Posts on Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Right about the time Drudge Report splashed a link to Jonathan Chait's latest column across its homepage, I got a g-chat from a Democratic strategist: "This is a big deal," he wrote. "My gut tells me it elevates this story to something bigger and more needing of her response. I think this might take away the chance of this ordeal being seen as a partisan witch hunt." The story in question is, of course, the revelation that Clinton Foundation donations and Clinton family speaking fees may have influenced Hillary Clinton's actions as Secretary of State -- which, if true, would be an extraordinary conflict of interest. In the last 24 hours,

Disgraced former politician Andrew Gillum, a one-time Democratic Party rising star and CNN political commentator, has been arrested in Alabama for allegedly having drugs, according to records. Gillum – who narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial election – was arrested Thursday in Daphne before being booked for possession of dangerous drugs, [snip] His run-in with the law comes six years after he was found inebriated inside Miami Beach’s Mondrian hotel room alongside a male escort and three bags of suspected crystal meth. In 2022, Gillum was accused of conspiring with his mentor, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, to divert campaign contributions for personal use.

It took less time than we would have imagined, but proponents of the “billionaire wealth tax” have already given the game away. Anyone who knows any history about taxes knows that the left always uses “tax the rich” as a cover to raise taxes on the middle class. Because, as Willy Sutton observed in another context, that’s where the money is. But we were surprised to see Rep. Ro Khanna admit as much, even before he and his socialist pals get their coveted wealth tax on the boards. “The tax should not stop at billionaires,” he wrote on his Substack. “The tax has to reach all fortunes $50 million and up.”

FACT: It has been over 60-years since Canada purchased a submarine. FACT: Canada has never built one. FACT: Currently the Canadian military have ONE operable submarine out of a fleet of four used ones previously purchased. FACT: Canada recently proclaimed themselves as the North American defender of the Arctic. Now, put all those facts in the overlay of the December 2024 meeting in Mar-a-Lago between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. President Trump was demanding that Trudeau increase their NATO spending and develop a working Canadian military.

Both Toyota and Honda had previously warned the Canadian government that without the USMCA they would shift production from Canada to the U.S. to avoid tariffs and secure long-term manufacturing stability. We presume a similar message was conveyed to MexicoEarlier today Toyota announced they were moving half of their Tacoma Truck production from Mexico to an expanded facility in Texas that will now encompass 5 million square feet in San Antonio. (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp. is moving production of its popular Tacoma midsize truck from a plant in Mexico to San Antonio as part of a $3.6 billion investment in the Texas facility.

BANGOR, Maine — Maine author Stephen King appears to be standing behind Graham Platner, even as the Senate candidate faces allegations of sexual assault and growing calls to end his campaign. Posting on 'X' shortly after POLITICO published testimony from a Maine woman who accused Platner of assaulting her in 2021, the prolific horror writer wrote "Graham Platner may drop out. I hope he doesn't, but." King then went on to reference President Donald Trump, and the numerous sexual misconduct allegations he has faced over the years, calling him the "Abuser in Chief." President Trump has consistently denied several public allegations

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night, Axios reported, citing two US officials. Two commercial ships suffered significant damage but had no casualties, the report said, citing a US official. Separately, Britain’s maritime security agency said a tanker caught fire after being hit by an unknown projectile east of Oman’s Limah early on Tuesday.

Last night TCM played the dystopian thriller Soylent Green (1973), starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. It was Robinson’s last film. He was dying of cancer during the filming and Heston credited him with the success of the film. Robinson played his character’s death scene in the face of his own “true and imminent death,” as Heston subsequently wrote. Rereading Gulliver’s Travels, I’ve been thinking about Heston’s role as surviving astronaut George Taylor in Planet of the Apes (1968). As Taylor crash lands on a strange planet, the film performs a variation on Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels. In Part IV Gulliver visits the land of the Houyhnhnms.

An Inspector General audit of the Minority Business Development Agency’s flagship program found that 96 percent of the reviewed transactions should not have been approved, revealing a stunning lack of oversight at the now-defunct agency and raising questions about what will happen if Democrats revive the program. The November 2025 audit, which has not been previously reported, reviewed $16 billion in transactions approved by the MBDA business center program, a network of federally funded consultancies, public and private, aimed at supporting minority-owned businesses, which had to be at least 51 percent minority-owned to qualify for services. The audit found that $15.4 billion of the $16 billion in transactions reviewed

The pastor of a prominent Chinese underground church has arrived in the United States less than two months after President Donald Trump pressed his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for his release following pressure from lawmakers and rights groups. "Ezra" Jin Mingri, 56, founder of Zion Church—one of China's many so-called "house churches" that operate outside government control—was arrested in October along with 17 other church leaders in coordinated overnight raids across the country, in one of the Chinese Communist Party's largest crackdowns on a single church in decades.