Source: Brownstone Institute
by Wendy McElroy
“Federalization leads medicine down a very bad path toward bureaucracy and away from competitive markets, which are the best hope to deliver quality at reasonable cost. Remember Covid? Remember President Ronald Reagan’s famous comment, ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’?’ Bureaucrats helped us good and hard with Covid; now they want to help with women’s health. They make no pretense of ‘helping’ men good and hard, of course. To men, the program offers a medical segregation that is as medically unfair as it would be to medically segregate blacks along racial lines. Clearly, medical differences between women and men sometimes require totally different hands-on care; but medical differences, like breast cancer rates, is not what is being discussed. Political and economic power is under discussion.” (08/01/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/medical-segregation-a-coming-coup-in-american-medical-care/
Source: Liberalism.org
by Eli Talbert
“Consider a hypothetical tenant in Phoenix, Arizona, asking an AI assistant whether allowing five-story mixed-use apartments near a light-rail stop would make housing cheaper before she writes to her city council member. The answer cites the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department, notes displacement, and summarizes the mayor’s affordability set-aside. Nothing feels coercive. The tenant remains free to disagree. Yet a practical risk is already present. The AI has chosen which sources to retrieve, which follow-up questions to encourage, which frame feels neutral—and which serious alternatives will take extra effort to find. By the time she reaches the public meeting, the tenant may have concluded that the boundaries of the argument are settled.” (07/31/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-automated-overton-window
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama
“As we move toward the end of the Trump era, we need to reckon with the changes his administration has wrought in the American system of government. The most significant is the enormous concentration of power, not just in the executive branch as a whole, but in the office of the president. Any successor administration, Republican or Democratic, will inherit these powers, and will have to decide how it wants to define the limits of executive authority in the future.” (07/31/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-grave-choice-facing-the-next
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“An explosion Saturday at a Moscow restaurant that killed three people and wounded 21 others was a bombing, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said, the Tass state news agency reported. … An unidentified woman who attempted to carry the explosive device into the restaurant died in the blast as did a security guard and a patron, the news agency said. Ria Novosti reported the woman attempted to smuggle the bomb into the establishment but the security guard refused to let her in before the bomb exploded. … The Kommersant daily newspaper cited its own sources as saying that the bomb had been intended to maim and kill guests who were enjoying themselves on the restaurant’s summer terrace outside. It suggested that the bomb had been set off by someone else remotely and that the woman carrying it may not have known that it was an explosive device.” (08/02/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260802-at-least-three-killed-in-moscow-restaurant-bombing-russian-officials-say
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Jim Ostrowski on the high cost of government and defending yourself in New York City.” (07/31/26)
https://rumble.com/v7di3r8-ff-474-jim-ostrowski-on-the-high-cost-of-government-and-defending-yourself-.html
Source: Isabelle Brito
“The city commission of Emporia, Kansas, has endured countless hours of public criticism. What it could not endure was a few seconds of clapping. At its July 22 meeting, citizens contested a proposed data center, briefly applauding between public comments as one speaker left the microphone and another approached. Commissioners sometimes ignored the applause and other times warned the audience to stop. But their warnings soon expanded to cover even more muted reactions like finger-snapping and a woman in the back of the room silently waving her hands. When high school physics teacher Lux Claridge clapped five times for a speaker, a commissioner told officers to remove the next person who clapped. But instead of waiting for another round of applause, officers immediately ordered Claridge to leave.” (07/31/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/applause-disrupted-nothing-yet-still-led-arrest
Source: Town Hall
by Jay Rogers
“I’ve spent 30 years as a fiduciary, which mostly means telling people why they can’t do the thing they want to do. When a trustee wants to make a distribution the trust document doesn’t authorize, there are two honest answers. Amend the document, or don’t make the distribution. What you don’t do is rewrite the beneficiary definition until the distribution qualifies, book it, and hope nobody opens the file for 20 years. About 14 states took the third option on college tuition. Somebody finally opened the file. On July 24, Judge David Dugan of the Southern District of Illinois struck down the state’s in-state tuition rules, its RISE Act, and its DREAM Act as unconstitutional for illegal [sic] aliens. A day earlier, the Justice Department sued Colorado, the 14th such case. Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have already surrendered; suits are pending against a dozen more, including California and Virginia.” (08/01/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jay-rogers/2026/08/01/the-tuition-rule-14-states-decided-to-ignore-n2680419
Source: CBS News
“The ex-wife of Republican Rep. Max Miller asked a court Thursday to issue a restraining order blocking the two-term Ohio congressman from contacting her lawyer, as her allegations that he assaulted her — which Miller denies — continue to plague his contentious reelection campaign. Miller pledged on Sunday to stay in the race as he vehemently denied the recent allegations that have swirled against him. … In court filings, ex-wife Emily Moreno alleged that Miller has repeatedly had physical and verbal altercations with her attorney, Andrew Zashin, after recent court hearings in an ongoing custody battle. The pair already have court-ordered restraining orders against each other. They share a young daughter after a brief marriage that began in 2022 and ended in June 2025. … Miller represents a Republican-leaning district in the Cleveland area and is running for a third term. Moreno is the daughter of Republican Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno.” (08/02/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/max-miller-ex-wife-emily-moreno-allegations-restraining-order-lawyer/
Source: The Bulwark
“China Found Trump’s Weak Spot—and Made Him Back Down (w/ Idrees Kahloon).” (08/01/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8cxiRy4MRU
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Veronique de Rugy
“There are many ways to measure the health of a country. One way is growth of gross domestic product. Another is economic productivity. But there’s a less conventional measure worth watching: Do the world’s most talented and ambitious people want to immigrate here? Throughout most of America’s history, the answer has been an emphatic yes. Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and strivers from around the world have chosen the United States because they believed they could build something, discover something or start a business while making a better life in this country. We should worry about the day when that is no longer true. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems determined to make that day arrive sooner rather than later.” (07/31/26)
https://archive.is/vtCkK
