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ODOT is still failing to come to grips with the reality that it doesn’t have the funds to proceed with bloated megaprojects.

ODOT’s financial problems stem largely from a handful of megaprojects that have exploded in cost, and for which the revenues have evaporated.

Oregon’s legislature rejected a proposed $14 billion transportation funding package on June 28, but the Oregon Department of Transportation seems determined to move ahead with largely un-funded megaprojects.

Staffers at ODOT were unaware (or simply in denial)  that the “Big Beautiful Bill” eliminated hundreds of millions in funding for the Rose Quarter project.

The Oregon Legislature adjourned on June 28, without passing a hoped for $14 billion transportation “package,” and in the wake of this failure the agency has announced it will lay off hundreds of its employees.  At the same time, it maintains that it will push on with its highway expansion mega-projects–even though costs have blow through budgets and the agency lacks money to complete them.  After years of denial, the Oregon Department of Transportation has driven at high speed into a financial brick wall.

In June “Texas Patriot,” a prominent anonymous account supportive of President Trump, announced during the height of tensions with Iran, “F*ck it. If Trump takes us to war, I’m done with him and his administration.

I voted for:

NO WARS

No taxes

Cheap gas

Cheap groceries

MAHA.

What of these things has actually happened?

I’m pissed.”

This message from a popular pro-Trump account seemed significant. Was Trump’s populist base turning on him? But shortly thereafter, Right Angle News, another popular anon account, asserted that the Texas Patriot account was actually based in Pakistan. Yet another popular anon account contested this, saying that Texas Patriot is actually an American who was originally from Texas and now lives in Georgia. Notably, most other major accounts weighing in on the controversy, from “Proud Elephant” to “Evil Texan,” are themselves anonymous, adding further to the hall of mirrors.

Either way, “Texas Patriot” deleted his own account shortly thereafter, perhaps at least suggesting there was something that he or she had to hide—or at least that he didn’t desire scrutiny.

Death and taxes. As a family doctor, I work everyday to delay the former but could not do my job without the latter. Taxes pay for the hospitals my patients use, for the tests I order, and for the income I earn.

Politicians however, often describe taxes as a ‘burden.’ When elections come around, so do promises of ‘relief.’ But are taxes such a terrible disease?

In reality, Canada’s taxes are intentionally low. Canada’s low tax regime may instead be responsible for making life more expensive, less affordable, and yes, even responsible for making some of us sick. 

As Canadians turn away from the United States, we are increasingly looking to the European Union as an important partner and ally. If Canada were an EU member state, something more of us wish were true, we would be near the bottom in tax revenue. Taxes in Canada are approximately 33 percent of GDP. Germany and France, the EU’s largest members, are at or near the top. They collect more than 40.9 per cent and 47.3 percent of GDP in taxes, respectively. 

First, my gratitude. 2025 has been a tumultuous year. Like many, I am worn to the bone. I have not taken a week off since 2024, due to my book The Last American Road Trip coming out in April and because I am the only person creating this newsletter. I like it this way — original research, original writing, original photography, my paywall-free and anti-AI business model — but it is a lot of work.

There’s a song called “Devil’s Got the Blues” by 1920s St. Louis singer Lonnie Johnson that nails my state of mind: “My brains is cloudy, my soul is upside down.” If I don’t sound like myself in this post, that is the reason why.

Due to exhaustion, I am taking a week off. I will return later this month.

But even in this sad time, I am very grateful. The highlight of 2025 has been engaging with my readers: both in person on book tour, and also here in the comments. It is such a joy hearing from you. It keeps me going emotionally and keeps my family going financially. I don’t believe in paywalls in time of peril, and I rely on voluntary paying subscribers to keep this newsletter afloat.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Following attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States, the world held its breath as the prospect of World War III loomed on the horizon. After 12 days of conflict, a ceasefire has brought about new uncertainty for the future.

Former British diplomat Alastair Crooke joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to make sense of the current situation in the Middle East and what can be expected in the coming weeks or months.

In courtrooms and shelters across Canada, a hidden crisis unfolds. Gender-based violence traps hundreds of thousands of Canadian women in dangerous situations and economic precarity—not because they lack the courage or skills to escape, but because they lack the financial means.

With several provincial elections on the horizon and ongoing discussions about poverty reduction strategies, it’s time to shift the conversation. A Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) could transform our response to gender-based violence from crisis management to prevention. This is about more than just helping individual survivors; it’s about changing an economic system that makes violence profitable for abusers and impossible to escape for victims.

Economic Abuse as Social Control

Gender-based violence costs the Canadian economy $7.4 billion annually, according to the Department of Justice. 

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, substitute Greg (Matt Grudnoff) returns to discuss Trump’s Big Pharma tariffs, the privatisation of childcare, and why the RBA got it wrong in its latest interest rate decision.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 9 July 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Host: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute // @mattgrudnoff

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

Wrong call – RBA rate hold unfairly dashes borrowers’ hopes for relief, the Australia Institute (July 2025)

How to fix Australia’s broken childcare system so everybody wins by Matt Grudnoff, the Australia Institute (November 2024)

Should the federal government auction less than one percent of non-conservation status public lands to alleviate housing shortages and reduce the federal debt? This is how Utah Senator Mike Lee tried to frame the question when he included a provision to this effect in the Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill. Alas for Senator Lee, the New Right’s resounding answer has been hell no, and he has beaten a hasty retreat. Perhaps to his relief, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled the public land sale provision ineligible for the reconciliation procedure under which the BBB was being handled. Mr. Lee lives to fight another day, but can the New Right be warmed up to his proposal?

For many years, Western Republicans have chafed at the federal government’s poor management of public lands, which make up most of the acreage of several states. California is almost half public land, while Nevada is more than 80%. Western states average about 50% public lands.

These lands were open to homesteading until 50 years ago, just as was the vast American valley of the Mississippi. But where the Great Plains were rapidly settled with farms and towns, the arid Mountain West saw far less settlement. Late 19th-century technology was inadequate to access the water resources necessary to farm most of the high desert, so homesteaders stuck to the very few fertile stream valleys. The rest of the land remained free for mining and cattle grazing.

Kristian Blickle, Jian Li, Xu Lu, and Yiming Ma