“While debates rage online about the Democratic party needing to be more moderate or more progressive, Democratic primary voters are focused on a different set of priorities entirely. They want fighters who can win and seem like they care about average people struggling in this economy. It makes sense that Democratic voters are in the mood for a candidate like Platner, with his oyster-farmer aesthetic and ‘not a regular politician’ energy. But we were still left wondering how voters were processing Platner’s laundry list of personal baggage, from the much-discussed Totenkopf tattoo to the slew of bad Reddit posts. Here’s what they said …” (05/06/26)
“France’s aircraft carrier strike group is moving south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential future mission as part of a French-British plan for the Strait of Hormuz, the French armed forces said Wednesday. The southward repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts is the latest stage of a Middle East deployment first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in a televised address on March 3, the day before Iran closed the strait. The move south of Suez puts France’s only carrier closer to the Persian Gulf chokepoint where a fifth of the world’s oil normally transits and where Iran has effectively halted commercial traffic since early March.” (05/06/26)
“Since Trump returned to office, Democrats have overperformed in 90 percent of competitive elections and hold a perfect 30–0 record in flipped state legislative seats. Republicans may dominate the cash-on-hand conversation in political media, but Democrats are investing resources into actual electoral gains. That disconnect underscores how fundraising comparisons are, at best, an incomplete measure of political strength. Importantly, many of these gains are happening in places national Democrats historically have ignored.” (05/06/26)
“It goes without saying that any tool or power government acquires for addressing some crisis of the moment will eventually—often, almost immediately—be deployed against the general public. So it is with border enforcement and the crackdown on immigrants. Surveillance technology ostensibly intended for the enforcement of laws regulating migration is being turned against Americans.” (05/06/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson
“It was supposed to cost $33 billion when voters approved the train in 2008. It will now cost at least $126 billion. It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for ‘full service to start.’ Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard.” (05/06/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Murtaza Hussain
“Over two decades after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it is difficult to understand what the precise relationship is between Baghdad and Washington. Economic, political, and cultural ties between the two countries are weak—mostly reflecting in-built structural dependence by Iraqi institutions on the U.S. financial system—while a legacy of suspicion and hostility has outlived the war. This alienated relationship will be strange to those who remember the justifications for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was depicted as another step in an unstoppable march of liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War, intended to benefit not just Iraqis but Americans themselves.” (05/06/26)
“The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Wednesday Apple’s request to temporarily block a judicial order that found the iPhone maker in violation of sweeping court-mandated changes to its lucrative App Store as part of an antitrust lawsuit by ‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games. Justice Elena Kagan, on behalf of the court, declined to pause a ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that deemed Apple in contempt in the Epic lawsuit contesting App Store fees. Apple had sought the delay to give it time to file a full Supreme Court appeal of the 9th Circuit decision. Apple and Epic have clashed for years over the rules governing Apple’s App Store. The contempt ruling and the scope of Apple’s court-ordered obligations are the latest issues in the dispute to reach the Supreme Court.” (05/06/26)
“John Adams’s evolution from mere toleration of Roman Catholicism to open support for religious liberty personifies a revolution in the American mind.” (05/06/26)
“Finalization of the much-heralded Pandemic Agreement, the flagship of the World Health Organization’s pandemic agenda, has just been postponed again after another failure to resolve disagreements. Despite heavy pressure from the WHO and European Union in yet another meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland, a large bloc of African states are refusing to sign on to what they consider a clear colonialist agenda. Which of course it is, aimed at putting Covid-era wealth transfers on a more permanent footing. The WHO, for reasons explained below, is doing what it is paid to do. Major financial sponsors of the WHO have much to gain from getting this Agreement through.” (05/06/26)
