Source: American Greatness
by Julio Rivera
“The greatest danger isn’t that China builds a better AI model. It’s that China builds the AI platform the rest of the world decides to use. Those are two very different contests.” (07/22/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/22/washington-cant-afford-to-let-the-us-lose-the-open-source-ai-war/
Source: Seattle Times
“Bulgaria’s Parliament on Wednesday backed a government proposal to allow the U.S. military to use an air base in the Balkan country to support U.S. operations in the Middle East, while some expressed concern about becoming involved in the Iran war. The Trump administration has faced pushback from certain other countries in the European Union over the use of air bases in support of its war with Iran. Legislators in Bulgaria voted 136-13, with two abstentions, to allow up to eight U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft along with 250 personnel and supporting equipment at Bezmer Air Base from Friday to Oct. 1. No further approvals are needed.” (07/22/26)
Source: Persuasion
by Jerry Kaplan
“A recent Persuasion article by Andrea Miotti argues that ‘We Need an International Treaty to Ban Superintelligence.’ His argument—like that of many others in what we might call doomer circles—is that large-scale Generative AI systems, like ChatGPT and Claude, are fast approaching a sharp transition from their current trajectory to runaway superintelligence, at which point they may escape human control, reprogram themselves to adopt new, self-directed goals, and possibly wipe out humanity entirely. Everyone is familiar with this scenario because it’s a persistent trope of science fiction. We are constantly exposed to images of robots running amok, a staple of the modern entertainment ecosystem. … Unfortunately, the doomers seriously misrepresent the actual nature and risks of advanced AI, and often propose solutions that are both unrealistic and ineffectual.” (07/22/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-misguided-panic-about-superintelligence
Source: Expression
by Athena Rem
“Currently, 29 out of 30 Major League Baseball teams host an annual ‘Pride Night’ celebration in June, featuring rainbow versions of the typical logo on caps and jerseys. … players always have the option to revert back to the standard uniform instead, but they may not alter their uniforms themselves in any aspect. Despite this ban, three San Francisco Giants players used Pride Night 2026 as an opportunity to protest. … In response, MLB formally warned the implicated players that they may not ‘write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment.’ … At first blush, MLB’s move might appear to be at odds with the freedoms of speech and free exercise guaranteed by the First Amendment. But the First Amendment bars the government from restricting our rights to speak and worship freely … Private employers have expansive discretion to limit an employee’s on-the-clock expression, like the players’ alteration of their caps.” (07/22/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/does-mlbs-pride-night-policy-violate
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israelis are happy for Americans to die for Israel, but they are unwilling to put their own lives on the line for the Zionist project.” (07/22/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/22/not-even-israelis-are-willing-to-die-for-israel/
Source: United Press International
“House Republicans pushed through a spending bill that would fund the government through early December in an effort to avoid a shutdown just before the midterm elections. The bill, which passed on Tuesday, is similar to what they would pass just before the Sept. 30 deadline. It passed 220-205 almost along party lines, though six Democrats in battleground districts voted for it, and one Republican [Thomas Massie, R-KY)] voted against it. … It’s not clear if it has much of a chance to pass the Senate. Republican leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday that he would try to get a spending bill to a vote before the five-week recess in August. But it may have to wait until lawmakers return in September.” (07/22/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/07/22/house-spending-bill-stopgap/3371784726348/
Source: Washington Post
“What America got wrong about drug addiction.” (07/22/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/what-america-got-wrong-about-drug-addiction/
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“No matter how much AI flatters you, it doesn’t care about you. It doesn’t appreciate you or understand you. It never will.” (07/22/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/hail-the-hollow-ai-caesar
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ehsan Mousavi
“We have all heard many times that hoarding is usually attributed to greed and is highly condemned. For example, in his book The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck attributes hoarding to greed and immoral profiteering, presenting it as a societal failure. In Canto VII of Dante’s Divine Comedy, he groups the hoarders together with the wasters, and states that they are forced to push heavy weights using their chests as their punishment. But is the pursuit of profit during a crisis merely an expression of greed, or does it serve a broader social purpose? Hayek would argue that it serves a crucial one.” (07/22/26)
Source: CBC News [Canada]
“The building Adolf Hitler was born in near the Austrian border with Germany officially begins a new life as a police station on Wednesday, a conversion Austria’s government hopes will prevent it serving as a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. After years of debate about the large, traditional terraced house in the town of Braunau am Inn, which was in private ownership and had housed a charity for handicapped people, Austria made a compulsory purchase in 2017. The government announced in 2019 it would be remodelled and turned into a police station, with work beginning in 2023. … There has been some opposition, including from the Mauthausen Committee, Austria’s main Holocaust survivors’ group, which has argued both that a police station is inappropriate and that more should be done to draw attention to Hitler’s crimes.” (07/22/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/austria-hitler-home-police-station-9.7279062