US regime lifts TikTok ban on federal devices

Source: Engadget

“The US Department of Justice has announced that federal employees can now download and install TikTok on electronics provided by the government, explaining that its current version doesn’t pose the risks the previous one did. In 2022, TikTok was outlawed on almost all devices issues by the US federal government due to [fake] national security concerns. … it’s still up to individual agencies to decide whether or not to allow their employees to download TikTok on federal phones.” (07/18/26)

https://www.engadget.com/2218069/us-government-lifts-tiktok-ban-federal-devices/

Orwell, Spain and the totalitarian left

Source: spiked
by Michael Crowley

“The Spanish Civil War began 90 years ago. On 18 July 1936, General Francisco Franco, alongside fellow general Emilio Mola, led a right-wing military revolt against the democratically elected Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. … George Orwell arrived in Spain in December 1936. He was prevented from joining the International Brigades, and instead joined up with a militia organised by the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). It was a decision that would change the course of his thinking and creative output. He travelled to Spain as an ardent anti-fascist and returned as a determined anti-Communist, or more precisely, an anti-Stalinist.” (07/19/26)

https://archive.is/Y1GBQ

The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall

Source: Fox News
by Dr. Kent Ingle

“The American education establishment is currently having a collective meltdown. If you watch the headlines closely, you can see the panic setting in across the country. This is the unmistakable sound of a broken progressive machine collapsing under the weight of its own arrogance. The radical left has engineered our educational system to prioritize ideological compliance over human formation. Reality is finally catching up with them, and the collapse is starting where the crusade began. The war on merit.” (07/17/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressive-education-machine-collapsing-let-it-fall

MN: Gubernatorial candidate is a registered voter … in Texas

Source: Seattle Times

“Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leader of the election denial movement who was endorsed by President Donald Trump for Minnesota governor this week, acknowledged that he is not registered to vote in the state he seeks to lead. … In Minnesota, voters are allowed to register to vote on Election Day. Lindell, who is registered in Texas, said he was not concerned that he was not yet registered in his home state, something first reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune. Lindell said he was registered to vote in Texas when he moved there for one year in 2024, soon after he married his current wife, Kendra. He said he returned to Minnesota, where he was born and raised, the following year, because he wanted to run for governor.” (07/18/26)

https://archive.is/xeXwi

An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility

Source: Persuasion
by Damon Silvers & Matt Scherer

“The AI boom is already the largest capital investment project in history, running a price tag greater than the Manhattan Project, Interstate Highway System, and Apollo program combined. Estimates of the total cost of the data center buildout run as high as $7 trillion. The issue is not whether AI will transform our economy and society—maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But the conversation around AI’s long-term impact misses the more urgent question: whether AI companies can increase revenues and profits fast enough to pay their bills.” (07/17/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/an-ai-crash-is-a-real-possibility

They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century

Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone

“So it seems the United States is looking at a reinvigorated COINTELPRO for the 2020s, this time with police drones and AI-assisted mass surveillance. As Americans become more and more hostile toward US warmongering, more and more fed up with the state of Israel, more and more convinced that their government doesn’t care about them, and more and more discontented with what unbridled capitalism is doing to their bank accounts, their society, and their world, their rulers are responding with the iron fist of tyranny. And what makes all this especially threatening is that you know whatever measures they roll out while the Republicans are running things will remain in place when the Democrats are in power, because as we have discussed here many times before, it is the Democratic Party’s job to prevent leftward movement in the United States.” (07/18/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/18/theyre-launching-a-new-cointelpro-for-the-21st-century/

UK: Chinese firm seeks damages over nationalization of British Steel

Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]

“A Chinese steel giant demanded compensation from the United Kingdom government on Sunday, claiming thetakeover of its subsidiary, British Steel, was ‘outright robbery.’ The UK government took operational control of British Steel last year, after owner Jingye Group warned that Britain’s last factory capable of making steel from scratch was no longer financially viable. … The company noted that nationalization could cost UK taxpayers more than 1.5 billion pounds ($2.02 billion, €1.76 billion) by 2028. Jingye said it had begun a procedure under bilateral investment agreements to seek damages, without expanding further.” (07/19/26)

https://www.dw.com/en/china-firm-seeks-damages-over-state-control-of-british-steel/a-78024119