Welcome to Battlegrounds Watch, a new column available on our Substack and at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote. Simply put, Battlegrounds Watch is a collection of stories and topics in today’s news Chuck & Sam are tuning in to.
AP: Twitter Pulls NYT Blue Check Mark for Refusal to Pay
The New York Times may be the King of Paywall media, have no problem demanding everyone pay for their content, but don’t like having to pay for anyone else’s services…
“Musk, who owns Twitter, set a deadline of Saturday for verified users to buy a premium Twitter subscription or lose the checks on their profiles. The Times said in a story Thursday that it would not pay Twitter for verification of its institutional accounts.”
WSJ: The Coming Biden Bailout of Blue States and Cities
Blue states and cities have ridden the cheap-debt train to the end of the line, but they’re still not slowing down. A crash is coming, and it’s one Democrat politicians have been counting on – they spent money they knew they didn’t have – and now they’re waiting for the Washington printing press to come riding to their rescue after years of taxpayer-funded largess. Do they care about inflation? Heck no, that’s your problem, not theirs. Their paychecks will be adjusted, yours won’t.
“The balance-sheet risks for mismanaged states and municipalities have been hiding in plain sight just as they were at Silicon Valley Bank. Continued financial-market turmoil and a prolonged economic downturn could cause some pension funds to collapse and cities to declare bankruptcy. Taxpayers will invariably wind up on the hook for politicians’ bad financial bets.”
AXIOS: Percentage of Latino Catholics eclipses white evangelicals in Southwest
Religious affiliation is waning among all populations in the U.S., but Catholic Latinos are holding on to their bibles at higher rates than almost anyone else, and their population growth is quickly turning Catholic Latinos into our nation’s largest religious denomination.
“By the numbers: Hispanic Catholics accounted for more than 20% of all people with a religious affiliation in California, New Mexico and Texas in 2022, according to the Public Religion Research Institute's annual American Values Atlas. In Arizona, Hispanic Catholics (12%) made up a bigger percentage than white evangelicals (10%) but a slightly smaller share than white mainline Protestants (13%).”
REUTERS: Why is OPEC Cutting Oil Output?
OPEC, in conjunction with Russia, announced surprise cuts to oil production. The Biden Administration objected to the move, but it’s hard not to see this as another follow-on effect from their endemic foreign policy failures. China, Russia, Iran and other international bad actors are ascendant, the U.S. and Europe are in decline, and the world is taking note.
“Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said the Western banking crisis was one of the reasons behind the cut as well as "interference with market dynamics", a Russian expression to describe a Western price cap on Russian oil.”
NBC NEWS: Chinese Spy Balloon Gathered Intel From U.S. Military Sites
Apparently, we didn’t shoot them down soon enough...who knew?
“The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.
China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure-eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time, the three officials said. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said.
WSJ: How Do You Escape Net Zero?
European leaders are desperately trying to roll back their climate pledges as the reality rears it’s head…
“This fiasco is happening as green aspirations and economic realities collide at high speed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war, which disrupted Europe’s imports of Russian natural gas and caused global prices to spike, exposed the costs and inadequacy of wind and solar power as replacements for fossil fuels.”
MIAMI HERALD: Florida just approved a new gun carry law. What to know about what’s allowed — and not
Without much fanfare, Florida becomes the ninth state to allow firearm owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Gun control advocates predicted mass casualties and chaos after other states did the same. Those predictions haven’t come true, but it won’t stop the anti-gun lobby from losing their collective minds, again.
“Changes: The new law, signed by the governor on Monday, April 3, allows a person to carry a gun without a permit or training in Florida.
Concealed only: The law allows only concealed guns, and does not allow a person to openly carry a gun in public.”
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