While America's political class obsesses over Eric Cantor's stunning defeat, a perhaps more predictable — if dramatically more serious — defeat is taking place on the foreign stage. In this case, it is the Iraqi army that appears to be getting walloped. From The Guardian:

"Iraq is facing its gravest test since the U.S.-led invasion more than a decade ago, after its army capitulated to Islamist insurgents who have seized four cities and pillaged military bases and banks, in a lightning campaign which seems poised to fuel a cross-border insurgency endangering the entire region.

... Iraqi officials told the Guardian that two divisions of Iraqi soldiers — roughly 30,000 men — simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters. Isis extremists roamed freely on Wednesday through the streets of Mosul, openly surprised at the ease with which they took Iraq's second largest city after three days of sporadic fighting." [The Guardian]

For those wondering how the U.S. — after investing (wisely or not) so much in the region — could allow this to happen, the suggestion that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the U.S. to consider airstrikes against the militants will surely be a sticking point.

That, coupled with New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins' prior reporting that, when it came to whether or not the U.S. should have left a residual force behind in Iraq, "every single senior [Iraqi] political leader, no matter what party or what group, including Maliki, said to them privately, we want you to stay," seems to buttress the argument that Obama dropped the ball on winning the peace.

Some, of course, will blame George W. Bush for starting the whole mess. But for a president who once seemed poised to reverse the Democratic Party's anemic foreign policy image, the potential question over "Who lost Iraq" would be yet another serious indictment of the "Obama doctrine." Matt K. Lewis

A new species of tropical ant has been discovered in the vomit of a diablito, or little devil frog, a very orange and poisonous frog that lives in Colombia and Ecuador.

Scientists use wild ant-eating frogs as tiny scouts who are able to search for insects in places people can't go. Then they capture the frogs and carefully make them vomit up the results of their latest explorations. The frogs are released unharmed.

In this case, the frog puke contained a single (and dead) member of the newly identified ant species, Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri. "Sometimes people think that our world is very well explored. Nothing could be farther from the truth," said Christian Rabeling of the University of Rochester, New York, who led a study on the new ant. He added, "The difficulty is finding the ants!" Bonnie Kristian

A New York Times editorial published Saturday announced the paper's official endorsement of Democrat Hillary Clinton for President. The article did not offer a comparison of Clinton to her rival, Republican Donald Trump, instead promising to "explain in a subsequent editorial why we believe Mr. Trump to be the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history."

As for Clinton, the editorial board insisted their rationale centered on her merits — "intellect, experience, toughness, and courage" — and not her position as the sole viable alternative to Trump: "The best case for Hillary Clinton cannot be, and is not, that she isn’t Donald Trump." Clinton should be seen as a realist rather than an opportunist, the endorsement essay argued, running through a record of her accomplishments while dismissing Clinton's negatives as "occasional missteps."

The Times endorsement of Clinton may be striking in its vehemence, but it is hardly unexpected, as the paper has endorsed the Democratic candidate in 22 of 26 presidential elections since 1916. The last time a Republican won the Times' loyalty was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. Bonnie Kristian

The CEOs of America's 100 largest corporations are universally uninterested in financially backing Republican Donald Trump, an analysis from The Wall Street Journal reveals. However, 11 Fortune 100 CEOs have donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton, a longtime Wall Street favorite.

Among Clinton's high-profile donors from the business world are the leaders of Apple, American Airlines, and Nike. Her Fortune 100 CEO support is double what President Obama received in 2012, when nearly a third of these 100 CEOs backed Republican Mitt Romney and 66 didn't donate to any presidential candidate.

Clinton has also received financial support in the form of donation bundling from social media executives, namely Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. A bundler collects donations on the campaign's behalf and may be rewarded with special access or position in the new administration should their candidate win. Bonnie Kristian

Republican nominee Donald Trump is a simplistic "moron," rock legend Bruce Springsteen said while speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone to promote his new autobiography.

"Well, you know, the republic is under siege by a moron, basically," he said in the conversation published Friday. "The whole thing is tragic. Without overstating it, it's a tragedy for our democracy." Springsteen went on to critique Trump's connection to "white nationalism and the alt-right movement" before offering a more empathetic analysis of why Trump's candidacy has garnered so much support:

"I believe that there's a price being paid for not addressing the real cost of the deindustrialization and globalization that has occurred in the United States for the past 35, 40 years and how it’s deeply affected people's lives and deeply hurt people to where they want someone who says they have a solution. And Trump's thing is simple answers to very complex problems. Fallacious answers to very complex problems. And that can be very appealing." [Springsteen, via Rolling Stone]

Fellow musician Jon Bon Jovi also took on Trump this week, telling Gigwise, a British music website, that it is "incredible" how Trump can "can lie to you. You tell him here's factually what you said that's incorrect and then he tells it the same [way again]." Bonnie Kristian

Here we go again: Federal agencies on Friday started to prepare for a possible government shutdown beginning Oct. 1, the end of the fiscal year.

Though congressional leaders are working on a 10-week stopgap measure to continue funding the federal government, squabbles over whether that bill should include relief aid to Flint, Michigan, have stalled the process. Thus, "at this time, prudent management requires that the government plan for the possibility of a lapse and OMB is working with agencies to take appropriate action," an Office of Management and Budget official told The Hill.

The last time the government shut down because of a funding gap was in 2013, when nonessential employees were sent home for more than two weeks. Contrary the suggestion of the term "shutdown," only about 20 percent of federal employees are considered nonessential, meaning roughly eight in 10 — more than 3 million people — will keep working as usual should a shutdown occur. Bonnie Kristian

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, the newest Smithsonian museum, opened to the public in Washington, D.C. on Saturday morning. President Barack Obama participated in the opening ceremony, which was attended by thousands and paired with a three-day festival of African-American cuisine and culture on the National Mall.

In comments at a reception honoring the museum Friday night, Obama referenced high-profile police misconduct cases involving black Americans."My hope is that as people are seeing what's happened in Tulsa or Charlotte on television," he said, a visit to the museum will help them to say, "I understand. I sympathize. I empathize. I can see why folks might feel angry, and I wanna be part of the solution."

See comments from Obama and Oprah on the new museum below. Bonnie Kristian

Messaging app Snapchat has announced plans to release its first ever physical product: a pair of sunglasses with a built-in camera capable of recording up to 30 seconds of video at a time.

Snapchat creator Evan Spiegel described the product, called Spectacle, as a way to relive momentous experiences, like hiking with his supermodel fiancée, Miranda Kerr. "It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two," he told The Wall Street Journal. "And when I got the footage back and watched it," Spiegel continued, "I could see my own memory, through my own eyes — it was unbelievable. It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience."

For those of us not privy to hiking with Miranda Kerr, Spectacle will make it easier than ever to endlessly relive — and, even more thrilling, enable our friends to relive — the minutiae of our every moment. The glasses will be available later in 2016 at a price point of $130. Bonnie Kristian