RT @eleventhturning: no, people want to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves this is not community, it’s the perenn…

The Illinois, an unbuilt mile-high skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. ...maybe we should start building epic things again?

This is another phase of political entrepreneurship When the campaign isn’t the thing that gets to the goal - elected office - but rather a springboard to another status altogether: full time political influencer or politician without an office Paris Hilton pioneered this. She was famous for being famous. Now you can be a politician without being elected with the virtue of not having to deal with all the formal constraints in office Trump also showed the way here. Biden spent his entire term in the White House subtweeting Trump. In a way it was like Trump was still president. His influence was on everything Biden did, because it was possible he could always return in 2024 (which of course, he did) The same is true of Pratt. Just as the most prominent politicians now are also social media main characters - AOC, Lurie, Mamdani - you can have the equivalent *moral* status as an elected politician by getting big on social media, where the currency is attention, attention is status, and you can deal on an equivalent footing with a mayor or senator or president The old media ecosystem enabled this to a limited extent. The lead anchor of News at 6 or whatever was an important guy. But he was constrained by being part of a larger institution. He didn’t just represent himself, he represented CNN or CBS. So that limited the upside for them The new political influencers don’t have this impediment. They aren’t formally employed by anyone. They represent only themselves, and the skies the limit Pratt can spend the next 4 years or however long he wants saying whatever he wants, going wherever he wants, talking to whoever he wants, annoying any and everyone, and in general acting like a Mayor without having to occupy the office. He’ll force the politicians to come to him This will become an increasingly common type

The U.S. government just unveiled the majestic Greco-Deco design for the new federal courthouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The building is at once monumental and welcoming, classical and original. The iris capitals are an inspired touch, drawing on Tennessee’s natural beauty and weaving it into the stone of a federal building. The Chattanooga courthouse is precisely the kind of building that President Trump’s Executive Order on federal architecture—“Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again”—was designed to produce. When the courthouse is completed, it will stand as the living proof that the Order represents wise and humane public policy—something all Americans, regardless of political party, can and should support. Beautiful public buildings are not a partisan matter; they belong to everyone.

Knowledge-rich education doesn't merely challenge educational progressivism. It collides with some of the deepest commitments of American life: Individualism. Local control. Personalization. Choice. Distrust of authority. That's why it remains more admired than adopted. thenext30years.substack.com/…

Honestly, this is scarier than the "reading for pleasure" graphs. graphsaboutreligion.com/p/ge…

250 years ago, America declared independence. A year earlier, the Spanish founded Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón—a fort that would become Tucson, AZ. ​Join the @1912Institute for a panel discussion on America's founding & AZ's role in the Union: luma.com/arizona250

Update: Fujimori now leads by 561 votes... out of ~18,060,000 million ballots cast.

Join us on Thursday, June 26th:

Absolutely remarkable.

"...and if the social and cultural inheritance carried by native-born Americans disappeared tomorrow, you couldn’t easily recreate the creedal culture from its first principles alone." nytimes.com/2026/06/09/opini…

Early in the film "Top Gun: Maverick," the titular hero is confronted by a rear admiral who tells him that the era of manned combat aircraft is coming to an end. Maverick confidently replies, “Maybe so, sir. But not today.” And we in the audience smile because we like Maverick, and we like fighter pilots. But the rear admiral in that scene is correct. Unmanned aircraft, seacraft, and ground drones are reaching the point where they can do everything human beings do, without risk to life and limb, and without the possibility of flag-draped caskets. It doesn’t matter whether anyone likes or dislikes this development; it’s happening either way.

Gordon Wood wrote the lead essay for "Democracy and the American Revolution," the first volume in @AEI's "America at 250" series. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground the first time I read how he summed up the democratic force the Revolution unleashed:

Finally got around to watching For All Mankind. Hooked. An incredibly optimistic, pro-America show (at least, so far). We truly are an Aerospace Republic.

“Being free does not simply mean being free from coercion or having many choices; it means being able to recognize the good and commit to it responsibly. For this reason, every truly free society also requires a proper limitation of public power”

“Until we build an all-powerful but distant God, the agency problem remains. AIs are not capable of directing themselves; most people aren’t either.” Sam Kriss reports from San Francisco on the next generation of AI technologists. harpers.org/archive/2026/03/…

Really looking forward to this. If you're in Arizona on Friday, June 26, RSVP ASAP—seats are limited!

Join us on Friday, June 26, 2026 at 6pm. AZ Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick & @ASU_SCETL professor Sean Beienburg will discuss the foundings of Arizona and America w/ members of the 1912 board. Followed by reception w/ drinks & hors d'oeuvres. RSVP: luma.com/arizona250

The thing is, FDR really *didn’t* have anything to do on June 6 Eisenhower wrote about this. There’s a final meeting, go/no-go. Only Ike can decide. But once he decides, the room empties immediately and he’s left alone. He goes for a walk, he visits troops, he prepares a statement for if the invasion fails That’s the thing about supreme command. Only you’ve said “go”, your role is finished. Everyone else has a job, you don’t, now. What happens is outside your control. You set the conditions, not the play by play That goes doubly for FDR. He really *didn’t* have anything to do on D-Day. The most powerful man is also paradoxically the most powerless in situations like this