Source: Politico
“The Trump administration is preparing a list of Spanish goods to potentially embargo, after President Donald Trump ordered officials to cut off trade with the European nation Thursday morning. The Treasury Department will be working with the U.S. trade representative and Commerce Department to provide Trump ‘a menu of Spanish products that may be embargoed in the coming days,’ a U.S.official said via email. Such a move would potentially blow up the trade deal the U.S. struck with the European Union last year. Spain is a member of the 27-country bloc. The European Parliament recently passed legislation implementing the terms of the deal that includes a clause allowing the bloc to pull out if any breach of what is known as the Turnberry Agreement.” (07/08/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/08/trump-spanish-exports-trade-embargo-00990123
Source: The Dispatch
“SCOTUS Vibe Check.” (07/09/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/scotus-vibe-check/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jason Sorens
“Taxing vacant properties may be politically appealing, but they have little effect on rents while creating new economic distortions.” (07/09/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-unintended-consequences-of-vacancy-taxes/
Source: Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
“Pharma Monopoly: The Battle for the Future of Medicines w/ Tahir Amin.” (07/09/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/tamin7-9-26/
Source: Niskanen Center
by Caitlin Rowley Gallamore & Anna Spahn
“Congressional momentum on drug patent reform, tabled at the end of the 118th Congress, is building again. Bipartisan support is coalescing behind House legislation targeting ‘patent thickets,’ which brand-name drugmakers use to keep competing, lower-cost products from entering the market. The measure, along with a related Senate bill, reflects long-overdue progress on patent reform.” (07/09/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/bipartisan-momentum-on-drug-patent-reform-could-clear-a-faster-path-for-affordable-generics/
Source: Reason
by Damon Root
“The conservative justice pushed for greater executive authority even in cases in which Trump won.” (07/09/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/09/clarence-thomas-doubled-down-on-presidential-power/
Source: New York Post
“For Adaleia Cross, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the West Virginia women’s sports case was not just a legal victory. It was personal. Cross, a Bridgeport High School student in West Virginia, said the ruling gave her ‘a sense of peace’ after years of speaking out about the transgender athlete at the center of the case. Cross has alleged the athlete made comments to her in the girls’ locker room that amounted to sexual harassment when both were students at Bridgeport Middle School. Fox News Digital is not naming the trans athlete because the athlete is a minor. ‘I definitely have a sense of peace about all of it,’ Cross told Fox News Digital after the ruling.” (07/09/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/09/us-news/girl-who-was-allegedly-sexually-harassed-by-trans-athlete-in-scotus-case-speaks-out-after-ruling/
Source: Politico
“Graham Platner is out. What happens next?” (07/09/26)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL8626876998.mp3
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
