Trump regime brings discrimination lawsuit against 99 Ranch

Source: SFGate

“Asian supermarket chain 99 Ranch has been hit with a federal lawsuit alleging that the company racially discriminated against non-Chinese employees when it wrongfully terminated staff based on their race. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint on Tuesday alleging that 99 Ranch’s parent company, Tawa Supermarket Inc., started discriminating against non-Chinese employees as early as 2016, when the employees were not promoted or were paid less than their Chinese colleagues. The lawsuit alleges that several non-Chinese employees were terminated without reason while their Chinese colleagues remained employed. Catherine Eschbach, acting general counsel for the EEOC, said in a statement that the chain’s Asian ownership did not give it an excuse to discriminate against non-Chinese workers.” (07/02/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/99-ranch-supermarket-federal-lawsuit-22329010.php

Steve Trinward

Germany: Prosecutors charge Ukrainian suspect over Nord Stream explosions

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“German federal prosecutors ⁠have filed charges ⁠against a 50-year-old Ukrainian national over a series of explosions that destroyed two Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe in 2022. The federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the indictment on Wednesday against the accused, who is identified only as Serhii K in court documents under German privacy rules. Serhii K is accused of attacking civilian energy infrastructure, causing an explosion, and destroying structures, according to the German public broadcaster ARD. The underwater explosions damaged both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines so severely that no gas could be transported through them, knocking out the key routes for Russian gas ⁠to Europe for months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.” (07/02/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/2/german-prosecutors-charge-ukrainian-suspect-over-nord-stream-explosions?traffic_source=rss

Thomas L. Knapp

Half the Answer, episode 91

Source: Liberal Currents

“Why won’t Gregory Bovino stay gone? Why can’t Trump keep his pool clean? And how many fireworks is too many fireworks? We asked our friend and yours Amanda Moore to help us get to the bottom of these questions and more.” (07/01/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-250th-birthday-party-and-the-green-reflecting-pool-half-the-answer-91-with-amanda-moore/

Thomas L. Knapp

Liberal Societies Need Grand Stories About Themselves

Source: The UnPopulist
by Jonathan Rauch

“Pre-liberal faiths, such as tribalism and Christianity, provided meaningful stories—sometimes for better, though often for worse. In the recent past, liberalism, too, had a story: of a grand human endeavor of progress, equality, and liberation. Yet today, the author says, mass consumerism, fragmented media, tech-driven sociopathy, and cultural nihilism have taken a wrecking ball to meaning. In its own way, careerism has been just as bad; what Avent calls the Modern Faith ‘has no guidance for people in our situation’ beyond urging that we ‘achieve professional success, make money, job done.’ If any of this sounds familiar, that might be because the charge that individualism, industrialization, and consumerization lead to anomie and nihilism has roots that go back to Plato among the ancients and Rousseau and Marx among the moderns.” (07/01/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberal-societies-need-grand-stories

Thomas L. Knapp

Platner, Collins, and the Peculiar Definition of Political Scandal

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“The Founding Fathers had a finely honed sense of the corroding power of corruption. They wrote prohibitions on self-enrichment and the pull of bribery directly into the Constitution on three separate occasions, banning foreign and domestic gifts, changes to presidential compensation during one’s period in office, and appointments for members of Congress that could be remunerative. They believed that someone treated well by a foreign potentate or stateside special interest would be naturally inclined to benefit them, if even unconsciously, and that a wall needed to be constructed to guard against this. That the Supreme Court has directly or indirectly nullified these one by one is a tragedy. But the court of public opinion, at least as mediated by gatekeepers of information, has also separated what counts as corruption from what counts as a political scandal.” (07/02/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/07/02/platner-collins-peculiar-definition-of-political-scandal/

Steve Trinward

AL: No charges expected after homeowner shoots intruder

Source: WAAY 31 News

“Huntsville Police are investigating an early morning shooting on Salem Drive that they believe was an act of self-defense. Officers responded to a home on the 200 block of Salem Drive around 3 a.m. Wednesday, after getting a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they say they found a man with gunshot wounds who was taken to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition. Detectives with the Violent Crimes Unit believe the injured man broke into the home while carrying a gun. Police say he then threatened the people inside before one of them shot him in self-defense.” (07/01/26)

https://www.waaytv.com/news/no-charges-expected-after-huntsville-homeowner-shoots-intruder/article_68fcb399-4ad0-4fe5-bd9a-f4e75ae4f8e5.html

Thomas L. Knapp