This week’s Weekend Reader is preposterously late — I think for defensible reasons (work, the Teneo Texas Summit, and Mother’s Day), but late nonetheless. So take this one as a retrospective, and a jump-start for the week to come. Let’s go —
1) “There’s a myth in Indianapolis Republican circles that goes something like this: back in the good old days, the Indiana GOP was made up of high minded, moderate statesmen from metro Indianapolis like Richard Lugar and Bill Hudnut. Then a bunch of troglodytes from rural Indiana like Mike Pence took over and wrecked the party and the state with extreme social conservative policies that are bad for business. Reality is very different.”
2) “In February, a criminal group even threatened a U.S. inspector when he rejected a batch of cartel avocados masquerading as Michoacán produce, prompting a brief American ban on Mexican avocados, the first ever in the decades-long avocado trade between the countries. The threat further signaled the growing audacity of Michoacán’s criminal organizations, which for more than 35 years have largely avoided targeting U.S. government employees. The month before, U.S. Border Patrol agents were shot at from Mexico, most likely by cartel members involved in smuggling migrants. And in March, the American Consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo was fired upon after the authorities extradited a cartel leader to the United States.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/world/americas/mexico-cartels-michoacan.html
3) “Advocates of restraint and self-proclaimed realists will remain an important part of America’s foreign policy debate. Their worldview has deep roots, going back to the emergence of self-conscious isolationism in the United States during debates over the First World War, and it will be with us as long as America plays a leading role in global politics and international security. All the same, it’s important not to overestimate their wider political and public influence or give their unrealistic ideas more credence than they deserve.”
4) “While Alito’s draft opinion is being welcomed and celebrated by pro-lifers, and strongly objected to by abortion supporters, the way it became public is a horrific scandal.”
5) “But when STAT took the White House up on the offer, officials refused to make copies of the binder. In fact, it wouldn’t even let STAT take photographs of the contents. Instead, the administration gave this reporter one hour to look through the nearly 400 pages of budget tables and congressional correspondence. White House officials offered the review in a small conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the White House, under the supervision of a budget office employee.”
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