“I remember lying on the carpet as a child, listening to Garrison Keillor’s nose-hairs whistle faintly as he regaled the country with stories of Americana, featuring fictional sponsors like Raw Bits, Powdermilk Biscuits, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. These were all mildly humorous, but the humor obscured a bitter irony: You were the sponsor, whether you liked it or not. Those days might soon be over. Censorship! they cry from the echo chambers of MSDNC. They’re killing Big Bird!, say the pundits frequently enough to make a drinking game out of it. But we know a brand like Big Bird is probably too big to fail, even in the absence of tax subsidies.” (07/22/25)
“How many atrocities can the federal government get away with? Americans are still vexed by the answers that Congress failed to deliver in 1995. Thirty summers ago, Washington was fixated by a Capitol Hill showdown over the greatest federal abuse of power of the decade. Unfortunately, trusting congressional hearings to discover the truth is like trusting a roomful of monkeys with typewriters to write great novels — it might happen, but only in an eternity.” (07/22/25)
“The sole and entire reason for this release, at this moment, is to try to ‘change the conversation’ away from inquiry into the relationship between US president Donald Trump and convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein. That’s it. That’s all. But that doesn’t mean the files shouldn’t have been released.” (07/22/25)
“In our earlier exchanges on ethical vegetarianism, Huemer was highly confident that insects are not conscious. This allowed him to dismiss the empirical premise on which my challenge rests. In their interview, however, Adelstein very effectively rebuts Huemer’s skepticism. The connection between neurons and consciousness is complex, so insisting ‘Bugs don’t have the right kind of brains to be conscious’ is silly. Furthermore, insects typically respond to pain like any other animal. While they may feel less chronic pain than higher animals, they still seem to intensely feel acute pain. … Adelstein surprised me (and, I think, Huemer as well) when he used ‘insects suffer horribly’ to craft a utilitarian argument for mass extermination of insects. But there’s a weird logic to it. In Adelstein’s eyes, bug suffering is so horrible that the typical bug would be better off dead.” (07/22/25)
Source: The Hill
by US Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH)
“Freedom means owning what you buy, whether it’s a Jeep Wrangler for your family or a rugged Jeep AEV J8 Milspec built for our troops. But there’s a problem. In today’s landscape, automakers are locking you out of fixing your own vehicles. They hoard the tools, software and know-how needed for repairs, in effort to establish a monopoly over auto repair. That’s not just un-American — it’s a threat to our liberty and security. … Automakers claim they’re protecting proprietary tech and warranties. Fine. The REPAIR Act ensures transparency without compromising cybersecurity, safety or intellectual property. It’s about your right to fix what you own — not handing over trade secrets. This bill unites Republicans and Democrats because it’s common sense.” (07/22/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“A doctor in Gaza named Nick Maynard reports that Israeli snipers are now shooting starving civilians in different body parts on different days, based on the injuries people show up with for treatment. There’s a head day, a leg day, a genitals day, etc. ‘The medical teams here have also been seeing a clear pattern of people being shot in certain body parts on different days, such as the head, legs or genitals, which seems to indicate deliberate targeting,’ Maynard says. I keep thinking there’s nothing Israel could do that would shock me anymore, but they keep finding ways. … Possibly the single dumbest thing Israel and its apologists ask us to believe is that Israel has been systematically demolishing Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure because the healthcare infrastructure is full of terrorists, and not because they want to commit genocide.” (07/22/25)
“What is distinctive about the Manhattan Statement is not that it calls for reforming universities; others regularly call for that. In fact, many of its reforms, considered at a vague and aspirational enough level of abstraction, are neither new nor even particularly controversial. What stands out is by whom and by what means the manifesto proposes to impose the changes: by dictation from the central government in Washington, employing force and ultimatum, devoid of any advance enactment of objective rules defining what universities’ obligations in fact are. If imposed, the result would be an utter centralization of peremptory power over academia — private colleges, state universities, religiously affiliated institutions — in the person of a single man.” (07/22/25)
“I recently finished registering for a 10k run in Astoria, Oregon. As part of the registration process, you had to select when you’ll be picking up your race packet (a prepacked bag that would have, among other things, your race bib with a built in time tracker). There were a few windows of time available in the few days leading up to the race, along with an option to pick it up on the day of the race on-site. This last option came with a ‘convenience fee’ of $25 dollars or so. And as soon as I saw that you had to pay to pick it up at the most convenient time and place, my immediate reaction was, ‘Oh, that’s nice.'” (07/22/25)
“A decline in violent crime in many American cities is not just continuing, but accelerating. Data for the first half of this year showed a 22% drop in homicide deaths for Baltimore, compared with the same period in 2024. In Boston last year, homicides were down to their lowest number since 1957. Cities such as Detroit; Oakland, California; and San Antonio are on similar trajectories. Behind the turnaround is a mix of strategies that deliver a message of caring – and consequences. Evidence of a city’s care for residents can involve simple fixes, such as better street lighting or cleaned-up lots. Such measures encourage residents to venture outdoors, thus providing ‘eyes on the street,’ as the late urban theorist Jane Jacobs put it. Also key are community groups that offer summer youth programs, treatment for substance misuse, and mental health and job counseling.” (07/22/25)
“No figure has loomed as large in recent American political history as Donald Trump. Even after losing re-election, attempting to subvert the results of that election, and facing scores of criminal charges (some of which he was ultimately convicted for), he roared back last year, amassing an even larger Electoral College margin than his first win as he convinced a plurality of voters to give him another chance. With his new term now six months underway, this is an opportune moment to take stock of how the country feels about what they’ve seen so far.” (07/22/25)
