Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“We’re back at the part of the news cycle where Israel tells the world it’s going to allow a bit more aid into Gaza in order to mollify its allies and reduce the public outcry as images of starving children draw objections from the west. This is just Israel giving the Kier Starmers and Anthony Albaneses of the western world just enough of an excuse to go silent about the starvation of Gaza again. They will then continue starving Gaza. … Israel’s announcement that it will allow more food into Gaza so people don’t starve completely debunks all its claims these last few days that people in Gaza are starving because of Hamas and the UN.” [editor’s note: Thankful for CJ and her consistent take on all of this; along with Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore and a small number of others she sees through the imperial screens – SAT] (07/27/25)
Source: Law & Liberty
by Leonidas Zelmanovitz & Gabriel Beckwith
“The image of a white picket fence and a house to call your own often comes to mind when discussing the American Dream, but this image is just a shallow reflection of a much deeper concept. It may be true that the dream is actualized through meaningful access to housing; however, it is ultimately about living freely and flourishing by adhering to the ideals of the American Founding, through which one pursues happiness and reaches one’s fullest potential. That dream is made possible when individuals have access to housing that is affordable, well-located, and suited to different lifestyles. Without these preconditions, the American Dream is much harder to achieve. Yet for decades, institutional barriers have threatened this foundation.” (07/28/25)
“The biggest lie in media is the one that it tells about itself. Journalists at many mainstream media publications insist that their coverage is objective and unbiased. This isn’t true. Two of the biggest purveyors of this lie are Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, the co-founders of Axios. The Axios audience ‘Bill of Rights’ promises that ‘all employees are asked to refrain from taking/advocating for public positions on political topics.’ The document also pledges that Axios will ‘never have an opinion section.’ Axios seeks to garner trust by positioning itself as neutral on all political topics. … Indeed, VandeHei and Allen have political opinions and express them publicly. VandeHei simply redefines his right-wing ideology as patriotism.” (07/28/25)
“When, in his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the unwarranted influence wielded by a partnership between the military and a growing cohort of U.S. weapons contractors and came up with the ominous term ‘military-industrial complex’, he could never have imagined quite how large and powerful that complex would become. In fact, in recent years, one firm — Lockheed Martin — has normally gotten more Pentagon funding than the entire U.S. State Department. And mind you, that was before the Trump administration moved to sharply slash spending on diplomacy and jack up the Pentagon budget to an astonishing $1 trillion per year. In a new study issued by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the Costs of War Project at Brown University, Stephen Semler and I lay out just how powerful those arms makers and their allies have become, as Pentagon budgets simply never stop rising” (07/28/25)
“L.A.’s dysfunction reveals something deeper about how we’ve come to think about government. The way we talk about public goods is fake: it’s a debate between Republicans, who believe nearly everything should be privatized, and Democrats, who also believe nearly everything should be privatized — except routed through nonprofits, quasi-public agencies, and for-profit subsidiaries of nonprofits. A city that once boldly built a 230-mile-long aqueduct to steal a river now asks itself: should zoo concessions go to SSA or Aramark?” (07/28/25)
“An authoritarian movement cannot demand acquiescence from a formerly liberty-preserving populace for just any old reason. It has to be an emergency. And that’s what the pedophile fantasy has always provided. MAGA doesn’t tell its followers to vote for Republicans because the Democrats have the wrong prescriptions for the price of groceries or housing costs or education policy …. No, the heart of the MAGA message is that Trump’s opponents are not just wrong but part of a vast conspiracy to commit pretty much the worst crime most people can imagine. That’s why the MAGA faithful fervently pray for mass arrests in which the guilty will at last be separated from the innocent — a kind of secular Rapture. … At this point, it’s not even clear that those with access to the government’s information can distinguish between their imaginings and actual facts.” (07/28/25)
“American conservatives show no interest in understanding their country’s greatest geopolitical foe. The consequences of this incuriosity could be disastrous.” (07/28/25)
“I have no doubt that Zohran Mamdani, upset winner over the heavily favored former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, would have greatly preferred that his much better financed opponent would graciously accept the will of his party’s voters, thereby allowing the Democratic nominee (Mamdani) to sail on through the final election in November as is generally the case. And so would we, his supporters, all. Instead, he finds himself actively opposed by elements of just about every significant anti-democratic, anti-working class faction in American politics. As the Talking Heads song put it, this race ‘ain’t no disco; this ain’t no fooling around.'” [editor’s note: Even with the perfect Talking Heads quote, this pundit is delulu defined – SAT]” (07/27/25)
“‘The FBI began surveilling a Catholic priest in 2023,’ wrote James Lynch last week, ‘after the clergyman refused to divulge details about a recently arrested parishioner who was converting to Catholicism and seeking spiritual guidance.’ … ‘The FBI attempted to violate the priest-penitent privilege,’ the report continues, ‘on the faulty reasoning that the Richmond subject under investigation seeking spiritual guidance had not been baptized or completed catechism.’ You may be asking yourself, is the FBI out of its mind?” (07/28/25)
