Source: Reason
by Tosin Akintola
“Last September, the U.S. military fired the first of 63 strikes against 67 small fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The spate of killings in Operation Southern Spear has claimed 221 lives so far, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization. In April, President Donald Trump boasted about the effectiveness of his extrajudicial maritime strikes against alleged drug traffickers, claiming his methods had stopped 98.2 percent of all drugs coming into the country by ocean or sea. However, new evidence from those inside the Trump administration shows the strikes have not slowed the flow of drugs coming into the country.” (07/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/30/trumps-boat-strikes-killed-221-people-but-didnt-win-the-war-on-drugs/
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“The fact is that diaries tend to be self-obsessed, and no one would want their unvarnished private thoughts made public. Rather, my gripe with these passages is one I have previously raised in criticism of Fauci. During this period, dissenting scientists were barred from social media, removed from positions and vilified for expressing views despite now being vindicated on subjects ranging from the lab origin of the virus to the efficacy of masks, the 6-foot rule, natural immunity and school closures. As these courageous scientists were being abused by academic and media figures who still hold their positions, Fauci said not a word in their defense despite privately acknowledging that they could be right.” (07/30/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-fauci-took-fifth-diary-may-have-answered
Source: New York Times
“For the fourth time since the end of the Vietnam War, a United States aircraft carrier made a port call in Vietnam on Thursday, promoting joint security ties at a time when tariffs and the war in Iran have hurt American influence across Asia. The carrier George Washington pulled into the quiet waters near Da Nang on day 70 of its deployment — not far from the beaches where U.S. Marines first landed in 1965, accelerating a war that killed around 58,000 Americans and 2 million Vietnamese. Both countries celebrated the 7-day port call, the longest stay in Vietnam for an American warship since the two countries restored relations in 1995, as a sign of how far the former enemies have come.” (07/30/26)
https://archive.is/VwOws
Source: Serious Trouble
“Comey’s Got the Moves.” (07/30/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/comeys-got-the-moves
Source: Persuasion
by Charles Lane
“Obviously, the DSA feels energized and validated by having defeated establishment Democrats and captured the mayoralties of New York and Seattle, the Democratic nomination for Washington, D.C.’s mayoralty, plus four likely seats in the U.S. House in recent months. This raises a troubling question: What if the radicalism of the DSA’s constitutional plan is not its weakness but its strength? That is the really scary possibility. And it’s worth taking seriously.” (07/30/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/socialism-vs-the-constitution
Source: USA Today
by Dace Potas
“Mamdani presents democratic socialism as little more than libraries, public schools and fire departments. The Democratic Socialists of America describe something far more sweeping. Recasting those ambitions as familiar public services is an effort to launder radical ideas into the mainstream. … Democratic socialists in office aren’t shy about wanting to replace capitalism. They are, after all, socialists. But their ambitions extend well beyond shifting some industries from private to public ownership. The Democratic Socialists of America’s platform calls for abolishing the police and prison system, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, establishing universal rent control, enacting reparations and much more.” (07/30/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/07/30/mamdani-obfuscate-democratic-socialist-party-platform/91078228007/
Source: ABC News
“The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in eastern Congo, official data released on Thursday showed, marking a 50% increase in around a week that shows the emergency continuing to outpace response efforts. As of Tuesday, 3,442 cases had been recorded, with 1,521 deaths, according to the latest government update. The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.” (07/30/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/congo-death-toll-fastest-growing-ebola-outbreak-passed-135218844
Source: Underthrow
“National healing starts when we no longer expect our rulers to heal us.” (07/30/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/wash-your-hands-of-it
Source: The New Republic
by Greg Sargent
“No one has ever seen anything like it, as Donald Trump himself might say. Buried in a new CNN poll is something striking: Trump isn’t just cratering by conventional approval measurements; he’s also absolutely collapsing by many metrics involving personal traits, from his mental state to his disconnectedness from ordinary people to his fondness for building monuments to himself. Welcome to the era of Late-Stage Trumpism. The ‘personalist’ aspects of Trumpian rule—the shaping of much of the government and even the physical capital of Washington, D.C., around one man’s relentless self-dealing and self-aggrandizement—have all started imploding in on themselves, in a collapsing supernova of venality and megalomania.” (07/30/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/213727/trump-polls-approval-twilight-late-stage-trumpism
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Trump inherited a perfectly functional Iran nuclear deal in his first term and ceasefires between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and between Israel and Hezbollah in his second term. He had the possibility of peace in the middle east handed to him on a golden platter, and he actively torched it.” (07/30/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/30/trump-inherited-peace-deals-but-torched-them-for-more-war-and-other-notes/
