Smash The Bubble

News and opinion from both the left and the right, mixed together so you can break out of your filter bubble.

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Today's Headlines

Wisconsin’s Roller Coaster of a Democratic Primary Race for Governor Crashes to an End

Democrats appear likely to nominate a democratic socialist for governor. How did they get here?

Margins of Error

Look closely at almost anything and you'll find data—lots of it. But what are those numbers really saying about who we are and what we believe? Harry Enten is on a mission to find out.

D.C.-Area Airport to Close for 3 Hours for Grand Prix Event

The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed other closures at Reagan National Airport over events for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

National Democrats step up support for Rep. Max Miller’s opponent

The Ohio Republican denies his ex-wife’s abuse allegations, but Democratic nominee Brian Poindexter has been added to the party’s “Red to Blue” program.

Sanders Calls on A.I. Companies to Pause Development to ‘Avoid Disaster’

Senator Bernie Sanders warned that corporations have already lost control of technology that could cause “potentially cataclysmic results” for millions of people.

A 21st Century ‘Shell Crisis’

One of the best ways we have of avoiding a new kind of great power conflict now is ensuring that we have the munitions we need to fight one.

Walls, Evidence Building Around Fauci

Sen. Rand Paul is examining Dr. Anthony Fauci's government-issued phone and says he is taking a special interest in whether it contains evidence of deletions.

Three Ancient Ways of War

In a new book, Robert O’Connell situates the battlefield tactics of ancient Greek hoplites within the grand sweep of bronze-age military history.

‘Common sense against crazy’: Trump-backed candidate sounds alarm on socialist Hong in Wisconsin race

Tom Tiffany and Glenn Youngkin warn that democratic socialist Francesca Hong's policies on defunding police and abolishing prisons threaten Wisconsin.

Plan To Block Paramount Merger Is Going To Flop

The deal would bring jobs and investment to the state, but blue-state attorneys general want to block the merger.

Fauci Made Mistakes, But His Persecution Is a Travesty

It's easy to second-guess decisions made during the pandemic. That doesn't justify the Republicans' politicized response

Democrat AGs Should Lose Fight To Keep CNN Leftist

David Ellison's bid to merge PSKY with Warner Bros. Discovery is now being challenged on antitrust grounds.

Fashionable Antisemitism at the Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is planning a major exhibition next year devoted to the designer John Galliano, who became infamous for his antisemitic rants.

Trump Stokes Islamophobia by Calling Democratic Candidates ‘Jihadists’

Along with his comments about Muslim candidates, Mr. Trump spoke disparagingly of Somalis in the United States, saying “they’re not smart.”

Bay Area Progressive Seeks to Cancel an Entire City

How a Counterintelligence Inquiry Into Trump’s Russia Ties Was Derailed

Documents released by the White House shed new light on the demise of an often-overlooked 2017 F.B.I. investigation.

GOP lawmakers release Fauci texts discussing covid vaccine and pregnancy

The senators said the texts are among more than 34,000 recovered from a copy of the former government official’s iPhone.

AOC and Her Eggs: A Cynical — and Winning — Play?

Is she trying to be relatable as she contemplates running for president?

Monday's Final Word

Trump Wants to Move On From the Middle East. It’s Not Letting Him.

President Trump is eager to declare success in Iran and Gaza, but he is struggling to impose his will in either conflict.

Henry Rollins: 'Communist Countries Suck'

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

Go beyond the soundbites and get to know some of the most interesting players in politics.

One Look at Asheville's Police Chief and You'll Know Why They Have a 'Group' Problem

Politics of the Day

Politics of the Day

How the economy is hurting Republicans’ midterm chances

Voters right now broadly disapprove of the economy, Trump and, increasingly, Republicans in Congress.

The Lancet: Wildfires the Latest ‘Health Emergency’

The plan here could not be more obvious: Treat fires as a public health emergency and justify increasingly coercive regulation of individual freedom.

We Should Try to Prevent All Suicides

Studies show that many terminally ill suicidal people who don’t do the deed are later glad to still be alive.

Wisconsin Official at Center of Zuckbucks Scandal Resigns

Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys departs amid another state investigation into apparent election law violations.

Capturing the ‘Odyssey’

Homer’s epic provides a window on to a strange, paradoxical, fascinating, beautiful, and terrifying world that is at once familiar and unfamiliar. 

Brilliant: DOT Recruiting Gamers for Air Traffic Control

Fauci texts raising theoretical miscarriage concern after COVID vaccine dose spark backlash

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private 2021 discussion of a theoretical miscarriage association drew fierce criticism from Republican lawmakers and officials.

Child vaccine schedule reduced as Trump moves to dramatically shift medical power to parents

President Donald Trump signed an executive order recommending childhood vaccines for 11 diseases instead of the CDC's 18, separating the MMR shot.

Fauci Was Worried About COVID Jab Causing Miscarriages, and Data Suggests It Might Have

Billy Bunter and the Man from Animal Farm

A look back at the 20th century’s most entertaining literary spat—one of the few such encounters that Orwell emphatically lost.

Dem Gov Maura Healey signs sweeping Massachusetts bill allowing abortions up to birth

Massachusetts joins nine other states in removing gestational age limits, allowing abortions up to birth, as Healey vows abortion will remain safe, legal and accessible.

Trump-Netanyahu rift widens as election pressures pull them in opposite directions

While the Israeli leader touts a willingness to defy the U.S. on Gaza, the president needs to show progress in the foreign entanglements weighing on his approval rating.

The Pro-Science Left Is More Pro-Left Than Pro-Science

It’s not so much what 314 Action Fund is against that raises suspicions about their commitment to science.

Once Again, More Evidence That Putin Is Already at War with NATO

Drones, suspected to be operated by the Russian government, are flying over the skies of German airports and military bases.

Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats

President Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month.

Democrats Plan New Push to Defeat Max Miller in Ohio After Abuse Accusations

The party’s congressional campaign arm added Mr. Miller’s opponent, Brian Poindexter, to its highly competitive “Red to Blue” list.

What Is the Point of Anthropology?

How a discipline lost interest in the people it was founded to understand.

CNN Political Briefing

The political news you need to know, in 10 minutes or less. Hosted by David Chalian.

UK Muslim 'News' Org Seems to Want to Make Sure Its Delightful Readers Have Someone to Protest

Give Your Kid Real Work

Parents have embraced Montessori aesthetics-the wooden toys, the sad beige playrooms-while ignoring its actual lesson: Children need meaningful work and responsibility, writes Liz Wolfe.

Socialist winning streak puts prized Democratic battleground at risk as radical leftists advance

Francesca Hong leads Wisconsin's Democratic Party gubernatorial primary as progressive vs. moderate battles reshape the party's Midwest future.

Trump Concedes There Was ‘Some Contractor Error’ in Reflecting Pool Renovations

The president had insisted for weeks that the landmarks’ algae-stained waters and peeling lining were the fault of vandals, not the project itself.

Fauci discussed COVID mRNA vaccine concerns for pregnant women in text chain released by Senate committee

Dr. Anthony Fauci texted health officials about a theoretical miscarriage risk from fever after the second mRNA dose in pregnant women's first trimester.

Dark Artist

Frank Miller’s valuable new memoir explores the creative life of one of America’s most gifted writers and artists.

Senate Blows Off Trump's Demands, Then Skips Town

The president had a long list of items that needed Senate attention before the preelection recess. John Thune ignored most of them.

What Do Young People Really Want? The Suburbs

A steady job, a simple house, and a quiet life used to sound like hell to many young people. Now the old American dream is back, writes Russ Greene.

Here are the races you should watch today

Primary season is coming to a close, and today is the most crowded day left on the calendar.

Judge Grants TRO on Mamdani's Pied-À-Terre Tax

The Euro Mean Girls Are Ganging Up on Pedro Sanchez

Difficult for Democrats To Escape 'Crazy' Woke Ideas

Yesterday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared on ABC's This Week with Jonathan Karl. During their discussion, Karl asked her about Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong's unearthed past comments, including those saying that…

Politicising the Humanities: Sociology as Case Study

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with University of Hawaii professor Ashley Rubin, co-author of the recently published ‘Special Commission Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences’

Trump Gets a Win in Lawsuit Against BBC

Max Miller remains the GOP nominee in Ohio House race

A Monday afternoon deadline that would have allowed local party officials to select a replacement candidate has passed.

Meet the woman steering Biden's bipartisan winning streak on Capitol Hill

The Biden administration managed to rack up a long list of major legislative wins in its first two years despite facing one of the most closely-divided Congresses in history. From bipartisan action on infrastructure, gun safety and same-sex marria…

What Academia Can Learn From Arday Fiasco

On both sides of the Atlantic, white professors think that suspending judgment when it comes to blacks makes them good people.

What the Senate did and didn’t get done in the final hours before recess

Before leaving Saturday, lawmakers confirmed President Trump’s attorney general pick and passed a spending bill.

Hunter Biden tells Tucker Carlson that Trump poses an ‘existential threat’

Biden has made a point of talking to conservative media figures in recent months.

Top Senate Dem’s new tax idea gets torched as critics warn nearly every American could pay

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee proposed a gross receipts tax on data centers that critics call a national internet tax on all Americans.

Everything you need to know about Biden's student loan forgiveness program

President Joe Biden's federal student loan forgiveness program, which promises to deliver up to $20,000 of debt relief for millions of borrowers, is on hold indefinitely as legal challenges work their way through the courts.

AOC: I Don't Know What to Do With That Hat Tossing and Frozen Eggs

The Tip of the Iceberg

The Jason Arday fiasco is a reminder why academia has developed a reputation for cowardice, careerism, and conformism in recent years.

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Amid a regional scramble to shape the “day after,” Jordan appears to be the only country without a plan of its own.

Why I Quit the Tenure Track

As you cross the Androscoggin River into Lewiston, you pass on your left the waterfalls that once set the mills to humming. On your right, affixed to a pockmarked brick mill-now defunct, it had spun tens of thousands of bedspreads a week-a 30-foot…

The notable legal clouds that continue to hang over Donald Trump

All eyes are on former President Donald Trump, who has launched another White House bid.

The fine print of the Respect for Marriage Act

Let's start with the positive: Republicans and Democrats are coming together to protect same-sex marriage from the Supreme Court.

Will the Left Keep Winning in the Midwest? What to Watch in Tuesday’s Primaries.

The left and the middle continue to battle in Democratic primaries for governor in Wisconsin and Senate in Minnesota. In South Carolina, all eyes are on Darline Graham.

The Passion of Bess McNeill

Lars von Trier’s harrowing but resplendent story of suffering and grace turns thirty this year.

Trump used catering truck, Air Force One decoy to evade Iran threat: report

President Donald Trump secretly exited Air Force One via a catering truck at the NATO summit in Turkey, boarding a smaller jet to evade Iran threats, according to a report.

Fauci in the hot seat as GOP senator tears into 'truly sick' vaccine texts: 'Tip of the iceberg'

Sen. Ron Johnson says Anthony Fauci's government phone texts reveal he privately feared mRNA vaccines could cause miscarriages in pregnant women.

Two Police Officers Attacked by Man With Knife in Toulouse, France

Understanding the Founders Through Their Books

What drove the Founders was ‘the accumulated experience of past ages.’

Top Obama ally reveals which far-left candidate needs to lose to help progressives win

David Axelrod calls Francesca Hong a "font of zany liberal, faculty lounge exotica" and says her Wisconsin primary loss would help Abdul El-Sayed.

Former president Barack Obama launches a new podcast

The show will feature interviews with guests about key books that have left an impact on them. It starts Sept. 24 on Audible.

How Kyrsten Sinema's decision makes Democrats' 2024 Senate map tighter

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema decided to shake up the political world on Friday by becoming an independent. The former Democrat is still caucusing with the party in the Senate, so the Democratic caucus still has 51 members. Now, instead of 49 Democr…

Conservatives shred AOC as she attempts to brush off radical 'Woke 1' wave amid 2028 speculation

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dismissed woke policies as a past phase, but conservatives are now demanding accountability for years of DEI activism.

El-Sayed’s Health Care Sleight of Hand

El-Sayed’s imprecision betrays general inaccuracies about how and what Medicare for All policies would do for the everyday patient.

Claire's Weekly Letter: Cowardice at Cambridge

Crémieux on Fertility Collapse, Ozempic, IQ & Pit Bulls | Quillette Cetera Episode 69

Why a Victorian obscenity trial tanked the birth rate, what the wellness industry gets wrong, and the case for choosing your baby's genes — with the internet's most data-obsessed anon.

Rolling Stone Predictably Swoons over Hasan Piker

‘Why Is Everyone Scared of Hasan Piker?’ asks the headline at Rolling Stone, before quoting him and showcasing why.

Mary Eberstadt’s Upcoming Novel, The Washington Zoo

I have it on good authority — which should not be a surprise to anyone who knows the author — that this is not a thinly veiled tell-all.

Homeland Security Intensifies Pursuit of Noncitizens on Voter Rolls

Immigrants who said they inadvertently registered to vote while obtaining or renewing driver’s licenses are increasingly facing deportation under the Trump administration.

Trump refuses to back down as Supreme Court blocks major policies

The president is seeking ways around rulings on tariffs, birthright citizenship and the Fed. Experts say the moves don’t signal outright defiance, but they push the court’s limits.

Trump demands Iran compensate Americans and protesters after Tehran seeks war reparations

President Donald Trump demands Iran compensate families of USS Cole victims and thousands killed by Iranian-backed attacks in future negotiations.

Claire's Weekly Letter: Truths About Men and Women

'A Burrito Shouldn't Cost $20'

Republicans are arguing over the $20 burrito. Some are telling us to get used to high food prices. They don't understand America.

Hegseth Renames Base for Lindsey Graham

Joint Base Charleston will now be known as Joint Base Lindsey Graham. The senator served as a judge advocate general before retiring as a colonel in 2015.

The GOP Can’t Beat Something with Nothing

Republicans can and must articulate what they’re against in the ascendant left’s radical agenda. But what are they for?

Trump demands major changes to childhood vaccine recommendations

The president signed an order advising states to revise their rules. He also called for narrowing which vaccines are administered to children and splitting shots into multiple appointments.

Trump nominates loyalist to office that would oversee Reflecting Pool review

Dennis Kirk, a Project 2025 author who had worked for then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, may now run Interior’s inspector general office.