The Week in Review - July 11, 2025
Only 1,289 days to go...
“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” ~ P. J. O'Rourke
Living through these times…
If we can remain fully engaged in the day at hand, enjoying all it has to offer and putting our energy into making the most of it, we will find that we are perfectly ready and capable to handle any future when it arrives.
How To Be Courageous When Things Get Crazy
When you exercise your courage, you are saying: “This matters.” You’re standing by your values even when they’re not the popular choice. It can be scary because ease and integrity don’t always walk hand-in-hand. However, inner peace and integrity usually do.
The 5 Most Effective Happiness Interventions
In the journal Nature Human Behaviour looked at 57 recent happiness studies and found that the most common happiness interventions were in the areas of gratitude, social interaction, mindfulness, exercise, and exposure to nature. An important common feature of the interventions involved in these studies is that they aim to disrupt the behavioral routines and habits that reduce people’s well-being. I mention this trait because it’s exactly why you might need the experimental mindset in your life.
Why ‘Success Is Quieter’ for Younger Americans
Younger adults are redefining success and shifting their focus from wealth to health.It’s not that young people don’t care about money, but they don’t necessarily care about getting rich. Or status either. Wealth, status and occupation are no longer the gold standard when it comes to defining success for adults who have yet to reach middle age. Instead, young Americans rank physical and mental health as the top measure of success. Wealth came in fifth, according to a recent survey of adults ages 18 to 34.
How can we both embrace whatever comes up—the fear, the pain, the frustration, the love, the compassion—and at the same time generate hope and create a vision for the future?
Finding the humor…
Musk Leads MAGA Meltdown Over Trump Administration’s Epstein Review
Elon Musk led a MAGA freak-out after the Justice Department and FBI shot down claims about a so-called “client list” belonging to late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein…Conspiracy theories about Epstein have run wild for years, with many Trump supporters hoping explosive details, such as a list of high-profile names Epstein might have had incriminating dirt on, would surface now that Donald Trump is back in office.
What Makes Someone Cool? A New Study Offers Clues.
Researchers found remarkable agreement among respondents — it boiled down to six traits:
Extroverted.
Hedonistic.
Powerful.
Adventurous.
Open.
Autonomous.
President Trump’s Approval Rating: Latest Polls
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
~ John Quincy Adams
Must Read Article:
Now You See Josh Hawley, Now You Don’t - The Missouri senator’s evasions expose a disgraced Senate
…The arc of Republican lawmakers in the Trump era bends toward complete submission. That’s the posture in which Hawley and other Senate Republicans granted the president his financially reckless and needlessly cruel agenda…
Having rubber-stamped many ridiculous senior administration officials, Senate Republicans have now signed off on a sprawling policy package that will, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, add more than $3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade, even as it cuts over $1 trillion from Medicaid and results in nearly 12 million Americans losing their health insurance.
The legislation makes a mockery of the party’s longtime claims of prudent fiscal stewardship. And as Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, explained in a Senate speech, it “will betray the very promise” that Trump made not to go after people’s Medicaid….
The Human Cost of Medicaid Cuts
President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — legislation that would extend tax cuts and reduce spending on Medicaid by around $600 billion, among other things — about 10.9 million Americans may see their health care lifelines severed, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The House version of the bill proposes to cut Medicaid alone by an estimated $793 billion over the next decade….
The personal stories illustrate how the push for Medicaid cuts threatens to unravel the support systems enabling people to care for loved ones at home, increasing the strain on family caregivers and potentially pushing many into health crises of their own. These concerns are a terrifying prospect.
How Elon Musk’s third party gamble could succeed
Musk’s plan can only work if he learns from the most successful political disruptors, including Trump on the right and Bernie Sanders on the left, and identifies places where both political parties are neglecting the real preferences of voters. This means not finding a midpoint on a left-right spectrum but rather seizing issues beyond the standard D-versus-R menu. For Musk’s new party to have a purpose, it must find similar ideological targets of opportunity.
Highlights
Asheville named in CNN's top 3 U.S. towns in 2025
Despite the destruction caused by Tropical Storm Helene, Asheville was voted among the best U.S. cities to visit in 2025. ‘These mountains are still here.’ Asheville is ready for your visit
You’ll find Blue Ridge Mountain scenery, a vibrant downtown, eclectic neighborhoods, the grand Biltmore Estate, an impressive food and beverage scene, great hiking and an all-around creative culture that’s long drawn artists and craftspeople.
More Trump voters say he is more responsible than Biden for economy: Survey
Voters who supported President Trump in the 2024 presidential election are more likely to hold him accountable for the current state of the economy than the previous administration, according to a survey. The latest poll from The Wall Street Journal/YouGov shows 46 percent of Trump voters crediting the current president with the state of the economy, while 34 percent placed responsibility on former President Biden. Another 13 percent say they’re not sure, and 8 percent did not pick a side.
Green’s resignation is a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s already narrow majority in the lower chamber, a fact that was on stark display this week as he was trying to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Quote of the week:
“‘Do I like this bill?’ Lisa Murkowski said... ‘No… My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.’
Who exactly was supposed to have that elevated epiphany? Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene? When the Senate is counting on the House to take the higher road, the whole map is in shreds.”
~ Frank Bruni
Lowlights
Just this week, in the middle of the worst aerial-bombing campaign since the war began, the Trump administration confirmed that a large shipment of weapons, which had already been funded by the Biden administration, will not be sent to Ukraine.
It’s Not Just a Constitutional Crisis in the Trump Era. It’s Constitutional Failure
Once a constitutional crisis becomes an endemic condition, the term no longer usefully describes our collapsing system. Instead, we live in an era of constitutional failure when the relevant institutions cannot fulfill their responsibilities….The only problem is where to begin. Consider its authoritarian reliance on executive orders to vitiate legally established government activities, its attempt to intimidate institutions outside of government to do its bidding, and its insistence that servile loyalty to the president outweighs fidelity to constitutional norms. That some commentators describe this last practice as the Führerprinzip—the Nazi principle that the will of the leader transcends all legal norms—tells us everything.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was on vacation in Europe during Texas flood
"Cancun Cruz" has done it again.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was on vacation in Greece when his home state was struck by the historic July Fourth flood that claimed at least 90 lives.
Investors snap up growing share of US homes as traditional buyers struggle to afford one
Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors -- the highest share in at least five years…Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%.
Trump ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding
Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, deportations to war zones, denaturalization of immigrant citizens — are now being proudly embraced at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
It's an extraordinary shift from Trump's first term, when nationwide backlash and the appearance of cruelty forced the administration to abandon its family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants.
Six months into his second term — and with tens of billions of dollars in new funding soon flowing to ICE — Trump is only just beginning to scale up his mass deportation machine.
Trump allies caught off guard by Pentagon’s Ukraine weapons freeze
The Pentagon’s decision to halt some weapons shipments to Ukraine blindsided even people who are usually closely briefed on such matters, including members of Congress, State Department officials and key European allies, according to six people familiar with the situation. The surprise move has fueled concern and frustration, including among top Republicans, that one senior Pentagon official appeared to hold outsized influence over the decision.
LA school district demands inquiry after ICE officers filmed urinating on campus
A Los Angeles school district is demanding an investigation of an incident last month during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes.
You’ll Never Believe Where Kash Patel’s Election Fraud Bombshell Came From
…we live in the upside-down world of 2025. And in this world, Donald Trump and his allies remain desperate to prove the 2020 election was stolen and convinced that their Deep State enemies—like former FBI director Christopher Wray—made it happen and deserve prosecution.
That explains the revived election-fraud fever that has been sweeping the right since June 16, when FBI Director Kash Patel announced via friendly conservative news site Just the News that the agency had uncovered an internal plot to bury evidence of potential election interference.
Donald Trump Says He Passed "No Tax on Social Security." He's Lying.
Let’s break it down. The bill in question — passed through the reconciliation process to avoid a filibuster — contains sweeping changes. Among them:
Cuts to food assistance programs
Rollbacks of clean energy investments
Loopholes and giveaways for the wealthy
An increase to the national debt by trillions
And yes, a limited tax deduction for some seniors
Specifically, the bill offers a temporary tax deduction — up to $6,000 for individuals over 65 and $12,000 for married couples. But here’s the fine print: this benefit phases out for seniors earning more than $75,000 individually or $150,000 as a couple. It does not eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security.
That’s a far cry from what the SSA’s email implies.
What I’m listening to…
What I’m watching…
What I read every day…
