Source: Fox News
by John Yoo

“The Supreme Court’s rush of decisions last week belies several myths concocted by its leftist [sic] critics. Listen to Democratic politicians or read liberal [sic] legal commentators, and you would believe that a conservative Supreme Court is marching in lockstep with Donald Trump to impose an extremist agenda on an unwilling American people. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY] for example, often criticizes what he dubs ‘the MAGA Supreme Court’ for transforming government agencies into ‘members-only clubs for his golf buddies and cronies’. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY] decries ‘the corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump’ for ‘taking a blowtorch’ to civil rights laws. Almost every Democratic leader, especially those jockeying for position in the 2028 presidential race, demands that Congress pack the court in order to correct this alleged bias of the conservative justices.” (07/07/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/john-yoo-lefts-supreme-court-panic-collapses-weight-facts

Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Estes

“Nothing encapsulates the decline of the American project quite like the optics of its 250th anniversary. While four hundred masked neo-fascists marched through the capitol in navy-blue button-downs and khakis chanting ‘Reclaim America!’—entirely unchallenged either by police or antifascists—the official Independence Day parade was canceled because of extreme heat. It’s a disturbing vignette for our era. The country is turning far to the right and becoming too hot to even celebrate its own founding myths, reaching temperatures that climate scientists said would have been ‘virtually impossible’ before human-caused climate change. So who’s to blame for this current mess? Predictably, the political class has no interest in examining the structural decay.” (07/07/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/07/the-plot-to-ruin-america/

Source: UnHerd
by B Duncan Moench

“‘Ball don’t lie.’ This phrase, originally attributed to NBA star Rasheed Wallace, comes from American basketball culture and implies that, no matter what the referees or back-office bureaucrats do to intervene in the game, the ball will end up where it should. If it goes through the net, the sporting gods wanted it to happen. The best team wins. Always. … Yes, Donald Trump may have personally intervened with Fifa to get Folarin Balogun, America’s star striker, an exception on the red card he’d earned in the previous match. But having Daddy Warbucks pull strings for your side can take an athletic effort only so far: in the end, Belgium won the game 4-1.” (07/07/26)

https://archive.is/PF12h

Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro

“[T]he plain truth is that the U.S. military presence is not necessary to keep the Cossacks from waltzing into Warsaw, let alone Berlin or Paris. This would be the case even in the absence of the current rearmament push, and even if Russia had demonstrable designs on European territory beyond Ukraine. The non-U.S. members of NATO have a collective GDP that is over 10 times that of Russia. There are over 600 million Europeans to about 140 million Russians. Although its militaries are short on what the heads call ‘strategic enablers,’ there is little doubt that they would make a conventional conflict with Russia so painful as to deter its commencement. And indeed, when it comes to Russia, America’s aim should be to avoid conflict—not provoke it.” (07/07/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/european-rearmament-is-a-trap/

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“The first of the two times I wrote about Graham Platner at these pages was last year. Among other things, it made the point that candidates are vessels for ideas and policies, and that none of them are indispensable. The second time, a week ago, was about how financial corruption exists on a different plane than other scandals. That is not diminished by the latest news; Platner’s actions and Susan Collins’s corruption can both be inexcusable and described as such. Regardless of any public defiance from unnamed sources, Platner is not going to survive the latest allegations, and he should not. What comes next is the only thing that matters now, in a world where a Democratic Senate is vital to preventing continued unchecked lawlessness, the confirmation of dozens more right-wing judges, and to preserve the vestiges of democracy.” [editor’s note: In recent years I have watched from afar the madness in my homeland states, with a mixture of amusement and horror. I am SO happy to be back to amusement – SAT] (07/07/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/07/06/maine-needs-lighthouse-primary-graham-platner-senate-susan-collins/