Your BRIGHT Week in Review
Plus: Dinner and a Movie 🌷
Rubio Takes Center Stage at White House
Secretary of State Marco Rubio filmed a joke about taking over for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt while she’s out on maternity leave. On Tuesday, it was true when he stepped into the White House briefing room for a wide-ranging session on Iran, foreign policy, and U.S. politics. The Hill framed it as a presidential audition as he answered questions for more than 50 minutes and emphasized President Trump’s leadership on Iran and global negotiations.
“As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, the United States of America holds all the cards,” Rubio said while defending the administration’s position toward Iran. He also argued the U.S. military posture was defensive, saying, “This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation. And what that means is very simple, there’s no shooting unless we’re shot at first.”
Rubio defended the administration’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz and warned, “If Iran had a nuclear weapon and they decided to close the strait and make our gas prices like $9 a gallon or $8 a gallon, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.” The Hill also called his tone “presidential,” when he said he hopes America remains “the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything.”
Daily Wire Uncovers Medicaid Millionaires
A Daily Wire investigation alleges widespread abuse of Medicaid funds, particularly in Ohio’s home health care system, where billions are spent on loosely monitored “personal services.” Reporter Luke Rosiak wrote, “What I found was the most blatant waste of federal dollars that I have encountered in my two decades as an investigative reporter.”
The report claims Medicaid often pays individuals, including family members, with little oversight, sometimes for basic activities like “companionship & conversation.” One home health operator admitted, “People see it as lucrative, so they just jump on it.”
According to the analysis, Ohio spent about $1 billion on home health care in 2024, with some buildings housing dozens of companies billing millions. The investigation shows the system lacks meaningful verification, calling it “an infinite number of small black boxes inside a black box.”
Among the fraudulent examples they found:
A politician who founded an $11 million home health care company that he appeared to run part-time — without even mentioning it in his political biography — who funded his campaign with donations from other home health care owners.
A woman who reinvented her janitorial LLC as a “health” provider, then billed Medicaid nearly $100,000 the first month.
A landlord who bought airplanes after renting space to hundreds of home health care companies that billed Medicaid a quarter of a billion dollars.
A million-dollar Medicaid business owned by a couple with repeated fraud, violence, and theft convictions.
Rosiak wrote, “This poverty program is different from things like food stamps, because it has no monetary cap and its extent is decided not by politicians, but by any doctor willing to sign a form saying you could use some help around the house. It only takes one doctor who will say yes to churn out enough forms to bankrupt a state.”
Following the report on his home state, Vice President JD Vance wrote, “These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.”
Save the American Space Cowboys
Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff is one of my favorite books, so I thoroughly enjoyed the latest article from Jenna Stocker at The Daily Wire:
“Fly me to the moon,” Frank Sinatra sang in 1964, “Let me play among the stars.” The song was recorded more than 100 times before Sinatra’s version appeared on his album, It Might as Well Be Swing. It was released one year after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In another five years, Sinatra’s recording would play on a Sony TC-50 portable cassette player on the Apollo 10 mission, which orbited the Moon in May 1969.
It was fitting that the biggest star in American entertainment — the Chairman of the Board, the leader of the Rat Pack, Mr. Las Vegas and Palm Springs — with those electric blue eyes and buttery voice, would lend his singular vocals to the mid-20th century’s consummate moment. Pop culture meets celebrity meets the American Space Cowboy in one bold, frontier-expanding, mind-blowing, breathtaking, victorious, seemingly impossible starburst adventure into the heavens themselves.
What happened to us?
Space, that final frontier, is overshadowed by the perpetual glow of screens and the mind-crushing, unimaginative “creator class” more interested in monetizing people’s brain synapses through cat memes and AI slop bots.
At one time, astronauts ruled the covers of glossy magazines, nightly newscasts, and film reels.
Your Perfect Playlist May Be the Ultimate Workout Hack
Fox News reported that a new study from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland suggests that listening to your favorite music during exercise could significantly boost endurance. Researchers found that 29 active adults who listened to self-selected music while cycling at high intensity lasted nearly six minutes longer on average, about 36 minutes versus 30 minutes in silence. I’m impressed those who listened in silence went 30 minutes — I would have no concept of time and ask if it’s been 30 minutes after 3 minutes. Despite the longer workouts, heart rates and physical strain stayed about the same, suggesting music mainly changes how people perceive effort.
Lead researcher Andrew Danso said, “Self-selected music doesn’t change your fitness level … it simply helps you tolerate sustained effort for longer.” Beverly Hills psychiatrist Carole Lieberman said enjoyable music can make exercise feel less like “a chore” and more fun.
Check out my Gen X workout playlists in The Gen X Handbook for Middle Age.
Dinner and a Movie
There are so many good Mother’s Day movies that I don’t know what to pick. Tell me your favorite in the comments! Steel Magnolias is always a favorite.
I have the unpopular opinion of thinking it’s a shame that the worst meal (brunch) is associated with Mother’s Day. However, I will give the people what they want. Some ideas:
80 Mother’s Day Brunch Recipes to Celebrate Mom (Country Living)
31 Mother’s Day Brunch Ideas (Love and Lemons)
36 Delicious Ways to Honor Mom This Mother’s Day, From Breakfast to Dessert (Food and Wine)