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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Otis Rush

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush. Enjoy!

^{Otis Rush & Eric Clapton - Double Trouble (Live At Montreux 1986)}

"If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary."

-- Winston Churchill

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News and Opinion

An excellent article, here's a teaser:

Collapse of US-Israel Bipartisan Consensus

For decades, U.S. support for Israel rested on one of Washington’s strongest bipartisan assumptions: that military assistance was strategically necessary and politically untouchable. But Gaza has weakened that consensus. Critics now see Israeli military aid as a misguided strategy and political target. The most visible shift has occurred inside the Democratic Party.

Driven by voter and demographic shifts, humanitarian concerns in Gaza, and the unwarranted conflict with Iran, more than 100 House Democrats recently supported an amendment seeking to block billions of dollars in Israel-related assistance, an extraordinary departure from previous voting patterns. House Democratic leadership (including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries) has officially called for a “major reset” in U.S.-Israel relations. Senate efforts to restrict weapons transfers have also attracted substantial Democratic support, reflecting growing concern about civilian casualties, international law and U.S. responsibility.

The Republican coalition is also less unified than before. While most Republican lawmakers remain strongly supportive of Israel, MAGA-aligned figures influenced by anti-interventionism, “America First” priorities and skepticism toward foreign aid have increasingly questioned open-ended commitments. Growing opposition within the MAGA movement to U.S. arms transfers centers on a deep ideological rift over foreign interventionism. Former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene left office in January after a bitter falling out with President Donald Trump.

While much of the base supports Trump’s foreign policy, a growing, vocal faction — backed by prominent voices like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Representative Thomas Massie — challenges continued, unconditional weapons shipments. The result is a new political landscape: traditional pro-Israel Democrats, evangelical conservatives, progressive Democrats, libertarian Republicans, and anti-interventionist conservatives now approach the issue from fundamentally different premises. The debate is therefore no longer simply “pro-Israel versus anti-Israel.” It concerns whether U.S. strategic interests, domestic law, international obligations and humanitarian concerns can continue to be reconciled under existing policy.

Alastair Crooke: Iranians Want Vengence - Don't Bend to Trump's Will

US House passes war powers resolution directing Trump to end Iran conflict

The US House of Representatives for the second time passed a war powers resolution directing Donald Trump to withdraw the US military from the conflict with Iran, amid renewed fighting that has driven oil prices to their highest levels in weeks and claimed four American lives.

The resolution proposed by Democrat Pramila Jayapal passed by a 214-208 vote, largely along party lines. The same four Republicans who had helped pass a nearly identical resolution in June – Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania – joined with all Democrats in attendance to vote in favor.

The war powers resolution passed last month was later approved by the Senate, in a significant bipartisan rebuke of the president’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran in February and sparking a regional conflict that opinion polls have consistently shown is unpopular with the US public.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Jayapal said following the vote. “Vast majorities of Americans, of all parties, believe that this is an unconstitutional, illegal war that needs to stop. It was not authorized by Congress, and it has cost us incredible tolls: [the] lives of 18 service members, millions who have been displaced and thousands who have been injured.”

Later on Thursday, the Senate rejected a similar resolution proposed by Democrat Chris Van Hollen in a 47-49 vote, largely along party lines. The House measure’s passage is nonetheless largely symbolic, as the Trump administration has argued war powers resolutions are unconstitutional, and Democrats’ minority status in the House and Senate leaves them with few options to force compliance.

Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson: The One Weapon Washington Can’t Stop: Iran’s Deadly New Precision

Donald Trump says decision on ‘massive attack’ against Iran is close

Donald Trump has said he is close to deciding whether to launch “a massive attack” against Iran, on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran. Speaking to the Axios news site, the US president said: “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.”

Trump made his remarks on Thursday as oil prices once again surged past the symbolic $100 for a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, and amid indications the price could go higher still.

He acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences but said he had not yet made a final determination. Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to”, he added, before saying: “We don’t need anybody.”

Underlining the sense of a region increasingly approaching an abyss, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told the security council that the Middle East was being pushed to the “edge of the unimaginable” amid mounting fears over the trajectory of the conflict.

“The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” Guterres told a security council meeting. “As this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.”

Max Blumenthal reports back from Iran at DC's Busboys and Poets

Iranian missiles show deadly precision amid US-Iran war escalation

An Iranian attack on a United States military site in Jordan that killed three US soldiers has shown the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) ability to inflict a deadly toll five months into the US-Israel war on Iran. The strikes on Friday were the first time US soldiers have been killed by Iranian attacks on US military installations since March 1, just hours after the US and Israel launched the war.

While the Pentagon has not released full details of the attack, analysts say the deadly incident underscores an uncomfortable reality for Washington: Despite barrage after barrage of US air strikes, Iran maintains the military capability it needs to continue a prolonged asymmetric war. “Iran’s military capabilities remain formidable. It has reconstituted faster than expected,” Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank, told Al Jazeera.

“Its attacks are becoming more precise over time, likely with the help of Russian and Chinese intelligence,” she added. “Iran’s military is certainly not ‘combat ineffective’ as the Pentagon has suggested. It has sustained significant damage but is learning and adapting over time.”

Mona Yacoubian, the director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that Iran appeared to show “greater intent” in attacking US military assets in the recent round of attacks, compared with the early weeks of the war. “I think what’s important to underscore is that this does appear to be a new pattern in terms of, I would argue, the intensity of Iranian strikes that are seeking to hit US military targets,” she said.

Israeli security minister joins Jewish extremists as they storm al-Aqsa mosque compound

Israel’s far-right minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined thousands of Jewish extremists who stormed Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday. Escorted by armed police, they prayed, waved the Israeli flag and sang the national anthem in a provocative display of political power. Under a fragile, decades-old agreement known as the status quo, non-Muslim prayer is banned at the site, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Ben-Gvir has eroded the agreement in recent years through a series of inflammatory visits to the compound, and unilateral changes to rules for Jewish visitors, including allowing them to bring prayers and printed religious material to the site. He installed an ideological ally as the head of the Jerusalem police force in January, smoothing the path to greater changes.

In a statement, the Palestinian ministry of religious endowments and affairs said: “These provocative practices, emanating from the highest political levels of the occupying government, seek to ignite a religious war throughout the entire region.”

The Jordanian foreign ministry strongly condemned the storming and called on the international community “to take a firm stance obliging Israel, as the occupying power, to halt its ongoing violations against the Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem”.

UK ‘ready to defend itself’ after Iranian threat over US bases

The government has said the UK is “ready to defend itself” after Iran’s military warned that any bases being used by the US were “legitimate targets”. The UK has allowed the US to launch “defensive” operations from British bases hosting American planes since the start of its war on Iran but has refused to help in offensive operations.

That policy has not been altered by the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, who was notified last week that a decision had been made to extend the agreement with the US.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Thursday that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”. In a statement published on the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency, the group said American bombing missions had been launched from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire two days earlier.

The statement came after the US carried out a 12th consecutive night of strikes against targets in Iran. The Ministry of Defence has not commented on whether Fairford was used by the US for operations against Iran this week.

The IRGC also accused the “British monarchy regime” of causing being the “primary cause of hardships in our region with a black record of partitioning Islamic nations, widespread massacres, imposing despotic regimes, and organising the occupation of Palestine”. It warned the government “not to weigh down its record any further”.

Oil passes $100 a barrel again and shares slide as Middle East conflict escalates

The oil price broke above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months as a fresh escalation of the Middle East conflict threatens to compound disruption to global oil supplies. The benchmark oil price rose sharply on Thursday, from $95 the day before, amid fears that Yemen’s Houthi militia could strangle Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea while US-Iran tensions over oil flows through the strait of Hormuz intensify.

The disruption to two critical oil trade arteries has reignited fears that oil could climb to highs of $120 a barrel in a blow to households and the global economy after years of energy cost inflation.

Share prices also fell on both sides of the Atlantic, reflecting the volatile situation in the Middle East and fears of a bubble in AI stocks – sending New York’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index down by more than 2%. Shares in Tesla crashed 12% after it reported lower-than-expected profits and amid wider worries about AI spending.

Alexander Mercouris: NATO Will Soon Panic & Risk War with Russia

Trump to impose fresh wave of tariffs on more than 80 countries

Donald Trump’s administration has imposed a fresh wave of sweeping tariffs on dozens of US trading partners to replace a 10% global duty that was set to expire early Friday morning – the latest attempt to instate aggressive trade policies despite challenges from the country’s highest court.

The US will impose between a 10% or 12.5% tariff on more than 80 countries, which includes the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Australia, India, China, and the 27 countries that make up the European Union. It effectively replaces the blanket 10% tariff that Trump imposed in February, right after the US supreme court declared that his many of his earlier tariffs were illegal.

The newest levies, announced late on Thursday by the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, would fall under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is aimed against countries that engage in forced labor. Trump had said his administration would investigate unfair trading practices to impose permanent tariffs as soon as the February supreme court decision was announced.

“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere,” Greer said in a statement. “I am encouraged by the trading partners who have moved quickly to adopt forced labor import prohibitions, and look forward to ensuring their effective enforcement.”

Trump had long viewed tariffs – border taxes levied on imports – as a core tool to protect American jobs and manufacturing, reduce trade deficits and reverse what he sees as “unfair” practices by US trading partners. Tariff, he has said many times, is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”.

Congress Just Subpoenaed Our Newsroom for Doing Journalism

Press Freedom Groups Warn ‘No Newsroom in America Is Safe’ After House GOP Subpoenas Left-Wing Outlet

Press freedom groups are issuing dire warnings on Thursday that House Republicans’ efforts to subpoena the nonprofit left-wing news organization BreakThrough News represent a dangerous new step in a McCarthyite war on political dissent.

On Wednesday, Fox News reported that BreakThrough, a New York-based outlet, was one of three nonprofits that had been issued subpoenas by the GOP-controlled House Ways and Means Committee as part of an investigation into $39 million worth of donations from tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, a self-described socialist who has used his wealth to fund left-wing nonprofits.

In letters sent Tuesday, the committee, led by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), said that BreakThrough, as well as two other organizations—the People’s Forum Inc., a New York-based activist hub, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research—had not turned over any documents that had been requested as part of an investigation into whether rules around tax exempt status for nonprofits should be tightened to protect against foreign influence.

The committee has accused Singham, an American who now lives in Shanghai, of exploiting the tax code and using shell companies and donor-advised funds to hide foreign money that has been used to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It does not, however, make any specific accusation of legal wrongdoing.

The subpoena requires BreakThrough News to turn over records about its finances, foreign donors and grant recipients, fiscal-sponsorship arrangements, and communications with Singham and any foreign entities.

BreakThrough News is under attack.

The House Ways and Means Committee has made us the target of its latest witch hunt. We're not going down without a fight.

Go to https://t.co/2mYEsl3MYA and:

1- Add your name to the petition calling on the House Ways and Means Committee to… pic.twitter.com/Vr8uELkJJW

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) July 23, 2026

In a statement on Wednesday, BreakThrough News said it was “under attack.”

“For years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot,” the outlet said. “Now, the MAGA-dominated House Ways and Means Committee has issued us a subpoena—demanding internal communications, financial records and more. Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment generally.”

BreakThrough said it does not receive any funding from foreign governments or institutions and that it already complies with all the tax and public reporting requirements that nonprofits have to follow.

“We are not charged with any crime, because our only ‘crime’ has been to tell the truth–by covering the activities of the Palestine solidarity movement, unmasking the truth of ICE’s terror in our streets, and exposing Washington’s crimes around the world, from Cuba to the Congo,” the outlet said. “That’s the journalism they want to shut down. Their goal is to saddle us with legal proceedings and hostile media to drain our resources and stop this important work.”

While the committee stated that they are investigating BreakThrough over its financing rather than its politics, letters sent to the organization have treated the content of its reporting as circumstantial evidence of malign foreign influence, referring to it as “anti-American” and claiming that its negative coverage of Israel was “sowing division within the United States.”

Chip Gibbons, the policy director of the free speech advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent, told Common Dreams that the subpoena of BreakThrough was a “deeply chilling assault on the First Amendment.”

“Such tactics are, quite literally, a throwback to the House Un-American Activities Committee, which today is mostly viewed as a disgrace,” Gibbons said. “I say mostly, because just three days ago [Secretary Marco] Rubio’s State Department released a report preposterously attacking the US left, including some of these groups, as Cuban fronts that cited old HUAC reports.”

He further emphasized in a press release that there was “no plausible need” for a news organization to provide documents as part of a broad congressional inquiry.

“The only thing these groups are accused of is essentially receiving donations from a US citizen who has been the subject of an intensive campaign of demonization,” Gibbons said. “It is lawful for Americans to donate to activist causes and media projects while holding views disfavored by Congress. This is clearly not a valid legislative inquiry at all, but an attempt to intimidate and chill dissenting opinions.”

Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, agreed that “Congress shouldn’t be using a tax investigation as a pretext to dig through a newsroom’s internal communications or financial records.

“Freedom of the press,” he said, “applies to all journalists, regardless of whether politicians like their editorial slant or their politics.”

House subpoena of @BTnewsroom threatens press freedom.

We strongly urge the House Ways and Means Committee to withdraw its subpoena against BreakThrough News and stop using congressional oversight as a tool to retaliate against independent media.https://t.co/xPZgHkLPZd

— Freedom of the Press Foundation (@FreedomofPress) July 23, 2026

In what it has portrayed as a fight against “left-wing terrorism,” the Trump administration has increasingly blurred the lines between violent activity and protected political speech that they claim “incites” violence.

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, signed by Trump in September, designates large swathes of left-wing viewpoints on race, gender, immigration, and other topics as “indicators” of domestic terrorism that have been used to link entire groups of people to violent acts they themselves did not commit.

Rubio said last week that the administration would soon be designating more left-wing organizations as terrorist groups, while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller said that the full force of the state would be used to “disrupt, identify, defund, de-bank, arrest, prosecute” those deemed to “foment” political violence, not just those who actually commit it.

He has previously pledged to use the law to “dismantle” organizations that use heated rhetoric to refer to their right-wing opponents, including calling them “fascist” or “authoritarian.”

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, described the subpoena of BreakThrough as an extension of a “retaliatory ethos” Trump has taken towards critical journalists “with the goal of shutting down criticism and dissent.”

She told Common Dreams, “BreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack for bringing people alternative and useful news coverage about ICE abuses, foreign policy, Palestinian rights, and other topics.”

“Allowing a congressional committee to harass an independent newsroom with a broad subpoena sets an awful precedent,” Stern said. “If lawmakers can abuse tax oversight to single out outlets whose reporting offends them today, no newsroom in America is safe from government intimidation tomorrow.”

The NEW Fascist Red-Scare Blacklist is Coming for the Left (w/ Dr. CBS)

Police officer fatally shoots man in Madison, Wisconsin, sparking protests

A police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, shot and killed a man on Wednesday in an incident that was captured on cellphone footage, sparking local protests. John Patterson, the Madison police chief, acknowledged the shooting at a news conference, but stressed footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened.

The shooting happened on a city street in a popular neighborhood lined with restaurants, bars, shops and residential homes less than 2 miles from the state capitol. Footage of the incident shows numerous cars stopped in the intersection with people watching as it unfolded.

Police had been responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles in the neighborhood, Patterson said. The suspect fled on a bike through nearby backyards in an attempt to get away before officers contacted him in the street, Patterson said. The suspect either fell off his bike or was taken off his bike by officers and during the struggle pulled out a knife and injured an officer, Patterson said.

In one of the videos circulating online, three officers are seen holding the man down and attempting to arrest him. The officers lose control of the suspect, who frees his arms and attempts to get up off his knees. One officer appears to reach for his pistol, when a female officer runs toward the others shouting: “Taser! Taser!” That officer did not draw his firearm. After some jostling, the suspect falls to the ground. As he goes down, another officer rises to his feet, pulls out his pistol, leans down toward the man on the ground and fires three shots at close range.

The officer who fired the shots then re-holsters his gun and places the suspect’s arm behind his back, before standing up and walking away. Two other officers push the suspect over on to his belly, before others arrive to attempt to offer medical attention. The officer who fired the lethal shots had been injured by the suspect with a knife, Patterson said.

Trump’s DoJ drops effort to subpoena New York Times over Qatari jet story

Donald Trump’s justice department has abandoned, for now, efforts to subpoena New York Times reporters over their coverage of security risks involving the president’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One replacement. Sean Buckley, a top-ranking official in the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, announced the decision on Thursday afternoon about an hour into a proceeding where he was repeatedly grilled on the appropriateness of the subpoenas. Buckley was in court because the New York Times filed paperwork to fight these subpoenas.

Shortly after the proceeding began, Judge Arun Subramanian asked Buckley whether the subpoenas met the strict criteria for mandating testimony from reporters. Such subpoenas, Subramanian said, would not be considered appropriate unless authorities could not get information from any other source. “Doesn’t the law … indicate that subpoenas are the last step, not the first step?” Subramanian asked, adding at one point, “Why don’t you tell me what the exception is that you’re relying on?”

Subramanian added: “I’m just trying to make sure I’m not missing anything.” Buckley replied that the exception was triggered when the attorney general said that subpoenas could be sought right away. “It specifically says that before you seek a subpoena you need to make all reasonable attempts to seek information” elsewhere, Subramanian said at another point. “It’s just a matter of basic compliance with the law.”

The justice department had issued grand jury subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after they reported that the $400m plane lacked anti-missile and other security measures. Older Air Force One models have these capabilities. While this unorthodox gift has long raised eyebrows among accountability and security experts, concerns came to a head earlier this month, when Trump traveled on the new Air Force One to Turkey for a Nato summit.

But Trump rode the older Air Force One to leave Turkey, which shares a border with Iran. The trip came as a US-Iran ceasefire crumpled. The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that Trump flew on the older Air Force One at the Secret Service’s request. The Times also reported that before publishing a story on airplane security concerns, a high-ranking FBI official asked them to withhold the article for national security reasons. This official, the Times said, refused to provide details. The journalists went forward with their report and on 10 July were subpoenaed for grand jury testimony.

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Amish Shah wins Arizona Democratic House primary in blow to establishment

Amish Shah, an emergency room doctor, beat back the choice of Democratic leadership in Arizona on Wednesday in the latest sign that the party’s voters are increasingly willing to override the national machine. Shah won his primary in Arizona’s 1st congressional district over the candidate favored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in Washington, a significant result in a race the DCCC has identified as central to retaking the House.

Shah will face Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team – the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker. The DCCC had thrown its weight behind the former Republican Marlene Galán-Woods, a former television journalist in Phoenix who switched parties in Trump’s first term.

The competition for the 1st congressional district, an affluent area that includes north-east Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley, is rated by both parties as one of the more winnable Republican-held districts in the country, and is expected to help determine control of the US House of Representatives. Although Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, the district has shifted toward the center over the last decade.

The trend runs deeper than establishment-picked candidates losing to committee-backed alternatives: it also shows up as a broader revolt against long-serving incumbents and traditional pro-Israel financial networks. In June, Adriano Espaillat, a five-term New York congressman and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic caucus, lost his primary to Darializa Avila Chevalier, the 32-year-old democratic socialist who was backed by the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and cast Espaillat as out of step with voters on Israel policy and immigration enforcement. The result came despite about $2.9m spent defending Espaillat by a group funded in part by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), making him the sixth House incumbent to lose renomination this cycle.

Unlike some of the intra-party battles roiling Democrats across the country this year, this was not a fight between the party’s left and center. Shah and Galán-Woods are both moderates, and local Democrats have struggled to explain why the DCCC intervened to endorse Galán-Woods at all, given how little separated the two on policy. “I wasn’t exactly my party’s pick,” Shah told supporters on Tuesday night. “And I was willing to stand up to that establishment. And that’s what the voters of this district want.”

DESPERATE Pelosi RACES to Stop Cori Bush, Protect Top AIPAC Dem

‘Underhanded’ Stevens Sends Out Fake El-Sayed Press Release Claiming He’s Endorsed by Their GOP Opponent

With less than two weeks before the critical Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is reportedly resorting to some underhanded tactics to attack her opponent, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, by sending out an email making it appear as if he was celebrating an endorsement from their Republican rival.

Remington Hernandez, a political reporter at WWMT-TV, reported on Thursday that the Stevens campaign had sent a fake press release meant to look like it had come from El-Sayed’s team.

“ENDORSEMENT ALERT: Mike Rogers Endorses Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic US Senate Primary,” the email says, beneath an “Abdul for Senate” graphic identical to the one used in his campaign communications.

The Stevens campaign just sent out a press release meant to look like a release from El-Sayed's campaign - claiming Mike Rogers has endorsed El-Sayed. pic.twitter.com/BKNgOupvuE

— Remington Hernandez (@TheDailyRem) July 23, 2026

The email quotes Rogers, a former Republican US congressman expected to be the GOP Senate nominee, saying he wants to face El-Sayed in the general election because he’d be easier to beat than Stevens.

“If he wins, I think we’re in good shape,” it quotes Rogers saying. “I think we’ll do well if he in fact is the nominee.”

The quote from Rogers is real. It comes from a CNN report published on Thursday about a call with supporters last month, in which he reportedly called El-Sayed “so radical” and predicted he’d “lose big parts of the west part of the state.”

But it is not true, as the email claims, that Rogers had “endorsed” El-Sayed.

Ben Solis, a reporter at Michigan Advance who also received the email, noted that it appeared designed to look authentic, with multiple graphics at the bottom mimicking those El-Sayed’s social media team has posted following actual endorsements.

“Is this ethical or legal to make a fake campaign endorsement ad like this?” he asked. “And even if it is, is that playing fair? Seems pretty underhanded at first glance.”

Despite the criticism, Stevens has run with the quote herself as part of her pitch against El-Sayed and posted the fake graphics to her own social media accounts, claiming that Rogers was “really wanting Abdul to win this primary.”

Abdul El-Sayed Mike Rogers
really wanting Abdul to win this primary pic.twitter.com/oDxiVcpzph

— Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) July 23, 2026

But it’s also not entirely clear whether Rogers was even saying that he’d prefer to take on El-Sayed over Stevens.

The CNN article states that Rogers was “responding to a question about his campaign’s strategy for El-Sayed.”

“What is Rogers supposed to say?” asked media critic Adam Johnson. “Of course he’s saying they’re in good shape, just as he would if he was asked about Stevens.”

It’s unclear what, if any, response Rogers gave to the prospect of facing Stevens. But Johnson said that on a call full of potential donors, it was probably something similar.

“Was Rogers asked about Stevens? Has anyone seen the full donor call?” he asked. “If he was asked about Stevens, do we think he said, ‘Gee, golly, she is gonna be tough to beat’? Or do we think he also projected confidence he would defeat her as well because this is the thing you tell donors?”

He also pointed out that Stevens’ largest source of financial backing during the race has been the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) super PAC, the United Democracy Project, whose two largest donors, hedge fund manager Paul Singer and WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, are both major supporters of Republicans who spent millions backing President Donald Trump in 2024.

“Yes, Republicans are so excited to take on El-Sayed. Stevens’ two biggest backers are Republican megadonors,” Johnson quipped.

While Stevens has attempted to portray her progressive opponent as less electable, an average of four recent polls from 270ToWin shows El-Sayed with a slightly larger polling lead over Rogers than she has.

First ad buy from AIPAC's super PAC uses old footage to imply Barack Obama has endorsed Haley Stevens for US Senate. https://t.co/IwiwwhJ8Kr pic.twitter.com/5TkhodIMnI

— gato fumante (@KweenInYellow) June 9, 2026

An official account for El-Sayed’s campaign noted that it’s not the first example of deceptive tactics being used to promote Stevens.

Michigan airwaves have been blanketed by a pro-Stevens super PAC ad heavily implying that she’d been endorsed by former President Barack Obama. Though Stevens did work on the team supporting Obama’s efforts to revive the automobile industry during the post-2008 financial recovery, the former president has not endorsed her Senate campaign in 2026.

“Mike Rogers has not endorsed Abdul just like President Obama has not endorsed Haley,” said El-Sayed’s campaign on Thursday. “But there’s so much disinformation coming out of her campaign it’s hard to tell if this is satire or just another lie unbefitting of a congresswoman.”

Trump HILARIOUSLY Walks Back China Election Warning

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Space datacenters proposed by Musk and Bezos catastrophic for planet

Space datacenters proposed by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and others would release staggering levels of pollution that would probably alter the Earth’s atmosphere and be “catastrophic” for the planet, space industry experts and environmental groups warn in a new petition demanding a review of their impacts.

Tech companies have collectively proposed millions of “orbital datacenters” and are pressing forward with plans, which require Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Among other issues, pollution from satellites and rockets burning up upon re-entry appears to be accumulating in the stratosphere at alarming levels. The spacecraft release black soot, rare metals, aluminum oxides and other pollutants with unknown effects.

Some scientists fear the pollution could destroy the ozone layer, potentially expose some people to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, or help further destabilize the planet during the climate crisis. The pollution could also end up back on Earth, and millions of satellites would create a major source of light pollution. The petition submitted to the FCC calls for a pause on new licenses for space data center projects, arguing that the plans “violate federal law”.

The datacenter companies “describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms”, the petition states. “But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self-claimed epochal technology on the environment, science, economy, or other values.” The petition was filed by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit, the Earthjustice legal non-profit, and the DarkSky International non-profit, which works to protect the sky from light pollution.

Several former federal US space officials told the Guardian they doubt the orbital datacenters are feasible. But putting millions of additional satellites into orbit would create a significant environmental risk, said Steve Volz, the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) satellite office. “There is a lot of complex material in these things, and even if they do burn up, you do not want to be filling up the atmosphere with refuse from these any more than you would want it coming from a smoke stack,” Facing fierce public opposition from across the political spectrum to its datacenters on Earth, big tech last year began floating the idea of launching satellite datacenters into space. Some have begun seeking permits.

US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system

The US Department of Justice is attempting to prosecute an Atlanta resident in connection with the movement against the police training center known as Cop City because he had GrapheneOS on his phone, an open-source operating system that enables users to enter a passcode and wipe a phone clean. The case, which had its first hearing on Monday, centers on a little-known US federal statute that makes it a crime to destroy property in an effort to prevent it from being seized.

Experts said it may be the first time the law has been aimed at the operating system, which works on Google Pixel phones, and expressed concerns about a technology created for privacy and security being used to criminalize protesters. “It’s concerning – and sends the message that [GrapheneOS] is criminal by default,” said Christophe Boutry, a cybersecurity and surveillance expert. Boutry and Bill Buddington, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, both said they had not seen a similar case.

The defendant, Sam Tunick, was stopped for interrogation at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport on 24 January last year, after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Unbeknown to him, federal authorities had put him on a terrorism watchlist because of his alleged association with the movement against Cop City. Opposition to the $109m police training center, which opened last spring, came from a wide range of local and national organizations and protesters, centered on concerns around police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police said the center was needed for “world-class” training and to attract new officers.

The case began shortly after Tunick got off a plane in Atlanta, returning from a vacation spent whale-watching and enjoying nature on a friend’s boat. He did not know that a homeland security agent had circulated an email three hours before. When Tunick arrived in Atlanta, an agent took him to a room with a table, several chairs and a camera and microphone, and several agents began a “secondary inspection”. But all their questions were centered on child sexual abuse images.These and other details were revealed in Monday’s hearing, held for a judge to hear testimony on a motion filed by Tunick’s federal public defenders, asking the court to suppress all evidence the agents obtained, including the erasure of the phone’s contents after he gave them a passcode, due to violations of his constitutional rights.

The interrogation, including the questions about child sexual abuse images, was “a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the movement against Cop City, according to the motion. Tunick asked four times during the interrogation to speak with a lawyer, but was rebuffed each time, according to courtroom testimony. Additionally, the agents produced no warrant and did not read Tunick his rights. The motion filed on Tunick’s behalf draws into focus the question of which constitutional rights apply and which ones are suspended at national borders, including international airports. A judge’s decision on the motion will take at least until end of October.

Trump’s Iran War Hits US Farmers With $1.4 Billion More in Diesel Fuel Costs

President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran is putting significant financial stress on US farmers, according to a report issued on Thursday by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee.

The report finds that US farmers spent $1.4 billion more on diesel fuel this year when planing corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice than they did a year ago, representing a 63% yearly increase.

The six states to get hit with the biggest yearly percentage increases in diesel costs all voted for Trump in three consecutive presidential elections: Florida (90.6% yearly increase in diesel costs), Alabama (86.2%), Oklahoma (85.9%), West Virginia (85.8%), Kansas (83.8%), and Indiana (79.5%).

Diesel prices in 2026 hit their peak right in the middle of planting season, and the report estimates that “the average farmer spent $1,500 more to refil their farm’s onsite fuel tank... compared to the same high point during the 2025 planting season.”

The report notes that it doesn’t capture the full extent of economic damage caused the president’s unlawful assault on Iran, as its analysis “doesn’t take into account other war-related increases such as the increased costs of running diesel generators that power some greenhouses or the increases at the pump that farmers and truckers face when they drive products to market.”

The report adds that the economic pain being felt by farmers thanks to Trump’s war will soon hit US grocery shoppers.

“Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran drove up the cost of diesel fuel just as farmers were set to start their spring planting,” the report says. “This comes after Trump’s tariffs have already significantly increased costs for farmers and made it more difficult for them to plan for the future. These increased costs... are likely to further contribute to rising grocery costs.”

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.

Patrick Lawrence: The Biden Regime Speaks

Iran War: Trump and Iran Exchange More Threats; Oil at $98 After Ansar Allah Tanker Strikes; House Passes $1.15 Trillion NDAA with Israel “Merger”; Trump Signs Saudi Nuclear Deal

War On Iran: – Oil Is Back At $100 Per Barrel

Nothing Can Be Done When People Believe Lies

Trump Admin Has Taken $13 Billion in Oil Wealth From Venezuela, But Congress Is ‘In the Dark’ About Where It Went

Legal logging and soaring saplings: the ‘green islands’ bucking the deforestation trend in central America

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A Little Night Music

Otis Rush – Keep On Loving Me Baby

Otis Rush – I Can't Quit You Baby

The Otis Rush Blues Band – It's A Mean Old World

Otis Rush – All Your Love I Miss Loving

Otis Rush – So Many Roads, So Many Trains

Otis Rush – You're Breaking My Heart [Alternate Take]

Otis Rush – You've Been An Angel

Otis Rush - You Know My Love

Otis Rush – Walking The Back Streets And Crying

Otis Rush – She's A Good Un

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