Indy Digest: July 28, 2025
One of the best ways for a journalist to begin a news piece is with an “anecdotal lede”—a little story that illustrates the matter being covered, and leads the reader into the rest of the piece.
Los Angeles Times reporters Amelia Thomson-Deveaux and Jonathan J. Cooper crafted a fantastic anecdotal lede in a story published yesterday, with the headline, “It’s a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump’s approval numbers, poll finds“:
Eric Hildenbrand has noticed prices continue to rise this year with President Trump in the White House.
The San Diego resident doesn’t blame Trump, however, his choice for president in 2024, but says Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who control the state are at fault.
“You can’t compare California with the rest of the country,” said Hildenbrand, 76. “I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country. It seems like prices are dropping. Things are getting better, but I don’t necessarily see it here.”
Thomson-Deveaux and Cooper then get to the main point of the story: Recent polls show that Trump still has the support of between 40 and 42 percent of U.S. adults—numbers that really haven’t changed much since the end of Trump’s first term.
“Those long-term trends underscore that Trump has many steadfast opponents,” Thomson-Deveaux and Cooper write. “But loyal supporters also help explain why views of the president are hard to change even as he pursues policies that most Americans do not support, using an approach that many find abrasive.”
In other words: No matter what you’re seeing on your social media feed, Trump really is not losing very many supporters.
I actually found the anecdotal lede of the piece more interesting than the poll numbers, because it illustrates an important fact about Trump, his supporters and the right-wing media sphere: Even if a Trump policy is causing harm, the president (and his acolytes) are more than happy to blame someone else for that harm (Biden! Obama! Crooked Hillary! The fake-news media)—and his supporters, that 40 percent of American adults, will believe him.
Why? Part of it is the media his supporters are consuming. Two words: Fox. News. And Fox News is one of the saner media sources consumed by MAGA.
Another part: Trump, to his credit, has cultivated an almost cult-like brand of loyalty, unlike any other modern American politician.
To paraphrase a question I’ve seen on social media as of late: Would Democrats want the Epstein list released if they knew Bill Clinton was on it? (This is not out of the realm of possibility.) How about any other Democrat?
Almost unanimously, the answer would be YES RELEASE IT! Democrats don’t have fervent loyalty to, well, anyone, like Trump supporters do—and that makes the MAGA movement dangerous and terrifying.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
The Tribe’s Side: The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s ‘Section 14: The Untold Story’ Exhibit Explains What Happened on Palm Springs’ Most Storied Section of Land
By Haleemon Anderson
July 28, 2025
Section 14: The Untold Story features archival photographs, recordings, letters and government directives. You must stop and read to digest the racism, discrimination and, in some cases, rank cruelty found in these seemingly innocuous documents.
Goodbye, Little Street: The Music Community Bids Farewell to One of the Few Consistent All-Ages Venues in the Coachella Valley
By Matt King
July 26, 2025
On July 14, the brothers who own Little Street shocked local music fans by announcing, in an Instagram video, that the venue was closing, citing a “competing set of values with the city” of Indio.
Marvel Is Again Marvelous: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Is a Stylish, Funny Return to Form
By Bob Grimm
July 28, 2025
Set in a sort-of futuristic ’60s, the art direction/look of this film marks a Marvel high point, and the score is great, too. The movie has a lot of heart to go with some consistent laughs.
It’s Still Rock ’n’ Roll to Him: HBO Max’s Billy Joel Two-Parter Is One of the Best Music Documentaries Ever Made
By Bob Grimm
July 28, 2025
Directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin cover the entire life of Joel—the whole thing, warts and all.
More News
• Good news: Since Trump cut the funding for NPR and PBS, donations to the organizations have skyrocketed. But there’s bad news, as The New York Times explains: “The public broadcasting system in the United States suffered a seismic shock last week when Congress eliminated roughly $535 million a year in federal funding for PBS, NPR and local stations across the country. But public radio listeners and public television viewers have been stepping in to help fill the gap, delivering a surge of donations. Over the last three months … roughly 120,000 new donors have contributed an estimated $20 million in annual value, said Michal Heiplik, the president and chief executive of the Contributor Development Partnership, a firm that analyzes public media fund-raising data. Overall, donations committed to public media for the year are about $70 million higher than last year. The numbers are encouraging, Mr. Heiplik said, but far from enough to make up for the federal cuts. Scores of stations in the United States could struggle to continue operating without grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
• One of the state’s largest health-care providers will no longer perform gender-affirming surgeries for patients younger than 19, as of Aug. 29. Our partners at Calmatters report: “Kaiser Permanente serves 12 million patients in eight states, including more than 9 million in California. In a statement, the health care giant cited actions by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict gender-affirming care, including issuing subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide care to transgender youth. Kaiser: ‘After significant deliberation and consultation with internal and external experts including our physicians, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause surgical treatment for patients. … All other gender-affirming care treatment remains available.’ Kaiser’s move follows decisions by two other California hospitals to limit transgender health services: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which closed its health clinic for transgender youth last week; and Stanford Medicine, which paused services earlier this month. Some members of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus expressed disappointment in Kaiser’s policy while slamming the federal administration.”
• The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” includes some changes regarding student loans. NPR breaks down what they are—and while some of the changes will be bad for borrowers, not all of them will be. A tidbit: “Undergraduates won’t see any changes to their loan limits. But it’s a very different story for graduate students and parents. For graduate students, new limits will make it harder for lower- and middle-income borrowers to attend pricier graduate programs. The current grad PLUS loan allows students to borrow up to the cost of their graduate program, but Republicans are shutting it down this time next year. After that, grad students’ borrowing will be capped at $20,500 a year with a lifetime graduate school loan limit of $100,000, a big drop from the previous cap of $138,500. How big a deal will this be? (Preston Cooper, at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute), has been crunching the numbers and said, “Just under 20% of master’s students borrow above the proposed limits.”
• Unionized Stater Bros. employees have authorized a strike. The Los Angeles Times says: “The authorization does not mean a strike will begin immediately, as bargaining negotiations are scheduled for July 30 to 31. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 said in a statement that Stater Bros. broke ‘the law by surveilling, interrogating and discriminating against union members.’ ‘An Unfair Labor Practice strike is always a last resort, and we will continue to push Stater Bros to do the right thing,’ the union said. ‘We’ve had enough of their union-busting tactics that undermine workers and silence our voices.’ The vote comes several months after the supermarket chain laid off a total of 63 clerks at four stores in Southern California, the first time in the company’s 89-year history, blaming inflation and tariffs for the decision. … According to the union, its labor contract with Stater Bros. expired March 2. A vote tally for the strike authorization was not released.”
• Today’s recall news involves … fragrance diffusers! Newsweek explains: “Detachable covers for more than 800,000 home fragrance diffusers sold at major outlets nationwide have been recalled due to concerns that the product poses a serious choking hazard to children. Pura Scents issued a nationwide recall of the part for its Pura 4 Smart Home Fragrance after reports surfaced that magnets inside the covers can detach. The recall, effective July 24, affects approximately 851,400 units sold in the United States and an additional 1,100 units in Canada. The products were available through major retailers, including Target, Amazon, Scheels, and others, from August 2023 through May 2025 and retailed for $50, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).”
• And finally … the Western world is consuming so much matcha—powdered green tea—that it’s now in short supply. Time magazine reports: “Western consumers have thirsted for the health option in recent years, a trend skyrocketed by social media—especially through Tik Tok. At the same time, Japan has experienced a mass tourism rise in the post-pandemic years—in 2024, Japan welcomed a record-breaking 36.9 million international visitors, surpassing the previous record of 31.9 million in 2019—leading to many mass tea companies and local vendors to report shortages of supply. Back in October 2024, two well-known matcha companies—Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen—limited and/or stopped selling certain kinds of matcha, citing short supplies. … Matcha is a type of green tea, but the processing, form and taste differs significantly, and is made specifically from tencha, a shaded green leaf tea.”
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