PEACEMAKING: Trump set to announce initial deal to end conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

President Trump plans to announce a pact for peace between two former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Armenia, at the White House on Friday, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, will attend the events in the Oval Office and State Dining Room, the sources said. The agreement, the first ever inked between the two heads of state, comes as U.S. officials seek to deepen ties with the two countries, with energy production and transit as key attractions.

Armenia intends to announce U.S. development rights on a 43-kilometer transit corridor to be called the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” which will help provide access to the West, two of the sources said.

U.S. officials have been working for months on an Armenia-Azerbaijan deal.

Russian security guarantees (via the CSTO) were supposed to keep the peace. But Azerbaijan took advantage of Moscow’s permanent little distraction in Ukraine to indulge in a little ethnic cleansing.

Moscow had no choice but to abandon its commitment to Armenia, and now the US is waging peace in Russia’s “near abroad.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Silence of the Scams—Deep State Bog Frogs Oddly Quiet…Except for One. “Why do I think Hillary Clinton is worried for the first time in her (allegedly) murderous, Haiti-funds-stealing career? Because she is, finally, oddly, quiet.”

Kevin Downey Jr is filling in today while Kruiser occupies my guest room and we go day-drinking.

BIG MONEY: Texas Dem Lawmakers Could Face Nearly $400K in Fines.

The financial penalties could surpass $3.2 million if the lawmakers stay away during potential successive legislative sessions this year, Politico reported.

The Texas House in 2023 approved new punishments for quorum-breaking, include a $500 fine for each day a member is gone, The Texas Tribune reported at the time. The punishment is aimed at members who go “absent without leave for the purpose of impeding the action of the House.”

The fine was implemented after Democrats fled the state in opposition to GOP voting restrictions in 2021.

Slow learners, I guess.

ICYMI, IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR OUR VIPS: The Tank Is Dead (Long Live the Tank).

EXCLUSIVE: Taxpayers Spent $207 Million to Pay Bureaucrats to Work for Unions in Biden’s Final Year. “During the Biden administration, federal agencies spent millions bargaining sweetheart collective-bargaining agreements that imposed significant costs on the American taxpayer while impeding effective and efficient agency operations.”

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: The Media Tried to Corner Tim Scott. He Brought the Cornerstone.

SHE SEEMS NICE: Teamsters boss says ‘smug’ Kamala Harris alienated union after saying they ‘better get on board’ in 2024.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien accused then-Vice President Kamala Harris of pressuring his union for an endorsement Tuesday, recounting a tense meeting in which she allegedly said the union “better get on board.”

O’Brien spoke with The Free Press founder and editor Bari Weiss on her “Honestly” podcast about who truly represents the American working class in a shifting political landscape.

He described one off-putting encounter a Teamsters leader had with the 2024 presidential candidate in a photo op line:

“So, Joan goes in the line and Joan says, ‘I’m Joan Corey. I’m a vice president with the Teamsters Union,’ and [Harris] pointed her finger at Joan and said, ‘Teamsters better get on board,’ and so Joan says, ‘Excuse me?’ ‘Yeah, Teamsters better get on board. I don’t know why you haven’t endorsed me yet.’ So she comes back, and she tells me this, and I’m like, ‘The nerve!'”

Shades of Hillary Clinton’s “You don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line” (perhaps apocryphal) remark to a fundraiser concerned about John Kerry’s tepid 2004 campaign.

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: The Tank Is Dead (Long Live the Tank).

REFORM: No more ‘F’ schools in Houston: Mike Miles takes a victory lap. “Yeah, I think we can compete with the charters.”

CLARK, IS THAT YOU? A Famous Face Joins ICE.

SHARKS GOTTA SWIM, BATS GOTTA FLY: After Midtown Shooting, Kathy Hochul Demands Spreading NY’s Failed Gun Control Policies to the Rest of America. “Following the heinous murders by a deranged individual in a Manhattan office building, Gov. Hochul demanded that AR-15s, which she intentionally mislabels and derides as ‘assault weapons,’ must be banned from ownership by law-abiding citizens across the nation. She pointed to New York’s onerous gun control laws as the example the rest of the country should follow.”

SCOTT PINSKER: The Sad, Pathetic End of Howard Stern.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s new chief has radically rewritten the rules for private space stations.

NASA’s previous plan involved issuing a “request for proposals” early next year as part of a competition that would have selected one or, at most, two companies to move forward into assembly and certification of their stations prior to flight. However, according to Duffy’s directive, there is up to a $4 billion shortfall in the budget NASA was expected to receive, and what would be needed for this program. The president’s budget request included $272.3 million in fiscal year 2026 and $2.1 billion over the next five years for the development and deployment of new commercial space stations.

Because of this plan’s perceived shortcomings, with the new directive, NASA is making some substantial changes to the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations Program moving forward:

Instead of moving forward in Phase 2 with a firm, fixed-price contract for certification and services, NASA will extend the current program of Space Act Agreements awarded to “multiple” participants.

There will be a “full and open” competition for interested companies to receive Space Act Agreements. NASA will award a minimum of two and preferably three providers within six months of the formal announcement of a proposal.

NASA will shift the formal design, acceptance, and certification from this Space Act Agreement phase to a follow-on certification phase (so companies cannot get certified until after they fly).

At least 25 percent of milestone funding will be withheld until after a successful in-space crewed demonstration of a space station.

There is a new minimum capability NASA seeks, which is significantly less than the original “full operational capability” the agency sought. Now, the minimum required capability will be “4 crew for 1-month increments.”

Some of these are rather big changes. The ongoing reliance on Space Act Agreements, for example, will allow companies more leeway in how they design their stations. Had the agency moved into a more structured contract, known as Federal Acquisition Regulations, NASA could have levied more specific requirements on the companies.

This approach of lowering the minimum capabilities will also give companies a better chance to develop operational space stations by 2030, when the International Space Station is expected to be deorbited.

Smart.

GOOD LORD: They’re Not YOUR Kids: School Counselor Arranged Student Abortions Without Telling Parents.

CLOWN NOSE, ON: Can Jon Stewart be the 2028 Democratic nominee? Given the competition, why not?

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT:

And just like that, the shooting of 5 soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia yesterday morning vanished. I wonder why?

— Steve Ferguson (@lsferguson) August 7, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Pastor Warns Parents: If Democrats Pass AB 495, ‘This Is It. Pack Up, Grab Your Kids, Leave California.’ “The bill makes all underage California school children the target of traffickers and kidnappers — by design.”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Wait, Hollywood Is Defending Free Speech… Now?

They had every opportunity to defend speech, be it awards show galas, magazine interviews, social media accounts or podcast platforms.

Heck, they had every right to speak out. Free speech is the core of their livelihoods.

Yet they stood down. Time and again. Some took an active role in self-censorship.

The exceptions proved the rule, like when Tom Hanks attacked those eager to censor books for problematic phrases.

Along comes The Writers Guild of America to decry “the dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press.”

The source of the problem? President Donald Trump. Of course.

It’s hardly noble, defending only the speech you agree with.

THAT’S NICE, BUT I’D RATHER SEE THE US OUT OF THE UN AND THE UN OUT OF THE US: Israeli Hostage’s Brother Speaks Out at Pro-Hamas UN.

THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Rivian Sees Results Hurt by Scrapped EV Tax Credit; Lucid Cuts Production Forecast.

The EV industry as a whole has had a bumpy road of late as it grapples with slowing sales.

In July, Tesla said net income dropped 16% in the second quarter, marking another quarter of steep declines at the company. The electric-vehicle maker’s second-quarter revenue declined after a big drop in automotive deliveries, which were down 13.5% from a year earlier.

The company sold just 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down from 443,956 the year before.

The EV industry will face more headwinds going into the second half of the year as the federal government is rewriting policies around EV incentives, eliminating the $7,500 consumer tax credit.

Only once the subsidies and mandates end will we find out what EVs are actually worth.

WORST. GENOCIDE. EVER:

The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributed 1,164,240 meals in Gaza today.

GHF has delivered about 109,540,602. meals since it began operating on May 26.

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) August 6, 2025

Unlike the UN, GHF delivers meals to people, not Hamas and thieves

BUT OF COURSE: Hamas Official Praises Slain Iranian Commander for Role in Attacking Israelis.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? ICE Raids Broke Los Angeles’ Economy. Shouldn’t ICE Pay for That?

California’s job cliff is not yet reflected elsewhere around the country, suggesting that it’s a direct result of ICE’s focus on the state. The raids, though, are set to go national as the agency reaps billions of dollars from the recent Republican mega-bill. But the state is big enough for a large fall in the labor force to have a pronounced effect on national hiring.

A federal judge has stopped indiscriminate “roving patrols” in Southern California for the moment because of their racial profiling, a ruling that an appeals court affirmed last week. And the Marines and National Guard troops have largely left Los Angeles, having done absolutely nothing but parade around federal buildings and make one brief arrest. A bit of stasis has come to the city, even as fears linger.

But the damage has certainly been done. And Los Angeles will suffer the consequences imposed on them through no fault of their own. After laying off 600 workers and canceling city services to close a nearly $1 billion deficit this year, any pain from ICE-related slowdowns will have to be dealt with next year.

So, the question should be: Can Los Angeles, or California, simply ask the federal government for the money back?

You spent years building an economy based on underpaid, illegal labor.

Now the bill has come due.

Also, ICE is hiring — good wages! DHS has received more than 80,000 ICE applications.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I Totally Voted for Full Steam Ahead on Russiagate. “Of all of the injustices that the Democrats have tried to ruin Donald Trump with, I think the Russia Collusion hoax was the worst. It’s the issue I most want to see dealt with. Let us seek justice, but let’s seek it with that much-deserved chip on his shoulder that President Trump has when it comes to this issue that is such a stain on American history.”

ELECTION INTEGRITY: Texas Mail In Ballot Security Court Win. “Given that Democrats are so adept at using bulk mail in ballot harvesting to commit voting fraud, requiring ID on each ballot returned is going to considerably slow the velocity at which ballot fraud can be committed.”