'move fast and break things'

The decision is expected to significantly reduce Bayer’s exposure to thousands of pending lawsuits tied to Roundup, the glyphosate-based herbicide originally developed by Monsanto, acquired by Bayer in 2018. The case arrived after litigation that included multibillion-dollar verdicts against the global agrochemical manufacturer.

City Schools of Decatur allegedly hid race-based policies from federal oversight after embedding DEI ideology in teacher training and curriculum, a watchdog group reports.

Oratory is out of fashion. The word itself sounds archaic to our ears, denoting something people used to practice in antiquity and at long length in 19th-century America. Even the more down-to-earth sounding “rhetoric” is heard to mean “mere” rhetoric — words false or deceptive by definition. Politicians talk about “messaging,” and the more significant politicians have layers of staff for “communications.”

This does not bode well for the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Every politician in America will feel obliged to say something for the occasion. Whoever can — with perhaps some rare exceptions — will deploy a staff member or staff members to draft his remarks.

The American people declared to the world and under God principles constituting not just the foundation and purpose of their political existence, but the only foundation for legitimate government.

The staff members themselves, products of American universities where American history is frowned upon or given the 1619 treatment, will have to do original research to prepare for the task. A significant percentage of them will rely on artificial intelligence. Patriots have reason to wonder whether there is a politician (or comms team) in America today who understands and can articulate for his fellow citizens and the world the meaning of July 4, 1776.

John Quincy Adams took July 4, 1776, with the utmost seriousness. The Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution became the north star of his politics over a 60-year career of devotion to his country and its cause.

He understood that man is a political animal because he is endowed by nature with logos (speech, reason) and that in American politics, the statesman’s first task is to understand the logos — the word fitly spoken, the apple of gold — of the Declaration of Independence.

He articulated his understanding of the Declaration and its principles beautifully, often, and at length in formal orations and other speeches and writings from the early to the late years of his remarkable political career. He served for a few years in his late 30s and early 40s, when he was also a United States senator, as the first Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. Later, in what his biographer Samuel Flagg Bemis called his “second career” of nine outspoken terms in the House of Representatives, he became known as “Old Man Eloquent,” in great part for his faithful championing of the principles of the Declaration. He was an avid, lifelong student of Cicero.

Adams was born into the American Revolution to a mother and father who were revolutionaries. When he was 7 years old, the Battle of Bunker Hill took place (Saturday, June 17, 1775) within earshot of the farm in Braintree, Massachusetts, where he lived with his mother, Abigail, and three siblings.

On the morning of the battle, his mother took him with her and climbed to the top of nearby Penn’s Hill. From there, the two could see fire and smell the smoke from houses burning in Charlestown. John Quincy remembered the moment vividly to the end of his life. His father, John, was 400 miles away in Philadelphia as part of the Massachusetts delegation to the Second Continental Congress. Braintree was in a war zone.

RELATED: America turns 250 with a broken heart

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Weeks before, as militia streamed into the area in the wake of the battles of Lexington and Concord, Abigail Adams had collected the family’s pewter dishes and melted them down to make bullets in a large kettle held over the kitchen fire. From time to time, she heard alarms, warning that the Royal Navy was about to land forces along the coast. She had good reason to fear that the British would try to seize rebel leaders and their families.

The best John Adams could do at the time was to write to his wife from Connecticut: “In Case of real Danger ... fly to the Woods with our Children.” July 4, 1776, was still more than a year away, undefined in the uncertain future. But young John Quincy Adams was already learning its lessons.

On July 4, 1785, less than two years after the peace settlement ending the American war for independence, 17-year-old John Quincy, who had served as his father’s private secretary during the peace negotiations, was sailing back to America after six life-forming years in Europe. He wrote in his journal, slightly misquoting James Thompson’s “Rule Britannia,” that July 4 was:

The greatest day in the year, for every true American. The anniversary of our Independence. May heaven preserve it: and may the world still see:
A State where liberty shall still survive
In these late times, this evening of mankind
When Athens, Rome, and Carthage are no more
The world almost in slavish sloth dissolv’d.

The mature John Quincy would come to believe that on that date the American people declared to the world and under God principles constituting not just the foundation and purpose of their political existence, but the only foundation for legitimate government. He held that these principles of reason emerged in the providence of the Christian God through centuries of oppression and superstition and were destined in the providence of God to spread across the earth.

In God’s good time, the feudal monarchies of Europe would be overthrown and replaced by regimes based on the true principles of the American Revolution. The same providential fate awaited all the world’s barbarous, savage, or tyrannical regimes.

These facts, in his mind, were perfectly compatible with the maxim he would make famous, that America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy — and equally compatible with the reality he faced throughout his political career, that America itself, in its freedom, might abandon its principles and descend into barbarous tyranny.

In Fourth of July orations over four decades, Adams would explain to his fellow citizens why and how, in fidelity to the laws of nature and nature’s God, America should, in all weathers, steer its course by the north star of the principles of the Declaration.

These orations and other speeches and writings are conveniently collected in “John Quincy Adams: Speeches and Writings,” recently edited by David Waldstreicher, the distinguished professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, for the Library of America. They are full of history, reasoning, learning, and even oratory that should come in handy for those hoping to say something that rises to the occasion of the coming semiquincentennial.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at the American Mind.

Former Liverpool standout and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah left Friday night's 1-1 draw with Iran at the World Cup because of a left knee injury.

An African migrant has been charged with rape and murder after the body of a two-year-old girl was found in a Surrey town in Southern England.

The post African Migrant Charged with Rape and Murder After Two-Year-Old Girl Found Dead in England appeared first on Breitbart.

Democratic insiders say a clean sweep by NYC Mayor Mamdani's three endorsed House candidates on Tuesday has shifted Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., toward a potential 2028 presidential bid.

Empty envelopes arriving in your mailbox could be tied to brushing scams where sellers fake verified reviews using your address and personal data.

Living in Los Angeles, even dogs end up in therapy.

The post WATCH: Los Angeles Canine Day Care Has Dogs in Therapy to Prep for Anxiety from Fourth of July Fireworks appeared first on Breitbart.

Spain's Group H title created a bizarre World Cup scenario where both Austria and Algeria may benefit from not winning their final group stage match.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar toured portions of the southwest border near Brownsville, Texas, on Tuesday alongside Acting Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Ron Vitiello. Edgar took to social media after the visit, touting the impact of infrastructure projects funded by the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) on border security.

The post Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Enhancing Texas Border Security Infrastructure appeared first on Breitbart.

The Miami Marlins boast an MLB-best 17-5 record in June, using small ball and stolen bases to surge into Wild Card contention ahead of schedule.

The ladies of “The View” have once again proven that objective truth is not on their list of priorities.

On a recent episode, the panel discussed the case of Karmelo Anthony, who was recently sentenced to 35 years in jail for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in April 2025 after the two had a verbal confrontation.

Whoopi Goldberg noted that all qualified black prospective jurors were struck from the jury pool — a move Anthony’s defense team challenged under a Batson ruling. The judge overruled the objection, however, after prosecutors provided a race-neutral explanation: The three jurors were educators whose profession made them too closely connected to a school-related incident involving high school students.

“The case has a lot of people divided. Some people believe that race was a factor in the trial because there were no black jurors. ... Some folks think, 'No, no, he got a fair trial.' But is this a jury of his peers?” asked Goldberg.

Co-host Sunny Hostin then replied, “I don't think so. And you know this has been an issue for such a long time in the judicial system where prosecutors use what are called, you know, Batson challenges.”

Pat Gray is disgusted by Hostin’s sneaky half-truth.

“Prosecutors and defense attorneys use [Batson challenges],” he corrects.

The other factor Hostin conveniently left out, says Pat, is the fact that “there were more than three black people in the jury pool.”

Some of those black candidates were struck, he argues, because they made statements of obvious bias.

They were “saying things like, ‘Yeah, I'd have a real hard time with putting a brother in jail.’ OK, well, then get out. Obviously, that's not going to work,” Pat scoffs.

Sadly, Hostin wasn’t done lying.

She went on to claim that Batson challenges are loopholes for racism.

“It’s a challenge that is used to strike a juror, generally a juror of color,” she declared.

“No, it’s not generally a juror of color. It could be white ... it could be anybody!” exclaims Pat, accusing Hostin of playing the race card.

To make matters even worse, Hostin, producer Kris Kruz points out, has a law degree from Notre Dame Law School and even served as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice.

But despite her prestigious education and high-profile government experience, Hostin still doesn’t seem to understand what a jury of one’s peers really means.

“You're supposed to have a jury of your peers, and you're not supposed to just strike someone because they're black,” she said, arguing that striking jurors for being educators was not “an appropriate reason.”

“A jury of your peers does not mean that they're all your same color or same age. That's not what a jury of your peers means,” says Pat.

But perhaps Hostin’s worst take came next.

Citing the recently released footage where Anthony told cops, “He put his hands on me. I told him not to,” Hostin said, “[Metcalf] was 200 pounds. [Anthony] was 130 pounds.”

Anthony’s weight has been a point of contention throughout the trial. While he was frequently described as weighing roughly 130 pounds in the trial, his high school football bio listed him at roughly 160 pounds.

Pat couldn’t care less what Anthony weighs, though. “Just because Austin was bigger than him doesn't mean it's OK to kill him!”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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Persian Gulf countries are furious over Iran's aggression on Saturday with its drone strikes against targets in Bahrain. This is a major escalation.

About 3 million fewer people in the United States had Affordable Care Act health insurance plans in February compared with the same time last year, according to new federal data. In the report released Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggested the...

New York Knicks star Josh Hart celebrated the Texas State Board of Education's vote to make Bible passages required reading in public schools with a post on X.

Trump mocks John Bolton on Truth Social after his former national security adviser pleads guilty to unauthorized possession of classified documents.

Democrats searching for a winning strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections may not need to persuade large numbers of Republican or independent voters, veteran political journalist Jerry Seib argues.

A leftist school board member in St. Paul, Minnesota, suggested Christian cemeteries should be turned into dog parks so the animals could pee on "white corpses," the news coming as she faces charges regarding a mob that invaded a church in January during anti-ICE demonstrations.

The post Leftist Minnesota School Board Clerk Wants Dogs to ‘P**s on White Corpses’ at Christian Cemeteries appeared first on Breitbart.