“President Donald Trump said he believes the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran ‘is over,’ after the US and Iran exchanged strikes across the Middle East. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched strikes on US military targets across Bahrain and Kuwait in response to a wave of US strikes. And Iran’s military said it targeted an air base in Bahrain that hosts US forces. The US had launched strikes and reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales as ‘punishment’ for attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz, according to an American official.” [editor’s note: Not only has there been no declaration of war, there has been a concurrent “war powers resolution” ordering Trump to end the war. If Congress had a spine, he’d have been impeached and removed by now – TLK] (07/08/26)
“[P]erhaps the most destructive ‘own-goal’ of the US attack is the Iranian decision to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz. Even in the US/Israeli attacks of last June, the Strait was kept open by Iran. It is a vital trade route and in everyone’s best interest to keep open for business. The February attack and Iran’s strong regional response led the country to embrace what some have called a de facto nuclear weapon: control of the Strait. … It is in the best interest of the United States to abandon claims on Hormuz – which is thousands of miles away – and live with the consequences of Trump’s mistake.” (07/07/26)
“A federal immigration agent fatally shot a driver in Houston on Tuesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has said. Agents stopped Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at around 6.50am and tried to [abduct] him, according to ICE, which described Salgado Araujo as a Mexican national and an ‘illegal [sic] alien’ whom the agency was seeking as part of a ‘targeted enforcement operation.’ … According to ICE, Salgado Araujo ‘weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer’. The confrontation resulted in ‘our officer firing his weapon in self-defense [sic]’.” (07/07/26)
“Big business versus big government is the ultimate false dichotomy of our time. Championing the former won’t break the cycle that allows both to marginalize the scope of (and solutions emerging from) voluntary cooperation, decentralized association, and individual freedom.” (07/07/26)
“Three people were killed across Ukraine on Wednesday in overnight Russian attacks, including one in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row. Several explosions were heard shortly after midnight, before authorities issued an air raid alert. It was an unusual sequence of events because warnings typically precede strikes, giving civilians time to find shelter. In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. … [In Russia] Nizhhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev didn’t name the facilities that were damaged. Yuri Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov region, said that Ukrainian drones hit and damaged two oil tankers in Taganrog Bay, injuring two crew members. The crew of one of the ships had to be evacuated.” (07/08/26)
“Elon Musk has taken in at least $38 billion in subsidies and federal contracts, not counting the $1.5 billion EV subsidy Tesla took advantage of from President Barack Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA gave a $7,500 per vehicle subsidy to electric vehicle purchases. In total, that $39.5 billion in subsidies amounts to $470 for every one of the 84.2 million American families. That means the average family is $470 poorer because of Elon Musk. Billionaire and trillionaire sycophants counter that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and the other super-wealthy provide services to the American government, that these services are ‘worth it,’ and that if they hadn’t provided the services or taken the subsidies someone else would have. … [That] sounds a lot like an argument a leftist greenie and a loyalist of the military-industrial complex would make, respectively.” (07/07/26)
“A federal judge ruled in favor of The Washington Post last week, formally throwing out Trump Media’s $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit against the outlet. U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber issued the ruling on Thursday and wrote in his summary docket that President Donald Trump’s social media company ‘failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence’ that the outlet ‘published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.’ … The decision comes three years after Trump Media and Technology Group sued The Washington Post for defamation, alleging a ‘years-long crusade’ had been conducted by the paper.” (07/07/26)
“If gratification is so easy, why don’t you feel more gratified already? Because it’s gotten harder. It’s still easy to experience individual feats of gratification when you find them (or they find you). But the ordinary circumstances that once produced so much gratification have gradually receded. Unseen choices in design, business, and social life have made it harder for you to engage directly with the sensory world. This problem snuck up on me, and probably on you as well. Slowly, over time, the world started withdrawing from us. Automation took over ordinary tasks. Things that used to have buttons suddenly did not. Basic activities got taken over by computers. I was slow to notice it happening, too. But once I did, I saw it everywhere and every day.” (07/07/26)
“Britain’s Prince Harry has lost his long-running legal battle against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday tabloid newspapers, according to court documents seen by CBS News on Tuesday. All claims were thrown out by the court in what is widely expected to be the last of the prince’s courtroom battles against British media outlets. Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was among several claimants in the case — along with pop star Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley — who accused the publisher of the popular tabloids, Associated Newspapers (ANL), of unlawfully gathering information about them through methods such as phone tapping, intercepting voicemails and impersonating people to obtain personal information. In its ruling on Tuesday, the U.K. High Court dismissed the claims, saying they could not be proven.” (07/07/26)
