ALEXANDER MUSE: Captain Kelly Strikes Again, The Benedict Arnold Arc Reaches Its Predictable Final Chapter.

Last November I argued in these pages that Senator Mark Kelly had crossed a structural threshold that earlier American history identified with one name, Benedict Arnold. The comparison was not designed for shock. It was designed to isolate a pattern. A decorated warrior earns public trust, then spends that trust against the lawful authority of the nation that conferred it. Kelly had recorded a vertical TikTok video, in coordination with five colleagues, instructing junior enlisted troops that the Commander in Chief was issuing illegal orders and that disobedience was a duty. I called that an opening move in a domestic color revolution. Many readers thought the framing was too strong.

Yesterday on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Senator Kelly removed any remaining doubt.

Read the whole thing.

IMPRESSIVE. MOST IMPRESSIVE:

SpaceX is only ~200 satellites away from having launched as many satellites as the rest of the world combined

(despite giving the rest of the world a 61-year head start) pic.twitter.com/JaCufLDn6T

— Christian Keil (@pronounced_kyle) May 12, 2026

200 satellites is roughly eight Falcon 9 launches for Starlink — or about three weeks’ worth of missions at SpaceX’s current cadence.

WINNING: We Get Greenland! (Sort Of).

JUST WHAT THEY ALWAYS WANTED, A NEW POGROM:

Congrats to The New York Times and Nicolas Kristof. https://t.co/sG1w2uopck

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 12, 2026

MEMORY-HOLED FOR BACKDATED WRONGTHINK: Swarthmore scrubs professor’s name from hall due to ‘Indigenous grave excavation’.

Swarthmore College plans to unveil new names for its former Trotter Hall and Trotter Lawn this fall after campus leaders discovered that their namesake, natural history Professor Spencer Trotter, excavated a Native American grave site and removed human remains.

President Val Smith plans to review the renaming taskforce’s recommendations, submitted last week, and announce a final decision about the names in the fall, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Taskforce Chair Cat Norris told the Swarthmore Phoenix that the recommendations are based on feedback from the community as well as research to ensure the new names are not problematic.

“It turns out individuals are really complicated,” Norris told the student newspaper. “Their histories have been really complicated.”

You’re supposed to understand — and develop the ability to cope with — people being “really complicated” before you go to college.

HE ALSO HELPED GIVE US BIDEN IN 2020:

Amen.

For more than 33 years, Jim Clyburn has gotten more powerful in his DEI district.

Yet he opposes school choice, child-support enforcement, anti-crime measures, and other crucial reforms to help his poor black constituents escape poverty.

Good riddance, Jim. https://t.co/8Ytgv5WOn2

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) May 11, 2026

CHANGE (IT BACK): Germany’s Nuclear Confession Is a Crack in Net‑Zero Pretense. “The green dream was sold as a route to ‘cheap’ renewables, yet the reality for German households and factories has been record‑high electricity prices, complex subsidies for favored businesses and individuals who conform to the climate narrative, and a grid that struggles on windless days or under gray skies.”

HONESTLY, SHE ISN’T ANY BETTER ON PAPER TO ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING:

All she did was speak publicly one time to go from 65% to 16% https://t.co/Kdmitt27T4

— Lee Kuan Yimby 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇸🇬 (@billiceberg) May 11, 2026

DAILY MAIL GOT THIS HEADLINE ALL WRONG: Netanyahu’s shock plot to split with US as Trump’s Iran peace proposal unravels sending oil prices soaring.

Benjamin Netanyahu plans to ‘wean’ Israel off American financial support, just as Donald Trump’s Iran peace proposal unravels and oil prices surge.

The Israeli prime minister was pressed on the financial support his country receives from the US during an interview with CBS News anchor Major Garrett on Sunday.

‘Do you believe it’s time for the state of Israel to reexamine and possibly reset its financial relationship to the United States?’ Garrett asked, to which Netanyahu responded, ‘Absolutely.’

‘And I’ve said this to President Trump. I’ve said it in – to our own people. Their jaws drop,’ the leader continued. ‘I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have.’

This isn’t a “split” from the US, but how Israel will maintain freedom of action the next time an anti-Israel Biden or Obama takes office.

ALINSKY’S RULE FIVE REMAINS UNDEFEATED:

After having been to the dog room and released, a Hamas fighter kept getting re-arrested trying to stab Jews and sent back to prison. While arresting him for the fourth time or so, IDF said to him: "Admit it, you don't come here for the Jew-killing, do you?"

— Alex S. (@Alex_94706) May 12, 2026

HOW ABOUT NO? House Dems to Rubio: Please Be Nicer to the Narcos and Terrorists.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Don Lemon Teases Presidential Run.

Former CNN host Don Lemon once again teased a 2028 presidential run during an appearance last week at the Vanity Fair “Truth Tellers” summit in London.

“I’m a man of a certain age,” he said when asked about the possibility of running for president. “Why not?”

The moderator, journalist Kara Swisher, chuckled, according to Vanity Fair.

“You laugh,” Lemon replied. “I’m a self-made millionaire, from a country where my ancestors were enslaved, so I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment. … I made it to the top of my profession.”

Lemon left out that he was dismissed from that top position by CNN in 2023 over accusations he mistreated female co-workers and after making what was seen as a sexist comment that then-GOP candidate Nikki Haley was “past her prime.”

I’d laugh this off, but I can never tell when the Dem base of self-flagellating neurotic women will attach themselves to a candidate.

TIM SCOTT DOESN’T COUNT BECAUSE HE ISN’T A DEMOCRAT:

This man has represented South Carolina as their Senator for 13 years (so far). Voters chose him in 2014, 2016, and 2022. https://t.co/pRSXhe6RCa pic.twitter.com/7cbwilc7PD

— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) May 12, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The GOP Is Having a Run of Good Luck, Hope It Does Something With It. “That screaming you hear is from all of the higher-ups at the Democratic National Committee as they rush for the Prilosec after seeing their race-based election tampering efforts take another hit.”

YES:

We are getting closer to an actual pogrom like Crown Heights 1991. Seriously time for Brooklyn Jews to arm themselves. https://t.co/7mu7tnbHF2

— David Bernstein (@ProfDBernstein) May 12, 2026

MONEY: However you feel about their creator, TrumpIRAs are sorely needed.

As a progressive economist, I wrote a paper in 2021 with a generally conservative colleague, Kevin Hassett, who now directs the National Economic Council in the Trump White House. We agreed then on the basic arithmetic of the American retirement crisis. We still do. That’s why people like him and people like me can all say: Trump’s executive order establishing TrumpIRAs, signed last month, is simply the right move for American workers.
…
Trump’s executive order targets the most fundamental failure in this system: access. Roughly 56 million American workers have no employer-sponsored retirement plan — no account to contribute to, no match on offer from their employers, no on-ramp to the capital markets that have built wealth for everyone else.

The order establishes a federal retirement account — TrumpIRA.gov — paired with a refundable $1,000 annual government match and automatic enrollment. That last part matters enormously. The research Hassett and I conducted found that automatic enrollment paired with a government match substantially increases participation among low- and moderate-income workers. When saving is the default and the government matches your first dollar, people save. A worker earning $40,000 who contributes $1,000 annually and receives a $1,000 match, over 40 years at a 6% real return, retires with more than $310,000 in today’s dollars. Most of that is compound growth. Getting workers into the market early is the entire intervention.

It’s a good plan — and it’s always nice to see a progressive who doesn’t suffer from TDS. A near-miracle, really.

DOUBLE STANDARDS ARE THE BEST STANDARDS BECAUSE YOU GET TWICE AS MANY:

Noooooo, only the other sides billionaires.

— Petite Patriot (@Pamelajn922) May 12, 2026

That should clear things up for you.

ICYMI: Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Mullahs Already.

IT’S CALVINBALL ALL THE WAY DOWN:

Speaking of… all of a sudden CA Dems think the "Top 2" primary isn't fair. I'm not going to get out of their way while they dismantle it, that's for damn sure. From today's Politico CA Playbook: https://t.co/PrlwyYLvOQ pic.twitter.com/HeuQ1KyIlv

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 11, 2026

CHANGE: Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice leaves Democratic Party over antisemitism concerns.

Justice David Wecht, who was elected to the court as a Democrat in 2015, said in a statement he is switching his party affiliation to independent due to an “acquiescence to Jew-hatred” becoming “disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.”

“I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t,” Wecht said. “I am no longer registered within any political party.”

In his statement, Wecht said he’s long felt antisemitism was most potent on the fringes of the right — especially after the 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where Wecht was married and is a former board member. But he said that since 2018, “that same hatred has grown on the left.”

Like kudzu, it’s taken over the left.

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

Launch rehearsal complete. During a flight-like countdown, more than 5,000 metric tonnes (11+ million pounds) of propellant were loaded on the fully stacked Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles for the first time pic.twitter.com/e9oZlzc0yz

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 11, 2026

Still no official word from SpaceX, but NextSpaceFlight has Friday afternoon penciled in.

ROBERT SPENCER: GOP Congressman Wants to Clear Name of the World’s Most Prominent Falsely Accused Innocent Man. “It’s clear now that both impeachments of President Donald Trump were shabby partisan affairs based on zero evidence, and that will be remembered as shameful episodes in American history. So why should they remain on the record? Is there no way for the man to clear his name?”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Democrats ask the Supreme Court to halt a Virginia ruling blocking new congressional districts.

I expect SCOTUS to tell them to pound sand, but you never know.

IT’S NEVER OVER:

PSA: Now that the Virginia plan has failed, keep in mind the last time Democrats were equipped with so few options they leveraged their access to the FBI and CIA to manufacture a false Russian conspiracy to try to unseat a President. So buckle up…

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) May 11, 2026

MAKE EVERYTHING A WEAPONS PLATFORM: U.S. Air Force Plans to Deploy Cruise Missiles from Cargo Aircraft by 2027.