Leviathan’s Hardware

Posted on March 30, 2026 by The Political Hat

     The sudden and seemingly coordinated drive in both Blue and Red states to require age verification in order to use an operating system or an app store claims another state, Michigan.   However, the twin bills introduced in the Legislature, one by a Democrat and one by a Republican, extends this to hardware and requires that device manufacturers. Both HB 4429 and SB 284 describe a “covered manufacturer” as “a manufacturer of a device, an operating system for a device, or an application store.” and requires them to:

Sec. 5. (1) A covered manufacturer shall take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to do all of the following:

(a) On activation of a device, determine or estimate the age of the device’s user or users.

(b) Using an application programming interface, provide an application store, website, application, and online service with a digital signal regarding the age of the device’s user or users, […]

     Unsurprisingly, it uses the same exact age brackets as all the other bills. It also has the same convenient safe-harbor protection for those who use “commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps”.

     The bills also allow the Attorney General to “promulgate rules […] to establish the processes covered manufacturers must use to comply with this act” without any check or balance.

     This is the camels nose sticking in the tent; allow that in and soon you’re getting trampled.

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News of the Week (March 29th, 2026)

Posted on March 29, 2026 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for March 29th, 2026


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Firing Line Friday: Vietnam: What Next?

Posted on March 27, 2026 by The Political Hat

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     With the current war against Iran, people are again wondering what America’s next step will be and even what “victory” would look like. Sixty years ago, questions about a very different war were asked by William F. Buckley, Jr. and Staughton Lund discussing what is next in Vietnam.

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Reflexive Propaganda

Posted on March 25, 2026 by The Political Hat

     A lie told often enough may not be sufficient to make people believe it is true, but can be if you get enough people to say it, effecting a normalization of the lie until it is “true” for most people. It is an inorganic, and powerful, way of manipulating people that is also known as “reflexive network dynamics” as James Lindsay explains:

One of the ways reflexive propaganda campaigns spread on social media is through what we should call “reflexive network dynamics.” This is a very important concept for understanding not just propaganda today but also the gaming and weaponizing of the algorithms.

Reflexivity

First, a quick review. Reflexivity refers to a propaganda technique in which the same message appears everywhere all at once, reflected from all angles, until it takes off virally.

Ultimately, “reflexivity” in this regard springs from the tools George Soros laid out for doing “social alchemy” in his 1992 book The Alchemy of Finance. In that book, Soros explains that while the natural sciences are actually scientific, the social sciences are actually alchemical. One might say that the point of studying society is not to understand it, but to change it, even.

Soros indicates that the difference between social sciences (or, as he calls it “social alchemy”) and natural sciences is that the participants in social sciences are themselves influenced by participation in the situation. He recognizes that this “reflexive” state of affairs can be arranged inorganically to create social change and refers to reflexivity as a “dialectic” and a theory of “historical change.”

Soros’s point is that reflexivity occurs when changes in perception start to cascade into greater changes in perception, and this only happens when people’s beliefs are out of alignment with reality, with the more the better. He understands that reflexivity can also be manufactured by getting people to start to believe false things, and that belief is largely a social process.

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California Legislature Trying To Legalize Discrimination… Yet Again

Posted on March 23, 2026 by The Political Hat

     The California Legislature Grand Soviet continues to be hell bent on racially discriminating, and has repeatedly put state constitutional amendments on the ballot to alter or abolish Prop. 209, which banned affirmative action in California thirty years ago. Now, they are trying to do so again in such a way that doesn’t explicitly run afoul of the landmark Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

     How?

     By repealing the ban on affirmative action in public education on everything except higher education admissions and enrollment. ACA 7 would change the first three sub-sections of the California constitution’s Article I, Section 31 to read, with removed text in strikethrough and new language in bold:

(a) The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education admissions and enrollment, or public contracting.

(b) This section shall apply only to action taken after the section’s effective date and is limited to the areas of public employment, higher education admissions and enrollment, and public contracting.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as prohibiting bona fide qualifications based on sex which are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public employment, public education admissions and enrollment, or public contracting.

     This would, purportedly allow for full racial discrimination in K-19 and for discrimination within colleges and universities. California last tried this, and failed spectacularly in 2022 with Prop. 14, which failed by 14%.

     This is going to go on until the Supreme Court slaps it all down. California, though, is hoping to hold out long enough for the Supreme Court to flip to a pro-discrimination majority… no matter how long it takes.

     The text can be read here, or as passed out of the Assembly and introduced into the state Senate.

California ACA7 (2025) by ThePoliticalHat

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News of the Week (March 22nd, 2026)

Posted on March 22, 2026 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for March 22nd, 2026


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Firing Line Friday: Should Labor Power Be Reduced?

Posted on March 20, 2026 by The Political Hat

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     Union corruption has been around as unions themselves have. Both their power and the effects of corruption are just as relevant as they were sixty years ago when William F. Buckley, Jr. and Victor Riesel discussed if labor power should be reduced?

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Same March, Different Boots

Posted on March 19, 2026 by The Political Hat

     With many on the purported “Right” openly embracing Leftist tacics, theories, and frameworks, we are seeing not the opposition to the “long march through the institutions” but a continuation of said march, abet with different boots doing the marching.   As James Lindsay explains.

Let’s get some perspective. The Woke Right is not a reaction to the Woke Left; it is the CONTINUATION of the Woke Left into conservative institutions.

The Long March Through the Institutions effectively hit its Leftist limit by maybe 2022 or so at the latest. Leftists had taken or destroyed every institution they actually could take or destroy by then, more or less. And there was massive pushback from conservative institutions that weren’t just based but getting organized quickly and effectively.

The Long March Through the Institutions had to continue INTO conservative institutions (mostly faith and family, into any remaining honest “Alt Media,” together with the more solid wings of the Republican Party and the sectors of the right-wing think tank world that repelled it).

The Long March Through the Institutions has to march into EVERY institution, not just ones that are easy pickings for Leftist intellectuals and bureaucrat types, plus kids.

What does the Long March Through the Institutions do? One of two things. It runs entryist programming to get inside established institutions and to turn them to the revolutionary cause or, when it cannot do this, destroys them. The mechanism is internal infection plus external pressure almost every time.

So the Long March Through the Institutions ran as far as it could run into Left-susceptible institutions by 2022 at the latest, and it was mostly repelled by Right-standing institutions. But the Long March Through the Institutions had to continue into EVERY institution to truly transform society. There can be no remaining solid resistance.

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Brain Cells On A Microchip Taught To Play Doom Are Cyborg Gamer Catgirls And Other Kemonomimi Next?

Posted on March 18, 2026 by The Political Hat

     Perfecting the man-machine interface increasingly involves using neurons for computing, though teaching, or programming them, has bee difficult, until now. Scientists have taught human neuron cells to play Doom.

“According to Cortical Labs, the experiment builds on earlier work in which lab-grown neurons learned to play the classic 1972 game Pong, but Doom presents a far more complex challenge due to its 3D environments and enemy encounters.

“‘To bridge that gap, we needed to translate the digital world of Doom into the biological language of neurons, which is electricity,’ the researchers explained in a February 25 video.

“The system converts gameplay into electrical stimulation patterns delivered to different parts of the neural culture. When enemies appear on one side of the screen, corresponding electrodes stimulate that region of the neurons, which then respond with electrical signals interpreted as movement or shooting commands.

“‘If the neurons fire in a specific pattern, Doomguy shoots. If they fire in another pattern, he moves right, and so on,’ they said.

“Researchers said the cells are capable of basic learning and adaptation, though performance remains limited.”

     The ultimate goal is clear: Developing catgirls and doggirls to become gamers.

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Leviathan’s App Store

Posted on March 16, 2026 by The Political Hat

     The sudden drive of multiple states to require users hand over information just to use software is bipartisan, with bills in Utah, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas requiring both app store and app developers on mobile devices.

     The Utah bill, SB 142, puts the onus on both the app store, which may be anyone who offers apps, and app developers, which may be anyone who owns or provides an app that is so offered. Beyond this, it requires the Division of Consumer Protection to establish whatever standards they want for “age verification”. All of this would establish the state can define who can and can not use any software, and sets the technical precedent to go beyond mere “age verification”.

     In Alabama, HB161, does much of the same:

“Consumer protection, app store providers and developers required to take certain actions related to age verification and parental consent, Attorney General authorized to bring action for violations as deceptive trade practice, parents authorized to bring civil action”

     Unlike Utah, Alabama will rely on “industry standards”:

“A developer is not liable for a violation of Section 9(c)(2) if the developer: (i) uses widely adopted industry standards to determine the app’s age category and content description; and (ii) applies those standards consistently and in good faith.”

     Oh, and in order to fall into the “safe harbor” category they will needed to have used: “(1) Used a commercially reasonable age verification process.”

     Both Louisiana, which passed HB 570, and Texas, which passed SB2420 has the same requirements as Alabama. Louisiana extends this to virtual gaming devices and game systems.

     And just were would these standards and processes come from, and why are these bill all using the same age brackets? Maybe because it’s all being pushed by a someone who would financially benefit from it?

     This is about control, and these state legislators are allowing themselves to be used, all “for the children”.

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