It's like if Jacinda Ardern had an even more retarded sister.
Somaliland courts U.S. with Red Sea base and minerals in bid for recognition
Somaliland’s new president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, is offering the United States access to a strategic military base near the Red Sea and critical mineral resources, including lithium, in exchange for formal diplomatic recognition.
The breakaway region, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, has yet to receive international recognition despite decades of stability and democratic governance. Now, with rising global interest in African resources and Red Sea security, Somaliland is positioning itself as a reliable partner in a volatile region. The breakaway region is open to U.S. cooperation in security, trade, and counter-terrorism, and would also be prepared to offer a deal involving critical minerals, including lithium, Abdullahi told Bloomberg. “If the U.S. is interested to land in Somaliland, they are most welcome.” Talks with U.S. officials — including the Department of Defense and American diplomats in Somalia — have intensified. Abdullahi confirmed that senior U.S. military figures recently visited Hargeisa, the capital.
Somaliland’s offer comes at a time when the U.S. is reasserting influence in Africa amid a growing rivalry with China. A Red Sea foothold could enhance U.S. strategic presence near Houthi rebel activity and key shipping lanes. On the possibility of establishing a U.S. military base in the territory, Abdullahi responded: “We are now still discussing issues. We are looking forward to that discussion bearing fruits in the future.” However, Washington maintains its recognition of Somalia’s territorial integrity. The U.S. State Department reiterated it is not actively considering Somaliland’s bid. Despite the diplomatic hurdles, Abdullahi emphasized that partnerships on security and minerals could proceed regardless of formal recognition — part of a broader strategy to raise Somaliland’s international profile.
https://northafricapost.com/89300-somaliland-courts-u-s-with-red-sea-base-and-minerals-in-bid-for-recognition.html
China preparing to invade Taiwan: deputy foreign minister
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement.
The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack.
The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President Donald Trump, visited a university lab teaching students to make semiconductors and spoke to Taiwanese veterans at a care home.
The documentary raised issues such as Taiwan’s drone production capacity, standing at 8,000 to 10,000 from April 2024 to April this year, falling short of the 180,000 annual production target set for 2028, plus the increase in Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft entering Taiwan’s de facto air defense identification zone since President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration last year.
Moreover, it noted that, for the first time, the PLA deployed both of its active aircraft carriers into the Western Pacific at the same time this year.
“The population need to not be naive like in the past… China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Wu said in the interview.
“Taiwan alone, facing China — we will never be ready… it’s not possible, China is so big, so huge,” he added.
“If one day China take[s] Taiwan, of course it will be very bad for Taiwan… maybe we will be destroyed… but the modern world that we are living in now… will also disappear,” Wu said, due to the global demand for Taiwanese semiconductors.
“Americans have also given us a lot when in 1996 we [had] the missile crisis,” Wu said, adding that, now, the US military is trying to maintain regional stability and democracy to protect not only the semiconductor industry, but US-Taiwan national interests.
“Donald Trump certainly knows that without Taiwanese chips, he cannot make America great again,” Wu added.
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/08/01/2003841319
NYT: Trump’s Tariffs Are Making Money
The tariffs are a substantial new source of revenue for the federal government. The budget may start to depend on it.
President Trump’s extensive tariffs have already started to generate a significant amount of money for the federal government, a new source of revenue for a heavily indebted nation that American policymakers may start to rely on.
As part of his quest to reorder the global trading system, Mr. Trump has imposed steep tariffs on America’s trading partners, with the bulk of those set to go into effect on Aug. 7. Even before the latest tariffs kick in, revenue from taxes collected on imported goods has grown dramatically so far this year. Customs duties, along with some excise taxes, generated $152 billion through July, roughly double the $78 billion netted over the same time period last fiscal year, according to Treasury data.
Indeed, Mr. Trump has routinely cited the tariff revenue as evidence that his trade approach, which has sowed uncertainty and begun to increase prices for consumers, is a win for the United States. Members of his administration have argued that the money from the tariffs would help plug the hole created by the broad tax cuts Congress passed last month, which are expected to cost the government at least $3.4 trillion.
“The good news is that Tariffs are bringing Billions of Dollars into the USA!” Mr. Trump said on social media shortly after a weak jobs report showed signs of strain in the labor market.
Over time, analysts expect that the tariffs, if left in place, could be worth more than $2 trillion in additional revenue over the next decade. Economists overwhelmingly hope that doesn’t happen and the United States abandons the new trade barriers. But some acknowledge that such a substantial stream of revenue could end up being hard to quit.
“I think this is addictive,” said Joao Gomes, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “I think a source of revenue is very hard to turn away from when the debt and deficit are what they are.”
Mr. Trump has long fantasized about replacing taxes on income with tariffs. He often refers fondly to American fiscal policy in the late 19th century, when there was no income tax and the government relied on tariffs, citing that as a model for the future. And while income and payroll taxes remain by far the most important sources of government revenue, the combination of Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the latest Republican tax cut does, on the margin, move the United States away from taxing earnings and toward taxing goods.
Such a shift is expected to be regressive, meaning that rich Americans will fare better than poorer Americans under the change. That’s because cutting taxes on income does, in general, provide the biggest benefit to richer Americans who earn the most income. The recent Republican cut to income taxes and the social safety net is perhaps the most regressive piece of major legislation in decades.
Placing new taxes on imported products, however, is expected to raise the cost of everyday goods. Lower-income Americans spend more of their earnings on those more expensive goods, meaning the tariffs amount to larger tax increase for them compared to richer Americans.
Tariffs have begun to bleed into consumer prices, with many companies saying they will have to start raising prices as a result of added costs. And analysts expect the tariffs to weigh on the performance of the economy overall, which in turn could reduce the amount of traditional income tax revenue the government collects every year.
“Is there a better way to raise that amount of revenue? The economic answer is: Yes, there is a better way, there are more efficient ways,” said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab and a former Biden administration official. “But it’s really a political question.”
Mr. Tedeschi said that future leaders in Washington, whether Republican or Democrat, may be hesitant to roll back the tariffs if that would mean a further addition to the federal debt load, which is already raising alarms on Wall Street. And replacing the tariff revenue with another type of tax increase would require Congress to act, while the tariffs would be a legacy decision made by a previous president.
“Congress may not be excited about taking such a politically risky vote when they didn’t have to vote on tariffs in the first place,” Mr. Tedeschi said.
Some in Washington are already starting to think about how they could spend the tariff revenue. Mr. Trump recently floated the possibility of sending Americans a cash rebate for the tariffs, and Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, recently introduced legislation to send $600 to many Americans. “We have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate, but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt,” Mr. Trump said last month of the tariffs.
Democrats, once they return to power, may face a similar temptation to use the tariff revenue to fund a new social program, especially if raising taxes in Congress proves as challenging as it has in the past. As it is, Democrats have been divided over tariffs. Maintaining the status quo may be an easier political option than changing trade policy.
“That’s a hefty chunk of change,” Tyson Brody, a Democratic strategist, said of the tariffs. “The way that Democrats are starting to think about it is not that ‘these will be impossible to withdraw.’ It’s: ‘Oh look, there’s now going to be a large pot of money to use and reprogram.’”
Of course, the tariffs could prove unpopular, and future elected officials may want to take steps that could lower consumer prices. At the same time, the amount of revenue the tariffs generate could decline over time if companies do, in fact, end up bringing back more of their operations to the United States, reducing the number of goods that face the import tax.
“This is clearly not an efficient way to gather revenue,” said Alex Jacquez, a former Biden official and the chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal group. “And I don’t think it would be a long-term progressive priority as a way to simply collect revenue.”
https://archive.is/tbbnv
They LIE, CHEAT, STEAL so Trump must enforce this, says former economic advisor
Fast & Furious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1g72wI70mE
Texas Democrats are literally fleeing the state to prevent redistricting – they may be arrested
Dozens of Texas Democrats plan to flee the state amid a special session Sunday afternoon, making a last-ditch effort to disrupt a mid-decade redistricting attempt forced by President Donald Trump, according to two people briefed on the matter.
It marks their second act of breaking quorum — when the state House will lack the minimum number of lawmakers needed to conduct business — since 2021. And it comes as the party scrambles to counter the aggressive action in Texas, intended to keep Republicans in power in Congress next year by creating five GOP-friendly seats in the state.
Four years ago, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for the arrest of fleeing lawmakers upon their return to their state.
Sunday’s move will almost certainly set off a nationwide redistricting arms race that threatens to upend the 2026 midterm election map.
For weeks Texas state lawmakers have been debating their strategy for responding to the GOP: Some members fully support a walkout; others are reluctant to take such a risk that could put them in legal and political jeopardy.
“Breaking quorum is an extreme step.It should be a last resort,” State Rep. James Talarico told POLITICO in an interview last Tuesday. He was among the 50 Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in 2021 over an election bill. Democrats are said to be headed to Illinois, a blue state with a governor who has accused Texas Republicans of cheating by trying to finagle redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections.
They are expected to touch down in Illinois on Sunday, setting off a standoff with Abbott in the high-stakes redistricting battle.
The move to deny quorum follows Texas Republicans unveiling a new congressional map that would provide their party with five new red-leaning districts — part of an effort to boost the GOP’s chances of hanging onto the House after the 2026 election. The Democrats need fewer than a handful of seats next year to seize control of the lower chamber after losing power at every level in Washington last year.
Republicans have strategically tied the redistricting plan to financial relief for families affected by devastating floods last month that left more than 120 people dead.
That move has angered Democrats, prompting the effort to hold up the special legislative session.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/03/democrats-flee-texas-redistricting-00491487
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114965740839460663
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Head of the Bureau of of Labor Statistics did the same thing just before the Presidential Election, when she lifted the numbers for jobs to an all time high. I then won the Election, anyway, and she readjusted the numbers downward, calling it a mistake, of almost one million jobs. A SCAM! She did it again, with another massive “correction,” and got FIRED! She had the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114966671063911029
Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅
@DanScavino
Imagine patriotically and proudly serving in the first Trump White House for four years, and departing in January of 2021 . . . Then, during the four years you're out, BIDEN LAWFARE kicks in, and you receive the below email five weeks before re-entering the White House again in January 2025…
“Google received and responded to a legal process issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation compelling the release of information related to your Google account. A court order previously prohibited Google from notifying you of the legal process…”
I’ve never shared this—but this is a small taste of the INSANITY that many of us went through—right here in the United States of America. LAWFARE at its finest. A Complete and Total Disgrace!!!!!
https://x.com/DanScavino/status/1951430137125257288
China owns most of the largest ports in Western Europe
The China Overseas Ports interactive visualizes degrees of China’s overseas port ownership by types of investment across regions and time. It also evaluates the dual-use (commercial and military) potential of ports owned, constructed, or operated by Chinese entities. The database supporting this interactive includes 129 port projects of which Chinese entities have acquired varied equity ownership or operational stakes. China operates or has ownership in at least one port in every continent except Antarctica. Of the 129 projects, 115 are active, whereas the remaining 14 port projects have become inactive due to cancellation or suspension by the end of July 2024. Reasons for cancellation or suspension include environmental concerns, souring of political relations, financial problems, and security issues raised domestically and internationally. Suspended projects, such as China’s construction of the Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates, could resume construction.
China has become the world’s largest trading country and second-largest economy, and conducts about 95 percent of its international trade through sea-lanes. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and the introduction of the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road, which connects China to Europe and the Arctic Ocean via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, have supercharged China’s overseas port investment and construction activities. President Xi has personally emphasized the importance of ports for economic development. When visiting Tieshan Port in Guangxi Province in April 2017, Xi highlighted the importance of ports in economic development: “We often say that to get rich we must first build roads; but in coastal areas, to get rich we must also first build ports.”
read full:
https://www.cfr.org/tracker/china-overseas-ports
Utah forces China and linked companies to sell land
PALMYRA, Utah — At a news conference on a fifth generation family farm here, Governor Spencer Cox criticized the Chinese government and companies linked to it for trying to purchase farmland and other properties across the state.
"We will not allow adversarial foreign entities to buy up strategic land in our state," the governor told reporters on Tuesday.
The governor said recently, a land sale near the Provo airport was blocked after it was discovered the purchasing company — which manufactures jets, drones and other aircraft — was linked to the Chinese government. That would be in violation of a Utah law that prohibits nations on a restricted foreign entities list from purchasing properties in Utah.
"The proposed investment was millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs. I don’t care. We are not for sale," Gov. Cox said.
The law was passed by Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman.
"It’s exciting to see we stopped the transaction from happening right by the Provo airport and that’s a direct result of the law," she told FOX 13 News.
Rep. Pierucci has passed legislation that also requires lands linked to these "adversarial foreign nations" (like China, Russia and Iran) to divest the properties they already do own. She said more than 35,000 acres of land had been identified and divested as a result of the laws. Other bills passed by the legislature include blocking the purchase of lands near military installations and even blocking food delivery drivers from dropping of meals at secure sites in the name of national security.
"Utah sits at the nexus of national security with all of the entities we have," Cooper Wimmer, executive vice-president of Strider Technologies, a data and intelligence firm that works in Utah, told FOX 13 News. "The Proving Ground, 19th Special Forces group, 47G, we've got the 300th intel unit here, NSA Utah, Hill Air Force Base — so there’s all this critical military infrastructure here and we’re a welcoming place so it makes it really ripe for foreign influence to try and come in this area."
Wimmer praised Utah lawmakers for their efforts to address the issue that he said many states are grappling with, with foreign governments purchasing land and exercising "soft power" influence in local school districts and universities.
But China is also a trade partner on some things with Utah. Asked by FOX 13 News if his statements would impact that, Gov. Cox had a message for the Chinese government.
"My message is we want to be partners with you, but until you start acting the way that allies do and should act? That’s an impossibility. The impetus is on them, the weight is on them to change the way they’re doing business," he said.
The Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, which oversees Utah, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment abut the governor's remarks on Tuesday.
Gov. Cox also criticized the Chinese government for restricting The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' operations in Beijing.
"It’s clear what China is attempting to do here. They’re using the right to worship as leverage. This is personal for us. Utah’s own story is rooted in the right to worship. Religious liberty is not a bargaining chip. Not for land deals, not for trade, not for diplomacy," he said.
Rep. Pierucci said she was crafting new legislation to address other issues related to adversarial foreign governments, including banning certain Chinese-made technologies related to infrastructure.
"Obviously water is a critical resource so that’s something we’re going to do an assessment on the vulnerabilities that we have in our water system," she said.
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/utah-forces-china-and-linked-companies-to-sell-land
How to assert dominance in your Golf endeavors.
So then why does nothing come out of Poland besides sausages?
Average day in Iran as a woman.
You only realize what you had until you lose it kind of jazz.