Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring. … The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard. When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions on board, he replied: ‘No, they’re not.’ He said that the Lincoln’s deployment, now in its ninth month, was ‘not nearly long enough’. Earlier, Hegseth also swatted away families’ concerns, saying that the reality onboard the Lincoln had been ‘completely misrepresented’.” (08/16/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/16/navy-families-denounce-trump-hegseth
Source: Free Talk Live
“Politician steals from taxpayers and is caught :: Jason Arday professor in Cambridge who didn’t earn his position fairly kills himself :: Arday had lied about being mute and sports achievements and his attendance at various universities :: DEI and woke’s dark side :: FSP in the news :: Atilis Gym owner in NJ used Kickstarter to fund his fight against gov during Covid :: FlockHopper.com to search for cams near you :: haveibeenflocked.com/ to check if a cam has spotted you and a cop searched your LP number :: Fighting for free speech to have a license that says FTP&ATF :: WhatNot app. Gambling? Only a crime without a license :: 2026-08-15 Hosts: Bonnie, Chris R.” (08/15/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-08-15
Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig
“Trump’s populist style ensures he will always try to project himself as the outsider on a crusade against ‘the establishment’—but as his party’s nominee in the last three presidential elections, and as a winner of two of them, he has no business portraying his movement as the rebellion when it is actually the empire. It’s time liberals made that clear by embracing an underdog spirit befitting liberalism’s new underdog reality.” (08/15/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberalism-is-the-underdog-now-and
Source: The American Conservative
by Ivan Eland
“Although President Donald Trump is unable to publicly admit that ‘mistakes were made’ in his war with Iran—as American leaders sometimes describe their own blunders—he seems to be implicitly acknowledging that the military strategy he pursued has failed. He’s moving to a new strategy of extracting concessions from Iran via economic coercion, rather than bombing. Trump has described this as a ‘low-key’ and longer-term approach to the conflict. … Trump’s strategy of wearing Iran down economically would seemingly require him to keep the blockade and sanctions in place and the assets frozen, and certainly rules out providing war reparations. Moreover, the strategy isn’t truly ‘new’—America has long maintained economic pressure on Iran—and there’s little reason to suppose it will work now.” (08/15/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-low-key-economic-strategy-wont-work/
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In trying to hatch their own artificial intelligence, many countries are playing catch-up to the two world giants: the United States and China. In recent months, however, Japan has taken a different course. It admits it cannot create the most advanced AI models. Yet it might be the first nation to put AI at the center of a new economic strategy. In late July, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s Cabinet approved a plan to inject $2.3 trillion in public and private investment toward strengthening key industries by 2040, starting with AI and the computer chips that run it. The plan goes beyond merely automating current work, improving efficiencies, cutting costs, or boosting the economy. It would also enhance human creativity and innovation by focusing on applying AI to real-world problems – starting on the factory floor of Japan’s existing world-class manufacturing industries.” (08/14/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0814/Japan-eyes-nonartificial-intelligence
Sourc: New York Times
“The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to bless the construction of President Trump’s White House ballroom to replace the demolished East Wing. The planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom has been mired in litigation ever since the president tore down the East Wing in October as part of his plan to dramatically remake the White House campus. But the courts have let Mr. Trump build even while questioning the project’s legality, allowing the ballroom to steadily rise in recent months. The administration’s request for intervention from the nation’s highest court comes after an appeals court said on Aug. 7 that the president had most likely exceeded his authority by moving ahead with the privately financed project without approval from Congress.” (08/14/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/us/politics/trump-ballroom-white-house-supreme-court.html
Source: SFGate
“With two weeks to go before the gates to Burning Man’s Black Rock City swing open, organizers of the famously dusty desert bacchanal have launched an unprecedented promotion: Buy a bus seat from San Francisco or Reno to the event, and it comes with access to the lowest-cost general admission ticket. ‘We know that the decision to participate in Black Rock City can happen at the last minute, so we’re making a limited number of $550 lower-priced ‘Get the Gift’ tickets available to participants traveling to BRC as part of a Burner Express Bus (BXB) bundle,’ a Burning Man spokesperson told SFGATE by email. ‘The BXB program makes it easier and more affordable to get to Black Rock City, while helping reduce the environmental impact of travel — easing traffic and decreasing the number of vehicles on the roads.'” (08/15/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/burning-man-ticket-deal-22388715.php
Source: StephanKinsella.com
“Matt Sands and Kinsella on the Universal Principles of Liberty and the Nations of Sanity ‘Peace Agreement.’” (08/15/26)
https://stephankinsella.com/as_paf_podcast/kol496-sands-kinsella-universal-principles-of-liberty-nations-of-sanity-peace-agreement/
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
There is a difference between reporting and storytelling, and the story many observers wanted to tell this summer—that this primary season is a referendum on the ideological future of the Democratic Party—is at least in part at odds with the reported facts. Sometimes the DSA wackadoodle pulls it out, sometimes the relatively sober municipal-government guy takes the win. That’s the thing about elections: Whatever you may hear on the internet, they really are not fixed—on Election Day, things can go either way. … The general consensus among psephologists is that female major-party candidates do about as well as male major-party candidates for federal office, ceteris paribus. But the picture gets a little more complicated when you start asking the right questions.” (08/14/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/sex-socialism-hong-stevens-women/
Source: New York Post
by Kirsten Fleming
“He’s guilty as sin. Luigi Mangione has now admitted his role in the brazen murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in December of 2024. ‘I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,’ Mangione declared Friday morning in Manhattan Federal Court. Those chilling words should put the 28-year-old behind bars for life. However, among his depraved army of fangirls, Mangione’s guilty plea only bolsters his status as a righteous warrior. As one self-declared ‘Mangionista’, 27-year-old Abril Rios, said outside the courthouse: ‘I see it more of a revolutionary act of protest, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the civil rights era.’ Another dimwit gushed that she and the killer used the same sleeping medication, calling it ‘a little bonding moment.'” (08/14/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/08/14/opinion/luigi-mangione-is-no-martyr-hes-a-cold-blooded-murderer/
