Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat

“There was a time when the arms dealer waited in the corridor. He financed the campaign, endowed the think tank, took the general to dinner, and hoped the man inside the office would remember him when the contract came up. The wall between the money and the decision was thin, often corrupt, but it was there. Someone held the public trust, and someone else tried to buy it, and you could at least tell the two apart. That wall is gone. The financier no longer waits in the corridor. He holds the office. He signs the checks. He is the buyer and the seller, the regulator and the regulated, the public interest and the private portfolio, fused into a single man in a single suit, and the arrangement is entirely legal, which is the whole problem.” (07/09/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/thomas_karat/2026/07/08/the-men-who-own-the-war-now-run-it

Source: Niskanen Center
by imberly Burnett, Rohan Aras, & Andrew Justus

“For a break with past practices on housing affordability, it’ll be hard to beat the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, newly passed by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. In a single package, the act rethinks a century-old approach to zoning that has contributed to the housing shortage; makes an offer of federal housing funds for communities actually allowing housing to be built; and strips away an outdated regulation that has put the American dream of homeownership out of reach for far too many families.” (07/08/26)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/3-reasons-the-21st-century-road-to-housing-act-matters

Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko

“Back in 2018, when I was with the Washington Post, I put together a collection of academic studies, media reports and investigations, and other resources on racism in the criminal justice system. The idea, which the paper supported at the time, was to post all of this data in one place and keep it updated as a one-stop resource and repository. In the years since, I’ve heard from academics, journalists, policymakers, and teachers who have relied on the collection in their research, reporting, and class assignments. I’ve also received requests to take it out from behind the paywall. I was never able to convince the Post to do that. … So I’m going to reproduce it here at The Watch.” (07/08/26)

https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-racism-in-the-criminal

Source: American Greatness
by Lipton Matthews

“The American economy grew by 2 percent during the first three months of 2026, hardly the picture of collapse that critics of the Trump administration keep promising is just around the corner. The country has not tanked under Donald Trump, not even with tariffs in place. Trump has been accused of putting black women out of work by cutting positions in the federal government, and it is true that federal cuts have hit black women disproportionately since they have historically been overrepresented in the federal workforce. But the federal government is not, and was never meant to be, a jobs program for any single demographic, and many of the positions eliminated were not economically viable in the first place. Despite this favorable record, The Washington Post published a feature on Black America to tarnish Trump’s image.” (07/09/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/09/credentialed-dependent-and-unemployable-the-washington-posts-cautionary-tale-backfires/

Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer

“I am not an expert in AI, but I have seen a lot of waves software-based productivity innovations in my lifetime, and have developed some intuition as to how fast or slow they can penetrate corporate America. I think the impact of AI over the next 5 years, particularly on productivity, has been exaggerated. Which should be no surprise as the impact of PC’s and later the Internet also undershot their productivity expectations for the first 5 years.” (07/08/26)

https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2026/07/my-mostly-contrarian-thoughts-on-ai.html