“Some of the most peaceful moments of my life were spent standing on the deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier just before dawn. It feels like looking over the entire ocean, into endless blue water. An aircraft carrier is massive—like a floating city on the sea—and yet you can still feel the gentle rocking from the ocean’s waves through the soles of your feet. When you breathe into this moment—the salty air filling your lungs—you’re reminded of how incredibly small you are in the grand scheme of things. The realization causes a sort of lightness and fluttering within the chest, an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all that you cannot understand. Then the day begins. The launch of the first F/A-18 fighter jet tears a sonic hole through the silent morning.” (07/08/26)
“As temperatures hit 100 degrees last week, New York City’s unconventional mayor did something pretty conventional: He urged people to use less electricity. But when Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees (a past practice of both Democrats and Republicans alike), he revealed something far more harmful than the heat index: how much Albany’s policies have driven New York City’s power grid to the point of collapse. Several factors are at play every summer. About 90% of homes today have air conditioning; as recently as the 1980s, most didn’t. Portions of the electric system are extremely old by national standards, and the sheer physics of generating and distributing the appropriate voltage and amperage to every corner of such a dense and diverse cityscape borders on the miraculous.” (07/08/26)
“Artificial intelligence firms initially justified their extreme capital investment (the four largest tech companies expect to spend more than $750 billion for AI infrastructure just this year) by saying that the technology would replace all human workers. They’ve since recognized what an unbelievably bad PR pitch that was, and have pivoted to promote a sunnier scenario where ‘we’re going to be able to keep people at the center of everything’, as OpenAI’s Sam Altman said in May. But there’s a sobering reality underneath the rhetorical shift: AI is turning out to be more expensive for businesses than paying their workers. And that could be one of the many triggers that collapses the fragile economic edifice that the dreams of AI are propping up. The news has mostly been relegated to the business pages, but AI firms repriced their product for business customers in recent months.” (07/08/26)
“Zohran Mamdani, New York’s self-described socialist mayor, could not resist using the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration to trash the very country that he and his parents voluntarily sought out. As is his custom, Mamdani speaks in stereotypes and generalities, offering few if any examples, all laced with his accustomed unctuous hypocrisy. … At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Thus spoke the pampered rich kid from Uganda, who immigrated to America with his now-endowed professor father and elite filmmaker mother, the latter reportedly supported by millions of dollars in grants from the Qatari royal autocracy.” (07/07/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquity of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces. Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now. Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil.” (07/07/26)
“As President Donald Trump prepares to take center stage at the NATO summit in Ankara, he must place the robust defense of Ukraine at the absolute top of the agenda. Whatever he does — whatever his current irritations — he must not look to throw Kyiv under the bus. Rather, with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin still baring his gritted teeth, Trump must communicate to his counterparts in the great North Atlantic security alliance the necessity of holding the line, ramping up pressure on Moscow and bolstering its defensive posture on the eastern frontier. Russian aggression is Europe’s generational security challenge (and down the road, potentially America’s, too); it demands to be top-of-mind for every leader in the alliance. Anything less would signal weakness to Putin and embolden adversaries from Beijing to Tehran.” (07/06/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Bita Iuliano & Olivia Dinucci
“As the country and this administration launched its America 250 and Freedom 250 ‘Celebrations’ over the holiday weekend, what we experienced in the nation’s capitol and a city of 700,000 residents replicated what the United States does to other parts of the world. The streets were invaded by the military, public spaces barricaded with multiple levels of security checkpoints, and the sky full of military flyovers, including a seven-hour schedule of flyovers on July 4th. Military flyovers come at a devastating cost—economically, psychologically, and environmentally. The most recent ones came in the middle of a heatwave where even Trump’s American State Fair closed after people were baptizing themselves in the religious tent to prevent heat stroke. But flyovers are not new and have been used as a propaganda tool for military recruitment during NFL games and summer festivals. The militarization has been so normalized for so long.” (07/06/26)
“The Supreme Court’s rush of decisions last week belies several myths concocted by its leftist [sic] critics. Listen to Democratic politicians or read liberal [sic] legal commentators, and you would believe that a conservative Supreme Court is marching in lockstep with Donald Trump to impose an extremist agenda on an unwilling American people. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY] for example, often criticizes what he dubs ‘the MAGA Supreme Court’ for transforming government agencies into ‘members-only clubs for his golf buddies and cronies’. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY] decries ‘the corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump’ for ‘taking a blowtorch’ to civil rights laws. Almost every Democratic leader, especially those jockeying for position in the 2028 presidential race, demands that Congress pack the court in order to correct this alleged bias of the conservative justices.” (07/07/26)
“Across the United States, a significant number of communities are experiencing a resurgence in the availability of local news from an evolving range of nonprofit outlets that are carving out a unique hometown niche. In recent decades, competition and changing readership patterns have led to the closure or downsizing of multiple city or state-wide newspapers. At the same time, however, hundreds of local news outlets are springing up to fill the gaps. An October 2025 report counted ‘more than 300 local news startups in the past five years across virtually every state, demonstrating a surge of entrepreneurship that has come along with a wave of philanthropic support’. According to the Institute for Nonprofit News, local outlets now make up 54% of its membership. ‘New growth … continues to skew local’, the institute’s 2026 index reported. ‘All nine outlets that became members and began publishing in 2025 covered local beats,’ as did the vast majority of new members in 2024 and 2023.” (07/06/26)
“The first of the two times I wrote about Graham Platner at these pages was last year. Among other things, it made the point that candidates are vessels for ideas and policies, and that none of them are indispensable. The second time, a week ago, was about how financial corruption exists on a different plane than other scandals. That is not diminished by the latest news; Platner’s actions and Susan Collins’s corruption can both be inexcusable and described as such. Regardless of any public defiance from unnamed sources, Platner is not going to survive the latest allegations, and he should not. What comes next is the only thing that matters now, in a world where a Democratic Senate is vital to preventing continued unchecked lawlessness, the confirmation of dozens more right-wing judges, and to preserve the vestiges of democracy.” [editor’s note: In recent years I have watched from afar the madness in my homeland states, with a mixture of amusement and horror. I am SO happy to be back to amusement – SAT] (07/07/26)
