Matt

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Is this one of private equity's most appalling moves yet?

[Matt @_lazyasian]

Lmao at #mcgregor, couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

The attempt by national media to portray Platner as some purely hand-picked selection of out-of-state operatives is the height of elitism/narcissism that centers all things DC/NY in every story — and ignores the underlying local dynamics in places derided as flyover country.

He was recruited with the help/support of local labor leaders who were disgusted with the state Dem establishment. You can of course question their candidate vetting/selection. But the question should be: how did that Dem establishment in a blue state so alienate labor that unions were desperate for something different?

Nobody in elite Dem media/politics wants to ask that because they hate labor and see the working class as “deplorable.” But that is a huge question.

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

He's a parasite.

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

The situation is so much more desperate than you probably realize.

University professors are saying they're now unable to teach history because reading long books and passages is how a person learns history. Their students are simply incapable of reading more than a few pages.

Some classes don't assign any reading at all now, only lectures.

There is an assumption among the people managing this decline that reading is just a way of receiving information. It isn't. Proper reading is how we build the mental muscle to synthesize ideas and evaluate them.

If the catastrophic decline in reading and literacy is not addressed now, we risk losing everything. This is civilizational.

Western civilization cannot survive the death of reading because it was built by people with the kind of cognitive depth that a culture of deep reading brings:

Complex reasoning, extended internal dialogue, the capacity to hold opposing ideas in tension. Our systems and institutions are complex, and they require well ordered minds to maintain them.

Reading forms minds, and the West was built by the richest minds in history. We must continue to form new minds in this same model if we're going to keep it.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

U.S. military spending could soon hit a record $1.5 trillion.

Roughly half of defense spending goes to private contractors that have routinely price-gouged the government, according to investigations.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has failed eight straight audits.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Trump's DOT is planning to roll back a requirement that airlines display total ticket prices more prominently in their advertising.

It's an Obama-era rule started in response to complaints from flyers that they felt deceived when buying tickets.

Yet another way Trump is making flying even worse.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

The Hill mistakenly published an article titled, “DO NOT USE: A look back at Mitch McConnell’s time in the Senate,” amid growing rumors about the former Senate Republican leader’s health.

McConnell was rushed to the hospital on June 14 after he was found unconscious in his Washington, D.C., apartment.

Via @TNOQuoProQuid

[Jason Bassler @JasonBassler1]

"We have cameras everywhere in that town and you cannot get a breath of fresh air without us knowing"

When police are admitting this out loud, it's time to admit the cage isn’t coming, we're already inside it.

[Joel Braunold @braunold]

So ask yourself this question. Mamdani is not just a phenomenon of a political talent but he has learnt from Obama that patriotism is the life blood of leadership. As is joy and hope. Any National Dem could have chosen today to make a speech to the nation. Where are Jeffries or Schumer? Newsom, Shaprio, Pritzker, Ossoff et al. Nature abhors a vacuum and the mayor of NYC has taken the leadership of the opposition to the administration and will hold it until someone else does so. He is using his legal inability to run for the highest office as an advantage to be the national voice of the party through influence rather than ambition. He’s exceptionally good at it.

[I Smoked Lindsey Graham @BlackKnight10k]

He's faced so little accountability that he just openly admits to crimes now. No one's doing shit about it either.

[Fred Wellman @FPWellman]

China added over 543 Gigawatts to their grid last year. 434 GW was renewables because they are faster to build. The U.S. added a paltry 53 GW. We are losing the “AI race” to China because these idiots hate green energy. This is suicide by stupid.

[Inequality Media @InequalityMedia]

Four airlines dominate 80 percent of the market. That market power allows them to squeeze lower-income customers — sometimes literally — while catering solely to their richest customers. With Spirit Airlines gone for good, the problem is only going to get worse. Watch.

[theleahfiles @leahfiles]

America's 250th birthday party is starting to look like one big money-laundering scheme, with your tax dollars funding PragerU propaganda trucks and our favorite foreign agent, Brad Parscale.

A decade ago, Congress set aside $150 million for America's 250th and created a bipartisan commission to run it.

That commission has received just $25 million and is now begging for more. The rest was steered to "Freedom 250," a shell LLC Trump stood up in 2025 and hid inside a National Park Service charity. It has pulled in around $80 million.

It gets worse.

Follow the money highlights below:

1️⃣ A $10 MILLION grant, library and museum money, was moved into Trump's birthday LLC to build "Freedom Trucks," mobile propaganda exhibits made with PragerU, the nonprofit whose CEO served in the IDF's Unit 8200. Only 8% has been spent. It reports ZERO sub-awards. No public record of who got the money.
Someone in Congress should look into this.

2️⃣ Around $50 million more is obligated and simply gone dark. Not itemized anywhere the public can find it. This looks intentional.

3️⃣ The White House is paying Campaign Nucleus, the company of Brad Parscale, a REGISTERED FOREIGN AGENT OF ISRAEL, to run the birthday events and harvest the data of everyone who signs up compliments of our tax dollars. (More on this one soon.)

Every dollar runs through a charity. Why? A charity is a wrapper. It lets you take in tax money, corporate cash, and foreign money and spend it on your own projects with the books closed.

If you wanted to design a machine to hide where money goes, it would look exactly like this.

[The Green Dragon Tavern @greendragonhq]

The amount of insider trading Donald Trump is participating in is staggering. It’s actually almost unfathomable.

Since 2012 Nancy Pelosi has executed 213 trades on individual stocks with a total volume of $270 million dollars.

In Q1 of 2026 Donald Trump executed 3,500+ trades on individual stocks with a total volume of $1.5 billion dollars.

Donald Trump is on pace for 14,000 trades this year.

Nancy Pelosi has averaged 15 trades per year.

[Dylan Park-Pettiford @dyllyp]

11 stars for the Confederate states instead of 13 stars for the original colonies is a detail most Americans won’t notice because of our public school system.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump: "The Reflecting Pool, which suffered great damage due to the Vandals and Radical Left SCUM that hate our Country, has been, for the past two days, in full operation. It looks beautiful! After July 4th, we will release the water, fix the damage done to the very expensive waterproof matting, with the use of sharp knives and muscle, including the 350 foot gash along its right side, and have it looking as good as it was two weeks ago, when it was absolutely PERFECT! This will all happen very quickly. Security is watching very carefully for the almost 70 other Monuments, Statues, and Fountains that we renovated throughout Washington, D.C. If anyone attacks any of them, they get as much as 10 years in jail. In any event, go check it out — The Reflecting Pool is magnificent! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"

[Matt @_lazyasian]

Every time…

[Acyn @Acyn]

White on food at Great American State Fair: I’m a bit skeptical if it’s actually MAHA.

Faulkner: It is MAHA Monday but we have the freedom to eat what we want.

Rotunno: Part of MAHA is being healthy somedays and having diversity in your life on others.

[Matt @_lazyasian]

@Acyn

[Charlie Bilello @charliebilello]

Total amount wagered on sports in the US...
2025: $165 billion
2024: $149 billion
2023: $121 billion
2022: $93.7 billion
2021: $57.5 billion
2020: $21.5 billion
2019: $13.1 billion
2018: $6.6 billion