July 16, 2026

In an exchange between Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, and Senator Jon Ossoff, Clayton would not answer the question of who won the 2020 election, All the claims that Trump won the 2020 election have collapsed in court, but Trump loyalists cannot say that out loud without losing Trump’s favor, Todd Blanche, the nominee for Attorney General slipped and acknowledged that he is still acting as though he is Trump’s personal attorney, Treasury Secretary Bessen announced that a commemorative coin with Trump’s likeness will be released in a move reminiscent of the likes of Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein, Trump is building a helipad on the South Lawn of the White House, without permission from Congress or any review panel, The problem with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool appears to have been caused by problems with how the lining was installed, The US may attack Iran’s infrastructure, Iranian leaders are looking to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait - the other main route, with the Strait of Hormuz, for oil exports from the Middle East, Fires and food-borne illnesses continue to plague much of the country, Trump is losing the support even of many Republicans.

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July 15, 2026

The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021 without a single Republican vote, expanded the Child Tax Credit for one year. This temporary expansion lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty before it expired, Five years later, the results of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed without a single Democratic vote, reveals a very different set of priorities, OBBA expanded tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, cutting more than $1 trillion from social welfare programs, The difference between the two bills reveals how the parties see the purpose of government - for the good of the people or to concentrate wealth and power among a few, Consumers are being screwed by the push to do away with reviews designed to protect people from monopoly power, Trump has called together a select group of Republicans to try to get their funding package which includes billions for military funding, for bailing out farmers hurt by tariffs, and for enacting aspects of the SAVE America Act, past Congress through budget reconciliation, The administration is also trying to fund immigration enforcement, which has led to two deaths at the hands of ICE agents, Funding the war in Iran, funding voter suppression, and funding the crackdown on immigrants are not popular with Americans, but Trump has pushed continued traffic stops, and continued strikes in Iran, nonetheless.

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July 14, 2026

In 1870, a US exploring expedition headed to the Yellowstone River and reported back about the natural wonders of the area, The House Committee on Public Lands warned about letting the area be spoiled by private interests, In 1982 President Grant signed the bill making Yellowstone a national park, In 1890, the federal government stepped in to protect Yosemite, Presidents of both parties continued to protect American lands, New York Republican Theodore Roosevelt most dramatically expanded the effort to protect western lands, Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to create national monuments and, then, the Grand Canyon, Since the 1980s Republicans have pushed to reopen public lands to resource development, Trump signed an executive order in his first term to review the designations of 22 national monuments and ordered land reductions in two of them, Biden restored those monuments to their original size, But although the national parks and monuments attract millions of visitors, support thousands of jobs, and bring billions of dollars into the local economies, Project 2025 has urged that the Antiquities Act be repealed, The Supreme Court seems eager to get a case that will allow them to reduce the scope of the Antiquities Act, or eliminate it altogether.

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July 13, 2026

The US has few options for extricating itself from Trump’s war on Iran with conditions better than when it went into the war, or before Trump tore up the plan of action negotiated by President Obama, Trump is claiming that he will keep the Strait of Hormuz open, The administration continues to deny that Congress has any role in its activities in Iran, despite the clear language of the Constitution, Trump’s sons have amassed a portfolio of defense tech startups that are benefitting from what the Pentagon is doing, In Maine, an ICE agent shot and killed a man from Colombia who was on his way to work but it appears he was not the man that ICE and Border Patrol were looking for, Less an a week ago, ICE shot and killed a man in Houston, who was close to obtaining legal status who also was not the person ICE was looking for, In Florida, a judge said that Trump, his lawyers, and lawyers for the DOJ, had manufactured the settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, She said that they launched the lawsuit to confer legitimacy on a course of action that they did not want to subject to judicial review, She recommended legal sanctions against some of the lawyers, She was “extremely troubled” by the testimony of Todd Blanche, who comes up for confirmation as Attorney General, on July 15.

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July 12, 2026

The US is in the grip of an outbreak of the Cyclospora parasite, which is no longer being tracked by the CDC, The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network had monitored 8 pathogens for 30 years, but it now monitors only two, The New World screwworm continues to spread in the US and Central America, with infestations spreading rapidly in numerous animals, The Trump administration held up funding for a facility crucial to slowing the spread as well as a research initiative to find ways to stop the pest, In Iran, the MOU signed by Trump in June formalized Iran’s power over the Strait of Hormuz, Soldiers who survived the Iranian attack on Port Shuaiba in Kuwait allege that the generals in command ignored intelligence that the site was a probable target, Wounded soldiers were not admitted to the hospital and soldiers and their families say the Army downplayed their injuries, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died over the weekend, A former critic of Trump, he became a staunch supporter.

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July 11, 2026

The Department of Justice has subpoenaed reporters from the New York Times over a story about the Secret Service’s concerns about the new Air Force One plane that was given to the US by Qatar, Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars appear to have been spent on renovating the plane, The reporting by the New York Times reporters is protected under the First Amendment, Trump’s fury fueled numerous angry social media posts, There have been reports of the high costs of renovations in Washington DC, A Pentagon official told local DC media that the National Guard troops will be in Washington through Inauguration Day 2029, The real reason for their deployment is ominous.

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July 10, 2026Trump refuses to sign the bipartisan housing bill because the Senate won’t pass the SAVE America Act, an act that will suppress voting, The housing bill was designed to address the housing crisis, Trump is making clear that his focus is not on governing, but on rigging the 2026 election, Trump’s appointees in the Department of Justice have been trying to intimidate election officials, Trump has fired the last two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission, claiming he has the right to do so under the Slaughter decision, The White House is fortifying the North Portico entrance to the White House, covering the portico with scaffolding, The administration intends to put fencing around Lafayette Square and parts of Pennsylvania Avenue, suggesting to the nation and the world that the government is exclusive and fearful of its own citizens.

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July 9, 2026

On July 9, 1868, Americans changed the US Constitution for the 14th time, The Fourteenth Amendment brought the principles of the Declaration to life, requiring the Federal government to protect the equal rights of all American men, The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery on the basis of race, but did not guarantee equality for Black Americans, The Fourteenth Amendment took on the Dred Scott v Sandford decision and provided that all persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens of the US, It also overturned the idea that democracy was created at the state level, forbidding states from making laws that were discriminatory, The principles of the Fourteenth Amendment were behind civil rights decisions of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Opponents objected, and called for “originalism,” an idea promoted by Robert Bork who was nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan, Reaction to the nomination recognized the importance of the Fourteenth Amendment to equality.

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