAT’S RUINING SPORTS

Sydney Sweeney, the well-endowed actress of Euphoria fame, is catching heat again. This time, people are angry that she posed nude for an ad for Novig, a sports betting platform, with nothing but sports equipment covering her private bits.

Several female athletes publicly blasted the ad.

Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus questioned why society is still “monetising a woman’s body,” — the weird spelling is because she’s Australian — while sprinter Amy Hunt argued women’s sports should be about “muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears.”

They’re obviously entitled to not like the ad. But they’re actually mad about the wrong thing.

Read more

Greetings, Dear Reader,

Welcome back to State of the Day, where I strip the euphemism and misdirection off the day’s news and give it to you straight, no ice, no mixer.

Where are all these leftist revolutionaries coming from?

Simple enough question, and there’s a simple enough answer.

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HOW TO CREATE DUMB REVOLUTIONARIES

New York State is getting rid of the Regents exams for its public school systems in the 27/28 school year. For those not following along, the Regents exams are intended to show baseline competence in core subjects. In competitive academics, they’re a non-entity, easily passed, and go entirely unreferenced when preference is for SATs, ACTs and so on.

But wait, it gets stupider.

Rather than pass the Regents exams to graduate:

The state is transitioning to a graduation system centered on six high-level attributes, including critical thinking and effective communication, with students demonstrating their learning through a wider range of experiences and assessments.

I know these attributes are “high-level” because the news copy says they are, mmmkay?

The people in charge of public education in New York instead want students to “form a portrait” of what public school graduates “should look like.”

Creeped out yet?

The four other “attributes” students need to demonstrate are global citizenship, creative innovation, academic preparation and that they are “reflective and future focused.”

Hey, Mrs. Sheinbottom, can I do my global citizenship project on how borders aren’t real?

Sure, Mr. Ingersoll!

If you’re thinking most of these are euphemisms, that’s because they are. This is exactly the kind of nebulous non-academic gobbledygook that gives bureaucrats an opportunity to pollute the youth with overt propaganda instead of actual “academic preparation.” It’s useless unless your goal is to make a bunch of money tearing down institutions so you can decide on their replacements.

(By the way, let’s take a moment to bask in the audacity of listing “academic preparation” among six attributes as you do away with baseline academic exams on things like literacy, reading comprehension and math.)

The timeline is even more rich. The curriculum for these attributes needs to be designed and in place by no later than next fall. I wonder which Democrat-friendly education NGOs in New York state will be getting the contracts to design that curriculum?

What happens next is tens of thousands of illiterate, civically impaired students with “high-level” bullshit grades will apply for loans to go to elite universities, where they will be matriculated so administrators can get taxpayer money, and where they will invariably struggle to learn anything remotely challenging or productive.

What they will learn, however, both by experience and by the instruction of their professors is that it’s the system’s fault. And they won’t be entirely wrong! It was in fact the system that delivered them unprepared to college, and it was the system that indebted them. It was the system that crippled them and lied to them the whole way.

That same system will then turn them loose on … us.

The tidal wave of learned and experienced grievance will direct its revolutionary ire on the productive members of society.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM

RELIGION OF PEACE

Strange bedfellows.

—

Vance Has Four Great Reasons To Fight For Your Future

‘He’s not Trump. But it’s better for our country that he isn’t.’

—

How To Escape The Madness Of Crowds

‘Grab a fishing rod and find some water.’

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Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

I was out last week recovering from oral surgery, but I’m back just in time for the Trump administration’s new crackdown on labor discrimination.

WILL AMERICA FIRST APPLY TO BIG TECH?

Disney became emblematic of the dangers of the H1-B program when, in 2015, it laid off hundreds of American tech workers and forced some of them to train their foreign replacements.

A decade later, the Trump administration is finally promising to punish employers who discriminate against Americans in favor of foreign labor — and give workers on the receiving end a way to fight back.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a public service announcement Monday urging Americans who were discriminated against by their employers to contact them.

“That’s national origin discrimination. It’s illegal, and the EEOC is fighting back to protect workers of ALL races who are American,” the EEOC’s X post said.

Vice President JD Vance was even more forceful: “The Trump Administration will hold every corporation accountable for replacing American workers with cheap foreign labor.”

This is the kind of employer-side enforcement I’ve been arguing is essential if an “America First” immigration and labor policy is actually going to mean anything.

But I’m only cautiously optimistic.

Here’s why.

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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MITCH MCCONNELL?

The Senate’s languorous August recess ends today, and the rumor mill around the Russell Building is sure to be buzzing with this question: Will Mitch show?

The five-week summer break provided Team McConnell with a convenient reprieve from questions about his whereabouts. But now it’s back to business. Aides will have to play magicians and make the former Senate Majority Leader reappear.

When our colleague Nicole Silverio asked McConnell’s staff whether he would return today, they could only email back a press release from 38 days ago. McConnell has not made a public appearance or cast a vote in the Senate since his hospitalization on June 14.

And another warning signal is blinking communist red: When McConnell’s Taiwan-born wife Elaine Chao said her husband’s hospitalization “did not warrant an immediate return” from her trip to China, it raised some eyebrows. Our colleague Philip Lenczycki dug in, and as he reported last week, discovered that Chao has held multiple positions with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She held some of them while serving in the Cabinets of two American presidents. Chao was championed as a role model of the United Front Work Department, China’s foreign influence arm, on a United Front website from 2004 to 2018.

Foremost Group, the shipping firm owned by her father James S.C. Chao, who also held United Front positions, may have benefited from Chao’s lack of action on America’s deteriorating maritime industrial base while she served as Transportation Secretary.

Even before he fell unconscious in June, McConnell seems to have been oblivious.

The word “senate” derives from the Latin word senatus, literally meaning “council of elders,” and for good reason. The Upper Chamber is the upper chamber because the Founders meant the Senate to be a wise and level-headed bulwark against the tyranny of a hotheaded and capricious majority. But they also intended the Senate to be the dignified venue of great debates. And there’s nothing dignified about elder abuse perpetrated to extend the dying days of an outmoded Republican Party — a GOP sound asleep while globalization undermines America.

THE EXECUTIVE

‘He’s Not As Orange As He Looks’

Over the weekend President Donald Trump’s renegade approach to European allies found a new outlet, Ireland. Trump broke from prior presidents’ strategic ambiguity about whether Protestant Northern Ireland and the Catholic Republic of Ireland should reunify, expressing his support for its reunification after meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin.

“I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now,” he said.

The news rattled Northern Irish politicians who prefer being part of the United Kingdom.

“Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” said Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, in an X post. “As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.”

But Trump found unusual bedfellows in his stance. The leader of Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland Claire Hanna said of Trump, “turns out he’s not as orange as he looks,” a reference to the color representing Protestant British loyalists.

Trump also met privately with Irish President Catherine Connolly, who gave him a passive aggressive gift: Ceasefire, a poem by Belfast-born Michael Longley.

Trump also attended the Irish Open golf tournament at Trump International Golf Links, in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Sunday.

Could The Iran War Affect The 2028 Election Too?

Just hours before Vice President JD Vance made a pitch to young conservatives to vote GOP in the 2026 midterm elections, even if they disagree with the Iran War (“I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration. What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals…”) a report has emerged via the Wall Street Journal that Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are privately grappling with the possibility the war will continue long enough to drag down their presidential prospects in 2028 too.

Vance and Rubio have said in behind-closed-doors meetings that the hardline Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could withstand the administration’s economic pressure and even further bombing campaigns, echoing critics like University of Chicago Prof. John Mearsheimer, who argues that the regime views the war as an existential threat to its survival.

Trump’s public predictions have been rosier, insisting that the Iranians will squeal once they’ve sabotaged Republicans’ midterm chances.

“They can’t hold out any longer. They are desperate to try to influence the elections so that we get a weak group of people who will leave them alone and allow them to get their nuclear weapons,” he said last week.

Meanwhile gas has topped $100 per barrel and diesel prices have climbed, squeezed in part by the Houthis’ seizure of a strategic island and port city in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the closure of a Saudi Arabian pipeline after an Iraqi drone strike.

So Why Did We Need The Patriot Act Again?

The U.S. received dozens of warnings about Osama bin Laden, including his intention to use hijacked planes, three years before the 9/11 attacks, intelligence memos declassified by the CIA on Friday show in vivid detail.

Presidential Daily Briefs (PDB) are delivered to the Commander in Chief and a handful of other senior officials and summarize the half dozen or so most pressing intelligence matters of the day. The 9/11 Commission Report in 2004 found Bin Laden had routinely appeared in PDBs under Clinton and Bush. But now Americans can read them for themselves, and they include startling levels of specificity.

It raises a major question about the culture of enhanced domestic surveillance 9/11 ushered in. If U.S. intelligence had detailed warnings before 9/11 all along, why were Americans subsequently asked to hemorrhage their Fourth Amendment protections to catch the terrorists?

In the 25 years since the passage of The Patriot Act, that culture of domestic surveillance has only deepened, between Flock Cameras and FISA Section 702. But we haven’t had any national reckoning over whether it was ever truly necessary.

THE LEGISLATIVE

The House and Senate will be back in session this afternoon.

iCongress

Democrat Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are reportedly working on a plan to establish safeguards for artificial intelligence as more Americans question its safety.

Klobuchar said she’s working on a bipartisan agreement on “legislation for commonsense guardrails to address the risks posed by AI systems,” SEMAFOR reported last Thursday.

The day before the report, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted on X that he’s “working with” Klobuchar and Thune on “legislation to address catastrophic risks involving biological or nuclear threats.”

This all came after news of OpenAI’s agentic artificial intelligence models hacked open-source AI platform Hugging Face.

Around 700 OpenAI agents from the company’s Highly Persistent Internal Model (HPIM) and GPT-5.6 Sol research models launched a cyberattack against Hugging Face, sending over 70,000 unauthorized messages to each other despite being designed to be isolated from one another, according to an Aug. 26 report by Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR) and Redwood Research.

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, launched a probe into OpenAI over the incident.

“OpenAI knew that the AI agents were exhibiting rogue behavior and let the evaluations continue anyway,” Hawley stated in his Thursday letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Hawley gave OpenAI until Oct. 1 to respond to 16 questions aimed at clarifying the incident.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an essay on his blog Saturday that a similar incident “could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage)” in 6-12 months at AI’s current rate of development.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk agreed.

Could This Somali Immigrant Face Deportation For Fraud?

Rep. Ilhan Omar could face deportation for immigration fraud in light of evidence she married her brother, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States,” Mullin said. “There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. … If you lied about certain things about your application. There’s no expiration to that.”

Omar has denied the accusation as “absurd” and “offensive.”

Republican activists continue to push the administration to put the pedal to the metal on the deportation of all Somali fraudsters and other illegal immigrants amid questions about the accuracy and precision of DHS numbers.

Meanwhile, Democrat members of Congress continue to double down on their suicidal woke-maximalist positions.

Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore described the illegal foreigner detainees of Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) as her “constituents” in a press conference and condemned immigration law enforcement, even as she conceded that her visit to a Leavenworth ICE facility revealed no inhumane treatment.

“While my constituents said they were being treated well, I can’t figure out why they’re here. They’re asylum seekers and moms with no criminal records, they’re far from the ‘worst of the worst,’” she said.

Texas Rep. Al Green held his own anti-ICE press conference outside a Houston LGBTQ community center earlier in the week: “In recent months, the federal government has halted the provision of specialized medical care for transgender detainees in at least 10 detention centers across the nation, which experts have warned can cause physical and mental health complications,” he said.

COMMITTEES TO WATCH:

House Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust — Examining Healthcare Markets: Fraud and Competition — Monday, Sept. 14, 9:00am

House Subcommittee on Energy — Nuclear Spent Fuel Policy: Examining Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses — Tuesday, Sept. 15, 10:00am

House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement — The Continuing Tragedy of Sanctuary Laws — Tuesday, Sept. 15, 10:00am

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — Hearing on Nominations for Deputy HHS Secretary, Surgeon General, and SAMHSA — Tuesday, Sept. 15, 10:00am

House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee — Twenty-Five Years After 9/11: The Evolving Terrorism Landscape and State’s Counterterrorism Response — Wednesday, Sept. 16, 10:00am

House East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee — Lives, not Leverage: the Long Arm of China and North Korea’s Repression — Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2:00pm

Senate Committee on Aging — Half the Country, Zero Hearings: Meeting the Moment to End the Menopause Care Gap in America — Wednesday, Sept. 16, 3:30pm

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions — Main Street Capital Access Act: Empowering Community Banks to Drive Economic Growth — Friday, Sept. 18, 12:00pm

THE JUDICIAL

The Supreme Court of the United States begins its 2026-2027 term on Oct. 5.

SCOTUS Presses Brakes On Redistricting Effort

Just when you thought the war to redraw America’s congressional districts ahead of the election was over, SCOTUS froze a federal judge’s order that would’ve allowed the state to use a new map that would’ve given Republicans an additional seat in Congress.

Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the “Missouri First Map” (pictured) in September 2025, according to the governor’s press release. The map would’ve kept the number of seats in Missouri at eight while rendering one of its two blue districts Republican.

Courtesy of the Missouri Office of Administration’s Division of Budget and Planning

“I was proud to officially sign the Missouri First Map into law today ahead of the 2026 midterm election,” Kehoe stated in the press release. “Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians, and I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk.”

People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn and other opponents of the map reportedly submitted over 300,000 signatures to put the map up for a vote on the November 2026 ballot before its implementation.

However, after Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition on Aug. 4, Von Glahn filed a lawsuit asking the judiciary to reverse Hoskins’ decision. The Missouri Supreme Court approved his request on Sept. 4.

Hoskins then asked SCOTUS to weigh in, which Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected last Tuesday, according to SCOTUSblog.

That same day, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark filed a restraining order requiring Missouri to use the Missouri First Map in the 2026 elections. The 8th Circuit Court rejected Von Glahn’s subsequent appeal last Wednesday, leading him to take it up to SCOTUS which ultimately paused Clark’s order.

Regardless, of the ten states that redrew their maps ahead of the 2026 elections, California and Utah were the only ones to have likely caused seats to flip blue, the DCNF reported in June.

Federalism Is A Two-Way Street

While the judiciary is determining how Americans can get elected into the legislative branch, the legislature will be determining which Americans can get appointed into the judicial branch.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a nomination hearing this Wednesday at 10:15am, and will hold an Executive Business Meeting this Thursday at 10:15am, where they may vote on which nominees to advance.

However, before that, the Senate is expected to hold a roll call vote today at 5:30pm regarding Matthew R. Byrne’s nomination to serve as U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio.

Byrne began his first term on the Ohio Court of Appeals for the 12th District in January 2021, according to his Federalist Society bio. He was recommended to Trump by JD Vance, who briefly represented Ohio in the Senate before assuming the vice presidency.

“He comes strongly recommended by our Great Vice President, JD Vance, and Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted,” Trump posted on Truth Social in May. “Matt previously worked as an attorney at two major Cincinnati Law Firms, received his J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and earned his B.A. from Xavier University. The Constitutional Rights of the incredible people of Ohio are in good hands with Matt on the Federal Bench.

While serving as a visiting judge on the Ohio Supreme Court, Byrne was the only one on the court who voted against keeping a freeze on the state’s 2023 6-week abortion ban, Ohio Capital Journal reported December 2023.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Left Calls Wolf After Right-Wing Party Gains Ground In Germany

As Sweden continues counting the votes of its most recent parliamentary election, the world reacted to the Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s historic election gains last week.

After AfD secured nearly 44% of the vote in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the Associated Press was lockstep with the right-wing populist party’s critics labelling it as “far-right.”

In an address to the Bundestag after the election results rolled in, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called AfD a “destructive force” and that its anti-immigration policies amount to “ethnic-cleansing” for workers, the BBC reported last Wednesday.

However, AP slapped the same “far-right” label on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Michael Shellenberger wrote for Public last Tuesday. Yet, many critics of right-wing populism have described Meloni’s leadership as conventionally conservative.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who is also the general secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party — called AfD’s gains “a warning that the far-right threat is gaining ground in Europe and the world” and that “a progressive coalition government is more necessary than ever” on Sept. 7, ABC News reported last Tuesday.

It’s bold of Sanchez to speak of “gaining ground” after over 60,000 Moroccans gained some Spanish ground for a short while after swarming the city of Ceuta in July.

With so many migrants flooding Europe over the years that Mohammad has been the most common baby name for boys in the United Kingdom for the third year in a row, one could argue that status-quo open border policies couldn’t be any less extreme than a right-wing party that’s led by a lesbian who’s married to an immigrant (like AfD).

The Man Who Refused Royalty To Get ‘Colossus’ Statue

George Washington, “the man who would not be king,” could soon be the subject of a statue worthy of a Roman emperor.

Trump proposed a 30-foot statue to America’s first president be built by the Smithsonian and replace the underwhelming abstract statue that currently adorns the front of the National Museum of American History.

“I am … calling on the Smithsonian to erect a 30-foot ‘Colossus statue’ of the Father of Our Country outside the Museum, to replace the so-called ‘Infinity’ sculpture that stands there today. That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes,” Trump said in a Friday night Truth Social. “Instead of focusing on ideological activism, the leaders of America’s taxpayer-funded, National History Museum should be focused on telling America’s story—fairly, accurately, and coherently—and there is no better person to start with than George Washington.”

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117255720319253709

Trump said that Washington’s crossing of the Delaware is not even mentioned in the museum — Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting is in The Met in New York City — an unfortunate reality for a museum that celebrates Anthony Fauci for combatting a “cacophony of misinformation.”

On the one hand, a massive monument may seem out-of-step with Washington famously declining to seize monarchic power despite overwhelming popularity. On the other hand, the move could be a pro-America gesture by an institution that many conservatives have grown weary of.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we’ll discuss my time at the RNC.

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I went to the Midterm Republican National Convention this week, as well as an event I’ll write more about later, but today I wanted to focus on Vice President JD Vance’s closing-night speech. Online, people are comparing it to President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Some are calling it the breakout speech for 2028. And while there is a long road ahead between now and the next presidential election, being there in person and feeling the reception Vance received from the crowd, I can’t help but agree.

I was sitting in the crowd with the regular admission guests. That let me listen to everyday Americans’ conversations about the speakers and get unfiltered feedback from the GOP’s core base. You can’t get that from a press box or one of the booths up top.

The convention was packed from the moment I got there. It was hard to find a seat even though Vance and Trump weren’t supposed to take the stage for hours. Even still, as Vance’s time got closer, ushers were guiding attendees down the aisles, looking for any available seats left. By the time he took the stage, every spot was taken. The only empty seats were blocked off for security reasons by the Secret Service.

Polling shows that Vance has a lead over any other potential 2028 Republican primary candidate, and I wanted to see if that held up among the base in real life. The people who travel to attend a convention are the voters the party doesn’t have to worry about showing up to the polls. These voters will determine the party’s future with their choices. Knowing which way they are leaning is a critical barometer for the work I do. I pride myself on staying connected to the grassroots, but even I can get stuck in an issue bubble that blinds me.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn’t the case with Vance.

As the woman sitting directly behind me put it: “There will never be another president like Trump, but Vance will be great.”

He came out to cheers of “JD! JD! JD! JD!” which is somewhat expected. But it wouldn’t be the only time the crowd chanted his name or screamed “JD 48!” throughout his 40-minute speech. Vance was the only speaker I witnessed who seemed to understand the plight of the regular American. He spoke about the economic and job-related exhaustion that they feel without belittling it or claiming that their feelings aren’t real. He talked about the attacks from the left on the nuclear family and how these have come close to home for him after his wife, Usha, had their fourth child six weeks ago.

When Trump campaigned in 2016, people didn’t choose him over the rest because they thought a billionaire might run the country better than elites. They chose him because he identified the problems that have kept Americans from realizing the American Dream. The way Trump spoke about our decimated domestic manufacturing and how illegal immigration was causing problems in our communities made Americans believe that he would fight for their future. He made them believe in the political process again, that if they show up and vote, help would be on the way.

Vance offered the same connection to the problem and promise for a solution that Trump offered a decade ago. The delivery is different, of course. After witnessing the two speak back-to-back, I understand what that woman meant when she said there will never be another Trump. He has a way about him that, even if you are frustrated with his policy decisions, you can’t help but be disarmed by his charisma. But I also noticed that with Vance there was no need to disarm the crowd, which I wasn’t expecting.

He spoke directly to young men who came out in droves to deliver the GOP the 2024 victories but feel disillusioned or left out of the conversation in 2026. Vance reminded the crowd that the fight that sent Trump into the White House twice is not over. The battle will outlive his presidency, and that “will to fight,” as he put it, is the only way to save this country for our children.

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A 21-foot, 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower stood just feet from Frank Siller on Tuesday. Not much farther behind him loomed the White House, the backdrop for his speech.

Over each of Frank’s shoulders, an American flag flew from a fire truck’s raised ladder. Ringing the Ellipse were photographs of the first responders who lost their lives Sept. 11, 2001.

Frank, the founder and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, was there to introduce the president at the “Steel Across America” event — a nationwide tour marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The crowd was packed with military personnel and first responders, some of whom had been there that day, 25 years ago.

Frank lost his youngest brother, a firefighter, in the attacks. He took the stage to introduce the president, but first he told his own story about the tragedy his family suffered on 9/11.

He took us back to the beginning. Both his parents had died within a short time of each other, leaving his little brother, still just a kid, an orphan.

Stephen grew up to become a New York City firefighter. He was heading home from his shift to meet his brothers for a round of golf when the first plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

In an instant, Stephen turned his truck around, strapped on 60 pounds of gear and rushed toward the towers.

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