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It takes a lot to ruin a state as lovely as California, and just as much to ruin the state’s largest city, Los Angeles. But left-wing Democrats have been up to that important task, backed by voters who have willingly endorsed their own downfall. Those voters and their contemporaries in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Boston are like the fraternity pledges who bend over for a spanking during “initiation week.” The voters, like the fraternity pledges, have consistently responded: “Yes, sir! May I have another?” It hasn’t been hard to find left-wing candidates, many of them openly socialist, who are more than willing to administer the punishment. What about citizens who are tired of being whacked?

"How can you say they’re not racist?" a young Asian woman shouted from the public gallery. Vickrum Digwa had just been led down to the cells to serve a life sentence and an elderly man in a turban was calling his lawyer "a fucking bean head." The tatty pinewood interior of the courtroom in Southampton, England, was descending, once again, into allegations of racism.  Vickrum Digwa will serve at least 21 years in prison for the murder of Henry Nowak. Last December, Digwa repeatedly stabbed the 18-year-old student with a ceremonial Sikh dagger. He then filmed Henry as he bled out, goading him.  When police arrived, Digwa claimed that Henry had been racially abusive and had knocked his turban off.

Another day, another act of national self-abasement from the Canadian government. On May 23, it was all about the Komagata Maru incident, "a moment where Canada failed to uphold our values, with horrific consequences," according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Pierre Poilievre chimed in, calling it "a dark and shameful chapter in our history and a painful injustice." The official version is as follows: on May 23, 1914, 376 passengers of the SS Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver, hoping for a better life. But because of racist Canadian immigration policy, most were denied entry. They waited for two months in the harbor with limited access to food, water and medical care, but were eventually forced to leave.

In March, Russia suffered 35,000 casualties in the war in Ukraine. It’s estimated  33,600 of those, an extraordinary 96 percent, were caused by drones. Attacks by drones equipped with bombs, machine guns and even flamethrowers are now responsible for most of the casualties on both sides of the conflict. Therein lies a potential trap for militaries across the globe. It would be a catastrophic mistake to believe that victory can be bought cheaply and quickly with a single technology.  The great lesson of Ukraine is that armies are punished for relying too heavily on one strategy. President Putin made precisely that mistake. He believed Russian vast tank regiments and precision artillery would bring Ukraine to its knees.