“In the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the father of the bride claims that Windex, a US glass cleaning product, can cure all known medical conditions. I was reminded of that scene when I heard Donald Trump prescribe tariffs as a remedy for diarrhea last week. The Center for Disease Control has recently registered more than 4,000 cases of a disease suspected to be cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness, transmitted through food. The suspect is shredded lettuce, grown in Mexico and exported to Taco Bell fast-food chains across the US. When a reporter asked him about the outbreak, Trump threatened to put a tariff on imported Mexican lettuce to control the spread of the parasite.
The President may not have been serious about the lettuce tariff, but he is serious about tariffs in general.” (07/27/26)
“Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino is stepping down after the failure of her ‘woke’ [sic] rebrand last year, which was rolled back following intense backlash from loyal customers, the company announced Monday. David Deno, a restaurant exec who most recently served as CEO of Bloomin’ Brands, which owns Outback Steakhouse, will replace Masino on August 10, according to a Cracker Barrel press release. … diners revolted against the company’s attempts to modernize the Southern dining chain last August by axing its beloved mascot Uncle Herschel and revamping restaurants without its trademark tchotchkes. Following heated backlash from longtime customers and even President Trump himself, Cracker Barrel reversed the changes and leaned into its folksy charm – ultimately sending the stock up 100% so far this year.” (07/27/26)
“So much of our politics today is driven by gender, from Graham Platner’s rise and fall to Pete Hegseth’s testosterone testing to various anti-trans crusades. Samantha and guest Katherine Cross, contributing editor at Liberal Currents, discuss the historical antecedents of modern gender anxieties, how history moves in a corkscrew, and why the right wing is forever driven by a longing for a past that never was.” (07/27/26)
“To date, ‘Emperor Commodus of Covfefe’s’ illegal, disastrous, dim-witted Iran ‘excursion,’ a mangling of ‘incursion’ and global clusterfuck with no clear mission, strategy, end goal or clue, has killed over 3,500 Iranians, many of them women and children, wounded over 26,500, and razed much of that country’s infrastructure, including fresh water sources. At least 18 U.S. troops have been killed, with up to 500 wounded. A quarter of the world’s oil is held hostage across two vital straits, at least 70% of Americans oppose the war, recession-level prices here loom, and rage, especially among Muslim nations, is palpable …” (07/26/26)
“At least 30 people were killed when armed men attacked a village in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna state early on Monday, two residents said. Dogon Rana, secretary to the village head, said gunmen stormed the community shooting randomly and burning houses. Eight children were among the dead, while four other people sustained injuries. Violence by armed gangs and other criminal groups has become a major security challenge across parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria, where communities are frequently targeted in deadly raids. The northeast is battling a deadly insurgency by Islamist militants Boko Haram and splinter group ISWAP. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Kaduna state.” (07/27/26)
“We have reached the end of the Age of Reading and started our descent down the slippery slope of digital distraction toward a post-literate future. But what does this mean? What is the true value of reading? How was the Library of Alexandria lost, anyway? And can any of these questions be answered in an audio-visual podcast? Join James for this contemplative exploration of the meaning and value of the written word.” (07/27/26)
“Western strategists tend to read foreign powers through their own reflection. Having watched Britain, France, Germany, and their own country climb the ladder of empire through conquest and colonies, they assume any ascendant state will reach for the same rungs. Yet imputing European motives to an Asian civilization mistakes a particular history for a universal instinct. China’s rise unfolds inside a geography and a culture that make the sort of quick, broad conquest campaigns that defined European great powers extraordinarily hard to carry out.” (07/27/26)
“For over a decade, the FBI had been immersed in a vast, costly, but indisputably critical effort to build a modern digital case-management system. The bureau well understood the importance of information: gathering, organizing, sharing, assessing, and putting it to use to fight crime and protect national security. Yet what followed were countless missteps and misjudgments, more than $1 billion of public money squandered, and the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. And it still took more than 10 years to get it right.” (07/27/26)
“A U.S.-Russian space crew landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday after an eight-month stint on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev touched down in their Soyuz MS-28 that landed smoothly by parachute in a designated area southeast of Dzhezkazgan. Their 241-day stint on the orbiting outpost was the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud‑Sverchkov.” (07/27/26)
