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Friday, August 15, 2025

As Trump and Putin Meet, Zelensky Facing Maximum Pressure

President Trump has talked of land swaps that will be essential for any long-term settlement. The problem for Ukraine is that they have very little territory that was previously in Russian hands. Russia, on the other hand, holds quite a bit of Ukrainian territory. Financial Times: Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still reeling from the most serious domestic political crisis of his presidency — a fierce backlash over a bungled attempt to muzzle Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies — when his phone rang last week. It was Donald Trump. The US president was telephoning to brief the Ukrainian leader, and European counterparts who joined the group call, on a meeting that had just wrapped up in Moscow. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had met with the man who had launched against Ukraine the bloodiest war on European soil in generations — Vladimir Putin — with a view to arranging the summit between the Russian and American leaders now set to take place in Alaska on Friday. Officials present and briefed on the call said that the tone was constructive. The message, however, was confusing. The Ukrainian leader was left wondering what exactly Witkoff and Putin had discussed — and he worried about what might have been promised by Witkoff to Russia’s leader in exchange for ending his invasion of Ukraine…. Trump said there would be “land swaps” involved. But Ukraine does not occupy more than a sliver of Russian territory since its forces were pushed out of the Kursk region this spring, and so has little to exchange. And the idea of ceding land to Moscow — especially that which its invading army does not currently occupy — is a firm Ukrainian red line (Financial Times). New York Times on the potential land swaps: It is not clear what, if any, occupied territory Russia would be prepared to give up as part of a swap. But Moscow wants Ukraine to unilaterally withdraw from the entire eastern region known as the Donbas, according to European officials who have spoken with Trump administration officials about their discussions with Mr. Putin. Ukrainian officials say they will not hand over land for a vague promise of peace that they would not trust Russia to abide by. That stance reflects not just fundamental principles of territorial sovereignty, but also military, humanitarian and political considerations that make a surrender of the Donbas hard to imagine for Ukrainians. “We will not leave Donbas,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told local media this week. “We cannot” (New York Times).

DC Officials Have Been Fudging the Numbers to Make Crime Rates Appear Lower

This would explain—at least in part—the experiential testimony of residents describing prevalent crimes while the city had been boasting of decreasing crime rates. Free Beacon: The District of Columbia has quietly settled a lawsuit from a sergeant who accused Metropolitan Police Department leaders of misclassifying offenses to deflate the district’s crime statistics, court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. Police brass repeatedly told officers to downgrade theft cases, knife attacks, and violent assaults to lesser offenses, according to internal MPD emails, depositions, and phone call transcripts the Free Beacon reviewed…. The lawsuit, as well as the city’s decision to settle, calls into question the prevailing narrative presented in mainstream media outlets as President Donald Trump carries out a D.C. crime crackdown. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico have all cited data from the Metropolitan Police Department to contend that D.C. crime is low and Trump’s crackdown is unnecessary. That coverage did not mention whistleblowers like Djossou, nor did it disclose that a D.C. police commander is currently on leave after the city’s police union accused him of manipulating crime stats (Free Beacon). Anna Giaritelli tells her story that—according to the stats—never really happened: Five years ago, I was violently attacked and sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., by a homeless man. He served time in federal prison for what he did to me. But if you look for evidence that the attack happened in the city’s crime statistics, you won’t find it. The truth of what happened to me and the D.C. government’s role in it is as much a public scandal as it is a personal trauma. D.C. police covered up the unspeakable wrong that the stranger did to me. Even though a judge sentenced my attacker to hard time in prison, D.C. police leadership would rather deceive the public and appear less dangerous than list mine and countless other sexual assaults on their website (Washington Examiner).

“The era of defining crime deviancy down is over”

That’s the opening line from Heather MacDonald, writing for the City Journal: That is the most important message to come out of President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C. The late Democratic senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York coined the phrase “defining deviancy down” in 1993 to describe the normalizing of antisocial behavior in contemporary America. Levels of deviancy once regarded as unacceptable become the new norm, hardly worthy of attention. Trump rejects that reflex. “I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” he said on Monday. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back….” Trump’s deployment is both within his constitutional authority and a justified use of federal law enforcement power to correct what should be regarded as an intolerable situation…. The National Guard does not threaten the rights and safety of D.C. residents; criminals do. Had city officials felt more urgency about their most fundamental obligation—safeguarding law and order—they would not be facing a temporary takeover of their public safety duties (City Journal).

Gov. Newsom Holds Rally to Kick Off California Redistricting Effort

The California governor is calling for a November special election to bypass the work of California’s independent redistricting commission. Los Angeles Times: “[Trump] doesn’t play by a different set of rules. He doesn’t believe in the rules,” Newsom said. “And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. It’s not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire” (Los Angeles Times). Newsom and the Democrats are creating new maps—maps that would presumably reduce the number of seats held by the GOP. Los Angeles Daily News: With Democrats holding a super-majority in the state Capitol, Newsom and the state’s Democratic leaders expressed confidence that they have enough votes to get the maps approved. Assuming that happens, Newsom will call a special election, and the proposed maps would be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot for Californians to vote on. They would then be used for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections, but only for congressional races. After that, California would go back to having an independent commission redraw congressional maps, following the next scheduled U.S. Census count (Daily News).

Democrats Complain About GOP Efforts to Gerrymander, Take Up Gerrymandering Themselves

It’s brazen hypocrisy, captured pretty well by Ryan Rusak in the Miami Times: Any politician with a career of appreciable length will eventually get caught in hypocrisy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is reaching a level of shamelessness that, if it were a virtue, might propel him straight to the presidency he so clearly desires. Most of Newsom’s fellow big-state Democratic governors have succumbed to the same inconsistency in their furious responses to Texas Republicans’ plans to redraw congressional districts. But in this unending game of “How low can you go?”, they are amateurs against a master…. The Californian declared the Texas effort “an affront to American democracy” and said it risks destabilizing the body politic. Sounds pretty terrible, right? And yet, Newsom vowed, he would do the exact same thing if the Texas Legislature proceeds after House Democrats finally return to Austin. The way Newsom describes it mimics the logic of the Cold War: mutually assured destruction. In this case, though, Democrats launched their missiles first. Newsom’s party boasts an edge of 43-9 in California’s U.S. House delegation. That’s 83%. Texas probably would go from a Republican advantage of 25-13 (66%) to 30-8 (79%). Democracy, it appears, was long ago affronted (AOL).

DeSantis to Open “Deportation Depot” to Complement Efforts of “Alligator Alcatraz”

As the Florida Governor seeks to facilitate the deportation efforts of the Trump administration. New York Sun: Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida announced Thursday the opening of a second immigration detention facility, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” in an expansion of the state’s crackdown on illegal aliens. The facility, situated less than 20 miles east of Lake City and not far from the Georgia border, will complement the existing detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which opened on July 1. The new site is not far from Alligator Lake Park. “The reason for this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage, and then return illegal aliens to their home country. That is the name of the game,” the Republican governor said at a press conference…. Immigration enforcement has been a priority for Mr. DeSantis, who made headlines earlier this year by signing what he called “the toughest anti-illegal immigration bill in the country.” The legislation passed during a special session of the Florida legislature, leading to heightened state involvement in federal immigration efforts (New York Sun).

Federal Court Issues Nationwide Ruling: Little Sisters of the Poor Must Provide Abortion and Contraceptives

… or face tens of millions of dollars in fines. Many of you will remember that the Catholic nuns won a case at the Supreme Court in 2020. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey have continued their legal efforts. Becket: “The district court blessed an out-of-control effort by Pennsylvania and New Jersey to attack the Little Sisters and religious liberty,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters. “It’s bad enough that the district court issued a nationwide ruling invalidating federal religious conscience rules. But even worse is that the district court simply ducked the glaring constitutional issues in this case, after waiting five years and not even holding a hearing. It is absurd to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court to end what has now been more than a dozen years of litigation over the same issue. We will fight as far as we need to fight to protect the Little Sisters’ right to care for the elderly in peace….” “As Little Sisters of the Poor, we dedicate our lives to caring for the elderly poor until God calls them home,” said Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “We will continue to fight for the right to carry out our mission without violating our faith, and we pray Pennsylvania and New Jersey will end this needless harassment.” The Little Sisters will appeal the ruling in the coming weeks (Becket). Mollie Hemmingway: Truly awful how much former President Obama, former AG Josh Shapiro, and other Democrats have tried to destroy the Little Sisters of the Poor. Pray for these women of conscience in their time of persecution (Hemmingway). David Strom: You would think that the left would be smart enough to leave a group called “Little Sisters of the Poor” alone. It’s not like they are great in number or even a household name, and you have to admit that the name itself should warn opponents to keep their hands off. You can’t find a much more sympathetic bunch. But of course, for the left, Hamas is sympathetic, and nuns are scary and must be bullied into submission. It is impossible to overestimate how much any dissent is intolerable to the left. That is the essence of totalitarianism. In the old Soviet Union, even novelists were so repulsive to the regime that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had to be crushed, lest the regime appear weak. The same is true here. Little Sisters of the Poor cannot be tolerated, lest anybody else get the idea that liberty still exists in America (Hot Air).

Two Years Later, UN States Clearly: Hamas Engaged in Sexual Violence Against Israelis

If the UN had been bold and unequivocal in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks, such a report may have been helpful in providing moral clarity. From the press release: With respect to the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Hamas is listed in the annex of the report on the basis of information verified by the United Nations in 2024, indicating reasonable grounds to believe that some hostages taken to Gaza were subjected to different forms of sexual violence during their time in captivity, and clear and convincing information that sexual violence also occurred during the attacks of 7 October 2023 in at least six locations (UN). Mossad Commentary: After Hamas filmed themselves committing rape, gang rape, genital mutilation & sexual abuse on Oct 7… after survivors told the world what happened… after evidence piled up beyond denial… The great moral guardians called the UN have finally put Hamas on their “sexual violence in conflict” blacklist. Two. Years. This is an insult to every victim still waiting for justice while their abusers hold hostages (Mossad).

Report: School Officials in Virginia Arranged, Paid for Students’ Abortions

The report comes out of Fairfax County Public Schools. Inside NoVa: Fairfax County Public Schools has launched an investigation into allegations that staff at Centreville High School arranged and paid for abortions for students without notifying their parents. The allegations were published in a report this week and include handwritten statements from two former students. The students allege that in 2021, a school social worker scheduled the procedures, paid for them and did not involve their families. One student said she was 17 at the time. The report names the clinic and several school staff members (Inside NoVa). Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin: I’m deeply concerned with the allegations that Fairfax County Public Schools officials arranged for minors to get abortions without parental consent and may have misused public funds to pay for them. I’m directing the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to open a full criminal investigation into the matter immediately (Youngkin). 40 Days for Life: “This isn’t ‘healthcare.’ It’s state-funded child exploitation. Every official involved must be held accountable” (Fox News).

10.

The World’s Most Pressing Problem: Too Few Babies

The latest report of the U.S. Census Bureau is only the latest exhibit in a crisis—literally—of humanity. Glenn Stanton: Human fertility has been declining precipitously around the globe and this fact is humanity’s most pressing long-term problem. We don’t have a human tomorrow if we don’t have enough babies today. This is precisely what is happening. Let us start close to home. The U.S. Census Bureau reported at the end of July our nation’s fertility rate dropped to an all-time low: fewer than 1.6 children being born per woman of fertile age. In fact, the last year we saw enough babies born in America to simply replace the current population was 2007. Ever since then, our national fertility has continued to plummet sharply to its current historic low. You cannot sustain, much less grow, any nation on such a sharp downward trajectory. Marko Jukic, senior analyst at Bismarck Analysis, explains a sustained fertility rate of 1.6 means 50% less people in a nation in just three generations. A 1.2 rate means an 80% drop. He calls these “mass extinction numbers.” Canada, Japan, China, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, Poland, Thailand, and others have generally these rates or below…. [Stanford economist Charles Jones] warns that declining populations will kill this vitally important and compassionate progress. Other fact-based global analysts agree. Jones warns, “With negative population growth, however, the flow of new ideas goes to zero.” He adds in sophisticated economist language, “When population growth is negative, both endogenous and semi-endogenous growth models produce what we call the Empty Planet result: knowledge and living standards stagnate for a population that gradually vanishes.” Vanishing we are (World).

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