Source: New York Times
“China test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead in the Pacific Ocean on Monday, the first such launch in two years. The missile was launched from a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine and sent a ‘mock warhead’ into the Pacific Ocean, according to a report from Xinhua, China’s official news agency. … The launch came as the leaders of Australia and Fiji announced a mutual defense treaty and a regional security alliance, the latest in a string of agreements Canberra has been striking in with Pacific Island nations widely viewed as efforts to push back against China’s encroachment in the region. Governments in the region were warned of the launch shortly beforehand.” (07/06/26)
https://archive.is/fmT3O
Source: The Hill
by John Mac Ghlionn
“It wasn’t long ago that a losing candidate would give a dignified, mildly depressing concession speech, lick his wounds and try again in four years. That gentleman’s agreement is dead. Now, losing an election is treated as definitive proof of a deep-state conspiracy, while winning is celebrated as a mandate to crush the opposition. Elections in the U.S. now function less as democratic transfers of power and more like weaponized custody disputes. Supercharging this collective psychological break is the tech industry, which realized early on that rage drives engagement far better than nuance. The algorithms don’t want us to get along. Peace is bad for profit margins. Instead, citizens are all trapped in bespoke digital echo chambers designed to confirm their worst fears.” (07/04/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/politics/5952390-america-250-years-crisis/
Source: Firstpost [India]
“Iran has announced plans to introduce new service fees for commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, while indicating that countries which supported Tehran during the recent conflict could receive preferential treatment. The announcement was made by Iran’s Ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, during the World Peace Forum in Beijing on Saturday. He said Iran was working with Oman on a new framework to manage traffic through one of the world’s most important maritime routes. The proposal comes after a temporary arrangement between Iran and the US under which commercial vessels were allowed to use the Hormuz without charge for 60 days following a ceasefire. It remains unclear when the new system will take effect.” (07/05/26)
https://www.firstpost.com/world/iran-plans-new-service-fees-for-strait-of-hormuz-promises-special-treatment-for-allies-14028982.html
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“No one forced Major Watson to accept an Air Force Commission. That choice — and the choice to be bound by the UCMJ and by DOD directives — was Major Watson’s and Major Watson’s alone. So was the choice to violate the rules he chose, of his own free will, to be bound by. While I’m on record as noticing that the Constitution doesn’t seem to matter much to those who rule us when those rulers find its strictures inconvenient, one of its features does make a good deal of sense for nearly any social or political system. That feature is requiring that civilians control the armed forces rather than vice versa.” (07/04/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20724
Source: US News & World Report
“Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow suspended her Democratic campaign for the U.S. Senate on Sunday, turning a three-way primary race in a key battleground state into a head-to-head between a moderate and a progressive. McMorrow’s exit leaves centrist U.S. Representative Haley Stevens and progressive public health advocate Abdul El-Sayed as the remaining candidates vying to face Republican former U.S. Representative Mike Rogers.” (07/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-07-05/michigan-democrat-drops-out-of-us-senate-primary
Source: Unherd
by Yanis Varoufakis
“The connection with whether Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or DeepSeek are conscious or not is becoming clear. Just as the account of the evolution of genes as if they were sentient agents (albeit of the Chicago underworld variety) affords them a moral character which they lack, similarly the portrayal of AI bots as conscious entities needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Scientifically speaking, all that goes on is that microscopic perturbations yield macroscopic consequences. Their proliferation, or extinction, is an indirect by-product of that dynamic — nothing more. Causality abounds, but teleology, intent or consciousness do not.” [editor’s note: I suspect the only quality unique to humans may be our denial/fear that anything could possibly be like us; AI is just the current scenario in which many people feel the need to find … or perhaps fantasize … differences – TLK](07/04/26)
https://archive.is/QZQ67
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“The world (at least by choice) is not going back to the horse and buggy age. We live in technologically advanced societies that have given us many wonderful inventions that make our lives far more convenient, if not always simpler. We credit ‘science’ with these advances, and frankly, that is both good and bad. The good, of course, are the medical breakthroughs, etc. that have aided mankind to enjoy this existence longer and more comfortably. We all should rejoice and be thankful for this. But unfortunately, that has led some people, too many people, to elevate science as ‘God’. Thus, 1776, in all ways and thoughts, is ancient, outmoded history, to be abandoned and forgotten …” (07/04/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/07/04/can-we-restore-the-principles-of-1776-n2678804
Source: Politico
“Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Saturday filed a 12-point proposal to amend the constitution aimed at ousting President Tamás Sulyok and to reduce the influence of the previous administration of Viktor Orbán. One of the key points in the proposal that Magyar announced on social media is the ‘termination of the current president’s term of office.’ Other points include a three-term limit for members of the national parliament, the introduction of a more independent Constitutional Court, and a 70-year age limit for judges to serve, as well as the establishment of a National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Office, to recover funds misappropriated during Orban’s rule. The current president of the court, Péter Polt, is 70, so the change would effectively end his term.” (07/05/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/peter-magyar-files-constitutional-change-to-fire-viktor-orban-allied-president-hungary-tamas-sulyok/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication
Source: The Political Orphanage
“George Washington’s Anti-Daddy.” (07/03/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/george-washingtons-anti-daddy
Source: EconLog
by Joy Buchanan
“In the 1830s, a French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the United States and returned home with Democracy in America, a penetrating analysis of a society marked by energetic voluntary associations and a restless spirit of enterprise. Tocqueville admired much of what he saw, but his verdict was not uncomplicated. Near the end of the book, he wrote, ‘I feel full of fears and full of hopes.’ Two centuries later, another European visitor is offering a portrait of America. Freddy (@FreddyLA7), a German soccer fan road-tripping across the country for the 2026 World Cup, has become an enthusiastic chronicler of American life. Where Tocqueville wrote volumes about institutions, Freddy posts photographs and exclamations about Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, and enormous houses. He’s also documenting the kindness of strangers.” (07/03/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/freddy-the-world-cup-tourist
