I caught a little of Mark Levin interviewing Jonathan Turley about his new book. I like these “big picture” think pieces or books.
From Amazon: Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, law professor, legal analyst, and bestselling author of The Indispensable Right Jonathan Turley explores how the unique origins of American democracy set it apart from other revolutions, whether it can survive and thrive in the 21st century, and how the unfinished story of the revolution will play out in a rapidly changing world.
This is a book about revolutions. Most countries are the progeny of revolution. At the birth of this nation, the Founding Fathers faced the quintessential question of self-governance: how do you keep democracy from devolving into violent anarchy or brutal despotism? Drawing on little-known facts from the founding, Jonathan Turley reveals how the United States escaped the cycles of violence and instability that plagued other democratic movements, from ancient Athens to 19th-century France.
As the nation approaches a new era marked by artificial intelligence, robotics, and profound economic shifts, America must again withstand the pressure of radical forces that seek to curtail our natural liberties under the guise of popular reform. In this crisis of faith, many politicians and pundits are questioning the very principles of American democracy, and some law professors are even calling for scrapping the Constitution.
Synthesizing sources from history to philosophy to the arts, Turley offers a hopeful account of how the lessons of the past can guide us through today’s “crisis of faith” in democracy and see us into the future. He notes: “From redcoats to robots, our challenges have changed. Yet, we have remained. Our greatest danger is not forgetting the history detailed in this book, but forgetting who we were in that history.
There was discussion of how mobs act and evolve.
Like many here, I have not given the Epstein thing much concern, and with so many business/personal demands for the last 3 months, not much politics either. But I do still check in here each day. This podcast from Matt Walsh succinctly covers important truths about Epstein and our “elites”. Now I am better understanding people who didn’t want to let it go.
The Epstein files another case of “fake but accurate”. We know that garbage people are in charge of the world, and the Epstein files tell us that those people are garbage, so it doesn’t matter to a lot of people if anything in there is actually factual.
I don’t want to repeat the Bill Gates rumor, it’s easy to find, and Walsh mentions it. But the statement about what Gates is alleged to have done is in an email Epstein wrote to himself, imagining what an employee of Gates should say to Gates when the employee tenders his resignation.
A post for the science nerds. I read at least two science books a year. Last year I read The Quantum Labyrinth, about Wheeler and Feynman back in the day.
It’s good enough to recommend, but not great. The most memorable thing about it is a human interest story about Feynman meeting Einstein. He was very young, and he was working toward his PhD under John Wheeler. Wheeler knew he had an absolute genius on his hands, capable of mathematical feats that left Wheeler far behind. To his credit Wheeler loved to push and encourage next-level greatness from his students. In that spirit he suggested Feynman deliver a lecture on his latest theory. And he (Wheeler) invited everyone. Von Neumann, Pauli, and Einstein himself agreed to attend. Feynman, always the problem solver, solved his nervousness problem by showing up very early and writing his needed equations on the board before anyone arrived – lest they see his hands shaking, which they were.
Obviously a great story. But I remember when I read it that I’d never heard it before, and I have never read anything about it since. Then, yesterday, I stumbled across this video.
Niketas I think you are brushing with a broad brush. A number of the things Walsh cites are the very kind of things we look at to assess and respond to all the other people and situations going on in the public space ad infinitum. One person’s opinion–mine.
I would like to address what I consider the most damning issue exposed in the short Walsh assessment: the number of top tier people in government positions interfacing in important ways with Epstein after he was a convicted child sex offender. This is not simply, “garbage people are in charge of the world”. This is INEXCUSABLE on every level in any moral society. We don’t have to look back far to see the kind of things that labeled someone “blackguard” and excised from decent society–things far less reprehensible–any literature from earlier times will state the case.
I strongly and sincerely oppose many actions of SCOTUS and Congress. Would it be a good idea for me to coordinate with a sophisticated network of like-minded people, arm myself with a pistol, and meet them in DC to harass, impede, interfere with, vandalize, and physically attack the Justices, members of Congress, their staffs, and security teams?
Today I learned that the great Victor Davis Hanson is a regular reader of Power Line. That means he read my campaign posts. The late Rush Limbaugh and Charles Krauthammer were also regular Power Line readers.
I’m thrilled. Three of my favs were my readers.
Artificial Incontinence?
(More like Artificial Insolvency…)
…Despite massive cost increases, actual utility improvement for most users…is marginal.… The breaking point was when I asked it to edit my column about Operation Gideon to arrest former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and GPT practically shrieked at me, insisting that no such thing had ever happened.
…It gets funnier. Writing this column, I had to switch to Grok because GPT 5.2 insisted there was no such thing as GPT 5.2, and again, scolded me for believing such a thing….
Writing this column, I had to switch to Grok because GPT 5.2 insisted there was no such thing as GPT 5.2, and again, scolded me for believing such a thing….
–Stephen Green
Chat GPT 5.2 trained on data which didn’t include its own existence. So its first pass on a response is based on that training.
This happens to me as well. So I tell Chat that X happened recently. Chat looks up X on the web, apologizes, and responds based on its updated information.
Re: Stephen Green / OpenAI
Green is not the only person concerned about OpenAI’s debt and profitability.
However, I would note that Amazon was founded in 1994 and didn’t achieve profitability until ten or so years later. The same criticism was leveled at Amazon.
Amazon is now one of the largest, most profitable corporations in the world.
OpenAI is following the same sort of strategy. Get big, get better, outpace the competition first. Profitability later.
I don’t know that it will work for OpenAI, but that’s the bet.
Stephen Green is making a valiant attempt to follow the AI story. He might be over his head.
Interesting column from VDH on how, again, we are echoing 1861. Hope his health is improving.
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2026/02/02/slouching-toward-fort-sumter-n2670522
I caught a little of Mark Levin interviewing Jonathan Turley about his new book. I like these “big picture” think pieces or books.
From Amazon:
Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution
There was discussion of how mobs act and evolve.
Like many here, I have not given the Epstein thing much concern, and with so many business/personal demands for the last 3 months, not much politics either. But I do still check in here each day. This podcast from Matt Walsh succinctly covers important truths about Epstein and our “elites”. Now I am better understanding people who didn’t want to let it go.
https://youtu.be/iNiRhZYWMQI?si=z84hbCaxot8sUPJj
The Epstein files another case of “fake but accurate”. We know that garbage people are in charge of the world, and the Epstein files tell us that those people are garbage, so it doesn’t matter to a lot of people if anything in there is actually factual.
I don’t want to repeat the Bill Gates rumor, it’s easy to find, and Walsh mentions it. But the statement about what Gates is alleged to have done is in an email Epstein wrote to himself, imagining what an employee of Gates should say to Gates when the employee tenders his resignation.
Gates might really be such a bad person as to do what Epstein imagined a third person would accuse him of doing, but the Epstein email is not real evidence Gates did any of those specific things. It’s no different from people on MSNBC speculating that Usha Vance is pining to be rescued from her marriage to the Vice President, or an article in Slate that she’s having another baby just to dispel rumors about her husband and Erika Kirk.
Just because the world is run by garbage people doesn’t mean we should import garbage into our own heads.
Asahi Shimbun: “Classical guitar legend Kazuhito Yamashita passes at 64
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16316660
A terrible loss to music. RIP maestro.
A post for the science nerds. I read at least two science books a year. Last year I read The Quantum Labyrinth, about Wheeler and Feynman back in the day.
https://quantumlabyrinth.com/
It’s good enough to recommend, but not great. The most memorable thing about it is a human interest story about Feynman meeting Einstein. He was very young, and he was working toward his PhD under John Wheeler. Wheeler knew he had an absolute genius on his hands, capable of mathematical feats that left Wheeler far behind. To his credit Wheeler loved to push and encourage next-level greatness from his students. In that spirit he suggested Feynman deliver a lecture on his latest theory. And he (Wheeler) invited everyone. Von Neumann, Pauli, and Einstein himself agreed to attend. Feynman, always the problem solver, solved his nervousness problem by showing up very early and writing his needed equations on the board before anyone arrived – lest they see his hands shaking, which they were.
Obviously a great story. But I remember when I read it that I’d never heard it before, and I have never read anything about it since. Then, yesterday, I stumbled across this video.
https://youtu.be/Q-ykgXBmw-g
The same story. It mostly jibes with the book.
Niketas I think you are brushing with a broad brush. A number of the things Walsh cites are the very kind of things we look at to assess and respond to all the other people and situations going on in the public space ad infinitum. One person’s opinion–mine.
I would like to address what I consider the most damning issue exposed in the short Walsh assessment: the number of top tier people in government positions interfacing in important ways with Epstein after he was a convicted child sex offender. This is not simply, “garbage people are in charge of the world”. This is INEXCUSABLE on every level in any moral society. We don’t have to look back far to see the kind of things that labeled someone “blackguard” and excised from decent society–things far less reprehensible–any literature from earlier times will state the case.
I strongly and sincerely oppose many actions of SCOTUS and Congress. Would it be a good idea for me to coordinate with a sophisticated network of like-minded people, arm myself with a pistol, and meet them in DC to harass, impede, interfere with, vandalize, and physically attack the Justices, members of Congress, their staffs, and security teams?
Today I learned that the great Victor Davis Hanson is a regular reader of Power Line. That means he read my campaign posts. The late Rush Limbaugh and Charles Krauthammer were also regular Power Line readers.
I’m thrilled. Three of my favs were my readers.
Artificial Incontinence?
(More like Artificial Insolvency…)
“Buddy, Can You Spare $50 Billion?”—
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2026/02/03/ai-has-a-50-billion-dollar-problem-n4949045
H/T Instapundit.
Curious grafs:
Writing this column, I had to switch to Grok because GPT 5.2 insisted there was no such thing as GPT 5.2, and again, scolded me for believing such a thing….
–Stephen Green
Chat GPT 5.2 trained on data which didn’t include its own existence. So its first pass on a response is based on that training.
This happens to me as well. So I tell Chat that X happened recently. Chat looks up X on the web, apologizes, and responds based on its updated information.
Re: Stephen Green / OpenAI
Green is not the only person concerned about OpenAI’s debt and profitability.
However, I would note that Amazon was founded in 1994 and didn’t achieve profitability until ten or so years later. The same criticism was leveled at Amazon.
Amazon is now one of the largest, most profitable corporations in the world.
OpenAI is following the same sort of strategy. Get big, get better, outpace the competition first. Profitability later.
I don’t know that it will work for OpenAI, but that’s the bet.
Stephen Green is making a valiant attempt to follow the AI story. He might be over his head.
Update on Victor Davis Hanson’s health:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/02/02/i-hope-to-post-things-now-and-again-victor-davis-hanson-offers-new-health-update/
Dan Bongino Show – Don’t Get Played By Their Latest Gaslighting Campaign (Ep. 2444) – 02/03/2026
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/02/dan-bongino-show-dont-get-played-by.html
Dan Bongino Show – Don’t Get Played By Their Latest Gaslighting Campaign (Ep. 2444) – 02/03/2026
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/02/dan-bongino-show-dont-get-played-by.html