USA

They represent those who are tired of being told by the people in power what their choices and beliefs are or should be.

Last Thursday night, most pundits, journalists, and columnists were huddled around their televisions or devices, poised to opine on the long-awaited DeSantis/Newsom matchup. Having forced myself to sit through two GOP debates only to have them both end with me lowering my head in despair and wishing I had bought an extra fifth of scotch to help me weather the evening, I opted to forego the Presidential Hopeful WrestleMania. As I understand it, I didn’t miss much, and both sides declared victory. Instead, I found myself huddled on a cold sidewalk outside of a bar in Salt Lake City. The reason? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was holding a campaign rally, and I had been given press credentials. As I am the child of ’60s activists, JFK, MLK, and RFK were practically the Holy Trinity in our house. So, it was with a mix of nostalgia and curiosity that I went out into the cold.

In recent years, the idea that the United States is an empire in decline has gained considerable support, some of it from quarters that until very recently would have denied it was ever an empire at all. The New York Times, for instance, has run columns that describe a “remarkably benign” American empire that is “in retreat”, or even at risk of decline and fall.

Yet the shadow American power still casts over the rest of the world is unmistakable. The US has military superiority over all other countries, control of the world’s oceans via critical sea lanes, garrisons on every continent, a network of alliances that covers much of the industrial world, the ability to render individuals to secret prisons in countries from Cuba to Thailand, preponderant influence over the global financial system, about 30% of the world’s wealth and a continental economy not dependent on international trade.

Nearly 50 million people living in the US were born in another country according to a shocking new report.

A new study by the Center for Immigration Studies found 49.5 million people — around 15% of the 330 million US population — were originally born in another country.

The report also states this percentage, the highest ever recorded since the nation’s founding, has increased during Biden’s presidency, which it attributes to migrants flooding into the country during the current border crisis.

h/t DG

Concerns over incentivizing global conflicts are rising as the Biden administration requests more than $105 billion in supplemental security spending.

The administration says the money, primarily for Israel and Ukraine, will be good for the economy.

President Joe Biden has described the mammoth spending package as “a smart investment” that will “pay dividends” to U.S. security interests.