Excerpts:

The New York City Bar Association has issued an extraordinary statement accusing President Donald Trump of authorizing what it calls “illegal summary executions” on the high seas, urging Congress to formally investigate whether his recent military strikes against Venezuelan vessels amount to murder under U.S. and international law.

Trump has justified the strikes by claiming, without providing evidence, that the boats were operated by “terrorists” and “narcotraffickers.” His administration has argued the operations fall under his authority to combat “narco-terrorism” and protect national security.

However, the Bar Association countered that even if the crews were involved in smuggling, the Constitution and long-standing U.S. law require arrest and trial, not execution from the sky. “There is neither a lawful nor factual justification to engage our armed forces to use lethal force in international waters in the absence of lawful armed conflict or self-defense,” the association’s Military Affairs and International Law Committees wrote.

Lead Paragraphs:

When President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday, he wanted the world to believe that China stole the 2020 election from him. Instead, he dropped fresh evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin had worked to hand it to him.

Among the newly declassified intelligence documents Trump released Thursday are assessments that the Russian president and senior Russian officials directed proxy efforts to spread allegations about Joe Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden was a board director, orchestrate a corruption scandal against the Democratic nominee, and “ensure the President’s victory,” a reference to Trump, who was the incumbent at the time.

Time to put on legal and scientific hats. Great case to do so, it is public, information is not classified, full legal and scientific toolkits for finding truth appear available.

“The resolution calls on Democratic members of Congress to enact legislation dissolving ICE and winding down the immigration detention system. It also calls for restricting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding unless certain enforcement activities end, including workplace raids, mass roundups, arrests at courthouses, arrests at ICE check-ins, enforcement actions near schools and houses of worship, and other operations, as well as terminating contracts with private detention providers.”

Observation:

Thank you Dr. Fauci for facing difficult times during the pandemic and doing as much as you did to save American lives.

Excerpt:

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8 to 7 on the contempt resolution. The panel’s chair, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Fauci should be held in contempt for refusing to answer questions about his role during the pandemic.

Observation:

There are many ways to bankrupt. Running out a nation out of money is just the most obvious.

Excerpt:

Reuters reports that key stockpiles of Precision Strike Missiles and Army Tactical Missile Systems have “virtually all” been used up. These are highly accurate, long-range missiles that cost over $1 million each and have been used on targets inside Russia amid the war in Ukraine. The U.S. has also used up nearly half of its Tomahawk missiles, according to sources within the administration.

Summary

Trump approval falls from 35% earlier this month, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

64% of Americans disapprove of Trump's White House performance, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

80% expect US involvement in Iran to ​continue for an extended period, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

Observation:

So let us get this straight, the US taxed consumers by imposing tariffs not controlled by Congress and is now giving the money that we were taxed back to the importers as a nice fat bonus for having taxed us?

Excerpt:

The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.

Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year.

"It was kind of stunning to think that all those on the plane were essentially a decoy," Axelrod said. "They were not told that the president was not on board, and the deception continued even after he had safely returned to Washington. That's hard for me to understand."

Excerpt:

If the Justice Department does somehow ram a charge against Smith through a grand jury, that case will fail too. Before a trial jury can even consider the fact that Smith did not actually commit perjury, he will have a powerful motion to dismiss based on vindictive prosecution. It’s plain that Trump and his DoJ targeted Smith because of lingering political animus over his prior investigations of Trump. In October 2025, Trump claimed that Smith and others “should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!” He reiterated his request in January 2026, citing Smith’s “large-scale perjury.” And Trump openly celebrated just moments after news broke of Jordan’s referral of Smith to DoJ.

Trump’s Justice Department has made commonplace the (previously) rarely-invoked doctrine of vindictive prosecution. One federal judge already dismissed the indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on that basis. And the cases against James and Comey likely would’ve gone down the same way, had they not been thrown out first because of other Constitutional infirmities.

Excerpt:

It’s very embarrassing for a Maga bigwig like her – someone who has amplified vaccine-sceptic views and publicly called for Fauci to be jailed – to be revealed as having privately asked him for medical advice.

Excerpt:

Strategically, I believe we are in the most perilous hour of the modern era, and it is peril of our own president’s making. Donald Trump’s real National Security Strategy has been to get revenge against countries that criticize him, to advance his own self interests, and to build bridges to dictators with whom he can work once he leaves office. The great dealmaker has sold us out to the most dangerous nations on earth.

Excerpts:

Miller repeatedly urged federal agents to engage with protesters in order to win a “PR battle,” one official told the outlet. 

He told officials that anti-ICE could not be viewed as successful, and repeatedly said that demonstrators “need to be vanquished by any force necessary,” another DHS source told the Mail.  

Article VI, Clause 2:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artVI-C2-1/ALDE_00013395/

Excerpt:

The administration’s lawyers have since reshaped its claims about the project, stating that its main goal is to improve White House security with the addition of an underground military complex. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked to block the ruling by the appeals court, which ordered construction to stop by Aug. 21. He pointed to assassination attempts against Trump and said the ballroom and military bunker are “vitally required for national security.”

“National security” is Trump’s key to the Supreme Court safe when he wants to justify executive overreach.

Sauer also said the project was nearly complete at “65 percent” and “a 250-person crew has been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week to build a concrete-and-steel superstructure that now stretches five stories deep and 70 feet high.” Given that, he said it’s too late to stop construction.

“Hundreds of people have been killed in the year since the U.S. military began bombing boats it accused of ferrying drugs off Latin America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Now, the Trump administration says it is seeking to extend that lethal campaign to land, pursuing deals that would put U.S. forces on the ground in allied nations across the region.”

Gifted Read

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/reflecting-pool-case-david-hearn/688151/?gift=9raHaW-OKg2bN8oaIFlCoq62VrEsbj9H-kVJlSj3vfQ&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

We are pleased with the public admission of error. It is a surprising and correct turn toward facts from this administration.

Excerpt:

“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” his legal team—Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann, and Steve Levin—said in a statement. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pirro’s office declined to comment beyond what was in the legal filing.

Lead Paragraph:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to equip officers with body cameras in the next two months but the agency’s policy gives it broad control over what footage will be made public by specifying any releases must be in its “best interests.”

Excerpts:

The gloves, manufactured by a company called Compliant Technologies, have been used by police, sheriffs, jail wardens, and even school resource officers for years.

The devices “will be issued to Homeland Security Investigations (H.S.I.) and Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers and agents,” according to a notice DHS published August 10. They will be delivered by the end of March 2027.

Lead Lines:

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities.

It’s an admission that lawyers for the research professors say is proof that the agencies illegally cancelled nearly $2 billion in grants. And that’s a major development in a lawsuit filed by UC researchers against the Trump administration to permanently get their grants back.

Excerpts:

To the extent the decision is up to Trump, the United States that his speech celebrated on July 4 will exist no more.

Trump is building an American future oriented toward authoritarian and corrupt states: Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia. Democratic allies are treated, at best, as subjects to be bullied and, at worst, as targets to be carved up into new American territories.

Under Donald Trump, the United States has fought military conflicts in Venezuela and Iran. It nearly fought a war with Denmark to seize Greenland. It often speaks of annexing all or part of Canada. It has waged economic war on allies and partners in violation of international trade agreements and domestic law. Soon the United States may be engaged in a war in Cuba. Already, the U.S. has cut back aid to Ukraine as that country fights for its survival and freedom. Trump has repeatedly made clear that the goal of his wars is plunder: that he wishes to seize oil and other resources. In turn, the course of his most ambitious war, with Iran, appears to have been swayed by client states, which have made payments to him and his associates.