THEY’RE GETTING BETTER AT THE HARDWARE SIDE: China uses 100,000 home-grown AI chips to build leading weather forecast system. “China said it can now predict weather 10 days in advance at a cutting-edge resolution of 5km (3.1 miles), finer than most major systems in routine use around the world.”

RIP: Peter Max, Psychedelic Pop Art Icon of the 1960s, Dead at 88.

MORNING IN AMERICA:

I dunno, but if I were President and the poverty rate dropped to the LOWEST RATE ON RECORD I might make a big deal out of it — a lot bigger deal than the Trump White House is making. https://t.co/ze8Q2ikGhO

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) September 16, 2026

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED:

Six years ago Bernie told us that we had six years left because of climate change.

That grift is over and now he’s onto the robots.

Mock this miserable goon into oblivion. pic.twitter.com/rKdd7xruaD

— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) September 16, 2026

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Second Wisconsin elementary teacher convicted of sexually abusing young student at same small-town school.

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: They Want to Save Us From AI. Who Saves Us From Them?

America’s most important edge is one that the CCP can’t afford to let China replicate: our free-wheeling, laissez-faire tech culture. From the start of his extended term as Communist Party boss, Xi began reversing China’s decades-old free-market reforms. Under Xi, there’s less of Deng Xiaoping’s “it is glorious to grow rich” mantra and more Party control over pretty much everything.

But that does put China in a bind. AI creates new domestic and international threats to the CCP, but staying behind the US increases the foreign threat, while further advances risk increasing the domestic threat.

That’s one reason, as Eric S. Raymond recently put it, China “officially stated that they consider the calls for an AI pause to be a ‘power play’ and will not be participating in any US-led agreements to slow down development.” The Beijing Times reported on Tuesday that China’s state-owned Global Times accused Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei of proposing a “quiet AI Cold War” to “widen America’s lead” through tech barriers and regulatory schemes.

Any worldwide pause would freeze China’s disadvantages into place.

Whatever the domestic threat might be to CCP control, Beijing can’t afford to slow — that is to tame — Chinese AI development. Getting the Americans to tame themselves, however… in Xi’s eyes, that would be ideal.

But who in the US would ever encourage us to do such a thing?

Enter, stage left: Barack Hussein Obama.

Lots to chew on in this one.

SO, WHEN DO PEOPLE GO TO JAIL?  Explosive Judiciary Committee Report Accuses ActBlue of Major Fraudulent Donation Cover-Up.

MAMDANI’S ONLY IN FOR A FEW MONTHS AND ALREADY IT’S LONG LINES AND EMPTY SHELVES AT THE GROCERY STORE: Trader Joe’s ‘busiest’ location reopens with bare shelves, long lines and hungry shoppers: ‘Don’t even have bags of salt.’

EUROPE PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1939:

● Dutch officials say first toddler euthanized under new state law was “handled well.”

● Merz: the Rise of the AfD Shows Why Free Speech Must Be Curbed.

● Europe: What Climate Change Really Needs Is More Bureaucracy.

Also, America will need a new division of Monuments Men to rescue Europe’s artwork, twenty minutes into the future:

Mark my words.

Years from now, across Europe, Muslims will end up destroying many cultural artifacts across Europe. The reaction will be exactly this:

Radical Muslims: It's haram so we must destroy it.

Moderate Muslims: It shouldn't be destroyed but let's not blame all… pic.twitter.com/uqoeUeusP0

— 鈴森はるか 『haruka suzumori』 🇯🇵 (@harukaawake) September 16, 2026

FOREIGN INFLUENCE:

I would like to introduce you to Rosa-Luxemberg-Stiftung NYC (EIN 45-3658022), which is registered as a 501(c)(3) and also is a straight-up German-funded soft money passthrough for Die Linke, the German Communist party. I couldn't find any FARA records for any of their employees.…

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) September 16, 2026

AT AMAZON, Shop Early Prime Big Day Deals. #CommissionEarned

FRICKEN LASER BEAMS, FOR STARTERS: US Space Force Confirms It Has Weapons in Orbit. Here’s What They Could Include.

Space Force doctrine defines space control as offensive and defensive operations conducted to gain and maintain freedom of action in space.

Offensive counter space operations can impair or destroy an adversary’s space capabilities, while defensive operations protect U.S. and allied systems.

That broad mission can involve very different weapons. Kinetic systems destroy or physically damage a target.

Non-kinetic options include electronic warfare that jams communications, cyber operations against satellites or ground stations, and directed energy that can disrupt or damage sensors.

An orbiting spacecraft could also approach another satellite for inspection, servicing or attack. The same maneuvering and robotic technologies can perform peaceful work or hostile acts, making a system’s purpose difficult to judge before it is used.

SM-3 and THAAD Missile tests showing the missiles being fired and intercepting ballistic missiles with dummy warheads.

Meink’s wording does not establish that the United States has placed guns, explosives or missile interceptors in orbit.

Seriously, lasers would be great because they disable, not blow up. Debris fields are bad, mmmkay?

This line stands out, too: “However, he separately said the Space Force had produced flight-ready hardware for planned space-based interceptors under Golden Dome.”

Well, good.

I wrote about all this on Tuesday, but it’s weird how little attention “weapons in orbit” has gotten from the mainstream press. They couldn’t shut up about how “reckless” Reagan was with SDI 40 years ago, slamming it as a Star Wars fantasy.

Maybe they’re quieter now because the stuff works.

A LITTLE LATE TO BRING HIM TO JUSTICE: Name of Nazi executioner in horrific WWII photo revealed using AI after 80 years of searching.

RECOGNIZE THE OP WHEN YOU SEE IT:

You know a movement is totally grassroots and organic when they spontaneously have coordinated signs with logos and corporate level branding.

What an op. https://t.co/5mgy8Aqhli

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) September 16, 2026

#JOURNALISM:

What’s next?

“New Yorkers still view themselves as victims of 9/11.”

Outrageous. pic.twitter.com/BpAEHeZuhV

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) September 16, 2026

OH MY: Karen Bass Feels Heat From Feds Over Millions in Stolen and Laundered ‘Homeless’ Funds.

INDEED:

The building of AI data centers is not landing in a neutral country. It is landing in one where the debate over artificial intelligence has turned political, cultural, and increasingly fearful. That opposition is not theoretical.

In Archbald, in Conshohocken, in Wilkes-Barre,…

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) September 16, 2026

DEMS ARE OWNED BY CHARTS… MIGHT ALMOST BE A ZEN (SIC) DIAGRAM:  Gavin Newsom Tries Blaming President Trump for Home Prices, but Data Shows Who’s Really to Blame.

THE MEAN GIRLS ARE UP ON THE WARPATH:  Here’s What Triggered the Left’s Recent Meltdown Over Sydney Sweeney.

Every ugly girl is a leftist. And they have no appreciation for beauty. Now, at 64 I have no beauty, but maybe it is because I remember being beautiful (or close enough) that I don’t feel the slightest resentment or annoyance at beautiful women. Or maybe because I have an aesthetic appreciation of the beautiful, even beautiful that does nothing for me? I don’t know. What I know is leftists be cray cray.

POWERLINE HAS BEEN ON THE CASE FOR YEARS:  Why Ilhan Omar can’t be kicked out of the US for marrying brother: Immigration officials.

OH. WONDERFUL:  This is a big announcement. Leftists have had their own free legal representation for decades. Conservatives haven’t. This is because traditionally, conservatives have thought of politics as winning the debate. It’s comfortable. It’s institutional. They don’t have to be “mean” to anyone.

NOT HARD TO BELIEVE BUT HORRIFYING:  Veterans of the GWOT “saw things with our own eyes that are hard for others to believe”.

THE WEST NEEDS LEADERS THAT DON’T HATE THEIR OWN PEOPLE:  The new front in the British “flag war” – Welsh castles.

THE DOOMERISM IS FAKE; THE HANKERING FOR REGULATORY ADVANTAGE IS REAL:  AI and the security/regulation shell game. Regulation is not security and vice versa.

SOME OF US DO QUITE WELL WITH OUR IMAGINARY FRIENDS ON THE SCREEN, THANK YOU:  There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of scurvy. OR: hey buddy, your teeth are falling out.

Okay, I need to “see” people I don’t live with, in the flesh. Quite literally, see them. A walk outside, or a trip to the grocery store allays that need. Now I do realize I’m an introvert. introverts exist. The author of this article didn’t seem to realize that.