Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Republican Party has assembled the most impressive collection of Senate candidates tied to sex scandals in modern American history. The U.S. military has now fired more missiles to defend Israel than Israel has fired to defend itself. An Epstein reporter says she’s fleeing the country after being hit with directed energy weapons. And Donald Trump just handed Democrats their best shot at winning Texas by endorsing the one Republican who might actually lose it.
Before we get into it: Independent journalism survives on one thing, and it isn’t a billionaire who bought us because he “believed in the mission” and then discovered he didn’t like what we wrote. It’s readers who pay for what they read. If you’re one of them, thank you. If you’re not yet, this would be a good morning to fix that. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. We can’t do it without you.
Now, the news.
Five States, Five GOP Senate Candidates, Five Sex Crime Scandals
It takes real organizational discipline to field this many tainted candidates in a single election cycle, and the Republican Party has done it.
In North Carolina, former GOP chair Michael Whatley is under scrutiny for appointing Harvey L. West Jr. to lead a key state party committee. West, 54, served six years in prison after pleading guilty to raping three teenage girls. A recent poll has Whatley’s Democratic rival, former Gov. Roy Cooper, up by 11 points.
In Ohio, GOP Senate candidate Jon Husted accepted more than $116,000 from Jeffrey Epstein associate Les Wexner just before a vote to release the Epstein files. Husted voted to block their release. His campaign justified this by saying that Wexner donated to candidates on both sides.
The list continues: In Alaska, Dan Sullivan voted against releasing the Epstein files and received a donation tied to a former state GOP operative now facing federal child exploitation charges. In New Hampshire, Republican Senate candidate John Sununu is being hammered after Epstein himself wrote in an email that “John Sununu has good stories.”
The Republican National Senatorial Committee has not responded to requests for comment. Somewhere, a GOP consultant is still trying to make “family values” work.
We Are Using More Missiles to Defend Israel Than Israel Is
We have now fired more missiles to defend Israel than Israel has fired, which is a sentence worth sitting with for a moment.
The U.S. military has launched more than 200 THAAD missiles, approximately half of the Pentagon’s total stock, as well as over 100 additional interceptors fired from naval vessels in the Mediterranean, in defense of Israel throughout the war on Iran.
Israel, meanwhile, fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors, often preserving its higher-end weapons while the U.S. depleted its own.
Earlier this month, Pentagon reports showed the military had depleted much of its stocks of Tomahawks, Patriots, and other munitions that could take years to replenish. Pete Hegseth denied the reports, saying “we have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute.”
Trump, for his part, had previously said at the start of the war that the U.S. has “virtually unlimited” munitions that would allow it to fight “forever.”
Trump and Netanyahu had a “tense conversation” this week after Trump canceled his latest planned strikes, with Trump insisting afterward, “He’ll do whatever I want him to do.” One of these two men is spending the other one’s missiles. It is not Netanyahu.
The networks that rely on defense industry advertising and the papers whose owners have strong feelings about Middle East policy will find reasons not to stay on this story. We don’t have any of those reasons. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.
An Epstein Reporter Is Fleeing the Country
Jeffrey Epstein has been dead for six years and he is still making journalists fear for their lives.
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, a former Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times reporter whose independent reporting uncovered new details about Epstein’s New Mexico compound known as Zorro Ranch, announced last week that she is “fleeing the country.”
She said her home was targeted in what she described as directed energy weapon attacks consistent with what officials know as “Havana Syndrome.” The mysterious set of neurological symptoms includes headaches, dizziness, and hearing loss.
It was first reported by American diplomats and CIA officers stationed in Havana, Cuba in 2016, who believed they were targeted by a portable directed energy or microwave weapon. Valdes-Rodriguez now believes it’s connected to her Epstein reporting.
Epstein’s history with journalists is not a gentle one. It includes sending a bullet to a reporter’s doorstep and a severed cat’s head. The DOJ has been caught tracking a journalist who reported on him.
Valdes-Rodriguez said the attacks left her “permanently injured.” She wrote that these weapons are “perfect to silence journalists and dissenters by making them seem bonkers.”
We can’t verify her claims. We can tell you she has a documented history of serious Epstein reporting, and the powers that be have a documented history threatening journalists over it.
Trump Might Have Just Handed Texas to Democrats
Ken Paxton won the Texas Republican Senate primary, which is great news for Ken Paxton and also Democrats.
Trump backed Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and Texas Attorney General, over incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the state’s Senate primary runoff, calling Cornyn “very disloyal.” Cornyn had voted with Trump over 99 percent of the time.
Paxton won with 62.5 percent of the vote and will now face Democrat James Talarico in November. Cook Political Report has already moved the race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.” Polling shows a dead heat: one survey has Talarico and Paxton tied at 45 percent each.
Republicans are panicking, and they’re not hiding it. Senator Susan Collins called Paxton an “ethically challenged individual.” Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said that Paxton is “lazy” and has never had to run a major race, warning that there’s a large faction of Republican voters that will not vote for Paxton “under any circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Paxton’s victory a “nightmare scenario” for Republicans. He said this in a press release, which is the political equivalent of saying it while doing a little dance.
The Part the Billionaires Hate
The business model that kept journalism independent is gone. What replaced it is billionaires, access deals, and quiet understandings about which stories don’t run. The networks are getting phone calls they don’t talk about. The newspapers have new owners who play golf with the people we’re writing about. The FCC is making examples of outlets that don’t play ball.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Former AG Pam Bondi will appear before the House Oversight Committee on Friday. Pam Bondi promised in 2025 that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now” and that “everything is going to come out to the public.” DOJ then announced the client list did not exist, withheld documents naming Trump, and instructed FBI agents to flag his mentions during the review. Bondi refused to say who gave that order, got fired, got subpoenaed, and is now scheduled to testify under oath on May 29.
Supreme Court allows Brian Flores to sue NFL for discriminating against Black coaches. The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear the NFL’s appeal in Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit, meaning the case will proceed in open court. The NFL had spent four years trying to move the case into private arbitration, a process that would have been overseen by Commissioner Roger Goodell, who is employed by the NFL, which is the defendant. The Court found this arrangement unconvincing.
Mister Rogers stamp reissued after winning Postal Service contest. The U.S. Postal Service held a contest to bring back one beloved stamp from its recent past, pitting Mister Rogers against Cleopatra, Snoopy, Batman, Star Trek, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, and George Washington. Mister Rogers won, which feels exactly right. The stamp goes on sale nationwide June 1, featuring Rogers in his red cardigan with King Friday XIII, and is the most wholesome thing that has happened in this country in several years.
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