“The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 6.81% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday morning, the highest in a year. Mortgage applications fell 2.9%. It reflects a surge in global bond yields. Longer-term rates moved higher after Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh offered little guidance as to whether or when the Fed may raise rates to combat elevated inflation. That has particularly cut into refinancing activity, the MBA said, with its Refinance Index falling 1.9%. … Mortgage News Daily, which updates an average rate each day, put the 30-year rate at 6.75% Tuesday, down from 6.82% at the start of the week.” (08/05/26)
“The White House on Wednesday released declassified information claiming the FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was acting as an asset for Russia when he fired FBI Director James Comey, a theory an administration official said was not backed up by evidence. The official said the investigation, known as Oxferd Comma, was a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI probe into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government — an investigation that has long drawn Mr. Trump’s ire. The predicate of Oxferd Comma was the newly elected president’s decision to fire Comey in 2017.” (08/05/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald
“We all have distinct needs and preferences. Some of us like pickup trucks; others like Priuses. Some of us demand Dunkin’ coffee (me!); others swear by Starbucks. Some of us prefer to live in the city; others in the suburbs. Some of us like to read mystery novels; others prefer science fiction. Some of us want one type of Airbnb experience; others prefer something else. We are all different, and that diversity is what makes our society so dynamic. It’s also why decentralization is crucial. No top-down policy could possibly satisfy all of our individual needs and preferences, and imposing such a policy would understandably breed discontent. … In education, we are thankfully starting to see the choice, variety, and abundance we enjoy in all other parts of our lives where market competition prevails. ” (08/05/26)
“Weather is local, weather that affects food production is local, therefore security of supply is gained by getting food from multiple local areas affected by different local weathers. Trade. We can go further too. Say that they’re right about this climate change thing. Weather is going to become more variable in each local area – this is indeed one of the predictions. That means that we must gain our food from many more local areas, local weathers, in order to have a consistent supply. The worse climate change is the more we not just desire but insist upon more trade in food. Climate change itself, that is, is the one single argument against local self-sufficiency in food.” (08/05/26)
“The Houthis, [the government of much of] Yemen, said Wednesday that they had struck a Saudi oil tanker in the northern Red Sea, and they threatened to intensify attacks there in an effort to close ‘all access routes’ to Saudi oil shipments. The Houthi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said the group had fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi tanker called Wafa near the Saudi port city of Yanbu, though he did not say when the attack had occurred. The Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthis’ claim. The Houthis declared a blockade of Saudi shipping last month. The territory they control in Yemen is near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a narrow waterway that leads into the southern end of the Red Sea.” (08/05/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The communist threat from Cuba has returned with a vengeance. According to a Washington Post article entitled ‘State Dept. Again Deems Cuba a Threat Amid Talk of U.S. Push for Regime Change,’ the Trump administration recently issued an official report ‘alleging that a multi-decade Cuban influence campaign in the United States has had ‘remarkable success’ in infiltrating ‘the highest reaches of the U.S. government,’ backing ‘left-wing terrorism on American soil’ and turning ‘America against itself.’’ Yikes! The Reds are coming to get us … again! Is it time to send the troops back into Vietnam to prevent the dominoes from falling to the commies? Is the international communist conspiracy still centered in Moscow? What about the terrorists? And the Muslims? And the drug dealers? And the illegal immigrants? Should we put those on the back burner?” (08/05/26)
“Congressional candidate Amir Hassan, whom President Donald Trump endorsed last month, appears headed for defeat in the Republican primary for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, as he trails rival Thomas J. Smith, who suspended his campaign and endorsed another candidate less than three weeks before Election Day. With 99 percent of votes counted at the time of writing, according to Associated Press estimates, Smith led the three-way primary with 50.4 percent of the vote, compared with Hassan’s 33.2 percent and Al Lemmo’s 16.4 percent. Smith held a lead of more than 10,600 votes, larger than the estimated number of ballots left to count, meaning Hassan cannot catch him if the remaining-vote estimate is accurate.” (08/05/26)
