ABSOLUTE POWER, BABY: Sweden’s Controversial Blocklist Based on One Feminist’s Personal Whims.

RELIGIOUS CLEANSING: On Eve of Ramadan, Islamic Gunmen Kill 28 Coptic Christians on Pilgrimage in Egypt.

PROCUREMENT: The Army has developed a bullet that penetrates 5.56 mm-resistant body armor.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Army’s budget request, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked Milley how the Army was doing in developing a new rifle to replace the M4 and a more powerful round to replace the 5.56 mm bullet it fires.

“We think we have a solution,” Milley said. “We know we have developed a bullet that can penetrate these new plates.”

Milley said that rifles and body armor for U.S. troops are “critically important,” noting that 70 percent of U.S. casualties are borne by ground troops, mostly infantry and special operators conducting infantry-type missions.

“The 5.56 round, we recognize there is a type of body armor it does not penetrate, and adversarial states are selling that stuff on the Internet for about 250 bucks,” Milley said.

As I learned years ago from reading Austin Bay and Jim Dunnigan, in the escalating battle between thicker armor and deadlier projectiles, typically the deadlier projectiles win out in the end.

FASTER, PLEASE: Navy Adds Second Attack Sub to 2021 Plans; Considering 3 SSNs in Future Years.

Due to concerns about overwhelming the two sub construction yards – Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat – with too much new work, as the Block V boats are set to include a new Virginia Payload Module section around the same time SSBN construction will begin, the Navy previously planned to buy just one SSN in years it also bought an SSBN. Due to an impending attack sub shortfall, though, Navy plans have continued to up and up the amount of work that could come to the two builders.

“In the past we had anticipated dropping down our submarine construction, our attack submarine construction, during years of the Columbia program procurement,” Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee this morning.

“In fact, we intend to, and we’re laying the groundwork, to sustain [a] two submarine per year procurement rate – because that is our number-one shortfall.”

Our aging Los Angeles-class attack subs are being retired faster than the Virginia-class boats can be built to replace them — too fast even by our plan to shrink the submarine fleet.

PATRICK POOLE: State Department Says Muslim Brotherhood Terror Cell Hassm Threatens U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

OH: No funding plan doesn’t stop lawmakers from moving health care bill along.

A California Senate committee tasked with reviewing bills that spend state money passed a $400 billion universal health care proposal Thursday with no funding plan.

Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, introduced SB 562, a sweeping overhaul of the state’s health insurance market. He’s also the chair of Senate Appropriations. The committee passed the bill with a 5-2 vote during a fast-paced suspense file hearing, clearing the way for it to be taken up on the Senate floor next week.

The vote came days after the committee revealed the Legislature’s first cost assessment of the bill, which turns out to be more than the entire state budget for the year beginning July 1.

Lara has yet to reveal a detailed plan about how the state would come up with the money to provide health care to the nearly 40 million people living in California. Opponents argued that the funding issue should have been addressed before the committee voted on the measure.

It looks increasingly as though Sacramento is going to go ahead with single payer — and so far, without a care for how to pay or for the likely consequences.

BEGUN, THE LEAK WAR HAS: Declassified memos show FBI illegally shared spy data on Americans with private parties.

In his final congressional testimony before he was fired by President Trump this month, then-FBI Director James Comey unequivocally told lawmakers his agency used sensitive espionage data gathered about Americans without a warrant only when it was “lawfully collected, carefully overseen and checked.”

Once-top secret U.S. intelligence community memos reviewed by Circa tell a different story, citing instances of “disregard” for rules, inadequate training and “deficient” oversight and even one case of deliberately sharing spy data with a forbidden party.

For instance, a ruling declassified this month by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) chronicles nearly 10 pages listing hundreds of violations of the FBI’s privacy-protecting minimization rules that occurred on Comey’s watch.

The behavior the FBI admitted to a FISA judge just last month ranged from illegally sharing raw intelligence with unauthorized third parties to accessing intercepted attorney-client privileged communications without proper oversight the bureau promised was in place years ago.

The Deep State does what it wills.

AMERICANS TO MEDIA: DROP DEAD! Greg Gianforte Campaign Raised $100K After Candidate Assaulted Reporter.

For once, maybe the question “Why do they hate us?” is actually germane.

(Classical reference in the headline.)

BRAHMA CHELLANEY: China’s imperial overreach.

Yet Xi has set his sights much higher: he aspires to become modern China’s most transformative leader. Just as Mao helped to create a reunified and independent China, and Deng Xiaoping launched China’s ‘reform and opening up,’ Xi wants to make China the central player in the global economy and the international order.

So, repeating a mantra of connectivity, China dangles low-interest loans in front of countries in urgent need of infrastructure, thereby pulling those countries into its economic and security sphere. China stunned the world by buying the Greek port of Piraeus for $420 million. From there to the Seychelles, Djibouti, and Pakistan, port projects that China insisted were purely commercial have acquired military dimensions.

But Xi’s ambition may be blinding him to the dangers of his approach. Given China’s insistence on government-to-government deals on projects and loans, the risks to lenders and borrowers have continued to grow. Concessionary financing may help China’s state-owned companies bag huge overseas contracts; but, by spawning new asset-quality risks, it also exacerbates the challenges faced by the Chinese banking system.

The risk of non-performing loans at state-owned banks is already clouding China’s future economic prospects. Since reaching a peak of $4 trillion in 2014, the country’s foreign-exchange reserves have fallen by about a quarter. The ratings agency Fitch has warned that many OBOR projects—most of which are being pursued in vulnerable countries with speculative-grade credit ratings—face high execution risks, and could prove unprofitable.

The coming years will determine whether Beijing’s reach exceeds its grasp, or if China’s Communists have pulled Central Asia and East Africa more or less permanently into their orbit.

HORSE, BARN DOOR: After Manchester Attack, Britain Looks at New Ways to Curb Extremism.

As TIME reported this week, experts believe Britain is unlikely to strengthen its anti-terrorism legislation in the wake of the Manchester attack. David Anderson, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said police and intelligence agencies are broadly happy with the extremely robust laws they have in place – which Anderson says are “very strong by international standards.” Prime Minister Theresa May promised there would be no “knee-jerk style” crackdown on security. The current “critical” threat level is expected to be a temporary measure.

But if the Conservative Party wins the June 8 election, it could decide to renew its legal attempts to make extremism an offense. In its manifesto is a promise to create a “Commission for Countering Extremism” that would help the government “consider what new criminal offenses might need to be created, and what new aggravated offenses might need to be established to defeat the extremists.”

This, says Anderson, could lead to a “watered-down version” of a controversial Counter-Extremism Bill introduced by May when she was Home Secretary, the government minister who oversees national security. The bill was introduced in 2015 in response to the hundreds of British nationals flocking to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, but never became law.

Given than up to eight known wolves — some going back as far as five years — may have been involved in the Manchester attack, simple follow through might go a long way towards stopping the next bombing.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Denver Decriminalizes DOMESTIC VIOLENCE To Protect Criminal Immigrants.

Denver officials say the revised sentencing guidelines are a response to the Trump administration’s more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. Although federal authorities have focused on illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds, Hancock says the changes are necessary to ensure that city offenses can’t be used as a “deportation tool” against immigrants legally present in the U.S., reports the Washington Post.

“Over the past four months, the White House has issued a series of executive orders that have exacerbated our broken immigration system and have had a real impact on our community,” Hancock said Monday in a statement. “I have heard from many who are rightfully concerned. Denver is committed to taking actions that will protect our people’s rights and keep our city safe, welcoming and open.”

Denver joins several other U.S. cities that have revised prosecution or sentencing rules in order to prevent immigrants from facing deportation as a result of their criminal convictions.

Democrats are turning Denver into a stealth sanctuary city, in this case at the expense of domestic abuse victims.

TYLER O’NEIL: Another day, another cockroach infestation at the V.A.

EXCLUSIVE: Erdogan thug is Democrat donor.

A significant portion of the political left has a penchant for violence these days. From May Day protestors in Portland, Oregon, to Antifa rioters and arsonists at UC Berkeley, to melee-creating students at Middlebury College, for too many fists and Molotov cocktails are an appropriate response to opinions they don’t like.

Add to that list Eyup Yildirim, identified by beating victim Lucy Usoyan as one of the thugs who beat her up while she was protesting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Tuesday (May 16) outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. At least 11 of the protesters were reportedly injured.

A check of Federal Election Commission records shows that Eyup Yildirim of Manchester, New Jersey, has donated to several Democratic Party candidates.

The FEC’s online database shows the following contributions in his name: $1,000 to Hillary Clinton for President; $1,000 to Rush Holt for Congress (Holt was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey’s 12th district from 1999 to 2015); $5,000 to the Obama Victory Fund; $2,300 to Obama for America; and $2,700 to the Democratic National Committee.

Read the whole thing. Yildirim seems like an excellent prospect for swamp-draining.

RAND PAUL: Say au revoir to Paris Climate Agreement.

President Trump has delivered on almost all of his promises to have an America First energy plan. He has directed the EPA to suspend, revise, and rescind certain actions related to the Clean Power Plan. He has removed regulatory roadblocks to American energy independence, including signing the resolution Congress sent him to repeal the Stream Buffer rule. He has also instructed agencies to review existing administrative policies harming domestic energy production.

But there’s one missing piece to being truly America First, something President Trump promised on the campaign trail. He promised he would cancel the Paris Agreement as president. Can we really have an America First energy plan if we are needing to seek the endorsement of the U.N. as we make determinations about our country’s environmental and energy policies? The federal government should be beholden to one authority and one authority alone—our Constitution—and not some U.N. bureaucrats.

Indeed.

GOOD MORNING: It’s the TGIF edition of Liz Sheld’s morning brief, and also on Hot Mic today, PJM’s own Richard Fernandez has joined the crew.

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? Wasserman Schultz Threatened Police Chief For Gathering Evidence On Her IT Staffer’s Alleged Crimes.

The Florida lawmaker used her position on the committee that sets the police force’s budget to press its chief to relinquish the piece of evidence Thursday, in what could be considered using her authority to attempt to interfere with a criminal investigation.

The Capitol Police and outside agencies are pursuing Imran Awan, who has run technology for the Florida lawmaker since 2005 and was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft.

“My understanding is the the Capitol Police is not able to confiscate Members’ equipment when the Member is not under investigation,” Wasserman Schultz said in the annual police budget hearing of the House Committee On Appropriations’ Legislative Branch Subcommittee.

“We can’t return the equipment,” Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa told the Florida Democrat.

“I think you’re violating the rules when you conduct your business that way and you should expect that there will be consequences,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Charming.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): As I’ve noted before, the Democrats seem awfully anxious not to have anyone look into this affair. It’s quite odd. (Bumped).

NO. RNC Lobbying FCC for a New Way to Annoy us With ‘Ringless’ Voicemail Ads.

Now there’s possibly a new way to annoy us being reviewed by the FCC. The Republican National Committee is pushing the agency to adopt a new technology that would allow telemarketers to leave prerecorded messages on our voicemail without the phone ever ringing, Recode reports. We would simply get a notification that a voicemail was received, mixed in, of course, with more important voicemails.

Current laws prohibit calls by telemarketers if the recipient has signed up on the do not call registry. While many ignore it, most reputable organizations and companies abide by the rules. But, apparently, they feel left out from the right to annoy us. So they want to use this new technology that avoids ringing. Their logic is that this should be legal because if the phone never rings, it’s not a call. As a result, they are now petitioning the FCC to allow this new form of messaging. They argue that they shouldn’t need our permission to auto-dial our mobile voicemail inboxes directly to leave an advertising message.

As you can imagine, this effort has drawn strong opposition from consumer groups such as the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC).

Clearly, Republicans are no longer interested in winning votes from people who have phones.

REMEMBER, THIS IS SOMEHOW THE GOP’S FAULT: Nearly 19,000 in Missouri could be stranded after insurer pulls out of Obamacare.

PATRICK POOLE: Latest Developments From the Manchester Bombing Investigation.

EXPLAINER: What the CBO’s “Uninsured” Score Really Means.

It’s worth reiterating that should there be a drastic rise in uninsured Americans, it won’t be because the AHCA destroys their health insurance plans or makes coverage unattainable, it will be because in the absence of the individual mandate, many will simply opt out of health insurance entirely. At least until the market makes it more affordable.

When people stop buying an unwanted product under duress, it should be touted as a feature and not a bug.

VOTING WITH THEIR FEET: Chicago only major U.S. city to lose population from 2015 to 2016.

DAVID HARSANYI: Every Single Tom Cruise Movie Correctly Ranked.

Pretty sure Top Gun II or whatever they end up calling it will rank lower than Losin’ It.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Things to Know About the Montana Special Election.

BREAKING: Montana Assault Witness Changes Story, Says No Neck Grab.

NOW WITH VIDEO! Chelsea Clinton Climate Change Connected to …. Child Marriage.

I know I covered this one yesterday, but the video is sublime if you’re into that kind of awfulness.