Source: The American Prospect
by Russell Lemle & Jasper Craven
“Long before becoming secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins’s intention to steer veterans and their health care dollars away from VA medical facilities and into private hands was well established. During his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, Collins was a staunch ally of the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), a group whose ideological North Star is privatizing VA services. He embraced three key bills the organization championed that laid the groundwork for outsourcing care for large numbers of VA patients and weakening protections for VA employees. … He has continued to spread these unconvincing assertions as VA secretary in interviews, press releases, Twitter videos, and congressional hearings, while, at the same time, swiftly advancing proposals to deeply cut VA resources and personnel and redirect the so-called ‘savings’ toward expanded outsourcing to private-sector care.” (07/30/25)
“Trump gave a long, sometimes incoherent press conference alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. They were ostensibly meeting to discuss tariffs, but questions veered toward Epstein. Instead of slapping them down or ignoring them, as he sometimes does, Trump answered them. At length. And very strangely. Trump has maintained that he had a falling out with Epstein years ago. In 2004, they competed for the same gaudy Palm Beach property, and Trump outbid his friend and got it. (In some accounts, Epstein was the one who broke off the friendship over it.) Sounds plausible, for two scummy rich guys. Some of Trump’s communications people say Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago ‘for being a creep,’ in the words of henchman Stephen Cheung. But at Monday’s press conference, Trump gave a different explanation. And a hauntingly creepy one.” (07/29/25)
“We should no more draw congressional districts based on the proportion of Republicans to Democrats or the proportion of whites to blacks to Latinos, etc., than we should draw them on the proportion of plumbers to sous chefs or the proportion of Led Zeppelin fans to Swifties. Gerrymandering isn’t about representing the interests of voters, whether as individuals or members of groups. Gerrymandering is about the desires of the country’s two main political parties to maximize their power at the expense of each other’s.” (07/29/25)
“A thought experiment: would anyone who referred to the killing of 50 Jewish people, many of them ‘entirely innocent non-combatants, including children,’ as ‘one of the unavoidable burdens of political power, of Palestinian liberation’s dream turned into the reality of self-determination,’ ever be hired by a major television news network? Would their news outlet ever be potentially offered more than $200 million to merge with that major news network? Of course not, and for good reason. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening, only with one small but major difference: the writer and her news outlet responsible for this statement, Bari Weiss and The Free Press, were not talking about Hamas’[s] murder of Israelis, but rather about Israel’s killing of 50 Palestinians — ‘Zionism’s dream turned into the reality of self-determination,’ as Weiss described it in 2021.” (07/29/25)
“A geopolitical struggle in Asia is unfolding — not over land or trade but spiritual authority. Earlier this month, the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader, turned 90. The Chinese Communist Party, despite being officially atheist, is intent on appointing his successor, seeking control over one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred traditions: reincarnation. The CCP, in power since 1949, has designated greater Tibet as an autonomous region for the last 60 years but governs and counts it as a province within its borders, subject to its oversight. As the CCP sees it, that control extends to the theological plane — since religion is deeply interwoven into Tibetan identity. Far from a peripheral dispute, the Communist party’s attempts to dictate the spiritual lives of Tibetans reflect a global trend of authoritarian regimes capitalizing on the sacred to consolidate power, reframing spiritual legitimacy to serve political ends.” (07/29/25)
“The United States has tried to use its bully pulpit to encourage the rest of the world to recommit itself to the principle of free speech. Speaking in Munich in February, J.D. Vance took European leaders to task for retreating from ‘some of its [Europe’s] most fundamental values,’ including a robust commitment to freedom of speech. But it’s hard to urge global leaders to commit to a value that your own administration isn’t committed to. If the United States wants to reverse the spread of censorious policies across the globe, then it needs to lead by example.” (07/29/25)
“Descartes kicked off modernity with the epistemological problem of whether we ever know the world around us, and Kronman holds fast to verifiable knowledge: ‘the truth is preeminently what science declares it to be.’ Much of Kronman’s conservatism stems from his love of the Great Books, but nowhere does he dwell on the varieties of evidence and proof that humanism employs. The humanist’s broad theory of truth haunts Kronman’s treatment of allegiance, specifically his struggle to find a stable place for love within his reason-based political order. Kronman argues that the progressive’s skepticism towards love of family, nation, and God mutilates the spirit.” (07/29/25)
“There are few things more enjoyable than watching a couple of Democrats talking to each other about how they’re either ‘winning’ or soon will be and how to make it happen. It’s like watching a baby giraffe try to stand up for the first time … on ice … in a tornado – they have no idea what they’re doing or how to get it done. But they’re going to try, bless their hearts, they’re going to try. Democrats aren’t really trying when it comes to winning (or losing) elections because they either A) can’t bring themselves to admit when they’ve lost (I’m old enough to remember when denying election results was ‘a threat to democracy!’) or B) believe they simply have to learn how to sell their poison positions better …” (07/29/25)
“About this time last year, prescription MDMA looked like a sure thing. After decades of clinical research, political wrangling, and aggressive promotion, the popular underground club drug was set to be tamed and medicalized, with a stamp of approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. Then, it wasn’t. In a stark change of course, the FDA rejected the MDMA therapy it had been considering by a 10-1 vote. The decision derailed psychedelic medicine for the foreseeable future. Except for one thing — an unexpected lifeline from the Trump administration.” (07/29/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Why am I convinced that Jeffrey Epstein was part of the deep state — that is, with Mossad, the CIA, or both? Simply because of the plea bargain he received in 2008. In my opinion, there is simply no way that wealthy, prominent, influential men could have pressured a U.S. Attorney to give Epstein that plea bargain. The plea bargain was so super-sweet that there is only one entity that would have had the power to secure it — the same entity that I have long contended is actually running the federal government — the national-security establishment, which consists of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.” (07/29/25)
