Author: Brittany Mays

U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue defended President Trump’s recent state visit to Beijing as a strategic, face-to-face effort to fix long-running trade and economic problems between the two countries, arguing diplomatic pressure at the highest level was overdue and necessary. David Perdue made clear that a presidential visit to Beijing wasn’t a photo op but a chance to confront structural issues that have hollowed out American manufacturing and handed leverage to China. He framed the trip as a direct response to decades of lopsided trade, regulatory gaps and intellectual property concerns. That blunt assessment reflects a Republican view that…

Rep. Steve Cohen ended his reelection bid after Tennessee’s new congressional map split his Memphis-based seat into three Republican-leaning districts, leaving him without a clear path back to Congress. Rep. Steve Cohen, the only Democrat in Tennessee’s congressional delegation, announced he would not file for reelection after the state dismantled the 9th District he had held for two decades. The new map, signed by Gov. Bill Lee on May 7, redistributed the deep-blue constituency into three Republican-tilting districts and left Cohen describing his options as nonexistent. The redrawing follows the Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Callais v. Louisiana, which…

Trump Calls China Summit a Great Success. Chinese Communist Party leader to visit US in September. Washington and Beijing recently moved from brinkmanship to a pragmatic exchange that surprised a lot of Washington insiders. The White House framed the talks as leverage-driven diplomacy where the United States pressed for clear wins on security and trade. The outcome left Republicans saying strength and clear demands earned tangible concessions. “Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agree: Opening the Strait of Hormuz and keeping Iran nuke free is in the best interest of the US and China alike.” That sentence captures the rare…

The $1.2 trillion tag attached to the proposed Golden Dome missile shield is headline-grabbing, but it rests on assumptions tied to yesterday’s technology and acquisition habits rather than the way modern defense programs evolve. The eye-popping $1.2 trillion figure for the Golden Dome missile shield deserves scrutiny because it treats future systems as if they must be built the same way we built the past. Cost projections that extrapolate old, platform-centric procurement models miss how software, modular design, and rapid prototyping change timelines and budgets. That makes a single sticker price a poor guide for policy decisions. The estimate assumes…

A pregnant 17-year-old was shot in Dallas after an argument in a convenience store parking lot; two men who entered the country illegally are charged with capital murder, and the case has ignited criticism over the city’s refusal to partner with federal immigration enforcement. On May 3, 2026, around 12:40 a.m., a confrontation in a 7-Eleven parking lot escalated into a deadly drive-by shooting that struck a 17-year-old who was 22 weeks pregnant. The teen was rushed to Baylor Hospital, where doctors performed a cesarean section, but the baby did not survive. Authorities arrested Yeremy Alexander Zapata Aleman, 17, of…

Short, reflective piece about a daily ritual titled “Food for the Soul,” exploring how small moments, a rotating gallery of images, historical touchstones, cartoons, and video commentary can shape a thoughtful morning routine. “Food for the Soul” sits like a prompt on the kitchen counter, a tiny nudge to slow down and think. The tagline “Something to ponder over your morning coffee.” is part of that gentle invitation and it sets the tone for a short pause in a busy day. These moments are not grand, but they stack up into something steady and sustaining. One corner of this practice…

Mayor Zohran Mamdani backed away from a planned near 9.5 percent property tax increase and rewrote his budget mix, swapping a broad homeowner levy for state aid, a targeted pied-à-terre tax, pension tweaks, and other fixes. Mamdani announced that a property tax hike is off the table in his executive city budget, after facing pushback from Albany, the city council, and the business community. He had pitched the across-the-board increase as a last resort to close a budget gap he described as substantial, then reversed course when that threat failed to land. The proposed 9.5 percent property tax increase would…

This article critiques a major newspaper’s portrayal of families left behind when undocumented spouses are detained, arguing media narratives often overlook the law-and-order reasons voters back stricter deportation policies. The Washington Post ran a human-interest story about women suddenly raising kids after their undocumented husbands were detained, and it framed the situation as a personal tragedy. From a Republican viewpoint, sympathy for families is natural, but sympathy should not erase the context of illegal entry and criminal behavior that led to detention. Newspapers choose angles, and those choices shape how people understand policy trade-offs. Reporting that spotlights the emotional consequences…

Republican senators who upset President Trump are scrambling to survive primaries by copying his playbook, but doing it without his endorsement leaves them exposed and opens room for challengers who can claim purer loyalty to the base. Three Republican incumbents — Cassidy, Massie and Cornyn — face primary voters after crossing President Trump. Now they’re running his playbook without his blessing, and their political surviva This trio of incumbents is juggling two competing realities: they need to appeal to a conservative electorate that rewards fight and loyalty, yet many of their recent moves put them at odds with the loudest…

Jevons Paradox and AI: a practical lens on job anxiety Jevons Paradox argues that greater efficiency can lead to more overall use, not less, and applying that idea to artificial intelligence suggests a different way to think about job losses and opportunities. Instead of assuming automation only shrinks work, the paradox points toward expanding demand, new tasks, and shifting skill sets that reshape labor markets. This piece explores how that dynamic plays out across professions and what it means for workers, employers, and communities. At its core, Jevons Paradox says that making something cheaper or easier often increases how much…