Garden of Earthly Delights

It is disheartening to see today that the strength of international law and humanitarian law no longer seems binding, replaced by the presumed right to overpower others. This is unworthy and shameful for humanity and for the leaders of nations.

This is why Zohran Mamdani won. He's a modern, educated American with a sense of humor who not only knows how to communicate, but understands and empathizes with the plight of working class Americans. I sincerely hope the Democratic Party is taking notes.

RIP Bill Moyers - LBJ cabinet aide, PBS interviewer par excellence, and longtime steward of public media purpose. A once per generation figure. I always hoped that he might pick up my book and be interested in supporting a history of the service. washingtonpost.com/obituaries/202…

"Moyers was characterized by an insatiable and wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, but he was deeply concerned not only with how things are but how they should be." variety.com/2025/tv/news/b…

In a remarkable development for public safety in L.A., the city is on pace to record its LOWEST homicide total in nearly 60 years.  Homicides across L.A. have dropped by more than 20% in the first half of 2025, undermining the narrative of chaos in L.A. Let’s get into it.

Garden of Earthly Delights

BREAKING: A plan for a $55B semiconductor factory near Flint that could have created 10,000 jobs has been scrapped due to “economic turmoil" crainsdetroit.com/manufacturing/…

More bad manufacturing news, this time from Michigan. ourmidland.com/news/article/f…

A Founding Father of NPR Worries About Its Fate nytimes.com/2025/07/16/bus…

Temptation of St Anthony

LA city & LA county electeds take note; you cannot claim to understand what your constituents need or are going through if you do not see what we see and feel what we feel on a daily basis. Janice Hahn gets it. Ride transit. If you want to understand us, you need to be us.

Trump’s problem with having Secret Service protection? Some agent is always there watching him cheat at golf.

What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom and mediocrity? The fullness of our existence does not depend on what we store up or what we possess. Rather, fullness has to do with what we joyfully welcome and share.

We've heard "and with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting" in the announcement for PBS shows all our lives. Now the CPB is no more. What does this mean for you? Tried to break it down here with help from Switching Codes with Eric Deggans and Sitara Nieves. indiewire.com/news/analysis/…

I just wrote a @theactionnet letter: Please send a message right now to stop special favors for Frank McCourt's gondola. Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-s…

Committed? A Ritual for Robbie nohoartsdistrict.com/committed-a-ri… via @NoHo Arts District - Theatre, Food, Bars, Shopping and a buzzing community.

Robin Lakoff, a linguist who analyzed what she considered the unique ways women speak and argued that language enforces the power imbalance between the sexes, has died at 82. nyti.ms/3JhM2Jb

Joe Masefield, 'The Evil Dead' Sound Editor, Dies at 92 variety.com/2025/film/news…