Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru

“Trump has made next to no attempt to justify his Iran policy using the traditional criteria for just war, and sometimes he broadcasts contempt for the idea that war could be subject to moral evaluation. When he threatens to end Iran’s civilization, it can’t plausibly be spun as anything but placing large-scale war crimes on the table. Though just-war theory is frequently associated with the Catholic Church, its influence extends to non-Catholics and it rests on no distinctively Christian premises. It holds that war is permissible when (among other conditions) it serves a just cause, is declared by a legitimate authority, has a reasonable chance of success and can be expected to do more good than harm.
There is plenty of room to debate when these conditions have been met, but they clearly rule out some wars.” (05/14/26)

https://archive.is/u3LYa

Source: American Greatness
by Steve Cortes

“Mike Pence anointed himself to stand athwart the populist Right with a whistle in his mouth, screaming for conservatives to ‘get out of the pool.’ The imagery fits him perfectly. Pence increasingly resembles that obnoxious childhood lifeguard we all remember — the self-important scold, high on perceived power, perched way above everyone else. As such, Pence is convinced that enforcing his rules matters more than understanding why people jumped into the water in the first place. From his perch at CNN studios and establishment think tanks, Pence now lectures conservatives about ‘traditional principles,’ warning Republicans against populism and urging a return to the old GOP orthodoxy. … Pence demands that Republicans engage in ‘soul-searching’ over populism. Fine. Let’s do exactly that.” (05/14/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/14/mike-pence-pretend-lifeguard-of-conservatism-voters-already-left-his-pool/

Source: Law & Liberty
by Mike Watson

“Deterring China is about more than chip manufacturing and foreign democracy.” (05/14/26)

https://lawliberty.org/defending-taiwan/

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson

“There is no doubt that socialists are doing very well in the current electoral climate. Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory in the New York City mayoral election has electrified the socialist movement across the country, which also includes the election of Katie Wilson as mayor of Seattle. … Indeed, Bernie Sanders lost narrowly in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, and it certainly is not beyond the imagination to say American voters might well have sent him to the White House in either of those elections, had he won the nomination. … One might think, given the electoral successes of leftwing Democrats, that their policies have been successful in transforming the economic and social landscapes of the cities and states where they govern. Think again.” (05/14/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialists-are-reaping-bountiful-political-harvest-while-they-create-havoc

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes

“However the Trump-Xi meeting ends, Trump is no Achilles going into this match. In fact, in the six decades of U.S.-China relations, perhaps no American president has entered the summit arena in a weaker position than Trump, the would-be strongman and artiste of the deal. Worse, his weakness — and by extension his country’s — is mostly self-inflicted. Trump had postponed what was intended as an early April meeting in hopes of striding triumphantly into Beijing as the conqueror of Iran, a China ally. Instead China is receiving him as a ‘giant with a limp,’ in the phrase of its Communist Party-controlled Global Times newspaper.” (05/14/26)

https://archive.is/Gozia