https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJrRx6rwQtI
““Sacrifice?? What the fuck are you talking about??” she replied to his post. “They did not willingly sacrifice themselves.”
“They were killed because of the war you, Trump, and the admin, are waging on behalf of a FOREIGN COUNTRY, Israel. You mean their deaths fuel your bloodlust for a senseless war,” she added.”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn996HoYBkI
Between widespread cuts to vital government agencies, various disease and illness outbreaks, and new environmental disaster vulnerabilities, the United States is facing a convergence of crises with widespread repercussions.
Yet the Trump administration has hamstrung the federal government from addressing these crises – and in some cases is actively fanning them. Over the past year, the administration has moved to shrink the federal workforce, roll back environmental protections and policies intended to fight the climate crisis, reduced funding for scientific research and is seeking to advance legislation that would impose new voting restrictions...
In response to the AP’s reporting about Brouillette, top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer similarly criticized the Trump administration for its mass hiring of thousands of ICE officers to help carry out its mass deportation goals.
Schumer, of New York, accused the Trump administration of rushing 12,000 agents “onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun”. The president and his Republican allies then “gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability”, Schumer continued on X, arguing that neither Trump nor his party can “disown the deadly consequences” of that approach by ICE...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/ice-officer-maine-killing
Most recently, the death of Tywin Johnson, 20, has begun to spark a reaction by Memphians. Johnson was a musician with no criminal record killed by National Guard soldiers who were responding to a report of a robbery suspect downtown.
While taskforce spokespeople said Johnson was armed, they have refused to elaborate about the circumstances that led troops to open fire on a civilian, and have refused to release video footage captured by a Memphis police street camera hanging almost immediately above the location of the shooting, despite Johnson’s family calling on officials to release the footage. The soldiers were not wearing body cameras…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/greystar-landlord-civil-rights-violations
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/trump-media-truth-social-posts
Presidents normally appoint US attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except in temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, the judges in a judicial district can name a US attorney.
But under Trump, the justice department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/trump-fires-us-attorney-roger-rogoff-seattle
Asked about the American accusations, Carney told reporters on Thursday: “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States.”
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said on Friday that the US could offer more aid to fight the fires, as Canada has done for its neighbor in the past. “Maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help,” Ford said. “Because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends, and that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/republicans-canada-sanctions-wildfire-smoke
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/17/iran-inflict-damage-us-attacks
Donald Trump’s state department intends to allocate $12m to organisations in the UK founded by the prominent Conservatives Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young, the Guardian can reveal.
The intended grants, revealed in US government documents, are part of a package of support for European groups viewed favourably by the Trump administration. Some former US officials have criticised the funding as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/liz-oyer-doj-todd-blanche-testimony
…The Department of Homeland Security did not reveal its methodology for identifying the noncitizens and how confident they were in their assessment. The tool the Department of Homeland Security uses to flag noncitizens on the voter rolls is known to be inaccurate.
Letters from the Department of Homeland Security sent on Thursday to Nevada and Pennsylvania obtained by the Guardian also suggest that the government is much less certain that the people identified are actually noncitizens. The Nevada letter says the department identified as many as 15,903 noncitizens who were registered to vote, including 8,576 whose name, date of birth, address and social security number matched that of a noncitizen in its files. It did not say how it flagged the remaining potential noncitizens. .
“These numbers are wildly speculative at best and the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t shared anything that backs it up,” Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic Nevada secretary of state, said in a statement…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/trump-claims-primetime-address
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/17/israeli-strike-gaza-funeral-multiple-deaths
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/trump-address-us-elections
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/trump-tv-address-thursday
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/16/nx-s1-5845818/oil-prices-windfall-tax-iran-war
Yet the notion of a testosterone crisis in need of treatment is not backed by science, says Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Screening for testosterone levels isn’t always accurate, she wrote in an email to Mother Jones, because in otherwise healthy men, levels can fluctuate dramatically... What’s more, she says, “there is very little evidence that administration of testosterone can help symptoms.” The drawbacks of overprescribing testosterone are considerable; adverse effects include blood clots, fractures, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, kidney problems, infertility, and, adds Fugh-Berman, “let’s not forget testicular shrinkage.”… …
the National Center for Health Research, a medical product safety advocacy group, wrote that testosterone therapy “does not improve strength or physical ability” and that “there is no established relationship between ‘Low-T’ and most of the symptoms that testosterone is being promoted to treat.” Testosterone, the group warned, “is not a fountain of youth or vitality.”
But that doesn’t stop online influencers from claiming it is exactly that. Gram’s team wrote in the study abstract that the “low-T” posts they analyzed “prey on men’s insecurities about relationships and sexual performance” to sell “testosterone products for improving the masculine self without supporting evidence.”
In addition to the manosphere, another influence on Hegseth’s fixation on masculinity may be his spiritual leader, Doug Wilson, the self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Idaho pastor who preached at the Pentagon earlier this year. Wilson has opined extensively about the virtues of “biblical masculinity,” which he has called “cultural gluten.” Without a patriarchal society led by manly men, he wrote in his 2023 book Mere Christendom, “the cookie just crumbles to pieces in your hand, and is tasteless on top of that.” In a 2020 YouTube broadcast, Wilson declared, “A masculine message is not going to be declared by effeminate men. We have a real crisis in masculinity.” In a February interview with Military Times, Wilson noted, “We should do everything we can do to keep women out of combat roles.”…
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/16/trump-speech-2020-election
In 2016, Russian agents used hacking and disinformation campaigns in an attempt to tilt the election in Trump's favor, government reports have shown. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with investigating it, found no criminal coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
There are multiple safeguards protecting elections from foreign interference, including regularly audited paper records for 98% of votes cast in almost every state, Norden said.
The Trump administration has cut back on election security efforts launched during his first term, such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. In a 2020 post-election tweet, Trump fired the head of CISA, Chris Krebs, after the agency released a statement that affirmed the election's security...
The 19th-century law made it a federal crime to mail, possess, give away, or sell “obscene materials”—including items used for abortion. Parts of the law relating to birth control were repealed in 1971, but Comstock was never repealed in its entirety. When abortion providers started prescribing pills to patients in states where abortion was banned thanks to “shield” laws, anti-abortion activists argued that this was a violation of the Comstock Act. Project 2025 also called for criminal prosecutions of abortion pill providers under Comstock, though the document only references the law by statute number, not by name.
In response, a December 2022 opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said it was not illegal for the U.S. Postal Service and other carriers like FedEx and UPS to deliver abortion medications to states that ban abortion, and that Comstock did not apply unless the sender intended pills to be used unlawfully. That interpretation has reassured abortion providers that they can prescribe pills across state lines without fear of federal prosecution...
WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation is doubling down on its campaign against "DEI bike lanes," as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called them in a social media post earlier this month…
The FHWA says the changes to its website, which have not been previously reported, are part of a broader review of safety countermeasures to ensure they align with current DOT policies and the administration's priorities. But critics say the Trump administration is undermining safety strategies that have already been proven to work…
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/16/nx-s1-5893672/dot-bike-lanes-speed-cameras-safety-measures
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-truth-social-posts-charge-sell_n_6a59489be4b042a7aac61bbb
"My first thought is it's a little embarrassing for this information to be gathered, aggregated, analyzed and shared by the ACLU instead of the Department of Homeland Security," says Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina.
"Living in a democracy means that the government is doing a good job when and only when we the people say it's doing a good job. And that requires a certain degree of transparency about the nature of governmental operations," he added...
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/16/nx-s1-5891834/ice-use-of-force-aclu-report
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said the tunnel plans underwent a comprehensive review and meet regulatory and statutory requirements, including a mitigation plan for impacts to wetlands and cultural resources.
The agency review concluded that "the public and private need for the proposed activity outweighed other public interest criteria." As a condition of the permit, Enbridge will be required to submit an improved wetland mitigation plan to address wetland impacts…
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/16/house-dem-challengers-are-printing-money-01000665
Pearl said it might, paradoxically, make it easier to convey his message, since more fencing would have the practical effect of funneling tourists into an even smaller area. But he's upset about the symbolism of the White House — which is funded by taxpayers — being further closed off from the public it is supposed to serve.
"What this fencing represents, to me, is the worst of what the new attitude toward politics represents. And that is imperialism, fascism, dictatorship," Pearl said. "Because what dictators do is isolate themselves from the people they rule. That is not, for me, the way democracies can possibly work."…
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/16/nx-s1-5893465/dc-lafayette-square-park-permanent-fencing-proposal
SK Siltron spokesman Joe Guy Collier said the company originally expanded manufacturing in the U.S. to meet what was then growing customer demand for a specialized product used in electric vehicles.
“Significant changes in the EV market have created sustained challenges for the silicon carbide wafer business,” said Collier...
In this recent expansion, private schools have opened in farms and barns, addiction treatment centers, co-working spaces, people’s homes and parks, ProPublica’s review of 13 states found. A West Virginia family opened a school at the family fun center they operate. It’s next to the waterpark, mini golf course and go-kart track…
One Michigan-based company that launched last year to encourage churches to tap into public funds refers to these programs in its promotional videos as “God’s new gold mine.”…
It’s common, for example, for both new and established religious schools to refuse to admit (or to expel) students who say they’re gay, who condone homosexuality or whose parents are gay. One school noted on its website that it is “permitted to discriminate on the basis of religion in accordance with our Statement of Faith.” Many schools decline to enroll students with disabilities. An Alabama school that opened this past fall says it will expel students who have HIV, gonorrhea or syphilis...
…[A reporter] had recognized the name of a woman who’d just opened her own private school in the fall of 2025: Tara Salute… A 40-year-old vice president of the local Little League at the time, Salute in 2012 had been charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor after a drunken night at her home with her son’s friend, a sophomore in the district where she recently had taught elementary school. After intercourse, the teenager had snapped photos of her naked body on a futon as evidence…
https://www.propublica.org/article/private-schools-vouchers-growth-florida-arizona-west-virginia
The conference, convened by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and attended by Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, and Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, was billed as a “ministerial on the resurgence of political violence”, but the focus was solely on crushing leftist violence. It came as Donald Trump ramps up his efforts to label his political opponents, and a rising number of politicians identified with the Democratic Socialists of America as “communists”.
The officials did not mention episodes of rightwing attacks, such as the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/political-violence-event-trump-marco-rubio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wmxlu8Is5A
17:41 Mike - Marci joins; Christian but doesn’t necessarily believe the Bible; Are natural disasters necessary? Caller is dropped because they aren’t tracking the argument
50:30 John [Norse Pagan] - Breakdown of caller’s beliefs; Every human culture worships something thus many Gods are real
1:10:25 Christian Lane - Genuinely funny because caller’s AI decides to butt in
1:13:13 Tony - Caller slurs and gets kicked
1:16:00 Tonyorbo - Everything has been intelligently constructed by a mind; Atheists have more blind faith than believers; The fact that we are able to come up with solutions to imperfections is proof of God; Caller runs
1:50:58 ty_miller1 - Is the universe eternal? Is the universe expanding?
2:07:28 Sam - M’s joins; Caller is bad faith and does a lot of meta; What is the relationship between mass and energy? Caller refuses to admit he is Muslim
2:30:15 Frags and Coffee - Caller is exploring Islam; M’s and caller talk about Muhammad’s life; What is energy?
2:56:45 Truth in Telos - What are examples of Babylonian and Egyptian texts that accurately guess the future? A deep dive into the kingdoms of Daniel 8
3:50:20 Joel - What non-Biblical evidence do we have for the resurrection? What does the Old Testament say about the messiah (Jeremiah 33)? What contradictions does the New Testament have?
4:20:15 (Joel) - What does Jeremiah 31 say about the Messianic Age?
4:45:33 Isaac Matthews - Does the Bible say Heaven is in the sky? Does God have a body? Is the Earth flat per the Bible?
5:18:25 (Isaac Matthews) - Duncan joins; What did the ancient Jewish people believe? Justin brings receipts; How much of a dumbo is Paul?
5:30:30 (Isaac Matthews) - What did God promise Abraham and how it is related to Jesus? What were Jewish beliefs about the messiah? Who is the suffering servant?Interview:
5:56:35 (Isaac Matthews) - Who wrote the Gospels? What do they say about fulfilled prophecy? Is the Holy Trinity logical?
6:39:35 Nina Baron - Do any of the scriptures resound with the hosts? Is there a higher power that sets order to the Universe?
7:01:15 Superchats and wrap up
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/15/pentagon-hegseth-soldiers-testosterone-00999625
