In the WSJ’s column “Free Expressions,” Jack Butler turns his attention, and ours, toward space.

Most of the satellites that make modern life possible sit in low-Earth orbit, no more than 2,000 kilometers above the planet’s surface.

Why are the United States and its adversaries so interested in this space, some 2,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface?

In what Mr. Butler describes as a rare bipartisan moment in President Trump’s first term …

… the creation of the U.S. Space Force as part of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. And I do mean rare. Mr. Trump signed the bill into law on Dec. 20, 2019. The House voted to impeach him two days earlier.

Standing up a new branch service is often a challenge.

It must establish its mission, its place within the military, and its organization.

Space Force has faced all these operational difficulties. But since its creation, it has also confronted an unexpected obstacle—derision.

Too Much

Why is it that certain people who encounter a Space Force point and laugh? In “The Office,” Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the star and creator, respectively, of the TV series attempted to apply their brand of cringe workplace comedy to Space Force in a Netflix show of the same name.

• Too much camouflage
• Too “Battlestar Galactica”
• Inevitably, too “Star Trek”

Those who made the lattermost criticism have some Space Crow to eat, Butler believes.

“Star Trek” was created by U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Gene Roddenberry, has long evoked patterns and logos already in use by NASA and the military.

Mr. Verhoeven’s adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s classic 1959 science fiction novel was a hyperbolic satire of its thought-provoking source material (which is still often read by soldiers).

The movie depicts a future Earth dominated by a fascist, propaganda-drenched government. Ergo, Mr. Trump is obviously either dumb, or telegraphing his intentions for the planet—or both.

Jack Butler has a newsflash for believers:

Space Force goons aren’t popping down from the sky to kill, enslave or imprison you.

That Donald Trump was president when the branch was created, and is president again, doesn’t invalidate its reason to exist, explains Butler.

Congress signed off on it. The idea for a Space Force precedes Mr. Trump. When he was president, Joe Biden undid—or tried to undo—much of what Mr. Trump had done. But Mr. Biden mostly left the Space Force alone, aside from quibbling with where its headquarters would be.

When you see a bright orange light in the sky in Southern California—a launch from what’s now Vandenberg Space Force Base—as Butler did last month, the need for Space Force starts to come into focus. What are we to think upon learning that China and Russia are working to turn space into a military theatre?

Their targets likely begin with some of those aforementioned satellites. But they also surely don’t end there.

Yes, this means Space Force is more than an aesthetic plaything for an addled second-term president.

It’s far more important than comedians appreciate.

“Give Space Force some space,” advises Jack Butler.

May the Force Be with Us
Debbie Young

You know that governors in blue blob states like California and New York are looking for ways to squeeze more money from millionaires and billionaires, their favorite targets. Rhode Island is another blue blob state (though not a big one) where the governor, Dan McKee, raised taxes on millionaires to fund handouts for his favorite constituencies. It turns out, though, that this plan may have backfired. The Wall Street Journal reports on McKee’s recent loss in the Democratic primary to former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who has charted a more business-friendly path during her campaign. The Journal’s editorial board wrote:

This summer the Governor tried to buy union support by signing an increase in the top state income-tax rate to 8.99% from 5.99% on millionaires to pay for a $330 refundable child tax credit and ObamaCare subsidies. He also imposed a three-year moratorium on new charter schools, a teachers union demand that Ms. Foulkes opposed.

Such sops to the left didn’t help Mr. McKee. Ms. Foulkes didn’t oppose the higher tax rate. But she attacked the incumbent for presiding over a declining business environment, which CNBC ranked 48th in the U.S. this year. CNBC rated the state’s economy dead last.

Buying off liberal special interests doesn’t offset the costs of government dysfunction, even among Democratic voters.

Rhode Island Democrats didn’t just vote for Foulkes; they did so in historic numbers. McKee’s defeat was, according to Geoffrey Skelley of Decision Desk HQ, the sixth worst defeat of an incumbent governor of the last 80 years.

Based on unofficial results, Dan McKee just suffered the sixth-worst primary loss by margin of any elected governor in the past 80 years. He’s the first elected governor to lose renomination since 2014. #RIGov pic.twitter.com/0Zj9h9AdXY

— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) September 10, 2026

That’s a painful loss. But it’s no wonder when Americans are looking for a government that will help them raise their standard of living. Whether or not Helena Foulkes will do that for Rhode Islanders remains to be seen, but the residents of the state are sure that Dan McKee wasn’t getting the job done. Taxing the most productive to reward special interests is rarely a good way to make your state more attractive for business. McKee sent businesses looking for a better America.

Action Line: If you’re looking for a better America, begin your search with Your Survival Guy’s 2026 Super States. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.

A Rhode Island Reckoning
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Paul Craig Roberts explains at The Institute for Political Economy that President Trump’s troubles with Iran have frustrated him, and that makes the President dangerous. PCR writes:

Trump also experienced the cost of the US government’s long subservience to Israel, and found himself led by Netanyahu into a losing war with Iran, a war for Israel, not for the United States.

Now he is frustrated beyond belief.When have you last seen anyone wearing a MAGA hat in Walmart, a diner, a bar, a supermarket?

His frustration makes him dangerous, and there has been talk in the Trump administration of using nuclear weapons against Iran in order to turn defeat into victory.Clearly, Trump’s leadership, which was promising and full of hope for Americans who have not been radicalized, has disappointed the hopeful.Some hold on, but it is largely those indoctrinated Americans who support Israel despite Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians and the costs to Americans of fighting Israel’s wars for Israel. See this.

Read more here.

PCR: Trump’s “Frustration Makes Him Dangerous”
The Editors

There are many opinions being shared in the media about artificial intelligence. President Trump has given AI his full-throated endorsement.

pic.twitter.com/etGv7kBQdn

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 14, 2026

Despite their support for AI, even big supporters are looking for guardrails on the technology. Those include Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Dario Amodei, and Sam Altman.

Dario is right https://t.co/EwKgqQGaUo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2026

I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.

Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We’ll have more to share soon. https://t.co/1YhhIybZX7

— Sam Altman (@sama) September 12, 2026

Recently, a computer scientist, Nick Soares, sat down with Tucker Carlson to explain his worries about artificial intelligence.

Nate Soares is a computer scientist who’s worked at Google and the Defense Department. So when he says AI is on the path to killing every person on earth, it’s worth hearing him out.

0:00 Why Is AI Dangerous?
7:59 How Superintelligence Could Destroy the Planet
13:44 Can We Just… pic.twitter.com/dLq5q2IpQX

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 11, 2026

Is Artificial Intelligence Dangerous?
The Editors

At LewRockwell.com, Andrew Napolitano worries that President Trump’s failure to finish his war with Iran will lead the President to domestic excesses. He writes:

A failed war does not end when the drones stop flying. It creates a new danger: A government that refuses to admit defeat and a president who, having failed abroad, seeks muscular victories elsewhere.

The war against Iran is a case study in the limits of military power, the dangers of presidential overreach and the enduring wisdom of the Constitution’s separation of powers. It was unauthorized, unconstitutional, illegal, strategically incoherent and — by the standards by which wars must be judged — a geopolitical failure.

The American people were told that force would achieve clear objectives. Iran would be compelled to surrender. Somehow, American security would be enhanced. The region would become more stable.

Read more here.

Will Iran Failures Drive Trump to Domestic Excesses?
The Editors

The war with Iran begun by the United States and Israel is becoming a regional conflict, with Houthi forces in Yemen, allied with Iranian forces, have now dealt some serious blows to Saudi oil supply lines. The Houthis have attacked and damaged Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which was an alternative to Persian Gulf export routes, and have also now closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi oil shipments.

You can see the intraday spike to nearly $104/barrel for WTI crude in response to the news on the chart below.

The latest Houthi aggressions toward Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s proxies in Yemen are a continuation of long running attempts to frustrate Saudi operations. Summer Said and Saleh al-Batati report in The Wall Street Journal:

Even before last week’s offensive, Houthi attacks on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea were forcing the kingdom to toggle back and forth between dangerous export routes there and in the Strait of Hormuz.

That has taken a toll on the kingdom’s oil output. Saudi crude exports via its main Red Sea port dropped to around 2.5 million barrels a day in August from 4.6 million barrels a day in July, according to the International Energy Agency.

The amount of oil the kingdom pumped fell to six million barrels a day in August compared with an average of around 9.4 million barrels a day last year, the agency said.

Read more here.

The Iran Conflict Goes Regional
The Editors

The A-10 Thunderbolt II has spent decades earning a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable close-air-support aircraft, thanks in large part to its powerful 30 mm cannon. Now, as the Air Force looks to retire the legendary Warthog, millions of its 30 mm rounds are getting a second life aboard another heavily armed aircraft: the AC-130J Ghostrider.

A new ammunition-linking machine at Hurlburt Field allows Airmen to convert the A-10’s unlinked 30 mm rounds into ammunition belts compatible with the Ghostrider. The process eliminates the need to rely on costly outside contractors while keeping the ammunition within the Air Force.

The effort is expected to save roughly $4 million a year while giving AC-130J crews a larger supply of ammunition for training and operations. A partnership with the 116th Maintenance Squadron at Robins Air Force Base is helping make the transition possible, with full implementation targeted for October 2026.

For the Ghostrider, the A-10 ammunition provides a practical new source of firepower. Rounds once intended for the Warthog are now being prepared for another legendary gunship, giving AC-130J crews more ammunition for training and, when called upon, combat operations.

Millions of A-10 30 mm Rounds Find a New Home
Steve Schneider

At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains that, for flavanol intake, a variety of fruits is better. He writes:

• Previous research, including the large COSMOS clinical trial, found that consuming about 500 milligrams (mg) of flavanols daily was associated with a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and fewer major cardiovascular events. However, note that COSMOS tested a cocoa extract supplement rather than food, enrolled adults aged 60 and older, and the reduction in major cardiovascular events came from a post hoc analysis
• The featured study found following current fruit and vegetable recommendations didn’t provide enough flavanols for most people to reach the intake linked with better heart health, showing that which foods you choose affects flavanol intake more than how many servings you eat. Even then, high-flavanol produce did not reliably reach the 500 mg benchmark in the researchers’ simulations
• Researchers analyzed more than 30,000 people from the U.S. and United Kingdom using objective laboratory measurements instead of relying only on food questionnaires, giving a more accurate picture of real-world flavanol intake
• Apples, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, pears, plums, green tea, and minimally processed cocoa are among the foods that naturally provide higher amounts of flavanols, making them smart additions to a heart-healthy eating pattern
• Instead of simply eating more produce, rotating a wider variety of flavanol-rich fruits and other plant foods into your meals is an easy way to increase these beneficial compounds while enjoying the many other nutrients whole foods provide

Read more here.

Flavanols: Variety Is Better
The Editors

Originally posted September 8th, 2026

What Happened There?

Peggy Noonan reminds her readers in the WSJ that it has been 25 years. My, doesn’t time fly? Ms. Noonan admits that she spent the last week reading what she had written about 9/11in the past quarter of a century. Ms Noonan admits,

I wrote about 9/11 and attendant themes every week for one year; I felt that my readers and I were processing it together.

Year #1: A lot of street-level reporting; “ the sound and look of a city changed.”

Year #2: Two days after 9/11, people were calling it “what happened,” as in, “they think he died in what happened.”

Ms. Noonan wrote a piece called “What I Saw at the Devastation,” which said that Americans were experiencing an end to the illusion “that we rich and powerful folk will be kept safe by our status, wealth and luck.”

On the 10^th anniversary, Ms. Noonan’s theme was “What We Owe the Dead,” writing that it is “memory itself.” What really shocked New Yorkers is that “the buildings came down.”

The buildings were a cloud. The buildings were gone and that was too much to bear because they couldn’t be gone, they couldn’t have fallen. Because no one could knock down those buildings. And it changed everything. It marked a psychic shift in our town between ‘safe’ and ‘not safe.’ It marked the end of impregnable America and began an age of vulnerability.”

Ms. Noonan still thinks that’s true.

The Man in the Red Bandana

On the 15^th anniversary, PN used her column as a tribute to a beautiful young man, Welles Crowther.

The day after 9/11, on 9/12, Noonan’s son was aboard a subway taking “a patched-together, roundabout” route back home to Manhattan, and the train came up from a tunnel and started to curl north.

At that point, PN’s son told her, riders would always look left, just for a second, at the towers and the gleam of downtown Manhattan in the sunlight. And that morning everyone turned as usual, and saw the debris cloud where the towers had been. And from everyone in the car came a soft collective sigh, a groan, an ohhhhhhh.

There was a big man, a union guy, tough, standing in the middle of the car, and he looked at everyone else, and then lowered himself to a seat and began to cry.

To Ms. Noonan, her son’s story was reminiscent of the story of the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, on July 3, 1913.

The living participants, in their 70s and 80s, came in their old uniforms. It was huge, 50,000 returned. They reenacted Pickett’s Charge and something happened. The old Confederates came out of the tree line and began to make their way up the long slope. The Union soldiers awaited them at the famous stone fence, and as they saw the Confederates struggle through in their doomed charge, the Union soldiers made a sound—an ohhhhhhh, “a gigantic gasp of unbelief,” as David McCullough put it in Ken Burns’s “The Civil War.”

It was a sound, writes Peggy Noonan, that said this isn’t only history; it is human tragedy. The Union soldiers found themselves unable to re-enact defeating them. They embraced (him).

What Happened There

How brave, writes Mx. Noonan. “Never lie about the things that break your heart. I’ll never get over it, none of us will.”

25 Years Gone By
Debbie Young

“Yes, seeing their excitement was great. I was moved to tears more than once, and it wasn’t just me,” my client wrote. He was describing Rush’s concert earlier this summer in Fort Worth, Texas.

Touring for the first time since 2015’s R40 Live Tour, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of drummer Neil Peart joining the band in 1974, and following Peart’s passing in January 2020, this tour feels like both a remembrance and a time of healing, with Anika Nilles delicately taking the drum throne with deference and unquestionable skill.

In our conversation, knowing that Rush will be in Boston, MA, for two shows this weekend—Saturday and Monday night—you asked, “Were your ears ringing? I was about to call you.”

“Happens to me all the time,” I said.

“Are you going?” he asked.

“I don’t have tickets,” I said. “But I’m working on it.”

“Go,” he said. “It was amazing.”

And this comes from someone who saw Rush from the beginning, fifty-something years ago, and on every tour in between. Bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee, he told me, is playing the best he’s ever played, and you can tell he has worked on his voice since their last tour—apparently taking voice lessons like he’s a kid. Anika’s drumming and the sound of her drums, are amazing. And Alex’s playing? He’s playing “La Villa Strangiato.” Enough said.

P.S. Rumor has it that after the world tour, which ends in April, Rush will do a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas in late 2027.

Check out keyboardist Loren Gold in the intro to “Camera Eye.”

Had to put this in for Neil.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.

Rush: “I Was Moved to Tears More Than Once…”
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy