Source: CNN
“The Vatican announced Thursday that priests and members of a breakaway Catholic group that ordained four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s wishes are in schism and excommunicated. The Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-traditionalist group, went ahead with the ordinations on Wednesday without papal approval and despite appeals from Leo to reverse the decision. In response, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday published a decree saying that the four bishops are excommunicated, along with the two bishops who participated in the ordination ceremony. Excommunication means they are excluded from the sacraments of the church. It added in an explanatory note that priests belonging to the society and lay members who ‘formally adhere’ to the group are also in schism and excommunicated.” (07/02/26)
https://archive.is/3KS6i
Source: Underthrow
“Why Every Empire Dies After 250 Years. Is America Next?” (07/02/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkPafdv2TJc
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Charles A Kupchan
“Internationalists are once more doing battle with America Firsters, cleaving the body politic between two incompatible approaches to global affairs.” (07/02/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-first-foreign-policy/
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Rogat Loeb
“After musician after musician pulled out from President Donald Trump’s ‘Freedom 250’ concert, he was left with Lee Greenwood, an opera tenor, a couple of military bands, and Kash Patel’s girlfriend. The anthem that made Greenwood a star, ‘God Bless the USA,’ was written in 1985 during the height of the Cold War. It begins with the specter of loss: ‘If tomorrow, all the things were gone, I’d worked for all my life/ And I had to start all over with my children and my wife . Then the wounds disappear before they’re felt: ‘I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today/ Because the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away’. Ronald Reagan made the song his campaign theme while launching a new age of American inequality by systematically busting unions and cutting taxes for the wealthiest.” (07/02/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/hollow-song-for-hollow-president
Source: CBS News
“Three members of a four-person MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter crew were rescued at sea after an ’emergency water landing’ in the Arabian Sea early Wednesday morning, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. A search continues for the fourth and final crew member. There is ‘no indication’ the helicopter was shot down by hostile action, the military said. The helicopter is assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush.” (07/01/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-helicopter-goes-down-in-arabian-sea-crew-member-missing-navy-says/
Source: Show-Me Institute
“The Case for an Education Outsider in Missouri with Andy Smarick.” (07/02/26)
ider-in-missouri-with-andy-smarick/
Source: New York Times
“A Quiet Surge in ICE Arrests, and Trump’s First Flight on Plane Given by Qatar.” (07/02/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPZ05amCl-0
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“People’s negative assessments of the economy continue to be somewhat of a mystery. The recent run-up in gas prices and inflation more generally is unambiguously bad news, but is this the worst economy ever, as some of the consumer confidence measures have been showing recently? Real income for those at the middle and bottom has generally been rising by standard measures, so it seems that we’re missing something, and I’m not sure any of us have figured out what. My friend, Jared Bernstein, argues that a big part of the story is that consumers are unhappy not just because of inflation, but because prices are high. Implicitly, they expect them to come down and are unhappy that they don’t.” (07/02/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/02/why-people-say-the-economy-is-bad-fees-and-insurance/
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“Today, Taiwan occupies a uniquely important position in the global economy. The island produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, manufacturing the chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence systems to automobiles, satellites, and advanced weapons platforms. Taiwan has become so central to the modern technological order that analysts since the 1990s have routinely described its semiconductor industry as a ‘silicon shield,’ a strategic asset so important that no major power can afford to see it disrupted. As the debate continues over whether to de-risk or re-shore American semi-conductor supply chains, how we arrived at this point can be instructive.” (07/02/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-cold-war-origins-of-taiwans-silicon-shield
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Hamilton recognized the importance of manufacturing but overlooked the market processes that create lasting prosperity.” (07/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/hamiltons-economic-vision-had-one-crucial-blind-spot/
