Posts on Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Fans are calling out legendary R&B singer Patti LaBelle for whiffing on her rendition of the national anthem to kick off the 2026 MLB All-Star Game in her hometown of Philadelphia. The 82-year-old two-time Grammy winner had the honor of singing the Star-Spangled Banner at the 96th Midsummer Classic before a packed crowd at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday evening — just five miles from Independence Hall and little more than a week after the nation’s 250th birthday. LaBelle appeared to drop a few words along the way and dragged out the anthem longer than most during the performance, but gutted her way across home plate with her singing

Finding out that, by a 3-to-2 margin, Americans think the country is “evolving into a big government socialist state” is bad enough. Far more worrisome is finding out how many Republicans and self-styled conservatives are on board with one of socialism’s central tenets. The latest IBD/TIPP Poll, which we are reporting on today, finds that nearly half of Americans agree that we’re sliding into socialism, and less than a third disagree. (See: “By 3-To-2 Margin, Americans Believe U.S. Is Turning Into A ‘Socialist State’: I&I/TIPP Poll.”) It also finds that Republicans are more pessimistic about the future than Democrats,

Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, taking a page from communist predecessors, is moving to assure that he has a pliant, ideologically aligned press corps to serve as props for his policy initiatives. (Snip) A July 10 press conference by Mayor Mamdani, billed as "a consumer protection announcement," had the mayor announcing a crackdown that is supposed to make it easier for New Yorkers to cancel online subscriptions. That itself is an effort to starve free-market-oriented, or at least non-communist, press outlets from revenue that helps to guarantee their independence. The press conference featured lines like this: "We’re going to start with Praj at the Nation.

Chamath Palihapitiya is an investor who manages a portfolio worth billions of dollars. He also co-hosts the ‘All In’ podcast with David Sacks, Trump’s Bitcoin Czar. Despite his relationship with Sacks, he was not a fan of President Trump, and now admits that he suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome. During an appearance on CNBC this week, he explained how he changed his mind about Trump and offers his story as advice for others. CHAMATH PALIHAPITYA: There are enough people that I hear who are lazy and reductive, and they’re going to end up where they’re supposed to end up—in a little cul-de-sac of their own making.

Well, here's something that doesn't happen too often. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami awarded $314 million in damages to three U.S. citizens who were imprisoned and tortured by Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela before being freed in a 2023 prisoner swap. The three men were Jerrel Kenemore, a Texas computer scientist who'd moved to neighboring Colombia to be with a woman he met. He was kidnapped by paramilitaries in 2022 while visiting a grocery store near the Venezuela-Colombia border and held for over 600 days before being charged with "espionage" and "counterintelligence activities."

As my colleague Ward Clark reported on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives moved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent throughout the United States, from committee to the House floor for a vote. On Tuesday, the full House voted and passed the Act, 308-117. This is performative theater and nothing more. There are more pressing issues for our country and on the House docket, like national security appropriations, bills to combat fraud, and government controls over AI and data centers. But fresh off the House's July 4th recess, this was first up for consideration. According to Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA-03),

The world that we’re looking at today is radically different than that of just five years ago, radically different in the sense that it is much more in the interest of the United States. And I know that seems controversial because [President Donald] Trump is written off as someone who is too fluid and volatile. His tweets, his verbiage, can put people off, but that’s the art-of-the-deal unpredictability of his nature. Some of it can be a drawback, some of it an advantage, but overall, it doesn’t help analysis to just look at what he says. It’s more important to see what he’s done.

Oil producers in the Persian Gulf are making plans to bypass the Strait of Hormuz with new pipelines and a new port after Iran has repeatedly attacked ships and blocked traffic. The idea is to minimize Tehran’s leverage on the waterway that once saw 20% of the world’s oil pass through it as the war stretches into its fifth month. Iran has already insisted that it will impose tolls on the strait, which could cost tens of billions of dollars. And in some cases, it is extracting millions of dollars of protection money per oil tanker. Two such projects are already underway in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq —