CHANGE: Trump’s Tariffs: Rewriting Economic Thinking About Free Trade.

With the OBBB rewarding income generation and tariffs penalizing consumption, the combo is revolutionary in modern times.

Since Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, the U.S. has transformed into a consumption-driven service economy with increasing income redistribution, i.e. social welfare programs. Apparently believing that a dead-end formula, President Trump is trying to reverse all three elements: less consumption, more production and less income redistribution. The idea is that more production will generate more income at all levels, reducing the need for social welfare programs. Take note, Democratic Socialists.

Will it work? There are no guarantees. Tariffs could unleash inflation, or, worse, stagflation or, even, recession. Will it be easy? Trump himself has said it will involve some pain, mostly the aforementioned risks. More worrisome is the President veering off-course to use tariffs as an instrument of non-economic foreign policy, penalizing Canada for its Mideast policy.

In the main, though, strategic use of tariffs is rewriting economic thinking about free trade. When first developed, free trade theory did not contemplate the mobility of capital. Yet, under globalization, capital can move swiftly to locations with the lowest labor cost. Over the last two to three decades, capital moved to China to leverage its low labor costs. The result is a manufacturing juggernaut, which has an absolute advantage that overwhelms the notion of comparative advantage central to free trade theory.

Putting American workers in competition with low-cost labor three decades ago led directly to Trump.

Turning a potential rival like Communist China into a manufacturing powerhouse was just stupid.

GREG ABBOTT DROPS BOMBSHELL ON TX DEMS WHO FLED STATE: Return Today or Be Removed, Face Felony Charges.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement warning Democrats who fled the state to deny a quorum for his redistricting push that they have until precisely 3 p.m. Monday to return to their House duties or face removal from office.

Interesting choice of states for the fleeing Texas Dems: Woof! Even This CNN Journo Asks If TX Dems Realize How Bad It Looks for Them to Flee to Gerrymandered IL.

Some Texas Dems fled to New York State: Texas Democrats Make an Even Dumber Move, and You Just Have to Laugh at This Point.

Leftist threats and screams in recent years make Texas redistricting sound like pretty small beer in comparison:

Hopefully Abbott has thought through his response to the Dems, since I’m sure they assume he’s bluffing. This afternoon and tomorrow should be fun, whatever happens.

UPDATE: Axios can see the handwriting on the wall: “Texas House Democrats have broken quorum twice in recent history — in 2021 to Washington, D.C., in response to proposed voting restrictions and to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 2003 over redistricting. Both times only delayed the inevitable passage of the bills they had opposed.”

HMM: Season of birth shows slight association with depression in men but not women.

HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS TIKI BAR: Start the presses! New York Post will expand to LA with launch of The California Post.

The New York Post is going Hollywood.

The nation’s most popular tabloid will launch The California Post early next year — delivering its brand of fearless, common-sense journalism and legendary headlines at a critical juncture for the Golden State.

“Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated,” said Robert Thomson, CEO of The Post’s parent company, News Corp.

“We are at a pivotal moment for the city and the state, and there is no doubt that The Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit.”

The new publication will be headquartered in Los Angeles and feature a robust staff of editors, reporters and photographers dedicated to covering news, entertainment, politics, culture, sports and business — all with a distinctly California perspective.

They’ve got to do a better job than the L.A. Times, which for decades has been dull-as-dishwater, despite being located in a town that supplies an endless stream of over the top celebrity news.

WINNING: American Eagle Just Earned a Million Customers.

BUT THEN, GOING TO THE DUMBEST PLACE IS PRETTY MUCH ON BRAND: Even CNN Knows That Illinois Was the Dumbest Place for Texas Democrats to Flee.

IT AWAKENS: Long dormant Russian volcano erupts, spews ash 4 miles high.

CHINA: After Xi.

Xi will have multiple ways to credential his successor, but as the story of Mao’s troubled succession suggests, no facet of his successor’s dossier will be more important than his ties to and rapport with the military. Outside observers tend to downplay the role of the PLA in Chinese politics. After all, the Chinese military has never seized political control, as have armed forces in autocracies such as Argentina and Pakistan. To many, this suggests that modern China has cultivated strong norms of civilian control—such that the party unquestionably “commands the gun,” as Mao famously put it.

But the absence of direct military rule belies the quiet power that the PLA wields in China. The reality is that the Chinese military exercises a form of coercive control, shaping interactions among decision-makers. The reason is simple: even though Chinese leaders don’t fear a direct challenge from the military, they constantly face that risk from civilian rivals. And in such struggles, the PLA acts as an implicit kingmaker as civilian leaders try to manipulate the levers of control over the military to ensure that they, and not their opponents, have the upper hand. When Deng needed to bolster the standing of his chosen successors, for instance, he appointed his close ally Admiral Liu Huaqing, the father of the Chinese navy, to the Politburo Standing Committee—an unusually high promotion for a military officer that has not since been replicated.

It is tempting to think that China is so fundamentally different today that the military’s latent role in succession is the artifact of a bygone era. In reality, the military remains pivotal in China’s elite politics, and control over it will remain a key asset for future political leaders.

Other unknowns: Will Xi hang on until death like Mao, or step down but quietly still run things unofficially like Deng? Completely stepping aside like Hu seems unlikely at best.

THE US BORDER PATROL HAS EXCEPTIONAL TROUSERS, OR SOMETHING:

Whatever you do, do not—I repeat, do not—share the U.S. Border Patrol’s new video, because it will trigger liberals, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

I’m dying 😂😭😂 pic.twitter.com/Cd1mLSaTlL

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) August 3, 2025

Cue socialists nationally making Hugo Boss jokes in 3…2…1…

THEY’VE MADE THAT CLEAR: Housing Illegals Means More to the Starmer Govt Than Native Brits.

Throughout the West, the voters are overwhelmingly against massive immigration, and the leadership class is overwhelmingly for it and ignores the voters. Why, exactly?

TRUE, BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF APPEASERS IN PARIS, LONDON, AND OTTAWA HOPING THE CROCODILE EATS THEM LAST: Hamas Official: Oct. 7 Made Palestinian State Possible.

THE LEGACY MEDIA BLACKOUT HASN’T KEPT PEOPLE FROM NOTICING:

FULL STORY: https://t.co/ZeYjyMLEku

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) August 4, 2025

FREDDIE DE BOER RAINS ON THE AI PARADE: “I will not relent: this period of AI hype is built on twin pillars, one, a broad and deep contemporary dissatisfaction with modern life, and two, the natural human tendency to assume that we live in the most important time possible because we are in it. . . . Spare me. Every decade some pundit declares a synthetic apocalypse or utopia. Calling AI epoch‑making feels like marketing copy for venture capitalists crowing about ‘disruption.'”

FINALLY:

You can now bet on what color the next dildo thrown on a WNBA court will be. pic.twitter.com/8il9I85dJi

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 2, 2025

JESSE ARM: The Rise of Luigism.

Wesley LePatner was a senior managing director at Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager. She was CEO of the firm’s Real Estate Income Trust—a $53 billion portfolio. She was also a mother of two, a philanthropist, and an engaged member of New York’s Jewish community. On Monday, she was shot and killed in the lobby of her midtown Manhattan workplace, one of four victims of Shane Tamura’s murder spree.

There’s some evidence that her killer was targeting the National Football League, which shares an office building with Blackstone. But within hours, it was clear that his motive was irrelevant to the hordes now celebrating LePatner’s execution online. Across Reddit, Facebook, X, and other social media platforms, users—many anonymous, and some displaying transgender or Palestinian flag emojis—seized on the executive’s death as symbolic retribution. Her position at the investment firm became a license for cruelty. Commenters mocked her success, dismissed her philanthropy as sinister, and portrayed her employer as an unmitigated force for evil. The message was unmistakable: her death was something to relish.

This grotesque display is part of a broader trend of class rage and Internet nihilism that justifies violence by turning innocent victims into scapegoats for moral fury. The permission structure for such ghoulishness is now fully operational. What were once the disturbing mutterings of the fringe are now public, performative, and proudly cruel.

A political movement is testing its power. Call it Luigism.

Read the whole thing.

KDJ: To Kill an Operation Mockingbird: Tulsi Goes to War With the CIA’s Propaganda Yobbos. “Former Democratic Party presidential hopeful and current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is giving the CIA an enema, and she’s putting the hose where it is most needed: in the sketchy, unofficial offices of Operation Mockingbird, the CIA’s not-so-secret department dedicated to propaganda.”

STAY SAFE: Headlamp Rechargeable 3000 High Lumens Super Bright LED Head Lamp for Adults. #CommissionEarned

2026 PREVIEW: The billionaire mall magnate who could jolt the California governor’s race. “For months, the prospect of Harris’ entry into the governor’s race froze the 2026 contest as candidates and donors waited to see if she would seize the frontrunner’s mantle. But if Harris was the largest domino still teetering, [Rick Caruso] the Los Angeles billionaire and former mayoral candidate was widely seen as a close second — and Harris’ pass has given him options.”

MAKE THEM PAY: Florida ed. chief recommends sanctions against school board for expelling father from meeting.

MOMMAS, DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS: It’s Time for Jerry Jones to Sell the Dallas Cowboys. “If the fundamental purpose of sports is to compete for championships, then your trophy case is the only measuring stick that matters.”

LIMITED TIME DEAL: HP 17.3″ Touchscreen 2025 New Laptop. #CommissionEarned

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Declining test scores prompt red states to prioritize academic excellence.

HARDBALL:

Hold on, 5 minutes ago weren’t ‘mainstream libs’ trying to add two new states, pack the courts, get rid of the filibuster, and dismantle the EC? https://t.co/X8aZHBcqjN

— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) August 4, 2025

The tit-for-tat won’t end until the Dems have been made to hurt the way they’ve hurt the GOP and conservatives — if then.

They were going to pack the Supreme Court. They were going to end the Electoral College. They were going to take Trump off the ballot.

Yes, sir. All bets are indeed off. https://t.co/NMRUxQWVOQ

— Rep. Mitch Little (@realmitchlittle) August 4, 2025

Related: Gov. Abbott to Fleeing Dems: ‘You’re Fired!’

BUBBLE? Silicon Valley’s AI Spend Goes Berserk as Microsoft Starts Cashing In.

This week, Meta said it’s expecting to shell out between $66 billion and $72 billion this year, and that it expects to spend even more next year on data centers and hiring.

Microsoft, on the other hand, said that it is expecting to spend more than $100 billion next year, with much of it going toward AI. This upcoming quarter alone, the company is eyeing $30 billion in capital expenditures, again mostly for AI, in what is a record forecast for the company.

Apple also posted better than expected revenue on its earnings report this week, but that was mostly attributable to iPhone sales. Despite that, CEO Tim Cook told investors during the company’s earnings call that the tech giant was planning to “significantly” increase its investments in AI to catch up with rivals and was open to acquisitions to do so.

This sure feels like a repeat of the dot-com bubble. That’s just an awful lot of money going into something that doesn’t yet return any profits.

If there is a shakeout, it’ll be brutal.

GNAB: The Media’s Russia Hoax Coverage Just Imploded Before Our Eyes.

Yeah, gnab. That’s the sound an implosion makes.