History shows that police states aren't declared: they're assembled piece by piece, until one day ordinary people realize the freedoms they once took for granted have quietly disappeared… Tuesday morning in Houston, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo did what he’d done nearly every morning for 35 years. He woke at 5 a.m., kissed his wife goodbye, loaded his van, and drove off to pick up his construction crew in Magnolia Park, the neighborhood that’s anchored Houston’s Mexican American community for a century. He’d raised three sons in that city; they became a teacher and two engineers. He had no criminal record, and he was partway through the legal process of getting a work permit, biometrics and fingerprints already done. By 7 a.m. he was lying face down on Canal Street with a bullet in his abdomen, crying out for help in Spanish while a federal agent knelt over him talking on the phone. He died at Ben Taub Hospital, the same hospital where two of his sons were born. The Harris County medical examiner has ruled the manner of his death a “homicide.”

Trump's latest Red Scare recycles one of America's oldest political tricks: invent an internal enemy to distract voters from the policies reshaping the country… So, now Trump says we’re communists, you and me, after having earlier called us “potential domestic terrorists.”

The real divide isn't political:?it's between those willing to normalize modern fascism's cruelty and those who refuse… The “partisan split” of Americans showed up in a big way at Fourth of July celebrations and backyard barbecues last week, but the media, while noting or even complaining about it, rarely mentions exactly why it’s happening. A few weeks ago Louise and I were having coffee with an old friend who’s known us since the early days of the radio show, and somewhere between the second cup and the muffins she said something that’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Her sister, a three-time Trump voter, had finally called — after months of silence — and demanded to know why our friend had stopped returning her calls. “It’s just politics,” the sister said. “Why are you taking this so personally?” Our friend, who is queer and married, listened for about thirty seconds and then said, very quietly, “Because you voted for the people who want me to disappear, and you knew that when you did it.” Then she hung up. She told us she felt awful about it for about an hour, and then she felt nothing at all, and the nothing was almost worse than the guilt would’ve been.

The Best of the Rest of the News and Opinion. — Two hundred and fifty years on, the real fight over the Declaration of Independence isn’t about fireworks: it’s about who gets to own it — Nothing says “Happy Birthday, America” quite like a heat dome trying to kill a hundred million of us. — And right on cue, a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can keep throwing the signs explaining all of that down the memory hole. — Good news! The world got nearly 11% richer last year. The bad news is you can probably guess who’s holding it. — Speaking of the folks who did get richer: the President bought 327 stocks the day before he personally moved the entire market. — The headlines insisted Trump “lost” at the Supreme Court this term. Down in the fine print, though, King Trump is doing just fine — Meanwhile, the agency Trump just funded to the eyeballs handcuffed a 56-year-old nun on her way to Mass. — Geeky Science Alert! Want to outlive the billionaires? Turns out you should eat like a peasant.