US Economy Rebounding: Economic Growth at 3 Percent for 2nd Quarter

Daily Wire: In the second quarter of 2025, the U.S. economy surpassed experts’ predictions, as real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 3%, the highest level since the third quarter of 2024, when it increased 3.1%.The consumption side of the economy grew 1.4%, accelerating from 0.5% growth in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, the real GDP dipped 0.5%. Wall Street consensus had projected approximately 2.5% growth. The GDP growth primarily reflected “a decrease in imports and an increase in consumer spending that were partly offset by decreases in investment and exports,” the Bureau of Economic Analysis stated, adding, “The increase in consumer spending reflected increases in both services and goods (Daily Wire). Financial Times: The second-quarter figure beat Wall Street expectations for GDP to expand at a 2.6 per cent pace, and contrasted with a 0.5 per cent contraction in the first quarter. Overall, the economy grew at a 1.1 per cent annualised rate in the first half of 2025, compared with 2.9 per cent in the second half of the previous year, according to Financial Times calculations. “The sharp fluctuations are attributable to the tariff dispute, which has caused distortions in foreign trade. It therefore makes sense to interpret the first half of the year as a whole,” said analysts at Commerzbank. “Accordingly, the US economy has lost considerable momentum this year” (Financial Times). Trump: 2Q GDP JUST OUT: 3%, WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED! (Truth). Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is bullish—picking up with a question from a reporter: “You’ve been described as a global macro veteran and you’ve run a hedge fund. In this moment, where would you put your money if you were still running one?” a reporter asked Bessent. “United States of America,” Bessent said with a smile — and without missing a beat (Breitbart).

Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady—But Two on Committee Objected

It was the first time more than a single member of the Federal Open Market Committee dissented in more than 30 years. The fed rates remain unchanged at 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent. The Hill: Nine members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) agreed to keep rates where they are. But Fed Vice Chair of Supervision Michelle Bowman and Gov. Christopher Waller — who are both in the running for President Trump’s nomination to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell — voted to lower them, following an immense pressure campaign from the president. It was the first time two members of the Fed board, which usually votes unanimously, dissented in more than 30 years. All members of the Fed board are part of the FOMC, which also includes a rotation of regional reserve bank officials. Powell downplayed the significance of the dissents during a Wednesday press conference, praising Bowman and Waller for laying out clear and logical cases for their decisions during the meeting (The Hill). Financial Times: “The goal today was to move the odds of a September cut down to 50-50,” said Richard Clarida, a former Fed governor who is now at asset manager Pimco. “And he did that.” Powell’s reluctance to signal a September rate cut was perceived as hawkish by many market participants, with some traders having expected him to hint that a September rate cut could be in play. Short-term Treasuries sold off as traders ratcheted down bets on a September rate cut, sending the two-year yield jumping 0.07 percentage points to 3.94 per cent. The dollar rallied more than 1 per cent against a basket of six peers, leaving it on course for its best week since 2022 (Financial Times). There are twelve members on the committee: the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis (Fed).

Mamdani in Spotlight in Wake of NY Shooting

The socialist Zohran Mamdani who has secured the nomination of the Democratic party for the New York Mayor’s race has a long history of wanting to defund the police (generally) and defund or disband the special unit that responded to shooting on Tuesday. He held a press conference yesterday. New York Post: the mayoral frontrunner, during a highly anticipated news conference, nodded when asked if he would still disband the police department’s Strategic Response Group, the elite NYPD unit that responded to the massacre. “There is a need to ensure that every act we take is one that is actually delivering public safety,” he said. “And what we see right now, especially with regards to how we respond to protests, is not in line” (New York Post). Charlie Kirk: Zohran Mamdani has spent years denigrating police officers as racist and a threat to public safety. He’s laughed at crying cops and called to defund them. Now as a candidate, he rushes to support them? I hope NYC wakes up before the nightmare starts (Kirk). Mark Levin doesn’t mince words: “This guy is a moron … If New Yorkers are foolish enough to vote this man into office, you will deserve him… This guy is the enemy of the people. He’s not only a Marxist. He’s a radical Islamist. He’s a Jew hater. He’s an antisemite” (Levin). The shooting has brought new attention to the race for mayor, but Mamdani still dominates polling: Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani looks to be cruising toward victory, capturing 50 percent of the vote in a new general election poll of the mayor’s race paid for by his allies. In the five-way contest, Andrew Cuomo trailed him with 22 percent, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa came in third at 13 percent and Mayor Eric Adams captured 7 percent of the vote among likely voters. Attorney Jim Walden received 1 percent (Politico).

Brown University to Pay $50 Million in Agreement With Government Over DEI and Sex Discrimination

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon: The Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions. Because of the Trump Administration’s resolution agreement with Brown University, aspiring students will be judged solely on their merits, not their race or sex. Brown has committed to proactive measures to protect Jewish students and combat Antisemitism on campus. Women’s sports and intimate facilities will be protected for women and Title IX will be enforced as it was intended (McMahon). More on the victory for women and women’s sports, from the agreement: The University will take the following steps to ensure compliance with Title IX and its implementing regulations, by providing safe and equitable opportunities and spaces for women: a. In Brown Athletics facilities, the University will provide female student-athletes with intimate facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms strictly separated on the basis of sex. b. The University will define “male” and “female,” for the purpose of all practices, policies, and procedures adopted and implemented by the University for any athletic opportunity, event, competition, category, program, or activity designated for women, consistent with the definitions adopted in Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Jan. 20, 2025), and Executive Orders14201, Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports (Feb. 5, 2025). c. The University will offer women the option of female-only housing, restrooms, and showering facilities, and for these purposes will adopt the abovementioned definitions of “male” and “female” (Brown).

FBI Chief Kash Patel Announces Discovery of Trump-Russia Documents in “Burn Bags”

Yes: “Burn bags” are documents that they had intended to destroy. Fox News: FBI Director Kash Patel found a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump–Russia probe buried in multiple “burn bags” in a secret room inside the bureau, sources told Fox News Digital. Sources told Fox News Digital that the “burn bag” system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher. Sources told Fox News Digital that multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents. Sources told Fox News Digital that one of the documents FBI officials found in a burn bag was the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham’s final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed. The declassification of the classified annex is being done in close coordination between CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman…. Patel, in a June interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, revealed that he found a room full of documents and computer hard drives “that no one had ever seen or heard of. Just think about this,” Patel told Rogan. “Me, as director of the FBI, the former ‘Russiagate guy,’ when I first got to the bureau, found a room that Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of. Locked the key and hid access and just said, ‘No one’s ever gonna find this place.'” Patel and his staff have been working through the documents, some of which are related to sensitive investigations, including the FBI’s original Trump–Russia probe, known inside the bureau as Crossfire Hurricane. It is unclear what the latest documents cover specifically, but sources told Fox News Digital that the most recent discovery was pursuant to an investigative request from Grassley (Fox News).

Arkansas and 15 Other State AGs Press Congress to Crack Down on Mail-Order Abortion

The abortion pill now accounts for 63 percent of all abortions (Guttmacher). States that have limited or completely prohibited abortion are wrestling with permissive states that pass shield laws—protecting physicians who mail the lethal drug to women in states trying to protect innocent human life. White River Now: Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin asked Congress on Tuesday to ban so-called abortion shield laws in states where the procedure remains legal. In a letter co-signed by 15 other state attorneys general, Griffin said, “These laws are blatant attempts to interfere with states’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders and disrupt our constitutional structure.” States where abortion remains legal have passed laws protecting abortion providers from legal consequences if they perform abortions for residents of states where abortion is banned or supply residents in those states with medications that induce abortion. Such shield laws arose after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states, like Arkansas, passed new bans or allowed previous bans that had been dormant to go into effect. Some of these shield laws explicitly protect abortion providers who prescribed and shipped abortion pills to women in states with bans, frustrating attempts by anti-abortion officials to prosecute the providers (White River). The letter: Congress should consider stepping in to remedy this problem. Instead of allowing proabortion States to disrespect the decisions of other States regarding abortion and trample the Constitution, Congress should assess whether it should tackle this issue head on with legislation that preempts state shield laws (Arkansas).

GOP Pressing Back on Schumer’s Obstruction on Trump’s Nominees

Democrats in the Senate seem to be determined to operate like they did in Trump’s first term: Block absolutely everything and throw a spoke in the wheels of anything that seems to be moving. Katie Pavlich: Democrats in the U.S. Senate are doing everything they can to block President Donald Trump’s agenda by slow-walking his political nominees in the upper chamber. At this point in former President Joe Biden’s term, 74 of his nominees were confirmed. For Trump, it’s just 42 percent. Currently more that 150 nominees are still unconfirmed, which includes a number of high profile positions inside federal agencies and U.S. Embassies across the globe. Republicans are fed up with the antics. “GOP leaders are trying to build pressure on Democrats to confirm dozens of nominees in the coming days. Top Senate Republicans are warning Democrats that unless they start helping to speed up confirmations of President Donald Trump’s nominees, there will be consequences — including a potential effort to change the chamber’s rules,” POLITICO reports. “The warning shot comes as Republicans seek to confirm dozens of Trump nominees before leaving for their traditional summer break. Doing so without weeks of delay would require Democrats to cut a deal to speed up the process, and internal frustration is mounting about the overall pace of confirmations” (Townhall).

Boston Children’s Hospital Among 20 Hospitals With Officials Subpoenaed Over Gender Mutilative Procedures on Minors

Washington Stand: Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) is among 20 medical centers and doctors subpoenaed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over its involvement “in performing transgender medical procedures on children,” National Review revealed on Monday. The DOJ announced on July 9 that it had sent “more than 20 subpoenas” related to investigations that “include healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.” The DOJ never specified which transgender centers were under investigation, but the record of Boston Children’s Hospital would place it nearly at the top of almost any list…. According to the hospital’s website, minor patients could receive a double mastectomy (so-called “top surgery”) at 15 years old and a vaginoplasty (which amputates male sexual organs and devises a functionless facsimile of female organs) at 17 years old. Patients who wanted a phalloplasty (like a vaginoplasty, but for females) could receive one at the age of 18. A BCH YouTube video confirmed this information, as a hospital social worker said genital surgeries at the hospital “are started at age 17 for very few … for where it’s really appropriate.” However, some evidence suggested that even these age minimums were not always followed. In one video, Dr. Oren Ganor said their Center for Gender Surgery (CfGS) at Boston Children’s Hospital was “slightly flexible” about the age of gender transition surgeries. Indeed, “when you start digging around, you find that there are definitely cases of 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds who undergo these voluntary double mastectomies,” said The Post Millennial’s Cristina Buttons (Washington Stand).

Washington Post Parts Ways With Glenn Kessler: Does It Signal the End of “Fact Checking” Media?

Glenn Kessler was the fact checker who rated with Pinocchio’s noses—based on his assessment of the degree of the lie’s egregiousness. His last day is today. David Strom: It’s about time. He has been one of the key players in Pravda’s misinformation complex…. I wish I could say Kessler was fired, but it is more accurate to say that he bailed out of a damaged aircraft before his career ended in a ball of fire. Glenn Kessler, the editor of The Fact Checker, announced Monday he has taken a buyout, ending his lengthy career at the Post: “After more than 27 years at The Washington Post, including almost 15 as The Fact Checker, I will be leaving on July 31, having taken a buyout,” Kessler wrote on his Facebook page…. As you are aware, The Washington Post is shifting its direction, having lost more than half a million subscribers since 2020. The biggest shift, we are told, is a move back to the center and a commitment to free markets and free people. Kessler has had an outsized impact on American politics, being a member of the elite class that determines what Narrative™ can be told. He literally claimed to establish what was fact and what was fiction, and his mission has been promoting the fiction that Democrats own the facts (Hot Air). Mark Hemmingway—who, in 2011, did a cover story for the Weekly Standard, “Lies, Damned Lies, and ‘Fact Checking”: The methodology of the lie-tracker and its absurd numbers did make one thing painfully clear: The purpose of the Post’s “fact checker” here was not truth or accountability. “Trump has told 20,000+ lies” was a talking point repeated ad nauseum in the 2020 election, even though any honest broker who looked at their Calvinball methodology for determining “false or misleading” would find it false and misleading. The truth is that the “fact checker” was lying about Trump lying to try and sway the outcome of an election. It’s entirely possible that Kessler and no one else at the Post saw what they were doing in such stark terms, but, I’m sorry, that’s not unfair. Especially when you consider that Kessler explicitly declined to do a similar tracker for Joe Biden after being called out. And Biden was a man who already had a well-documented history of truly egregious lies going back decades…. Glenn Kessler accused Donald Trump of lying 30,000 times, making a ludicrous, half-assed attempt to document this claim, and where exactly did that get those of us that want a functioning media? Following Biden’s disastrous term when Kessler himself tried to falsely assert he was mentally competent to serve as president when he clearly was not, Kessler is now leaving the Washington Post, while Trump is back in the White House. Again, I won’t go so far as to make a definitive judgment, so you tell me who won the credibility battle between media “fact checkers” and Donald Trump. While you puzzle that out, let me just say again that Glenn is a very nice guy. You’d be delighted to have him as a friend and neighbor. But on some level, I have to separate the personal and professional. Professionally, I have no trouble saying I’m glad that “fact checking” is dying off And personally, I’m grateful Glenn has the opportunity to finally do something, anything else (Federalist).

Pew Confirms What Americans Are Experiencing: Republican and Democratic Voters Cannot Agree on Basic Facts

And the numbers are pretty dramatic. Pew: Eight-in-ten U.S. adults say that when it comes to important issues facing the country, Republican and Democratic voters not only disagree on plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts. A bar chart showing that majorities in both parties say Republican and Democratic voters cannot agree on basic facts. Another 18% say voters in opposing parties can agree on basic facts, even if they disagree about policies, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in March…. The survey asked all respondents who say Democratic and Republican voters cannot agree about basic facts whether two potential factors are reasons why. Among this group, 67% say a major reason is that partisan voters are interpreting the same information differently. And 53% say a major reason is that Republican and Democratic voters are getting different information altogether. These two answers are not mutually exclusive. In fact, 40% of those who received this question say both are major factors (Pew).