Find out who won the Loop’s ‘Winnow Down’ the GOP debates contest

Fox News, which is hosting the first campaign debate of the 2016 primary season, plans to require contenders to place in the top 10 in an average of the five most recent national polls before the Aug.6 event.

But our Loop fans have other (and we think better) ideas. Other debate hosts may want to consider the winning entries to our “Winnow Down” contest, intended to help the GOP figure out how to deal with its 16 (more-or-less) bona fide candidates.

Washington Post

23:40:3623:40:372015-05-2323:41:00Save

NSA and Other Matters Leave McConnell’s Senate in Disarray

As senators raced for the airport on Saturday after a six-week session that ended in disarray, they left behind a wreck of promises made by Mr. McConnell on how a renewed Senate would operate. Mr. McConnell has found himself vexed by Democratic delaying tactics he honed in the minority, five presidential aspirants with their own agendas and a new crop of conservative firebrands demanding their say.

Washington Post

2015-05-2323:42:19

America’s All-Volunteer Army: Military and civilians are increasingly divided

The U.S. military today is gradually becoming a separate warrior class, many analysts say, that is becoming increasingly distinct from the public it is charged with protecting.

The segregation is so pronounced that it can be traced on a map: Some 49% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members in the U.S. are concentrated in just five states — California, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia.

Los Angeles Times 2015-05-23

Clinton Benghazi emails 

State Department Virtual Reading Room

Case No.: F-2015-04841

Military, police members of outlaw motorcycle gangs
Nuclear power plant technicians, senior military officers, FBI contractors and an employee of “a highly-secretive Department of Defense agency” with a Top Secret clearance. The report lays out the extent to which OMG members are represented in nearly every part of the military, and in federal and local government, from police and fire departments to state utility agencies.

The Intercept

3:06:51 PM05/22/2015

China’s actions mean a larger role for one of Navy’s newest planes

The P-8A Poseidons that patrol over the South China Sea’s disputed territory don’t end up on many posters, nor are they likely to dethrone fighter planes as Hollywood’s favorite military aircraft. Its versatility is among the reasons why the Poseidon was the type of plane flying over the contested Spratly Islands on May 20 when a ground dispatcher radioed its pilots with, “This is the Chinese navy … You go!”

Stars and Stripes

05/22/2015 3:39:07 PM