Been there, done that, will do it again. Except I don’t have Alexia. Mostly at AI when I call for customer support.
Awaken this morning by gunfire, lots and lots of gunfire. Duck season has begun.
Trump’s latest flip-flop on Russia: he signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act on Sept. 18, with tariffs up to 500% on Russian goods and up to 100% on major buyers of Russian oil and gas. At the UN General Assembly, he said he was prepared to implement it if necessary. Then on Oct. 16, two days before the measures were set to take effect, he signed an order waiving nearly all of them, certifying to Congress that the waiver is “in the national interests of the United States.” Existing sanctions stay in place.
It came about a week after he announced a deal with Putin for Russian diesel, along with a temporary Treasury license easing sanctions on Russian fuel. A dozen senators, including Republicans McConnell, Tillis, Collins, Murkowski and Cornyn, had urged him to rescind that deal and enforce the law.
The politics are awkward. In a December Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, almost 65% of voters said the administration should keep supplying weapons to Ukraine and impose additional sanctions on Russia, including majorities across parties. That same month, an Economist/YouGov poll found 49% disapproved of how Trump is handling the Russia-Ukraine situation and 30% approved.
So sanctions on Russia are popular, Trump’s handling of Russia polls poorly, and he just waived his own sanctions law three weeks before the midterms.
The West Wing is also in flux. Karoline Leavitt stepped down as press secretary at the end of August and Katie Zacharia replaced her. Politico reports Trump has been asking allies about replacing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Trump calls that “TOTAL FAKE NEWS” and says Wiles is his “loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff.”
Will voters punish the flip-flop on Nov. 3, or will fuel prices matter more?
From the World section of the WSJ, not the editorial page, some depressing news out of Yemen.
The Houthis’ tactics showed more sophistication than in previous fights, combining infantry assaults with attacks by missiles and drones, including first-person-view drones guided by fiber-optic wire, that pointed to training by Iran, a person with the forces opposing the militants said. Revolutionary Guard officers were on the front lines helping direct drone and missile attacks, another anti-Houthi official said.
Who is Iran’s greatest patron? Roosia.
Mike Plaiss, what we are seeing is that the Saudis can’t fight, or won’t. Saudis, speaking in general, are used to being a pampered upper class. Someone else will do the dirty work.
I wouldn’t have Alexa in the house, but I do shout at Siri occasionally. The phone does things I didn’t ask it to. “Oh, go away!” is my most common interaction with Siri.
The Ilhan Omar investigation is spreading to the entity family, and will go on into the new year. Fraudulent “families” and perhaps conspiracy to defraud the government is in play as a prosecution goal. As it happens, her family members are disappearing from public events.
Benny Johnson has a TY roundup of TV and print reports up only an hour ago.
“?Feds Announce Illhan Omar’s DNA Evidence…PROVES Darkest Crime in U.S. History” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79wBgm-Q6Lw
This case is getting broader and deeper than I ever imagined. My belief is that these vaguely connected family units typical of Somalia involving child btides and incest marriages are being pursued in Omar’s case to prove a warning to the 80,000 Somalian community in Minnesota, already proven to be a cesspool for fraud against the Feds and State.
I believe she’s going to become the Poster Girl that serves to warn Muslim immigrants against exploiting US immigration at all levels. As well as other potential immigrant groups.
Thus, the Trump administration is setting out to destroy the rotten fruits of immigration scamming set up by the Bush Administration, and exploited by do-good “charities” both Catholic and Protestant who are aligned with Soro’s government corruption, and infecting Minnesota politics.
Both typed of denominational “charities” are known to have benefited to the tune of $65 million over some recent period supporting foreign immigration, for example. And Woke anti-White guilt induction has undoubtedly fire fueled corrupting the locals in the Twin Cities, resulting in complete “Democrat” domination of State politics.
Trump Team is trying to reverse corruption benefiting our CommieKKKrat enemies for more than two decades. This is stunningly creative, and an ambitious goal.
In time, we’ll discover if it is practical to achieve.
I never understood people getting those things.
Then again. Ive never used Uber or door dash.
Cash whenever possible.
Both Chicago baseball teams only accept CC.
Their loss
Ive only seen 10,000 so far
Mike Plaiss — why is the news “depressing?” It’s entirely consistent with Iranian revolutionary Islam practice, backing Shia’s wherever they find them. and further exposing to their Sunni enemies and the world what a threat they always were!
In short, you’re missing the comprehensive upside to extinguishing the Mullah’s IRG menace. It shows the war is just for the US to pursue to the end.
what we are seeing is that the Saudis can’t fight, or won’t.
That is my worry as well. Tolstoy once observed that battles tend to be won by the side that actually wants to fight. I’m no expert on Yemen, but I’ve read enough to question whether “Yemeni government forces”are as motivated as the Houthis.
Their effectiveness is what I find depressing, not their presence.
Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress, by Martin Seligman, 2026
Martin Seligman gives us “a landmark work spanning ancient Greece to the age of AI that identifies agency—the fusion of efficacy, optimism, and imagination—as the hidden engine of human progress, and shows how we can unleash it to build a better future.
“What actually drives human progress? Ecologists point to geography and climate. Sociologists invoke wars and class. Economists follow the money. But none of these accounts explains why innovation and human thriving occurs in some eras and stalls in others—often under identical material conditions. The missing variable, Seligman argues, is the psychological state known as: agency.
“Agency is built from three interlocking capacities: efficacy, the confidence that you can accomplish a specific goal right now; optimism, the expectation that your efforts will pay off far into the future; and imagination, the breadth of goals you can envision.
“When all three align, civilizations leap forward. When they collapse, societies stagnate—no matter how rich their resources or how brilliant their citizens.
“Drawing on six decades of pioneering research and a sweeping reexamination of the last twenty-five hundred years—from Periclean Athens and the Hebrew Torah to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Civil Rights Movement—Seligman reveals how surges and declines in agency have quietly steered the course of history.”
This is a book of ideas and paints Big Picture themes about our past last found decades ago in Jared Diamond’s “Guns. Germs, and Steel” (which itself refined and expanded the reach of a short book entitled “Plough, Sword, and Book” by Ernest Gellner, a decade before).
But Diamond’s book lacked serious application for the present, as we face and define our future. Seligman not only outlines it, he’s steeped in mining the research on the virtues and pro-social values he expounds on.
Which means that “Agency” will prove far more lasting and richer. It may even bring forth a new axial age to go with settling on a new planet for the first time.
Late in the interview, 84 year old Seligman explains how AI has multplied his writing and research productivity by a factor of four. And it has helped him to enjoy more love by bonding with his young grandsons.
Victor Davis Hanson’s theory on why Europe won’t help the US in Iran goes beyond their concerns of antagonizing the Muslims at home.
Europe wants the US and Israel to spend the money and do the heavy lifting to bring Iran down, then European businesses, being nearer to Iran, can swoop in and make the profits rebuilding Iran.
Interesting YouTube videos popping up, of people from the UK who, after recently visiting the U.S. for a week or more, and returning home, just can’t stand the contrast, and realize just what a shithole the UK has become–rotten weather, generally cold, unfriendly people, no AC, ever increasing taxes, comparatively tiny, very expensive houses, feckless, lying politicians and incompetent government, cramped cars and narrow, bad roads, comparatively low pay, runaway crime, the Muslim takeover, rules and more rules–the more coercive and senseless the better, etc., etc.–and are desperately trying to come up with ways to return to and to settle in the U.S.
Actual people and their genuine observations and feelings, or just some sort of performance engineered for YouTube?
Kate writes that the Saudis can’t, or won’t fight. That is my understanding from American military personnel who have lived with and trained them. One close friend taught them to fly military jets. He said they learned slowly, made many serious mistakes, and were very arrogant. Those who are connected to the royal family (and many are) don’t feel the need to perform — they are financially secure the moment they are born. If they flunk out of flight school they’ll fall back on family ties to carry them.
Yemenis, OTOH, are a hard-scrabble lot, and tougher. If it ever came to a battle between Saudis and Yemenis, especially Houthis, the Saudis are much better equipped but are not likely to stand and fight like the Yemenis.
Being a cynic about the Catholic Church, I could immediately see the incentives the Church had for open borders — more asses in pews, more votes for Democrats, more money for its NGOs — while smiling beatifically, quoting Bible verses and holiness signaling.
Blech. Don’t tell me about Pope Leo. I’ll tell him. You let a couple hundred of those immigrants into Vatican City and maybe we can talk.
But lots of groups are taking their cut in this dirty business and the link outlines probably not all of it, but much of it.
I think much of the degradation of our world is due to hidden incentives.
re. Saudis can’t or won’t fight….
This brings up recollection of the times of my youth where it was difficult to get the ruling class of S. Vietnam to get off the dime and engage the invaders… the “south” was happy to go through some motions and leave the heavy lifting to the Americans (and others). In the end they learned a hard lesson.
When a people will not fight for their own country why do they think someone else will come in to do it for them…
What bothers me the most about the Catholic and Lutheran work with Muslim “refugees” is that they don’t appear to have made any effort to share the Gospel with the immigrants. Do they not believe it? Do they not believe that sharing God’s love in Christ is important? Europe is heavily post-Christian these days. Minnesota didn’t used to be.
Kate — from my experience there in the former North Star state, Lutheranism became an easy exit ramp.
Did they do any missionary work with them? I doubt it. At least the earlier wave of Vietnamese settlers did get some.
Today, EVERY helping profession or fields been feminized and taken over by the Neo-Marxist left.
Until a long campaign to re-masculinize these fields is launched, most crucially in education, I hold out no hope for change.
It takes a brave Christian to preach the Gospel to Muslims. They are a bit twitchy about things like that.
When St. Francis preached to the Sultan Malik al-Kamil in 1219, he sought to convert the Sultan … or risk martyrdom.
Besides, it seems these Christian NGOs have money, power and changing America more as priorities, while feeling morally superior.
These days the story of St Francis and the Sultan is heralded as a great example of interfaith dialog.
Which sounds like bollocks to me but it is actually a great example of ture Christian-Muslim dialog. Note that St Francis is literally risking his life on the off-chance that the Muslim may be amused or moved then literally not kill Francis. The Muslim suffers no such risk.
It reminds me of those movies where our plucky hero is captured and brought into the presence of a gangster kingpin. Fortunately our hero manages to amuse the gangster by his charm and humor and theforefore avoid being killed.
As far as Muslims are concerned there is no equal relationship with the rest of us. We exist on their terms or unless we can threaten them with overwhelming force. I prefer the latter.
Thus endeth the lesson.
I see that a lot of news sources are trying to portray the destruction in France–looks like it could be the kick off of a Civil War to me–as merely being carried out by dissatisfied young students, by frisky “youts,” rather than by a combination of Communists and Muslims, whose aims are terror, the destruction of the existing order, and revolution.
I suppose, in Minnesota, I have to allow for the malign effect of government funding. Apparently much of the effort for Hmong refugees was funded by donations. When the churches began working for the government they stopped being churches.
When the churches began working for the government they stopped being churches.
==
They were working for the government because they had stopped being churches.
Kate, TJ and huxley,
In order to act on behalf of the government to receive the NGO monies the Catholic and Lutheran churches were almost certainly under a general rule that they had to do the work “secularly.” I think it was during LBJ’s reign when a federal law was enacted regarding preaching politics from the pulpit. I believe it was tied to not for profit status. Every Catholic church I’ve been in takes that law seriously. Too seriously, if you ask me.
Other faiths do not.
Here’s what duck.ai came up with when I asked, citing Wikipedia:
Yes — the Johnson Amendment was enacted in 1954 during Lyndon B. Johnson’s Senate career, not his presidency. It bars 501(c)(3) nonprofits, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates, but it does not broadly ban religious leaders from discussing politics or social issues during services. Churches can still discuss issues and do nonpartisan voter education; they just can’t campaign for or against candidates.
When I probed further regarding NGOs:
Yes. If the money is federal grant money, it generally can’t be used for worship, religious instruction, or proselytizing, and those activities must be kept separate from the funded services. Faith-based groups can still keep their religious identity and do religious work, but not with taxpayer funds.
No question there are cadres of leftist, atheist lawyers ready with lawsuits at the slightest whiff of any Christian or Jewish organization violating this rule.
Re: French protests
Snow on Pine:
Yes, the current protests are big and getting bigger. Last night my host compared them to 1968. That’s serious.
Yesterday I saw plenty of red flags with the outlined white star and the letters PCF: Parti communiste français. Not so many Pali flags but they were there.
There were also many normie French citizens marching too, defending the benefits of the generous French welfare state. That’s my host who argues that French socialism is not communism.
He’s strident about it, so I avoid contentious discussion. He doesn’t seem to think about French debt or other government needs beyond good schools, medical care and swimming pools for the people.
I tangentially mentioned Jerry Seinfeld and he became indignant. He has no use for Seinfeld, practically spitting. “Seinfeld is a Zionist!”
He is an interesting guy. We have great talks about the arts, but otherwise he is quite overbearing. I spend most of my time in his house hiding in my room.
Yesterday’s protest turned out more serious than I realized. 63 arrests, 36 police injured, shops vandalized and looted.
Walking around today I noticed a bus shelter with its glass shattered and some big splashes of paint on the sidewalk and walls.
This afternoon across the street from the café where I sat sipping a pint, I saw three vans of the CRS (French national police) parked and a few officers standing around with scary-looking automatic weapons.
France’s economic situation is heading towards a Greek-style crisis. Since France is much more important to the EU, it’s problems could spread to the rest of Europe.
Rufus T. Firefly:
Good stuff on faith-based NGOs, etc.
French socialism may not be outright communism, but somebody has to pay for all those generous French benefits and public amenities. The idea is that money grows on trees.
Indeed, the illusions are so beautiful.
The real problem is reality.
In fact, reality should be outlawed.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu for an additional term, warning of the consequences of “anyone other than Bibi” leading the country.
“To the Great People of Israel: Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran, with its 51 year old chant, ‘Death to Israel, Death to America! We will destroy the Little Satan and the Big Satan,'” Trump wrote. “What Country can survive when things such as this are allowed to be said, because eventually, they always end up being true?”
“It would have been only a question of time until Iran would have put that ominous phrase into effect, but they have been systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job.”
He warned, “If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.”
“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself. Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived! I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure – But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today.
“This is the kind of Partner that the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a Country for which it has done so much. Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel. BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
But Seinfeld’s a ZIO!! he sputtered…
Quelle blague…
(Hold on, wasn’t Jerry Lewis also one of ‘em?…
Time, I guess, to airbrush out French humour history—in best Socialist-Non-Mon-Dieu-Not-Communist tradition.)
I’ve heard it said that France is finished, that it’s too late to save her.
But France remains just as beautiful, enviable even. Her greatness hasn’t vanished; it only awaits rebirth.
We overcame, in a single year, a problem a hundred times more severe, without having the resources at France’s disposal.
France could manage it in a week.
“…manage it in a week.”
Right, except it’s going to require a death toll that I’m not sure France is willing to pay.
Yep, a lotta people gonna have to die (or at least be imprisoned en masse, like in El Salvador).
Is France—under Macron—up to it?
(Probably easier to blame Netanyahu and his sidekick in the WH…or vice-versa….)
BREAKING NEWS ON the J6 BOMBER CASE, STILL IN Pre-Trial Purgatorio
New video shows Brian Cole, Jr walking far away from the two party HQs at the time the bombs were placed.
A classic case of set-up and frame-up of Cole, says Robert Bartnes.
Viva Frei presents the evidence (8m?), and then at 16m, Barnes gives his 5m summary.
This case of innocence being prosecuted to going to blow-up respect for Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino. Played and dupped.
Barnes still sees CIA fingerprints setting up the autistic Cole. From evidence scrapped by dogged reporter Steve Baker, who appears with Frei on a Monday podcast will review!
Meanwhile, a mentally diminished Brian Cole has been kept in jail for a year.
One compensation: a movie inevitable to come about these years of lies and red lemmings.
Idiotic no Kings rally in Soviet Washington today. What a bunch of clowns.
TJ:
Maybe, but we have been burned by Barnes before, so at least one grain of salt would be prudent.
om — Then wait for Steve Baker to make his case on Monday.
OTHER BREAKING BUT DISTURBING IF NOT SCARY NEWS
DataRepublican (r) has a just perused threatening DSA cache of documents, consonant with Sen. Slotkin’s (D-Mich) University of Chicago appearance threatening stop MAGA followers (SEE BOTTOM)
FIVE PARAGRAPHS IN HER X.com POST
The past few days, I got my hands on thousands of new transcripts and hundreds of recordings, thanks to leads from @SKDoubleDub33and @iamlisalogan.
You’ve heard that the DSA is proposing structural reforms to America, including abolishing the Senate and imposing term limits.
What you not have heard is – there is an operational plan to put it all into action. If the Democratic Party sweeps 2026, then DSA will become “foot soldiers” in constant clashes with the administration to cross a “red line” or invoke a “doomsday scenario” – meaning, President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, probably sometime in 2027.
Then, a lot of coordinated responses kick off, including delegitimizing the federal government itself and handing that legitimacy to Democratic governors. 2028 then becomes a vote on whether to keep America governance as-is or to burn it all down to appease a “young and brown” demographic.
The mysterious group who’s been coordinating 50501, Indivisible, and coordinating the NoKings protests is called “United Democracy Alliance” and their intellectual leader is Erica Chenoweth who came up with the 3.5% rule of nonviolent regime change.
In an appearance at the University of Chicago, Sen. (D-Mich) Sen. Slotkin urges Dems to use prosecution to make young people afraid to serve in Trump administration, if they take the Senate and House this November. SEE NYPost at trib.al/pUq2hrFt
Based on recent events, an insurrection will result in the insurrectionists leaders being wiped out from the top down toot sweet. (tout de suite for huxley)
Lots of now they are alive, kaboom, now they are not.
Good to see that at least tourism hasn’t been adversely affected…
I wonder why Jack Smith had to compile a list of over 600,000 conservative Americans, surely not to give the DSA a kill list? Inconceivable, “No Kings” Jack?
Huge list this morning from Fox News on the global network of organizations behind the French riots and plans to spread it:
Après les pillages le désastre
(After the looting, disaster)
I’ve been lighthearted about this, but it’s serious. And it’s worse elsewhere.
Further down:
__________________________________
Si l’ampleur de la mobilisations a surpris les autorités, elle pointe des groupes violents très organisés, qui ont multiplies les points d’accrochages.
While the scale of the mobilization took the authorities by surprise, it also highlighted the presence of highly organized, violent groups that created multiple points of confrontation.
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Been there, done that, will do it again. Except I don’t have Alexia. Mostly at AI when I call for customer support.
Awaken this morning by gunfire, lots and lots of gunfire. Duck season has begun.
Trump’s latest flip-flop on Russia: he signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act on Sept. 18, with tariffs up to 500% on Russian goods and up to 100% on major buyers of Russian oil and gas. At the UN General Assembly, he said he was prepared to implement it if necessary. Then on Oct. 16, two days before the measures were set to take effect, he signed an order waiving nearly all of them, certifying to Congress that the waiver is “in the national interests of the United States.” Existing sanctions stay in place.
It came about a week after he announced a deal with Putin for Russian diesel, along with a temporary Treasury license easing sanctions on Russian fuel. A dozen senators, including Republicans McConnell, Tillis, Collins, Murkowski and Cornyn, had urged him to rescind that deal and enforce the law.
The politics are awkward. In a December Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, almost 65% of voters said the administration should keep supplying weapons to Ukraine and impose additional sanctions on Russia, including majorities across parties. That same month, an Economist/YouGov poll found 49% disapproved of how Trump is handling the Russia-Ukraine situation and 30% approved.
So sanctions on Russia are popular, Trump’s handling of Russia polls poorly, and he just waived his own sanctions law three weeks before the midterms.
The West Wing is also in flux. Karoline Leavitt stepped down as press secretary at the end of August and Katie Zacharia replaced her. Politico reports Trump has been asking allies about replacing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Trump calls that “TOTAL FAKE NEWS” and says Wiles is his “loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff.”
Will voters punish the flip-flop on Nov. 3, or will fuel prices matter more?
From the World section of the WSJ, not the editorial page, some depressing news out of Yemen.
Iran Is Giving Houthis Targeting and Intelligence for Attacks on Saudi Arabia
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-houthi-saudi-arabia-attacks-38b82107?st=683L7E
Who is Iran’s greatest patron? Roosia.
Mike Plaiss, what we are seeing is that the Saudis can’t fight, or won’t. Saudis, speaking in general, are used to being a pampered upper class. Someone else will do the dirty work.
I wouldn’t have Alexa in the house, but I do shout at Siri occasionally. The phone does things I didn’t ask it to. “Oh, go away!” is my most common interaction with Siri.
The Ilhan Omar investigation is spreading to the entity family, and will go on into the new year. Fraudulent “families” and perhaps conspiracy to defraud the government is in play as a prosecution goal. As it happens, her family members are disappearing from public events.
Benny Johnson has a TY roundup of TV and print reports up only an hour ago.
“?Feds Announce Illhan Omar’s DNA Evidence…PROVES Darkest Crime in U.S. History” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79wBgm-Q6Lw
This case is getting broader and deeper than I ever imagined. My belief is that these vaguely connected family units typical of Somalia involving child btides and incest marriages are being pursued in Omar’s case to prove a warning to the 80,000 Somalian community in Minnesota, already proven to be a cesspool for fraud against the Feds and State.
I believe she’s going to become the Poster Girl that serves to warn Muslim immigrants against exploiting US immigration at all levels. As well as other potential immigrant groups.
Thus, the Trump administration is setting out to destroy the rotten fruits of immigration scamming set up by the Bush Administration, and exploited by do-good “charities” both Catholic and Protestant who are aligned with Soro’s government corruption, and infecting Minnesota politics.
Both typed of denominational “charities” are known to have benefited to the tune of $65 million over some recent period supporting foreign immigration, for example. And Woke anti-White guilt induction has undoubtedly fire fueled corrupting the locals in the Twin Cities, resulting in complete “Democrat” domination of State politics.
Trump Team is trying to reverse corruption benefiting our CommieKKKrat enemies for more than two decades. This is stunningly creative, and an ambitious goal.
In time, we’ll discover if it is practical to achieve.
I never understood people getting those things.
Then again. Ive never used Uber or door dash.
Cash whenever possible.
Both Chicago baseball teams only accept CC.
Their loss
Ive only seen 10,000 so far
Mike Plaiss — why is the news “depressing?” It’s entirely consistent with Iranian revolutionary Islam practice, backing Shia’s wherever they find them. and further exposing to their Sunni enemies and the world what a threat they always were!
In short, you’re missing the comprehensive upside to extinguishing the Mullah’s IRG menace. It shows the war is just for the US to pursue to the end.
what we are seeing is that the Saudis can’t fight, or won’t.
That is my worry as well. Tolstoy once observed that battles tend to be won by the side that actually wants to fight. I’m no expert on Yemen, but I’ve read enough to question whether “Yemeni government forces”are as motivated as the Houthis.
Their effectiveness is what I find depressing, not their presence.
Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress, by Martin Seligman, 2026
Martin Seligman gives us “a landmark work spanning ancient Greece to the age of AI that identifies agency—the fusion of efficacy, optimism, and imagination—as the hidden engine of human progress, and shows how we can unleash it to build a better future.
“What actually drives human progress? Ecologists point to geography and climate. Sociologists invoke wars and class. Economists follow the money. But none of these accounts explains why innovation and human thriving occurs in some eras and stalls in others—often under identical material conditions. The missing variable, Seligman argues, is the psychological state known as: agency.
“Agency is built from three interlocking capacities: efficacy, the confidence that you can accomplish a specific goal right now; optimism, the expectation that your efforts will pay off far into the future; and imagination, the breadth of goals you can envision.
“When all three align, civilizations leap forward. When they collapse, societies stagnate—no matter how rich their resources or how brilliant their citizens.
“Drawing on six decades of pioneering research and a sweeping reexamination of the last twenty-five hundred years—from Periclean Athens and the Hebrew Torah to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Civil Rights Movement—Seligman reveals how surges and declines in agency have quietly steered the course of history.”
This is a book of ideas and paints Big Picture themes about our past last found decades ago in Jared Diamond’s “Guns. Germs, and Steel” (which itself refined and expanded the reach of a short book entitled “Plough, Sword, and Book” by Ernest Gellner, a decade before).
But Diamond’s book lacked serious application for the present, as we face and define our future. Seligman not only outlines it, he’s steeped in mining the research on the virtues and pro-social values he expounds on.
Which means that “Agency” will prove far more lasting and richer. It may even bring forth a new axial age to go with settling on a new planet for the first time.
Fresh panel discussion on the new book “Agency: A PsychologicalHistory of Human Progress”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksfqa–LqI
Late in the interview, 84 year old Seligman explains how AI has multplied his writing and research productivity by a factor of four. And it has helped him to enjoy more love by bonding with his young grandsons.
Victor Davis Hanson’s theory on why Europe won’t help the US in Iran goes beyond their concerns of antagonizing the Muslims at home.
Europe wants the US and Israel to spend the money and do the heavy lifting to bring Iran down, then European businesses, being nearer to Iran, can swoop in and make the profits rebuilding Iran.
Trump is right to play hardball with Europe.
Europe, ya’ say?
‘”Replacing Europe”: Undercover Film Follows The Money Behind Europe’s Taxpayer-Funded Mass Migration Pipeline’—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/migration-game-undercover-film-follows-money-behind-europes-taxpayer-funded-mass
It would take until 2036, how about now.
Interesting YouTube videos popping up, of people from the UK who, after recently visiting the U.S. for a week or more, and returning home, just can’t stand the contrast, and realize just what a shithole the UK has become–rotten weather, generally cold, unfriendly people, no AC, ever increasing taxes, comparatively tiny, very expensive houses, feckless, lying politicians and incompetent government, cramped cars and narrow, bad roads, comparatively low pay, runaway crime, the Muslim takeover, rules and more rules–the more coercive and senseless the better, etc., etc.–and are desperately trying to come up with ways to return to and to settle in the U.S.
Actual people and their genuine observations and feelings, or just some sort of performance engineered for YouTube?
Kate writes that the Saudis can’t, or won’t fight. That is my understanding from American military personnel who have lived with and trained them. One close friend taught them to fly military jets. He said they learned slowly, made many serious mistakes, and were very arrogant. Those who are connected to the royal family (and many are) don’t feel the need to perform — they are financially secure the moment they are born. If they flunk out of flight school they’ll fall back on family ties to carry them.
Yemenis, OTOH, are a hard-scrabble lot, and tougher. If it ever came to a battle between Saudis and Yemenis, especially Houthis, the Saudis are much better equipped but are not likely to stand and fight like the Yemenis.
@Barry Meislin: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/migration-game-undercover-film-follows-money-behind-europes-taxpayer-funded-mass
Great link, Barry.
Being a cynic about the Catholic Church, I could immediately see the incentives the Church had for open borders — more asses in pews, more votes for Democrats, more money for its NGOs — while smiling beatifically, quoting Bible verses and holiness signaling.
Blech. Don’t tell me about Pope Leo. I’ll tell him. You let a couple hundred of those immigrants into Vatican City and maybe we can talk.
But lots of groups are taking their cut in this dirty business and the link outlines probably not all of it, but much of it.
I think much of the degradation of our world is due to hidden incentives.
Now let’s do Minnesota…
“Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services were paid $62 MILLION in gov grants to resettle thousands of Somalis in Minnesota”—
https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2026/10/17/catholic-charities-lutheran-social-services-were-paid-62-million-in-gov-grants-to-resettle-thousands-of-somalis-in-minnesota/
Hmm. Seems to be a popular fad(!)…
re. Saudis can’t or won’t fight….
This brings up recollection of the times of my youth where it was difficult to get the ruling class of S. Vietnam to get off the dime and engage the invaders… the “south” was happy to go through some motions and leave the heavy lifting to the Americans (and others). In the end they learned a hard lesson.
When a people will not fight for their own country why do they think someone else will come in to do it for them…
What bothers me the most about the Catholic and Lutheran work with Muslim “refugees” is that they don’t appear to have made any effort to share the Gospel with the immigrants. Do they not believe it? Do they not believe that sharing God’s love in Christ is important? Europe is heavily post-Christian these days. Minnesota didn’t used to be.
We’ze obviously livin’ in th’ best o’ times.*
* See https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T8Yw4pL7Ccs
and https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xN_1HD-uc5M
Kate — from my experience there in the former North Star state, Lutheranism became an easy exit ramp.
Did they do any missionary work with them? I doubt it. At least the earlier wave of Vietnamese settlers did get some.
Today, EVERY helping profession or fields been feminized and taken over by the Neo-Marxist left.
Until a long campaign to re-masculinize these fields is launched, most crucially in education, I hold out no hope for change.
It takes a brave Christian to preach the Gospel to Muslims. They are a bit twitchy about things like that.
When St. Francis preached to the Sultan Malik al-Kamil in 1219, he sought to convert the Sultan … or risk martyrdom.
Besides, it seems these Christian NGOs have money, power and changing America more as priorities, while feeling morally superior.
These days the story of St Francis and the Sultan is heralded as a great example of interfaith dialog.
Which sounds like bollocks to me but it is actually a great example of ture Christian-Muslim dialog. Note that St Francis is literally risking his life on the off-chance that the Muslim may be amused or moved then literally not kill Francis. The Muslim suffers no such risk.
It reminds me of those movies where our plucky hero is captured and brought into the presence of a gangster kingpin. Fortunately our hero manages to amuse the gangster by his charm and humor and theforefore avoid being killed.
As far as Muslims are concerned there is no equal relationship with the rest of us. We exist on their terms or unless we can threaten them with overwhelming force. I prefer the latter.
Thus endeth the lesson.
I see that a lot of news sources are trying to portray the destruction in France–looks like it could be the kick off of a Civil War to me–as merely being carried out by dissatisfied young students, by frisky “youts,” rather than by a combination of Communists and Muslims, whose aims are terror, the destruction of the existing order, and revolution.
I suppose, in Minnesota, I have to allow for the malign effect of government funding. Apparently much of the effort for Hmong refugees was funded by donations. When the churches began working for the government they stopped being churches.
When the churches began working for the government they stopped being churches.
==
They were working for the government because they had stopped being churches.
Kate, TJ and huxley,
In order to act on behalf of the government to receive the NGO monies the Catholic and Lutheran churches were almost certainly under a general rule that they had to do the work “secularly.” I think it was during LBJ’s reign when a federal law was enacted regarding preaching politics from the pulpit. I believe it was tied to not for profit status. Every Catholic church I’ve been in takes that law seriously. Too seriously, if you ask me.
Other faiths do not.
Here’s what duck.ai came up with when I asked, citing Wikipedia:
When I probed further regarding NGOs:
No question there are cadres of leftist, atheist lawyers ready with lawsuits at the slightest whiff of any Christian or Jewish organization violating this rule.
Re: French protests
Snow on Pine:
Yes, the current protests are big and getting bigger. Last night my host compared them to 1968. That’s serious.
Yesterday I saw plenty of red flags with the outlined white star and the letters PCF: Parti communiste français. Not so many Pali flags but they were there.
There were also many normie French citizens marching too, defending the benefits of the generous French welfare state. That’s my host who argues that French socialism is not communism.
He’s strident about it, so I avoid contentious discussion. He doesn’t seem to think about French debt or other government needs beyond good schools, medical care and swimming pools for the people.
I tangentially mentioned Jerry Seinfeld and he became indignant. He has no use for Seinfeld, practically spitting. “Seinfeld is a Zionist!”
He is an interesting guy. We have great talks about the arts, but otherwise he is quite overbearing. I spend most of my time in his house hiding in my room.
Yesterday’s protest turned out more serious than I realized. 63 arrests, 36 police injured, shops vandalized and looted.
Walking around today I noticed a bus shelter with its glass shattered and some big splashes of paint on the sidewalk and walls.
This afternoon across the street from the café where I sat sipping a pint, I saw three vans of the CRS (French national police) parked and a few officers standing around with scary-looking automatic weapons.
France’s economic situation is heading towards a Greek-style crisis. Since France is much more important to the EU, it’s problems could spread to the rest of Europe.
Rufus T. Firefly:
Good stuff on faith-based NGOs, etc.
French socialism may not be outright communism, but somebody has to pay for all those generous French benefits and public amenities. The idea is that money grows on trees.
Indeed, the illusions are so beautiful.
The real problem is reality.
In fact, reality should be outlawed.
(In which case, what’s a poor anarchist to do?)
7INN: “Trump endorses Netanyahu ahead of elections”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/434791
But Seinfeld’s a ZIO!! he sputtered…
Quelle blague…
(Hold on, wasn’t Jerry Lewis also one of ‘em?…
Time, I guess, to airbrush out French humour history—in best Socialist-Non-Mon-Dieu-Not-Communist tradition.)
Vive le coverup, indeed.
Keeps me hangin’ on…
https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/2111827185468100769?s=42
“…manage it in a week.”
Right, except it’s going to require a death toll that I’m not sure France is willing to pay.
Yep, a lotta people gonna have to die (or at least be imprisoned en masse, like in El Salvador).
Is France—under Macron—up to it?
(Probably easier to blame Netanyahu and his sidekick in the WH…or vice-versa….)
BREAKING NEWS ON the J6 BOMBER CASE, STILL IN Pre-Trial Purgatorio
New video shows Brian Cole, Jr walking far away from the two party HQs at the time the bombs were placed.
A classic case of set-up and frame-up of Cole, says Robert Bartnes.
Viva Frei presents the evidence (8m?), and then at 16m, Barnes gives his 5m summary.
This case of innocence being prosecuted to going to blow-up respect for Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino. Played and dupped.
You were set up. And you took the bait. Instead of Deep Cleansing FBI, DOJ, and the CIA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrYVyqfNk_E
Barnes still sees CIA fingerprints setting up the autistic Cole. From evidence scrapped by dogged reporter Steve Baker, who appears with Frei on a Monday podcast will review!
Meanwhile, a mentally diminished Brian Cole has been kept in jail for a year.
One compensation: a movie inevitable to come about these years of lies and red lemmings.
Idiotic no Kings rally in Soviet Washington today. What a bunch of clowns.
TJ:
Maybe, but we have been burned by Barnes before, so at least one grain of salt would be prudent.
om — Then wait for Steve Baker to make his case on Monday.
OTHER BREAKING BUT DISTURBING IF NOT SCARY NEWS
DataRepublican (r) has a just perused threatening DSA cache of documents, consonant with Sen. Slotkin’s (D-Mich) University of Chicago appearance threatening stop MAGA followers (SEE BOTTOM)
FIVE PARAGRAPHS IN HER X.com POST
The past few days, I got my hands on thousands of new transcripts and hundreds of recordings, thanks to leads from @SKDoubleDub33and @iamlisalogan.
You’ve heard that the DSA is proposing structural reforms to America, including abolishing the Senate and imposing term limits.
What you not have heard is – there is an operational plan to put it all into action. If the Democratic Party sweeps 2026, then DSA will become “foot soldiers” in constant clashes with the administration to cross a “red line” or invoke a “doomsday scenario” – meaning, President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, probably sometime in 2027.
Then, a lot of coordinated responses kick off, including delegitimizing the federal government itself and handing that legitimacy to Democratic governors. 2028 then becomes a vote on whether to keep America governance as-is or to burn it all down to appease a “young and brown” demographic.
The mysterious group who’s been coordinating 50501, Indivisible, and coordinating the NoKings protests is called “United Democracy Alliance” and their intellectual leader is Erica Chenoweth who came up with the 3.5% rule of nonviolent regime change.
18Oct26. https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/2111963741072101456?
_____________________
ALSO TODAY
In an appearance at the University of Chicago, Sen. (D-Mich) Sen. Slotkin urges Dems to use prosecution to make young people afraid to serve in Trump administration, if they take the Senate and House this November. SEE NYPost at trib.al/pUq2hrFt
ORIGINAL ALERT via Instapundit. https://instapundit.com/830106/#disqus_thread
POINTING X.com post by
Cynical Publius
https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/2111931543413522928?
Remember the very old frying egg ad closing with “THIS is your brain on drugs….” as the raw egg bubbles?
I think we’re in peak TDS-land now, Toto.
THE hot link to NYPost story is also here. https://nypost.com/2026/10/18/us-news/sen-slotkin-urges-dems-to-use-prosecution-to-make-young-people-afraid-to-serve-in-trump-admin/?
Based on recent events, an insurrection will result in the insurrectionists leaders being wiped out from the top down toot sweet. (tout de suite for huxley)
Lots of now they are alive, kaboom, now they are not.
Good to see that at least tourism hasn’t been adversely affected…
https://instapundit.com/830068/
Do they need pagers?
When the going gets
toughtouchy, feely, burny, explosivey …(!)“Macron to ban public gatherings over rioting”—
https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2026/10/19/macron-to-ban-public-gatherings-over-rioting/
I wonder why Jack Smith had to compile a list of over 600,000 conservative Americans, surely not to give the DSA a kill list? Inconceivable, “No Kings” Jack?
Huge list this morning from Fox News on the global network of organizations behind the French riots and plans to spread it:
https://www.foxnews.com/world/whos-who-inside-frances-chaos-inc-franchise-communist-groups-labor-unions-global-activists
Zips in the wire.
Headline of the Montpellier paper today:
Après les pillages le désastre
(After the looting, disaster)
I’ve been lighthearted about this, but it’s serious. And it’s worse elsewhere.
Further down:
__________________________________
Si l’ampleur de la mobilisations a surpris les autorités, elle pointe des groupes violents très organisés, qui ont multiplies les points d’accrochages.
While the scale of the mobilization took the authorities by surprise, it also highlighted the presence of highly organized, violent groups that created multiple points of confrontation.