The Inner Monologue

Thinking Out Loud

The AI Renaissance in Governance — How Generative Intelligence Can Make State, Local, and Tribal Governments Exponentially More Efficient

For the past century, the machinery of government has been built on paper, people, and process. Even as computers arrived, the underlying structure barely changed — we digitized the forms, but not the thinking. Generative artificial intelligence now offers something different: a chance not to automate government as it is, but to reinvent government as…
Benjamin Franklin Wrote About Farts, and You’re Taking Me Seriously?

At approximately 74 years old, Benjamin Franklin—scientist, diplomat, revolutionary, philosopher, Founding Father, and a man whose face would eventually appear on the hundred-dollar bill—sat down and wrote an essay about farting. Not metaphorical farting. Actual farting. Franklin proposed that scientists investigate whether something could be added to food that would make human intestinal gas smell…
Welcome to America. Your Lobbyist Will See You Now.

There was a time when political corruption was refreshingly straightforward. A businessman wanted something from the government. He slipped an envelope across a desk. A politician did him a favor. Eventually somebody found the envelope, somebody went to jail, and Hollywood made a movie about it. We have apparently evolved beyond such primitive arrangements. Consider…
The Managed Democracy Temptation: An American Drift

There is a sharp but often overlooked distinction between rule of law and rule by law. The first is the foundation of a liberal democracy: laws bind everyone, government and citizen alike, and are applied impartially. The second is its mimicry: laws exist, but they are bent into instruments of power, drafted and enforced selectively…
Please Share This Crap

I have a small favor to ask. If you have ever read one of my posts and thought, “Huh. That wasn’t a complete waste of four minutes,” please share it. That’s it. That’s the entire sophisticated marketing strategy. I currently make absolutely nothing from these posts. No advertising empire. No lucrative sponsorship deal. No yacht…
Corruption, Cronyism, or Coincidence? Follow the Money Behind America’s 250th Birthday

America only gets one 250th birthday. Congress began preparing for it a decade ago. In 2016, it created the United States Semiquincentennial Commission to oversee the celebration and the public-facing America250 effort. Congress later appropriated $150 million for activities commemorating the anniversary. Then Donald Trump returned to the White House, and something peculiar happened. A…
The Day the Sky Fell: When an EF5 Tornado Hits a City Divided by Wealth

It begins as a bruise on the horizon—a greenish, spinning smear above the skyline. By the time the sirens wail, millions are already watching radar apps, seeing the red hook echo bloom like a curse. They tell themselves the same lie people always tell: It won’t hit here. But this time it does. And when…
When Magic Muddies the Medicine

We live in an age overflowing with beneficial practices. Science has verified that regular exercise lowers blood pressure, meditation reduces stress, community connection extends life, and a balanced diet protects the heart. These are not mysteries; they are measurable, repeatable, and as reliable as sunrise. And yet—over and over—we see these simple truths overlaid with…
How Glinda Conquered Oz

Everyone remembers the Wicked Witch of the West as the villain of The Wizard of Oz. But watch the 1939 movie again and consider a more unsettling possibility. What if Glinda was the one manipulating everything? When Dorothy arrives in Oz, she accidentally kills the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda immediately appears and places…
The Bill After Trump: What Would It Cost America to Put the Federal Government Back Together?

There is a peculiar assumption underlying much of the debate over Donald Trump’s second administration: that whatever one thinks of his transformation of the federal government, a future president can simply change it back. A regulation can be rewritten. An agency can be reopened. Scientists can be rehired. Federal property can be reacquired. Grants can…