Oh, I know something about the ways of tabbing, and I tell you, baby, that something’s wrong …
This should be given more attention than it has. pic.twitter.com/10x9nTBNQH
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 16, 2026
Ed: Indeed. So here we go …
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WSJ: U.S. and Nigerian forces killed Islamic State’s alleged No. 2, a man linked to terrorist attacks against religious minorities and the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren, officials said.
Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki guided Islamic State “on matters relating to media operations, economic warfare and the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones,” Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spokesman for Nigeria’s armed forces, said in a release Saturday.
Al-Mainuki, born in Nigeria in 1982, had also led Islamic State fundraising operations, according to a United Nations report issued last year.
The operation that killed him, which took place in the Lake Chad Basin in northeastern Nigeria, was “a major breakthrough in ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism” regionally and globally, Uba said.
Ed: I had to dig around a bit at the WSJ site to find this report this morning, but it’s worth the effort. ISIS has apparently shifted its focus to Africa after getting chased out of the Syria-Iraq region and competing against the Taliban in Afghanistan. They may be linked up with Boko Haram or a superior organization to it. The US-Nigerian partnership that decapitated this arm of ISIS is a big development in dealing with the Islamists and their atrocities in that country.
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Donald Trump on Truth Social: Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield. Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing. He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished. Thank you to the Government of Nigeria for your partnership on this operation. GOD BLESS AMERICA! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Ed: This is impressive, especially with the US military focused on the conflict with Iran. This operation would have been executed by AFRICOM rather than CENTCOM, but it’s still a demonstration of how the Pentagon can handle multiple conflicts simultaneously. It also raises the stakes in the CENTCOM region, since ISIS still has plenty of roots in that area of operation.
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As Louise Lucas would say, “nine-fuckin’-zero.” https://t.co/cqgv29Qg4M
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) May 16, 2026
Ed: If Virginia Dems are really convinced that this map is the will of the people of the commonwealth, they can try again with a new referendum, only done properly. That would require them to wait until next year to complete the referendum process in accordance with the state constitution, but they would have their 10-1 map for the 2028 election. And yet, none of them seems interested in trying again, perhaps because this meltdown has made them toxic with voters outside of Richmond and Fairfax County.
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WashEx: A Florida state representative was arrested on Friday for holding a sit-in protest outside Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R-FL) office against the state’s newly drawn congressional map.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democrat representing the district that includes Jacksonville, started the protest around noon and remained there for five hours, attempting to stay beyond the office’s closing, until she was arrested.
While protesting, Nixon said her protest was in opposition to the Sunshine State’s new congressional map and that she would remain there until the governor spoke with her.
Ed: Nixon got the headline she wanted; DeSantis got the map he wanted. Everyone should be happy, right?
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Deservedly so.
Our office isn’t a platform for this performative nonsense. https://t.co/Oqcp7QWxqv
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 16, 2026
Ed: Could be worse. Could have been a Virginia Dem. The description DeSantis uses here is spot-on. Nixon is a member of the legislature, not some rando activist. She had her vote on the map; she lost. Staging a sit-in at the governor’s office to reverse that vote is not just futile but an ignorance of her role in the democratic process.
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Jonathan Turley: It is common (and commendable) for incoming law students to be addressed about our profession’s commitment to fighting discrimination in all forms. I have given such speeches to incoming students. Many of us also incorporate material that explores discrimination in legal doctrine and practice.
What is different is that this is a mandatory course that tells students that they must accept certain antiracism precepts to be lawyers. This course appears similar to many offered as electives at other law schools. However, at Penn State it is mandatory.
While hopefully everyone opposes discrimination and oppression, many students (and lawyers) may not agree with the sweeping statements about the dominance or hold of white supremacy or patriarchy in our legal system.
This does not mean that combating prejudice should not be a priority or emphasized in law school. Rather, the REPL course has been criticized as an example of the activist and orthodox culture in higher education.
Ed: Well put, but it doesn’t address the strategy behind this. Education programs in universities began requiring courses like these and pledges to adopt so-called “anti-racist” precepts as a condition of admission. The strategy is to disincentivize non-woke aspirants from entering the professions, and in so doing, continue the long march through these institutions. That has almost entirely succeeded in education, and the legal profession is probably not far behind.
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A committee of the American Bar Association has voted to eliminate its already suspended DEI accreditation requirement.
A final decision depends on a future vote by the ABA House of Delegates.
One member of the committee said, “Even though I personally agree with [the diversity… pic.twitter.com/tuSxiFwmjL
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 15, 2026
One member of the committee said, “Even though I personally agree with [the diversity and inclusion standard] and what it tries to achieve, I think it’s appropriate as an accrediting body that we eliminate that standard so we don’t inhibit the diversity of ideas out there in various types of legal education environments.”
Ed: Maybe it’s not too late for the legal profession. Let’s see what Penn State does after receiving this much scrutiny over its REPL requirements.
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Rod Martin: Xi is very aware of his own problems. Two years ago, he was on the verge of controlling the approaches to North America. Today America has flipped that script. So isn’t it at least possible that Xi is recognizing how we’ve kicked his butt out of the Caribbean, humiliated his armaments industry in Venezuela and Iran, and locked down Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok with our new Indonesian defense pact(s)?
And that’s not even mentioning Japan’s reassertion as both a major power and arsenal to our allies, South Korea’s and Australia’s nuclear submarine deals with the U.S., the defensive implications of the Taiwan arms deals, the growing forest of missiles in Luzon, and the recently announced $1.5 trillion Trump defense budget, up from under $1 trillion. If we obsess about China’s strengths, do we really think they don’t obsess about ours? …
I think China is at an extreme disadvantage. Its economy requires exports to the U.S., its oil (and far too much of its food) flows through narrow straits the U.S. Navy controls, its demographic implosion has about another ten years before becoming catastrophic, its unending leadership purges show the regime is shockingly brittle, and though it very much wants to invade Taiwan, in 77 years it has not, and it is perhaps dawning upon it that its real best case scenario might be to be among the four great power pairs who made peace rather than the 12 who did not.
I think that’s what Xi was saying in Beijing. Not that China is no danger. Not that China won’t fight if given an opening (and God help us had we elected Kamala!). But that if Trump’s way is America’s new and permanent course, then détente represents China’s best hope for survival.
Ed: Forget all of the blathering about the “Thucydides trap,” which Martin explains properly and the media misunderstands, and just focus on the maps that outline the US’ forward positions in the island chains. That hadn’t been a problem for Xi until the US under Trump suddenly began asserting its naval, economic, and political power in the Caribbean and in the Persian Gulf. The willingness to exert power has to have changed Xi’s calculus to the point where he can’t afford to test the Thucydides theorem any longer.
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You get the game here, right?
They file an absurd motion asking the Supreme Court to rule on a case where it clearly has no jurisdiction. Then when it obviously refuses (w 0 dissents), they accuse it of corruption to justify trying to stack the court.
Shameful. https://t.co/VwUlPiF41l
— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 16, 2026
Ed: Yep. That’s the cynical game Democrats are playing, and the media is complicit in the strategy as well.
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Associated Press: The Justice Department will seek the death penalty for the man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.
Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum last May. Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” during the shooting and later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to his indictment.
The charges against Rodriguez include a hate crime resulting in death. The indictment also includes notice of special findings, which allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.
“My message to anyone who seeks to commit political violence in this district — D.C. is not the place. You will be held accountable and you will face the full wrath of the law,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said at an unrelated news conference Friday in which she revealed the Justice Department’s death penalty decision.
Ed: I’ve been a death-penalty skeptic for a long time, but the rise of political assassinations has changed my mind, at least in this narrow application. The issue shouldn’t be a “hate crime,” though, but flat-out terrorism. Murders for the sake of political viewpoints should get the harshest possible penalty so as to deter others. Otherwise, the impulse to resort to violence only grows.
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Platner suggests to NYT he only learned of Nazi-connotations of his tattoo after campaign started.
I spoke in October to an acquaintance of Platner from more than a decade ago who said Platner spoke about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. A second person told me that they… pic.twitter.com/yJxiZUZ21j
— Andrew Kaczynski (@KFILE) May 16, 2026
A second person told me that they learned of the tattoo years ago from the same person.
I also reviewed a text chain between the acquaintance and another person discussing Platner’s Nazi-like tattoo several months ago, before the story became public – seemingly before he learned of it.
Ed: Well, at least Platner knows where to go to launder propaganda. Kudos to Andrew for remaining tenacious on this story. He doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his dogged research and balanced target selection.
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It is absolutely hilarious that Louis Lucas is asking for $100,000 in donations to help her legal fights.
It’s even more fantastic that in 10 hours – the 119k people that follow her on X have come together and have raised $790 from 7 people.
Nothing says we got your back when… pic.twitter.com/5BMqwINQxH
— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) May 16, 2026
Nothing says we got your back when 7 of 119,000 people chip in to the cause.
Ed: As of 3 pm ET today, Lucas has raised $6,259 of her $100K goal from 55 contributors, 26 hours after the launch. It doesn’t appear that Lucas has all that many fans, even with 119,000 followers on X/Twitter. Maybe she should have set a more realistic goal … like about one-tenth of the payout threshold. Even that might be a stretch.
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“If you knew then what you know now.”
If you could send one sentence back to yourself on your 16th birthday what would it be ?
Mine…Save that old stack of marvel original comics books and buy some Apple stock.
— Tim Allen (@ofctimallen) May 16, 2026
Ed: “Become a place-kicker.” I never did have the comic books. What would your one sentence be?
