“Sometimes a meeting is just a meeting. And sometimes it’s treason. The meeting in question was between the Democrats’ House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser. My first reaction to the news about the get-together was probably like that of most Americans: OK, two guys from opposite sides had a meeting. After all, people in Washington have meetings all the time. And perhaps Democrats and Republicans could get more done for the country if they often met privately instead of just shouting at each other during interviews and campaigns. Ah, but the rules — and common sense — go out the window if you are the leader of House Dems in the era of Trump. Then you must be on a total war footing at all times.” (08/29/26)
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Dr. Edward W Younkins
“In an age of philosophical fragmentation, the voice of Henry B. Veatch stands as an indispensable corrective. Recognized as one of the leading neo-Aristotelian thinkers of the twentieth century, Veatch devoted his long and distinguished career to defending a vision of philosophy rooted in realism, teleology, and the conviction that ethics and politics must be grounded in the nature of things. His many articles and books represent a sustained and powerful argument against the dominant trends of modern and postmodern thought. Veatch revised and reinterpreted Aristotle’s ethical framework at a time when utilitarianism, subjectivism, skepticism, existentialism, emotivism, and positivism dominated philosophical discourse.” (08/30/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“On average, the federal government is paying 3.4% on its $40 trillion of debt, and as interest rates rise, it has a major effect on our debt service payments, causing the government to either print more money or crowd out other spending—neither are good choices. Over the next year, the federal government needs to raise another $10 trillion as old debt is coming due, and this borrowing will likely be at our current higher interest rates, which very well could create a serious economic problem for America.” (08/30/26)
“To most Arab leaders, stability in a unified Syria is a necessary cornerstone for Middle East peace. Until late August, however, the country had not been very unified or stable for 15 years, even after the ouster of a dictator in 2024. More than 5.5 million people remain displaced within the country from past conflicts. For most Syrians, a simple everyday act such as using a Visa credit card has been nearly impossible. For 47 years, the United States isolated Syria because it was deemed a sponsor of terrorism. For the country’s largest ethnic minority, the Kurds, independence from Syria was an urgent goal. Despite recent moves toward democracy and the rule of law in Syria, unity and stability are still a ways off.” (08/28/26)
“We’d not want to claim this is a proof, rather a tendency. We all know that there is indeed that Laffer Curve, a rate at which tax collection peaks – either higher or lower rates reduce revenues. We, ourselves, think that we should in fact be aiming at the growth maximising rate, something much lower. We’d also insist that, over time, the growth maximising rate is the revenue maximising one. For economic growth works like that. But that does also require a time horizon well past the next election and so is not something that politics is ever going to consider. But, back to Laffer. We suggest that tax rates will rise, given the joy politicians take in spending ever more of our cash, until raising them further will collect no more money to be spent as the politicians desire.” (08/29/26)
“So how is it going? In the Republic, I mean. Pretty well, I’d say. President Trump just announced the Mother of All Oil Deals with Venezuela, the country he liberated from its narco Chinese puppet Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of 2026. … ‘BREAKING NEWS’, the president reported on social media, ‘The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY! At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer. …’ This is good (nay, great, which is to say GREAT) news for America and ordinary Americans. It is bad news for Democrats.” (08/30/26)
“Relations between the United States and Canada continue to sour over the latest failed trade talks, with the imposition of 50% US tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and the announced reciprocal “dollar-for-dollar” Canadian tariffs on US goods, disrupting the highly interconnected economies on both sides of the border. The US is Canada’s number-one trade partner, while Canada is the number-one trade partner for 26 states and a top-three partner of 19 more. That’s a whole lot of shaking going on, but the wider issue is the ever-increasing dismantling of government in the everyday lives of citizens and consumers, going on over four decades, and now hot-wired by instant messaging.” (08/28/26)
“Many of us in the United States are asking hard questions for the first time: Will we lose our democracy? Is there still time to save it? How can we make sure we can vote? Will our votes be counted? And what do we do if, when we try to vote, we are stopped by armed men? How, if we have to, can we stop a coup? These are not hypotheticals. We have a president who denies election results and has already ordered a thousand Department of Justice monitors to flood voting places this November, and who has said he will not rule out sending military troops or ICE officers to the polls. The good news is we are not alone when we ask these questions. And many of us are working together to create solutions.” (08/30/26)
“A U.S. president must work hard to rupture a relationship with a neighboring country that has been America’s closest economic, security, and people-to-people partner for decades. Leave it to Donald Trump. He has just started a new trade war with Canada that will hurt the U.S. economy, batter our auto industry, and undermine American farmers over his irrational love of tariffs and obsession with turning the Great White North into the 51st state.” (08/30/26)
“Russia is not about to collapse. It still occupies a large part of Ukraine, continues to fire hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities, and retains an enormous advantage in population and resources over its smaller neighbor. Yet four and a half years after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion, the war is beginning to look less like a contest Russia merely needs to endure and more like a trap from which it has no obvious escape, with no path to victory.” (08/28/26)
