August 19, 2026 - Democratic Socialist Scores Florida Upset

Where's Djibouti?

That was my question when, five years after 9/11, the Pentagon told me the Horn of Africa nation was on the itinerary of a trip I'd been invited to take at the invitation of Secretary Rumsfeld. I understood Kuwait, the staging ground for personnel headed into Iraq. I understood the stop at special operations headquarters in Qatar. But why Djibouti?

The answer was that we now had a significant base there (Camp Lemmonier) to counter an al-Qaeda presence in the region. It was whack-a-mole. We needed to be wherever "they" might otherwise establish a beachhead.

I thought of that trip while reading the Washington Post exclusive describing a Pentagon evaluation of our footprint in the Middle East. "One of the key areas the Defense Department is assessing is whether to pull back troops from the Persian Gulf, where America's large overseas military bases have been battered by months of Iranian strikes," the Post reported.

In less than a month we'll mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 — an attack initiated by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda not because they hated our jeans, our lattes and our lap dances, but because of what they perceived as an interventionist American foreign policy. I say that not in their defense, obviously, but in an effort to get inside the minds of murderers.

Twenty-five years later, the same question sits underneath the Pentagon's analysis, and underneath today's poll. Do our foreign bases ultimately make us safer, or do they make us targets?

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Jacksonville state Rep. Angie Nixon defeated retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman for Florida's Democratic U.S. Senate nomination despite being outraised more than 16-to-1, setting up a November race against appointed Republican Sen. Ashley Moody for the final two years of Marco Rubio's term.

News4JAX

The Pentagon is evaluating whether to pull U.S. troops back from the Persian Gulf after months of Iranian strikes battered American bases, with officials weighing whether to rebuild damaged facilities or shift forces further west to Jordan, Israel or Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast.

The Washington Post

Opening arguments began in Oakland federal court in a case brought by 29 state attorneys general alleging Meta intentionally designed its platforms to addict young users and misled the public about the harms, with four states collectively seeking up to $1.4 trillion in damages.

CNN

Following his Wisconsin arrest on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence, CBS Sports analyst Tony Romo is on indefinite leave with no timetable for a decision on his future, as JJ Watt takes his spot alongside Jim Nantz to open the NFL season.

The Guardian

Susan Clancy told jurors at Lindsay Clancy's murder trial that her former daughter-in-law was "begging for help" with postpartum mental health issues in the months before she killed her three children in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.

ABC News

The National Trust for Historic Preservation urged the Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration's emergency bid to keep building the 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, after the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that the project requires additional congressional authorization.

The Hill

Ukraine launched more than 600 drones at the Moscow region overnight in one of the largest such assaults of the war, striking a Wildberries warehouse, as Russia warned the U.K. would pay a higher price for supplying Kyiv with drones and a Russian strike on Kharkiv killed 10.

CBS News

Gerald Posner breaks down the legal definition of genocide and argues that, despite the devastation in Gaza, the evidence and international legal standards do not establish that Israel’s actions meet that threshold.

Gerald Posner

CNN has signed anchor Abby Phillip to a new deal, joining Anderson Cooper and Kaitlan Collins under fresh contracts that will complicate any effort by Paramount Skydance to reshape the network's primetime lineup after it closes its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Variety

Alan Dershowitz continues to nurse grievances over his social shunning by Martha's Vineyard's liberal set, a cold shoulder he traces to joining President Donald Trump's first impeachment defense despite having voted for Clinton and Biden.

The Atlantic