Rip’s Newsletter
July 22, 2026
Compiled and Edited
by
Jim Reynolds
Articles in This Issue
Nate Jackson - How Now Can They Love Mao?
Michael Smith - Finding Dory
Peter Demos - Let’s Put Democratic Socialism to the Test
Kurt Schlichter - ‘The Odyssey’ Is Woke and Worse
Jim Reynolds - The Band That Never Played
Overview
I’m seeing a set of pieces that circle the same uneasy question: what happens when ideology outruns memory, judgment, and reality.
Several of these essays warn that old warnings about communism, socialism, and authoritarian power are being softened or forgotten just as new generations flirt with them again.
Others push back through culture and politics alike, arguing that slogans and symbolism are no substitute for results, whether in government, history, or art.
Beneath all of it is a familiar tension between the seduction of grand ideas and the stubborn facts that eventually test them.
How Now Can They Love Mao?
Site: The Patriot Post
Author: Nate Jackson
Date: 2026-07-22
The article argues that Hasan Piker’s appearance dressed as Mao Zedong at a College Democrats convention is a revealing sign of how openly some young American progressives now embrace communist symbolism and rhetoric.
It contrasts the left’s outrage over alleged Nazi imagery with its relative silence on Mao, whom the piece frames as responsible for tens of millions of deaths, and says mainstream media has normalized Piker despite his extremist views.
The author cites Piker’s praise of Mao, his dismissal of Holocaust comparisons, and his violent anti-capitalist rhetoric as evidence that his politics are not merely rhetorical but revolutionary.
It then links Piker to Democratic Socialists of America leaders and other left-wing activists who want to abolish institutions like the Senate, expand state ownership, and reject constitutional limits on wealth and power.
The article concludes that these figures are not fringe curiosities but part of a broader movement seeking to remake America along Maoist lines, while the media wrongly frames concern about them as a “Red Scare.”
This story matters because it argues that communist ideas are moving from the margins into mainstream youth politics, with real implications for American institutions and civic stability.
🅱️ You want to know why kids are wearing Mao shirts? Because nobody in charge ever paid the butcher’s bill. The essay’s got receipts, but it could use a little more bite—less play-by-play, more scalpel. Still, it’s a wake-up call: the folks who fled communism are now lecturing us about democracy. You can’t make this up.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
Finding Dory
Site: The Patriot Post
Author: Michael Smith
Date: 2026-07-22
The article argues that public memory is as short as Dory’s, allowing societies to forget hard-won lessons and repeat old mistakes.
It says the World Wars remain reference points, but even those warnings are fading as history is increasingly sanitized or rewritten.
The piece contends that totalitarian movements depend on controlling the past, and that 20th-century communist regimes offer overwhelming evidence of what happens when ideology overrides reality.
It criticizes American education for teaching history as grievance-driven activism rather than a balanced account of cause and effect, leaving people with resentment instead of perspective.
That historical amnesia, the author argues, makes citizens easier to manipulate with manufactured crises, expanded state power, and recycled utopian promises.
This matters because a society that forgets its past becomes far more vulnerable to political deception and the return of failed ideas.
🅱️ This one hits like a brick through a memory hole. Reminds you why the same old cons keep working—because the marks forget the last round. Could use a little more bite, but the receipts are all here. History’s not just repeating, it’s being laundered, and the essay calls the cleaners out.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
Let’s Put Democratic Socialism to the Test
Site: Townhall
Author: Peter Demos
Date: 2026-07-22
Peter Demos argues that democratic socialism should be judged by voluntary real-world tests in industries that already champion progressive economics, rather than imposed first on small businesses or broad sectors like Wall Street and grocery stores.
He says Hollywood, Broadway, television, and even the New York mayor’s office are better proving grounds because they feature extreme pay gaps, concentrated wealth, and large numbers of essential workers whose compensation lags far behind top earners.
Demos frames Zohran Mamdani’s rise as a renewed spotlight on democratic socialism, but contends the movement should start by capping top compensation and redistributing more broadly within its own cultural strongholds.
He suggests that if the model truly improves fairness, security, and performance, these industries should be able to demonstrate stronger businesses, better government, and broader prosperity without coercion.
The piece closes by challenging supporters to “lead by example” and prove the system works before asking the rest of America to follow.
This story matters because it turns a political slogan into a concrete test of whether democratic socialism can deliver better outcomes where its advocates already have the most influence.
🅱️ Finally, someone asks Hollywood to eat their own cooking. Funny how the loudest preachers for ‘fairness’ never pass the plate in their own pews. This piece calls their bluff—no more sermons, just show us. If the stars won’t walk the walk, maybe the rest of us shouldn’t buy the talk.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
‘The Odyssey’ Is Woke and Worse
Site: Townhall
Author: Kurt Schlichter
Date: 2026-07-22
Kurt Schlichter’s review argues that Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is a long, dull, visually muddy, and emotionally exhausting film that wastes a potentially great story.
He says the movie is weighed down by “woke” stunt casting, including Ellen Page as a Greek warrior and racially diverse casting that he считает distracting and ideologically motivated.
Schlichter also criticizes Nolan for turning Odysseus into a whiny, guilt-ridden figure instead of a cunning hero, stripping the story of adventure, humor, and memorable set pieces.
He contrasts the film unfavorably with Nolan’s earlier work and with older fantasy films, while complaining that the theater experience itself has become unpleasant.
This story matters because it captures the cultural backlash against prestige filmmaking that many conservatives see as preachy, joyless, and more interested in signaling than storytelling.
🅱️ This is a roast, not a review. Schlichter swings at Hollywood’s woke piñata and doesn’t miss, but the real punch is how joyless and hollow the whole circus feels. The jokes land, the outrage is earned, but it could use a little more scalpel and a little less sledgehammer. Still, you walk away knowing exactly why you don’t want that ticket stub.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
The Band That Never Played
Site: www.reynolds.com
Author: Jim Reynolds
Date: 2026-07-22
Jim Reynolds recounts how Finland’s Winter War defense in 1939–40 shattered Stalin’s expectation of a quick victory and exposed the Red Army’s weaknesses.
At Suomussalmi and along Raate Road, Finnish ski troops used the motti tactic to slice Soviet columns into isolated pockets, cutting off movement, communications, fuel, food, and warmth until entire divisions collapsed.
The article emphasizes that Stalin’s purges had already crippled Soviet command, making the army rigid and vulnerable in Finland’s forests, lakes, and deep winter conditions.
Finland ultimately lost territory in the peace settlement, but it preserved its independence and inflicted a humiliating defeat that became a strategic lesson for the wider war.
Reynolds also argues that Hitler drew the wrong conclusion from Finland’s success, underestimating the Soviet Union and helping set the stage for the disastrous invasion of 1941.
This story matters because it shows how a small, resource-poor nation can reshape world history by turning terrain, discipline, and strategy into decisive force.
🅱️ This one swings the axe and leaves the stump. No fat, no fog—just a cold lesson in how the little guy cuts the bully down to size. The band never played, but the punchline lands like a frozen log. If you don’t get sisu after this, you never will.
Reader Experience: ★★★★★ Clean Substack. No ads. Fast loading.
Read the original article HERE
Jim, for reader experience you need to identify when an article is behind a paywall. Today’s TownHall Schlicter article, for example.