The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.
What’s so awesome about the capitalist ideal? It’s a system based on individual freedom and voluntary consent. You’re allowed to do what you want with your own body and your own stuff. If other people want to cooperate with you, they have to persuade you; if you want other people to cooperate with you, you have to persuade them. Can consent really be “voluntary” if some people have a lot more to offer than others? Absolutely. Some people are vastly more attractive than others, but that does nothing to undermine the voluntariness of dating. Under capitalism, how people use their freedom is up to them; they can try to get rich, they can relax, they can help the poor, all three, or none of the above.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shut down its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office, according to reports.
The news comes amid the Trump administration canceling grants to universities that employ DEI programs and have failed to sufficiently police on-campus anti-Israel protests.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth officially closed the Community and Equity Office last week, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
Kornbluth previously prohibited the use of diversity statements in faculty hiring or student admissions, the newspaper said. Also, a senior administrative position at the school will be eliminated as part of a return to a merit-based focus.
“MIT is in the talent business. Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported, so they can do their best work and thrive,” Kornbluth said in a statement to the Post shared by an MIT rep.
MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was among more than 50 universities being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of Trump’s campaign to end DEI programs, CBS News reported.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
MIT has joined court challenges to the administration’s reductions to National Institute of Health (NIH) and Department of Energy grants for medical and scientific research, the Post reported.
The school recently revealed the grant cuts had cost MIT up to $35 million and forced it to reduce the number of available places for graduate students in its 2025-26 by 8%.
Kornbluth was one of three university presidents who testified before the House in December 2023 about antisemitic on-campus protests and actions against Jewish individuals.
The House later passed a resolution rebuking testimony from Kornbluth, then-Harvard University President Claudine Gay and then-University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.
In recent weeks, Trump has piled unprecedented pressure on Harvard, seeking to ban the university from having foreign students, shredding its contracts with the federal government, slashing its multibillion-dollar grants, and challenging its tax-free status.
Harvard is challenging all of the measures in court.
Democrats are trapped by the toxic DEI ideology they created—too afraid to reform, too broken to survive without it.
A few Democrat officeholders, activists, and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people.
The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways.
First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office.
Only when caught did the complicit media fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people about Biden’s inability to fulfill the duties of the presidency.
Second, left-wing politicos used Biden as a waxen effigy. His job was to pose as a “moderate” cover to push through the most radical and unpopular agenda in the last half century.
Only that way could “Old Joe Biden from Scranton” and his backroom handlers ram down the throat of the American people unpopular policies that nearly wrecked the country: hyperinflation and $7 trillion in new debt, weaponization of the government, and partisan lawfare, an open border and 12 million illegal aliens, a racialist DEI commissariat, a crackpot Green New Deal, defunding the police, biological men competing in girls’ sports, and two theater-wide wars abroad.
Third, without either a functional president or viable initiatives, the new hard-left Democrats sought to brand Donald Trump as “Hitler” and half the country who supported him as “fascists.”
For nearly nine years, the Democrats launched one failed hoax after another on the American people: “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” and the lying so-called “51 intelligence authorities.” They proved quite willing to undermine the rule of law by manipulating the court system in efforts to destroy their bogeyman, Donald Trump.
Never had the American people seen a political party engineer 93 bogus indictments of a rival candidate and ex-president. Two dozen states tried to take Trump off their presidential ballots. And the Biden Department of Justice sicced an FBI SWAT team to barge into Trump’s home.
The people finally got tired of all the potty-mouthed Democrat videos, the congressional stunts and meltdowns, the pampered rich kids rioting on elite campuses, the knee-jerk obsessions with racial slurs, the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, the romanticization of left-wing political murderers—and always the adolescent tantrums over Donald Trump.
The Democrats had mostly given up on democracy some 13 years ago. That was the last time they transparently and democratically nominated Barack Obama a second time as their presidential candidate.
Ever since, their nominations have been rigged.
In 2020, party insiders—terrified of the left-wing crazy primary field—forced out all the leading contenders.
Then they coronated the debilitated but still supposedly useful moderate Joe Biden as their COVID-era candidate. Biden then bragged that he would pick his vice president on the basis of race and gender.
What followed was the most bizarre campaign in history.
Biden stayed put in his basement and outsourced his candidacy to the partisan media.
Party activists changed long-standing voting laws in the key swing states. For the first time in American history, 70 percent of Americans did not vote in person on Election Day—the majority of them by design Democrats.
Next, in 2024, they forced the now no longer useful Biden off the ticket, nullifying his 14 million primary voters.
Then, without a vote, they rammed in inept Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. As a failed candidate in 2020, she had never won a single delegate.
Some in the party now concede it must roust out its radicals.
But Democrats will not.
AOC and her Squad, the unhinged Jasmine Crockets of the party, and the ossified socialist Bernie Bros would demonize any Democrat who offered a sane reboot.
A few fossils in the party may think they know how to save it. But they are terrified that the medicine would be considered far worse than the illness that prompted it.
Would Democrats consider embracing measured and legal-only immigration?
No—the crazy base would scream “xenophobe!”
A return to meritocracy and the Martin Luther King notion of race as incidental, not essential, to who we are
Again, that would be called “racist!
Maybe reforms to fix failed schools with vouchers, school choice, and charter schools?
Again, “racist!
How about developing gas and oil reserves and nuclear power to lower energy costs for the struggling middle class?
That would be condemned as “destroying the planet!”
Restore police forces, end critical race and legal theory, and deter criminals with tough sentencing?
Again, “racist!”
How about ceasing the whiny fixations with “white privilege” and “white rage?” Or quit seeing a “white supremacist” under every bed?
The left created DEI—the use of race to adjudicate every political issue.
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About Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004, and is the 2023 Giles O’Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and the Bradley Prize in 2008. Hanson is also a farmer (growing almonds on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author of the just released New York Times best seller, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation, published by Basic Books on May 7, 2024, as well as the recent The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump, and The Dying Citizen.
afhack73May 29, 2025Yes, Democrats have put themselves in an ideological cul-de-sac from which it will be difficult in the extreme for them to escape. A realistic attempt must begin with reforming their party, and that won’t happen as long as people like Pelosi, Schumer, Obama, and certain outside contributors have influence bordering on a stranglehold. The less unhinged among Democrats in Congress need to force out the Old Guard who created the mess and have far outlived their usefulness. At its earliest, that process won’t begin until they lose the next presidential election. If I were a Democrat of the less-unhinged variety, I would be quietly panicked over my party’s efforts to shut down a duly elected Trump Administration with one court injunction after another. But the people in control of the Democrat Party see nothing wrong with that, which is why 2028 is already in the bag for Republicans. My prognosis for Democrats is that their party splits apart in four to five years, if only for the sake of its less-unhinged wing putting up a moderate front for gullible voters. But that won’t work either.
Everett_BrunsonMay 29, 2025Both CNN and MSNBC are cratering further in the ratings, so I’m at a bit of a loss knowing where the true believers on the Left are getting their marching orders. I’ve watched as the Generic Ballot has gone from D+5 back in February to D+1 now at the Real Clear Politics average of polls. The same outlet has also been chronicling the popularity drop of the Democrat Party as a whole and Democrat leaders in particular.about:blankThe latest news of the DNC spending $20 million to figure out how to talk to young men also demonstrates the rudderless ship drifting with the current. Jessica Tarlov of Fox’s The Five remains confident her Party will get it together before the mid-terms, but she seems alone in her views. Both Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emmanuel are trying to shed the dying spector of DEI much the same as reptiles and bugs shed their outer coverings. How much the public buys the transformation is a very open question.I would like to think that we are witnessing the death throes of a dying Party, but refuse to celebrate until I see the corpse.
General Motors is investing $888 million in its Tonawanda Propulsion plant in Buffalo, New York, “to support the production of the sixth generation of GM’s V-8 engines,” the automaker announced Tuesday.
The investment is a shift from a previously announced $300 million commitment to make electric-vehicle drive units at the plant, as the V-8 engines are used in GM’s full-sized trucks and SUVs.
GM says the newer engines will provide drivers better fuel economy and reduce emissions by utilizing “new combustion and thermal management innovations.”
“Our significant investments in GM’s Tonawanda Propulsion plant show our commitment to strengthening American manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S.,” Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO, said in a statement.
“GM’s Buffalo plant has been in operation for 87 years and is continuing to innovate the engines we build there to make them more fuel efficient and higher performing, which will help us deliver world-class trucks and SUVs to our customers for years to come,” she concluded.
While the plant prepares to start production of the sixth generation V-8 engine in 2027, it will continue to produce fifth generation V-8 engines.
The move is likely another sign of automakers adapting to slower-than-expected market demand for EVs and comes after the Detroit automaker aggressively lobbied Congress to rescind California electric-vehicle rules.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the project will support 870 jobs at Tonawanda Propulsion, including 177 jobs deemed at risk, according to Reuters. The state plans to provide up to $16.96 million in tax credits in return for investment commitments.
The promise of allowing China to enter “most favored nation status” in 1980 and entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 was predicated on the notion that insurgent free markets would revolutionize and liberate the largest communist nation in the world. The economic reality of 2025 is that this project has largely failed. Dictator Xi of China embodies one of the most hardline manifestations of Communist Party power in a generation. Previous reforms are now repealed and a pattern of internal and global human rights abuses are better funded than ever and rationalized in a growing technological network of propaganda.
Arguably the clearest indication of human rights failure in China for the 21st century is the massive abuse of capital punishment. Amnesty International in April asserted that China continues to lead the world in this violent act and the past year was the most extensive use of the penalty since 2015. It is likely that the thousands of people killed every year by the Communist government of China dwarf their global rivals in this civil abuse as committed by nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. The dearth of details in the most recent report about these killings demonstrates that the insularity of the Chinese state has increased. Credible reports of organ harvesting in Chinese prisons remain.
Genocide remains a serious and egregious mode of conduct by the Beijing government. The well-documented genocide of Uighurs continues unabated after an embarrassing 1936 Berlin-style rationalization of this mass murder at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where the government audaciously paraded a Uighur torchbearer at opening ceremonies and then abruptly dropped him from actual competition. Chinese government minders violently disrupted media broadcasts during the games to maintain the faulty image of a politically pristine super-state. The ongoing nature of genocidal crimes against the Uighurs were again acknowledged recently by the International Bar Association.
China betrayed the democratic character of Hong Kong when it took over the former British holding and draconian limits on free speech and protest are accepted as the new normal. China continues to escalate its violent plans to overthrow the independent government and nation of Taiwan. There is evidence that China sends soldiers to fight against democratic Ukraine in alliance with Russia.
The millions of deaths resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic remain one of the most important atrocities of the current era. Multiple international intelligence agencies confirm that the virus originated in the military research lab at Wuhan. Chinese officials strongarmed propaganda about the virus not being airborne from the outset of infections. The communist government banned internal travel within China while allowing international travel in 2019 and 2020. All this points to malicious military-based misconduct with catastrophic consequences experts warned about for decades regarding gain of function research. China faces no serious penalties for the deaths of more than 7 million people. The government of China falsely brags that only 83,000 people in China died from the virus when almost certainly more than a million people died.
China’s economic advantages are predicated upon a range of labor mistreatment that utilizes everything from slavery to severe worker abuse. Their current propaganda efforts focus upon convincing the United States that no one is willing to endure the same level of suffering as a Chinese laborer. These decades-long processes compound to create a dystopian ecological nightmare that threatens vast segments of the urban water supply and make air pollution a catastrophic health threat for tens of millions of Chinese residents. All these ecological sacrifices allow the government of China to co-opt strategic industries ranging from solar panels to electric cars. Every global economic expert is aware of these strategic refusals to protect the environment but the idea that financial penalties should be paid in a manner commensurate to the Paris Climate accords is explicitly exempted from future political realities. 2024 set a record for new coal-fired plants built in China — almost 100 gigawatts. This happens while most of the world is compelled to mothball and remove all coal-fired plants. All this adds up to anything but “Free trade.”
Chinese exports to the world on an annual basis are valued at about $3.5 trillion. This is a substantial financial boon to the Communist Party of China that exclusively controls the political order of more than one billion domestic citizens. China’s pursuit of authoritarian domination has not diminished and expresses itself in a growing sophistication of internet-driven artificial intelligence designed to mislead the global public about almost any public matter of interest to the government of China. Cybercrimes, covert and overt business espionage, false imprisonment, and a global regime of intimidation for its citizens abroad are an increasingly deep and evident surface of China’s global public malice. It is time to initiate a truer realm of “free trade” that aims more to free the people of China than the government of China.
Dr. Ben Voth is professor of rhetoric and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He his the author of several academic books regarding political communication, presidential rhetoric, and genocide. His 2014 book — Rhetoric of Genocide: Death as a Text and 2021 book — Debate as Global Pedagogy: Rwanda Rising — explain the vital necessity of communication openness to solve entrenched political problems.
Now more than ever, the ability to speak our minds is crucial to the republic we cherish. If what you see on American Thinker resonates with you, please consider supporting our work with a donation of as much or as little as you can give. Every dollar contributed helps us pay our staff and keep our ideas heard and our voices strong.
We’re told that democracy dies in darkness. My own take on the subject? Liberty perishes in an orgy of unearned guilt and other psychological conflicts. Psychological problems develop when people hold contradictory, irrational or unsustainable ideas, ideas such as, “Someone is coming to rescue me,” or, “I shouldn’t have to be totally responsible for myself.” —Michael J. Hurd
On Wednesday Reuters is reporting that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US-backed aid organization whose distribution sites are protected by American mercenaries, has suspended its operations in Gaza “due to disorder.”
Gaza’s Government Media Office announced in a statement, “We confirm that the ‘Israeli’ occupation’s project to distribute aid in the so-called ‘buffer zones’ has failed miserably, according to field reports and according to what was announced by the Hebrew media as well.” Israel has rejected the charge, instead blaming unruly Palestinian masses, Hamas, and criminal gangs who have long looted aid stores in the Strip.
“Thousands of starving people, besieged by the occupation and cut off from food and medicine for about 90 days, rushed toward those areas in a tragic and painful scene, which ended with the storming of distribution centers and the seizure of food,” it added.
The very public fiasco and chaotic scene at one of the first distribution sites set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation outside Rafah on Tuesday was subject of international outrage and condemnation, including by the UN. The GHF has come under scrutiny for lack of experience and a firm track record.
As we had detailed the American security firm lost control of starving crowds and quickly withdrew from the area as the security situation rapidly broke down, resulting in Palestinians seizing the aid amid mayhem, soon after which Israeli aircraft swooped down to help clear the area.
Gunshots were heard, and there are reports the US contractors were using warning shots as crowd control, and amid the onrush. Below is a montage of footage in a Reuters report:
GHF had only begun distributing aid since Monday. Israeli media reviews that “While technically an American company, GHF was established earlier this year in close coordination with Israeli authorities who felt existing aid distribution mechanisms led by the UN and other international organizations were insufficient in preventing the diversion of aid by Hamas.”
Hamas has reportedly threatened its operations, also amid US accusations that Hamas and other criminal groups had been routinely stealing and reselling international aid which entered the Strip previously throughout the war. The new plan was as follows:
Israel wanted to create a small number of distribution sites where pre-selected familial representatives would be able to pick up a heavy box full of food for their families in a zone secured and operated by American private contractors.
Emerging reports say at least one person was shot dead in these latest distribution efforts:
At least one civilian was killed and 48 wounded when Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians, after the group chosen by Israel to ship food into Gaza lost control of its distribution center, health officials reported.
Witnesses said Israeli forces started shooting after crowds of Palestinians broke through the fences on Tuesday around the distribution site, as an Israeli military helicopter fired flares and bursts of gunfire were heard in the distance. In one video, a large crowd of panicked civilians, including women and children, can be seen running away from the distribution site, trampling the fencing.
Below: several Middle East publications have slammed the Israeli/US-backed aid scheme as “dehumanization by design”:
But amid looming famine, it appears that once word gets out, there is a rush toward the location. Whatever site is set up becomes a big target for mayhem (or worse, potential armed attacks), and likely it doesn’t help that it’s well understood that US mercenaries are guarding the centers.
Stephen Hawking had a frightening response when asked about his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence in 2014.
The world-renowned theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, who passed away in March 2018 at the age of 76, was best known for his work in the fields of general relativity and quantum gravity.
He went on to pen the 2002 book The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe, which has sold more than 25 million copies across 40 different languages.
However, it was in his final book, published seven months after his death, titled Brief Answers to the Big Questions, where he shared his definitive answer on a polarising subject: whether God exists.
However, four years prior, he was asked in an interview with the BBC about a possible upgrade to the technology he used to talk, which included some early forms of AI.
The scientist, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) – a form of Motor Neurone Disease that affects the nerves and muscles – used a new-at-the-time system made by Intel and a British company called SwiftKey.
It worked by learning how Hawking thought and helped suggest his next words, allowing him to ‘type’ faster.
But Hawking instead issued a stark warning, saying: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
While he said that even the basic AI back in 2014 had been ‘really helpful,’ Hawking was also concerned about what could happen if we create AI that becomes as smart as, or even smarter than, us mere humans.
“It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate,” he said. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
Hawking isn’t the only one who has previously expressed concern about AI; Bill Gates believes that only three jobs would survive an AI takeover, while Elon Musk has a terrifying prediction for what could happen if AI becomes smarter than all humans combined.
We’ve witnessed a surge in interest in AI over the past year alone; it would be fascinating to know what Hawking would make of it all today.
From everyone and their mom jumping on ChatGPT to Donald Trump’s ambitious $500 billion AI development plan involving major players like OpenAI and Oracle and the rollout of AI assistants directly into our smartphones, things are moving fast.
And given that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish real videos from AI-generated ones, perhaps the end is really nigh.
President Trump’s Crypto Czar David Sacks just exposed Elizabeth Warren aka “Pocahontas” as the one running Biden’s autopen:
“It wasn’t Biden. Elizabeth Warren controlled the autopen.”
…
David Sacks .. What the Biden administration was doing—and let’s face it, it wasn’t Biden. Elizabeth Warren controlled the autopen during that administration. She, for some reason, has this pathological hatred of the crypto community. She wants to drive this community offshore.” ~The Vigilant Fox¹1
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar, one of its most wanted and the younger brother of the deceased group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed.
Mohammad Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat during the ongoing war in Gaza.
Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
afhack73May 29, 2025Yes, Democrats have put themselves in an ideological cul-de-sac from which it will be difficult in the extreme for them to escape. A realistic attempt must begin with reforming their party, and that won’t happen as long as people like Pelosi, Schumer, Obama, and certain outside contributors have influence bordering on a stranglehold. The less unhinged among Democrats in Congress need to force out the Old Guard who created the mess and have far outlived their usefulness. At its earliest, that process won’t begin until they lose the next presidential election. If I were a Democrat of the less-unhinged variety, I would be quietly panicked over my party’s efforts to shut down a duly elected Trump Administration with one court injunction after another. But the people in control of the Democrat Party see nothing wrong with that, which is why 2028 is already in the bag for Republicans. My prognosis for Democrats is that their party splits apart in four to five years, if only for the sake of its less-unhinged wing putting up a moderate front for gullible voters. But that won’t work either.
Everett_BrunsonMay 29, 2025Both CNN and MSNBC are cratering further in the ratings, so I’m at a bit of a loss knowing where the true believers on the Left are getting their marching orders. I’ve watched as the Generic Ballot has gone from D+5 back in February to D+1 now at the Real Clear Politics average of polls. The same outlet has also been chronicling the popularity drop of the Democrat Party as a whole and Democrat leaders in particular.about:blankThe latest news of the DNC spending $20 million to figure out how to talk to young men also demonstrates the rudderless ship drifting with the current. Jessica Tarlov of Fox’s The Five remains confident her Party will get it together before the mid-terms, but she seems alone in her views. Both Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emmanuel are trying to shed the dying spector of DEI much the same as reptiles and bugs shed their outer coverings. How much the public buys the transformation is a very open question.I would like to think that we are witnessing the death throes of a dying Party, but refuse to celebrate until I see the corpse.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 