Source: France 24 [French state media]
“President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that all generic drugs brought into the US will continue to have a tariff of 0% for two years starting from August 1, after which the tariff rate will be raised to 100% for one year and to 200% thereafter. ‘This is done in order to RESHORE Generic Pharmaceutical Production into America, with a penalty to those Companies that decide not to build Plant and Equipment within the stated period of time given to them,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social. … More than 90% of medicines sold in the US are generics, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The policy on patented, branded or innovative drugs will remain unchanged, Trump said.” (07/22/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260722-trump-announces-100-tariffs-on-imported-generic-pharmaceutical-drugs
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The Ideology Behind AI | Robert Wright & Connor Leahy.” (07/21/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69608
Source: Independent Institute
by Richard K Vedder
“Should it take four years to earn a bachelor’s degree? No. If you can earn a bachelor’s degree at Oxford or Cambridge Universities in three years, why not at Harvard, Florida State, or the University of Oklahoma? Is the three-year degree being promoted by some in Virginia and Ohio, therefore, a good thing? No, because it appears to aim to achieve this goal by reducing the academic work required by about 25 percent, to about halfway between what an associate degree and a traditional bachelor’s degree require.” (07/21/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/21/dont-water-down-the-bachelors-degree/
Source: Washington Monthly
by Paul Glastris
“In recent years, conservative pundits have compiled an unbroken record of attacking the American entertainment industry’s biggest stars and then finding themselves on the wrong side of public opinion. … It was perhaps predictable, then, that right-wingers would fulminate over Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey before any of them had seen it. … Then the movie came out. Suddenly, conservatives had to contend not only the fact that it brought in more revenue in one weekend ($264 billion) than it cost to make ($250 million), but that, as Ben Shapiro conceded after watching it in IMAX, ‘it’s really, really, really good.’ In moments like this, when ideologues are mugged by reality, a period of adjustment ensues as political allies attempt to get their story straight. We are in that sort of moment now.” (07/22/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/22/christopher-nolan-odyssey-woke-conservatives/
Source: SFGate
“Bay Area tech giant Oracle may have to pay billions to a Wisconsin utilities company over a massive data center campus being built in partnership with OpenAI. In April, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin finalized revised energy tariffs set by its largest utility provider, We Energies. The rules, meant to protect utility customers from rising costs amid a nationwide boom in controversial data center construction, require large energy consumers to post collateral if their credit rating is too low. The new tariffs are now hitting Oracle following S&P Global’s downgrade of the company’s credit rating on July 9 over its artificial intelligence ventures, describing them as ‘increasing its overall credit risk.'” (07/21/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/oracle-seven-billion-dollar-payment-22354473.php
Source: Quillette
by Jonathan Kay
“I’ve often used the term ‘social panic’ to describe the unmarked-graves claims that swept through Canada in 2021. For reasons described below, the term feels inadequate. But I can’t think of any word or phrase that better captures the spasm of manic self-denigration that unfolded following the purported discovery of 215 dead children (some ‘believed to be as young as three years old,’ gullible reporters told us) on the grounds of a former Indigenous residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. … It would take months, or even years in many cases, before mainstream media outlets began admitting—tacitly or otherwise—that they’d been duped by Casimir’s fake news (as the Globe & Mail newspaper finally did last month). Despite the passage of five years since the original announcement, many public figures, including former prime minister Justin Trudeau, have never come clean on the issue.” (07/21/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/07/21/they-see-dead-people/
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“The stench arising from the proposed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount isn’t just the concentration of market power by the merged studios nor the likely takeover of CNN by President Trump’s fanboys. It’s also the fact that the purchase is funded by investments from the sovereign wealth funds of three foreign nations, none of which are in any way, shape, or form democracies: Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. … the purchase of Warner Bros. by foreign nations has not been investigated by the governmental body that customarily handles such matters: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) …. But the most glaring absence from these duties isn’t CFIUS’s. It’s that of the far-right Republican elected officials who’ve sought to generate and mobilize anti-Muslim bigotry by campaigning against the completely nonexistent threat of Sharia law infiltrating and overtaking American jurisprudence.” (07/21/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/21/anti-sharia-law-republicans-paramount-warner-bros-chip-roy-keith-self-tommy-tuberville/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been released after he was detained during growing protests over the education system. This comes as opposition parties staged a protest at parliament on Wednesday demanding the resignation of India’s education minister, echoing the demands of student demonstrators. The protests, which have been led predominantly by students and a social media-driven movement, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Protesters have called for the resignation of Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after a leak of medical school test papers forced more than two million medical students to retake their exams and was linked to at least 12 student suicides. Gandhi and other opposition leaders were detained on Tuesday during a sit-in outside Modi’s residence in New Delhi while accusing the government of ignoring student demands.” (07/22/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/22/india-opposition-leader-gandhi-freed-after-detention-at-student-led-protest
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson on the Shocking Details of the Death of Senator Lindsey Graham.” (07/21/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-larry-johnson-on-the-shocking-details-of-the-death-of-senator-lindsey-graham/
Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol
“Every catastrophic wildfire cocktail requires the same dangerous mix: an ignition source, abundant fuel, and people or property in harm’s way. California has long had the perfect blend of these ingredients. Since the devastating Los Angeles wildfires of 2025, the state has taken steps to dilute this dangerous mix, but it remains far too potent. To understand why, consider the 2025 Eaton Fire, the second most destructive wildfire in California history.” (07/22/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/21/california-wildfire-dangerous-mix/
