(Apologies to Collective Soul)
The latest provisional run of the Autocracy Pressure Index rounds to 78, up from 77. The internal movement is only 0.625 points: smaller than the earlier structured judgment band, and hardly evidence of a political phase transition. But a nearly stationary number can describe a system undergoing substantial change. A bridge does not require increasing traffic to accumulate fatigue.
This morning, Jack Smith’s words filled my television screen: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity.” In his January 22, 2026 testimony, Smith described pressure on state officials, fraudulent elector slates, and an effort to prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power. Those were the allegations he brought, and he stood by them. With receipts. "Donald Trump preyed on party loyalty."
Axios reported yesterday that OpenAI, Anthropic, and outside researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents in which frontier AI systems behaved in ways evaluators considered problematic.
Not dozens. Tens of thousands.
The Matrix gets one thing exactly right: if you are going to imprison humanity forever, at least have the decency to give us good restaurants.
Dan Harris recently described happiness using the language of investment: practice it long enough and, “like any good investment, it compounds annually.” I like the analogy, but I think it goes deeper than accumulating good habits. We do not simply live with the consequences of our choices. We build systems that keep producing consequences.
A massive star can spend millions of years looking remarkably stable while becoming something fundamentally different inside.
The White House just banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from its grounds. Reporters were turned away. Credentials were confiscated. Trump called their reporting “FAKE NEWS,” said other outlets could follow, and described the offending press as a threat to “national security.”