Why Blue States Can’t Have Nice Things

Source: Persuasion
by Jacob Savage

“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)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-blue-states-cant-have-nice-things

Thomas L. Knapp

Musk announces Tesla, Samsung Electronics chip supply deal

Source: Axios

“Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late Sunday the automaker has signed a deal to obtain semiconductor chips from Samsung Electronics. Samsung had announced Saturday that it had struck a $16.5 billion supply agreement, but it didn’t name the company. The announcement comes after Samsung, one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, acknowledged last year that it had fallen behind in the AI chips war.” (07/28/25)

https://archive.is/vkfL5

Thomas L. Knapp

The MAGA Revolution Is Eating Its Own

Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen

“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)

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-maga-revolution-is-eating-its-own-conspiracy-theories-epstein

Thomas L. Knapp

Judge blocks US regime efforts to defund Planned Parenthood

Source: SFGate

“A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation. The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year. ‘Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,’ Talwani wrote in her Monday order.” (07/28/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/judge-blocks-trump-administration-s-efforts-to-20789764.php

Steve Trinward

Mamdani for NYC Mayor: The Fight We’ve Been Waiting for

Source: Common Dreams
by Tom Gallagher

“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)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/mamdani-for-mayor

Steve Trinward

Thai, Cambodian regimes agree to “unconditional” ceasefire

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an ‘immediate and unconditional’ ceasefire from midnight to resolve deadly border clashes, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Monday. Anwar, who chaired the talks as head of the ASEAN regional bloc, said both sides have reached a common understanding to take steps to return to normalcy. … Thailand and Cambodia have clashed along their shared border since last Thursday. The conflict has already claimed dozens of lives and displaced some 260,000 people on both sides of the border.” (07/28/25)

https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20250728-ceasefire-talks-under-way-between-thai-and-cambodian-leaders-in-malaysia

Thomas L. Knapp

What Does the FBI Do?

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“‘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)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/07/28/what-does-the-fbi-do/

Thomas L. Knapp