Monthly Archives: May 2026

The Warning In The Vote

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On Wednesday, The Federalist posted an article about the results of the Indiana primary elections. Five of the seven state senators who opposed the redistricting of the state lost in their primary elections. One election was too close to call, and one of the senators who opposed redistricting won his election. The voters supported the candidates President Trump endorsed–not the establishment Republicans. This should be a lesson to all of the Republicans in the Senate–listen to the people–pass the SAVE Act.

The Federalist reports:

Indiana conservatives just sent a message to RINOs everywhere: FAFO. These voters are mad as hell and they’re not going to vote for spineless Republicans anymore.

Hopefully GOP senators performing in the failure theater production of “debating” the SAVE America Act heard Indiana’s message loud and clear.

Most of the Republican Indiana state Senate candidates endorsed by President Donald Trump won primary races Tuesday against incumbents who voted with Democrats to stop a congressional redistricting bill. As of late Tuesday evening, The New York Times election results showed challengers picked up at least five of the seven state Senate seats targeted by Trump and allied conservatives groups. Republican primary voters rejected politicians standing on “fairness” principles while Democrats employ every weapon in their political arsenal to wrest back control of the U.S. House. 

Indiana Sen. Jim Banks helped drive the campaign to oust the incumbents who helped kill a mid-decade redrawing of the red state’s congressional maps. The redistricting plan, urged by Trump, would have given Republicans two additional seats in a House of Representatives with a razor-thin GOP majority.

“Everyone in Indiana politics should have learned an important lesson today: President Trump is the single most popular Republican among Hoosier voters,” Banks said in a statement. “Indiana is a conservative state, and we deserve conservatives in our State Senate who have a pulse on Republican voters.” 

Ideally, the makeup of the Congressional delegation from each state should reflect the makeup of the voters in that state. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As much as I don’t like the Republicans redistricting to gain U.S. House seats, I don’t like what the Democrats have done with U.S. House districts in the past either. Why do the six New England states have no Republicans in the U.S. House? That is unfair. Until the Democrats stop creating districts in odd shapes to get Democrats elected, I am unwilling to condemn the Republicans for doing the same thing.

The New Alliances In The Middle East

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the new alliances that have formed in the Middle East as a result of Iran’s behavior.

The article reports:

It’s been little noticed by the media, but ever since the beginning of the Iran War, Arab countries have been quietly, but not secretly, coordinating with Israel.

The UAE, for instance, has Israeli advisors on the ground who are helping with air defense, and an Iron Dome battery is based in the UAE. During the 12-Day War, several Arab countries shot down Iranian drones aimed at Israel.

…And now, the UAE has made clear that they are entering the kinetic side of the war, and are coordinating with Israel and presumably the United States, and are not hiding their cooperation with Israel in the least.

…While the media portrays this war as primarily the US and Israel against Iran, most of the strikes that Iran has made have been against the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. During the 12-Day war, Iran not only struck Israel, but also Qatar, which has a US base.

The article concludes:

It is possible that today’s attacks on the UAE are intended to create a rift among the GCC states, especially following the UAE’s exit from OPEC. Qatar’s recent condemnation of the Iranian attacks suggests that this is unlikely. 

Things are getting interesting again. 

Qatar has been playing both sides of the street up until recently. Much of the Hamas leadership was safely ensconced in Qatar after the September 7 attack on Israel. Qatar has also historically been a major funding source for terrorism. It will be interesting to see if that changes. The countries in the Middle East have a choice–do they align with the country ruled by a tyrant whose ordinary citizens still live in the 5th century with very little freedom or do they align with a successful democracy that leads the world in scientific achievement and continues to prosper despite attacks from all sides. Who would you want as your trade partner?

Criminalizing A Business Decision

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If a local government creates an environment where it is unprofitable and dangerous to do business, businesses find other places to do business. That is basic common sense. However, not all of our elected leaders grasp this concept.

On Tuesday, The Western Journal reported:

Another pharmacy is leaving Chicago because of theft, and somehow, the villain of the story is not the people stealing from it.

The villain is apparently the business itself, which finally decided it had enough and decided to cut its losses.

According to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, a Walgreens located at 8628 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in the crime-ridden area is set to close permanently on June 4.

Democratic Alderman William Hall joined residents outside the store Monday, where signs read “Senior Lives Matter” and “End Corporate Abandonment.”

“Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment,” Hall said. “It should be a crime the way they’re treating our elders. It should be a crime the way they’re treating our families.”

What crime should the Aldermen and Mayor be charged with for creating an environment where it is unsafe to operate a drug store?

The article concludes:

How dare a company refuse to be robbed daily and still be expected to operate as if nothing is wrong with the neighborhood? How dare it expect to turn a profit instead of functioning as a public utility for people who are either destroying the store or robbing it blind?

There is a deeper absurdity here that no amount of chanting can hide: There is very little inside a Walgreens that cannot be ordered online and delivered within a day or two, which means the physical store only exists if it can operate safely.

When it can’t, it disappears, and no amount of racism accusations can change that.

What is being demanded now amounts to forcing a business to remain in place so it can continue being exploited by the same conditions that made it unworkable.

It’s like telling a battered woman to stay in the relationship because leaving would inconvenience her abuser.

If Chicago leaders want stores like Walgreens to stay, they might start by addressing the theft and violence driving them out.

Arresting criminals and holding them accountable might solve the problem.

Making A Formerly Prestigious Award A Joke

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The Pulitzer Prize is awarded by Columbia University in New York City. The award began in 1917. The Pulitzer Prize considers works in the media and the arts that have specifically been entered and reviewed for administrative compliance by the administrator’s staff. Entries must fit in at least one of the specific prize categories, and cannot simply gain entrance for being literary or musical. Works can only be entered in a maximum of two relevant categories, regardless of their properties. Recently the prize has come under fire for the fact that the articles that won the prize turned out to be false. Unfortunately, in recent years, the prize has become political.

On Monday, Newsbusters reported:

The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded Monday afternoon and, after a four-year hiatus of holding a sitting president to account, they climbed back aboard their high horses to dole out seven prizes for Trump-bashing “journalism” to the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, The New York Times, Reuters, and The Washington Post.

Come Tuesday morning, the Media Research Center will present the fifth annual Bulldog Awards, spotlighting outstanding achievements in conservative media across eight categories (Behind Enemy Lines, Columnist, Investigative Reporting, Podcast, Reporting, Social Media Personality, Talk Radio Host, and Lifetime Achievement) to honor those Pulitzer committee would never consider.

Back on the left, though, the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service — considered the most prestigious category — went to The Washington Post for stories that, as stated by administrator Marjorie Miller, “pierc[ed] the veil of secrecy around the Trump administration’s chaotic overhaul of federal agencies and chronicl[ed] in rich detail the human impacts of the cuts and the consequences for the country.”

The article notes:

There were only four journalism categories without an anti-Trump winner and/or finalist with Breaking News going to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for its coverage of the August 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, Texas Monthly in Features for a first-person account of the Hill Country, Washington Post in Featured Photography for a “photo essay on young family welcoming the birth of their first child as the father is slowly dying from cancer,” and Pablo Torre Finds Out in Audio for reporting about the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Pulitzer committee also hand out awards in “Books, Music, and Drama,” which are also cesspools of liberal buffoonery.

For example, Drama went to a play celebrating feminism in the 1970s while far-left pundit Jill Lepore won in History for a book whining about the Constitution as archaic and too difficult to radically change.

I believe that the Pulitzer Prize has lost touch with the American people and with reality.

Americans Voting With Their Feet

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the migration of Americans within America.

The article reports:

South Carolina came out as the fastest-growing state in the country, even as Democrat-led cities on both coasts continue hemorrhaging residents at striking rates.

Between July 2024 and July 2025, 66,622 more Americans relocated to South Carolina than left it, driving a 1.5% population increase that outpaced every other state, , Fox News reported.

Federal data reinforces the scale of the shift. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that national population growth slowed to just 0.5% during the same window, the weakest annual increase since the pandemic era. Five states actually shrank: California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia. Idaho and North Carolina trailed South Carolina at 1.4% and 1.3% growth, respectively. (RELATED: Mayor Mamdani Says Exodus From New York Is Just Your Imagination)

New York City lost 114,000 more residents to other parts of the country than it gained last year, according to a Citizens Budget Commission study cited by Fox News. International arrivals to the city collapsed by 70% over the same period, erasing the demographic cushion that long masked domestic departures.

Los Angeles County took the heaviest numeric hit of any county in the nation, shedding 53,421 residents between mid-2024 and mid-2025, according to Census Bureau. The county’s population has dropped from roughly 10 million in 2020 to 9.7 million today. San Francisco, despite an artificial intelligence hiring surge, still sits below its pre-pandemic population, Fox News reported.

The article concludes:

…The National Taxpayers Union Foundation found in an April 7, 2026, study that Texas now adds a new taxpayer every four minutes and 40 seconds, surpassing Florida in 2022. Florida still leads the country in income migration, pulling in roughly $36.1 billion in net annual income, according to the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The fastest-growing counties in America now sit clustered across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, the Census Bureau confirmed.

Companies are moving to states where their cost of doing business is lower, and the workforce is following them. Salaries in some of these states may be lower, but the cost of living is also significantly lower.

Policies Have Consequences

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On Monday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the end of Spirit Airlines. We need to give credit where credit is due. The credit for the bankruptcy of Spirit Airlines goes to then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The article reports:

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the collapse of Spirit Airlines, it is that today’s Democratic Party should never be in charge of anything.

Does that seem like a stretch? Not when you consider the facts.

Four years ago, Spirit and JetBlue started talking about merging operations. Spirit was struggling to stay afloat, thanks in part to the massive run-up in inflation under President Joe Biden. The merger would have been a lifeline to Spirit and would have ensured low-cost competition survived.

But Democrats — led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren — decided that they knew better. Warren pressured then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration to stop it, “expressing serious concerns about the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.”

She bragged in early 2024 that she “has led the fight to ensure antitrust laws are enforced across the economy to prevent mergers that will reduce competition, jeopardize fair markets, and harm consumers.”

Her leadership paid off. Biden’s Transportation and Justice Departments teamed up to block the merger — claiming it would cost travelers $1 billion a year. Then a district judge in Boston sided with Biden.

All of them claimed the same thing. That they were doing this on behalf of air travelers.

Buttigieg said in 2023 that “it’s important to make sure that passengers have choices” and that they “have access to low fares.”

When the companies dropped the merger plans in the face of these assaults, Warren cheered, calling it “a Biden win for flyers.”

A win? Tell that to the 17,000 employees who just lost their jobs, the travelers who have paid for Spirit flights they’ll never take, and those families faced with a huge spike in travel costs.

The article notes:

Not surprisingly, these same Democrats are trying to pin the blame for Spirit’s collapse on President Donald Trump, saying, as Warren put it, “spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline.”

But that’s a lie. Anyone not blinded by leftist ideology could see at the time that killing the merger was the nail in Spirit’s coffin.

Here’s how the Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni put it back in March 2024:

Without the merger, Spirit is all but condemned to death, and investors know it, selling off the company’s stock, which hit a record low after the plug was pulled on consolidating with JetBlue. The ratings agency Fitch downgraded Spirit’s credit rating, citing default as a real possibility, meaning the airline may soon be unable to pay its bills.

With operational losses, over $1 billion in bonds coming due soon, and the evaporation of available equity from the stock plummeting, Spirit’s collapse seems like a fait accompli.

(Besides, even if we disagreed with his plan, Trump at least tried to find a way to keep Spirit afloat.)

This can, however, be a clarifying moment for voters before the midterms — if Republicans are smart enough to seize it.

Voters, take note!

This Really Should Not Surprise Anyone

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On Monday, American Greatness posted an article about the impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The article reports:

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has declined significantly since new federal work requirements took effect in mid-2025, with millions fewer Americans receiving benefits, according to newly reported federal data.

The number of people enrolled in SNAP has fallen by roughly 3.5 million since July 2025, dropping from an average of 42.1 million participants in the prior fiscal year to about 38.5 million as of January 2026, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The decline follows the implementation of expanded eligibility rules included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law by Donald Trump on July 4, 2025. The legislation broadened existing work requirements for able-bodied adults, mandating that individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 without young dependents participate in at least 80 hours per month of work, volunteering, or government-run programs.

Previously, the requirements applied to a narrower age group and included different criteria for dependents, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP. Officials told The Wall Street Journal that the recent changes represent the most sweeping adjustments to the program in decades.

There is no reason that healthy Americans should be able to sit at home while the rest of us work to supply them with groceries. We need to help those who need help, but we don’t need to enable those who don’t want to work.

The article concludes:

Several states, including Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, have reported double-digit percentage declines. In response, some state officials have begun efforts to connect affected residents with employment and volunteer opportunities to help them meet the new requirements.

Arizona has seen the steepest drop, with participation falling by more than half. According to state data, more than 424,000 fewer residents are receiving benefits, including approximately 181,000 children. State officials attributed much of the decline to the rapid implementation of the new federal rules.

“The expanded work requirements were primarily responsible for the drop,” Brett Bezio, a spokesman for Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, told The Wall Street Journal.

This is the way you lower federal spending.

Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop

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I believe that bringing James Comey to trial for his beach shells incident is a mistake, but evidently there is more to the story.

On Sunday, Just the News reported:

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey goes beyond his “8647” Instagram post about President Trump.

“Rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted,” Blanche said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“The career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case, didn’t just look at the Instagram post and walk away,” he added.

Blanche declined to elaborate on the matter.

“So I am not permitted to get into the details of what the grand jury heard or found,” he said.

I hope that whatever other charges the government has against James Comey are substantial. I disagree with the solo charge of shells on the beach.

I believe that James Comey is a sleeze who should have gone to jail for previous crimes, but the statute of limitations has passed, and the law is the law. If Facebook posts similar to his resulted in indictments, our courts would be full. Yes, his post was tacky, unnecessary, and petty, but I question whether or not it was illegal.

Someone with a different opinion than mine told me that he was glad James Comey would have to use his resources to defend himself–much like the pain his lawfare caused to others when he was in office. I see his point, but does this indictment further polarize the country?

We can’t  undo the damage the Biden administration did to the concept of equal justice under the law, but we can avoid making the same mistakes.

It Really Is Always About The Money

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On Sunday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a recent reversal of Germany’s position on Iran.

The article reports:

Six days ago, in Marsberg, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. approach to Iran, saying Washington was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership” and demanding the conflict end “as quickly as possible.”

Three days ago, President Trump responded with an announcement that U.S. troops in Germany would be drawn down, and there would be a 25% tariff on all imported European autos.  {GO DEEP}

Suddenly, Friedrich Merz reverses his position:

Imagine that.

But seriously folks, when people argue that it’s not about the economics of the thing – remind them, it’s always about the economics of the thing.

Germany is facing a perfect storm of economic consequences following their decision to chase the climate change agenda (Build Back Better) and eliminate their coal and nuclear power plants.  Combine the German/EU policy to stop purchasing cheap LNG and oil from Russia, in addition to skyrocketing energy costs from oil/gas flows from the Middle East, and the outcome is rising manufacturing costs leading to massive layoffs.

The German industrial economy is the heart of the EU economy, and President Trump is now hitting them both right where it hurts.

The tariffs will have an impact, but the long-term impact of drawing down the troops we have in Germany will be greater. Although having thousands of America troops in Germany does stretch the infrastructure in some areas, the presence of the troops adds to the local economies. Soldiers eat at local restaurants, shop, and attend local events. Removing five thousand troops from the country is going to have a long-term economic impact.

Sad News

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On Sunday, The Jewish News Syndicate posted an article about the number of Jews leaving France for Israel.

The article reports:

A couple of hundred French Jewish doctors interested in moving to Israel gathered in Paris on Sunday in a major immigration fair for medical professionals.

The event was held during a time of global turbulence in the Jewish Diaspora, which is especially noticeable in the 450,000-strong community in France that is also home to the largest Muslim population in Europe, and where a recent survey showed that nearly four of five French Jews feel unsafe.

“It is becoming more and more difficult to live here because of antisemitism,” said Raphael Mimoun, 26, a general practitioner in Paris who attended the event with his wife, who is a surgeon.

“The majority of young people are thinking a lot about how they can live in Israel before it is too late,” said Eva Cohen, 30.

The third MedEx Paris event, which seeks to concomitantly address the shortage of physicians in Israel, was organized by the nonprofit Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with Israel’s ministries of aliyah and integration, health, and the Negev and the Galilee, along with the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel.

Similar events geared exclusively for medical professionals have been held over the last two and a half years in Paris, Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto and Montreal.

The article notes:

The number of French doctors who moved to Israel jumped from 25 in 2004 to 57 last year.

“Our challenge is that Israel should be the top priority for those who decide to leave, and that means we do everything we can to facilitate a smooth absorption,” Israeli Minister of Aliyah and Integration, Ofir Sofer, told JNS.

He noted that the program has reached over a third of its goal to bring 2,000 doctors to Israel from around the world over five years, with their impact on the nation’s healthcare system making a mark in periphery areas such as the Negev and the Galilee.

As the Muslim population increases in Europe, I believe that more Jews will decide to relocate to Israel. Anti-Semitism is growing around the world, and I believe that in the future we will see more Jews make Aliyah.

A Reasonable Law

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There has been some discussion lately about the misuse of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. I agree with the idea of not using them for soda and candy or fast food, but some of the rules seem a little picky. Senator Fetterman has decided to fix one rather strange rule. Under current SNAP rules, SNAP recipients can purchase cooked rotisserie chickens that have been cooled down, but it does not allow the purchase of hot prepared foods (hot rotisserie chickens). That makes no sense at all.

On Thursday, Just the News reported:

A bill that would allow recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy hot rotisserie chicken is one step closer to becoming law.

On Thursday, the U.S. House voted 384-35 in support of an amendment to the Farm Bill, which would modify the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to law to allow the purchase of hot rotisserie chicken for SNAP beneficiaries.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced bipartisan legislation labeled the “Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act,” in the Senate a week ago to change the current statute, which allows SNAP recipients to purchase cooked rotisserie chickens that have been cooled down, but it does not allow the purchase of hot prepared foods.

He took to social media on Thursday evening to celebrate its passage in the U.S. House.

“Doesn’t only include my crew’s favorite + affordable $4.99 Costco rotisserie — but ANY hot rotisserie,” he said in part of social media post. “Feeding families: a (rotisserie) chicken in every pot.”

SNAP to include HOT ROTISSERIE CHICKEN.384-35! Doesn’t only include my crew’s favorite + affordable $4.99 Costco rotisserie ? — but ANY hot rotisserie. Feeding families: a (rotisserie) chicken in every pot. ?? pic.twitter.com/N9bNfynRKx— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 30, 2026

The article concludes:

Fetterman, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, has also backed other efforts addressing SNAP benefits including Bennet’s Hot Food Act, which would allow all hot foods to be eligible under the program, and the Cybersecurity for SNAP Act, which would increase the security of EBT cards to prevent skimming.

The measure now heads to the Senate for consideration as part of the farm bill, according to The Hill.

A number of stores sell rotisserie chickens both hot and cold. This law will make life easier for working parents.

Moving In The Right Direction

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One of the things that has become increasingly obvious in the past few years is that when it comes to federal spending and voter rolls, no one is minding the store.

On Friday, Breitbart reported:

President Donald Trump announced that roughly 300,000 illegal aliens in the United States have been removed from Social Security rolls, and added that 100,000 have been removed from Medicare.

While speaking at The Villages in Florida, Trump highlighted policies geared towards seniors such as No Tax on Social Security. Trump also spoke about the One Big, Beautiful Bill and how it was “the largest tax cut in American history,” adding that “as a result, more than 51 million American seniors now pay a federal tax rate of zero.”

“Together with the Republicans in Congress, we’ve removed nearly 300,000 illegal aliens from the Social Security roll,” Trump said. “And, we’ve removed more than 100,000 migrants from Medicare eligibility, 100,000, and the number is going up.”

Trump continued to express that his administration and the Republicans were “saving Social Security, because it was so rife with fraud.”

The article concludes:

In August 2025, Trump announced that more than 200,00 illegal aliens had been removed from the Social Security system.

Breitbart News has reported that the Trump administration has also cancelled thousands of Social Security numbers that previous administrations had given to illegal aliens.

It’s time to clean up voter rolls, Social Security rolls, Medicare and Medicaid rolls, and any other entity that collects money from the government!

Cleaning Up The Voter Rolls

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On Friday, PJ Media posted an article about efforts to clean up the voter rolls on the west coast.

The article reports:

A wise man once told me that when he saw two numbers, he had an insatiable desire to divide one into the other, and so it is that we find out Oregon has agreed to take off 800,000 ineligible names from its voter rolls, which represent 25% of all Oregon registered voters. 

…Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch told me on the Adult in the Room Podcast that Oregon hadn’t cleaned out its voter rolls in about 30 years in defiance of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). State officials settled a lawsuit with Judicial Watch, agreeing to clear out ineligible voters from rolls, starting with 160,000 voters who are dead, moved, or otherwise not voting in multiple elections. 

Los Angeles County, an area most rife with fraud and voter impersonation, agreed to remove 1.6 million ineligible voters from its voter rolls. All told, the conservative legal group has succeeded in removing more than six million dirty voters from their lists.

This is important because it removes names that can be used to generate ballots by bad hombres who use the zombie names and request a ballot, which happens all the time in L.A.

Our Republic will not survive unless we have voter integrity.

Rapid Changes In The Middle East

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I am writing this on Friday, May 1. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) left the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) today. Saudi Arabia will no longer control how much oil the UAE can sell. It will be interesting to see what happens to crude oil prices in the next week. But there is another wrinkle in this that is important.The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline became operational in June 2012. It goes from the Habshan plant to the Fujairah Oil Terminal in the Gulf of Oman.

Here is the map:

As you can see, the pipeline allows oil shipments from the UAE to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

On Thursday, The Pipeline Technology Journal reported:

The United Arab Emirates announced its departure from OPEC on Wednesday, as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline becomes its strategic lifeline, guaranteeing more oil to the global market.

Coming amid the Strait of Hormuz closure, the move signals a seismic shift in global energy geopolitics and a pivot toward Western market stability.

The decision underscores the growing importance of the UAE’s strategic infrastructure—specifically the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline. 

Unlike the export routes used by many of its neighbors, the Fujairah pipeline allows the UAE to transport crude directly from its inland fields to the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely.

By utilizing this 230-mile overland route, the UAE can guarantee the delivery of up to 2 million barrels of oil per day to international markets. 

This capability provides a critical safety valve for global supplies, which total approximately 100 million barrels daily, at a time when regional tensions have turned the Strait of Hormuz into a volatile maritime chokepoint.

The Strait has long been the “weak link” in global energy security. While previous conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Iran, and Iraq failed to shutter the waterway, recent diplomatic and military pressures have heightened fears of a prolonged disruption. 

The UAE’s ability to “pull the trigger” on an alternative route effectively fractures the historical monopoly held by Middle Eastern producers since OPEC’s formation in 1960.

Analysts suggest the move reflects a broader rebalancing of energy power toward the United States. Following the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which saw Europe trade Russian gas for American supplies, a similar trend is emerging in the oil sector. 

This is what you get when you elect a businessman as President of America.

Actions Have Consequences

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The attacks (verbal and physical) on conservative politicians and conservative journalist have been going on for a while. One Representative told people during the first Trump administration that if someone sees a person from that administration they should ‘get in their face.’ That is not good advice.

On Wednesday, The New York Post posted an article about an attack on a conservative journalist in Minnesota.

The article reports:

A Minnesota couple — including a dad who fancied himself “the voice of a generation” — and their daughter were hit with federal charges for allegedly assaulting a Turning Point USA reporter at an anti-ICE protest earlier this month.

Christopher Ostroushko, 51, Deyanna Ostroushko, 46, and daughter Paige Ostroushko, 20, were indicted for the assault of TPUSA reporter Savanah Hernandez outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, the US Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Horrifying video from the April 11 anti-ICE rally outside the Whipple building captured Christopher Ostroushko suddenly shoving Hernandez, 29, to the ground with both hands, while yelling, “Don’t f–king touch my daughter!”

The enraged dad’s assault came after a female protester was seen punching Hernandez in the face, knocking her clean off her feet and into a fence behind her, and before another woman tackled her to the pavement once again, according to the footage.

Hernandez previously told The Post that she was tasked with filming protest activity — and did so untouched until she was identified by “a mob” of “left-wingers” for her work with the organization co-founded by assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

On Thursday, Hot Air reported:

Deyanna Ostroushko is probably not looking at actual federal prison time, unless she has a previous conviction on her record. However, Christopher and Paige are looking at the potential for serious time inside a Club Fed or worse if convicted of the top charge in the indictment. Their attorney may argue that Hernandez’ injuries are not serious enough to warrant a felony conviction under that statute, but that’s not how the statute is written. They may not get the full ten years, but it sounds like US Attorney David Rosen plans to make the Ostroushkos an example pour encourager les autres and to establish consequences for the “national scourge” that the Ostroushkos represent. 

That’s certainly the message Harmeet Dhillon intends to send, loudly and clearly. She was “on it” from the beginning, and in terms of grand-jury proceedings, practically sprinted across the finish line to file this indictment against the family that preys together to stay together. We need much more of this tough approach to political violence across the board. It will take more than a prison sentence for the Ostroushkos to re-set the incentive structure around the near-riots around federal immigration facilities and attacks on conservative observers to them.

This is unacceptable behavior. Fortunately, it was caught on firm, so the defendants will have a hard time proving their innocence.

Food Stamps And Luxury Cars

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The concept of helping Americans with grocery bills was introduced in the 1930’s. It was made possible by the introduction of the Federal Income Tax in 1913. It should be noted that Americans were told in 1913 that the Income Tax would only affect the top 1 to 3 percent of Americans. The program that began in the 1930’s ended in 1943 as the American economy recovered from the Depression because of World War II. Then in 1964 President Johnson supported a permanent Food Stamp program as part of the War on Poverty. So what has been the result of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (S.N.A.P.) ?

On April 22nd, The New York Post reported:

What do a university professor, a celebrity barber and a professional football player have in common?

All three bought new, six-figure luxury sports cars and lived lavish lifestyles — while collecting food stamps.

How on earth can these “welfare recipients” purchase high-end vehicles while remaining on the dole?

Thanks to a federal loophole known as Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility.

The Clinton administration manufactured this loophole, and the Obama administration supercharged it.

Currently, 43 states and Washington, DC, use BBCE to bypass federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility limits on income, assets or both.

The mechanism, based on a federal law that was meant to minimize states’ administrative costs, is simple.

State welfare agencies print up a brochure about welfare programs, or set up an informational hotline, and deem it a “benefit” under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Anyone who touches that pamphlet or receives the phone number is then treated as being “categorically eligible” for food stamps — even millionaires.

It’s fraud by design that distributes benefits intended for the truly needy to otherwise ineligible individuals, under the insidious goal of maximizing enrollment and dependency — and it works in almost every state.

Researchers from the Foundation for Government Accountability examined de-identified data on food-stamp enrollment in a single representative state.

The article lists some of the fraud that has been found so far. They have found IP addresses traced to foreign countries, including China, Mexico and Canada. More than 5,000 applicants in this state used foreign-based email addresses to apply,

The article notes:

Under 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states with high food-stamp error rates will for the first time face steep federal penalties for their inaction.

Ending the BBCE loophole will move millions of ineligible enrollees off the program and save taxpayers more than $100 billion over the next decade.

Rebuilding verification infrastructure like data cross-matches, identity checks and residency confirmation will finally give caseworkers the ability to catch EBT fraud before the benefits ever go out the door.

I am beginning to believe that we could balance the federal budge if we simply eliminate the fraud.

This is the list posted on X of the cars owned by people receiving S.N.A.P. benefits in one state:

When Medicine Becomes Totally About Money

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On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article that illustrates what happens which the practice of medicine becomes more about money than about helping people.

In the Wikipedia (general accurate on this sort of thing) entry about the Hippocratic Oath it says:

“First do no harm”

Main article: Primum non nocere

Although it is often said that “First do no harm” (Latin: Primum non nocere) is a part of the original Hippocratic oath, no such phrase from which “First” or “Primum” can be translated appears in the text of the original oath, although a similar intention is vowed by, “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm”. Another related phrase is found in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: “Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient”[18] and it likely took shape from longstanding popular nonmedical expression.[19]

In the early days of the Oath, it was understood that the Oath was not in favor of either abortion of euthanasia. However, the current medical profession seems to have overlooked that fact.

Townhall reported:

Critics of government-approved “assisted suicide” programs have warned for years that such programs are a slippery slope to wholesale euthanasia at the hands of the state. In Canada, the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program now euthanizes more people per capita than there are gun deaths in America and more people than dogs. Those people include those with eating disorders, depression, and autism, as well as veterans, the poor, and the chronically ill who can’t get treatment under Canada’s failing socialized medicine system. These people do not have terminal illnesses, which was the selling point of MAiD, remember. They’re just inconvenient, and it’s cheaper for the state to kill them than provide support services.

Every single dire prediction made about MAiD has come true, and Canada is poised to offer the service to infants and children, too.

But they’re not the outlier here. In Switzerland, a woman who lost her son was euthanized. She was reportedly a perfectly healthy 56-year-old woman who needed counseling and support.

Instead, she was killed.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is heartbreaking. This is a lady who could have lived a happy, productive life with the proper counseling and emotional support.

Support From Unusual Places

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On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about a Supreme Court case involving a New Jersey Pregnancy Center.

The article reports:

There was another Supreme Court decision today which isn’t getting as much attention as the Voting Rights decision, but it represents a win for pro-life pregnancy centers against an attorney general seeking to harass them. Here’s the backstory to this case taken from the decision written by Justice Gorsuch.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc., is a religious nonprofit organization that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. Believing that “life begins at conception,” and seeking “to protect and honor life in all stages of development,” the group does not provide abortions or refer clients to others for abortions.

In 2022, New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, established a “Reproductive Rights Strike Force.”… Shortly after its creation, the Strike Force issued a “consumer alert” in which it accused groups like First Choice of “seek[ing] to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care” by “provid[ing] false or misleading information about abortion.” App. 357–358. The alert concluded by directing women to abortion providers and asking members of the public who believed they were “victim[s] of fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or unlawful conduct” to “please file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.”

In short, this was a partisan witch hunt which turned up no witches. Naturally, that didn’t matter to AG Platkin who resorted to subpoena’s and threats.

Neither the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs or the Attorney General’s office received any complaints. The Attorney General demanded a list of donors, which was refused by the Pregnancy Center.

The Washington Post reported:

The Supreme Court held unanimously on Wednesday that a chain of faith-based antiabortion pregnancy centers can mount a federal court challenge to a subpoena for its donors that it claims is part of an intimidation campaign by New Jersey officials hostile to its views on abortion.

The justices sided with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc., which claimed the request by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) chilled its First Amendment rights to speech and association with donors because disclosure might make supporters leery of contributing money.

Also noted in The Washington Post:

In briefs submitted to the court, a number of organizations noted that having an avenue to fight politically motivated investigations was crucial for nonprofits and other advocacy-based groups.

Among them was the American Civil Liberties Union, which publicly acknowledged it did not fall on the same side as First Choice when it came to abortion policy but signed on to an amicus brief, saying that such broad subpoenas could “put all advocacy at risk.”

Sometimes politics makes strange bedfellows!