“Texas Republicans have voted for the arrest of dozens of Democratic legislators who fled the state in an attempt to block a plan to re-draw electoral boundaries. Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered state troopers ‘to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans’. Abbott has also threatened to charge the absent Democrats with bribery if they raised public money to cover the daily fine they incur for boycotting the chamber. The re-drawn congressional map would create five more Republican-leaning seats in the US House of Representatives in Washington DC, where Republicans hold a slim majority. At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body in Texas must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable after more than 50 Democratic lawmakers left the state.” (08/05/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had removed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from consideration for an open seat on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, but said he would ‘very shortly’ announce his choice. In an interview with CNBC, Trump said Fed Governor Adriana Kugler’s decision to vacate her seat early was a ‘pleasant surprise.’ The departure of Kugler, whose term would have ended on January 31, appears to have accelerated Trump’s planning for the U.S. central bank, giving him an immediate opening to fill with a person who could also be promoted to the top policymaking role when Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in May. ‘It’ll be one of four people,’ Trump said, adding that he considered both current White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh as ‘very good’ possibilities.” (08/05/25)
“Our understanding of an historical event’s meaning is a function of two factors. The first is what we choose to identify as the starting point leading up to the event. The second is the lens through which we view it. This should be obvious, but unfortunately it is not, and the failure to acknowledge or understand it has consequences in everything from public policy to personal relationships. This truth can be ignored due to thoughtlessness, blindness to one’s biases, or just plain ignorance. On some occasions there can be malign intent, including efforts to deliberately hide what one knows to be an event’s antecedents for political or personal reasons. Before examining the issue that prompted this column, I want to share an example. The comedian Dick Gregory once noted that despite what we were taught in school, ‘Columbus didn’t discover America, because it wasn’t lost.'” (08/05/25)
“The Trump administration has dismissed five out of seven members on Puerto Rico’s federal control board that oversees the U.S. territory’s finances, sparking concern about the future of the island’s fragile economy. The five fired are all Democrats. A White House official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the board ‘has been run inefficiently and ineffectively by its governing members for far too long and it’s time to restore common sense leadership.’ Those fired are board chairman Arthur Gonzalez, along with Cameron McKenzie, Betty Rosa, Juan Sabater and Luis Ubiñas. The board’s two remaining members — Andrew G. Biggs and John E. Nixon — are Republicans. The board confirmed in a brief statement that the five were terminated and noted that the board would continue to fulfill its mandate and work ‘in the interest of the people of Puerto Rico.'” (08/05/25)
“Before politics overwhelmed the word, the primary meaning of ‘liberal’ was ‘generous’. President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have given political liberals a chance to take that meaning back — by opening their wallets to show just how much they value NPR, PBS and other programs defunded by the GOP. There’s no shortage of funds on the left. Laurene Powell Jobs, the mega-rich backer of The Atlantic, has a net worth estimated at above $11 billion a year ago and believed to be even higher today. George Soros, at 94, has a fortune in the vicinity of $7 billion, with billions more in his Open Society Foundation. Bill Gates has about $115 billion, his ex-wife Melinda around $30 billion. Any one of these left-leaning billionaires could single-handedly make up the $535 million that NPR, PBS and local stations were getting annually from taxpayers before Congress zeroed out the subsidies.” (08/04/25)
“A BBC investigation has exposed the French and UK operations of a powerful and violent smuggling gang taking people across the English Channel in small boats. A reporter, posing as a migrant wanting to cross, helped us gain unprecedented access to the smugglers’ notorious forest hideout in northern France – an area plagued by armed battles between rival gangs. Secret filming at a major UK railway station also captured associates of the gang collecting cash payments to secure migrant places on illegal Channel crossings. Two men met us on separate occasions on the busy concourse at Birmingham’s New Street Station to collect envelopes containing hundreds of pounds. Multiple sources have described how gang leaders, who keep one step ahead of the authorities by changing mobile phone numbers and the gang’s name, subjected their henchmen and migrants to violent beatings.” (08/05/25)
“The Lebanese government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions will have weapons in the small nation by the end of the year, a move that aims to disarm the militant Hezbollah group. The announcement by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam after a nearly six-hour Cabinet meeting, came shortly after Hezbollah’s leader said his group would not disarm and warned that the Iran-backed faction would resume missile attacks on Israel if military operations against them intensify. Salam said the government asked the army to have the plan ready by the end of the month for discussion and approval. The government’s move came as Beirut is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.” (08/05/25)
“Santa Cruz County, Arizona, is the smallest county in the Grand Canyon State, but its location makes it significant. Home to more than 50,000 people, the vast majority of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, the county is located in the southernmost part of central Arizona and shares a 54-mile stretch of border with the Mexican state of Sonora. Along this stretch of land is Nogales, the county’s administrative seat and a major port of entry into the United States; millions of people and billions of dollars in trade pass through it every year. Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, are bisected by a demarcation line established by the purchase, six years after the Mexican-American War, of Mexican land by the United States. But the sister cities — collectively referred to as Ambos Nogales — comprise a single urban area characterized by high levels of cross-border interaction and a common culture.” (08/05/25)
“In June, facing a military defeat, the leaders of Iran muted their rhetoric and agreed to a truce with Israel, ending the ’12-day war.’ A month later, a government largely controlled by ruling Muslim clerics has signaled another kind of truce – this time with its own people, and within a period of just 10 days. On July 20, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Cabinet sought to fast-track a sweeping internet censorship bill. Parliament passed it July 27. But, following public backlash, Mr. Pezeshkian abruptly withdrew it three days later. The bill was ‘not designed to fight lies, but rather to eliminate independent narratives, restrict freedom of expression,’ and target critics, wrote formerly jailed journalist Alireza Rajaei. The rapid about-face signals that the government is learning to acknowledge the power of popular sentiment. And what popular sentiment wants is freedom of expression: the ability to access and share information and viewpoints in real time.” (08/04/25)
“Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as ‘Russian disinformation’ the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous ‘years-long coup’ against President Trump, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) ‘very closely’ (32%) or ‘somewhat closely’ (33%), repudiating the calculated media silence about the Obama administration’s fake narratives and manipulation of intelligence to frame Trump as a Kremlin stooge to cover up Clinton’s wrongdoing. The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in ‘manipulating intelligence’, with 37% saying ‘very likely’ and 17% saying ‘somewhat likely.'” (08/03/25)
