SWEPT AWAY: Federal response to the Texas flooding disaster was delayed by cost-cutting and control of federal emergency management from the top, several news agencies report.

  CNN reports, for example that FEMA was unable to pre-position response teams because they did not yet have the approval of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem

  In the midst of continued search for bodies along the rivers of Texas hill country, Noem yesterday issued a political policy statement about getting rid of the FEMA. “Federal emergency management should be state and locally led rather than how it has operated for decades,” Noem said. “It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and made into a responsive agency.”

  Local Texas authorities also are facing questions about slow and late emergency warnings before the flash flooding  that led to 120 confirmed deaths with 160 people still missing.

THE TRADE WAR ROOM: President Trump yesterday said he would impose a punitive 50 percent tariff on goods imported from Brazil in retaliation for a “witch hunt” against his political ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial accused of attempting a coup.

  Writing to Brazil’s current president, Trump said, “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace.”

   The case against Bolsonaro focuses on his attempts to hold on to power after losing Brazil’s 2022 election. Interestingly, Bolsonaro had long claimed that if he lost an election it would be because of fraud from the left. 

  In sympathy with Bolsonaro Trump said, “It happened to me, times 10. I’ll be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro, his family, and thousands of his supporters, very closely.”

CRIMINAL REFERRAL: The Trump administration is reported to be pursuing criminal investigations into senior officials involved with the investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. Under scrutiny are former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan. 

  Current CIA director John Ratcliffe,  a harsh critic of his Democratic-appointed predecessors, has made a criminal referral of Brennan to the FBI, accusing him of lying to Congress. The FBI is also scrutinizing Comey for his role in the Russia investigation. 

  Asked what he thinks about the investigations of Comey and Brennan, President Trump said, “I think they’re very dishonest people. I think they’re crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that.” 

THE MURDER BEAT: The city of Los Angeles  reports that murders in the city have fallen by more than 20% in the first half of the year, putting the city on pace for its lowest number of homicides in nearly 60 years.

  Murder is going out of style in major US cities. The murder rate dropped by an overall 16 percent from 2023 to 2024 in the 29 cities studied by the Council On Criminal Justice.  That was 631 fewer murders year to year.

    Police departments credit smarter policing as a factor, but also a return to more normal community life following the pandemic.

  Murders are down in Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Chattanooga, Buffalo, Richmond, and Detroit. Killings in Baltimore, a notoriously murderous city, are down 23 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. Philadelphia has had 121 murders through July 8^th compared to 282 in the same stretch of 2022.

SPOTS: With the science of vaccination under assault coupling with religious objection, the US has had more cases of measles so far this year than any year since the disease was declared eradicated in this country in the year 2000. At least 1,288 cases have been diagnosed, more than the 2019 outbreak in which measles spread through New York’s orthodox Jewish community.

  The childhood rate for the MMR vaccine has fallen 2.3 percent to a point below what’s necessary for what’s called “herd immunity” for the population.

  This outbreak began in January in a Mennonite community in West Texas and has travelled to New Mexico, Oklahoma and a total of 16 states. It’s an embarrassment to America’s reputation for disease control. 

  At least 92 percent of the cases are people who are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status.  The centers for Disease Control says that one or two out of every 1,000 children who gets measles will die. 

THE SPIN RACK: Thirty-one workers escaped a tunnel collapse in Los Angeles overnight by walking to an alternate exit five miles away. — The Supreme Court ruled that Florida may not enforce a state law that imposes criminal penalties on undocumented migrants caught entering the state while the constitutionality of the law is tested. At least seven states have similar laws. —  Former President Joe Biden’s longtime doctor, Kevin O’Connor, has declined to testify in the Republican-led congressional investigation into what Republicans call “the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.”. —  Four Canadians, including members of the country’s military, were arrested in what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say was a plot to take over land in the Quebec area. The RCMP says the four had stockpiled weapons and  “took part in military-style training, as well as shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises.” —  The Trump administration yesterday sued California for refusing to abandon its policy allowing transgender athletes on girls’ teams. The US Department of Education is pressing to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.

BELOW THE FOLD: During a meeting yesterday President Trump repeatedly praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for his command of the English language. Trump praised his “beautiful English” and asked Boakai where he learned to speak it.

  Boakai answered, “Liberia.”

  English is the official language of Liberia.

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