The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold
National Guard deploys in DC: Eight hundred National Guardsmen have been activated and made their appearance in the nation’s capital Tuesday, with 100-200 deployed to the streets to assist law enforcement. Unlike the FBI agents aiding local law enforcement in the crime crackdown, the National Guard does not have the authority to make arrests. Democrats are crying foul, declaring that crime is not an issue in America’s major cities since DC and others have seen crime statistics trend downward since reaching record highs in recent years. However, a DC police commander was put on administrative leave in May after the police union accused him of falsifying data to create the appearance of a lower crime rate.
Jailing O'Rourke: Beto O'Rourke may fancy himself a savvy politician, but his record has repeatedly demonstrated that he’s anything but. His recent injection of himself into Texas Democrats’ standoff against the Republicans over redistricting may end up putting him behind bars. After a court barred O'Rourke from fundraising to pay the $500/day fine for each Democrat lawmaker who fled the state, he continued to do so by encouraging rally-goers to donate to his organization in support of these fugitive Democrats. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded by filing a contempt of court charge. “Beto told me ‘to come and take,’ so I did and beat him in court,” Paxton explained. “Now, he still thinks he’s above the law, so I’m working to put him behind bars.” O'Rourke faces a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.
West Point and Air Force Academy agree to merit-based admissions: The academies that train future Army and Air Force officers will now select based on merit instead of race. Incredible as it is that merit was a secondary characteristic in selecting military officers, this settlement with the Justice Department is a major win. When the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies in 2023, it excluded military academies on the basis that there might be a special need to ensure the officer ranks are racially diverse. The Trump Justice Department has embraced the idea of exclusively merit-based admissions and settled the issue with the Naval Academy earlier this year. A study by Zach Goldberg showed that at the Naval Academy, a black applicant would have a 50% chance of admission with scores that would only give a white applicant a 5% chance.
U.S. adds $1 trillion to national debt: The U.S. national debt recently hit a record $37 trillion, and $1 trillion was added in less than a year. The previous record of $36 trillion was set last November, and before that, $35 trillion was recorded in July 2024. Back in January 2020, prior to the COVID pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the national debt would not surpass the $37 trillion threshold until 2030. “We are now adding a trillion more to the national debt every 5 months,” Peter G. Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson observed. “That’s more than twice as fast as the average rate over the last 25 years.” He noted that this puts the country on an “unsustainable fiscal path,” soberly adding, “Our national debt is now greater than the economies of the entire Eurozone and China, combined.”
White House to review Smithsonian content: July 4, 2026, will be the 250th birthday of the United States. As plans to celebrate are ramping up, the Trump administration has ordered a review of the Smithsonian museums. A letter sent by a White House senior associate, the Domestic Policy Council head, and the OMB director explained that they want the institution to show “enduring values that define the American story.” This comes after some well-publicized foibles on the Smithsonian’s part, such as the infamous chart explaining that hard work and being polite are aspects of whiteness. Trump criticized the Smithsonian earlier this year for coming under the influence of “a divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Six Nova Scotians fined $150,000 for walking in the woods: On August 5, Nova Scotian Premier Tim Houston announced a ban on being in the woods due to dry conditions and wildfires raging across Canada. In the video announcement, he explained that short walks through the woods to reach the beach or a parking lot are acceptable, but other activities will be fined. Even residents in wooded areas were told to stay out of the forests. The draconian policies are being enforced, with six Nova Scotians now having been fined $25,000 each for “travel-related violations.” What’s Nova Scotia going to ban next — breathing?
15 GOP AGs join 2A groups suing to overturn NFA: While Republicans were unsuccessful in eliminating the 1934 National Firearms Act within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they were able to reduce the NFA tax to $0. Second Amendment rights groups led by Gun Owners of America have since raised a lawsuit seeking the elimination of the NFA on the grounds that, since the tax is now zero, the rest of the statute, including the stiff penalty for failure to comply, should be repealed. Fifteen Republican state attorneys general have also joined the lawsuit, including Texas’s Ken Paxton, who argued, “That repeal of the fee was what the Supreme Court in 1937 had used to allow the federal government to say it was a tax, and therefore they could regulate guns and override the Second Amendment.” He added, “With no fee, now there’s no tax, and that means we have an opening, and so we have sued along with Gun Owners of America to try to get that taken out so there’s no longer regulation registration for those different weapons, and we’re going to win that.”
Denver Post outs private hawkshaws: Apparently, the Denver Post doesn’t like private citizens seeking to hold public officials to account. Recently, the Post exposed the names, locations, voter registrations, and employment of three private citizens who dared to post public records information regarding criminal activity in the city on the social media site Do Better Denver. The Post defended its doxing of these three women, with columnist Krista Kafer arguing, “People who claim to be citizen journalists must stand by their work with a byline and endure the negative comments and threats that come with the job.” One of the findings these women noted was that $2.1 million was used by the city to pay for vacant rooms for illegal aliens. Do Better Denver, which has been gaining in popularity in the region over the last couple of years and whose administrator has intentionally maintained a level of anonymity due to death threats, alleges that the doxing was at the behest of the mayor’s office, a claim that the Post denies.
Headlines
Harvard, Trump administration near deal for $500 million settlement (WSJ)
Trump scores Alien Registration Requirement legal win from Obama and Biden judges (Newsweek)
DHS reports third month in a row with no catch-and-release at southern border (Just the News)
Mexico to extradite 26 top cartel leaders to U.S. (Fox News)
Moscow troops make advance in Ukraine just days before Trump set to meet with Putin (NY Post)
Uvalde school district releases records on 2022 shooting after court order (Just the News)
Sierra Club fires executive director amid internal turmoil (Washington Free Beacon)
Humor: 10 undeniable reasons Communist China is way better than America (Babylon Bee)
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