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Complacency Weakening Navy

“This stadium reminds us of the great battles in which those who came before you fought to defend democracy. Belleau Wood. Guadalcanal. Iwo Jima. Inchon. But what you don’t see here is all the battles that never occurred, all the wars that never erupted — because American Sailors and Marines showed up. They deterred conflict. They kept the watch.” — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, U.S. Naval Academy commencement, 2023 Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mass., ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, wants you to be as alarmed as he is about this: If deterrence, which failed ...

Dracula Turning to Spending Cuts

Among the top priorities for newly selected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was his announced intention to form a bipartisan panel to cut massive spending that has led to an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt. The pragmatist in me cheers, but the cynic in me says asking Congress to cut spending is like asking Dracula to cut back on his consumption of blood. Spending helps keep members in office. In addition to the worthless slogan that members are only “bringing home the bacon” (more like pork in many cases) and getting a “fair share” for their districts and states, ...

News Shows We Are Breeding Generations of Little Tyrants

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO and founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is on trial for criminal fraud and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried is accused of bilking investors out of billions of dollars when his company spectacularly collapsed. The trial is not going well for SBF. His former lover, Caroline Ellison, provided damning testimony against him. Ellison — who has already pleaded guilty to several counts of financial fraud — told the court that Bankman-Fried thought rules like “don’t lie” on balance sheets and “don’t steal” from customers didn’t apply to ...

House Approves $14.5B For Israel As Biden Vows Veto

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved $14.5 billion in military aid Thursday for Israel, a muscular U.S. response to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden. In a departure from norms, Johnson’s package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into a divisive one. Biden has said he would veto the bill, which ...

Donald Trump Jr. Testifies In Trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. testified Wednesday that he never worked on his father’s financial statements, the documents now at the heart of the civil fraud trial that threatens former President Donald Trump’s real estate empire. The ex-president’s eldest son is an executive vice president of the family’s Trump Organization and has been a trustee of a trust set up to hold its assets when his father was in the White House. At least one of the annual financial statements bore language saying the trustees “are responsible” for the document. But Donald Trump Jr. said ...

Foreign Nationals And Wounded Palestinians Allowed To Leave Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli ground troops have advanced to “the gates of Gaza City” in heavy fighting with militants, the military said Wednesday, as hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza after more than three weeks under siege. The first people to leave Gaza — other than four hostages released by Hamas and another rescued by Israeli forces — crossed into Egypt, escaping the territory’s growing misery as bombings drive hundreds of thousands from their homes, and food, water and fuel run low. The U.S. ...