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
Source: Axios
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the co-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last week. The move could open the task force up to more political influence. It comes as the administration prepares to vet new applicants to the committee, a process in which the chairs would typically be involved. The expert panel recommends which health services insurers must cover at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act. Kennedy sent letters dated May 11 to John Wong, a professor and primary care clinician at Tufts University, and Esa Davis, a professor and primary care clinician at University of Maryland, stating that their appointments as chairs would conclude effective immediately. Wong’s term was slated to last until mid-March 2027, and Davis’s term until mid-March 2028.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/LBLt4
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“[T]he last 20-ish years have revealed to everyone (who paid attention and isn’t severely brain-damaged) that global trade does not, in fact, prevent armed conflict or interstate violence on its own. Now, it is a disincentive. It’s also helpful for a bunch of other reasons. But it alone clearly cannot keep leaders from starting wars. As far as I know, no one thing can universally and permanently stop wars. The best we can hope for is doing a bunch of smart things at the same time and hoping it all nets out to reducing the frequency and severity of armed conflicts.” (05/20/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/when-goods-cross-borders-sometimes
Source: Common Dreams
by Koketso Moeti
“Earlier this year a number of participants announced their withdrawal from Australia’s Adelaide Festival’s ‘Writer’s Week’ following the disinviting of Australian-Palestinian author, Randa Abdel-Fattah. The event was subsequently cancelled. This made me think of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese’s words, delivered in her Nelson Mandela Lecture: ‘The occupation of Palestine must be understood as part of a broader project of domination. This is not merely about the physical borders of historical Palestine. It is a systematic assertion of permanent supremacy that knows no border …’ Indeed, the impact of the ongoing genocide and occupation not only echo far beyond Palestine, because of our shared humanity, but also because of the impact it is having on freedoms across the globe. The censorship of Abdel-Fattah is yet another example of this, and it is not only happening in Australia.” (05/20/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/occupation-and-genocide-threat
Source: CBS News
“Barney Frank, an outspoken Democrat who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years, has died, the Associated Press reported, citing his former campaign manager and close friend. He was 86 years old. … he sought re-election in 1988 after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality, a rarity back then. His constituents affirmed their support in 1990 after a scandal involving his association with a male prostitute, which a House Ethics Committee investigation found included Frank fixing parking tickets and making misleading statements to prosecutors in criminal cases involving the prostitute. … Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011 and he co-sponsored the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform law passed following the 2008 housing crash. He decided not to seek reelection in 2012, citing signficiant redistricting.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/barney-frank-dies-obituary-massachusetts-congressman/
Source: The Political Orphanage
“The Great Baby Shortage.” (05/20/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-great-baby-shortage
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Carl Heneghan & Tom Jefferson
“There is a peculiar arithmetic that governs modern health reporting, one that has very little to do with actual risk. Hans Rosling captured it neatly during the 2009 swine flu episode, when he calculated a ‘news-to-death ratio’ of 8,176-to-1. In other words, for every death attributed to swine flu, there were over eight thousand news stories. Tuberculosis, by contrast, received less than 0.1 news stories per death over the same period. If that sounds absurd, it is, and yet very little has changed. Take the current hantavirus scare. A cruise ship, the MV Hondius, sits off Cape Verde. There are 7 cases in total (2 confirmed, 5 suspected) and 3 deaths …. In the past week alone, there have been at least 10 to 15 unique news stories, generating hundreds of articles.” (05/20/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-news-to-death-ratio-strikes-again/
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Thomas Savidge
“This explainer examines the relationship between federal, state, and local governments shaped by transfers and the incentives they create.” (05/20/26)
https://aier.org/article/how-federal-transfers-undermine-freedom/
Source: SFGate
“Scientists have spotted two humpback whales that made separate, record-breaking crossings between Australia and Brazil. The whales were identified by their distinctive tail markings at the two locations about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) apart. They traveled in opposite directions and journeyed farther than any humpback known so far. ‘It’s a very rare event, but it is a really wonderful demonstration of just how wide-ranging these animals are,’ said Phillip Clapham, former head of a NOAA whale research program who was not involved with the new findings. Humpback whales are known for roaming long distances across major oceans in predictable patterns, typically following migration routes learned from their mothers.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/two-humpback-whales-set-records-swimming-between-22267439.php
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“There’s a growing trend of American voters breaking up with American political parties. A Gallup survey in January found that 45% of Americans identify as political independents. And now their voter registrations are starting to reflect that. But in Pennsylvania, voters must be registered as a Democrat or a Republican to cast ballots in a closed-party primary. That means that only registered Democrats in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District were the only Philadelphians who got to vote on May 19 for a new representative in the House.” [editor’s note: What? Only members of a particular party get to choose that party’s candidates? The horror! This guy wants “open primaries.” How about NO primaries, the parties choose their candidates, all parties and candidates get equal, open ballot access (by eliminating government control of ballot printing), “problem” solved – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/20/open-primary-election-vote-independent/90158448007/
