Source: New York Times
“Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced he was cutting short the week’s legislative business and sending the House home early for the summer on Wednesday to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. … deep divisions among Republicans on the matter have now paralyzed the House, as Republicans seek to avoid a politically perilous vote on a matter that is confounding President Trump and roiling their MAGA base. … On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee also voted to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime partner of Mr. Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence on a sex-trafficking conviction, for a deposition. Representative Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who has pushed for more transparency in the Epstein case, introduced the motion to subpoena Ms. Maxwell, and several Republican members supported it.” (07/22/25)
https://archive.is/OmEYX
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“I remember lying on the carpet as a child, listening to Garrison Keillor’s nose-hairs whistle faintly as he regaled the country with stories of Americana, featuring fictional sponsors like Raw Bits, Powdermilk Biscuits, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. These were all mildly humorous, but the humor obscured a bitter irony: You were the sponsor, whether you liked it or not. Those days might soon be over. Censorship! they cry from the echo chambers of MSDNC. They’re killing Big Bird!, say the pundits frequently enough to make a drinking game out of it. But we know a brand like Big Bird is probably too big to fail, even in the absence of tax subsidies.” (07/22/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/killing-big-bird
Source: Serious Trouble
“To Most People It’s Extremely Tedious.” (07/22/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/to-most-people-its-extremely-tedious
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“Ukraine’s parliament has backed a push by Kyiv’s presidential office for greater control over the country’s independent anti-corruption bodies, in a move that critics warn would hand President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s circle more influence over investigations. Lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favour of legislation that would, in effect, eliminate the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and its partner organisation the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo), according to four lawmakers and officials familiar who spoke with the Financial Times during the vote. The parliament also voted in favour of rushing the law to the president for his signature.” (07/22/25)
https://archive.is/94Kkr
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“How many atrocities can the federal government get away with? Americans are still vexed by the answers that Congress failed to deliver in 1995. Thirty summers ago, Washington was fixated by a Capitol Hill showdown over the greatest federal abuse of power of the decade. Unfortunately, trusting congressional hearings to discover the truth is like trusting a roomful of monkeys with typewriters to write great novels — it might happen, but only in an eternity.” (07/22/25)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/07/22/waco-and-the-death-of-congressional-oversight/
Source: NBC News
“Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday fired a federal prosecutor whom New Jersey’s federal judges had named to replace the state’s interim U.S. attorney, Alina Habba, a close ally of President Donald Trump. … Desiree Leigh Grace was named U.S. attorney for New Jersey, according to an order the chief judge for the District of New Jersey, Renee Marie Bumb, signed Tuesday. The order means judges declined to extend Habba’s interim role, which expires after 120 days. … But Bondi said that Grace ‘has just been removed’ and that the ‘Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers.’ … The plan is to reinstall Habba in the position in some capacity, as the administration did with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, but no specific method has been established yet, the person said.” (07/22/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-ally-alina-habba-replaced-interim-us-attorney-new-jersey-rcna220296
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The sole and entire reason for this release, at this moment, is to try to ‘change the conversation’ away from inquiry into the relationship between US president Donald Trump and convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein. That’s it. That’s all. But that doesn’t mean the files shouldn’t have been released.” (07/22/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19811
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists has been forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros after a quayside protest over the Gaza war. Around 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris were prevented from disembarking amid safety concerns when more than 300 demonstrators on the Cycladic isle made clear they were unwelcome over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. … Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, contacted his Greek counterpart, George Gerapetritis, over the incident, the Greek foreign ministry confirmed. It did not release any details of their discussion.” (07/22/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/22/israeli-cruise-rerouted-after-aegean-islanders-protest-gaza-war
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“In our earlier exchanges on ethical vegetarianism, Huemer was highly confident that insects are not conscious. This allowed him to dismiss the empirical premise on which my challenge rests. In their interview, however, Adelstein very effectively rebuts Huemer’s skepticism. The connection between neurons and consciousness is complex, so insisting ‘Bugs don’t have the right kind of brains to be conscious’ is silly. Furthermore, insects typically respond to pain like any other animal. While they may feel less chronic pain than higher animals, they still seem to intensely feel acute pain. … Adelstein surprised me (and, I think, Huemer as well) when he used ‘insects suffer horribly’ to craft a utilitarian argument for mass extermination of insects. But there’s a weird logic to it. In Adelstein’s eyes, bug suffering is so horrible that the typical bug would be better off dead.” (07/22/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/reflections-on-ethical-vegetarianism
Source: Seattle Times
“The former chair of the Island County Republican Party refused to wear a mask while observing ballot counting during the 2024 presidential election. Now, an Island County jury has found him guilty of a felony. This month, jurors convicted Timothy Hazelo of unauthorized access to an election office or ballot-counting area and first-degree criminal trespassing. Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider had instituted a mask policy for vote counters and observers, because of a COVID-19 outbreak in August 2024, according to court documents. … Hazelo, an outspoken opponent of mask mandates who ran for U.S. House in 2020, showed up mask-free. Two local law enforcement officers responded. Hazelo told officers he would not leave unless he received a citation, according to a civil complaint filed by one of Hazelo’s lawyers, Austin Hatcher. The officers escorted him from the building and cited him.” (07/22/25)
https://archive.is/5podj
