Christopher Arndt

The two American parties are not alike It is astonishing how much the Republican base is in thrall to a cult of personality and blindly approving of whatever the leader does.

There's a fundamental rejection of free expression baked into this. Jake Tapper and members of the media aren't calling for violence against the President. Criticism is not incitement. The idea that anyone critical of a president bears responsibility for political violence reduces the First Amendment to a conditional privilege. That's the logic of authoritarian regimes. It absolves the perpetrator and collectivizes guilt against the opposition. It is flatly incompatible with America.

STATEMENT: Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately. On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy. We wish him well in his future endeavors. Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy.

New IEA data: EV sales in emerging markets surge 80% in 2025 >India: EVs up 75% to record 2.3m EV units sold >Indonesia: 125% increase >Viet Nam: EVs hit staggering 40% share of new car sales >Thailand: EV share of new sales hit 21% >Latin America: Region saw 70% annual growth >Mexico: Sales tripled >Brazil: Sales up 40% >Ecuador and Uruguay: Experienced massive jumps of 240% and 140% The "EVs are only for rich countries and China" bullshit is officially over

Total travesty!!

I hate gerrymandering, but the question is: If GOP states brazenly do it mid-decade, is the proper blue-state response "two wrongs don't make a right" or "level the playing field to neutralize its national impacts." Ultimately, I voted "yes" based on the latter. Paradoxically, I consider this the best way to ultimately discourage mid-decade gerrymanders because it prevents the instigators from being rewarded with much more net House seats. And I believe this cross-state backlash will discourage this mid-decade gambit from being repeated in the future. Ultimately, a national ban on gerrymandering is central to fixing Congress. But passively letting one side gerrymander and be rewarded for it would move us further away from that point. Conservatives should recognize this "peace through strength" principle: The best way to discourage war is not to unilaterally disarm, but rather to build a strong enough military to discourage the other side from launching the next war.

❗️The U.S. has extended the license for operations involving Russian oil. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has extended a license allowing transactions involving Russian oil and petroleum products that were loaded onto vessels before April 17. Such transactions are now permitted until May 16. The decision was made two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that there were no plans to continue the exemption.