“Congress was in Philadelphia, and Lafayette landed in South Carolina—he was an idealist, not a geographer. But with a letter of recommendation from Ben Franklin in his hand, he made his way up to Philadelphia, where Congress, grateful for the services of an enthusiastic young aristocrat who had the good taste to bring along his own money, commissioned the 19-year-old as a major general. … Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, endured the hardships of Valley Forge, and was one of the key players when the tide was turned at Yorktown. Lafayette also provided a critical channel between the upstart Americans and the French monarchy, whose financial and naval power were simply indispensable to the project of American independence. No Lafayette, no United States of America. Spit hot contempt at foreign aid all you like: No foreign aid from France, no United States of America.” (07/03/26)
“On the occasion of the Semiquincentennial anniversary of our free republic, many citizens will recognize and celebrate American Exceptionalism, including our nation’s Founders, its seminal documents, history, and undeniable legacy in advancing the cause of human liberty and self-government throughout the world. It is both appropriate and fitting that all this be done during the ‘America 250’ festivities. Still, there will also be indictments of all three from our republic’s current left-leaning malcontents, who often appear unaware of the irony and hypocrisy in their positions. The Left seeks to replace the very U.S. Constitution that protects their God-given right to assemble and voice their views. Further, despite their risible claims to promote ‘democracy’, the Left instead seeks to replace our free republic’s system of self-government with a centralized, elitist rule advancing a secular, identitarian civic religion of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’. Such an outcome is decidedly not ‘progressive’.” (07/04/26)
“This weekend, to celebrate Independence Day — our outdoor Thanksgiving — families across the country will gather around picnic tables piled with potato salad and sweet corn and, for my family, Midwestern broccoli crunch salad slick with Miracle Whip. But we Americans rarely make room for observances that turn our attention back to the reason we are celebrating. For years, my own family and many others have filled that vacuum by reading the Declaration of Independence aloud, passing a copy with each person reading a sentence before handing it to the next, parents helping younger readers stumble through words like ‘unalienable.’ … On this semiquincentennial, I urge people to do more than read and hear it. We should talk about what it means.” (07/03/26)
“Dealers who invested in Polestar won’t be able to sell in the US next year after the federal government denied an authorization that would have allowed the company to avoid a Chinese tech ban.” (07/03/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Can’t stop waging wars or the western empire will collapse. So they make up fake threats from dictators and tyrants and take action to stop them. Can’t stop inflating the military budget and circling the planet with more and more war machinery or the military-industrial complex will stop reaping profits. So they tell you to be afraid of Muslims and ‘terrorists’ and Russia and China and take action to protect you from them. … Can’t stop supporting Israeli atrocities or they’ll hamstring their hegemonic agendas in west Asia and make an enemy of the Zionists. So they create a boogie man of ‘antisemitism’ and set up envoys, inquiries and task forces dedicated to stopping it.” (07/04/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“The existence of AI, like the earlier problem of students buying papers online, reduces the ability of teachers to test their students but does not eliminate it, is inconvenient but not catastrophic. It makes some kinds of testing more difficult but not impossible; Serrano could have asked students whose midterms were suspiciously good to explain some of their answers and failed any obviously unable to do so. That would have been additional work for him and, judging by the article, not a policy Brown would have endorsed. Unwilling or unable to do that that he can base his future grading on work done in-person and adequately monitored.” (07/03/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Rachel Chiu
“Last week, the Supreme Court held in Pung v. Isabella County that when a home is taken by the government and sold at a tax foreclosure auction, the sale proceeds satisfy the constitutional requirement for ‘just compensation’ to the owner. This unanimous decision appears to be a loss for homeowners and property rights. But the justices stopped short of sanctioning the County’s actions, leaving some of the most important questions for another day.” (07/03/26)
“Israel’s supporters have gone apoplectic over a short post on X from the journalist Mehdi Hasan, highlighting Israel’s peculiar marriage laws. Hasan asks: ‘Did you know that you can’t have a civil or secular marriage in Israel?’ He’s not wrong. Israel has banned civil marriage. You can wed only in a ceremony strictly controlled by religious authorities. If you want a civil marriage, you have to travel to another country. Why, you might reasonably wonder. Isn’t Israel a modern, secular, western-style liberal democracy? After all, that’s what our politicians and media keep telling us. The most popular rejoinder to Hasan from Israel’s apologists – that the situation is no better in Saudi Arabia – is not quite the flex they seem to imagine. So Israel offers the same human rights protections as Saudi Arabia? Impressive.” (07/03/26)
“This Fourth of July matters more than most for three reasons. First, it is the historic 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration is the most radical political document ever written. It challenged millennia of thought about monarchs having rights and commoners being mere subjects, peasants or even slaves. Suddenly, people on the edge of a continent decided that they would challenge the entire system that dominated their world. Kings, czars and emperors were put on notice that power did not come from them; it came from God. The single phrase, ‘We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’, enunciated a transfer of authority and power from the head of government to the citizen.” (07/04/26)
