July 8, 2026

LITERALLY ADAPTATION:

July 8, 2026

Europe May Never Be Cool, but It Can Be Air Conditioned: The continent’s political class needs to get over its aversion to life-saving technology. (J.D. Tuccille, 7.6.2026, reason)

“I’m horrified by the people who tell me you can put air conditioning everywhere. You think it will avoid forest fires?” France’s Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut huffed in June, even as temperatures soared and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 1,300 deaths in Europe just since June 21 because of high temperatures. After conceding the need for emergency leniency to permit the use of cooling technology, she complained, “It is not adaptation to climate change.”

Law/Crime

A Conservative Court—Not a Trump Court: The end of another high-profile term makes clear that the justices are far from letting the president do whatever he wants. (Ilya Shapiro, Jul 06 2026, City Journal)

Instead, we have a largely originalist and textualist Court—interpreting constitutional provisions according to their original public meaning, and laws according to the plain meaning of their text—with conservative sensibilities in the institutional sense. That means that it’s trying to rebalance the separation of powers and enforce federalism. It can look like it’s favoring President Trump because a majority believe that the Constitution gives the president control of the executive branch—what’s sometimes called “unitary executive theory”—but that doesn’t mean that it’ll let him do anything he wants. The president remains constrained by statutes, courts, Congress, and the Constitution. That means that the justices won’t let Trump rewrite laws by himself—and his legal positions have run into trouble when they push that envelope. […]

Two weeks ago, seven of nine decisions split 6–3 along ideological lines. But in the seemingly more controversial denouement, only four of seven did. Perhaps more interestingly, in the three final-week decisions that didn’t follow the ideological 6–3 pattern, all three liberal justices were in the majority.

Moreover, of the Court’s 56 signed opinions in argued cases—not including the emergency applications for stay that were decided on the papers—25 were unanimous (44.6 percent) and another six were 8–1 (10.7 percent). That’s over 50 percent and higher than last year. And in another 11 cases, three or four Republican appointees dissented, revealing doctrinal discord among conservatives, not partisan splits.

Fortunately, Mitch and the Federalist Society chose the Justices, not Donald.

One Economy to Rule Them All

THANK YOU, CAPITALISM:

July 8, 2026

Why Are Berries Everywhere, in Every Season? Driscoll’s: .The California giant has helped turn a local, seasonal treat into a worldwide refrigerator staple and marketing juggernaut. (Julia Moskin, July 7, 2026, NY Times)

Once upon a time, there was only one way to get your hands on a ripe strawberry in winter: be a member of the French royal court.

In 1712, Louis XIV dispatched a spy to Spanish-controlled Chile to smuggle out native white-berried plants. Royal gardeners bred them with European red berries, coddled them in manure hotbeds and warmed them with underground fires, all so that the king could have strawberries in March instead of waiting until June.

Today, Costco shoppers in South Korea, pastry chefs in Dubai and parents of small children nearly everywhere can buy strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries any time of year — if they can afford them. (Strawberry prices fluctuate throughout the year, from about $3 per pound in San Francisco to $35 in Dubai.) And the biotech that drives modern agriculture ensures that each berry is better than anything the Sun King ever tasted.

ImageAn 18th-century still life of raspberries in a bowl.
Native strains of European strawberries produce fruit only in the summer, but centuries of hybridization have changed that.Credit…Heritage Images/Getty Images
In just the last decade, berries have completed the journey from fragile, local, seasonal treat to worldwide refrigerator staple and marketing juggernaut. Global production has tripled since 2000, according to research from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and still cannot keep up with demand. In sales and volume, berries are the fastest-growing category in American produce, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Most of that growth has been driven by Driscoll’s, a $7 billion California company that began as a multifamily farm in 1904, patented its first strain of strawberries in 1958 and is still controlled by family members.

We are so affluent, we take living better than royalty for granted.

LITERALLY ADAPTATION:

DONALD WHO?:

THANK YOU, CAPITALISM:

You Missed

DELTA BLUES:

SHE’D HAVE BEEN A CONSERVATIVE ON THE WARREN/BURGER COURT:

THE rIGHT IS THE lEFT:

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET: