Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

Drudge Retort

User Info

LAMPLIGHTER

Subscribe to LAMPLIGHTER's blog Subscribe

Menu

Special Features

Sunday, May 17, 2026

French prosecutors investigating Jeffrey Epstein's alleged trafficking network say around ten previously unidentified suspected victims have recently contacted authorities, widening a probe into possible abuse committed in France or involving French accomplices linked to the late financier.


A Trump administration-backed celebration of U.S. religious heritage on Sunday is highlighting conservative Christian leaders' ties to the president as critics say the gathering does not reflect the country's diverse faith landscape. The nine-hour program, called "Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving," mostly features speakers from two Christian traditions -- evangelical Christianity and conservative Catholicism.


Saturday, May 16, 2026

His remarks come as the court faces intense public scrutiny and historically low approval following a series of high-profile rulings that overturned long-standing precedent. read more


In 1981, Judge John J. Sirica was walking down the hallway of the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. The judge's reaction to seeing the corridor crammed with boxes, as related by author Steve Coll, was to quip, "I'm glad I only had Watergate."


President Trump late Thursday invoked his predecessor in attempting to explain comments by Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two leaders meet during a high-stakes visit, blaming former President Biden and his administration for the U.S.'s "decline."


Comments

Another view ...

Beyond the pomp and pageantry, Xi Jinping sent a message to Donald Trump
www.csmonitor.com

... In perhaps the most telling moment of their two-day summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping looked U.S. President Donald Trump in the eye and told him, not so subtly, that China is eclipsing the United States as the world's leading power.

"The world has reached a crossroads," Mr. Xi said, addressing Mr. Trump across a long table and a centerpiece of pink and white flowers, as senior Chinese and American officials looked on.

"Can the U.S. and China overcome the so-called Thucydides Trap' and create a new paradigm for great power relations?" Mr. Xi asked, with a faint smile. He was referring to the 5th-century Greek historian Thucydides, who described how the rise of city-state Athens alarmed the established power, Sparta, making the Peloponnesian War inevitable.

In less than three minutes of carefully crafted opening remarks to Mr. Trump at their first meeting on Thursday in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Mr. Xi presented the American president with a confident statement of China's inevitable ascent, challenged him to handle it without conflict, and laid out Beijing's new framework for how to do just that.

Mr. Xi's message to Mr. Trump was clear: "You're the declining power, we are the rising power. ... So the question for you is whether you're going to accept our rise and not resist," says Nadge Rolland, distinguished fellow in China Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a U.S. think tank. "All of that is said with a ... red-carpet treatment, but these are very brutal assessments of the situation, and they are veiled threats as well." ...


Another song with a violin ...

Imagine Dragons - It's Time (live, 2012)
www.youtube.com

It's not often that you see the drummer of a rock band put down the drumsticks and pick up a violin.

This video was made before imagine dragons became the arena band IMAGINE DRAGONS. :)


... and ...

Some hide their crosses': Jerusalem nun attack highlights Israel's growing anti-Christian problem
www.france24.com

... When a foreign nun was the victim of violent physical assault in Jerusalem last month, local activists and clergy say they were shocked but not surprised. In the past few years, anti-Christian incidents have surged in Israel " illustrating how a small minority of insular and mainly ultra-religious nationalist or ultra-Orthodox Jews are becoming increasingly emboldened to act out their anger and hate. ...


Related ...

Extremist Jewish settlers eye Gaza, seek to expel Palestinians from enclave
www.nbcnews.com

... After years on the political fringes, support for making the war-torn Palestinian enclave into a Jewish community is gaining support across Israel. ...

Another view ...

GOP senator blasts Hegseth for 'careless decision' on troop posture
thehill.com

... Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) offered harsh criticism for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday over reported changes at the Pentagon, including a shift in U.S. military posture around the globe and the exits of multiple senior military officers in recent months.

"The careless decision to reduce our force posture in Europe, along with moves by Pete Hegseth and his political henchmen to force out some of our finest general officers is amateur hour at best and deadly at worst," Tillis wrote on the social platform X. ...

[emphasis mine]



More from the article ...

... President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a video message while senior Republicans including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will speak on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, the event is meant to "prepare for the nation's 250th birthday with Scripture, testimony, prayer, and rededication of our country as One Nation to God."

The gathering is organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership created by the White House to coordinate 250th anniversary celebrations alongside federal agencies.

Advocates of church-state separation say the event blurs government and religion.

"This government-sponsored prayer fest is the epitome of exactly what our secular Constitution forbids our government from doing," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a statement.

"It is a fusion not only of church and state, but also of our federal government with Christian nationalism," said Gaylor, whose organization advocates for the separation of church and state.

Some critics have pointed to the absence of religious groups such as mainline Protestant churches including Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians. Also not represented are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

More than a quarter of all U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to figures from the Pew Research Center. About 23% and 19% identify as evangelical Protestant and Catholic, respectively, and about 11% identify as mainline Protestant. ...




More from the article ...

... The boxes were stacked outside the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Harold Greene and were filled with cost studies regarding telephone services and equipment. Greene was in the midst of trying what was then the largest antitrust case in U.S. history and possibly the most significant event in the history of American telecommunications: United States v. American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T). ...

AT&T was founded in 1885 as a subsidiary of Alexander Graham Bell's American Bell Telephone Company. On December 30, 1899, AT&T acquired Bell Telephone and became the parent company. By the 1970s, it had grown to become the largest company in the world. ...

The company was a monopoly, to be sure, but considered itself a natural monopoly"the provider of a service for which the operating costs were so high that only a single company could do it efficiently.

Moreover, AT&T's leadership had long taken the position that it was only able to serve all consumers by maintaining a series of cross-subsidies"that is, subsidies funded by AT&T's more profitable services to support its less profitable ones.

By charging above-cost rates for long-distance service, service in urban areas, and business services, AT&T could keep prices low for local telephone service, service in rural areas, and residential services, respectively.

This framework, AT&T asserted, was only feasible if it retained sole control over the markets, because a competitor free to target the sectors subjected to above-cost rates would drive those rates down, rendering subsidies infeasible and driving prices up for critical services.

AT&T believed, therefore, that despite its size and market control it had not violated the antitrust laws. ...


Drudge Retort
 

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy