New Member Benefit? The Half-Full Report - May 29, 2026
I'm filling in for a friend's column this week. Read it, and let me know if you think we should make a weekly roundup like this a regular feature at RodMartin.org. All the info, twice the attitude!
NOTE: My friend Jack Wheeler asked me to write his weekly Half-Full Report this week, as I have done many times over the years. But it occurs to me: maybe what our Members need is exactly this sort of weekly roundup. Would you do me a favor, read tonight’s HFR, and tell me your thoughts at the bottom (there’s a poll and everything)!
You will note that the HFR has a bit of a different style and tone than our normal stuff. It’s all the info, twice the attitude! — RDM
by Rod D. Martin
May 29, 2026
Welcome to another exuberant Half-Full Report! I’m Rod Martin, filling in for the irreplaceable Jack Wheeler, with lots of good news to share. Let’s get started.
We begin with our HFR Loser of the Week - John Cornyn (RINO-TX). What can you even say for an incumbent U.S. Senator — since 2002! — who dropped $111 million dollars, outspent his opponent nearly 10-1, and still lost by 2-1?
Oh, that’s easy. You can say Donald Trump now owns the Republican Party.
This graphic actually understates the win. Ken Paxton, after unending persecution and demonization from within and without his own party, stomped Cornyn — who only recently was a contender for Senate Majority leader — by an incredible 64-36, roughly the margin by which LBJ annihilated Barry Goldwater in 1964.
I went to law school in Texas, so I remember when we thought Cornyn was the great conservative hope for Texas Republicans.
Yeah, not so much. Cornyn has been a consistent RINO obstructionist in the Senate, much like the awful Thom Tillis (RINO-NC) and Bill Cassidy (RINO-LA). But now Tillis is “retiring”, Cornyn and Cassidy are retiring involuntarily, and even Mitch McConnell is getting replaced by the America First Andy Barr (R-KY).
No sitting U.S. Senator has lost to a primary challenger since Dick Lugar (RINO-IN). Now Trump just took out two in two weeks. But that’s not the half of it: Trump is now 117-0 in 2026 primary endorsements!
It’s RINO season. The taxidermists are getting rich.
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It’s important to understand. Trump made this possible. But it isn’t just about Trump.
Conservative hero (and my dear friend) Phyllis Schlafly told us we must be “a choice, not an echo.” But generations of Republicans disagreed. It was so bad that in the aftermath of Newt Gingrich’s speakership, one senior House Republican told me that “we’re going to beat the Democrats by out-porking them.”
And that’s exactly how you got the debacles of 2006 and 2008.
The Tea Party changed all that. Trump amped it up. And the increasing radicalism of the Socialist Democrats poured gasoline on the fire. Remember: Trump was supposed to lose to the “inevitable” Hillary by 12 points. Not only did he win, he ushered in a new era:
Those numbers are still too close for comfort. But they’re the difference between one-party rule by a Socialist censorship machine, and a fighting chance.
But the map just keeps getting better for Republicans, in part because Democrat fraud keeps getting exposed. Turns out the Census Bureau “accidentally” overcounted blue states and undercounted red states in 2020 to the tune of 16 Electoral Votes and 15 House Seats shifted to the Ds.
That’s before you consider the cheat of counting illegal aliens for apportionment, massively inflating blue state House seats and Electoral Votes at everyone else’s expense. Why do Democrats create “sanctuary cities”? It ain’t compassion.
Likewise, racial gerrymandering was never about race. The obscene twisting of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court in Callais padded Democrat numbers by at least 21 seats. This wasn’t ever about electing blacks, unless Steve Cohen (D-TN) counts. It’s just another way Dems have rigged the system. And now it’s going away.
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This creates a problem Democrats are going to struggle to recover from. Because their blue state victims are voting with their feet.
“Those numbers for New York, California, and Illinois look too small,” you might think, and you’d be right. The bluest states have compensated for their losses with as many of Biden’s 10 million illegal aliens as they could attract. But there are mass deportations coming to a state near you, and none of that’s going to help the Ds in 2030.
Meanwhile, unfortunately for the Socialists, they aren’t allowed to build Berlin Walls to keep their citizens (and tax base) in. America’s newspaper of record, the Babylon Bee, summarized perfectly:
If Republicans stay the course, force reform, and don’t give in, the coming realignment is going to make Democrats an unelectable minority for a generation.
But for that to happen, first comes the RINO hunting.
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Over in the Tucker Carlson-Candace Owens wing of the party (but are they part of the party anymore, now that they’re all saying they’re going to work to elect Democrats?), people are mighty put out over Trump helping Thomas Massie “spend more time with his family.”
Even some “very fine people” continue to tell us how principled Massie was. But it doesn’t bear up under scrutiny. First, Massie was happy to vote for Joe Biden’s debt ceiling increase when the President called him. But he consistently voted against Trump’s signature legislation, voted TWICE for the biggest tax hike in history, and even voted to defund ICE.
I guess those are some kind of principles. AOC’s principles.
The fact is, Massie purports to represent a Trump +40 district. His voters like Trump a LOT more than they like him. Scott Jennings said it well:
But not shockingly, Catturd said it even better:
And since he brought up the Joooos, supposedly AIPAC owns America, and Netanyahu has Trump on a leash, which makes every bit as much sense as the prior claim that Trump is Putin’s puppet.
But here’s the problem. AIPAC did spend heavily to beat the pro-Islamist Massie. But they spent even more to help Cornyn and Cassidy. Trump opposed both, both lost primaries that should have been unlosable, and in Cornyn’s case (let me say it again) he outspent his opponent nearly 10-1 and lost 2-1.
The Joooos are everyone’s favorite scapegoats. They aren’t the reason these RINOs lost.
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By the time you read this, Donald Trump may or may not have signed a peace deal with Iran. Some of you are worried he’s going to give away the store.
Do you even know this man?
The Enemedia is convinced that Trump is desperate to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. They’re convinced that he has to bring a swift end at any cost or lose the midterms. And of course, they want YOU to be convinced that America has lost the war.
Some of that is just blatantly stupid. None of it is true.
Since visual aids can help, here’s a satellite image of oil tankers streaming toward the Gulf of America since the closure of the Strait:
Kinda puts things in a different light, doesn’t it?
Trump has been on a mission he calls “energy dominance” from the first. Far from being OPEC’s poor victim as we were when I was a kid, we now outproduce Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. We’re the world’s largest exporter of refined product and the world’s third-largest exporter of crude.
Donald Trump means for us to be number one.
Have you noticed? Every trade deal struck includes enormous purchases of U.S. energy. In Bush’s last year, America “exported” $700 billion to its enemies in energy purchases. In Trump’s final year, America will dominate the energy markets of the world: more tax revenue, more high-paying jobs, and the end of America’s trade deficit.
Yes, you heard that right. Consider this:
Trust me, Trump has. So the question is, in what respect does Trump “need” to reopen the Strait? I can certainly tell you why Europe needs that. Nationwide gas lines can tell you why China needs that. But Trump? Not so much.
Trump wants a long-term U.S. economic boom: the tax cuts Massie voted against, the tariff deals that exempt companies who build plants in America, the shifting of long-term energy contracts to the Gulf of America, the $18 trillion in foreign and private investment he’s recruited. That’s before we even talk about the maritime risk business.
Trump is establishing U.S. dominance over every global chokepoint. He’s flipping the script on China, which under Biden had allies in Venezuela and Cuba and control of the Panama Canal, and now finds itself more constrained behind the First Island Chain than ever.
He’s not playing for November. And if you read the first half of this HFR, you know he’s got November better squared away than the Enemedia thinks.
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Which brings us back to Iran. Trump’s most basic aim? Eliminate any possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapon. His second aim? Eliminate the mullahs’ ability to fund, arm, and direct every conflict in the Middle East. That will allow the U.S. to draw down forces in the region (as in Europe), and better deploy them to deter current threats.
Those aims have already been largely achieved.
Trump’s perfect world outcome? A Lion and Sun Revolution that frees Iran, makes it a staunch U.S. ally, and makes it the top investment opportunity of the 2030s. But that’s not something he can guarantee without the cooperation of the Iranian people. Expect it, but more than that, pray for it.
In between those things? Trump is encouraging our regional allies to diversify energy transport away from the Strait. Saudi Arabia can already ship 7 million bpd through its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea. By 2027, the UAE will be able to ship all of its exports by pipeline through Oman. That results in stable oil markets for years to come, no matter what happens in Iran, and again, less need for U.S. forces.
But in the meantime, every day that passes with the Strait closed is another day U.S. suppliers sign 20-year contracts Russia and the Arabs will never see again.
Trump isn’t in a hurry for a deal. Trump is pushing for a politely-worded surrender.
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All of this is straight out of Reagan’s playbook. Use energy markets against the enemy, contain it, tie it up with problems on its own turf, and slowly watch the internal contradictions of Communism tear it apart.
Once you understand that, the data points no longer look random.
The South Koreans are investing fortunes in the U.S., including upgrading the Philadelphia Shipyard to build nuclear submarines (and train U.S. workers). That will increase American capacity by 50 percent, and supply attack boats to the U.S. Navy, Australia, and South Korea.
Japan and the Philippines strengthened defense ties while Marco Rubio met with previously “non-aligned” (but actually Russia-aligned) Indian leaders, who are suddenly (in Rubio’s words) a “key U.S. strategic partner” and even a “key U.S. ally”. The Indians seemed to agree, and joined in a joint Quad (U.S.-India-Australia-Japan) project to build a vital port in Fiji.
All this comes just a month after the U.S. signed a defense pact with previously “non-aligned” Indonesia, thus taking effective control of the straits through which 80 percent of China’s oil (and nearly that much of its trade) have to flow.
The map is closing in on China. That’s why Xi won’t approve Putin’s desperately needed gas pipeline from Siberia, even though it would insulate China from American control of Malacca. Xi knows the pipeline isn’t enough, his tanking economy needs the U.S. consumer market more than he needs Russia, and buying American LNG — even at the cost of greater dependency on his enemy — is the smart move.
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After years of fearmongering about wholesale job destruction, OpenAI’s Sam Altman now agrees with my AI thesis. The Jevons Paradox is undefeated.
What did you just say, Rod? Glad you asked. The Jevons Paradox is that when technology makes a resource cheaper to use, total consumption of that resource tends to increase, not decrease. This tends to result in much greater employment, even in the affected industries (e.g., the doubling of the number of bank tellers — at higher pay — after the introduction of ATMs). William Stanley Jevons observed this with coal in 1865. It applies to knowledge work in 2026.
In any case, here’s Sam:
You don’t say? George Gilder and I have been telling you this for 25 years.
The Golden Age is nearly here, if we don’t hand America to the Socialists.
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But we don’t have to. The world is beginning to heal.
This week, Bolt’s CEO fired his entire HR department. His reason? “They were creating problems that didn’t exist.” Yeah, DEI does that. No more.
Likewise, ExxonMobil shareholders overwhelmingly voted to re-domicile from Delaware to Texas. Delaware is the legal home of 68 percent of all Fortune 500 companies. But that number is dropping fast after a Delaware chancery judge voided Elon Musk’s entire five-year pay package — twice! — effectively forcing him to work for free as compensation for leading Tesla to one of the highest valuations on Earth.
Those of you who’ve done business overseas are familiar with the term “political risk”. That’s not supposed to exist in America, and especially not Delaware, where hardly anyone is headquartered but everyone is incorporated. They choose Delaware for its pro-business legal code and predictable courts.
But obviously that was never going to last in Biden country. DEI, ESG, and political weaponization override all other considerations for the “Democratic Socialists”. And in typical Socialist fashion, they have killed Delaware’s goose that laid the golden egg.
Texas and Florida are the chief beneficiaries. And New York better watch out: the new Texas Stock Exchange launches in Dallas this spring. They’re calling it Y’all Street.
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And speaking of Florida, my one-of-a-kind Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) — who just signed a redistricting plan shifting the state from a 20-8 map to 24-4 — is now taking on property taxes.
Property tax means you never own your home. You are a permanent renter from the state. Miss a payment, lose your house, even if you’re a 91-year-old widow. It’s serfdom, really. It’s also immoral.
The Special Session begins Monday. Expect to see a $250,000 homestead exemption right out the gate, with full abolition phased in for primary residences over several years.
Critics ask where Florida will make up the money. But in a state that runs surpluses nearly every year, has an enormous rainy-day fund, and regularly CUTS taxes, do you really have to ask? And anyway, those 143 million tourists who come every year will happily pay sales tax to fund our highways and school vouchers.
But it shouldn’t matter. No state should balance its books by evicting widows. Everyone should be secure in their own property. And Florida leads yet again.
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Honestly, this issue of the HFR should be the All-Full Report. But all good things must come to an end. Let’s enjoy the weekend, thank God for Donald Trump, and come Monday, jump right back in the fight for our America.
I didn't vote in your poll: not enough options.
I suppose my problem is I read almost every one of your columns as it comes out (except the video only ones which I skip) so it's something of "I've already heard most of that."
What this seems to be is a "Readers Digest" for the Internet age. If it took off, you might find your daily reads dropping in favor of the shortened weekly version. That's a trade-off you probably should consider.
"Turns out the Census Bureau “accidentally” overcounted blue states and undercounted red states in 2020 to the tune of 16 Electoral Votes and 15 House Seats shifted to the Ds."
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but if a Democrat is elected president in 2028, the same exact accidental overcount and undercount will happen in the 2030 census. Except the overcount and undercount will be double the 2020 one. And by the time the litigation is resolved, it will be "too late" to do anything about it.
The more basic problem with Western democracies is that they assume some basic goodwill and adherence to norms on behalf of political actors - whether they be presidential candidates or municipal civil servants "volunteering" to be election workers. We *assume* our elections are at least more or less honest, and that one side will not adopt a policy of routine rigging elections and outright fraud to ensure its own political survival. We *assume* that the Census Bureau will not release manufactured numbers to benefit one party over another.
But these assumptions are wrong.
So yeah, I want to be an optimist. But...
Incidentally, I am starting to have serious doubts about Trump's negotiating strategy with Iran... And I wish to god he would stop tweeting about it...