“For all practical purposes, the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of (Mis)Understanding is over. The dispute over how to manage the Strait of Hormuz in the interim has pushed the two sides back into open war. But to what end? There is little reason to believe another round of fighting can alter the fundamentals enough to change the reality from which the two sides must ultimately negotiate. If they are fortunate, the MOU’s collapse may yield another round of talks in which the allure of reshaping facts on the ground through force has finally faded.” (07/13/26)
“Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (MH), seeks to inject wisdom into a discussion often dominated by two extremes. The first is a wild-eyed techno-utopianism that would drag us into what the Cambridge literary critic F. R. Leavis called a ‘technologico-Benthamite civilization.’ The second is a techno-catastrophism inclined to see every technological development as an existential threat to humanity. In many ways, MH is an impressive document. … There is, however, one matter that has been passed over too lightly. This concerns MH’s commentary on economic questions.” (07/13/26)
“Ultimately, Lindsey Graham will go down as an inconsequential figure in American history, a bloodthirsty cheerleader for some of the nation’s most disastrous wars who lacked the courage to stand up for the few convictions he once held. To paraphrase Henry Kissinger on Bill Clinton being called a war criminal, ‘Lindsey Graham doesn’t have the moral fortitude to be consigned to the 9th Circle of Hell with the A-listers.’ He’ll have to settle for some more obscure region of eternal torment, where nobody will even recall his name.” (07/13/26)
“Beware: The Chinese Communist Party is plainly exploiting the opaque ownership structure of multinational tech companies to fund far-left political subversion across America. Shanghai-based Maoist tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham is a notorious funder of outfits like the crypto-communist People’s Forum, which organizes radical protest-riots in support of Hamas terrorism and protecting the butchers who control Iran; his wife co-leads extremist Code Pink while his niece is a big player in the Democratic Socialists of America and a prominent adviser to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Singhams got crazy-rich in the tech industry, but you have to wonder if Beijing staged their success to ‘wash’ a vast fortune that could then undermine the United States, the chief barrier to CCP world domination.” (07/13/26)
“The easiest mistake in war is to confuse the ability to strike again with proof that the previous strike worked. Donald Trump is making that mistake in Iran. The latest U.S. attacks may destroy more military assets and infrastructure, but they do not answer the political question that has haunted this war from the beginning: what outcome is all this destruction supposed to produce?” (07/13/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Senator Graham spent 23 years expanding government surveillance and funding foreign wars. Voters must now demand leaders who protect individual freedom and reject intervention.” (07/12/26)
“This week kicks off a 14-day sprint to choose the Democratic nominee in Maine, a race that could decide the U.S. Senate. When it became clear that Graham Platner wasn’t going to remain the nominee, I wrote that keeping the record number of Mainers who turned out for last month’s primary engaged and energized required a process that would allow them to participate, rather than a backroom affair. The Maine Democratic Party came up with something that I’m sure I can quibble with at the edges, but which recognizes that imperative and creates an organizing opportunity for the grassroots volunteers who really built the new kind of politics in the state. It’s a credit to state party chair Charlie Dingman, who so far has navigated a treacherous path pretty well.” (07/13/26)
“Sen. Lindsey Graham, the arch-warmonger from South Carolina, has died. He leaves behind a legacy of death, destruction, and massive human suffering. Graham cheered on every foreign war and every sanctions regime for at least the last thirty years, and he was among the loudest advocates for the criminal attack on Iran. He finally got that one last evil war that he wanted before the end. In a city full of bloodthirsty militarists, Graham distinguished himself as one of the worst.” (07/12/26)
“On June 9, Graham Platner won the Democratic Party’s nomination for US Senate from Maine with 72.1% of the primary vote. On July 10, Platner withdrew from the race, presumably due to popular demand by the same voters who nominated him. I’m tempted to a bit of schadenfreude toward those voters. This was not a case of ‘seems like a really good guy, very consistent, upright citizen … oh my God, I had no idea!’ Platner’s entire short political career — his whole adult life, in fact — resembles a locomotive, on fire, pulling boxcars stuffed full of dynamite, accelerating down tracks that terminate at a children’s playground.” (07/12/26)
