Thursday, August 21, 2025

August 21, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Abbott scores big win in redistricting battle as Texas Democrats' blockade collapses . . . The Texas State House on Wednesday passed a new congressional map, blasting through a Democratic roadblock in a bid to bolster the GOP's chances of holding onto the U.S. House next year. The map passed the Republican-controlled House in a 88-52 vote, setting up the addition of five Republican-leaning congressional districts in the Lone Star State. Still, the map must make its way through the Texas State Senate before it lands on Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Fox News

Texas Dem abruptly leaves call with Newsom, other party members after being told she's committing felony . . . Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly left a call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic Party members after claiming she was told she was committing a felony by participating in the meeting from a state Capitol bathroom. Collier was speaking on a call with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, Newsom and several others while the Texas House of Representatives was simultaneously debating a redistricting bill backed by President Donald Trump. "Apparently I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom," she said. Fox News

Politics

IRS began criminal probe into Clinton Foundation in 2019 but then suddenly stopped, memos show . . . Years after the FBI was forced to shut down multiple corruption probes of Bill and Hillary Clinton's charity, the IRS under President Donald Trump began a criminal tax investigation into the Clinton Foundation and its dealings with other players on the global charity stage, but then abruptly stopped working with whistleblowers in spring 2019, according to IRS memos. "Can't talk about the CF," a memo states in recounting how IRS agents suddenly cut off contact with two whistleblowers they had been working with for weeks. Just the News

Concerns about solar encroachment on farmland grow as USDA pulls subsidies for new projects . . . The U.S. Department of Agriculture is pulling the plug on federal support of solar projects being developed on America's farmland. The agency announced Tuesday that it would no longer provide taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland. "Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green-new-deal-subsidized solar panels," Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins said in the announcement. Just the News

Swalwell: 'I Freaking Love' Newsom's Posts — 'That's What Offense Looks Like' . . . Swalwell said, "I freaking love what Governor Newsom is doing because that's what offense looks like. And we don't see enough Democrats, frankly, doing that. We have to be in more spaces, more places, and always on to voters means always honest. And Donald Trump, for all of his warts and all of his corruption and incompetency, he's always on. And so, when he makes a mistake, he is on an hour later, two hours later, three hours later, and it diminishes how the public views him." Breitbart

VP Slams Protesters Shouting Over His Meal With Troops Protecting DC . . . Vice President JD Vance slammed anti-Israel protesters during a visit to Washington's Union Station for advocating against safety in the nation's capital. "This is the guy who thinks people don't deserve law and order in their own community," Vance said, pointing to a screaming protester. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller gave burgers from Shake Shack to members of the National Guard, who are protecting Union Station, a Metro subway stop on Capitol Hill previously plagued by vagrancy. Daily Signal

Stephen Miller blasts 'stupid white hippies' protesting DC crackdown

Not many black people in DC's crime-ridden areas are protesting Trump's crackdown on bad guys. It's white libs, who for the most part are quite safe. The vast majority of serious crime in DC has always occurred in the poorer areas.

Vance joked with Zelensky he wouldn't say anything 'as long as you behave' after earlier dust-up . . . Vance said this week that as he waited with Zelensky to meet with Trump again in the Oval Office, he cracked a joke about the viral quarrel that garnered some laughs from the Ukrainian president. "So President Zelensky walked into the Oval Office," Vance said during an interview with Fox News's Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle. "I was chatting with him, with the president, with some of the senior Ukrainian delegation. I said, 'Mr. President, so long as you behave, I won't say anything.' And he just chuckled a little bit. It was a good little icebreaker." Washington Examiner

'DEEP TROUBLE': 4 Things to Know About Legal Probes of Adam Schiff

Top Eric Adams adviser Winnie Greco caught handing reporter a bag of chips stuffed with cash . . . A former top aide to Mayor Eric Adams — and current adviser to his re-election campaign — handed a Big Apple reporter a potato chip bag stuffed with cash Wednesday, according to a report and sources. Winnie Greco gave the bag to Katie Honan, a reporter at The City, just steps away from Hizonner's new campaign office in Harlem, The Post confirmed. Neither Adams nor his re-election campaign are implicated in the incident. New York Post

She claims it was a "cultural" thing that Asian-Americans do.

Culture

Judge rules Texas can't put the Ten Commandments in certain school districts' classrooms . . . Texas cannot require public schools in Houston, Austin and other select districts to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge said Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state's new requirement. Texas is the third state where recent laws about putting the Ten Commandments in schools have been blocked by a court. Politico

Male inmate in women's prison assaults female under WA governor's trans policy

National Security

Tulsi Gabbard Boots Partisan Bureaucrats Embedded At Her Own Agency . . . Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard informed her office Wednesday of a 40% reduction in personnel and the wholesale closure of centers she found had politicized intelligence as part of a sweeping overhaul of the top spy office. Months of audits by Gabbard's handpicked team of intelligence officials has culminated in "ODNI 2.0," as the overhaul project has been deemed, the first in the office's history. The changes could soon expand to other agencies in the 18-organization constellation that makes up the intelligence community. Daily Caller

Gabbard Pulls Security Clearance of 37 Intelligence 'Professionals'

International

Russia Draws Hard Line Over Security Guarantees for Ukraine . . . Russia warned on Wednesday that it should effectively hold veto power over any action to assist Ukraine after a peace deal is reached, rendering planned Western security guarantees for Kyiv moot and delivering a setback to negotiations championed by President Trump. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also played down the likelihood of a summit between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine occurring soon. Wall Street Journal

European Leaders Studied Trump and Learned to Speak His Language . . . "The default setting of the Europeans is to wait, worry and complain," said Kurt Volker, who was U.S. special representative for Ukraine during Trump's first term. "This is the worst instinct possible for dealing with Trump. What you need to do is be positive, do your own homework and make your own proposals and be proactive. I think Monday was a good demonstration of everybody figuring out how to do that." Wall Street Journal

Money

Walmart Sees Sales 'Momentum' Despite Tariffs . . . Walmart said Thursday that sales at its U.S. stores rose nearly 5 percent in its most recent quarter, a better-than-expected result that suggests shoppers squeezed by inflation and wary of economic uncertainty continue to flock to the retailer for staples and other goods. As the largest retailer in the United States, Walmart is considered a bellwether for the state of the consumer. Recent results from rivals have been mixed, but Walmart's earnings were relatively upbeat, showing sales "momentum." The New York Times

You should also know

China Blasts Swatch for 'Slanted Eyes' Ad . . . Swiss watch company Swatch apologized on Saturday for running an advertisement that featured a model using his fingers to pull his eyes back, making a "slanted eyes" gesture, which Chinese social media users found offensive, even though the model was himself Asian. "We have taken note of the recent concerns regarding the portrayal of a model in images for the Swatch ESSENTIALS collection," the company said in posts on Instagram and China's heavily censored Weibo social media platform on Saturday. Breitbart

Oh yes, the PRC is very concerned about cultural offenses, as it effectively imprisons the entire Uyghur population and rounds up Tibetan monks.

Guilty Pleasures

Unredacted texts show Jeanine Pirro blasting Hannity while at Fox . . . Pirro wrote about an Oval Office meeting with Trump and complained about Hannity. "Sean [Hannity] is an egomaniac. I was in the Oval with Hariri talking to POTUS," she wrote. "He storms in like he owns the place, throws his papers on the Pres desk and says, you don't mind if I use your private bathroom, and walks into bathroom within Oval and uses it. Looks at me and says, I got to talk to him. Ie, you go. It's all abt him, period. No one else matters." The text messages were submitted in court by voting systems company Smartmatic as part of its ongoing litigation against the network over its coverage of the 2020 election. The Hill

This is why these suits usually get settled . . .

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