Journalists in unfree countries take great risks. (Real journalists, I mean, not regime mouthpieces.) In some circumstances, it can be dangerous to be a journalist in a free country as well. “Taiwan steps up police protection for pundits denounced by China.” That is a headline from Radio Free Asia. (The article is here.)

• In America, populists like to talk of the “uniparty.” There’s no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, they say. Sometimes, it’s true. Consider a headline from the Associated Press: “Trump or Biden? Either way, U.S. seems poised to preserve heavy tariffs on imports.” (Article here.)

• Another headline from the AP: “Biden administration canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers.” People ask, “Does it make political sense?” “Does it make economic sense?” “Does it make legal sense?” There is another question, too: “Does it make moral sense?”

(For the AP report, go here.)

Relatedly, let me recommend a piece by Kevin D. Williamson: “There Are Two Sides to Every Debt: One party’s liability is another party’s asset” (here).

• My whole life, I’ve heard supporters of candidates who are losing say, “There’s something wrong with the polls.” I have said it myself (in 1992, for example). Lately, I have heard Biden supporters say it. Which is good news for Trump.

• An article in the Washington Post is headed, “GOP primary battle turns Va.’s 5th District into a political Tilt-a-Whirl.” Two candidates are trying to out-MAGA each other. Each is calling the other a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only).

Years ago, Saturday Night Live had a game-show parody: “Quién es más macho?” Republican politics is one endless game of “Quién es más MAGA?”

• The GOP strikes some as a family business, not to say a personality cult. From the AP: “Lara Trump is taking the reins, and reshaping the RNC in her father-in-law’s image.” (Article here.)

• The latest from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.): “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.” (For her statement, go here.) These concocters and fanners of conspiracy theories — I’m surprised they haven’t gotten more people killed.

• Like a decade ago, I wrote a book about the sons and daughters of dictators. (Children of Monsters.) A human-rights activist from Equatorial Guinea, in West-Central Africa, told me I should look into EG’s dictator, Obiang, and his chips off the old block — two sons. I have never looked into the Obiangs. Not in depth. But they are obviously ghastly.

For the Wall Street Journal, Michael M. Phillips has written a piece with the following heading: “The Dictator’s Son Wanted His Yacht Back. That’s When Trouble Started for Two Oilmen.” Interesting (all too).

• Also interesting — and very different — is a piece by Jeremy Schwartz in the Texas Tribune: “A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum.” Truly a tale — a political tale, a cultural tale — of our time. Here.

• One of the themes of my column is “Everything is tribal.” This is an exaggeration. But I wish it were more of one. Take the recent controversy over the U.S. flag flown upside down at the home of Justice and Mrs. Alito. Left and Right, blue and red, take their stands. What if the flag had flown upside down at the home of a Democratic justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson, say? What would the Left be saying? What would the Right be saying?

Everything is tribal (or many things are).

• A lot of people were enthusiastic about the commencement address delivered by Harrison Butker, the placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, at Benedictine College. A portion of his address went, “Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the Biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.”

I have many prayers for the world, and my country in particular: One of them is, increased Biblical literacy (along with literacy in general).

• When I was little, there was a football player named “Dick Butkus.” (Yes, we kids chortled about that.) From Butkus to Butker . . .

• In journalism, as in other fields, there is little so satisfying as a good idea well executed. The Associated Press had a good idea — and executed it well. The report, written by Sheikh Saaliq, begins,

The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey south from New Delhi to Kanyakumari is one of the longest train rides in India, passing through cities, villages, scrub forests, and deep ravines.

The 22-car Thirukkural Express is a microcosm of India, carrying passengers from different castes and religions and with wide-ranging ambitions and grievances — from migrants crammed into sweltering no-frills cars to well-heeled families luxuriating in air-conditioned sleeper cabins, and everyone in between.

A bit more:

Passengers can also be divided by their politics, a topic that is top of mind with a consequential election underway. . . .

The Associated Press recently made the 48-hour train journey to interview Indian voters about the election, whose results will be announced on June 4.

Damn good idea. Wish I had been aboard the train, as part of that team.

• Over the years, I have noticed something about people and music (classical music). They think it needs to be beautiful — otherwise it’s no good, or not real music. As I sometimes point out to them, they don’t think this about other arts — not about painting, for example. Or theater. They don’t think it about literature. But they think it about music.

“Music calms me,” people say. “It soothes me, it relaxes me.” It can do that, yes. But art has other jobs, too: It can provoke you, stir you up. It can express anger, anxiety, shock, despair, lust, surprise, insanity, wonder, curiosity — any number of things.

People often want music as a kind of sedative. Well, fine. But that’s not the whole of music.

Hilary Hahn, the great violinist, makes videos. I could have hugged her for saying, “I think music doesn’t need to be pretty. It needs to say something. It needs to make you feel something.” (Here, at about 3:45.)

• On a bright, warm Saturday morning, the Staten Island Ferry is full (crossing from Manhattan to the island). These can’t be commuters, I wouldn’t think. They are visitors. People speak in a variety of languages, and they wear various types of national dress.

• A little baseball, on the island? Let me say this: I’m using to looking at Lower Manhattan from the north. To look at it from the south is . . . new.

• On the island, streets have typical New York names — Dutch and English: Stuyvesant, York, Hamilton, Richmond, Westerveld, Jersey, Livingstone, Franklin, Lafayette (there’s a French one, and very American, as you know).

• In a park, men are doing drugs. A terrible affliction, a stubborn social problem.

• There are more pleasant sights: Well, hello, Tom!

• Going back up to Manhattan, one ferry passes another, in front of a Lady:

It was nice of you to join me today, y’all. See you later.

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