Source: Common Dreams
by James Zogby

“Meetings between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are more akin to a master class in posturing and duplicity than in diplomacy. Last week’s meetings were no exception. Both men are master manipulators, products of our media age. They create illusions that they insist are real. They repeat a lie over and over, and with such force, that it becomes real for those who trust them. Those who do not believe in the illusion are threatened, belittled, or shunned. Both leaders have utilized their craftiness to achieve personal success in domestic politics. They have developed strong constituent bases, followers who believe that their leadership must be supported and protected. At the same time, they are polarizing figures who have contributed to creating deep fissures within their countries.” (07/14/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-netanyahu-lies

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Is the ugly surge of antisemitism in the United States — whether homegrown or imported or both — now infecting primary school education?” (07/14/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/07/14/ugly-surge/

Source: The American Conservative
by Daniel R DePetris

“Desperately clinging to a dying hegemony means shortchanging military readiness over the long-term, rapidly moving military resources thousands of miles at a time without due regard for long-term strategy and expending defense assets at a rate that current production can’t match. Eventually, those decisions will add up and result in difficult decisions down the line, like the one Washington just confronted regarding Ukraine.” (07/14/25)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/what-trumps-ukraine-aid-pause-says-about-americas-broken-foreign-policy/

Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid

“Abe Lincoln turned the Abolitionist Movement into a bloody excuse to consolidate power in the hands of the Northern industrial elites who simply replaced chattel slavery with wage slavery. The Women’s Movement was hijacked by progressive bats like Margaret Sanger who quickly converted it into a vehicle for compulsory temperance and population control. And the seemingly endless revolutionary potential of the Labor Movement was murdered by FDR’s Mussolini-inspired New Deal which neutered wildcats into mobbed-up union fat cats. But decentralization still remains the greatest defense against centralized authoritarianism in this country and it doesn’t get much more centralized or authoritarian than the Donald’s Satanic union of millenarian Jesus freaks, Zionist genocide junkies and Silicon Valley Übermenschen and some people on the left, including some people on the statist left, seem to have recognized the power of weaponized localism though few have taken it nearly far enough to reach its logical conclusions.” (07/13/25)

https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/07/its-time-for-left-to-embrace-small.html

Source: Town Hall
by Scott Powell

“[W]hat the American people are anxious about now, as we commence the countdown to America’s 250th anniversary, July 4, 2026, is that America’s liberty is now at extreme risk because the country’s foundation of justice has been shredded. A solid foundation of justice is essential to ensure that freedom does not enable the powerful to oppress the vastly larger numbers who are in a weaker position. Equal justice under the law means not only that the courts should adjudicate the law without prejudice as to race, gender, or social status, but that the rules must be enforced and adjudicated with particular attention that justice for the poor and weak is best protected by holding the powerful to account.” (07/14/25)

https://townhall.com/columnists/scottpowell/2025/07/14/americans-can-never-forget-that-liberty-depends-on-justice-n2660314