THE SHOW NOTES: Indictment 3.0, America’s Credit Downgraded, & Why Democrats Are Photoshopping Biden
Welcome! Democrats are photoshopping pictures of Joe Biden to prove he’s not too old to run.
LOL: Vice President Harris rejects DeSantis' invite to debate Florida’s slavery curriculum.
BREAKING: The United States is preparing to evacuate U.S. embassy personnel from Niger in the middle of a military coup. This is the third embassy evacuation since April.
HEADLINE: WWE boss Vince McMahon hit with federal grand jury subpoena and search warrant, company reveals - Yahoo
DATA: Homebuyers need to earn 13% more than last year to get a starter house - Yahoo
NEW: Carbon offsets are ‘riddled with fraud.’ Can new voluntary guidelines fix that? - Grist
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Indictment 3.0
Donald Trump has been indicted by a DC grand jury for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and instigating a riot at the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021. The four-count indictment spanning 45 pages represents Jack Smith’s parallel investigation to the document probe that resulted in a separate indictment earlier this summer.
The problem for Jack Smith: He has to show Trump’s state of mind. Trump, through his administration, got advice that turned out to be wrong. He was told the virus didn’t come from the lab and it most likely did. He was told moving the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would start a war. It didn’t. He was told peace between Israel and its neighbors without a Palestinian solution would not work. But it did. And then those same people told him the election wasn’t stolen.
The problem for Donald Trump: He has an Obama-appointed judge and a jury in the District of Columbia. Good luck with that.
The problem for Americans: If even half of what is alleged is true, Trump is a cancer on the presidency who went from being surrounded by good, sound advisors to, in the end, surrounding himself with sycophants and nut jobs who’d return with him to Washington. The good policies Trump gave us came from the good people who are now backing others in the primaries and Trump is simply bogged down with litigation and cost and unwilling to believe truth when the lies are sweet.
Co-conspirators: The indictment alleges six unnamed co-conspirators assisted Trump though charges have not yet been formally brought against them. Axios notes this may be a tactic by Jack Smith to allow the individuals to testify against Trump in exchange for reduced or negated sentencing. The Wall Street Journal gives an alternative theory suggesting it may be Smith’s way of expediting the process since Trump already has a growing legal calendar.
MUST READ 1: The Uncharted Waters of Jack Smith’s J6 Trump Indictment - NR
MUST READ 2: Another Trump Indictment - WSJ (paywall)
MUST READ 3: Who is Tanya Chutkan? The hard-line judge on Trump's election case - BBC
NO NEED TO READ JUST LOL: Rudy Giuliani insulted Jewish men's genitals in rant says new lawsuit - The Jewish Chronicle
Credit Cut
Fitch Ratings cut the long-term credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+ in an unexpected move on Monday afternoon. The agency issued a warning in May that the county’s credit rating was on the chopping block.
Why now: The rating agency explained the nation’s growing debt burden, pending recession, and erosion of governance offered more than enough evidence to merit the cut. Here’s the quote:
“In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025… The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management.”
Jobs Boom
The private sector keeps adding more jobs despite the Federal Reserve’s attempts to slow down the US economy. 324,000 US jobs were added in July, well above the projected 175,000 benchmark. The July numbers come after a massive jobs rally of 455,000 new positions added to the US economy in June.
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