Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“Last night, outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed by a gunman who yelled “Free, free Palestine” after being taken into custody. The deceased—Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26—were set to get engaged to one another; Lischinsky was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/22/israeli-embassy-staffers-killed/
“Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passes the House…It passed narrowly, 215–214, with one voting present, and now faces the Senate.”
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“This bill will extend the 2017 tax cuts that were passed during the first Trump administration.”
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“The old $30,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions will be raised to $40,000 (a bit of a concession to Republican representatives and constituents from New York and New Jersey). Border states will get big chunks of change to offset extra immigration enforcement costs under the Biden administration (or so the framing goes). There’s some reduced Medicaid and food stamp spending, cutting federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $267 billion over the next decade. The child tax credit will be expanded.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/22/israeli-embassy-staffers-killed/
The global south’s response to Russia’s invasion has been disappointing because it is not just a European issue. The invasion violates the global norm that you don’t change borders by force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BlVVXH_qpU
“U.S. Cyber Command paused offensive operations aimed at Russia for a day earlier this year as a negotiating tactic, House Armed Services Committee cyber subcommittee Chair Don Bacon (R-Neb.) confirmed Friday.”
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“While Bacon did not elaborate on the negotiations, the pause likely happened around the time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was visiting the White House to negotiate a minerals deal with President Donald Trump — a deal that fell through after a contentious Oval Office meeting.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/16/hegseth-cyber-operations-russia-pause-00354072
Cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgGVttwEi1I
“If Washington truly abandons its role as the world’s police officer, Europe would struggle to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army, at least in that time frame. Many European countries, especially Germany, have neglected their own military in recent decades. While Russia has converted everything to a war economy, parts of Europe have only just woken up from the dream of a peaceful world. Military experts proclaim that it will take more than four years to manufacture an arsenal of conventional weapons of the size needed to counter a Russian invasion. While most observers consider a Russian attack on Germany unlikely, even this is not an impossible scenario.
That’s why, to deter Russia, Germany and Europe need their own nuclear shield.”
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“relying solely on France seems risky especially with French nationalist Marine Le Pen, a known Russia sympathizer, or another figure from her nationalist party potentially taking over the Élysée Palace in the near future. A broader European solution also involving Britain’s nuclear capabilities — and possibly Poland as a front-line state — would be far more prudent.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/08/nuclear-weapons-europe-defense-trump-00278754
A lot of uncertainty in what’s really going on in the air war between India and Pakistan. A lot of propaganda and biased commentators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elImXpteVdI
India and Pakistan War: Here’s What’s Happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVrCpoAsMyc
“The arrest of Mohsen Mahdawi was a test of just how far President Donald Trump’s power over immigrants could go. Mahdawi, a ten-year legal U.S. resident and a student at Columbia University, was at his interview to become a U.S. citizen earlier this month. But because he wasn’t a citizen yet, the Trump administration argued that it could deport Mahdawi for his protest activity, and had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pick him up at the immigration center.
On Wednesday, however, a federal judge ordered ICE to free Mahdawi, who was born in a refugee camp in the Palestinian territories, while his case proceeded. “The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said at the hearing, according to ABC News. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.””
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“”Noncitizen residents like Mr. Mahdawi enjoy First Amendment rights in this country to the same extent as United States Citizens,” he emphasized. “If the Government detained Mr. Mahdawi as punishment for his speech, that purpose is not legitimate, regardless of any alleged First Amendment violation. Immigration detention cannot be motivated by a punitive purpose. Nor can it be motivated by the desire to deter others from speaking.””
https://reason.com/2025/04/30/court-frees-palestinian-student-arrested-by-ice-at-his-u-s-citizenship-hearing/
“Last month, there was a terrorist attack in India-controlled Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. Yesterday, India conducted several airstrikes on Pakistan, saying the strikes were retribution for the attack.
The strikes may not have been as successful as the Indian military had hoped. “At least two aircraft were said to have gone down in India and the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, according to three officials, local news reports, and accounts of witnesses who had seen the debris of two,” reports The New York Times. “Pakistani military officials said that more than 20 people had been killed and dozens injured after six places were hit on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and in Punjab Province. Residents of the Indian side of Kashmir said at least 10 people had been killed in shelling from the Pakistani side since India carried out its strikes.””
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“”The scale of the strikes went far beyond New Delhi’s response to previous attacks in Kashmir it has blamed on Pakistan, including in 2019 and 2016, which some analysts said meant the risk of escalation was higher,” reports Reuters. But “the last time India and Pakistan faced off in a military confrontation, in 2019, U.S. officials detected enough movement in the nuclear arsenals of both nations to be alarmed,” reports The New York Times.
There’s also, of course, the China factor: Pakistan now gets lots of its weapons from China, whereas India is more reliant on the West; relations between India and China have soured in recent years, while China and Pakistan have gotten much closer.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/07/india-vs-pakistan-and-china/