IT’S POLITICAL: The Muslim Dr. Abdul El-Sayed had barely been declared the winner of the Michigan Democratic primary for US senator when Republicans launched their attacks. The progressive candidate was called dangerous and a communist for wanting universal healthcare in an indication of how Republicans will fight the progressive wave among Democrats.

  El-Sayed’s Republican opponent Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, said; “I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11.”

  Donald Trump on his social media called El-Sayed “a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel.” 

  El-Sayed is an American-born epidemiologist. While he has supported the US bolstering Ukraine, he generally opposes military aid to foreign countries, including to Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. He has called Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the killing of 73,000 people “genocide.”

  He wants to eradicate ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

THE WAR ROOM: The US has used virtually all of its long range ground attack missiles in the Iran war, according to some reports.

  The US is also reported to be critically short of THAAD interceptors, and Patriot air defense missiles that would take years to re-stock to their pre-war numbers. President Trump has publicly denied it, but The Washington Post reports that during a meeting at Camp David he demanded to know from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth why he had apparently been misled about munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran. 

  Nonetheless, Trump posted just after midnight today that; “The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history. The “leakers” of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!”

INFINITE SCROLL:

— The Senate Homeland Security Committee is expected to vote today on whether to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt for pleading the 5^th Amendment to the panel’s questions. 

  Fauci, who led the US response to the Covid pandemic, was pardoned by President Biden to shield him from Republican blame for the pandemic. The Republicans say he doesn’t have the right to plead the Fifth after being pardoned.

  To the embarrassment of Fauci, the Republicans released Fauci’s diary that he wrote on a government computer. Now, Sen. Ron Johnson says he has a copy of the data from Fauci’s telephone.

— The Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly a year after her predecessor was fired in a dispute over vaccine policy with health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

  The CDC has lost thousands of employees during the current Trump administration as it now confronts the resurgence of measles, cyclosporiasis intestinal infections, and an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

— The Congressional Budget Office says the 15 nuclear-powered “Trump Class” battleships the president wants to build would come at a total cost of $275 billion … before the usual delays and cost overruns. Trump has bragged that they would be the biggest warships ever built, which would make them the biggest targets. The US gave up on battleships after World War II.

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared this week that the widening gap between rich and poor Americans is “dead.”

  The divergence is known as the K-shaped economy. “I got sick of hearing about this K-shaped economy,” Bessent said on CNBC. “I can say here definitively, the K-shaped economy is over.”Evidently he has not visited the Hamptons.

— Donald Trump Jr. paid $7.5 million to buy his ex-fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle out of her interest in their Palm Beach mansion. She’s now ambassador to Greece and he’s married to a younger less surgically-altered woman.

THE SPIN RACK:  A laboratory at MIT announced that it has created a nine-ounce $300 flapping robot that can both fly and swim underwater. Its creator believes the robot could one day be used to monitor and protect the ocean. — The  SpaceX rocket that launched a pair of lunar landers is believed to have smashed into the moon as planned. Although no one saw it happen, a telescope in Chile spotted what astronomers identified as a plume of debris resulting from the crash. — German authorities are investigating after the discovery of an explosive drone at  Leipzig/Halle Airport. Germany’s top security official said the incident was a “new threat quality” and that the device was “professionally” prepared. — Severe drought has exposed the hulks of dozens of World War II German warships sunk in the Danube River in Serbia as Soviet forces advanced. Some of the ships are laden with explosives. — Two members of the Iranian women’s soccer team who defected have been granted citizenship by Australia.

BELOW THE FOLD:  The Buc‑ee’s gasoline and junk food chain has sued Beaver’s Mini Mart, a corner store in Beavercreek, Ohio, charging that the little store’s logo featuring a smiling beaver may confuse customers. Buc‑ee’s has a history of suing little guys with animals in their logos.

  Comedian John Oliver challenged Buc‑ee’s to sue him for creating a logo that says “Buc‑Off.”

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