Source: New York Times
“The Trump administration on Monday intensified its pressure campaign against Cuba’s government, issuing sanctions on three government agencies and 11 top officials. Those targeted included three generals and communist party officials associated with the Cuban security apparatus. Such sanctions, usually used against accused drug traffickers, human-rights violators and terrorists, freeze any property and bank accounts they may have in the United States. While it is unlikely that any of the Cubans targeted have U.S. assets, the move is an important escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to force the communist government to overhaul is economic and political system.” [editor’s note: If it has no effect, how is it “important” in “forcing” anything? – TLK] (05/18/26)
https://archive.is/6muT8
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Harrison Berger Breaks Down Israel’s New Influence Strategy.” (05/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-harrison-berger-breaks-down-israels-new-influence-strategy/
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer
“The relationship between poverty and crime has been a longtime policy debate. A common narrative — particularly on the left — is that poverty drives people to crime, positing that those who live in tough neighborhoods have little choice but to survive through lawbreaking. This treats crime as a passive outcome of economic hardship — almost like a disease — rather than a choice. But a deeper look at the data, and differences across communities, suggests the opposite: that crime instead causes poverty. Irrespective of the causation order one accepts, there is certainly a relationship between the two.” (05/18/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/18/does-poverty-cause-crime-or-does-crime-cause-poverty/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Israeli [pirates] have raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, with video showing numerous vessels being boarded and crews [abducted] despite being in international waters. The Global Sumud Flotilla, the international movement heading the mission, said Israeli military personnel boarded several boats off Cyprus on Monday, as the convoy tried to reach the besieged Gaza Strip. … More than 50 vessels sailed from the Turkish port city of Marmaris last week, in what organisers described as the final stage of a journey aimed at challenging Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian enclave.” (05/18/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/18/israeli-forces-intercept-gaza-bound-aid-flotilla
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by James Bovard
“Trump constantly blusters as if he deserves the Nobel Prize for Economic Triumphs, just like he supposedly deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. In a January speech in Iowa, he doubled down on his triumphs by referring to himself in the third person: ‘Just after one year of President Trump, our economy is booming …. Incomes are rising. Investment is soaring. Inflation has been defeated.’ Unfortunately, Trump’s record on the economy is as shaky as his claims that he ended eight wars. The core wholesale inflation rate rose in January at an annual rate of 9 percent. ‘Howl louder’ has been the president’s response. Beginning late last year, the affordability issue made Trump schizophrenic.” (05/18/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/will-affordability-bankrupt-president-trump/
Source: Reason
“Why Is Trump Trying To Purge Thomas Massie?” (05/18/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/18/why-is-trump-trying-to-purge-thomas-massie/
Source: Reuters
“A Russian air attack damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Izmail city in the early hours of Tuesday, while Russian authorities said they had downed four drones launched by Ukraine that were headed towards Moscow. Izmail, in the southern Odesa region and home to the largest Ukrainian port on the Danube River, is a frequently hit strategic location. … Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were rescued and one person may still be trapped under rubble after a Russian drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. There also were drone attacks in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said on Telegram. … Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that four drones heading for the capital had been downed and that emergency services had been deployed, but provided no further details.” (05/18/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-attacks-ukraines-danube-port-city-ukraine-launches-drones-towards-moscow-2026-05-19/
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
“Israel is officially entering election season, and with it comes the perennial and inescapable excitement among some progressives in the United States who are eager to see Israeli voters send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu packing. That excitement, however, is an illusion. It is built on a belief, long clung to by American supporters of Israel, that Israel without Netanyahu would somehow become a liberal democracy that aligns more with their own values. That illusion is based on a false view of Israeli policy in the decades before Netanyahu’s reign.” (05/18/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/bennett-israel/
Source: Yahoo! News
“Two teenage gunmen opened fire on Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque before the suspects were found dead …. Scores of law enforcement officers called to the scene encountered the bodies of the three men affiliated with the mosque shot dead. Officials credited the slain security guard as likely having helped prevent further bloodshed. A short time later, police discovered the bodies of two teenage males, aged 17 and 18, in a vehicle in the middle of a street, dead from apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds.” (05/18/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/mayor-reports-active-shooter-situation-193602852.html
Source: Kent’s “Hooligan Libertarian” Blog
by Kent McManigal
“In a discussion about the effect of self-driving cars on cops and their DWI grift, someone said, ‘Self driving cars are a fantasy. They do not have the ability. They can assist but cannot drive themselves.’ Now, this is objectively not true. Someone else pointed out. ‘I’ve seen them driving around downtown, sans human driver.’ The Luddite’s response. ‘They are not reliable. Several have ran over pedestrians and they have been the cause of accidents.’ I pointed out, ‘Humans are even less reliable, unfortunately.’ So, he responded, ‘If that is true then why is it required for a person to be at the wheel and paying attention while the vehicle is driving itself?’ … That ‘laws’ require something dumb isn’t an argument. It proves nothing.” (05/18/26)
https://kentmcmanigal.blogspot.com/2026/05/what-do-laws-prove.html
