Joe Pitts

Powell’s education—one grounded in experience—taught him moderation and prudence. His experience of the West taught him its limits. The West would only be settled successfully if its laws and mores accorded with the climate. If Old World conceptions of water rights, land use, and agriculture were taken as Gospel, the project of the frontier would collapse upon its own edifice. Yet despite his keen understanding of the West’s limits, Powell was an explorer; a man unwilling to sit still; a man whose quest for knowledge frequently took him west of the 100th meridian and into the thrashing waters of the Colorado. One is reminded of Xerxes, preparing to cross the Hellespont and initiate an invasion of Greece. His dreams urged him on; his vizier urged caution. Both temptations—taking risks and taking precautions—co-mingled in Powell’s soul. It was his education that uniquely prepared him to balance them; to exercise clear-eyed courage where others urged recklessness. — @JoePitts for the Western Tribune, a @1912Institute publication.

"No reason to get excited" The thief, he kindly spoke "There are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke But you and I, we've been through that And this is not our fate So let us not talk falsely now The hour is getting late"

@JoePitts Never surrender

For all their benefits, something I'll never forgive LLMs for is making me slightly less likely to use em-dashes.

"That is the trap at the center of this conversation: everyone wants to hire someone with three years of experience, and almost no one wants to provide those three years." @ryancraigap humanistxyz.substack.com/p/if-ai-eats-t…

@hstrataz @codyreim247 @George_Khalaf Go @George_Khalaf! 🇺🇸

Nobody cares who I endorse or vote for. But for the record I voted for @codyreim247 and @George_Khalaf. And I have encourage everyone I know to do the same.

Social Capital™️ I have never seen the plight of my generation articulated so well. This is the core issue we must solve, we must provide abundant social capital to the next generation - using the levers of politics and private industry - or humanity as we know it will end.

@gildeguerra Thanks, Gil!

Great read:

I wrote about John Wesley Powell, a great man who deserves a place in America's Pantheon:

@RepDavid You and your family are in my prayers. Praying for the repose of your father's soul.

It saddens me to share the news that my father Bill Schweikert died this morning He was a good man, a great father, and a wonderful grandfather to our children Olivia and Matthew. I will always cherish this picture of him with Matthew that was taken last night just hours before my father passed away. We will miss him dearly.

Also talked to @asymmetricinfo about my partying philosophy + why no one can save Gen Z but themselves. Listen to Reasonably Optimistic @PostOpinions for more! 🥂

Harvey Mansfield’s Long Dissent @AdamKissel on "Where Harvard Went Wrong: Fifty Years of Commentary That Fell on Deaf Ears" by Harvey C. Mansfield. @EncounterBooks

Kissinger: “The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision. Each side should know that frequently uncertainty, compromise, and incoherence are the essence of policymaking. Yet each tends to ascribe to the other a consistency, foresight, and coherence that its own experience belies. Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.”

This is an amazing quote from Lindsey Graham about when he realized how politics works. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/…

“Senator Lindsey Graham was always an effective legislator. But it took his sudden and tragic death at age 71 on Saturday for many to acknowledge his tremendous influence on American politics.” My roundup of tributes from all over the political spectrum for the last of the ‘Three Amigos’ @TheFP thefp.com/p/the-lindsey-…

In the Western Tribune this morning: "Because the West is a land of hope, it is also a land for those who dare. It is the land where brave bands of our distant ancestors crossed the Bering land bridge and trudged through Canadian tundra and the mighty Rockies to settle; the land where the Hohokam built a sprawling canal system half a millennium before Columbus landed in the New World; the land where adventurers of the Spanish Catholic, missionary Mormon, prospecting capitalist, and simple homesteader varieties proselytized and formed communities; the land where man split the atom and unleashed the boons and perils of the Atomic Age. Life does not come easy here; our droughts are enough to tell us that. But this danger—the risk of calamity—is precisely her appeal. Civilization was not built by those who cherished comfort or managed decline. Westerners know in our bones that stasis is death." — @JoePitts