OUR PICKSTrump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartel | Crime Spree Targeted National Guard Equipment Stashes | US to Rewrite Its Past National Climate Reports

Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels  (Helene Cooper, Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage, and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)
The president has ordered the Pentagon to use the armed forces to carry out what in the past was considered law enforcement. 

Combating Domestic Violent Extremism Is No Longer a FEMA Priority  (Molly Taft, Wired)
Documents obtained by WIRED show FEMA plans to direct states and tribes to halt activities intended to combat domestic violent extremism so as to align with “current administration priorities.”

Mysterious Crime Spree Targeted National Guard Equipment Stashes  (Dell Cameron, Wired)
A string of US armory break-ins, kept quiet by authorities for months, points to a growing security crisis—and signs of an inside job.

Alligator Alcatraz: An Exercise in Performative Cruelty (Economist)
In Miami, where 70% of people are Hispanic, the deportation theatre is not going over well. Many expected the Trump administration to pick up gang members, but not cleaning ladies and Uber drivers. “Arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings” is “not what we voted for”, the co-founder of Latinas for Trump wrote on X in June. Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz resemble prisons in places their grandparents escaped. “Pick them up, throw them out, but don’t mock them,” one veteran Republican says of criminal immigrants. Another party strategist who “loves everything else Trump is doing” wonders how a country known for taking in “the poor and huddled masses” can also be “dragging them out to be tortured in the Everglades”.
A majority of Americans agree. In recent polling 52% said the government is trying to deport more people than they expected; 57% opposed building new detention centers. Last month Mr. Trump’s net approval rating on immigration flipped from positive to negative. On July 25th the administration announced it would give states $608m in federal emergency-management funds to build detention facilities. Other Republican governors may soon follow Florida’s lead. They might be wise to wait and see if their own base revolts.

US to Rewrite Its Past National Climate Reports  (AFP / Phys.org)
US President Donald Trump’s administration is revising past editions of the nation’s premier climate report—its latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.
The decision, announced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a CNN appearance Tuesday night, follows the government’s revocation of the Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that underpins a host of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Last month’s proposed revocation of the Endangerment Finding by the Environmental Protection Agency was accompanied by the release of a new climate study from the Department of Energy, authored by climate change contrarians.
The study, which scientists described “farcical,” questioned whether heat records are truly increasing and whether extreme weather is worsening.
It also misrepresented the work of cited climate scientists, according to several who spoke to AFP, and suggested that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide could be a net benefit for agriculture.

Trump’s #XiToo Moment  (Scott Lincicome, Dispatch / CATO)
Firing the BLS commissioner is an embarrassing, autocratic thing to do—with real economic consequences.

Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Want to Talk About Golden Dome  (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic)
National missile defense is still impossible—and expensive.

Donald Trump Escalates His War on Numbers  (Economist)
Another shocking assault on a non-partisan institution.

Trump Is Undermining Trust in Official Economic Statistics. China Shows Where That Path Can Lead  (Louise Matsakis, Wired)
China demonstrates how manipulating economic data can ultimately erode government credibility.