Source: Liberal Currents
“Samantha is joined by Sonja Trauss, president and founder of YIMBY Law, to discuss the state of the housing movement.” (08/16/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-moral-case-for-dynamism-neon-liberalism-86-with-sonja-trauss/
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Back in nineteen-ninety-something, escaping reality was still a collective experience. You and your brother and a dozen strangers that were just as bored as you getting together over dangerously over-salted butter popcorn to watch Quentin Tarantino kill just enough people to squeak by with an R rating. It’s all gone now. It’s all over. Everything is digital. Everything has been separated from the fragile fingertips of another actual sentient human being by fifty-five layers of synthetic software. Hollywood is dead and Marvel buried it in an empty computer box. Everything has been reduced to a formula, from the tightly focus-group tested plot of another poorly regurgitated superhero saga of good versus evil to the computer generated, greenscreen special effects of an AI animated cartoon with the faces of A-list celebrities pasted to the action.” (08/16/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-feral-spectacle-of-radical.html
Source: AOL
“The FBI should not have ‘back-burnered’ a 2005 tip from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner that Jeffrey Epstein had trafficked and sexually abused Playmate Audra Christiansen, a former federal agent says. Christiansen says Hefner, at her urging, made multiple reports to the FBI more than two decades ago but the agency did not immediately follow up. Court documents in a lawsuit filed on behalf of dozens of Epstein survivors say the FBI eventually contacted Christiansen — but not until 2020 after Epstein’s jailhouse death.” (08/16/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/no-excuse-fbi-ignoring-hef-032945000.html
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“A Democratic Strategist on the Future of the Democratic Party w/ Maya Rupert.” (08/16/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“More tariff fun with our neighbors to the north coming up this week. Trump’s dumb Canadian tariffs drop this coming Wednesday, imposing a punitive 50% tax on Canadian imports to the United States. This includes steel, aluminum, lumber, cement, and various consumer goods. Emergency talks are underway, and hopefully, before you read this, the situation will have been resolved, but not likely. And the gaslighting of the American people continues under Trump, trying to make it sound like Americans are not paying extra for goods caught in the tariff net, but the bottom line is. The Trump administration attempts to sell tariffs as some kind of bizarre patriotic weapon to punish foreign governments for taking advantage of us financially, but the only ones penalized are American businesses and consumers.” (08/16/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-50-canadian-tariff-myth-why-washington
Source: SFGate
“The Justice Department finalized a rule Monday that will pave the way for people who’ve been barred from owning firearms because of criminal convictions to apply to have their gun rights reinstated [sic]. The process launched by newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche is a victory for Second Amendment advocates who have long pushed for nonviolent people with felony convictions to be given a pathway to regain [sic] their legal right to own firearms. … The Justice Department moved earlier this year to roll back and modify a slate of gun regulations. Separately, the department recently decided against challenging a court ruling that struck down regulations on firearm suppressors and certain guns.” [editor’s note: Rights can’t be “reinstated” or “regained.” They can just be respected or violated – TLK] (08/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-department-creates-a-new-pathway-to-22391783.php
Source: Antiwar.com
“Ben Gvir: IDF Should Kill 30-40 Palestinians Each Night, Trump Scales Back Korea War Games, and More.” (08/16/26)
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“It should be obvious by now that Trump is not thankful for an independent judiciary, which he views as an illegitimate obstacle to his policy agenda and personal whims. That much is clear from his over-the-top denunciations of recalcitrant judges and justices, whom he habitually accuses of political bias or cowardice, sometimes recommending their impeachment. It is also clear from the arguments that Justice Department lawyers have made in court, especially during Trump’s second term.” (08/16/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Suzanne Gordon
“On August 5th, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General (VA OIG) released a report entitled ‘Review of Radiology Staffing and Services at the VA Washington D.C. Healthcare System’. The blandly titled report was an indictment of the second Trump administration’s misguided return-to-office (RTO) policy. The OIG documented that the RTO caused a ‘mass exodus’ of radiologists from the medical center and delays in patient care (although no documented patient harm). Additionally, the report found that facility leaders didn’t follow appropriate protocols in notifying quality management of known problems and failed to track incomplete radiologic studies. The OIG report appeared just five days after The American Prospect reported on multiple problems at the DC VA Medical Center, one of them being the loss of its radiologists.” (08/17/26)
Source: United Press International
“At least seven Hindu devotees were killed Monday morning in a crowd crush at a Shiva temple in eastern India, where tens of thousands had gathered to take part in a religious observance, according to reports. The incident occurred near Ashok Dham, a famous temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Lakhisarai during the holy month of Shravan, when Mondays are considered particularly auspicious for worship. Preliminary information indicates that reports that a live wire from a fallen electricity pole electrocuted people queuing for Ashok Dham prompted people to panic and run for safety, causing a barricade to collapse and people to pile on top of one another, The New Indian Express reported.” (08/17/26)