“This weekend, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence in nationwide celebrations featuring backyard barbecues, fireworks displays, and concerts. President Donald Trump echoed the sentiments of many patriotic revelers and underscored the Declaration’s centrality to America’s political identity when he described the event. ‘With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history.’ But America didn’t begin its journey by declaring its independence. Before those 56 men signed the hallowed document, important events had already made independence a reality. By the summer of 1776, America was well on its way.” (07/02/26)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“How will we remember this Supreme Court term? For Louisiana v. Callais, which demolished the 1965 Voting Rights Act. For near misses, too, as when the Constitution’s plain-language guarantee of birthright citizenship was recognized by only a bare majority of the justices. (As JD Vance crowed, that core protection is now ‘hanging by a thread’.) I think the term may be remembered most as a time when the supermajority of very conservative, very pro-business justices bent the shape of American government. It was a power grab in legal garb, undermining Congress, granting presidents more authority, but with key decisions ultimately in the hands of the nine unelected officials now redesigning government. In 2005, The New York Times Magazine published a story about a cadre of intense anti-government legal activists. They bemoaned ‘the Constitution in exile’, what they saw as an epic wrong turn in the 20th century.” (07/02/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sascha Hannig
“[E]lectrification has become a tool of strategic resilience, but electrification—both in appliances and in alternative and green energy supplies—depends on batteries, and batteries depend heavily on lithium; and who owns lithium? Few are asking this question, and, most importantly, how it affects liberal countries, the state of democracy in the Global South, and international supply chains. This is why the lithium market now sits at the center of geopolitical competition.” (07/02/26)
“Fox News has a poll supposedly showing ‘socialism gaining ground with young voters.’ But I don’t believe it. Young people may be more receptive to the word socialism, but that’s only because right-wingers constantly use that word to smear policies that have nothing to do with real socialism — i.e., government ownership of the means of production. The fact is that very few Americans — even among politicians who call themselves ‘democratic socialists’ — are really socialists. What many, I’d say a majority, of Americans support is what Europeans call social democracy — an ideology that is OK with living in a mostly market-driven economic system in which some people make much more money than others, but one that advocates policies to tame markets and inequality with progressive taxation, safety net programs, and regulations.” [editor’s note: Actually, socialism is defined as worker control, not government ownership, of the means of production. In STATE socialism, the state is a supposed proxy for the workers – TLK] (07/02/26)
“I’ve been looking at cases where marketing hype has managed to create a craze for an at-best mediocre product. This is not to suggest that advertising is predatory; on the contrary, I think it provides a necessary service by providing information and allowing people to make choices. In the everyday business of buying clothes, food and drink, travel, luxury goods and grooming, I think it informs us of the availability of certain brands and the advantages to be gained by buying them. But there are some cases where advertising and cultural hype can create a kind of epistemic bubble where social conformity substitutes for quality judgement. Promoters sometimes draw on FOMO, the fear of missing out, to herd people into products of limited value to them.” ()7/02/26)
“America’s abundance is easy to admire. What’s easier to forget is that prosperity isn’t what made America exceptional. Liberty did. In much of the world, rights are treated as privileges the government grants to its citizens. In the American system, it’s the opposite: Rights are inherent to the individual, and the Constitution exists to dictate what government cannot do to you. It’s an extraordinary concept, and one conservatives have committed to upholding.” [editor’s note: Well, that there’s a spit take moment – TLK] (07/02/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“Federal IRS workers at the Chamblee Building are often greeted by rats struggling to free themselves from glue traps set about the workplace. Workers at the Veterans Affairs building in Hilo, Hawaii, are having to deal with dangerous infestations of mold. Federal employees in several places, including the Food and Drug Administration building in Washington, DC, are being exposed to Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease. In Washington, DC, forty percent of the headquarters of the General Services Administration have been declared unsafe, which means the GSA has had to relocate many of its employees. And the list goes on and on.” (07/02/26)
“While it is difficult to generalize, many current and would-be socialist officeholders share several common traits. Most of them represent a relatively small slice of American life. Almost all are urban, with little knowledge of small-town or rural existence. Their world is subways, buses, high-rises, Uber, taxis, and proximity to corporate, academic, and financial institutions—yet often with little understanding of where their food, fuel, water, or everyday goods originate, or where their waste and sewage ultimately go. Their worldview is shaped more by consumption than production, as though goods simply arrive in and depart from cities on autopilot. A disproportionate number of our most prominent radicals are either first- or second-generation immigrants, most originating from failed or illiberal states in what was once called the Third World. They or their parents left their homelands in search of wealthier countries, fairer societies, greater opportunity, and, in many cases, safety and freedom.” (07/02/26)
