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AI: The Ominous Opportunity

“You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” — Robert Solow, 1987

The economy has been growing steadily since we started to recover from the 2020 pandemic and shutdown; the unemployment rate is and has been near the bottom of the range normally considered to be full employment; and, wages adjusted for inflation are the highest they’ve ever been. Nevertheless, the productivity slowdown observed by Robert Solow forty years ago seems to have returned, and surveys of consumer confidence are at or near their all-time lows. This essay explores possible reasons for the productivity slowdown and widespread economic uncertainty in the midst of our AI boom.

Measurement Problems

Among the possible explanations of the productivity slowdown or what merely appears to be a productivity slowdown is our limited ability to measure productivity in an economy increasingly dominated by services.

It wasn’t so long ago that productivity was measured in the sectors of the economy concerned with physical output such as agriculture and manufacturing. The productivity of office workers was either ignored or simply subsumed into the productivity of goods-producing companies.

There were problems of measuring quality differences in goods, but these could in theory be surmounted. For example, by comparisons of the prices of old and new vintages of similar products. And, the changing composition of production could be represented by slowly-changing weights in indexes of production.

As much effort as was put into measuring production, systematic discrepancies persist in indexes of the prices of services versus the prices of commodities. The CPI, for example, typically registers a 1 or 2 percentage point higher rate of inflation than the PPI. With the digital economy, now augmented by AI, a serious effort must be made to measure the production of information, entertainment and services. For example, an hour of broadcast time prior to the development of the internet might have cost something like $1 million (in today’s dollars). What about the several hundred thousand hours of video uploaded to YouTube nowadays?

Prototypes (as Opposed to Practical Inventions)

In the past, it took a while for breakthroughs such as the steam engine to have a discernible impact on production. It was more or less a century from prototype steam engines to when steam engines were first put to a practical use (in the refreshing of air in coal mines). Then, several more decades until steam engines were used to run industrial machinery. Then, yet several more decades until steam-powered locomotives were used in transportation.

Even when the steam-powered locomotive was developed, horse-drawn trains were more reliable. The story is told of a race in 1830 between a steam-powered locomotive and a horse-drawn train along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to Endicott City. The horse won the race since the locomotive broke down. Nevertheless, over the next century, horses lost their jobs in transportation.

Ditto, the steam-powered hammer. According to folklore, John Henry who—through superhuman effort—beat the steam-powered hammer, preserving jobs for the men of railroad work gangs. Nevertheless, over the next century, men lost their jobs to industrial machinery. Warehousemen who relied on their strength to manhandle barrels of pork, flour, and other produce were replaced by forklifts. Dockworkers lost their jobs to electric-powered derricks.

It is easy, looking back, to see the impact of the Industrial Revolution on productivity, on wages, and on standards of living. But, in real time, it took time for these benefits to accrue. In the meanwhile, workers had to deal with disruptive change.

More recently, in 1996, a super-computer named Deep Blue challenged Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion of the humans. Kasparov won the match 3 games to 1 game to 2 draws. However, the victory was fleeting. A year later, Deep Blue won a rematch; and, nowadays, a decent laptop computer can easily defeat a grandmaster. Today, in the current phase of the Industrial Revolution, computers, robots, and AI are coming after our jobs, not steam-, gasoline- and electric-powered machines.

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America vs. the MAGA-Industrial Complex

Have you seen the ruling classes’ latest ploy for holding onto power rather than allow the public to hold them accountable through straightforward and honest elections? It’s clear as day to anyone with eyes to see. And the fact that the powerful now operate as much within the “MAGA” brand as in the Democratic establishment shouldn’t blind us. If we let it, then even some of the best of us will soon be taken in – becoming useful idiots for the same ruling classes that the MAGA movement was founded to oppose.

I’m referring to the new game of stirring up hatred against our neighbors of Middle-Eastern and Eastern heritage and labeling all dissenters against U.S.- and Israeli-led wars and war crimes as “radicals” and “communists.”

We see this new establishment ploy playing out in the latest anti-establishment electoral victory in Michigan, especially when it comes to the rhetoric surrounding Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed – an outspoken critic of Israeli-U.S. foreign policy and of the military-industrial-complex Trumpism originally presented itself as being against.

GOP Senator Ted Cruz and maniacal pro-war Trump advisor Laura Loomer say El-Sayed’s primary victory represents the beginning of a “communist takeover of the Democratic Party” and (at the same time!) an “Islamic takeover of America” at large.

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace flatly says El-Sayed is a “terrorist.” Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings: “This man wants Israelis, Arabs, Americans & anyone else who steps foot in Israel to die.” Mike Pompeo: El-Sayed is a “Hamas supporter” (in fact the candidate has condemned Hamas). Neocon John Podhoretz came up with a particularly telling conflation of Democratic Socialists of America and Muslims, calling El-Sayed a “DSA jihadist.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump says El-Sayed is both a communist and a candidate who “hates Jews” and “hates Israel.” Trump also continually draws attention to the candidate’s name – clearly making the point that a person with such an un-American name (as if there were such a thing) has no business in office.

Trump is perhaps one of the more inadvertently honest of the public figures now serving as slavish lackeys of the ruling classes. At least he names Israel as the thing on behalf of which he opposes El-Sayed – though he also engages in the old false conflation of all Jews with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corrupt and unpopular government.

Because yes, all of this fomenting of hatred is about one thing: U.S.-Israeli violence and crimes – especially against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

But here’s where those of us with eyes to see can find the whole point and the whole nature of this new ploy: Since that violence has proved to be morally indefensible (every poll shows the public’s moral outrage against Israel’s U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing operation in the West Bank), the ruling classes have directed their servants – in the media, among advocacy groups, in Congress, and even in the White House – to instead simply stir up public hate and fear against Muslims as Jihadists and against political resistance as communist and inherently un-American.

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IN CHARTS: A visual breakdown of the Smithsonian’s billion-dollar taxpayer-funded budget

The Smithsonian has relied on more than $1 billion a year in taxpayer funding in recent years, even as its leadership and exhibits face mounting scrutiny over DEI priorities and ideological portrayals of American history.

The sprawling institution oversees 21 museums, the National Zoo and nearly 157 million objects and specimens, making it the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget reductions have made its federal funding a central pressure point in the administration’s broader effort to reshape the taxpayer-supported institution.

Since the White House released a July 2026 report accusing the Smithsonian Institution of advancing DEI and left-wing agendas, Fox News Digital has documented multiple examples. Most recently, the Smithsonian’s America 250 exhibit featured roughly three times as many items highlighting liberal figures and causes as conservative ones, prompting criticism that it presented an ideologically imbalanced account of American history.

Other examples included the Smithsonian’s promotion of a museum training guide that linked concepts such as objectivity and merit to “white dominant culture,” a program the institution later apologized for after public backlash.

Meanwhile, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III has faced scrutiny after saying DEI “must be at the center” of museum institutions, while receiving more than $4.4 million in salary and benefits from 2020 through 2024.

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Insane: MSNOW National Security Reporter Horrified That the Trump DOJ is Stopping Illegals From Voting

This week on MSNOW, their national security reporter David Rohde seemed to express shock and horror that the Trump DOJ is trying to make sure tha illegals don’t vote in our elections.

He refers to illegals voting as a ‘Trumpian conspiracy theory’ even though just last week it was revealed that more than 6,000 illegals were on the voter rolls in the state of New Jersey.

This is a window into the mind of the left. They really want illegals to be able to vote and they’re not particularly shy about showing it.

Transcript via NewsBusters:

DAVID ROHDE: More pe- He would not bring- well, the midterm elections are coming. The Justice Department-

RUHLE: This has been your big thing.

ROHDE: -the Justice Department sent election observers to Michigan for the primary last week. And before that happened, they informed election clerks across the country that they would be arrested and prosecuted federally if they allowed non-citizens to vote.

That is an astonishingly rare thing that happens in the U.S. It’s a giant, frankly, Trumpian conspiracy theory that there’s all these people voting. So whether he’s acting or not, it’s just not acceptable that that’s how, you know, and nothing happened, they sort of watched.

But there’s tremendous worry about what will the FBI do on election day? What will the Attorney General do? What will the Director of National Intelligence- given President Trump’s- We just had four judges testifying the other day, and they were asked – judges, federal judges! – who won the 2020 election. They’re afraid to say it was Joe Biden. This is a huge alarm for our democracy.

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The Democrat Embrace Of Islamo-Socialism Is Party Suicide

The Democrat party leadership—sensing its mortal danger from a very well-organized and radicalized Islamo-socialist movement—is trying to stay afloat, claiming that the Democrat Party is a “big tent” where the socialists can find a welcome home:

But ironically, as the “big tent” expands, the number of constituencies inside the tent shrinks.

The traditional power bases of the Democrat party, the working class and minorities, are not part of the Islamo-socialist movement. Instead, the “socialist” part is comprised almost uniformly of downwardly mobile, white college-credentialed losers.

All members of the Democrat leadership, without exception, can see the danger to them from the Islamo-socialist movement, as well as the danger to their traditional constituencies—and, for that matter, to our constitutional experiment now 250 years old. Most, as epitomized by Chuck Schumer, are willing to sacrifice the country and appease the Islamo-socialist crocodile, hoping it will eat them last.

Others, such as Julian Epstein, writing today at the NY Post, are sounding all the alarm bells, namely, that such appeasement is not merely “a recipe for moral decay,” but “for political suicide” as well:

Democrats aren’t coddling Scandinavian-style socialists; they’re getting into bed with a nihilistic, deconstructionist brand of third-worldism.

It’s an ideology that seeks the elimination of prisons, policing, borders, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court and democratic free markets.

A worldview that aligns with genocidal jihadist movements like Hamas.

This is, Epstein says, fracturing the party “as working-class voters flee an increasingly toxic Democratic brand [and] the party’s newfound embrace of anti-American extremists is likely to produce big losses nationally…”

Moreover, as to the socialist dreams of Bernie Sanders, Epstein criticizes it as a “delusion that attaches no importance to generating wealth—and only cares about redistributing it.”

Epstein ultimately opines that the rise of the Islamo-socialist movement is part of a bigger problem for Democrats:

[T]hat post-modern liberalism is failing. The more we spend on the welfare state, it seems, the worse the outcomes.

It is a fascinating essay, well worth the read. And as Epstein concludes.

“Democrats can’t run from this lunacy in November.”

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Deep-Red Mississippi Hands Black Robe to Full-Hijab Yemeni Immigration Attorney Who Guides Illegals to Citizenship Paths

Mississippi conservatives are demanding answers after Ridgeland immigration attorney Assma A. Ali announced that she had been selected to serve as a municipal court judge, a history-making appointment celebrated by supporters as the first of its kind for a Yemeni-American Muslim woman who wears a hijab.

Amy Mek, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of RAIR Foundation, pushed the controversy into the national spotlight, accusing red-state officials of surrendering a “final firewall” and arguing that Ali’s immigration work and political associations deserve scrutiny.

She wrote on X:

Red State Mississippi just appointed America’s first Yemeni Sharia-hijabi judge.

Assma A. Ali – a full-hijab-wearing “immigration” attorney who built her career guiding illegal entrants and visa overstayers onto citizenship paths without ever needing a green card – now sits on the municipal bench.

Within hours, Yemeni community pages were gushing with pride – America is being conquered from within!

This is the same woman who:

• Extracted an “Arab American Heritage Month” proclamation from Republican Governor Tate Reeves

• Publicly defended the jew-hating, Saddam-glorifying, Muslim Brotherhood-linked Amer Ghalib.

He is the Former Hamtramck mayor – whose nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait collapsed in the Senate in October 2025 amid bipartisan opposition over his record – of COURSE Assma A. Ali was at the hearing to stand with him!

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Ocasio-Cortez: Democratic Socialists Are Fundamentally Pro-Democracy

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that the Democratic Socialists of America were “fundamentally pro-democracy.”

After playing a montage of Republicans discussing communism, host Jon Karl asked, “You kind of get a sense of the theme, and obviously the president has said the same thing. What in your mind is the difference between socialism and communism?”

Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think to me, the fundamental differences, I mean, there’s many. One prevailing one is democracy. And I believe that Democratic Socialists are fundamentally pro-democracy. And we believe in the ballot box. We believe in respecting the outcomes of elections and governing democratically and ensuring that the ideas and policies that are implemented are won through popular vote and popular opinion. And so that I think that’s why so much of what we focus on at the New York City chapter.”

Karl said, “The New York City chapter, not the national one. And what’s the difference?”

Ocasio-Cortez said, “So every DSA chapter is formed locally. And so the New York City DSA chapter, those are folks that you know. It’s my, it’s kind of like your local union chapter.”

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‘Privileged Idiot’ DSA Co-Chair Has Absolute Porridge For Brains

The Democrat party has been freaking out about the Democratic Socialists of late – despite striking similarities between their policies – because while Democrats are happy to sweet talk voters into socialist ideas that signal maximum virtue, they don’t actually want to enact policies that would make blue-city budgets even more dire than they are. 

In short, the party is panicking because the voters they radicalized are electing radicals… 

So what better way to let progressives see what they’re voting for? Trot out a co-chair of the DSA with maybe two brain cells to rub together, ask her simple questions, and watch her implode. 

To wit: co-chair Megan Romer was given a softball interview by New Yorker editor David Remnick, in which he asked Romer “What does ‘taxing the hell out of them’ mean?” in regards to a core DSA position of ‘taxing the rich.’

Romer stumbled hard… 

Romer: Uh, yeah, you know, again, I don’t have like a solid…

Remnick: But shouldn’t you? If you’re the co-chair of the DSA, shouldn’t you be more specific than ‘taxing the hell’ out of something? What exactly do you mean?

Romer: Um, that’s a good question. “So again, it’s democracy, right? And we have to look at what we have to spend and what we need. We don’t want to depend on the existence of millionaires because that means people are still getting exploited.”

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shrugs off past ‘defund the police’ comments, joking ‘Woke 1 was crazy’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., dismissed her and other socialist politicians’ past extreme controversial comments on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, joking that the “Woke 1” era was “crazy.”

Host Jon Karl asked Ocasio-Cortez to comment on Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong and her controversial comments, such as calling for Thanksgiving to be canceled or for prisons to be abolished. Hong has sought to backtrack on some of her past views as she seeks the Democratic nomination in her state.

“I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,'” Ocasio-Cortez said laughing, adding, “And I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”

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The Meaning of Tell: Why the West Bank May Be Nearing a Breaking Point

The events in Tell, southwest of Nablus, were not an isolated act of violence. They were a warning.

For years, Israel has treated Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank as open spaces for military raids, settler invasions, land theft and collective punishment. The expectation was that Palestinians would endure the violence, bury their dead and return to the same unbearable routine.

In Tell, however, that carefully maintained equation was briefly disrupted.

The confrontation began when armed Israeli settlers entered the area near the village, attempting to attack Palestinian homes. Villagers confronted them. Israeli soldiers and armed settlement personnel then intervened, transforming the settler attack into a broader military assault.

During the confrontation, a Palestinian man seized an Israeli weapon and opened fire. Two Israelis were killed, while four Palestinians from the Ramadan family were also killed. What followed was a sweeping campaign of punishment against the entire village.

Israeli forces sealed Tell, stormed many homes and interrogated scores of residents. More than 70 Palestinians were detained in the initial crackdown. The Israeli violence soon spread to surrounding communities, where armed settlers attacked homes, vehicles and set mosques on fire.

The meaning of Tell, therefore, does not lie solely in the number of dead. It lies in the fact that Palestinians, confronted by armed settlers and soldiers, refused to retreat.

Tell may or may not become the immediate spark of a broader uprising. But it revealed that beneath the outward appearance of Israeli control, the West Bank is reaching a breaking point.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has transformed the West Bank into another major battlefield. More than 1,180 Palestinians have been killed, approximately 13,000 wounded and over 24,600 detained, including hundreds of women and nearly 2,000 children.

The assault is not limited to military raids. It is an integrated system involving the occupation army, armed settlers, military courts, settlement councils, demolition authorities and ministers who openly advocate annexation.

In 2026 alone, thousands of Palestinians have been displaced through settler attacks, demolitions and Israeli restrictions on Palestinian construction. By July, the rate of displacement had reached an average of 17 Palestinians every day – twice the daily average recorded during the previous three years.

Of course, none of this is random violence, but a deliberate policy.

Benjamin Netanyahu has effectively handed the West Bank to the most extreme elements of his coalition. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has used his governmental authority to accelerate illegal settlement construction, legalize illegal outposts and transfer powers over occupied territory from the military administration to Israeli civilian institutions – a fundamental step toward formal annexation.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, has provided political protection to settler movements while repeatedly provoking Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In exchange, Netanyahu receives what he needs most: the continued survival of his government.

With Israel’s general election scheduled for October 27, the West Bank is likely to become even more central to Netanyahu’s campaign. His political message to the Israeli right is not merely that he can provide “security,” but that he can permanently alter the geography of Palestine.

Palestinians are thus trapped in a brutal equation. If they do not resist, the army and settlers advance. If they fight back, Israel invokes “Palestinian terrorism” to intensify the very policies that produced the resistance in the first place.

Tell exposed that equation, but it also demonstrated its limitations. Indeed, Israel can demolish homes, close roads and arrest entire families. It can empty refugee camps, as it has attempted to do in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. It can maintain the illusion that overwhelming violence has pacified the Palestinian people.

But military domination is not real control. Netanyahu and his extremist ministers have so far benefited from what Naomi Klein described as the “shock doctrine”: the exploitation of collective trauma and disorientation to impose political realities that would otherwise face greater resistance.

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