Besides The News

July 11, 2025

Happy Friday from Sheridan, Wyoming. I am here for the annual WYO rodeo and to celebrate a series of family birthdays, including my own on Monday. It’s such a lovely town and always captures the essence of an older America. I’ve written about Sheridan extensively because I love how I feel when I am here. A capturing of my youth, a spirit of the West, and a sense that this small town still is alive, while so many others have felt the crushing suck of business consolidation, mass unassimilated immigration, and the demoralizing effect of drugs.

We will be watching the rodeo tonight along with the world championship Indian Relays. It is the most spectacular sport I have ever watched. This was a great piece by 60 Minutes (I know an oxymoron) about this amazing event.

It was a bad week for the Trump administration. I suggested on X that they take today off and regroup for things on Monday. Between the Epstein stuff and the approval of the mRNA shot by the FDA, as Mark Twain might say, “let us draw the curtain of charity upon this scene.” My piece at House InHabit about why the list/no-list reversal is so damaging, hopefully, captures the rationale behind why the base is so upset. As Rush Limbaugh used to say, only Trump can separate himself from his voters. This one went a long way towards that betrayal.

Brioches for the Broken

I mentioned this yesterday in the news, but Lauren Lee, a major contributor during the campaign, did an extensive breakdown of what she believes is going on with RFK Jr. and the shots. I’m not defending the mRNA business; it’s not a technology that I want anywhere near me, but I’m not sure any of this was something RFK initiated. My guess is these approvals are under the old system, and were in the works long before he became HHS Secretary. I want them all gone, or tested in a real way, but we have no way of getting to that yet. I mentioned to a friend on the phone the other day that RFK is the only one who continues to work through the tangled web of issues that created this monster, line by line. Sadly, though, the scope is so vast that I fear he may run out of time. Regardless, Lauren’s piece says well, what I think he is up to.

Pharma Just Took the Bait.

RFK is up against in this government. He seems like a one-man show with the arrows of industry and the deep state attacking him at every turn. This article about how embattled Attorney General Pam Bondi has dropped a lawsuit against Pfizer is disturbing. All of these people have benefited from that mercantilism, and it’s hard to watch it. I think that it demonstrates how difficult all of this is to unwind, and how imperative it is to call out the wrong, especially when it’s by someone who is supposedly “on the team.” Click the photo to read the article.

In some good news, the geoengineering, weather manipulation, cloud seeding nonsense seems to be getting some long overdue exposure. Nicole Shanahan has been on this hunt for a while, and it is good to see it is making its way up the chain to have something done about it.

Here is EPA director Lee Zeldin, who has been a very decent surprise, talking about the government’s stance on all of this.

I’m old enough to remember when Chemtrails were a conspiracy, so it’s nice to see it finally being discussed as if they are actually happening.

In AI news, Grok 4 has been released and has become the most widely used AI by people. It is impressive for search and math questions, and Elon is claiming that it is better than most graduate students at answering questions across multiple disciplines.

I’m a “no thanks” on all of the AI stuff, but this article summarizes incredibly well why people are so attracted to it.

Why People Are Falling in Love With ChatGPT

Besides The News

In my youth, I was in love with writing music and playing out on the road. I saw so much of the world with a guitar in my hand that it is hard to even recount it all. I feel so fortunate, as I cross into my 50th year on Monday, that I had the chance to do it all. This song is written about Sheridan and the Bighorn Mountains that surround the town. I have been going through all of these old songs as the album is somehow now 25 years old. I hope you enjoy it this morning, as my contribution to Besides The News.

Jack’s Picks

I have been in the United States for four years now, and there are many things I miss about home. Chief among them are our pubs - and no, it’s not because I like to get drunk. Actually, I’m not even much of a drinker these days…which is saying something for a Brit! We are known to enjoy a drink, but to me, the pubs are about much more than just beer.

I love a quality ale. Britain produces some of the best ales in the world, and we have a long tradition of beer drinking. What started as a way of making water safe to drink (yes, really!) became a really crucial part of our culture. But it wasn’t just the beer that did that: it was the pubs.

The word “pub” is derived from “public house” - and the moment you step inside of a traditional British pub, it’s clear why. A roaring fire, cosy rugs or carpets, enough chairs for everybody, pies in the oven and pickled eggs in jars on the counter, great beers, great company…it’s a home away from home. For centuries, Brits have flocked to pubs to spend valuable time with friends and family; not because they can’t do that at home, but in part because it made no sense to waste firewood at home when everyone can stay warm together at the pub.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the pub. Yes, as a child! Every family function, be it a Christening, wedding, or funeral, ended at the pub. If we were lucky, it was a pub with a large back garden or field. We’d play while our parents chatted and caught up. If we were at our “local,” which happened to be a mid-century build in the middle of a housing estate, we’d play on the dance floor (some pubs had them!), eat crisps, and enjoy the company of our relatives and neighbors. Alcohol wasn’t a taboo, and as long as people weren’t simply there to get wasted, there was absolutely no reason to be concerned about having children around.

Pubs were really just a way for families to find a way to be together. Our houses are small back home, and there’s no way our extended family would fit in a dining room - if, indeed, a house even had one. I remember with great fondness the time spent at the Busy Bee pub in Skelmersdale every single Christmas. Our routine was the same every Christmas day throughout my childhood; we’d open gifts in the morning, visit my grandparents for elevenses, head home to put the Christmas dinner on, and while it cooked, we’d walk over the road to the pub to see our extended family.

The Busy Bee pub in Skelmersdale - a 1960s build that is admittedly less charming than traditional British pubs. But it was ours.

But these are traditions that seem to be dying.

This week, reports from back home described how the British Beer and Pub Association is calling out for help from the British government as one pub is expected to close per day throughout the remainder of this year.

From The Guardian:

“British pubs will close down at the rate of one a day this year, the industry’s trade body has warned, blaming high business taxes. At the same time, the hospitality sector has called on ministers to tackle “eye-watering” costs.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which represents more than 20,000 pubs in the UK, said it expects 378 to close this year in England, Scotland and Wales, at a cost of 5,600 jobs.

This would mark an increase on last year’s 350 closures, continuing a long-term trend that has made more than 15,000 pubs call last orders once and for all since 2000.”

So, why is it happening? It’s part of a trend we’re seeing here in the United States, too: Gen Z doesn’t drink.

In the UK, it’s legal to drink from the age of 18, but the truth is that many people - particularly from working-class communities - become pub-goers at a much younger age. I would go to the pub age 16 and 17, and oftentimes we’d get served. Landlords know the local kids, they know who is responsible (and I certainly was), and they know that the coppers aren’t likely to turn up and complain. I’d spend every Thursday at the age of 17 with two of my closest friends at a local pub. We’d do the Pub Quiz with the local oldies, who loves us to bits. 17-year-olds and 80-year-olds competing, sharing laughs, and drinking together. Imagine that. And sure, we’d get a little tipsy - but we weren’t reprobates, we didn’t cause trouble, and the wobbly walk home was part of the experience.

But Gen Z doesn’t do that. Nor do they party in the clubs in the same way we millennials did from the age of 18.

That’s part of the problem, for sure. But there’s more to the story.

First, the United Kingdom has experienced astonishing levels of immigration since the late 1990s - and many foreign communities, particularly religiious ones, do not drink. So as Britain’s cities become less British, pub clientele declines. Combine these factors with Britain’s struggling economy, and pubs are left with a declining customer base with less disposable income.

It’s a tragedy, and one that I have been thinking about in recent days. I don’t have the answer, though I suspect reducing taxes on pubs would help a lot. Why, for example, are alcoholic drinks taxed less in supermarkets than in pubs?

A controversial politician once told me he thinks it’s deliberate; he argued that the British state would much rather the British people stayed at home drinking and watching propaganda on the television than talking to their peers in the pub, plotting revolutions. It’s an interesting thought, but I do think this is a case of not attributing malice to something that could easily be a result of stupidity. I think successive British governments have refused to think out of the box on this issue, instead letting pubs gradually disappear while making meaningless platittudes about defending them.

I feel as though the world we knew is disappearing right before us. I know that happens to every generation, but does it normally change this quickly? I don’t think it does. Between AI, social media, the internet, political polarization, COVID authoritarianism and the tearing up of our social contract, I feel as though I live in a different world, not just a different time. And when the pubs go, so too will my home country.