Hey there, hi there, ho there, and welcome to Friday, May 8, 2026. It’s World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, World Ovarian Cancer Day, The Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War (May 8–9), National Student Nurse Day, and National Coconut Cream Pie Day. Today is also National No Socks Day. At last, a holiday where you can let your feet breathe and feel morally superior about it. Remember: Today, bare feet aren’t a fashion choice — they’re a commitment to national culture. Celebrate responsibly! (As an example, if you’re celebrating, I’d maybe stay away from public restrooms. Just a thought.)
Given the headlines today about cruise ships and pandemics, this seems an appropriate way to start this section:
1348: Ship from Bordeaux, carrying the plague, lands in Melcombe Regis (now Weymouth), Dorset. The beginning of the Terrible Pestilence (Black Death) in England.
1521: The Parliament of Worms installs edict against Martin Luther.
1657: English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell refuses the English crown.
1784: Only known deaths by hailstones in the United States occur in Winnsboro, S.C.
1835: First installment of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales is published by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1847: Scottish inventor Robert Thompson patents his pneumatic tyre in the U.S.
1858: American abolitionist John Brown holds a secret antislavery convention in Canada.
1878: Thomas Henry Huxley reads David Edward Hughes’s paper on the idea for a microphone before the Royal Society of London.
1879: George Selden files the first patent for a gasoline-powered automobile.
1919: Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of World War I; leads to the creation of Remembrance Day.
1942: Aircraft carrier USS Lexington sunk by Japanese air attack in the Coral Sea.
1945: V-E Day: World War II ends in Europe after Germany’s General Wilhelm Keitel formally signs unconditional surrender to the Allies represented by the United States, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union in Berlin. Germany signs an unconditional surrender.
1959: Mike and Marian Ilitch found Little Caesars Pizza in Garden City, Mich.
1962: Oskar and Emilie Schindler are honored for saving 1,200 Jews during WWII, in a ceremony on the Avenue of the Righteous, Jerusalem.
1963: President John F. Kennedy offers Israel assistance against aggression from its neighbors.
Birthdays today include: Edward Gibbon, author and historian (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire); Henry Dunant, co-founder of the Red Cross (Nobel Peace Prize 1901); Oscar Hammerstein, German-American cigar maker, opera and theater impresario, composer, and playwright; President Harry Truman; Fulton J. Sheen, bishop and author (Life is Worth Living); Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director; Robert Johnson, blues singer-songwriter; David Attenborough, British naturalist, TV producer and host (BBC Life and Our Planet series); Don Rickles, comedian; Larry Levine, sound engineer (Phil Spector’s wall of sound; Herb Alpert; Beach Boys); Salome Jens, actress (From Here to Eternity [TV mini-series], Star Trek: Deep Space Nine); “Toni” Tennille, singer-songwriter, keyboardist (Captain & Tennille – “Love Will Keep Us Together”); Ricky Nelson, pop-rock star (“Hello Mary Lou,” “It’s Late,” “Garden Party”) and actor (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Rio Bravo); Peter Benchley, author (Jaws, The Deep); John Fred Gourrier, American pop singer (John Fred and His Playboy Band – “Judy in Disguise [With Glasses]”); glam-rocker Gary Glitter; Tommy Taylor, session and touring drummer and vocalist (Eric Johnson, Christopher Cross); Bill de Blasio, politician and NYC Mayor; Melissa Gilbert, actress (Little House on the Prairie); and Joe Bonnamassa, blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
If today is your day, here’s wishing you a great one.
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Over at the New York Post, Miranda Devine this morning tells us all what we already knew:
A bombshell new CIA review of the Obama administration’s spy agencies’ assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump was deliberately corrupted by then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who were “excessively involved” in its drafting, and rushed its completion in a “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” process that raised questions of a “potential political motive.”
Further, Brennan’s decision to include the discredited Steele dossier, over the objections of the CIA’s most senior Russia experts, “undermined the credibility” of the assessment.
The “Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA] on Russian Election Interference” was conducted by career professionals at the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis and was commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe in May.
No kidding? Do tell.
The “direct engagement” of agency heads Brennan, Comey and Clapper in the ICA’s development was “highly unusual in both scope and intensity. This exceptional level of senior involvement likely influenced participants, altered normal review processes, and ultimately compromised analytic rigor.
“One CIA analytic manager involved in the process said other analytic managers — who would typically have been part of the review chain — opted out due to the politically charged environment and the atypical prominence of agency leadership in the process.”
Bless Miranda for covering this. She continues to impress me, and she’s on my daily reading list. That said, let’s be honest; we already knew this as a matter of instinct, as much as anything else.
Brennan handpicked the CIA analysts to compile the ICA and involved only the ODNI, CIA, FBI and NSA, excluding 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies.
He sidelined the National Intelligence Council and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier despite objections of the authors and senior CIA Russia experts, so as to push a false narrative that Russia secured Trump’s 2016 victory.
“This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump,’” said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview.
Yeah, I know — big shock. But that was just the beginning.
What followed was the most sustained, coordinated legal and political assault ever launched against a sitting — and former — president in American history. It fits the pattern of the last decade.
In short: They threw everything they had at the man. Every weapon within reach. Every arrow in the quiver. And every time, they eventually came up empty-handed and revealing all their desperation and their corruption. Trust me when I tell you, the people have noticed all of this.
A Manhattan DA dusted off a years-old bookkeeping dispute that federal prosecutors had previously declined to pursue, repackaged it as a felony, and put a former president on trial. Built on the testimony of a convicted liar, the case ended in a conviction on 34 counts. Critics called it lawfare. Many legal scholars called it a stretch. The people noticed.
Then came the classified documents case in Florida, where a special counsel charged Trump with mishandling materials at Mar-a-Lago — a case ultimately dismissed after the judge found serious prosecutorial overreach. The people noticed.
Then came the Georgia case, a sprawling RICO indictment that collapsed under the weight of its own scandal when the DA’s romantic relationship with her hand-picked lead prosecutor came to light. It stalled, stumbled, and became a symbol of the very overreach it embodied — and has since been contradicted by federal investigations.
And then came the federal election obstruction case in D.C., where yet another special counsel attempted to criminalize Trump’s challenges to the 2020 results. After his 2024 victory, it was dropped. The people had noticed and spoke louder than any blue-city grand jury. They also noticed when an investigation into Georgia’s election system revealed that Trump probably had, in fact, won the 2020 election. No small point, though the legacy press has been avoiding it. The people noticed that, too.
Related: The Time Is Now: Pass the SAVE Act
In New York, the attorney general secured a staggering $450 million civil fraud judgment over property valuations. No victim came forward, no bank claimed a loss. It was later reduced, then overturned on appeal. The people noticed.
A separate civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll produced an $83 million defamation verdict. The pattern was unmistakable: Trump’s enemies wielded the legal system in blue jurisdictions as a political battering ram, and everyone watching knew it. Including the judge overseeing the appeal, who tossed the whole thing out. The people noticed.
And when all of that failed, they tried to kill him. Several times. The people saw that, too.
And so, we see his voters still support him, and his attackers still can’t fathom why. Or at least, they won’t admit to that understanding.
They tried the courts. They tried the ballot. They tried the bullet. He’s still here — and still commanding the loyalty of the voters who put him back in office.
As an aside, the people also watched as the Democrats blew through some $64 million on their illegal Virginia gerrymandering attempt. I suggest that all of that, as it has accumulated, will play large in mid-terms come November.
How do I know? Look what happened in the UK this week.The British people have been watching the actions of the Starmer government and have in turn handed Labour a historic loss of some 650 seats. Starmer himself is headed for a No Confidence vote, and Labour will be unable to get a dog catcher elected. I predict the same thing will be happening to the Democrats here in the ‘States, in this year’s midterm.
Thought of the day: If the president could have stopped 9/11 from happening, do you believe he should have done so? Of course you do. So do I. So, can you explain why you have such a problem with the president stopping Iran from obtaining nukes?
VIP members, smash that heart on the lower left, and let’s hear your comments. It helps, believe me.
Take care today. I’ll see you here in the morning.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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