“Nonprofits face a series of interlocking crises in the second Trump administration. Most obviously, there are broadsides from the White House: indiscriminate funding cuts for human services providers, targeted pressure campaigns and cuts to research funding for higher education, threats to investigate and prosecute left-leaning philanthropies. But this challenge is layered on top of a deeper crisis of trust.” (05/18/26)
“The contemporary leftist [sic] is a consequentialist with no limiting principles. After the Virginia Supreme Court stopped the Democrats’ unconstitutional gerrymandering scheme, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now the favorite Democratic Party presidential prospect 2028 in a number of polls, claimed that the court ‘didn’t overturn a map’ but ‘overturned an election.’ ‘The power of the American people, that should be the ultimate check on all three branches,’ she declared. In any other age, vocalizing illiterate nonsense about our system of governance might be an embarrassing career-ending flub. Today, it’s the norm among progressives.” (05/18/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob Hornberger
“To date, President Trump and the U.S. national-security branch of the federal government (i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA) have assassinated around 200 people in small boats on the high seas near South America. Such assassinations are quickly becoming a normalized part of American life, especially within the mainstream press. There is no question but that the American people, as of now, can do little to stop these assassinations. Trump controls the congressional branch of government as well as the Justice Department. Ever since the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state, the Supreme Court has made it clear that it will not enforce the Constitution against anything the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA do in the name of ‘national security.'” (05/18/26)
“Basic economics makes psychologically normal humans angry and disgusted. Usually mildly, but the uglier the economic lesson, the more extreme the anger and disgust become. … They don’t think very carefully, but they still have strong opinions against, say, letting developers buy up townhomes in San Francisco to replace them with skyscrapers. Which is very weird. Why would anyone have strong opinions about issues they haven’t thought about very carefully? Because they’re relying on emotion instead!” (05/18/26)
“The president’s rhetorical style, heard most recently on his mid-May trip to China, is explained by political allies as part of Trump’s strategic approach and criticized by his opponents as the dangerous musings of an unstable leader. In either case – whether it’s Trump’s defenders or detractors – it is increasingly difficult to ascertain whether the language of the president signals actual policy positions from the White House. If the words of the American president no longer function as reliable indicators of U.S. foreign policy, where can the public, U.S. allies and America’s adversaries look to better understand the administration’s geopolitical priorities? One answer may be found by examining the words of key Cabinet members.” (05/18/26)
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Tom Corbett & Bob Cindrich
“A judiciary that cannot operate without intimidation is not fully independent. A country that cannot accept lawful judicial outcomes will not continue to be governed by law.” (05/18/26)
