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A look at the Centennial celebrations in 1876, the 150th anniversary and the 200th anniversary in 1976, and now the 250th anniversary preparations in 2026 for American Independence.

No mention is made of the man who made all this possible- George Washington, with his humility, his leadership of the Continental Army in the difficult days ahead as the Nation fought its way through a long struggle with Britain. Britain used it's Navy at the time the most powerful in the world, it's economic power of the British Empire, and it's arms manufacturing power to defeat the Continental Army of the new nation. It was not until the decisive battle of Yorktown in 1781 in which George Washington surrounded the base of British troops stationed there that the war was won. For seven years George Washington persevered through many obstacles to win the war for future generations of Americans.

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As long as Vietnam could be used as a back door for Chinese products to be shipped to the US, US manufacturing efforts to make in the US or India were not going to work. WSJ looks at how the US 40% tariff on this kind of surreptitious shipment through a third country makes the goal of manufacturing in the US and in India possible. This is intended to address China's policy to continue to overproduce with huge overcapacity in most manufactured goods which it's domestic market cannot absorb. This hurts industries in the US and EU and is happening in 2025 after 20 years of such practices have destroyed much of the manufacturing base in the US and EU, that has severely impacted communities all over these countries. It also affects India's ability to build a manufacturing base that can serve the world and reduce concentration in one country, opening up options to make in a different way to serve the interests of the people of the US and European Union. ...

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Japan believes it can get what it wants through the negotiating style it adopted with Reagan and then Deputy Trade Rep. Lighthizer. It won't work. There is a new US president who know's Japan's approach to trade, and the US has a lot more experience with Lighthizer and Jamieson Greer his deputy running negotiations with Scott Bessent, some 45 years later.

DJT to Japan: “Dear Mr. Japan, here’s the story. You’re going to pay a 25% tariff on your cars, you know? So we give Japan no cars. They won’t take our cars.”

US says it will just send that message to Japan in a letter if it won't negotiate a level playing field and fairness in world trade.

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Rachel Reeves plan to cut disability benefits was very unpopular with Labor voters. You.Gov poll showing Reform UK Nigel Farage party winning more seats than Labor was the last straw. As a public defender Keir Starmer was a lawyer for the Crown, and lacked the confidence to try to understand macroeconomics delegating it to Rachel Reeves. Starmer made the kind of decision that Scholz made that led to disaster for Scholz in Germany. He promised the voters to invest in the economy yet gave the finance minister post to Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats who was openly blocking every move to invest in Germany. Starmer was making the same mistake in UK having Rachel Reeves block every effort for commonsense and honest decisionmaking. DJT in the US is not the old conservative Republican he is commonsense and straightforward. Starmer could not simply cut disability and other benefits after 15 years of Consevatives austerity budget. DJT's cuts come after liberal some could say overspending by 4 years of Biden, so that Labor had to think carefully.  Nigel Farage of UK was simply going to use Reeves cuts to appeal to Labor voters, and to move to show he would support working class voters in different ways, which is why You-gov showed him beating Labor last week. Reeves would prove a disaster waiting to happen for Labor that it did not need particularly as Farage does not have the grasp of the economy that DJT with Bessent at Treasury and Powell at Fed has. ...

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US Senator Lisa Murkowski gets $25 billion for rural hospitals and assistance for Alaska in One Big Beautiful Act 2025. She was the 50th vote for the Tax Cuts Bill in the US Senate, without her vote the bill would not pass. Senator John Thune worked hard to get her on board. At about 1.30 am in the wee hours she agreed to support it only after getting $25 billion for rural hospitals and special allocations for Alaska healthcare needs, and other benefits for Alaskans including $25 billion for the Coast Guard. Places are spread far out in Alaska and patients have to be flown in to Anchorage for care. Alaska is a different place for health care including needs of native tribes. Lisa Murkowski is a rare senator with a passion to serve Alaska, and her concerns for disadvantaged people.

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Under new US trade agreement with Vietnam tariffs are cut 46% to 20%. The  transhipments will still face tariffs of 40% to prevent shipping by China through Vietnam to the US to circumvent US tariffs. 

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To make it possible to for the sale of Paramount with its CBS subsidiary to Ellison's Skydance for $8 billion, the company has stepped back from its confrontation with president DJT in a lawsuit. The 60's commentator Walter Cronkite was from CBS News, and Edward Murrow broadcast on  World War II on CBS News.  Somehow this has gone awry with recent coverage in 2024. DJT objected to CBS head Wendy McMahon's handling of news coverage on programs such as -60 Minutes, Face the Nation on Sundays, that he said was tailored to present Democrats candidate Kamala Harris in a certain way, that affected DJT's chances with voters. 

For the sale to Skydance to go ahead to Paramount which owns CBS, needed te cooperation of the Federal Communications Commission under Brendan Carr. Paramount settled the DJT lawsuit for $16 million with Wendy McMahon departing CBS News, the money going directly to DJT Presidential Library. 

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The US president DJT says he is on both sides of the issue. He will never forget the farmers who supported him and he wants them to do well knowing their need for good agricultural workers. As the move to return illegal migrants proceeds under ICE DJT is considering a way to allow the farmers to keep the workers they know and be responsible for them. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins has told the president the importance of having the agricultural workforce for farmers in the US.

Even in the similar program under president Eisenhower in 1954 called Operation Wetback,  on which the current program is modeled, there was an effort to keep the agricultural workers on farms for essential agricultural activity. For a long time the Bracero program with Mexico was designed to do this with legal pathways to work in the US in the 1950's.

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A shift to lower cost private label brands leads to Del Monte bankruptcy.

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"Favorable" District courts are now being used to support illegal migration into the US that was rejected in the 2024 election. A District Court in DC makes a ruling on ending asylum "invasion" of US southern border, by questioning that millions of illegal migrants entering in one year alone is an "invasion." Even though it is publicly known that over 2.4 million people crossed the US southern border in fiscal year 2023. These District Court rulings are being given high priority by the US Supreme Court.  In the most recent ruling from last week the SC stated in a 6-3 decision written by Justice Coney Barrett on birthright citizenship that the law on the lawsuits can apply to the individual case not  be converted into a national injunction.  The situation of asylum seeking deteriorated in three ways, the Mexican government of president Lopez Obrador, Alejandro Mayorkas as Biden's selection for Homeland Security, himself an immigrant from Cuba, and the Biden administration not grasping the true extent of the crisis at the southern border with the unsettled situation in central America and the economic disaster in Venezuela. For the first time in the 400 year history of this hemisphere since the Spanish colonization by 1600 and American independence by 1800 the ideas of the Monroe Doctrine of the US protecting this hemisphere were ignored leading to the disastrous situation at the US borders, leading to fentanyl and illegal migration of such proportions. As a result of the election of 2024 and the public view of illegal migration the DJT administration is taking the approach taken by president Eisenhower in 1952 in Operation Wetback, seeking to return illegal migrants to their home countries.   ...

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Republicans representing poorer rural and working class communities, Democrats wealthy suburban communities 2025. 26 to 56 vs 69 what this means is that Republicans who in 2009 represented 26 of the poorest 100 House of Representatives Districts now represent 56 in 2023. By Contrast Democrats in 2023 represent 69 of the wealthiest House Districts in the Nation. It is a complete reverse, as big as the change that took place under FDR/Truman and LBJ where the South gradually shifted to Democratic from Republican and the North and Northeast Unites States  moved from Republican to Democratic party.

This puts Republicans traditional position to cut Medicaid in a quandary as it may affect their control of the House in future elections. This report in WSJ looks at details by District of what could happen.

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One Big Beautiful Act passed in US Senate with Vance casting tie breaking vote. It renews the tax cuts from DJT's first term in office in 2017 and provides tax cuts to seniors, middle class, and small business. It provides 100% expensing for business to increase investment. Mothers get child care credit that is doubled, senior citizens over 65 years get a $6000 deduction. The seniors deduction means 88% of seniors will now pay no taxes on social security benefits from 64%. Medicaid changes so that able bodied Americans will have to put in 80 hours of work to qualify.  Note that the Medicaid program was becoming unworkable and unsustainable- starting with the idea of helping people unable to work and transitioning those who could work, it jumped to $228 billion cost in 2000 from $28 billion in 1980, ten times over 20 years. Going up to $918 billion in 2024, 4 times the 2000 level. Medicaid is now 62% of what Social Security costs, $918 billion compared to $1480 billion for Social Security. ...

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A reminder that the Naiton's aging infrastruture needs replacing with new infrastructure. Lead pipes are replaced in Flint, Michigan, the project completed on June 30, 2025. The contamination of lead pipes created a national sense of unease about how dangerous the situation has become.

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Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft effort to cancel all AI regulation by states, effectively leaving AI unregulated. What was Senator Ted Cruz doing sponsoring a 10 year rule of this kind that required protections to be put in place for child online safety so that the dangerous AI law for unregulation, no supervision, would not intrude into other areas such as child online safety. What was Senator Blackburn of Tennessee thinking when she joined that effort and had second thoughts pulling back to 5 years from 10 years of unregulated AI. Everyone from the entire Democratic caucus, Steve Bannon and advocacy groups fighting for citizen control over AI, and many Republican Senators who were not clear why such a law was being proposed by AI interests and Cruz's willingness to take the Tech monopolies interests in a dangerous direction of no regulation. “The way these provisions are written, they’re very sweeping, and they would trip up almost any attempt to regulate the harmful use of AI.”  -Ed Wytkind, interim director of the AFL-CIO’s technology institute. “Google and Meta had AI amnesty in the bag yesterday at 10 a.m. Then the Article III Project and Steve Bannon’s War Room sprang into action. Sometimes feeling the heat makes people see the light. We are pleased 99 senators finally decided to side with kids and content creators over AI amnesty and Big Tech profits.”-Mike Davis founder Article III Project ...