Arday in the Mist

On this day:

1609
Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1835
The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax.
1894
Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1898
700 Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British Consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mob in Heraklion, Greece.
1914
World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.
1944
World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945
Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948
The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: “Confrontation Day” between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

***

Since 1776, there has been a 3,000% explosion in the average real income per person in the world.
Nothing earlier came remotely close.
It was caused not by the usual suspects of investment or exploitation, but by liberty inspiring a flowering of human creativity—in the arts and sciences, and in the economy.--mccloskey

***

On August 25, 1835, the first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper.
Known collectively as “The Great Moon Hoax,” the articles were supposedly reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The byline was Dr. Andrew Grant, described as a colleague of Sir John Herschel, a famous astronomer of the day. Herschel had in fact traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, in January 1834 to set up an observatory with a powerful new telescope. As Grant described it, Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon, including such fantastic animals as unicorns, two-legged beavers and furry, winged humanoids resembling bats. It was purported to be a reprint from the Edinburgh Journal of Science.
The articles were most likely written by Richard Adams Locke, a Sun reporter educated at Cambridge University. Intended as satire, they were designed to poke fun at earlier, serious speculations about extraterrestrial life, particularly those of Reverend Thomas Dick, a popular science writer who claimed in his bestselling books that the moon alone had 4.2 billion inhabitants.
Readers were completely taken in by the story, however, and failed to recognize it as satire. Edger Allen Poe was deeply involved.

*** 

A surprising graph, ineptly reproduced:

American wages have fallen to roughly 43% of national income, the lowest share since 1970. For every dollar the U.S. economy produces, workers are receiving less of it than at any point in more than five decades.

The remainder has flowed increasingly toward corporate profits.

Interesting, especially when compared to McCloskey's quote.

***

South Carolina Republicans will decide Tuesday who will replace Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot in November's midterm election, after a rushed campaign in the wake of his sudden death in July. Graham's sister, Sen. Darline Graham, faces Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday's runoff vote.

The position is hereditary, right?

***

Combined spending related to old age and illness accounted for around 70% of total social spending in Germany last year, pushing the social budget to a new record high, according to an analysis by the Ifo Institute published on Monday.

***

2026 appears to be the first year in human history where the global population falls below replacement fertility. This includes times of war and epidemics. While many worry about climate change, Musk repeatedly argues that a collapsing birth rate is actually the biggest danger human civilization faces today.

***

Quebec's desire to preserve the declining French language has been a big factor in the trade dispute with Canada. For example, Bill 96 requires products sold in Quebec to have a French description and for trademarks using generic terms to be translated into French, while Bill 109 compels media services such as Netflix, Spotify and Apple to promote and prioritize French content for Quebec users.

***

Arday in the Mist

A note on Arday, abused and abuser:

Arday’s academic focus was not on learning new things and fashioning new ways of processing existence but on criticizing others’ morals. This is not intellection but advocacy, and that is frankly much easier than thinking. The term “scholar-activist” tries to finesse this by making the two appear to be alternate forms of the same endeavor. But the scholar-activist is often more activist than scholar, and Arday was an extreme example of the type.

Nothing in his work suggests intense engagement with a body of data (Arday himself has claimed that because of his dyslexia, he can engage only one page of academic prose in a sitting) or with a challenging way of analyzing that data. In academia, what is interesting is the counterintuitive, the discovery. Arday merely reinforced long-established and simplistic pieties. He became the equivalent of a full professor at Cambridge based on doing interviews with acquaintances about the racism they experienced, and then largely just presenting what they said. At its highest level, this could be good (but not great) journalism; it could not be academic work. On the level Arday worked, my 14-year-old could best him after some quick training in Latinate, Judith Butler-esque prose.

Arday was defrocked after the revelation that most of even this incurious nattering in the guise of research was plagiarized from others’ work. Claiming that his supposed autism made him think that learning was mimicry, he composed most of his work from generous tranches of cut-and-paste from other sources, often (but certainly not always) lightly reworded. But even if this performance art disguised as thought were all his own work, his elevation to such heights by Cambridge was an abomination.-- John McWhorter

"Claiming that his supposed autism made him think that learning was mimicry..."

Now the academic who exposed all the fraud has been suspended, and crowds of Arday sympathizers have gathered to mourn him. This is sadder than the twisted Mangioni support. This is empathy in defiance of effort and quality, the same open-mindedness that tolerates goofy but harmless positions like Flat Earth groups and abolish-the-Constitution politics.

But a lack of intellectual and moral standards has erosive consequences at the bottom of the slippery slope.

Not Caesar's Wife

On this day:
585 BC
A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
1533
The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn valid.
1754
French and Indian War: in the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.
1830
President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.
1940
World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.
1942
World War II: in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1,800 people.
2002
NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance.
2002
The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.

***

Republicans and Democrats alike recently enacted a bill that allows taxpayer funds to help pay name, image, and likeness (NIL) funds to athletes at the University of Wisconsin.

***

The government is opening its interests, expanding from promising what is in unlimited supply to that which is in unlimited supply, but inconvenient.

The proposed “For the Fans Act” would mandate that professional leagues provide every local fan a way to watch every game played by every team in their state — no streaming blackouts, no platform exclusivity — or face legal consequences. The bill covers baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer.

***

Mamdani is the mayor/artist formerly known as Young Cardamom


***

An interesting little experiment comparing AIs:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYzu9ZZljj2/

***



Not Caesar's Wife

The Wall Street Journal published an immensely troubling dispatch on Thursday exposing how cryptocurrency networks — specifically, the formerly China-based crypto exchange Binance — have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Based on how terrorism-financing experts assess the purpose of trading accounts like Zanjani’s, the $850 million in Zanjani transactions, which included both deposits and withdrawals, likely means about $425 million moved through Binance to finance Iran’s military, according to foreign law-enforcement officials and other people familiar with the activity. Binance’s own investigators assessed the accounts were a money-laundering network to finance the regime, according to the compliance reports.


In 2023, Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to charges relating to the violation of U.S. money-laundering statutes — a scheme that enriched child sex traffickers, international scamming operations, and terrorist groups, including “Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).”

Like a bolt from the blue, however, President Trump gave Zhao a pardon last October

Representatives of the Trump family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of Binance.

The promise of cryptocurrency notwithstanding, if it serves merely as a vehicle for criminals and corrupt interests to strip the United States down and sell it off, piece by piece, to its enemies, you might expect the stewards of American interests to take a firmer line against it. And they might have if they hadn’t already gotten theirs.

If your gut response is to write this off as the usual innuendo and Trump hatred, be aware that this is from an article in The National Review.

It Is Known, Khaleese

 

Crypto is only good for two things: gambling—is the price going to go up or down?—and crime. The amount of crime that crypto facilitates is staggering. There’s a crypto company, Chainanalysis, that estimated $154 billion of criminal activity was facilitated via crypto last year alone. --McKENZIE 

***

What is this $1.6 billion slush fund for? Is it to compensate people who were unjustly targeted by the Biden Regency and had to spend a fortune to defend themselves from the people who created the Trump Russian conspiracy and the 'Hunter Biden computer is Russian disinformation?' What exactly is the penalty for a government agency attacking in court people they simply don't like?

***

According to the Post, one of the San Diego shooters wrote in their 'manifesto,' that he " lamented being short, which he said caused him great pain and humiliation."

***

New York City’s $125 billion budget is larger than the $115 billion the entire state of Florida is expected to spend this year. New York City has 8.5 million people; the state of Florida has 23.6 million.

***

It Is Known, Khaleese

Critics this weekend point to investment patterns suggesting Trump is misusing his power to benefit from his own decisions. When he came to office, he said he would not take a salary, he built the ballroom with private money, and set aside his investment money in a private trust with management he could not influence. Is this a change? Is he now in control of his finances and betting on his own executive acts? Or is this charge just untrue?

It's reasonable to be cynical about government but, as Lily Tomlin said, it's hard to keep up. These people will take advantage of anything for influence or profit.
Regulators are seeking information from prediction-market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket over wagers tied to political events and military operations. Such bets pose a challenge for authorities because insider-trading laws weren’t designed for people who wager on the outcome of legislation, political races, and even U.S. military action.

Remember, these people have inside information, i.e. they are the insiders making these decisions.

Enter the innuendo. Is it possible that the administration has had the time to be as evil as is said? Trump is still said to be a Russian agent. There has been no reason to believe that, aside from the suggestion of a paid political opponent. Pedophile? That seems to be a specific charge with real definitions, but, again, no charges. 

Fascism. Fascism has a definition; does Trump qualify? Are these people confusing Fascism with authoritarianism? Trump is certainly that, but is he worse than, say, FDR? Lincoln suspended habeas corpus; was he a fascist?

All this has become political dogma, like the spiritual claims of religions, global warming, or aliens. The democracy functions on individual citizens' input. If its input is this flawed, democracy has little chance.

 

From the Annals of Willing Suspension of Disbelief

On this day:

1204
Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1829
The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.
1861
American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1873
The Colfax Massacre takes place.
1941
Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943
World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility. The Nazis were shocked!
1970
An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

***

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell."--Frank Borman (ex-Eastern CEO)

***

The Colfax massacre, sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the parish seat of Grant Parish. An estimated 62–153 black men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan

***

Estimates of the number of Polish citizens executed at three mass murder sites in the spring of 1940 range from some 14,540 to 21,857 to 28,000. Most of those killed were reserve officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Polish September Campaign, but the dead also included many civilians who had been arrested for being "intelligence agents and gendarmes, spies and saboteurs, former landowners, factory owners, and officials."

Between 250,000 and 454,700 Polish soldiers had become prisoners and were interned by the Soviets, following their invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, three weeks after Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This was a little over two weeks after the initial invasion of Poland by Germany, on September 1, 1939.

***

Spanish Prime Minister's wife charged with corruption. Sometimes the high road is short.

***

From the Annals of Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Life is full of surprises and contradictions. Some are enlightening. Some are unsettling. Public politics is beginning to be more under the heading of "Diagnosis." Examples:

-Iran, disarmed, defeated, and humiliated, continues to posture as a tough guy. Are they trying to fulfill their martyrdom? Their's may be desired, but their citizens' may not be. Is this an Eastern example of the government enforcing a 'greater purpose' on its citizen-victims?

-America's enemies shudder at the blockade as 'an act of war.' What did they think was going on here? And what about Iran's blockading itself? Are they declaring war on themselves? Sometimes martyrdom is harder to achieve than you would think. Is two beligerents blockading one belligerent a tie?

-Is threatening the Iranian culture a lot worse than Death to America?

-Iran's negotiations started with their demands that everything return to before the war and that the US pay reparations. What explains that mindset? In light of their recent self-blockade, are they negotiating with themselves?

-Mamdami just declared a socialist victory in NYC without having done anything yet. Does that remind you of Iran, or is it just politics?

-Why is it a logical step with a past heavily laden with accusations of sexual assault to run for governor? Do these politicians, like Mamdani's victory dance, live in a parallel universe?

Political Couture

On this day:1685
James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
1820
The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.
1952
Elizabeth II becomes the first queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms since Queen Victoria upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
1959
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
1959
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1976
In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

***

And how much did the global lockdown reduce 2020’s global carbon emissions? By about 6 per cent. It is the largest reduction ever but nowhere close to what would be needed. If we were to meet the Paris Climate Agreement by 2030 just by doing and travelling less, we would need to suffer a pandemic like this every year for the next decade, without allowing us to have any recovery between the pandemics. Which, of course, would lead to an unprecedented social collapse.--norberg

***

UFOs, Epstein, Omar's theft--we all know this, but when will the innuendo be separated from the chaff? Or is insincerity the arbiter, and truth will never escape it?

***

How could a voter ID law not distinguish Republicans from Democrats to the Republicans' advantage?

***

A Russian general serving as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow on Friday, officials said – the latest in a series of attacks on top military figures.

***

Innuendo Alert:

“Dear Director Ratcliffe, I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities,” Senator Wyden wrote.

***

The chairman of the new prospective owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins says his company is reportedly in discussions to acquire the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

***

Political Couture

Among the many declarations of The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is this insight:

“Customary obligations are the same for all States and exist independently regardless of whether a State is a party to the climate change treaties" (para 315). 

That is, it applies to you whether you agree to it or not. Like gravity.

It's one of the ICJ's more than 200 references to 'customary international law' (CIL), which is essentially the unwritten rules that bind the world. They're the rules so basic, they don't need a treaty.

America's own judge on the ICJ, Sarah Cleveland, reiterates this point. And that's particularly intriguing when you recall the US has now twice withdrawn from the Paris Agreement that the world negotiated to try and slow rising temperatures.

So the court (including Cleveland) is basically saying you can withdraw from as many treaties as you like, but your climate obligations remain unchanged at this point. It’s CIL.

This should sound familiar. It's much like Trump's campaign slogan of "It's common sense." The unagreed-upon assumption. The battle cry in the field of opposing opinion.

It's obvious and definitive. 

"It's couture."

Policing a Feeding Frenzy

On this day:
1500
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531
Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
1564
The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
1565
Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
1885
Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
1949
The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).
1978
The Great Blizzard of 1978, a rare severe blizzard with the lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the US, strikes the Ohio – Great Lakes region with heavy snow and winds up to 100 mph (161 km/h).
1998
Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

***

When Theodore Roosevelt asked Attorney General Philander Knox to concoct a legal justification for the unsavory U.S. measures that enabled construction of the Panama Canal, Knox replied, “Oh, Mr. President, do not let so great an achievement suffer from any taint of legality.”

***

I looked over old records of the Kent State shootings. While I found interviews in which the students thought the Guard's weapons had blanks, I found nothing to show the Guard thought so.

***

Why is the Minnesota fraud case a partisan investigation?

***

Spot prices of silver cracked past $103, while gold ran to as high as $4,988, just $12 shy of $5,000.

***

There was a dramatic selloff in the Japanese bond market last week, accompanied by wild swings in the yen. Inflation, long dormant in Japan, has taken hold, and, moreover, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pushing fiscal stimulus plans that would swell a government debt pile that is already uncomfortably large. As a result, investors have been frantically sending bond yields up to levels once unthinkable — more than 4% on the longest-dated JGBs. That’s exerting upward pressure on interest rates from the US to Britain and Germany.
Higher Japanese yields will prompt domestic investors to bring much more of their money back home. Some $5 trillion of the country's capital is deployed overseas.

***

Policing a Feeding Frenzy

So the residents of Minnesota have organized into helpful little volunteer groups to monitor whether the Immigration Police are operating within the law. They are trying to make these encounters more difficult but more safe, a bit contradictory. Re the safety part, isn't that what the cops are supposed to do? Why do they need these standins? Apparently, the most recent shooting involved the victim intervening between ICE and an observer. They've been complaining that ICE is undertrained; are the self-appointed observers well-trained?

And the 'making the police action more difficult' part, how exactly does that fit in? Does that make things safer?

What's really happening is that amateurs are interfering with the cops. They are intervening in police actions against illegal immigrants. Dangerous stuff. Combustible. And unpredictable. Why would amateurs expose themselves to such risk? To pacify? Maybe they plan a religious conversion? Do they even know there is a risk? Do they think the good guys can shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hand? Do they think that in a fight with the cops and someone yells "Gun!", that there will be several calm moments to debate if the cry is accurate or not?

We are seeing a growing number of militant busybodies who are trying to influence behavior in a shark tank. Why would any sensible person do such a thing? There may be some recent insight. A congressional representative recently said in an interview that ICE was not in Minnesota to enforce immigration law; they were there for 'intimidation.' The crack interviewer did not ask any clarifying follow-up questions, so we were not told who was being intimidated or why.

This is the opinion of an elected official. We can't explain what the thought process was here or its relationship to the militant observers. But we can accept the innuendo: the bell-shaped curve is a hell of a lot flatter and broader in this country than we thought.

 

911. Can You hold?

On this day:

971
In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops.
1368
In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
1556
The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.
1897
Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1941
Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1943
World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
1960
The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet) in the Pacific Ocean.
1968
North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.

***

However, as much as the political left loves to use words like “change” and “revolution” as if they had a monopoly or a copyright on them, the actual track record of the left pales in comparison with the social revolutions created by the free market.
No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk.--Sowell

***

Hayek pushes the point that markets are about price discovery. In controlled systems, the price is arbitrary.

***

The astonishing rise of standards of living over the last two centuries has lifted everybody. Even a Dickensian street urchin has joined the productive class with hopes of more than others' success. And some have more success than others. This is the dreaded so-called income disparity. Many reasons might explain these disparities, although one rarely hears that any of the unhappy have themselves to blame.
But the idea that any inequality inspires some to break the system that has revolutionized the world is breathtaking.

***

Mamdani's restricted housing is like restricted car-buying. The story is in the circumstances. There is abundant, affordable housing, but not in Manhattan. Or Marcos Island.

***

What in the name of heaven is Newsom doing stalking Trump in Davos? Did he think he would rescue the stupid appearance with a stupid gay joke?

This is a leader?

***

911. Can You hold?

The Minneapolis conflicts have an asymmetry. The ICE problem is an unusual external, whereas the everyday is the local cops, and what is asymmetrical is their absence in civic disturbance, disturbances that are advertised and certainly easy to find. These diffuse confrontations, which seem to be planned with the hope of escalating violence, would be ended with the appearance of the local police. Yet they are not in evidence, even by accident.

How is that possible? How can the people and the organizations responsible for civil order ignore this dangerous chaos? They are employed--and paid--to maintain civil order but seem devoted not to do so.

So, who is responsible for the citizens' safety? For the general order of the community?

And, on a coarser level, who is legally responsible when those agents, for whatever reason, refuse their sworn duty?

Imitations of Democracy

On this day:
771
Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.
1110
First Crusade: The Crusaders sack Sidon.
1259
Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
1563
The final session of the Council of Trent is held (it opened on December 13, 1545).
1674
Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek (the mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois).
1783
At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, US General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell.
1872
The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged).
1971
McGurk’s Bar bombing: An Ulster Volunteer Force bomb kills 15 civilians and wounds 17 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1992
Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.

***

Attracting global talent is not China’s strength—the world’s best would rather join the United States. But if America abandons the openness that has long underpinned its exceptionalism, it will squander one of its biggest advantages and decline into a second-rate power.--Tabarrok

***

“I inherited the worst inflation in history.” (From Trump's cabinet meeting)

Actually, he inherited 3% inflation. Which is about where it remains today.

(Inflation peaked at 23.7% in 1920 . . . nearly 14% in 1947 and again in 1980 . . . and 9.1% during the worst of the COVID supply chain disruptions in tcontinues to show in his harrangues of he middle of Biden’s presidency . . . but had dropped to 3% by the time he left, leaving Trump an economy The Economist called “the envy of the world.”)--This reminder is from a pretty left guy. But, of course, one must remember the interest rates are a function of many things, and spending--legislature-- is one. Presidential input is far less important than the Fed, as Trump's constant haranguing of Powell shows. And Biden didn't do anything on purpose.

Is this just another 'Zito's exaggeration'? Or is this more of a problem?

***

Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck called rent control, “the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.”

***

Imitations of Democracy

There was certainly a lot of input in the NYC election this year, but it is likely the same players, just a new way to keep score.

One of the first major organizations to endorse Mamdani in the mayoral primary was Region 9A of the United Auto Workers, which may sound strange to outsiders because there’s almost no automobile manufacturing in New York. The ever-flexible UAW is instead one of the key organizers of the city’s subsidized professional class.

UAW Local 2110 represents “over 3,000 workers in universities, publishing, museums, law firms, and other offices.” UAW Local 2320 represents New Yorkers “who work in federally-funded legal services programs,” as well as “in various human services programs.” Local 2325 claims “over 3,000 legal and social service workers” among its members and boasts “chapters at over 30 nonprofits.” Local 2710 speaks for more than 3,000 “student workers” at Columbia University, joining the 4,000 “academic workers” at New York University and the New School who belong to Local 7902. The UAW spent more than $6 million nationally supporting Democrats in the 2024 election cycle; UAW president Shawn Fain spoke in prime time at that summer’s Democratic National Convention.

The United Federation of Teachers, the city’s massive public school employees union, endorsed Mamdani in early July. The group has a $4.5 million annual political budget, which, in fairness, is a small fraction of the $175 million it receives in revenue each year.
  
Many of the most recognizable faces in New York politics are now creatures of the "subsidized knowledge economy." People such as Randi Weingarten, longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Zephyr Teachout, the activist and legal theorist, remain fixtures and power centers despite never having served in elected office. No serious politician attempts a run at a major office in New York without meeting with Al Sharpton, nonprofit industry pioneer and longtime director of the National Action Network. Sharpton appeared at a Harlem rally with Mamdani in late June, days after he locked up the Democratic nomination despite his notably poor performance in Black neighborhoods. Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn’s young progressive borough president and a possible future mayor, began his working life as a community organizer for ACORN. Linda Sarsour rose to local and national prominence as director of the Arab American Association of New York. Sarsour’s good friend Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a crucial Mamdani primary endorser, headed a nonprofit development corporation in Park Slope and the nonprofit Pratt Center for Community Development before entering electoral politics in the late 2000s.

Legal and social service workers, workers in universities, publishing, museums, law firms, and other offices, the old-time "student workers," NGOs, non-profits, and somebody named Zephyr, all joining together to create an inexperienced band of nonproductive self-interest, all intent on moving the sideshow under the main tent. So they can soldier on, oblivious to the nation's requirements and their fellow citizens' needs, and ignoring their own philosophical and economic limits.

The Lone Wolf

On this day:

14
Tiberius is confirmed as Roman Emperor by the Roman Senate following the natural death of Augustus
324
Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine’s sole control over the Roman Empire.
1812
The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
1885
Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
1895
Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
1944
World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1975
Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
2001
First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

***

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (18 Sep 1709-1784)

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Is there a difference between competition from across the border and competition from across the street? Is competition from Alaska more or less damaging than competition from Mexico?

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79% of Democrats believe it is reasonable to remove Trump from office by force.

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So-called "static pets" such as stones, mango pits, paper boxes, and even toothpaste have become very popular with Chinese youths looking for low-commitment companionship to compensate for their stressful daily lives and careers. However, one such static pet has been seeing massive popularity in the Asian country, “pet yeast”.

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The Lone Wolf

The Left is rooted in struggle. Conflict. Oppression does not need to be identified; it is assumed. And it must be overcome. A victory cannot be reached through discussion. It can be achieved only through winning. In essence, it views itself as being in the midst of a battle between good and evil, within an ongoing historical process. The battle is inevitable; their victory is inevitable. And, of course, there is no compromise with evil.

In such a struggle, what is allowed? What are the limits we impose upon ourselves in such a Manichean battle? The Marxists, through a poorly understood idea of Darwin and economics, believe the power held in our current, collapsing political entity can be finally defeated only by deracinating it. Those successful people are a subset in the culture, a predatory class or caste arising over centuries, and would spring up from the fertilizer of its predecessors unless they were all destroyed and their fields sown with salt. Killing the Tsar's children was not seen as a slaughter of the innocents; it was a necessary, unavoidable extermination of a genetic and social fault developed over the years.

The Left will always bring these struggles. But something new is in the air. The new revolutionary doesn't have comrades or a creed; he has a personal beef.

First, Kirk. Kirk was an unlikely assassination target in the traditional sense. He seemed more evangelical with strong political corollaries than political with religious overtones. He wasn't elected to anything, had never held an elected position, and, indeed, had diverted such suggestions toward his primary interest: teaching. A campus crusader.

He was certainly prominent, well known among the younger population, less so among the older. His encounters and speeches reveal an opinionated, well-spoken guy with a big mind and an accepting heart--not at all the hateful guy you would expect from his killer's statements and those of his other enemies. But hate is in the mind of the beholder; that's the reason we have laws.

Assassinations are usually attacks on political direction through public figures. They are rare in the U.S., where they are usually personal. Even Booth's murder occurred after the Civil War was decided and was a self-inflicted wound; its results were much more damaging to the South than the North.

With Kirk, as with Mangioni, we may be seeing the rise of the vigilante assassin.

Vigilantism has a pre-Hammurabi feel, the feel of The Feud. The vigilante acts within a justice tradition but outside a formal legal code. He usually acts in response to judicial inaction to a wrong that most people would agree with. It's like a Mafia code, or Sharia court: laws everyone agrees with are enforced by special interests outside the organized legal system. With a vigilante, the laws are more capricious, and the enforcing judge and executioner is often a very small group. Usually one.

Kirk's murder is much like Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson. Regardless of motive, Mangione's act was strange. He killed a man because he worked for a company that was in an industry Mangioni didn't like. An enemy once removed. 

The Kirk murder is stranger still because Kirk's crimes are hard to glean. He seems like a nice, talented guy. He was opposed to transgender ideology, but how many are? Which of those guys should be killed? And, like Mangioni, the killer will have a limited impact. The movement Kirk created is sizable, robust, and, with his death, energized. And his widow, if her speech after his death is any indication, will be a powerful force in his absence. Personal hatred of a public figure is not what most people think of as a motive for assassination. And many people loved him; don't they get a voice?

Yes. They do get a voice. This murder has turned a page. The country's reverence for the individual has always caused problems, but one wonders about this new development. This was a capricious, stupid act by a random guy, said to be bright, but whose stupid act carries the day. And his supporters--there are supporters--leaped to the barricades to mute the impact. The killer was in love. He had a difficult childhood. The relationship with his roommate was "tender." Jimmy Kimmel attributed Kirk's assassination to MAGA influence. And 41% of Democrats think that Kirk was killed by a Republican.

Meanwhile, one of Mangioni's supporters has married "his AI."

There is a gulf developing in the country. Fortunately, the one malignant group looks like morons. They will certainly do some weird damage; the twisted individual mind is hard to manage. But maybe this will be self-limited.

Kirk

On this day:
1297
Battle of Stirling Bridge: Scots jointly-led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeat the English.
1649
Siege of Drogheda ends: Oliver Cromwell’s English Parliamentarian troops take the town and execute its garrison
1708
Charles XII of Sweden stops his march to conquer Moscow outside Smolensk, marking the turning point in the Great Northern War. The army is defeated nine months later in the Battle of Poltava, and the Swedish empire ceases to be a major power
1829
Surrender of the expedition led by Isidro Barradas at Tampico, sent by the Spanish crown in order to retake Mexico, This was the final consummation of Mexican independence.
1857
The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Mormon settlers and Paiutes massacre 120 pioneers at Mountain Meadows, Utah.
1921
Nahalal, the first moshav in Palestine, is settled as part of a Zionist plan to colonize Palestine and creating a Jewish state, later to be Israel.
1922
The British Mandate of Palestine begins.
1944
World War II: RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.
1978
U.S. President Jimmy Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel meet at Camp David and agree on the Camp David Accords a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
1997
14 Estonian soldiers die in the Kurkse tragedy, drowning in the Baltic Sea
2001
The September 11 attacks take place in the United States. Airplane hijackings result in the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City, damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the crashing of a passenger airliner near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

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On the "We think it's a good idea to destroy the world's economy" front, the International Energy Agency, which has repeatedly predicted that global oil demand growth will peak before 2030, has drafted a report admitting that both oil and gas demand are set to continue growing for decades.

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The 9/11 anniversary the TV stations planned this morning have been negatively impacted by Kirk's murder. Strangely, we don't see the staring, homicidal connection. Children's bodies are scattered on school floors. Toltalitarian regimes probe the borders of their neighbors, looking for a chance of a nice, clean, low-cost hit. Well-educated scientists nurse infant bioweapons in petri dishes. Edges of the Bell Curve ruminate on their purposeless life and grasp "I hate therefore I am" in a cold embrace.

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The poor Ukrainian girl who thought she would escape man's murderous intent in Charlotte died alone among her fellow passengers. Not one moved before or after the knife attack. The camera footage shows them silently leaving the train at the next stop.

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And the House of Representatives booed the motion to say a prayer for Kirk on the House floor.

There is something seriously wrong here.

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Kirk

Well, the mask is off. The notion that our national problems need only a respectful engagement with your opponent, discussion, debate, and good-humored withdrawal to a neutral corner is untrue. That is exactly what Charlie Kirk did and was. 

He was not a politician; He was not elected to anything. He was a public teacher, a crusader emphasizing religion and government, a peaceful religion and a limited government. Specifically, he was a Christian and a conservative. He would seek out places where his opponents lived, go there, and challenge them. Not just baiting the bear, he met them on the respectful academic grounds of the college campuses. He had a little segment in his speaking performance called "Change my mind," in which he would invite members of the audience to a microphone to challenge any of his opinions and discuss them back and forth.  

He dropped out of college to do this. He had his opponents--beliefs always stimulate opposition, and, yesterday, there were 7000 signatures on a petition to prevent him from accessing the campus. And his encounters were smart and demanding. But I have never heard anyone who had met him who was not impressed with his openness, honesty, and good nature. He was, by all accounts, a kind, generous, reflective man.

 

And he was experiencing increasing success. A more conservative movement is emerging among younger people, especially on campuses, and he was a major factor. Trump said he might not have been elected without him. 

Create a forum where you can engage your opponents with respectful discussion, debate, and polite resolution. That is exactly what Charlie Kirk did and was. 

And that is exactly why he was murdered.

Counterrevolutionaries of the Regency

On this day:
1430
Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
1498
Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI.
1533
The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1934
American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
1934
The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
1939
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
1945
World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1948
Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul-General assassinated in Jerusalem.

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A 27-year-old woman was shot by security guards after she drove erratically onto the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters complex in Langley, Va., early Thursday and ignored their attempts to stop her, according to people briefed on the episode.

A spokeswoman for the C.I.A. described it only as a “security incident.” The woman, whose name has not been released, was believed to have been under the influence when she drove onto C.I.A. property around 4 a.m. She was shot when police fired at her vehicle to try to stop her, according to the people briefed on the matter, who added that her injuries were not life-threatening.--from NYT. Other reports say she was not shot and did not get onto the grounds.

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Did the Pirates really give up Ortiz and two other pitchers for a platoon player?

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OnlyFans owner Fenix International Ltd is in talks to sell the porn-driven company to an investor group at a valuation of around $8 billion, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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A quote from a Biden cabinet secretary in “Original Sin”: “I’ve never seen a situation like this before, with so few people having so much power. They would make huge economic decisions without calling [Treasury] Secretary [ Janet] Yellen.”

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America has created a free, equal, and productive multiracial/ethnic nation. Are there others?

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Counterrevolutionaries of the Regency

The chaotic Democratic Party is looking for a landing strip. One of the dumbest is that Jill Biden is Lady Macbiden, eager to continue the incompetent Biden presidency so she could go to parties. This is like arguing somebody should have diagnosed Biden's prostate cancer. That might be true, but it is not what is wrong.

What is wrong is that a group of political opportunists saw an empty shell of a man whom they could prop up like a ventriloquist dummy, sidestep the voters' wishes, and advance their personal political views, antithetical to the nation's very creation and nature. That is not provocative, or unusual, or abusive, or a health care question.

That is a coup. A coup.

Interestingly, we do not know who these rebels are. But we have certainly identified the ineffectual guys who raised hell on January 6th, guys who never dreamed of subverting the nation as these fifth columnists did with ease.

And without guilt. Why? Because they think they know better than the electorate. Like the European aristocracy, they feel ordained with insight and a true vision. And, coincidentally, that vision says they should run everything. Save the people from their inherent failures. The enemies of Washington, Madison, and Jefferson. The idols of the court sycophants. Pre-Revolutionaries. Lawbreakers. Fifth columnists.

Traitors.

The Potemkin Presidency

On this day:

334 BC
The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
1377
Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
1455
Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
1826
HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1856
Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (“Bleeding Kansas”).
1968
The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
2011
An EF5 Tornado strikes the US city of Joplin, Missouri, killing up to 161 people. It is the single deadliest US tornado since modern record-keeping began in 1950.

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Two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC have died following a shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum after an event discussing how to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The embassy has named Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram as the victims. The pair planned to get married.

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Juan Soto, the 26-year-old New York Mets star, was greeted by his old fans of the crosstown New York Yankees with their backs to him. He was then accused of not running out ground balls before rumors swirled that he was antagonizing the locker room by taking a private jet with his family instead of traveling with the team.
Against the Red Sox on Wednesday, Soto seemingly refused to swing the bat through his first three at-bats. He struck out each time, rare for a player lauded for his plate discipline.

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"Unlike many others at Harvard, I have no dramatic cancellation, or intellectual persecution, or struggle session to report. I stopped teaching at Harvard last year primarily because of its anti-truth-seeking culture, radical left-wing bias, racial and gender discrimination, and prevailing anti-intellectualism, which made continued participation a poor use of time. There are exceptions, but on the whole, Harvard has strayed from its foundational mission of unbiased truth-seeking and has become ideologically driven, too often resembling a secular church or a partisan think tank. The university’s culture and practices prioritize ideological conformity over open inquiry and debate, suppressing dissenting viewpoints and compromising academic freedom. This shift undermines the core values of a secular university and poses a threat to the integrity of academia and broader society."--Omar Sultan Haque in City Journal

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The Potemkin Presidency

"Regency" refers to a period when a nation is governed by a substitute, in place of its rightful ruler. This occurs when an heir to the throne is too young to assume the role or an existing ruler is too impaired.

In Europe, it refers specifically to the United Kingdom from 1811 to 1820, when the Prince of Wales (later George IV) acted as regent because of his father's mental illness, and to France, from 1715 to 1723, when Philip, Duke of Orleans, ruled France because Louis XV was too young to rule. ("The minority of Louis XV.")

America had a regency during the Biden presidency, but it can't be named because we, the American citizens, do not know who was substituting for the man who was elected.

America, the nation of Washington and Jefferson and Madison, Lincoln and Whitman, Concord and Gettysburg, America has a Regency!

"everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

...

Surely some revelation is at hand;"

The question is not what has happened to America's government; the question is what has happened to America's citizens?

Treason

On this day:
1856
Lawrence, Kansas, is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863
American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
1871
French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week” some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1924
University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
1927
Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

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Early-life sugar rationing reduced diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35% and 20%, respectively, and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2 years. Protection was evident with in-utero exposure and increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after six months, when solid foods likely began. In-utero sugar rationing alone accounted for about one-third of the risk reduction.

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amphibian(n.)

"one of the class of animals between fishes and reptiles, having gills and living in water in the early stage of life, later living on land," 1835; from amphibian (adj.). Amphibia was used in this sense from c. 1600.
1640s, "combining two qualities; having two modes of life," especially "living both on land and in water," from Latinized form of Greek amphibios "having a double life; living on land and in water"  
before a vowel amph-, word-forming element meaning "on both sides, of both kinds; on all sides, all around," from Greek amphi (prep., adv.) "round about, on both sides of, all around; about, regarding," which is cognate with Latin ambi-, both from PIE root *ambhi- "around."

Its background is similar to amphitheater and ambiguous.

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Treason

How will the Biden government be remembered? How will it sit in the pantheon of American administrations? 

Management of political image is not new. Governments routinely create a false image of themselves to influence their citizens. Roosevelt's paralysis was never shown. Kennedy's pathological sexual behaviors were both known to the press and unrevealed.

That is to say, the public is constantly manipulated. This is usually cosmetic, to improve our opinion of these people we have voted for. They want to remain in power and advance their causes.

The Wilson episode is different. Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke in office and was non compos mentis, of unsound mind. This is a defense in the case of a criminal act; it is not a reasonable state for the leader of the free world. And the geniuses who wrote the foundational work for the country anticipated this very thing. 

The Wilson government hid Wilson's mental failures. Essentially, they took the government over--despite there being a constitutionally mandated option for them--and ran the government themselves.

A coup.

This Biden episode is far worse. The Wilson crime was reactive. This Biden event may have been planned. This may have been a conspiratorial effort to divert the power of government from a vacant candidate into unelected hands in order to redirect the nation.

This threat to the integrity of the government, the very foundation of the government, was not seen as a crisis; it was seen as an opportunity, a breach in the constitutional dam restraining man's tyrannical tendencies to exploit.

That is a coup. Treason.

The questions here are the most important since the Civil War. Already, they are being muddled and diluted by partisan complaints and distracting peripheral factors involved in Biden's incompetence.

The Press cannot be relied upon. If the people accept this theft of power complacently, the nature of this nation will be forever changed.

Parker

On this day:

In 1913, Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patented the all-purpose zipper.
In 1661, the Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan.
In 1429, Joan of Arc led French forces to victory over English at Orleans.

.

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Since 1980, the intra-year market has fallen 14.2% on average but recovered to end positively in 33 out of 44 years.

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US foreign aid totalled $65 billion in 2023. Humanitarian assistance made up a large slice of the total. But significant funding also went to strengthening militaries in allied nations and helping governments phase out fossil fuels or contain the production of opioids that could end up in the U.S.

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Parker

(The following should be taken with a grain of salt. This discusses litigation and, as such, involves lawyers. And it is culled from Tobias, who is an investor. Moreover, years ago, I bought a bit of Parker myself. Nonetheless, the story is interesting and provocative with enough innuendo to keep you up at night.) That said...

A jury unanimously awarded ParkerVision $173 million in damages against Qualcomm in 2013.

After all, they were shown internal emails from Qualcomm senior executives that said: “The truth is ParkerVision have(sic) stumbled on something revolutionary.” And this one to Qualcomm’s CEO at the time: “This is critical technology we must land.”

Rather than license PRKR’s technology — that ultimately came to reside in literally billions of cell phones — Qualcomm, in the jury’s unanimous view, stole it.

It took a decade to get the case in front of a jury. Giants like Qualcomm can afford legal talent who is really good at delaying.

So $173 million for past use of the intellectual property went to Parker, plus a royalty to be negotiated on all future use. The judge seemed fine with that.

And then six months later, out of the blue, the judge threw out the verdict.

What happened?

Recently, PRKR released what it says is the first of a four-episode “Against the Giants” video series.

According to “Episode 1” of “Against the Giants," Qualcomm visited ParkerVision’s website often. But a couple of days after Qualcomm’s CEO hosted an Obama fundraiser, there was a visit from a computer in the White House. And a few days later, the Obama-appointed judge threw out the verdict.

The relationship between the decision and the White House may be a coincidence. But the question of suppression and destruction of American quality technology and companies is a problem that threatens the very essence of American culture. Property is basic. Innovation and quality should be rewarded. The legal system should benefit the public, not stymie it. And power should never be allowed to shift the scales of justice.

The larger significance is that Qualcomm is not the only tech giant that squashes small inventors who cannot possibly afford decades of litigation to enforce their patents. Which, apart from being truly un-American and unfair, may affect our global competitiveness.  

The Ambitions of a Majority

Bianca Censori has a master's in architecture?

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The prospect of AI automating administrative tasks is attracting venture capitalists to mundane businesses like accounting and property management.

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If Washington did not have the turnovers, would they have won?

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The Ambitions of a Majority

Minnesota governor Tim Walz reiterated his support for abolishing the Electoral College and switching to a national popular vote as the sole means of electing presidents and their running mates.

While campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris on the West Coast, Walz suggested at two different fundraisers that he would prefer to focus on winning votes across the country rather than concentrate on key battleground states that could sway the upcoming presidential election as they have done in the past.

“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go. We need, we need national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in,” the Democratic vice-presidential nominee told donors in California governor Gavin Newsom’s Sacramento home.

Last year, the governor signed legislation that added Minnesota as the seventeenth state to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The initiative commits participating states to award their electoral votes to presidential candidates who win the popular vote and takes effect once states representing 270 electoral votes have joined the compact.

The Harris campaign said Walz’s call for abolishing the Electoral College is not an official campaign position.

Despite the campaign’s statement, Harris has said she’s “open to the discussion” of abolishing the Electoral College.

“There’s no question that the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who’s the president of the United States and we need to deal with that, so I’m open to the discussion,” she told late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel in 2019 when she was running for president.

Though it appears a radical position, a recent Pew Research Center survey found 63 percent of Americans supporting the move away from the Electoral College toward a popular vote system. By contrast, 35 percent said they would favor retaining the Electoral College.

The issue is further divided along partisan lines. Eighty percent of Democrats prefer to see the Electoral College changed, while Republicans are more closely divided on the issue: 46 percent say it should be changed compared to 53 percent backing the current electoral system.

Neither Waltz nor Harris seem to be incisive political thinkers. As such, they may well represent the electorate they hope to lead. One might argue that such a shift in opinion betrays a growing misunderstanding of the very basics of the country's republic nature, with all the anti-democracy caution it implies. But it may not mean it can be corrected by education; it may mean the electorate is changing. As is the electorate's vision of the nation.