Rip’s Newsletter
July 25, 2026
Compiled and Edited
by
Jim Reynolds
Articles in This Issue
Victor Davis Hanson - The Left-Wing Unicorn Hunt for the White Male Working-Class Voter
Larry Elder - Trump’s War Critics Discuss Everything — Except the Point
Colin Redemer - The College Replacement Economy
Lars Moller - Principles And Perseverance In Roger Scruton
Jeffrey C Reynolds - THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING
Overview
I’m seeing a set of arguments that all circle the same fault line: what happens when institutions lose touch with the people they claim to serve.
The pieces on Democrats and the white working class, Trump’s Iran critics, and the “college replacement economy” each wrestle with elites, incentives, and the stories we tell ourselves about progress.
There is also a deeper cultural thread here, from Scruton’s defense of rooted conservatism to the reminder that talent and migration can overturn the assumptions of any system.
Taken together, this is a newsletter about abandonment, overconfidence, and the cost of confusing slogans with reality.
I believe you will find the true story written by my brother, Jeffrey Reynolds, especially heartwarming.
By the way, I missed my normal publishing day yesterday. Life intervened.
In California, our vehicles must pass a smog inspection. My Jeep did not.
The test equipment detected an emissions-system problem, which began a small but expensive adventure. Jeff had to drive me forty miles to Auburn to get it repaired.
Why a $5 Part Cost Me More Than $400
When I took my Jeep in for its California smog inspection, it failed with Diagnostic Code P0455: EVAP System Large Leak.
The EVAP system captures gasoline vapors and prevents them from escaping into the atmosphere. To find the leak, the shop filled the system with smoke and watched to see where it escaped.
The culprit was a leaking rollover check valve on top of the fuel tank.
Here is the frustrating part.
The valve itself costs about $5.
Unfortunately, it sits on top of the fuel tank, where it cannot simply be reached and replaced. The entire tank has to be lowered before the tiny plastic valve can be accessed.
That is why I did not do it myself.
The final accounting was simple:
Diagnostic code: P0455 — EVAP Large Leak
Cause: Failed rollover check valve
Part cost: About $5
Labor: Lower the fuel tank, replace the valve, and reinstall the tank
Total repair bill: More than $400
Modern vehicle repairs are often expensive not because the failed part costs much, but because of the labor required to reach it.
In other words, I did not pay $400 for a plastic valve.
I paid $400 to get to it.
The Jeep’s primary purpose is to get me out when the snow gets deep and everything else fails. We receive a great deal of snow up here in the Sierras.
So the Jeep needs to be ready.
Even if it takes a $400 expedition to replace a $5 part.
Back to the Newsletter….
The Left-Wing Unicorn Hunt for the White Male Working-Class Voter
Site: Townhall
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Date: 2026-07-23
Democrats have largely lost white working-class voters since Bill Clinton’s era.
Hanson says demographic overconfidence and open-borders politics drove that abandonment.
He argues progressive social issues and DEI alienate working people.
The party’s socialist figures are portrayed as privileged, inauthentic populists.
Democrats need these voters, but their messaging and messengers repel them.
The story matters because it argues Democrats cannot regain power without winning back a crucial, culturally alienated voting bloc.
🅱️ This is a demolition job on the Democrats’ cosplay working-class routine. Hanson’s got the receipts and the memory—he names the phonies, the trust-fund socialists, and the DEI grifters. The punchlines land because the setup’s all true. Only thing missing is a little more gallows humor, but the moral fury’s right where it should be.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
Trump’s War Critics Discuss Everything — Except the Point
Site: Townhall
Author: Larry Elder
Date: 2026-07-23
Critics say Trump’s Iran war risks a “forever war,” but miss the war’s origin.
The central unanswered question is whether Iran was close to a nuclear weapon.
Trump and NATO’s Rutte argued Iran’s nuclear and missile threat was imminent.
Elder says analysis is incomplete without weighing sanctions, inspections, negotiations, or containment alternatives.
He argues public debate must assess both Trump’s strategy and Iran’s capabilities.
The war’s legitimacy hinges on whether Iran was truly nearing a bomb.
🅱️ Elder’s not splitting hairs—he’s pointing at the elephant the press keeps painting invisible. The whole circus is arguing about the cost of the fire truck, but nobody asks if the house was actually burning. Clean, sharp, and just dangerous enough to make the right people squirm. Could use a little more bite, but the receipts are all here.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
The College Replacement Economy
Site: American Mind
Author: Colin Redemer
Date: 2026-07-23
The essay argues climate panic can justify a radical economic agenda.
Young Americans seem prosperous in statistics, but lost social capital makes life costlier.
College is framed as a replacement purchase for eroded labor-market sorting and certification.
Tuition, debt, and bureaucracy rose while instruction and learning quality declined.
International students and labor competition intensify college’s role as a defensive moat.
Higher education now sells back what society once provided free, masking decline as growth.
🅱️ This one’s a bill for what got stolen while we were told it was progress. Nails the scam: pay more, get less, call it growth. Could use a little more bite on who profits, but the receipts are all here. If you ever wondered why your kid’s drowning in debt for a piece of paper, here’s your answer—straight, no chaser.
Read the original article HERE
Principles And Perseverance In Roger Scruton
Site: American Thinker
Author: Lars Moller
Date: 2026-07-25
Blair’s premiership is framed as a cultural revolution, not pragmatic modernization.
Scruton’s Salisbury Review advanced “rich” conservatism rooted in tradition, place, and beauty.
He rejected Thatcherite economism, defending family, locality, church, nation, and inherited forms.
The magazine backed dissidents abroad and challenged multiculturalism, political correctness, and elite orthodoxy.
Scruton’s legacy endures as principled resistance to cultural erosion and managerial progressivism.
Scruton matters because he gave conservatism a moral and philosophical backbone when Britain’s institutions were changing fast.
🅱️ Scruton took the punches and kept swinging—while the rest of the so-called conservatives handed out medals for surrender. This piece remembers the man who said what everyone else was too scared to mutter, and it doesn’t let the cowards off the hook. The rot’s mapped out, the receipts are stapled to the door, and the lesson’s clear: you don’t save a country by apologizing for it.
Reader Experience: ★★★☆☆ Moderate ads and interruptions.
Read the original article HERE
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING
Site: www.reynolds.com
Author: Jeffrey C Reynolds
Date: 2026-07-24
Late-1970s Los Angeles Philharmonic auditions were dominated by Russian expatriate violinists.
All four section violin openings went to Russians, surprising the audition committee.
Soviet emigration had released elite Jewish musicians, many from top orchestras and quartets.
The newcomers quickly assimilated, buying homes, learning English, and raising American families.
Their stories linked wartime survival, musical excellence, and America’s gain from immigration.
This story shows how immigration can transform a great orchestra—and a country—through talent, resilience, and assimilation.
🅱️ This one’s got receipts and a soul. Shows what happens when you trade communism for a shot at the real thing—no lectures, just lived proof. The punchline? They didn’t come here to make America Russia. They came to become Americans. Maybe we should remember that next time someone tries to sell us a borderless utopia.
Reader Experience: ★★★★★ Clean Substack. No ads. Fast loading.
Read the original article HERE
Borderless Utopia. " No Such Thing! " However a great way to define a Fantasy!
Jim, I have a 2017 Colorado. 70,000 miles later the $300.00 Dollar thermostat wenr south. Part $250 last one I changed on the highway years ago. $20.00. Labor Zero/Road Side/Me. This thermostat labor, removal of exhaust manifold and replace total. $750.00 Mind Blown. Trump aacounts will be helpful for todays chidren with zero expierience. A different time for sure!