Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal

“The idea of ‘the general welfare’ was a cancer. It has metastasized to include anything the control freaks in government want power over. And, they want to be involved in absolutely everything; those few things they aren’t yet meddling with, they’ll point to and call ‘freedom.’ Until they also take that away. … As for those antiquated justifications for government? Now, government sends its military around the world, creating enemies out of thin air, ultimately threatening the safety of all Americans. They ignored Thomas Jefferson’s advice of trade with all nations; entangling alliances with none, and we’re paying the price. Here at home, you’re now more likely to have your life, liberty, or property violated by a government employee enforcing a rule or ‘law’ than by a freelance criminal.” (05/20/26)

https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/05/20/voices/opinion-beware-the-blob-its-mission-is-creepy/233484.html

Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring

“By every reasonable standard of governance, California’s elected politicians have made a mess of the Golden State. Reciting the litany of failures has become so common that it’s hardly worth the trouble. Chaotic, unsafe downtowns. Retail businesses giving up and relocating. Chronic government budget deficits, despite the nation’s highest taxes, set to go higher still. ‘Needle exchanges’ and ‘safe injection sites,’ funded by taxpayers. Kids encounter drug zombies on the way to school. Parents dodge psychopaths in grocery store parking lots. We’ve heard it all. We’ve seen it all. We’re desensitized. We just avoid certain parts of town the best we can and tell ourselves it can’t be helped. When we choose which candidates to support, we know nothing is going to change.” (05/20/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/20/will-spencer-pratt-realign-california/

Source: The Hill
by Tom Mockaitis

“What do the conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Lebanon have in common? They each demonstrate how technology permits a weak state or even a non-state actor to hold a powerful adversary at bay. They are asymmetric wars, conflicts in which one side fights for its survival while the other has a limited objective. ‘Asymmetric warfare’ is a new term for an old phenomenon. The U.S. gained its independence in an asymmetric war. The small Continental Army and state militias never faced the might of the British Empire …. The U.S. faced a similar dilemma in Vietnam. … The lessons of history did not stop Russia from getting bogged down in Ukraine, the U.S. from attacking Iran or Israel from invading Lebanon. Now, however, technology has enhanced the ability of the weaker adversary to counter the stronger.” (05/20/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5883470-asymmetric-warfare-modern-conflicts/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jason Edmonds

“Tennessee taxpayers are about to spend millions on a Starbucks order they didn’t ask for. In April, the world’s largest coffee chain announced it would be opening a Southeast corporate office in Music City. The state has done well in attracting businesses, both large and small, through a low-tax, business-friendly environment. Yet those bigger businesses sometimes get a free upgrade, courtesy of state taxpayers, and the Starbucks move is brewing up to be a burn for Tennesseans. Despite the coffee chain’s public and vocal decision to open an office in Tennessee, state leaders act as if Starbucks needs more convincing or as if its profits aren’t ‘grande’ enough to cover office space.” (05/20/26)

https://fee.org/articles/venti-sized-subsidy/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“Thomas Massie has lost his congressional seat against a primary opponent whose Israel lobby funding made the race the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history. Massie has been a rare Republican opponent of Israeli abuses on Capitol Hill. The spending on Massie’s ouster topped out at a staggering $32 million when all was said and done. The second- and third-most expensive House primary races were also heavily slanted by Israel lobby funding, with AIPAC pouring millions into toppling progressive Democrats Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Americans just watched the Israel lobby openly manipulate yet another election, and then in like two weeks they’re going to hear their government tell them they need to regime change another foreign country to bring ‘democracy’ to its people. Americans themselves do not have democracy.” (05/20/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/20/american-democracy-does-not-exist/

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance

“The Department of Education (ED) is moving out of its headquarters at the Lyndon B. Johnson Building in Washington, D.C., this summer. The Department of Energy (DOE) will be the new tenant. Turns out that because of personnel cuts at the Department of Education, the building is roughly 70 percent vacant. … But in spite of Trump’s executive order and the elimination of half of its workforce, the Department of Education is alive and well.” (05/20/26)

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-department-of-education-is-alive-and-well/

Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman

“On Monday, Donald Trump dropped his sham lawsuit against the federal government. In exchange, the Justice Department under his control will establish a $1.8 billion fund for ‘victims of lawfare,’ as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put it. This will be a slush fund for Trump’s allies, presumably January 6 insurrectionists and others already rewarded with a pardon. There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved ‘official acts.’ Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft, and you’re off the hook. Last week, the president filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics detailing the stock trades he made this year. It is a novelistic tale of profiteering, recognizable as insider trading in every way except, perhaps, under the law.” (05/20/26)

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/epic-corruption-plain-sight