RIP Robert Mueller

You really don't think about it as you go through it; you just try to do the right thing at the right time.

-- Robert Swan Mueller III (7 August 1944 - 20 March 2026), American attorney who served as the 6th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2001 to 2013 and in 2017 as Special Counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US elections and related matters, interview with Aaron Harber (2015)

Goodhart's Law

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

-- Goodhart's law, named for Charles Albert Eric Goodhart, CBE, FBA (born 23 October 1936), British economist, originally (1975) expressed as "Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes."

RIP Chuck Norris

Truth is, apart from my mother and Granny, my only role models were the cowboy heroes I saw on the screen.  Each time I walked out of the theater, I felt encouraged by the belief that there were such men.  I determined that I would grow up one day to be like them.  Those cowboy heroes offered a lot to a young boy longing for a male role model to emulate.  Their behavior in their films was governed by the "Code of the West" -- loyalty, friendship, and integrity.  They were unselfish and did what was right even when the risk was great.  Years later I would recall those Western heroes when I developed the kind of character I wanted to play as an actor.

-- Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris Jr (10 March 1940 - 19 March 2026), American martial artist, action star, and Hollywood actor, Against All Odds: My Story (2006), Chapter 4 "A Mother's Love"

Promptware Kill Chain

Attacks against modern generative artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) pose a real threat.  Yet discussions around these attacks and their potential defenses are dangerously myopic.  The dominant narrative focuses on "prompt injection," a set of techniques to embed instructions into inputs to LLM intended to perform malicious activity.  This term suggests a simple, singular vulnerability.  This framing obscures a more complex and dangerous reality.  Attacks on LLM-based systems have evolved into a distinct class of malware execution mechanisms, which we term "promptware."  In a new paper, we, the authors, propose a structured seven-step "promptware kill chain" to provide policymakers and security practitioners with the necessary vocabulary and framework to address the escalating AI threat landscape.

The promptware kill chain: initial access, privilege escalation, reconnaissance, persistence, command & control, lateral movement, action on objective

The kill chain was already demonstrated.  For example, in the research "Invitation Is All You Need," attackers achieved initial access by embedding a malicious prompt in the title of a Google Calendar invitation.  The prompt then leveraged an advanced technique known as delayed tool invocation to coerce the LLM into executing the injected instructions.  Because the prompt was embedded in a Google Calendar artifact, it persisted in the long-term memory of the user's workspace.  Lateral movement occurred when the prompt instructed the Google Assistant to launch the Zoom application, and the final objective involved covertly livestreaming video of the unsuspecting user who had merely asked about their upcoming meetings.  C2 and reconnaissance weren't demonstrated in this attack.

-- Oleg Brodt, Elad Feldman, Bruce Schneier, Ben Nassi, "The Promptware Kill Chain: How Prompt Injections Gradually Evolved Into a Multistep Malware Delivery Mechanism" (14 January 2026)

Eccentric Enough

People who are eccentric enough to be quite seriously virtuous understand each other everywhere, discover each other easily, and form a silent opposition to the ruling immorality that happens to pass for morality.

-- Friedrich Schlegel (1772 - 1829), German poet, critic, and scholar, The Athenaeum Fragments (1798 - 1800) or Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (German Athenäums-fragmente), collection of aphorisms published by Schlegel, #414

NovaNET Gathering

This Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting up with many members of the old NovaNET gang.  I'll drop a few names to spark your memories, as Kevin Maxson was in town with his family, and a group gathered at Papa Del's for a couple of hours over lunch.  I joined Kevin & family along with Carl Evans, James Quisenberry & family, Phil Parker, Ray Thomsen, Steve Peltz, Eric Bina, and Peter Enstrom.  Many more names were dropped in conversation, and 25-year-old memories were the talk of the moment.

As Kevin said, "Nothing compares to working with our team on real meaningful and effective CBE stuff.  I loved it."  Me, too.

Scion FR-S 10 Year Anniversary

10 years ago today (16 March 2016) I bought a new, 2015 Scion FR-S from the dealership in Urbana.  Today that car has 249,320 miles on it.  It continues to serve me well as a daily driver.

Early on I used it for autocross and commuting to work at the University of Illinois.  Commuting put 30,000 miles a year on it up until the pandemic.  Annual mileage is around half that now.

In all that time it's been pretty well behaved, needing only regular maintenance plus a new clutch at around 180,000 miles.

My previous car, a 1998 Saturn SC2, made it to 421,000 miles before giving up the ghost.  I don't expect to get that far in the Scion, but here's hoping.

In Conflict

The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment.

-- Bernard d'Espagnat (1921 - 2015), French theoretical physicist, philosopher of science, and author, best known for his work on the nature of reality, The Quantum Theory and Reality (November 1979) Scientific American p. 158

Question Asking

In the development of intelligence nothing can be more "basic" than learning how to ask productive questions.  All our knowledge results from questions, which is another way of saying that question-asking is our most important intellectual tool.

-- Neil Postman (1931 - 2003), American author, educator, media theorist, and cultural critic, Language Education in a Knowledge Context (1980) published in ETC Vol. 37 (1980)

Inexhaustible Source

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific inquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations.

-- Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (1792 - 1871), English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, and experimental photographer, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831)

Qualms

To be capable of embarrassment is the beginning of moral consciousness.  Honor grows from qualms.

-- John Leonard (1939 - 2008), American literary, TV, film and cultural critic, Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979) "On Being Embarrassed" (p. 140)

A Child's Understanding

We're marching through the world, we're cleaning out the bad guys, we're gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe.  I've never seen anything, anybody like it, this is Ronald Reagan plus.  Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could've dreamed of a year ago, he is the greatest commander in chief of all time, our military is the best of all time, Iran is going down, and Cuba is next.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), gleefully celebrating chaos on Fox News (9 March 2026), showing a child's understanding of foreign affairs

Political Capital

Political capital refers to the trust, goodwill, and influence that an individual or group has in the political arena.  It is an intangible asset that can be built through relationships, credibility, and public support, allowing individuals or organizations to leverage their position to achieve political goals.  Political capital is crucial for mobilizing resources, gaining support for initiatives, and influencing policy decisions.

-- Definition of "Political Capital" at AP Human Geography Review from Fiveable 

Your Marionette

Imagine you were Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping and you woke up a year ago having magically been given command of puppet strings that control the White House.  Your explicit geopolitical goal is to undermine trust in the United States on the world stage.  You want to destroy the Western rules-based order that has preserved peace and security for 80 years, which allowed the US to triumph as an economic superpower and beacon of hope and innovation for the world.  What exactly would you do differently with your marionette other than enact the ever more reckless agenda that Donald Trump has pursued since he became president last year?

-- Garrett M. Graff (born 1981), American journalist and author, "We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower" at wired.com (22 January 2026)

Dangerous For The Strong

The absence of any obstacle to the deployment of strength is dangerous for the strong themselves: passion takes precedence over reason.  "No power without limit can be legitimate," as Montesquieu wrote long ago.  Political wisdom does not consist in seeking only immediate victory, nor does it require systematic preference of "us" over "them."

-- Tzvetan Todorov (1939 - 2017), Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, and essayist, Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (2003), preface to the English edition (October 2002), p. xxi

Enough Immortality

I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this", well, that would be enough immortality for me.

-- Edsger Dijkstra (1930 - 2002), Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, software engineer, and essayist, "Introducing a course on calculi" (EWD 1213) (30 August 1995)

No Stupid Rules

America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history.  B-2s, fighters, drones, missiles, and of course classified effects.  All on our terms with maximum authorities.  No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.  We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives.

-- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a press briefing on the war with Iran (2 March 2026)

Craving For Black Magic

In short, I suggest that the programmer should continue to understand what he is doing, that his growing product remains firmly within his intellectual grip.  It is my sad experience that this suggestion is repulsive to the average experienced programmer, who clearly derives a major part of his professional excitement from not quite understanding what he is doing.  In this streamlined age, one of our most undernourished psychological needs is the craving for Black Magic and apparently the automatic computer can satisfy this need for the professional software engineer, who is secretly enthralled by the gigantic risks he takes in his daring irresponsibility.  For his frustrations I have no remedy.

-- Edsger Dijkstra (1930 - 2002), Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, software engineer, and essayist, "On the reliability of programs" (EWD 303)

[This reflects how I feel about software developed with the use of AI tools.  I'd like all of my software to flow directly through my fingers.  I don't want to debug code written by AI; I much prefer to debug code written by myself.  One often quickly recognizes the potential locus of a bug when one has one's product firmly in one's intellectual grip.]

In Good Conscience

Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions.  We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner.

However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.  Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today's technology can safely and reliably do.  Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now:

* Mass domestic surveillance. 
* Fully autonomous weapons.

To our knowledge, these two exceptions have not been a barrier to accelerating the adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date.

The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to "any lawful use" and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above.  They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a "supply chain risk" -- a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company -- and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards' removal.  These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.

Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.

-- Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI, "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War" (26 February 2026)

Thank Goodness

Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.

-- Edsger Dijkstra (1930 - 2002), Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, software engineer, and essayist, Dijkstra (1982) "A Letter to My Old Friend Jonathan" (EWD475) p. 101 

Meta 45

Meta.  Today it's been 45 years since the 24 February 1981 birth of Trvth.  I reflected on this a bit at the 40-year mark here.

I noted then that on 22 July 2019 I had counted 5450ish published Trvth entries.  Since that 2019 date another 1697 have been published, for a grand(?) total today, 24 February 2026, of 7147ish.

The most recent 4753 are all available at trvth.org beginning 3 March 2005 (more than 20 years on the Interwebs)

And, for your amusement, I present from the archives the original Trvth:

***** appearances ~appleman / chanute ~2/24/1981 ~13:50

While nothing may seem to be as it first appears, there
are in fact some things which appear to be as they are,
amidst the other things which only appear to be as they
aren't.

If We Don't Believe

If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

-- Noam Chomsky (7 December 1928 -), American linguist, cognitive scientist, political analyst, and human rights activist, interview by John Pilger on The Late Show BBC Television (25 November 1992)

Arguably The Worst

President Trump owes the Supreme Court an apology -- to the individual Justices he smeared on Friday and the institution itself.  Mr. Trump doubtless won't offer one, but his rant in response to his tariff defeat at the Court was arguably the worst moment of his Presidency.

This is the same Court that ruled Mr. Trump's way on presidential immunity, which was more personally consequential for this President.  Mr. Trump shouldn't have been surprised by the Court.  We warned from the start that this would be the result of his unlawful resort to IEEPA.  The fault doesn't lie with the Justices but with his own tariff obsessions.

-- The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal, "Trump Demeans Himself as He Attacks the Supreme Court" (20 February 2026), regarding President Trump's rant in which he "lit into the Justices who voted against him as traitors bought by foreign interest" after the Court voted 6-3 to overturn his signature "emergency" tariff policy

No Difference

If the President can, at his pleasure, send troops into any city, town, or hamlet ... whenever and wherever he pleases, under pretense of enforcing some law -- his judgment, which means his pleasure being the sole criterion -- then there can be no difference whatever in this respect between the powers of the President and those of ... the Czar of Russia.

-- Illinois Governor John Altgeld, in his State of the State address (9 January 1895), as quoted by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, in his State of the State address (18 February 2026) [h/t Heather Cox Richardson]

They Don't Ask Much

They don’t ask much of you.  They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.

-- Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), Russian poet and writer, famous for his 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago; 1958 Nobel Laureate for Literature, On Soviet bureaucrats, in LIFE magazine (13 June 1960)

RIP Jesse Jackson

America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size.  America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.  The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt.

-- The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born Jesse Louis Burns; 8 October 1941 - 17 February 2026), American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician, Address to the Democratic National Convention (1984)

The Oppressed & Persecuted

On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: "America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions."  More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington's vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.  It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries.  It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually.

Secretary Noem on Twitter (1 December 2025): "I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.  WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE."

Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders.  They are not, it emerges, "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies."  They are instead, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer's disease, a software engineer at a national bank, a laboratory assistant, a college economics major, and a full-time registered nurse.

Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system.  Her answer?  Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight.  She complains of strains to our economy.  Her answer?  Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable.  She complains of strains to our healthcare system.  Her answer?  Turn the insured into the uninsured.  This approach is many things -- in the public interest is not one of them.

There is an old adage among lawyers.  If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts.  If you have the law on your side, pound the law.  If you have neither, pound the table.  Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side -- or at least has ignored them.  Does not have the law on her side -- or at least has ignored it.  Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).

Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants.  Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program.  The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.

By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay.

-- US District Judge Ana C. Reyes ruling for the Plaintiffs in Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, et al v Donald J Trump et al (2 February 2026)

The Most Divine

Of all God's gifts to the sight of man, colour is the holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.

-- John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English author, poet, and painter, The Stones of Venice (1853) Volume II, chapter V, section 30

The Only Currency

Time is the only currency you spend without knowing the balance.  Use it wisely.

-- Nicholas John

No One Wished

No one wished events would prove libertarians wrong more than libertarians themselves.

-- Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason, writing in the New York Times, "Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump" (9 February 2026)

Move Against Vaccines

US regulators will not review Moderna's request to license a new, potentially more effective flu shot -- even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously gave the green light to the project -- in a decision that could have implications for all new and updated vaccines in the US.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration against vaccines.  Officials in January decided to stop fully recommending one-third of routine childhood vaccines, including flu vaccines.

"This is likely to discourage industry from investing in future influenza vaccines, and makes working with the US FDA uncertain and problematic," said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.  "They are refusing to review a new vaccine with a more flexible technology, while creating a real risk we will not have traditional vaccines for next year."

-- Melody Schreiber, "FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine" in The Guardian (10 February 2026)

RIP World Factbook

One of CIA's oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset.  The World Factbook served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe.  Let's take a quick look into the history of The World Factbook.  

Over many decades, The World Factbook evolved from a classified to unclassified, hardcopy to electronic product that added new categories, and even new global entities.  The original classified publication, titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, launched in 1962.  The first unclassified companion version was issued in 1971.  A decade later it was renamed The World Factbook.  In 1997, The World Factbook went digital and debuted to a worldwide audience on CIA.gov, where it garnered millions of views each year.

-- Article at cia.gov announcing, but not explaining, the abrupt termination of the CIA World Factbook (4 February 2026); I'll miss it

How Hard It Is

The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant encumbrance. ...  How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!

-- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), American humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer, autobiographical dictation, (2 December 1906).  Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 (University of California Press, 2013)

Struck By Lightning

A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Poetry and the Age (1953) "Reflections on Wallace Stevens", p. 134; conclusion

Here Are The Maps

We read our mail and counted up our missions  -- 
In bombers named for girls, we burned
The cities we had learned about in school  -- 
Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among
The people we had killed and never seen.
When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;
When we died they said, "Our casualties were low."
They said, "Here are the maps"; we burned the cities.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Losses (1948) "Losses," lines 21-28

It Is Not Our Wanting

Reality is what we want it to be or what we do not want it to be, but it is not our wanting or our not wanting that makes it so.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962) "Malraux and the Statues at Bamberg", p. 191

Pesky Fourth Amendment

And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. 

Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.  That is called the fox guarding the henhouse.  The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.

Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R.  The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.

Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency.  And the rule of law be damned.

Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation.  But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.

Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it."

With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,

It is so ORDERED.

Matthew 19:14

John 11:35

-- Fred Biery, United States District Judge, ordering the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from immigration detention in Dilley, Texas (31 January 2026)

ICE Is Not A Law Unto Itself

That does not end the Court's concerns, however.  Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases.  The extent of ICE's noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated.  This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges.  Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted.

This list should give pause to anyone -- no matter his or her political beliefs -- who cares about the rule of law.  ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.  The Court warns ICE that future noncompliance with court orders may result in future show‐cause orders requiring the personal appearances of Lyons or other government officials.  ICE is not a law unto itself.  ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.

-- Patrick J. Schiltz, Chief Judge of the District of Minnesota, issuing a ruling in a case brought against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, and others (28 January 2026)

The Will To Believe

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

-- William James (1842 - 1910), pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897) "The Will to Believe" p. 10

Very Different Lessons

It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil.  The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.

These are, unfortunately, leading themes of history.

-- Noam Chomsky (7 December 1928 -), American linguist, cognitive scientist, political analyst, and human rights activist, Talk titled "The World After September 11th", AFSC Conference at Tufts University, Massachusetts, (8 December 2001)

[Previously Trvth'ed on 3 May 2007, but these are, after all, leading themes.]

Affluent Misery

Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen.  It means more dollars in his pocket, dollars that he can spend if inflation doesn't consume them first.  But dollars in his pocket won't buy him clean streets or an adequate police force or good schools or clear air and water.  Handing money back to the private sector in tax cuts and starving the public sector is a formula for producing richer and richer consumers in filthier and filthier communities.  If we stick to that formula we shall end up in affluent misery.

-- John William Gardner (1912 - 2002), President of the Carnegie Corporation and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) under President Lyndon Johnson, The Recovery of Confidence (1970), p. 152

A Line Of Demarcation

When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest.  Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

The administration is urging Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.  Ms. Noem and Mr. Bovino are lying in defiance of obvious truths.  They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.

Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and an authoritarian regime.  Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good are dead.  The American people deserve to know what happened.

It is premature to reach conclusions about what exactly happened on that Minneapolis street.  The Trump administration should not have done so, and we will not do so.  What is clear, however, is that the federal government needs to re-establish public faith in the agencies and officers who are carrying out Mr. Trump's crackdown on immigration.

-- Editorial board of the New York Times, "The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces.  Congress Must Act." (25 January 2026)

They Have Forgotten

One of the most obvious facts about grown-ups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, "An Unread Book," introduction to The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (Holt, Rinehart, 1965 edition)

Political Terminology

Today's political terms to know:

caprice (noun)

ca·​price kə-ˈprēs 
1a : a sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action
policy changes that seem to be motivated by nothing more than caprice
1b : a sudden usually unpredictable condition, change, or series of changes
the caprices of the weather
2 : a disposition to do things impulsively
a preference for democratic endeavor over authoritarian caprice

vanity (noun)

van·​i·​ty ˈva-nə-tē 
1 : inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance : conceit
2 : something that is vain, empty, or valueless

-- Definitions from Merriam-Webster retrieved 22 January 2026

Soon We Shall Know

Soon we shall know everything the eighteenth century didn't know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with.

-- Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), American poet, novelist, critic, and essayist, Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980) "On the Underside of the Stone," The New York Times Book Review (23 August 1953), p. 177

Delusional

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.  Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a "right of ownership" anyway?  There are no written documents, it's only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.  I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.  The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.  Thank you! President DJT

-- Letter from President Trump to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, 19 January 2026, the latest and purest evidence that Mr Trump is detached from reality

Surmounting Obstacles

People are often surprised to learn that I am an optimist.  They know how often I have been jailed, how frequently the days and nights have been filled with frustration and sorrow, how bitter and dangerous are my adversaries.  They expect these experiences to harden me into a grim and desperate man.  They fail, however, to perceive the sense of affirmation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles.  They have no comprehension of the strength that comes from faith in God and man.  It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; He has not worked out a design for our failure.  Man has the capacity to do right as well as wrong, and his history is a path upward, not downward.  The past is strewn with the ruins of the empires of tyranny, and each is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his capacity to overcome them.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Testament of Hope", published posthumously in Playboy magazine, January 1969 (h/t Andy Borowitz)

Autoimmune Disorder

The Trump Administration is an autoimmune disorder sabotaging the things that actually made America if not great at least powerful: its economy, its higher education system, its international relations, its crucial immigrant workforce, its functioning federal government, its public health systems, the rule of law, and lots of other things like food safety and clean water.

-- Rebecca Solnit (born 1961), American writer and activist, Notes on Unbearable Stupidity, January 6, 2026 Edition

Power Over The Rules

Power over the rules is real power.  That's why lobbyists congregate when Congress writes laws, and why the Supreme Court, which interprets and delineates the Constitution -- the rules for writing the rules -- has even more power than Congress.  If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules and to who has power over them.

-- Donella Meadows (1941-2001), American environmental scientist, teacher and writer, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008), Part three: creating change – in systems and in our philosophy, page 158

Evidence And Economic Conditions

On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. 

I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy.  No one -- certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve -- is above the law.  But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.

This new threat is not about my testimony last June.  It is not about Congress's oversight role.  Those are pretexts.  The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.

This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions -- or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment.  Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats.  I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.

-- Jerome H. Powell, "Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell" (11 January 2026)