1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Dear diary. Here’s a snapshot of a day in the life of America. MAGA leaders continue efforts to gin up the idea that the US is being torn apart by political violence coming from “the left.” Or “Democrats.” Or just “THEM. The pretext, this time, is the public killing of a private citizen, but one revered on the right. And so the hounds were released against any and all of THEM, but this time with the help of the federal government. The power of the government is coming for THEM. And the First Amendment at the same time. Factoid: a 2024 report from a research arm of the DOJ noted that “[s]ince 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.” The DOJ removed the report from its website after the shooting. Violent acts associated with politics happen because members of a very small minority respond to rhetoric coming from political leaders. Reducing violence requires political elites to tone down their rhetoric. It also helps for leaders to reinforce democratic norms. We have the opposite happening now, dear diary. On other fronts, there have been more farm bankruptcies by the end of July than in all of 2024. Another bailout no doubt in the works. Americans’ credit scores are falling at the fastest pace since the Great Recession as we struggle to keep up with the high cost of everything. ICE officials who launched the raid on a Hyundai plant in GA had a warrant to look for four people from Mexico. But once the officials were there, they decided to meet the quotas established by Stephen Miller by arresting 400 South Koreans. The president filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the NYT for being mean to him. And Trump posted on social media that US military forces have struck another boat from Venezuela killing three people. Trump said they were “positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists,” but offered no evidence. He also told reporters that forces had also “knocked off” another boat, but crickets from the Pentagon when asked. FBI director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition to scrutiny for his not-ready-for-prime-time-TV response to the Kirk shooting, he was pressed on the Epstein files. He told Senator Kennedy that the material in the case files is limited and does not show that Epstein trafficked girls to anybody other than himself. “There is no credible information—none…that he trafficked to other individuals. And the information we have again is limited.” Even Kennedy looked incredulous. Then Patel yelled at Sen. Schiff when he challenged Patel’s assertion that the Bureau of Prisons alone made the decision to move Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security work camp after she spoke to DOJ officials. The WH congratulated Patel for tangling with Schiff, whom Trump calls “Pencil Neck.”