The death toll from last week’s Texas flooding has passed 100.
For those who don’t understand how a flood this deadly developed so quickly, Brad Johnson in The Texan‘s Fourth Reading newsletter explains:
On Thursday, National Weather Service estimates projected between three and six inches of rain upstream on the Guadalupe River — a problem, but not a five-alarm fire for an area accustomed to that. But things changed rapidly between then and early Friday morning. By 4 a.m. Friday, the rain was falling at 12 inches per hour, according to officials briefed on the situation. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said he was running along the river at 3 a.m. and while the river was high, it wasn’t an emergency.
But the storm, made up of remnants of Tropical Storm Barry that made landfall in southeastern Mexico, dumped far more in volume than expected on the area, and rather than move on past the county… it just sat there.
The Guadalupe River rose 20 feet in two hours.
The following video of the flood from the 480/San Antonio Street bridge in Center Point, just a bit downstream of Kerrville, shows the Guadalupe going from a damp trickle to a raging torrent overtopping the bridge in 30 minutes:
Certainly there’s room for improvement for warnings for extreme weather events like this (maybe automated up river flood gauges that alert authorities and endangered residents), but it’s hard to plan for something this extreme that happens in the middle of the night. Worse still: “Places like Camp Mystic, the 750-camper summer camp for girls, do not allow cell phones to be carried by the children.”
If you live near a river or in any sort of flood plain, you probably should have water leak detectors and a bugout bag ready for such emergencies.
A lot of Russo-Ukraine War news bubbled up last week when every other damn thing was happening, so here’s a roundup, much (but not all) from Suchomimus. Plus some bits on Russia’s economy and their continuing friction with various neighbors.
Multiple successful Storm Shadow strikes:
“Storm Shadow and Ukrainian-produced cruise missiles hit a train yard in Yasynuvyata, the officer Headquarters of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army plus drones destroy oil depot in Luhansk. Multiple impacts are seen–at least EIGHT missiles hit the train yard. Many more targeted the office headquarters. Six drones impacted the oil depot….One of Ukraine’s biggest missile strikes of the war so far.”
“SAM System Factory Hit By Drones in Izhevsk, Russia – Over 1,300 km From Ukraine. Liutyi drones hit the Kupol Electromechanical Plant which produces Tor and Osa SAM systems for Russia as well as drones, including Shaheds.”
Follow-up satellite imagery for the Izhevsk strike:
Another Shahed drone factory strike, this one in Sergiev Posad near Moscow.
Not a super significant story, but this Russian ammo dump cookoff in Khartsyzk, Donetsk is pretty epic:
Colombian volunteers in Sumy?
Usual Reporting From Ukraine caveats apply.
Russia did manage to carry out a massive missile attack against Kiev, but as usual with Russian missile and drone attacks, it’s not clear that anything of military significance was actually hit.
There’s always talk that Russia’s economy is about to crack due to the strain from their illegal war of territorial aggression (as well western sanctions), but Putin recently announced that Russia would decrease defense spending next year. Given that there’s no way for Russia to recover material and equipment losses to its forces while continuing the war, he must imagine some sort of end to the conflict is near.
Russia economy meltdown as metal production plummets 23% and recession fears soar…
The Russian economy is on the brink of recession, with several key sectors showing dwindling productivity, according to analysis. Alexander Kolyandr from the Center for European Policy Analysis took to X to explain that the country’s manufacturing sector was “losing its mojo”, even in military production.
“The country is in a state of stagflation,” the Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (TsMAKP). “Economic dynamics are declining rapidly, and there is a risk of a technical recession in the second and third quarters, but inflation remains high.”
It’s been less than three weeks since the central bank — supposedly independent from government control — symbolically lowered interest rates: from 21% to 20%. In doing so, it fulfilled a long-standing demand from the Kremlin. It was the first rate cut since September 2022, the year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This marked a break from a long cycle of interest rate hikes aimed at curbing rising prices.
The situation, however, remains dire. Official inflation still hovers around 10% year-on-year, although several independent institutes estimate the real figure to be above 15%. With military spending still running wild, “risks remain skewed towards inflation,” warned Nabiullina. “Our rate cut approach requires greater caution.”
The contradiction facing the central bank is a true reflection of the current state of the Russian economy, which has long dropped out of the world’s top 10 in terms of size. By now, even the Kremlin is beginning to acknowledge the obvious: that the economic boom driven by the war industry is coming to an end and that the savings made before the war are no longer enough.
Maxim Oreshkin, economic advisor to the all-powerful Presidential Executive Office, declared that the emperor has no clothes just before the St. Petersburg Forum: “The model that ensured growth in recent years has largely reached its limit […] We need to advance — not forward, but upward: to the next technological and organizational level.”
Despite those well documented losses, Russia is now sabre rattling about Estonia hosting nuclear-weapon capable F-35 NATO aircraft. Why this is an issue when NATO-member Finland also has F-35s on order is unclear. Also unclear is how Russia thinks it could successfully invade a NATO country when it couldn’t digest Ukraine despite previously possessing considerably higher stores of Soviet-era material and equipment which it has now squandered…
Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan have reportedly reached agreement on a rail line through the Zangezur Corridor, a move that would cut Russia (and Iran) out entirely.
This follows on the heels of a falling out between Azerbaijan and Russia over Azerbaijani nationals being killed in a police raid inside Russia. “All cultural events with ties to Russia were cancelled in protest. A presenter on primetime state television denounced Moscow’s “imperial behavior” toward former Soviet states. On June 30, Azerbaijani authorities arrested two Russian journalists with Russia’s state-funded news agency Sputnik Azerbaijan in Baku. According to media reports, the two were working for the Russian domestic security service, the FSB.” More Azerbaijan arrests of Russian nationals ensued.
This followed on the heels of the Russian shootdown of an Azerbaijani plane last year, and there’s evidently no love lost between Putin and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. “The Azerbaijani political scientist and member of parliament Rasim Muzabekov says Baku no longer sees Moscow as an external power in a position to dictate the rules in the Caucasus. He told DW that Azerbaijan had begun to develop its own military and energy infrastructures, and that this, in turn, had annoyed the Kremlin.” No doubt. That’s what happens when you invade much smaller nations on your periphery and get bogged down in a quagmire.
These are just the developments I thought worth highlighting. If you know of others, feel free to share them in the comments below.
There are big difference when the left and right have rallies. And that’s beyond the looting and arson that seem to accompany so many leftwing “peaceful protests.”
If you visit a conservative or MAGA rally, people will be happy to tell you what they think and why they’re there. If you visit a left wing rally, it seems that they creepily tell you that actually talking to people “isn’t their role for the day.” That’s because paid protesters for the shady hard-left NGOs running the show don’t want you to know they’re taking money from Singham and Soros.
Independent researcher and content creator Nate Friedman (27, New York-based) has released a series of videos on X detailing the command and control structures of these dark-money-funded NGOs operating in New York City. Some of these NGOs are aligned with Marxism, potentially receiving overseas funding. His findings suggest these organizations are engaged in destabilization operations.
🚨Another paid protestor tries to stop my interview and then I expose him and the people he works for. The people's forum and Singham want to destroy America from within… WATCH 👇 pic.twitter.com/YK7qPP2DjV
In the video above, Friedman’s attempt to interview someone is interrupted by paid protester David Chung, “a general manager at The People’s Forum, the company responsible for organizing these pro-Iran protests.” He’s also appears in the official literature for The Party of Socialism and Liberation. The People’s Forum and Party of Socialism and Liberation were involved in previous pro-Hamas protests and the recent LA riots. Per Glassdoor, “it seems that People’s Forum managers get paid between $60,000 and $90,000 a year.”
“Here’s David with Rashida Tlaib….On the right is Manolo [De Los] Santos. He’s the Executive Director of The People’s Forum.” Santos has “one of the largest portfolios for a paid protester I’ve ever seen.” That particular picture was taken at an event for activism in favor of the communist government of Cuba.
“Who’s paying the bail of these paid agitators? His name is Neville Roy Singham…Singham funneled the money through the Goldman Sachs philanthropist fund.” We’d previously covered Singham’s ties to various communist governments (like China) here.
Here’s Friedman exposing another professional paid protester:
🚨Paid protestor stops my interview. Then I expose him all the way back to the columbia encampments. pic.twitter.com/MOKPaJQVx8
Protestors in that clip saying they’re representing Rise and Resist, which we previously covered as part of the network behind the arson spree against Teslas.
People who have following the murky world of leftwing NGOs for any length of time know that they’re hardly a new phenomena. The Party for Socialism and Liberation dates back to at least 2004, when it split from Workers World Party, and has ties to the International ANSWER Coalition, which has further ties to very old communist front organizations stretching back into the Cold War and before. Founder Ramsey Clark has long ties to both pro-Communist and pro-Jihad organizations.
Funny how all those “organic” protests trace back to a couple of multi-millionaires to billionaires (Singham and Soros) and a whole bunch of communist and pro-jihad front groups. Let’s hope that the Trump Administration steps up its investigations of illegal activity by these groups, and that RICO indictments for organizing violent riots is forthcoming.
If you’re well-read in science fiction, there’s a good chance you’ve read L. Sprague de Camp’s “A Gun for Dinosaur.” Now Scott from Kentucky Ballistics tests just how big a gun you need to take out a ballistic gel replica of a T-Rex skull.
Guns used:
.45 ACP (dual barrel)
10 mm
.44 Magnum
.50 Magnum
12 gauge shotgun
.45-70
.223
.460 Rigby
.577 Tyrannosaur (naturally)
.700 BMG
4 bore (1″)
.950 JDJ
There are evidently only 20 .577 Tyrannosaur rifles, and only four .950 JDJs, in the world. One of the latter sold for just under $1 million last year, so if resurrected cloned dinosaurs do make a comeback, hunting them will probably be a very expensive hobby…
Happy Independence Day! It’s rained most of the last 24 hours here in central Texas, so the good news is no burn ban means we can set off fireworks, but the downside is significant flooding in the Hill Country (Kerville was particularly hard-hit).
The “Big Beautiful Bill” is now law, employment ticks up, more high profile leftist/media perverts busted, Democrats remain stuck on stupid, some Republicans retire, and proof, yet again, that the rules for the well-heeled are different than for other people.
It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
“Employers added 147,000 jobs in June as U.S. labor market continues to defy expectations.” For the MSM, it’s always “unexpectedly” all the way down.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist was arrested and charged after authorities allegedly discovered child porn on his work computer, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.
Thomas Pham LeGro, a 48-year-old video editor at the news outlet, was taken into custody on Thursday after FBI agents raided his Washington, DC, home and discovered a folder on his work laptop which contained 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material, according to Pirro’s office.
FBI agents also discovered “fractured pieces of a hard drive in the hallway outside the room where LeGro’s work laptop was found,” during the execution of the search warrant.
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports and correct records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. The university issued a statement on Tuesday vowing to comply with Title IX on the basis of biological sex and says it will apologize to “disadvantaged” female athletes.
“While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” Penn President J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
The U.S. Education Department and UPenn announced the voluntary agreement as part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case focused on Thomas, the biological male who won a Division I women’s title for the Ivy League university in 2022. The department’s Office for Civil Rights found that UPenn had violated Title IX by allowing a male to compete in women’s sports and occupy female-only facilities.
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.”
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened the Title IX investigation into UPenn on February 6, following President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports,” which interpreted Title IX law on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.
Trump’s diplomatic method, the exact opposite of what standard diplomats recommend, is a roaring success.
The least diplomatic president in U.S. history is scoring diplomatic victories.
Over the last couple of days, Donald Trump has gotten NATO to agree to a defense spending target of 5 percent and backed Canada off imposing a digital services tax on American tech firms.
He’s done this while being loathed by many of his foreign interlocutors. In fact, Trump has executed a near-complete inversion of the typical diplomatic formula. He’s not nice. He’s not conflict-averse. He’s not euphemistic. And yet he’s gotten results.
The NATO commitment, in particular, is potentially historic and could materially strengthen the position of the Western alliance for the long term.
Trump is violating the usual rules of persuasion. Abraham Lincoln famously said: “It is an old and true maxim that ‘a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.’” Trump doesn’t hesitate to pour on the gall, often in ALL CAPS on Truth Social.
The leading 19th-century French diplomat Talleyrand said, “A diplomat who says ‘yes’ means ‘maybe,’ a diplomat who says ‘maybe’ means ‘no,’ and a diplomat who says ‘no’ is no diplomat.” Trump says “go to hell” as the start of the negotiation.
He persuades by pressuring.
He coaxes by threatening.
He de-escalates by escalating.
He wins friends and influences people by convincing them he thinks they’re freeloaders and losers.
A lot of this is a function of his personality and his experience as a Gotham real-estate developer with a nose for power dynamics, knack for showmanship, and willingness to court risk. It’s hard to see how his style of international politics will be replicable by a more traditional political figure. But undergirding his approach is a strategic insight into the gap between U.S. military and economic might and that of its allies, and how this meant there was a vast unexploited potential for the U.S. to throw its weight around.
When the U.S president is talking about pulling the plug on NATO, or cutting off trade talks with Canada — as Trump did in response to the proposed digital services tax — it’s going to get everyone’s attention.
The bull standing outside the door of the china shop is a powerful incentive to get along with the bull.
The rest of the conservative movement noticed this no later than, what, 2017? Nice of National Review to catch up…
In a post on social media platform X, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote that $14.6 billion in losses were incurred, while $245 million was seized, as FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a separate post on X that hundreds of people were charged in the case.
“Public corruption will not be tolerated as the Director and I vigorously pursue bad actors who violated their oaths to all of us,” Bongino said, describing the case as the “largest healthcare fraud investigation” in the country’s history.
The investigation encompassed 50 federal districts and 12 state attorneys general, according to the DOJ. State and federal law enforcement agencies also took part, according to the FBI.
A statement issued by the DOJ said that criminal charges were filed against 324 defendants, including 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other health care workers across the United States. Officials said that 29 defendants were charged with partaking in transnational criminal groups who allegedly submitted around $12 billion in fraudulent health-related claims to U.S. health insurance companies.
Further, four defendants were apprehended in Estonia based on cooperation with law enforcement agencies in that country, while seven others were arrested at the U.S.–Mexico border or at American airports, the DOJ said.
That organization, federal prosecutors said, is accused of using individuals sent into the United States from other countries to purchase “dozens of medical supply companies located across the United States” before submitting $10.6 billion in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for medical devices and equipment.
At the same time, that group allegedly exploited stolen identities from U.S. citizens across all 50 states, using their stolen medical information to submit the false claims, according to the DOJ.
In another action announced by the DOJ, federal officials said they filed charges in Illinois against five people, including the owners of two Pakistan-based marketing companies, in relation to a $703 million Medicare fraud scheme.
The defendants allegedly stole Medicare beneficiaries’ confidential information and sold it to laboratories and other medical companies, which then submitted false Medicare claims, according to the statement.
“The defendants allegedly used artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of Medicare beneficiaries purportedly consenting to receive certain products,” the DOJ’s statement said.
Here are some reasons why the Democratic drive to reinvent the party seems to have stalled out—and may have a hard time restarting despite their political opening.
The “’tis but a scratch” problem. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight insists, against all evidence, that his wounds are not that serious—“’tis but a scratch.” Democrats, in the aftermath of losing two of three elections to the widely-disliked Trump and seeing their coalition re-configured by massive losses among both white and nonwhite working-class voters, are still in denial about how serious their wounds are. They are not but a scratch and cannot be fixed by anything less than a full-scale overhaul of the party’s approach and image. Tinkering around the edges, while easier, will not work.
The breaking point fallacy. Democrats have a hard time thinking outside their own views of Trump and the GOP. They are deeply convinced that Trump is perhaps the worst person to ever walk the earth and find it difficult to relate to voters whose views are more mixed. They are convinced that a breaking point from Trump’s actions will inevitably be reached where voters will wake up and realize Democrats were right all along, with happy political results to follow. This fallacy undergirded Democrats’ thinking in the 2024 campaign with rather unhappy results when that breaking point was not reached. Democrats’ reliably florid responses to Trump’s outrage-of-the-day in 2025 indicates that they are still hoping that breaking point can be reached and that they are puzzled, indeed outraged, that voters have not yet mounted the barricades. Conveniently, the expectation of a breaking point let’s Democrats off the hook from changing very much in their own party.
The “whatever it is, I’m against it” problem. In the classic Marx Brothers movie, Horsefeathers, Groucho uncompromisingly asserts: “whatever it is, I’m against it.” That pretty much sums up Democrats’ approach to Trump administration proposals and actions. With very minor exceptions, Democrats have refused to support any of it, even where these actions are popular and/or are targeted at clear areas of Democratic vulnerability that needed shoring up. Little to no effort has been made to stake out a middle ground that recognizes some of Trump’s actions address areas where Democrats have screwed up, while setting out a better (kinder, gentler?) approach that would more effective and less illiberal. Easier though to adopt Groucho’s approach and avoid the uncomfortable need to acknowledge mistakes and convince voters you won’t make them again.
The rising generations chimera. Many Democrats have seized upon the fact that leading Democratic politicians tend to be quite old, if not ancient (hello, Joe Biden!) and decided what is needed is younger Democrats. The changing of the guard—that’ll do the trick! On net, it seems like a no-brainer to move younger cohorts up in the party who can better communicate with young voters where Democrats have been losing ground. But what if these young communicators aren’t communicating anything to voters that would actually help Democrats dig out of the hole they’re in? Then the changing of the guard will only help at the margins.
Take Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic Millennial who pulled off an upset victory in the New York City Democratic primary and will likely be New York’s next mayor. His energy and media savvy are admirable but his radical cultural politics—only lightly sanded off recently—and his wildly impractical economic plans don’t seem likely to change the image of the Democratic Party in a good way. But he nevertheless will be a pole of attraction in the party, just as AOC and “the Squad” were in the aftermath of the 2018 election—and we saw how well that worked out. Democrats’ thirst for generational excitement, whatever its content, will make it even harder than it already was for Democrats to re-orient the party around an effective majoritarian politics.
Snip.
The “round up the usual suspects” problem. In the movie Casablanca, Captain Reynaud (Claude Rains) concludes the film by saying “round up the usual suspects.” The Democrats have an establishment and establishments don’t like change. Thus, there is a built-in tendency to blame messaging, narrative, lack of coalitional input, etc.—the “usual suspects”—rather than deeper problems of culture, economic policy, and class antagonism. Most recently this tendency was on display in the formation of a Project 2029 group drawn from various sectors of the Democratic establishment to craft a new, improved approach for the Democrats. As the Politico article on the group notes:
Some would-be allies are skeptical that such an ideologically diverse and divergent set of policy minds could craft anything close to a coherent agenda, let alone a politically winning one.
“Developing policies by checking every coalitional box is how we got in this mess in the first place,” said Adam Jentleson, who has spent recent months preparing to open a new think tank called Searchlight. “There is no way to propose the kind of policies the Democratic Party needs to adopt without pissing off some part of the interest-group Borg. And if you’re too afraid to do that, you don’t have what it takes to steer the party in the right direction.”
For Texas voters: “17 Proposed Amendments Head to Voters in November.” Expected a more detailed post on this sometime in October.
“Houston Parents Sue HISD Over Daughter’s Secret Social Gender Transition. A Houston family is taking the state’s largest school district to court, claiming their daughter was socially transitioned by school staff in direct defiance of their explicit instructions.”
Terry and Sarah Osborn, the parents of a Bellaire High School student, filed a federal lawsuit against the Houston Independent School District earlier this week, alleging the school socially transitioned their daughter against their explicit wishes. The lawsuit names several individuals, including Superintendent Mike Miles, Bellaire High School Principal Michael Niggli, school counselor Sarah Ray, and multiple teachers.
According to the suit, more than six Bellaire High School employees referred to the Osborns’ daughter—who is biologically female—using a masculine name and male pronouns for two years. The situation began in ninth grade, when the student’s theater teacher distributed a worksheet asking for students’ names and pronouns. Sarah Osborn specifically requested that the teacher use her daughter’s legal name and female pronouns. However, the student altered the worksheet, crossing out the original entry and writing in “he/him” pronouns.
The parents claim they did not learn about the consistent use of male pronouns by teachers until the student was well into her sophomore year. At that point, they formally requested that teachers revert to using their daughter’s biological pronouns. Despite these repeated requests, the lawsuit alleges that the teachers continued using male pronouns.
By the student’s junior year, the Osborns met with Principal Niggli to address the situation directly. They reiterated their concerns about the school’s handling of the matter. Principal Niggli attempted a compromise: teachers would refer to the student only by her last name to avoid using any pronouns at all. The Osborns, however, rejected this compromise and again instructed the school to use their daughter’s legal name and female pronouns.
The lawsuit also notes that the Osborns filed a request under the Texas Public Information Act, seeking employee communications regarding their daughter, HISD’s policies on the use of preferred names and pronouns, and documentation related to the student’s counseling sessions over the years. Elizabeth Rice, HISD’s attorney, responded that the request was too broad and asked for clarification. When the Osborns’ attorney insisted the request was sufficiently specific, Rice again claimed it was overly broad and said fulfilling it would require producing at least 77,344 pages of emails.
The lawsuit argues that HISD’s responses are evidence of “widespread past and ongoing treatment of their daughter as a boy by its employees,” carried out without parental consent and in direct opposition to explicit parental instructions.
The Osborns are asking the court to declare HISD’s policies in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, prohibit the district from using masculine pronouns or an alternate name for their daughter, and award attorney’s fees along with compensatory and punitive damages. The complaint states the district violated the parents’ “fundamental parental rights” under the Fourteenth Amendment and their “sincerely held religious beliefs” protected by the First Amendment.
Not only should the school district pay, but everyone involved in this should having their teaching certificate revoked and never be allowed to teach in the state again.
Yeah, Kerville has been hit hard by the flooding:
More good news: “Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa killed in airstrike, IDF says.” Unlike Democrats, I think it’s a good thing when terrorist leaders get killed.
Diddy do it, but according to a jury, not all of it. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was convicted of a prostitution-related offense but acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.”
A steady stream of reports is now developing that suggests Covid vaccinations may indeed hurt fertility and pregnancy outcomes.
I reported on a rat study that clearly showed fertility was impacted after the animals were injected with mRNA Covid vaccines. A recently published study (not peer reviewed yet) looking at data from Israeli women found a substantially higher-than-expected number of eventual fetal losses associated with Covid vaccination during gestational weeks 8-13.
A newly published peer-reviewed study analyzing nationwide data from the Czech Republic has reported a significant association between Covid vaccination and reduced fertility rates in women of childbearing age. The study, which examined approximately 1.3 million women aged 18–39 between January 2021 and December 2023, found that women who received the Covid vaccine before conception had a substantially lower rate of successful conceptions (“SC”, i.e., pregnancies that resulted in live births) compared to their unvaccinated counterparts.
Of course, vaccine mandate advocates swore up and down it was absolutely safe. Meanwhile, it seemsto be harming those with very low chances of dying from Flu Manchu…
“Florida Gov. DeSantis Announces Tax Holiday On Guns.” September 8 through December 21. Your move, Greg Abbott…
On July 1, District Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with a 16-count indictment against Huawei and its subsidiaries.
Huawei, which is closely tied to the Chinese communist regime, stands accused of racketeering, stealing trade secrets from six U.S. companies, and committing bank fraud.
With Donnelly’s ruling, the case will move forward toward trial. Currently, the proceedings are scheduled to begin on May 4, 2026.
Huawei stands charged with using a Hong Kong-based front company, Skycom, to conduct business in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and with misleading banks in order to facilitate more than $100 million in illegal money transfers.
Additionally, the indictment alleges that Huawei engaged in racketeering to expand its global brand.
“Harris County Agencies Reportedly Spent Millions With No Paper Trail.” Even lefty County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been raising the alarm over it. Maybe she didn’t get her cut…
“Famed Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application and will be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
“Spanish Operator of Proposed High-Speed Rail Liquidates American Subsidiary.” Yet another roadblock to the pie-in-the-sky Texas high speed rail project that will never be built.
So remember that story a while back in New York magazine’s The Cut, when the (I kid you not) Finance Reporter got scammed, withdrew $50,000 in cash from a bank, and handed it to a total stranger? To a lot of people, the details didn’t add up. Can you even withdraw $50,000 in cash without filling in a boatload for forms or triggering fraud warnings? One reporter went digging for the truth, and found out that, yeah, it looks like it’s true and you can just waltz out with that much cash…if you’re related to the Roosevelts.
So Diamond Distributors declared bankruptcy, and the new owners evidently decided, “Hey we can just sell all this consignment inventory we have, not pay the publishers for it, and use the money to pay back this Chase loan.” The publishers disagree…
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, discussed the state of Iran’s nuclear program on Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation; the interview was taped Friday:
I think you can pick and choose any adjective to characterize this, but you will see that there is an agreement in describing this as a very serious level of damage. It can be, you know, described in different ways, but it’s clear that what happened in particular in Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran used to have and still has, to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree. Some is still standing. So there is, of course, an important setback in terms of those — of those capabilities. This is — this is clear. And now the important issue — the important thing is, what are the next steps? Now the characterization of the damage, I think we can, you know, speculate, and still, until, of course, the Iranians themselves will have to go there and sift through the, you know, rubble and look at what is the exact degree of the damage. At some point, the IAEA will have to return. Although our job is not to assess damage, but to re-establish the knowledge of the activities that take place there, and the access to the material, which is very, very important, the material that they will be producing if they continue with this activity. This is contingent on other, you see, everything is connected. This is — this is contingent on negotiations which may or may not restart, so — so what we see this here, I think we have a snapshot of- of- of a program which has been very seriously damaged, to quote Dr. Araghchi. And now what we need to focus on is on the next steps. [Emphasis added.]
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Thursday that the country’s nuclear facilities had sustained “significant and serious damages,” the first official acknowledgment of the extent of the damages caused by U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was still “surveilling the damages and losses,” Mr. Araghchi said in an interview with Iran’s state television. But, he added, “I have to say, the losses have not been small, and our facilities have been seriously damaged.”
“The United States’ B-2 stealth bomber strike on Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment facility was the culmination of more than 15 years of study and planning.”
[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin”] Caine detailed the military planning that began in 2009 to design a purpose-built method to knock out the Fordow facility, which is buried hundreds of feet underground in a mountainous region of Iran.
Caine shed new light on the role of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an organization tasked with preparing bespoke solutions to destroy highly sensitive targets, including emerging weapons of mass destruction.
“DTRA does a lot of things for our nation, but DTRA is the world’s leading expert on deeply buried, underground targets,” Caine said.
“In 2009, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran,” Caine said, declining to identify the DTRA officer by name.
This DTRA officer, and another unnamed member of the agency, were then tasked to work with the intelligence community to study the construction of the Fordow site.
“For more than 15 years, this officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target: Fordow, a critical element of Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program,” Caine said.
The two DTRA employees spent years studying everything from the geology surrounding Fordow, to the construction materials and other equipment arriving at the facility, so they could model the site and devise a plan.
“They literally dreamed about this target at night when they slept,” Caine said.
In the course of their study of the Fordow facility, Caine said the pair of DTRA employees leading the project soon determined the U.S. military did not have a weapon that could adequately address the challenge the fortified Iranian nuclear facility presented.
“So, they began a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to develop the GBU-57,” Caine said.
The GBU-57, also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) or bunker-buster, is a 30,000-pound bomb designed to burrow and explode deep underground.
Military planners then spent years testing the bomb, specifically for the Fordow facility.
“They tested it over and over again. … They accomplished hundreds of test shots, and dropped many full-scale weapons against extremely realistic targets for a single purpose: kill this target at the time and place of our nation’s choosing,” Caine said.
Each GBU-57 is “bespokely” designed for a specific target. He said each one dropped on the Fordow facility “had a unique desired impact angle, arrival, final heading, and fuse” corresponding to its role in the overall mission.n addition to live-testing the GBU-57, Caine said the program to develop the heavy bunker-buster involved extensive and complex computing.
“In the beginning of its development, we had so many PhDs working on the MOP program, doing modeling and simulation, that we were quietly and in a secret way, the biggest users of supercomputer-hours within the United States of America,” he said.
Snip.
While Caine said the intelligence community is still assessing the true damage of the U.S. strike, he indicated military planners are confident the strike was successful, based on their understanding of the weapons they used, and the fact that each weapon was observed acting as it was intended.
“The weapons were built, tested, and loaded properly,” he said. “Two, the weapons were released on-speed and on-parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. Four, the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.”
Caine also described the account of a U.S. fighter pilot who escorted the bomber formation and watched the bomb blasts, who Caine quoted as saying, “This was the brightest explosion that I’ve ever seen. It literally looked like daylight.”
Snip.
Hegseth then read off a list of statements, including from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and others, assessing that the June 21 strike caused extensive damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
For those accustomed to continental condemnation toward Israel on Gaza, European leaders’ support for the nation’s ferocious campaign to strike Iran’s nuclear program was probably one of the many shocks of the past two weeks.
Consider these statements from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz:
“There is no reason for us, or for me personally, to criticize what Israel started a week ago, nor is there any reason to criticize what America did last weekend.”
“The evidence that Iran is continuing on its path to building a nuclear weapon can no longer be seriously disputed.”
“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us.”
Merz noted that the actions were not “without risk” and has since turned attention back to Gaza in calling for a cease-fire there. Reactions from other top European leaders were more qualified regarding the Israeli-U.S. operation — but still supportive of the overall goal of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and understanding of Israel’s desire to eliminate that risk.
French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “no legality” to America’s strikes, while acknowledging France “supports the objective of preventing Iran from getting the nuclear bomb.” Earlier, he said Israeli strikes that hit “civilian or energy facilities” must stop, while conceding that Iran posed an “existential risk” for Israel. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling for de-escalation and negotiation, said in a video on X, “We’ve long had concerns about the Iranian nuclear program,” and described the prospect of Iran getting a nuclear weapon as “the greatest threat to stability in the region.”
A joint statement from all three leaders last weekend affirmed that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and urged the country to engage in negotiations. It put the onus on Iran “not to take any further action that could destabilize the region.”
Before the American strike, even European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself and protect its people” while calling for de-escalation and restraint from both sides. NR’s Michael Brendan Dougherty, marking these “strange days,” also flagged the effusive praise for President Trump’s handling of Iran from NATO’s secretary-general.
We can infer from these reactions a few things.
One, the determinations of the International Atomic Energy Agency indeed rattled the Europeans as well as the Israelis. As NR’s original editorial on Israel’s strikes noted, “Iran had significantly ramped up its enrichment capacity, with even the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (not exactly friendly to Israeli militarism) having determined that Iran had been enriching uranium well beyond the level of civilian use, and closer to military grade.”
Two, Iran’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine — via cooperation on the production of attack drones for use on the battlefield — has won Tehran few sympathizers inside Europe’s political establishment.
Three, relatedly, Europe’s well-founded fear of Iran is greater than its misgivings about Israel, given Iran’s history of targeting regime opponents there.
Israel is calling on three European countries, Britain, France, and Germany — known as the E-3 — to enact the UN Security Council’s “snapback” mechanism regarding Iran sanctions. A clause in the 2015 council resolution that endorsed that year’s Iran nuclear deal allows each of the deal parties to automatically reimpose all global sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
For now, though, “there’s murmur about snapback, but nothing more than that,” a UN-based diplomat tells the Sun. He noted that time is limited for enacting the mechanism.
America, Britain, France, Germany, Communist China, and Russia can unilaterally trigger the option, and no veto could block the snapback. Council members, however, rejected an American attempt to snap back the sanctions after President Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. The E-3, though, might still enact it.
There’s an easy way for Iran to avoid further bombings: Stop trying to build nuclear weapons.
I don’t know how much faith to put in the following information (“China is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a memecoin” said some famous wag (all quotes approximate)), but several people who read the tea leaves of the Chinese Communist Party say that President Xi Jinping has quietly been relieved of power.
Between late May and early June, Chinese President Xi Jinping simply disappeared. No parades. No spotlights. No front pages in People’s Daily that once displayed him daily. Instead, other senior Communist Party leaders hosted visiting dignitaries in Beijing’s grand halls.
According to CNN-News18, top intelligence officials say, “Xi Jinping’s absence is not unusual, and China has a history of sidelining prominent leaders.” The method is familiar — big names stay on paper, power moves quietly elsewhere.
When Xi reappeared in early June, it was not the spectacle the world expected. He sat down with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, but the setting was unusually small. Gone was the red-carpet flourish. “Xi appeared tired, distracted, and generally unwell at a meeting with the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in early June,” noted the Belarusian presidential press service.
Even stranger, Xi’s personal security detail has been halved. His father’s grand mausoleum has lost its official status.
When they dishonor your ancestors, that’s a big sign things aren’t hunky dory.
And after a recent call with Donald Trump, Chinese state TV did something unheard of — it referred to Xi without any title. Later they patched it up, but the slip revealed cracks.
While Xi’s health and image fade, power appears to shift. General Zhang Youxia, who helped Xi secure an historic third term, is now rumoured to be calling the shots in the People’s Liberation Army. But he fell out with Xi soon after.
One source said: “Currently, real power lies with General Zhang Youxia, the First Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), who is backed by CCP seniors from the Hu Jintao faction.”
Dozens of generals loyal to Xi have vanished or been replaced. Rumours swirl about secret purges. “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has previously done this with three notable leaders, reducing their operational authority to mere ceremonial roles,” top intelligence officials told CNN-News18.
Whispers of a new face have also emerged. Wang Yang, who once served as a respected technocrat, is now spoken of as Xi’s likely replacement. Reports claim, “Wang Yang, recently appointed to lead the Chinese Communist Party, has been spoken of as a successor to Xi Jinping.”
Once lifted by Deng Xiaoping from obscurity, Wang represents reform. He is seen as calm, pro-market and less confrontational. Intelligence insiders told CNN-News18, “Wang Yang is being groomed as a reform-oriented future leader and technocrat.”
Back in 2022, the world watched as Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao was guided off the stage at the Party Congress in full view of cameras. China’s Xinhua agency said Mr Hu felt unwell. But Hu looked reluctant. BBC’s Stephen McDonell noted, “Mr Hu, 79, appeared reluctant to move.” He even reached for Xi’s notes before the sitting President brushed him off.
You know that had to sting. But evidently Hu still had a lot of pull behind the scenes.
What many saw then as a power play now takes on new meaning. The silent exit of Hu — once a symbol of collective leadership — marked Xi’s total grip. Or so it seemed.
China’s economic engine is spluttering. Youth unemployment is stuck at 15 per cent. Real estate sits stagnant. Semiconductor plans have collapsed. National debt has ballooned to over $50 trillion. Local protests and factory unrest are flaring up.
Gregory W. Slayton, a former US diplomat, summed it up: “With over $50 trillion in total debt… and an unemployment rate in depression territory… it is not surprising that local riots, factory arsons and anti-government protests have flared all over China.”
Lei’s Real Talk (see here for a brief discussion of that channel) also sees signed that Xi has lost an internal power struggle:
“CCP politics is getting wild. Today we’ll discuss Xi Jinping’s new boss and his rival Zhang Youxia’s relentless purge in the military. And the two are related. Okay, let’s get started. So for months rumors and whispers have swirled that Xi Jinping has lost control of the party to Zhang Youxia and the party elders.”
“Xi Jinping supposedly has lost control uh to Zhang Youxia and the party elders. But this isn’t a simple case of one faction overpowering another. Even within the ranks of the party elders, there are competing priorities for what China’s next phase should look like. Some want to save the regime from collapse. Others want to push for political reforms. Some focus on reviving the economy. And there are those who want absolute control just to survive this life and death struggle.”
“Youxia has supposedly gambled everything to take down Xi Jinping.”
“For a few weeks, the political center in Beijing appeared deadlocked. Xi Jinping disappeared, and then resisted change. Zhang Youxia, backed by military force, demanded it, and the party elders were caught in the middle trying to maintain a fragile balance.”
“Then, in the last week or so, Xi Jinping suddenly re-emerged in public with greater visibility. He scored a minor win when Beijing announced that she would appear at the September 3rd World War II Victory Day parade. Whether he will inspect the troops or simply give a speech remains unclear.”
“Meanwhile, Zhang Youxia has been steadily expanding his grip. Miao Hua, one of Xi Jinping’s most trusted generals, was officially removed. Zhang has started moving into the Navy and the Air Force to root out Xi’s remaining loyalists.”
“All the signs and rumors pointing to Xi Jinping’s loss of power reached a new phrase yesterday when Xi Jinping himself made an announcement on behalf of the party. In effect, he confirmed his own decline.”
After not announcing Politburo meeting minutes in May, the CCP made a single terse announcement at the end of June, saying the meeting was to review “regulations on the work of the Central Party Decision Making and Consolidation Body.”
“This body basically assumes the very role that Xi Jinping once held in making decisions. Meaning Xi is no longer the highest authority in the CCP. He now has a boss, and that boss is this new decision-making body.”
“This new body isn’t just for advice. It controls the full chain of power from policy formation to execution. In fact, in effect, it is now the de facto highest governing body of the CCP.”
This body “has already been operating in secret for some time.”
“His opponents are forcing [Xi] to be the one who announces it, in order to make the power transition appear orderly, legitimate, and as if it were orchestrated by Xi Jinping himself.
There’s much more in the video, including a several People’s Liberation Army generals thought to be close to Xi who have been suddenly relieved of command, including members of Xi’s “Fujian Clique” and members of his beloved Rocket Force, “Since Miao’s downfall last fall, a wave of senior officers have been arrested or investigated. And these individuals share two things in common. One, they all belong to Xi’s loyalist faction. And two, they mostly come from the air force, the navy, or the rocket force. Almost none from the uh the army or the ground forces. Why? Well, because Xi Jinping’s plan to invade Taiwan relied primarily on those three branches. Meanwhile, the ground force which long has been Zhang Youxia’s base or domain, was largely sidelined under Xi Jinping. But now, after a sweeping purge of the air force, the navy and the rocket force, it has become painfully clear who has been purging these generals, and who truly holds military power in China, and it is not Xi Jinping.”
Is Xi Jinping actually out of power? I’m not one capable of reading these tea leaves directly, but the one who can seem to think so. Indeed, rumors of a purge of Xi loyalists in the military date back to March.
Does this mean an invasion of Taiwan is off the table in the near term? Very possibly. In addition to leadership purges of the very forces tasked with carrying out such an invasion, Zhang Youxia evidently told Xi Jinping that his 2027 invasion deadline wasn’t practical. Then again, since Zhang was previously head of the PLA’s General Armaments Department, maybe he just wants to wait until China has better weapons.
Does it mean a less confrontational stance by China to the United States and the west in general? Again, very possibly. Hu Jintao was notably less confrontational than Xi, and possible presidential successor Wang Yang (as well as possible CCP premier pick Hu Chunhua) are considered Hu Jintao proteges.
Also, President Trump may the CCP shakeup as an opportunity to negotiate an even-more-favorable trade deal, and maybe clear up other points of friction (such as the South China Sea).
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out…
The Trump Administration is using every tool at its disposal to secure the border Biden left deliberately unsecured, and that includes bringing in the military.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced it will create designated defense areas along the U.S. southern border to bolster border security.
The U.S. Air Force released details about the “National Defense Area” (NDA) directive, explaining it will manage a 250-mile stretch of land along the Rio Grande River in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, and work alongside another DOD installation, Joint Base San Antonio.
Other responsibilities at the NDA will be handled by members of the Joint Task Force-Southern Border in coordination with U.S. Northern Command, to conduct border enforcement duties such as “temporarily detaining trespassers until they are transferred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities” and the “installation of temporary barriers, and signage to secure the area.”
On May 1, the Air Force press release mentions, an additional Texas zone was established. This zone will stretch approximately 63 noncontiguous miles, connecting El Paso and Fort Hancock, and will serve as an extension of Fort Bliss. Another zone in New Mexico was established on April 21.
“This designation marks the latest in a series of NDAs established to strengthen interagency coordination and bolster security operations along the U.S. southern border,” the press release states.
Snip.
In May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas stated there had been “dozens of illegal aliens” found guilty of illegally entering NDA zones, in addition to the 60 who had already pleaded guilty to the same charges.
On January 20, the day of his 2025 inauguration, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14167 — “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States” — that directs U.S. North Command “to provide steady-state southern border security, seal the border, and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States of America states that the federal government shall protect each state against invasion. Certainly the flood of illegal aliens Biden unleashed upon the U.S. counts as an invasion, and one of the traditional tasks of a military is guarding borders. In early 2021, the Department of Justice issued an opinion that such border duties did not violate the Posse Comitatus Act, as “Congress has expressly authorized the military to support civilian law enforcement under chapter 15,” as per the terms of the act, as long as troops were not involved “in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity.”
Securing the border is overwhelmingly popular with actual American citizens, and President Trump hasn’t been shy about using every tool at his disposal to do so.
You might think that, just having had the leader of The Great Satan pound their nuclear weapons program into oblivion, the Mullahs that run Iran might want to consider treading more cautiously to avoid incurring the wrath of President Donald J. Trump, leader of the free world.
Iran has branded Donald Trump an “enemy of God” and urged Muslims to make him “regret his actions”, raising fears of possible further assassination attempts against the US President. The call to arms was issued in a religious ruling known as a fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi – Iran’s top religious cleric.
The fatwa was also issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Tehran Times. In a written statement, Ayatollah Shirazi declared: “Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah and acting on those threats qualifies as a Muharib.”
Under Shia Islamic jurisprudence, a “Muharib” is defined as someone who wages armed rebellion, terrorism or violent crimes that spread fear and disorder in society. The prescribed punishment for such offences is death via execution and also crucifixion.
Given that Trump has already survived at least two assassination attempts, I rather doubt he’s going to be cowed by this latest threat. Indeed, it may just inspire him to add Naser Makarem Shirazi to the list of Iranian leaders that it’s acceptable for Israel to kill the next time Iran tries another random missile attack or other act of terrorism.
Has anyone ever won a pissing contest with Donald Trump since he ran for President in 2015?
Among the many tools in President Trump’s negotiation frame is the classic choice of carrots or sticks. Last week, Operation Midnight Hammer delivered a whopping great stick pounding by obliterating Iran’s nuclear program. Trump followed that up with a ceasefire and offering the carrot of lifting sanctions if Iran would return to the negotiating table to work out a deal. (If you hadn’t noticed, Trump loves deals.)
Rational actors, having just had the snot bombed out of them, would have leapt at the opportunity, if only to buy themselves some time while negotiations dragged on.
The Mullahs of Iran, with the irrational idee fixe of destroying Israel, choose not to avail themselves of this opportunity.
Trump was not pleased.
Complete text:
Why would the so-called “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so. As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life. I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!” In fact, in the final act of the War, I demanded that Israel bring back a very large group of planes, which were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout! Tremendous damage would have ensued, and many Iranians would have been killed. It was going to be the biggest attack of the War, by far. During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery – The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more. Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them. They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them – A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse! I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR. PEACE!!!
Maybe now Trump will give Israel the greenlight to take out Khamenei and the rest of Iranian leadership.
It seems that Iran’s leaders have an insatiable appetite for sticks…
