Source: The Daily Economy
by Thomas Savidge
“Pandemic-era aid allowed many states to expand spending without confronting long-term costs. The bill is coming due.” (07/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/states-relying-on-federal-aid-face-a-reckoning/
Source: Beat the Press
by Dean Baker
“I’m serious, and this is not just my disgust with everything Trump. There is no good reason for the overwhelming majority of people in the country to ever put a dollar in a Trump account for their kids. To be clear, I’m not in favor of tax-sheltered accounts in general. They strike me mostly as a very inefficient way to accomplish public goals, in this case making education more affordable. The more efficient route would be to have more public funds go to support public colleges and community colleges. The tax-sheltered account route also favors higher-income people. Over a quarter of households owe no income tax, meaning they would get no benefit whatsoever from putting money in a tax-sheltered account. Another 20 percent are in the 10 percent bracket, meaning the account would just save them just 10 cents on every dollar invested. By contrast, the highest income households save 37 cents on every dollar invested in a tax-sheltered account.” (07/07/26)
Source: Independent [UK]
“The daughter of Senator Mitch McConnell has deleted her X account amid widespread speculation over the former Senate majority leader’s health, following a sudden June hospitalization. It is unclear when or why Porter McConnell, a progressive-leaning political activist who previously directed the Take On Wall Street campaign, deleted her account. … McConnell was found unconscious on June 14 and received CPR after suffering an apparent heart attack in his Washington, D.C., home, according to emergency records obtained by a variety of news outlets. Little else is known about his current condition.” (07/06/26)
Source: Niskanen Center
“Can Democrats win back the working class, with Joan Williams.” (07/06/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/can-democrats-win-back-the-working-class-with-joan-williams/
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“For nearly four decades, students in America’s public schools have experienced a straightjacketed version of the First Amendment. That’s due to the Supreme Court’s Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision. School administrators — who are government officials — have used Hazelwood to censor student expression, often prioritizing the school’s reputation over student voices. These administrators mark certain stories and topics as off-limits, including critiques of school boards or commentary on federal immigration policy. … Justice Samuel Alito’s recent dissent calling the Court to reconsider Hazelwood should be echoed, not dismissed.” (07/06/26)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Mathan Goldwag
“Today it is not revolutionary communists but so-called conservatives who wish to trample on human individuality in service of dreams of a remade society.” (07/07/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/there-is-no-such-thing-as-society/
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A secret inquiry by MI5’s watchdog concluded the security service knew an abusive agent it defended in court was a misogynist who was ‘obsessed’ with violence, the BBC can reveal. The inquiry took place after BBC News originally exposed how MI5 had covered up for the man – a neo-Nazi informant known publicly as agent X. The government took the BBC to court in 2022 in a failed attempt to block our investigation, but it won agent X legal anonymity. That year, the BBC first reported how the MI5 spy had used his status to coercively control his girlfriend, including attacking her with a machete, before moving abroad to continue intelligence work while he was still under investigation. Following the BBC story, the office of the investigatory powers commissioner (IPCO) Sir Brian Leveson launched an inquiry, which – like much of IPCO’s work – was secret.” (07/07/26)
Source: The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen
“Supreme Court Term Review.” (07/07/26)
https://rosenjeffrey.substack.com/p/supreme-court-term-review
Source: Reason
by Joe Lancaster
“When the U.S. launched a war against Iran in February, it sent the prices of goods like fuel and fertilizer skyrocketing. Hoping to remediate the damage, President Donald Trump issued a waiver of Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Better known as the Jones Act, the statute says cargo moving between American ports must be carried on a ship that was built in America, with predominantly American owners and crew. … Since the waiver has been in effect, America’s shipping lanes have thrived—providing further evidence that we should scrap the Jones Act altogether.” (07/06/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/06/shipping-thrived-after-trump-waived-the-jones-act/
Source: In These Times
by Adam Johnson and Steven Thrasher
“In late May, Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza spoke with Steven Thrasher, author of The Overseer Class: A Manifesto, about their respective books’ efforts to catalogue the ways that many of the same elite voices now opposed to Trump resorted to similarly Orwellian and even violent tactics in their effort to quell the movement for Palestinian liberation after Oct. 7. Their talk dissects the way these powerful liberals, as Thrasher puts it, exist to ’police the boundaries of what we’re allowed to think about and what we’re allowed to do.'” (07/06/26)