Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell

“In the opening chapter of his book Ghosts of My Life, the Marxist theorist Mark Fisher argues that capitalism has destroyed creativity. That art—and he’s talking mostly about music in the book—has stagnated, that it’s no longer dynamic, but is instead endlessly remixing the past. I’ve always found this passage fascinating, because he’s very much onto something, even if not to quite the degree he imagines, but then he pins the blame in the wrong place. To the extent that we’ve lost the creative spark, in the way Fisher presents it, the culprit really isn’t capitalism. Or neoliberalism. It’s instead, to a rather blameworthy degree, NIMBYism.” (07/29/26)

https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/3mrqtnr7r2c2i

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jonah Goldberg

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it’s almost like the GOP is secretly promoting the Democratic Socialists of America, which is now producing a lot of the energy and excitement within the Democratic and Republican parties. The DSA champions many views that exist wildly outside the mainstream of American politics, including the abolition of the police, prisons, the Pentagon and the U.S. Senate. This is all, to borrow a term from social science, bat guano insane. … but I’m not too worried, even if the GOP fails to weaponize the Red Menace. If you tune out the noise and simply look at the more mainstream question of socialism’s alleged rise in popularity, fears of a socialist takeover of America are absurdly overblown.” (07/29/26)

https://archive.is/dcKiM

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“For decades, cameras have been installed on American roads to snap pics of speeding (or not-speeding) vehicles so that fines can be mailed to the guilty (or innocent) motorists. These cameras are supposedly about ticketing for speeding. But they have also often been used as a means of revenue extraction. Now there’s a new angle. Super-smart, super-dumb artificial intelligence is being merged with street cameras.” (07/28/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/28/billions-mis-served/

Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner

“On January 6, 2021, Trump attempted to stage a coup and he will surely try again. Last time, only the integrity of a handful of Republican officials spared the Republic that fate. Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, rebuffed Trump’s demand to find exactly 11,780 votes, and Vice President Mike Pence refused to go along with Trump’s scheme, laid out in detail by John Eastman, to refuse to certify the results. This time, Trump is relying on four possible strategies to steal the election. The survival of our democracy depends on whether each of them can be foiled, and how.” (07/28/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/07/28/trump-attempt-coup-january-6-election-republican-congress/

Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul

“Students who are not taught the history of America’s founding, including the importance of limiting government to a few well-defined functions and separating power among three branches of government and between the federal government and the states, will be less likely to support constitutional government. Similarly young people who are not taught that prosperity comes from free markets, private property, and sound money will be more likely to believe the socialist delusion that the key to prosperity is surrendering our liberty to politicians. The lack of education in basic economics is why many confuse our current economic system with the free market and thus blame capitalism for problems caused by the government.” [editor’s note: It’s also why many confuse free markets with capitalism – TLK] (07/28/26)

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/a-free-society-is-an-educated-society