News and Views on the Global Stage....

Magician
My Take

Trump’s Soccer Magic Turns Toxic as USA Gets Embarrassed, 4-1

I could sense it coming even before President Trump waved his magic wand and got striker Folarin Balogun reinstated from his suspension. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) was about to get a brutal comeuppance from Belgium, which happened tonight to the tune of 4 to 1 in the Round of 16. I actually turned off the game after Belgium, early on, scored one of the easiest goals in the whole 2026 FIFA World Cup Tournament. It looked as if the U.S. team was hardly paying attention to its opponents. I switched channels to watch the New York Mets baseball game, and their broadcast team kept everyone up to date with the soccer score: First, 2-1, then 3-1, finally 4-1. I think Belgium became even more determined to embarrass the U.S. squad after Trump got Balogun off his red-card penalty so he could participate. When that was announced yesterday, Belgian soccer officials dubbed it “April Fool’s Day.” They couldn’t believe it. The only fool, however, turns out to be Trump, who today proclaimed himself to be a soccer referee par excellence in remarks at the White House. First the Strait of Hormuz, and now the USMNT. The losses keep

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Currently...

U.N. Chief Wants a Ban on Killer Robots

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for an end to autonomous weapons of warfare that could be turned against civilian populations. “Machines selecting and engaging their target and taking a life — without human control and judgment. That is morally repugnant,” Guterres said. “Let us call them what they are: killer robots.”  Pope Leo XIV earlier this year also warned of artificial-intelligence (AI) weaponry and combat reliance on AI. He feared that AI could make combat more palatable for those in charge. Anthropic is currently in a legal war with the Pentagon over the use of its AI tools for warfare and/or domestic surveillance. The Pentagon basically rejected Anthropic’s conditions, countering that it would use AI for any legal purpose it saw fit. Which no doubt means in warfare. The two are still locked in a court battle. Drones were not brought up in any of these discussions, evidently because they’re here to stay as a weapon of warfare. Drones, of course, rely on semiconductor chips and AI to find their targets, along with human help. Actually, if war came down to robots fighting robots with no civilians threatened, that could be a plus. But that’s unlikely. If one

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Currently...

Born with a Silver Trump Account in Their Mouth

Trump Accounts are here! All new U.S. babies can now be enrolled in these accounts with a starting sum of $1,000 provided by Trump, er, by the government. Parents, and even the children if they start working before 18, can contribute up to $5,000 each year. Trump Accounts are a national tax-advantaged investment program for children under 18 that officially went live on July 4, 2026. The U.S. Treasury Department provides a $1,000 seed deposit for eligible babies born between 2025 and 2028, with families allowed to contribute up to $5,000 annually. Accounts can be managed via the Trump Accounts Portal. To mark the official nationwide rollout, President Trump rang the opening bell for the NYSE and Nasdaq directly from the White House on July 6, 2026. The program was established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, limiting initial investments to low-cost index funds and ETFs that track the broad U.S. market, such as the S&P 500. Withdrawals are generally restricted until the child turns 18, at which point the accounts transition into traditional IRAs. As the speakers at today’s White House ceremony noted, the hope is to instill the spirit of capitalism in the recipients, who will —

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Colonial
Currently...

For a Fledgling Democracy, Early US Politics Had the Elite Choosing Our President

Here’s something that might surprise you: for the first few decades of American history, most citizens couldn’t vote for president at all. Their state politicians just picked the president’s electors for them—no public vote required. So how did we get from that system to the one we have today? It wasn’t a single law or dramatic moment. Instead, it was a messy, state-by-state process that took nearly 80 years to complete. What Are Presidential Electors, Anyway? Before we dive into the history, let’s clear up what “electors” actually means. When you vote for president today, you’re not technically voting for the candidate directly. You’re voting for a slate of electors—people who will officially cast your state’s votes in something called the Electoral College. It’s these electors who actually choose the president. The U.S. Constitution left it completely up to each state to decide how to pick these electors. And in the beginning, most states decided their legislatures would just choose them behind closed doors.

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TrumpFan
My Take

It Pays to Have Fans in High Places — Just Ask Folarin Balogun

None dare call him partisan, but our Soccer-Fan-in-Chief — or is it Futbol-Fan-in-Chief? — Donald Trump has used his infamous phone to get USA National Team striker Folarin Balogun reinstated. Balogun was given an infamous red card in his last game for an inadvertent ankle stomping of a rival player, meaning he would have to miss tomorrow’s game against Belgium. Trump intervened by calling FIFA president Gianni Infantino to request a review of the penalty. Some days later — meaning this morning — the call paid off as Infantino managed to get the striker’s penalty converted to a yearlong probation. Though red flags are not contestable under FIFA rules, there is something called Article 27, which allows for conversion to what amounts to soccer parole. Though using Article 27 is rare, it was invoked just this past year for superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. who was set to miss three games because of an elbowing incident and ultimately received a similar probation.  The Belgian football association is unhappy with today’s reversal. protesting that the “decision is in direct contradiction with the provisions of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Competition Regulations.”  Trump, however, is elated, writing on Truth Social: “Thank you to FIFA for

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Venezuela
Currently...

Venezuela Marks Its 1811 Declaration of Independence, First Colony to Break from Spain

It’s doubtful that there’s much celebrating in Venezuela today as the nation marks its 1811 Declaration of Independence from Spain, a break that sadly lasted only a year and was marked by earthquakes in Caracas, eerily predictive of what happened to the the city this year. Here’s the story of that historic event, illustrated above as the Declaration is signed. On July 5, 1811, Venezuela became the first Spanish colony in the Americas to officially break away from Spain. It was a bold move that would inspire independence movements across the continent. But this wasn’t a sudden burst of patriotic fever. The declaration came after years of tension, political maneuvering, and a perfect storm of events happening thousands of miles away in Europe. And as we’ll see, the dream of independence would prove much easier to declare than to actually achieve. When Napoleon Broke Spain (And Accidentally Sparked a Revolution) The story really begins in 1808, not in Venezuela, but in Spain. That year, the French military genius Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain with his armies. He forced Spain’s King Ferdinand VII to give up his throne and installed his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new king. Imagine waking up

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Constituion
Currently...

How the U.S. Constitution Almost Didn’t Happen

The creation of the U.S. Constitution wasn’t some noble, unified moment where everyone held hands and sang about freedom. It was a brutal summer of backroom deals, shouting matches, and a propaganda war that would make modern political campaigns look tame. In 1787, the young United States was falling apart. The country’s first attempt at a constitution—the Articles of Confederation—was a disaster. The Founders had been so terrified of creating another king that they’d made the central government basically powerless. It couldn’t collect taxes. It couldn’t regulate trade between states. It couldn’t enforce any laws. When farmers in Massachusetts grabbed their pitchforks and started an armed rebellion (Shays’ Rebellion), the government couldn’t even stop them. Leaders across the country realized: this isn’t working. The Philadelphia Convention: A Secret Meeting in a Sweltering Room (May–September 1787) Fifty-five delegates showed up in Philadelphia with a simple job: fix the Articles of Confederation. Make a few tweaks, patch the holes, send everyone home. Instead, they locked the windows. Yes, in the middle of a Philadelphia summer—imagine the heat, the sweat, the smell—they sealed the room for total secrecy. And then they decided to throw out the entire system and start over from scratch.

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