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Friday, May 16, 2025

Trump Finishes Whirlwind Middle East Tour

Kevin O’Leary explains what he sees the president doing: Trump “doesn’t want China to develop a relationship in what I call the Middle East circle of friendship and that is Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE…. We are in an economic war with China and he is cutting them off at the pass in the fastest growing region on earth…. We’re in an economic war with China and he’s cutting them off at the pass in the fastest growing region on earth—the Middle East (X). Frederick Kempe: There has never been a US presidential visit to the Middle East like this one…. In an extraordinary speech in Riyadh that set the tone for all that will follow, Trump said: “Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together—not bombing each other out of existence.” The contest for Gulf money is also about gaining the upper hand in the Trump administration’s ongoing trade standoff and technology contest with Beijing. That remains Washington’s overriding objective, notwithstanding the dramatic news Monday morning that the two countries would de-escalate their confrontation by reducing tariffs from 145 percent to 30 percent on the US side and from 125 percent to 10 percent on the Chinese side during a ninety-day pause for further negotiations (Atlantic Council).

Supreme Court Hears Case on Nationwide Injunctions and Birthright Citizenship

SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court on Thursday was divided over whether a federal judge has the power to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship while the case moves through the lower courts. The Trump administration told the justices it should be able to at least partly implement the order. Although several justices in recent years have expressed skepticism about so-called nationwide injunctions, which bar the government from enforcing a law or policy anywhere in the country, during more than two hours of oral arguments, it was not clear whether a majority of the justices were ready to bar such injunctions altogether (SCOTUS Blog). JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: “So, we survived until the 1960s without universal injunctions?” SOLICITOR GENERAL JOHN SAUER: “Correct. Those were rare in the 1960s, it exploded in 2007” (X). Matt Margolis for PJ Media: Thomas’s concise question — “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” — hit the heart of the issue. With that simple question, he challenged the idea that such drastic judicial remedies were historically essential, even during one of the most tumultuous and morally urgent periods in American history: the civil rights era, a time when federal courts began issuing broader remedies to dismantle Jim Crow laws and enforce desegregation. In other words, if the courts managed to confront segregation, enforce Brown v. Board of Education, and make tremendous progress for civil rights without needing to impose blanket nationwide injunctions, then why are they supposedly necessary today over what amounts to policy disputes? In just one sentence, Thomas accomplished what pages of legal briefs failed to do. He exposed the historical and constitutional weakness of the left’s favorite legal tactic (PJ Media). Jan Crawford of CBS News admits that the President’s case against nationwide injunctions has merit: “The Obama and Biden administrations opposed national injunctions arguing judges in conservative states like Texas, where opponents chose to file lawsuits, were dictating national policy,” she said, quipping, “Now, the shoe is on the other foot.” Crawford even seemed to hint that the injunctions against Trump’s polices were politically motivated and getting worse. “A CBS news analysis of more than 300 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration found that outside of Washington, D.C., the most are in liberal Massachusetts, followed by Maryland, California, and New York,” she stated. “Now, the use of these sweeping injunctions has been growing significantly in recent years. There have been 39 of them so far blocking President Trump’s policies in his second term” (Newsbusters).

Ambassador Huckabee in Israel: “Just coming up from shelter after sirens sent us to bunker due to Houthi ballistic missile”

He continued: Every missile is courtesy of Iran. They hate @Israel & never forget they hate the USA (X). Jerusalem Post: A missile fired by Houthi terrorists from Yemen was intercepted on Thursday evening, the IDF announced. Sirens were activated across central Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Missile fragments landed in the settlement of Alon Shvut in the southern West Bank. This comes amid US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, where he announced several deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. At the time of the sirens, Trump was in the United Arab Emirates (Jerusalem Post). President Trump: “I want to make a deal with Iran, I want to do something if it’s possible, but for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons… I’m strongly urging all nations to join us in fully and totally enforcing the sanctions that I just placed on Iran” (X).

Swift Investigation of Ex-FBI Director James Comey After Social Media Post: “86-47”

“Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered.” Fox News: The Secret Service is investigating after ex-FBI Director James Comey posted an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to make the numbers “86 47” — a message that White House officials swiftly condemned as an attempt to put out a “hit” against the 47th president. Comey later deleted the post after online backlash from government officials, lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s son. Trump has faced two assassination attempts — one of which resulted in him being shot and a bystander being killed — in the past year. The post including the alleged “hit” showed the numbers in question etched into the sand at a beach using seashells. “Cool shell formation on my beach walk…” Comey captioned the Thursday post. While to some people the numbers may appear innocuous, “86” is frequently used as a call sign for murdering or getting rid of someone, while “47” has been interpreted as denoting the 47th President of the United States (Fox News). Donald Trump, Jr.: Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!! (X). FBI Director Patel: We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support (X).

J. D. Vance Lends His Voice to Help “Back the Blue”

Our Vice President: The American people killed the defund, the police movement, and they used Donald J. Trump as the murder weapon. It is gone from this country and we’re never going to let it come back. And just as President Trump and the administration are filled with strong leaders, we have no tolerance for weak willed municipal leaders who allow petty crime to take root all over our communities. We have no tolerance for people who defy our immigration laws or surrender entire blocks of their own cities to Antifa and other ridiculous organizations, and perhaps worst of them all. We have no tolerance for far-left prosecutors boosted in their elections by far away billionaires who come into office and simply decline to take action against criminals. We are going to fight against crime. We’re going to fight against criminals, and we are going to empower all of you to do your jobs every single day.” (X). On Thursday afternoon, they honored fallen law enforcement: Thousands of members of law enforcement descended on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Thursday to honor fallen officers during the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service. The service, now in its 44th year, has become the cornerstone ceremony of National Police Week, which consists of remembrance services across the nation’s capital that pay tribute to the local, state, and federal officers who died in the line of duty. “Each year we gather on a sacred ground to reflect, to grieve, and to celebrate the lives of those who answered the call to serve,” said Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police during the service (KSLA). From the White House: The oath to serve and protect comes with extraordinary risk and sacrifice, and we are indebted to those who choose this righteous profession. That is why I have asked the Congress to codify my Executive Order mandating the death penalty for the murder of a police officer — sending an unequivocal message that barbaric acts of violence and blatant disregard for the lives of our Nation’s heroes will not be tolerated — and to pass a crime bill with enhanced protections for police officers (White House). Today marks the close of National Police Week (National Police Week).

Jake Sullivan Was Shocked … Shocked at Joe Biden’s Cognitive Decline

From the Politico Security Summit: “What happened in that debate was a shock to me” (X). And Jake doesn’t recall that Joe Biden didn’t recall his name: “I do not recall that ever happening”… (X). All this comes as the other Jake—Jake Tapper—has a book coming out on Biden’s decline. And the hypocrisy surrounding that is deep. Glenn Greenwald: I didn’t know human beings were capable of the level of audacity and fraud that drives Jake Tapper’s book tour: pretending he’s the angry victim of the WH which prevented him from knowing about Biden’s cognitive decline (X). David Strom of Hot Air: Call it stolen valor, if you will. Rubbing up against people he insulted just a few months ago to associate himself with their courage. When it mattered, he smeared their newspaper as a Rupert Murdoch (read: Republican) outlet. He also claimed that the reporting in the Journal was “false,” which is a pretty definitive rejection of the now-heroic reporting back when it mattered. And since the Wall Street Journal is part of News Corp, you really shouldn’t take anything written there seriously, you know (Hot Air). Shawn Fleetwood: After spending years helping cover up Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline, Russia collusion hoaxer and left-wing propagandist Jake Tapper is now trying to gaslight Americans into believing he had nothing to do with the media-wide scandal….Despite his best attempts to feign innocence on the subject, Tapper was one of the main leftist hacks leading the media campaign to try and convince Americans that the doddering Biden on their television screens was just a figment of their imaginations (Federalist).

Hunger Strikers for Palestine at Stanford May End Up Just Losing Weight; “We do not know how long our bodies will hold”

The administration does not seem quick to divest in Israel or listen to the psychological needs of these 20-somethings. New York Sun: More than a dozen students and staff at Stanford University who have vowed not to eat until the school agrees to divest from Israel are in for a painful ride as the administration makes clear that it won’t cede to the protestors’ demands. The “Stanford Hunger Strikers for Justice in Palestine” — a cohort of at least 12 students and three faculty members — kicked off their fast on Monday to protest “the genocide in Gaza” and to pressure the school to agree to several reforms. Now, four days in, the fasters are still no closer to achieving their goals. To the contrary, the administration has already communicated to the students that their hunger strike will not sway its policies. “The university does not intend to negotiate in response to your demands,” Stanford’s vice provost for student affairs, Michele Rasmussen, informed the students…. “We do not know how long our bodies will hold. We know only that this fast etches a record of choice,” the group wrote in a public letter. (New York Sun). Stanford Daily: “I think it’s just crazy to walk from day to day to class and know that there’s money in our university being invested into companies that create missiles, that create bombs that are tearing children apart,” Arwa Faruk ’25, a participant in the hunger strike, told The Daily (Stanford Daily).

A New Protocol: HHS Will Stop Recommending Routine Covid Shots for Children, Pregnant Women

Wall Street Journal: The Trump administration is planning to drop recommendations that pregnant women, teenagers and children get Covid-19 vaccines as a matter of routine, according to people familiar with the matter. The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to remove the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups around the same time it launches a new framework for approving vaccines, the people said. The exact timing of the announcement wasn’t clear, the people said, though it was expected in the coming days (Wall Street Journal). And it all comes from a new professional class in our health agencies that were outsiders just a few short months ago. Free Press: One of the medical experts who broke with the consensus during the pandemic and joined forces with Rational Ground, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University School of Medicine, is now the director of the National Institutes of Health. Two weeks ago, in one of his first official actions, Bhattacharya announced that the NIH will accelerate the rollout of a plan to make available to the public all data gathered from taxpayer-funded NIH scientific research studies. It’s a policy recommendation consistently put forth by members of Rational Ground. “I believe very strongly that the products and data produced by scientific projects paid for by the public should be available to the public,” Bhattacharya told me in an email. Just 26 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence that scientists are working for the public good, a recent poll found. Bhattacharya said rebuilding that fractured trust is at the core of what he must accomplish in his new job…. the people Trump has selected to lead the NIH, CDC, and FDA are highly credentialed, well-respected, and extremely competent, and they are advocating policies that are as careful as they are radical. “These aren’t Robespierre lieutenants being elevated to judge, jury, and executioner when the revolution was won,” said Hart. “These are the people who should’ve been running things in the first place” (Free Press).

Trump Has Scrambled the Old Political Alliances

Joel Kotkin: US president Donald Trump has disrupted the nature of class politics. In a reversal of long-standing allegiances, working-class Americans – including many minorities – have shifted towards the MAGA right. Meanwhile, the well-educated, the corporate elites and the government-dependent have generally veered leftwards…. It is among the working class that the failures of liberal capitalism seem most obvious, often offering only low-wage service jobs. A growing percentage of young working-class people remain outside the labour pool entirely, with more men now out of the workforce than in half a century. In much of Europe, between a quarter and one-third of the population under 30 is neither in school nor employment, including in Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy. In the UK, one out of seven under-25s is on the economic sidelines, the highest level in a decade. They are angry with the status quo, and for good reasons…. The new class conflict is far more complex than the favoured narrative of the oligarchs vs the people, or the old Marxist battle between industrial workers and the bourgeois merchant class. The only way to address the shift to an increasingly extreme politics comes from finding ways to provide greater opportunities for income and ownership. If we fail in this, the results won’t be pretty (Spiked).

10.

The Malaise of the Young American Male: Unemployed or Underemployed and Opting Out

Grant Bailey and Brad Wilcox: American men are in trouble. From Richard Reeves’ Of Boys and Men to Nicholas Eberstadt’s Men Without Work, we have learned that men are opting out of our most important institutions—work, education and family—in record numbers. But what or who is to blame for this male malaise? Uncle Sam…. Work done by Princeton economist Mark Aguiar and his colleagues indicates that screentime—from gaming to porn—can account for nearly half of the drop in working hours for men in their twenties from 2004 to 2017. Of course, many parents of teenagers understand this problem starts before men hit their twenties. Throw in the well-documented failures of schools to cultivate the hearts, minds and talents of boys and young men, and what Eberstadt calls a “normative sea change” that has made it a “viable option” for “sturdy men … to sit on the economic sidelines, living off the toil or bounty of others” and you get a fuller picture of the familial, economic and cultural forces arrayed against our young men. The bottom line is that, yes, government handouts can, and do, sustain the growing male disconnect from work. But the story of young men and unemployment is about much more than the failures of Uncle Sam. There is plenty of blame to go around (Institute of Family Studies).

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