To Stop Endless War in Iran and Beyond, Congress Should Rescind the Money To Fight

Source: Antiwar.com
by David Vine

“Trump’s embrace of endless wars already has killed and injured tens of thousands, displaced millions, squandered tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, driven up prices on gas and other necessities, created a global economic crisis, and risked wider catastrophe and World War III. And don’t forget Trump’s genocidal threats to ‘wipe out’ Iranian civilization, implying a potential nuclear attack. Faced with the threat of more endless war in Iran and beyond, Congress must do everything in its power to stop Trump. One tool Congress hasn’t used is its power to immediately cut off money for wars in Iran and beyond. With constitutional authority over government spending, Congress can use its rescission power – that is, the power to rescind, or take back, money previously appropriated to government agencies.” (04/23/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/david-vine/2026/04/22/to-stop-endless-war-in-iran-and-beyond-congress-should-rescind-the-money-to-fight/

The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thiago VS Coelho

“The Good Food Institute openly says it works with governments to advocate public investment in alternative proteins, while New Harvest says that ‘publicly-funded groups like ours’ are needed to steer cellular agriculture toward the public good. By GFI’s own 2024 policy report, governments were estimated to disburse about $560 million on alternative proteins in 2024, with cultivated meat alone drawing $84 million in public investment that year, double the previous high. In the United States, USDA already put a historic $10 million grant into Tufts’[s] National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, where the research agenda includes consumer acceptance, willingness-to-pay, scalable cell lines, serum-free media, scaffolds, and process optimization. That is not a picture of a market proving itself. It is a picture of advocates trying to socialize the cost of proving whether a market exists.” (04/23/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-food-pyramid-lab-grown-meat-and-new-moral-orthodoxy

Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Is Legally Puzzling but a “Huge Win” for Patients, Suppliers, and Scientists

Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum

“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s distinction between medical and recreational cannabis is hard to reconcile with the relevant scientific and statutory criteria.” (04/23/26)

https://reason.com/2026/04/23/medical-marijuana-rescheduling-is-legally-puzzling-but-a-huge-win-for-patients-suppliers-and-scientists/

This Is What Democracy Looks Like, and Why Our Founding Fathers Didn’t Create One

Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter

“Virginia voted, and the Democrats treated the Republicans and Independents in the state like Bill Clinton treated so many women over the years – forcing their will on everyone else. If southern and rural Virginians didn’t want to be overpowered into submission, they shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt. In an election decided by three points after last year’s Governor’s race was won by the Democrat by more than 15 points, Democrats switched the state’s Congressional district map from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats. Hitler would be proud. This is why we are a Constitutionally Limited Republic and not a democracy.” (04/23/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/04/23/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-and-why-our-founding-fathers-didnt-create-one-n2674916

Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed Iran war — but he doesn’t know how

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Trudy Rubin

“In 1966, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a description of a mental bias that became known as ‘Maslow’s hammer.’ ‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, I suppose it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail,’ Maslow contended. Or, as some have reworded his theorem: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This is a good diagnosis for how President Donald Trump has trapped us all in his unnecessary war with Tehran. A war from which he can’t find a good exit.” (04/23/26)

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/iran-war-trump-strait-hormuz-ceasefire-weak-deal-20260423.html

The hidden cost of simplicity: Procurement reform’s fragmentation problem

Source: Niskanen Center
by Jacob Brown

“There’s broad bipartisan agreement that the federal government pays too much for goods and services yet procurement timelines remain far too slow. Over the past year, the Trump administration has been working on the ‘Revolutionary FAR Overhaul’ (RFO), described in an executive order as an effort to ‘create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible.’ To achieve this, the EO directs an overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency supplements so that they contain ‘only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement.’ So far, the administration has succeeded in making provisional changes to the FAR, which many agencies have adopted.” (04/23/26)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-hidden-cost-of-simplicity-procurement-reforms-fragmentation-problem

Wildlife Management Must Be Driven by Science, Not Politics

Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Dylan Soares

“State management is the rule, not the exception, of wildlife management in the U.S. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) displaces it only when the best available science shows a species is endangered or threatened, thereby requiring federal oversight. That principle is at the heart of PERC’s amicus brief in Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which argues that political and policy disagreements with state management cannot override the ESA’s science-based standard.” (04/23/26)

https://www.perc.org/2026/04/23/wildlife-management-must-be-driven-by-science-not-politics/

How Iran Committed Suicide

Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson

“How does the supposedly most fearsome regime in the violent Middle East now find itself on the verge of an utter economic and military collapse? Iran’s half-century-long deadly terrorist reputation peaked with the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel that it helped fund and coordinate. Iran’s terrorist ambitions of running the Middle East had accelerated after witnessing Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s distancing itself from Israel. Biden’s humiliation by a series of Chinese slights and the Russian invasion of Ukraine further eroded American deterrence. European appeasement was another force multiplier of Iranian hubris.” [editor’s note: And yet somehow the mighty US hasn’t decisively defeated them – TLK] (04/23/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/04/23/how-iran-committed-suicide/

More green, more giggles, less crime

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“For Earth Day in 2026, the celebratory events held April 22 numbered well over 10,000 worldwide. From cleanups to teach-ins to tree planting, such activities help boost enthusiasm for caring about the environment. Ultimately, however, it is during the other days of the year that follow-through can bring those good intentions to fruition. Over decades of Earth Day celebrations, many individuals have found that a focus on environmental care in local communities can reap tangible civic and social benefits. A case in point is Philadelphia, where a long-standing project in urban greening has been linked to drops in crime. That success has led the neighboring city of Chester to trod the same path. Philadelphia’s story began with green-thumbed activists from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society seeking to recover good neighborliness, square foot by square foot.” (04/22/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0422/More-green-more-giggles-less-crime