“Campaign finance disclosures released over the weekend provide a clearer picture of the millions of dollars pro-Israel PACs United Democracy Project (an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC) and Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) have spent thus far in the midterm primaries, and the lengths to which they have gone to hide their true influence. In 2026, more than 1 out of every 4 dollars in independent expenditures that the two groups have disbursed (almost $8 million out of a total of $30.66 million) have been funneled to nine different partners and shell PACs. Those numbers are likely higher, since the disclosures made to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) only go through the end of May, and they do not count possible outlays to dark-money PACs that do not have to disclose their spending.” (06/22/26)
“‘The state,’ 19th century French economist Frédéric Bastiat wrote, ‘is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.’ Many, maybe even most, people seem to believe that without government we not only wouldn’t, but couldn’t, have things like roads, schools, mail delivery, and electricity. And yet all those things existed long before any of the governments that provide them today existed, and in some cases long before political government itself, as we understand it, existed.” (06/21/26)
“On Wednesday the Interior Department announced that it would pay the energy developer Invenergy $765 million not to develop three offshore wind farms. This is the third such payment by the Trump administration to undo offshore wind projects that have been years in the planning. Trump has so far committed $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to killing renewable energy projects. … Yet here’s the irony: Donald Trump’s disastrous Iran war has delivered a huge boost for renewable energy around the world — except in the U.S.. Trump has so far done more to shift the global economy away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy than any other single individual in history.” (06/19/26)
“With Elon Musk’s ascent to trillionaire status following last Friday’s SpaceX IPO, progressive politicians are once again calling for a wealth tax. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and more argue that taxing immense fortunes would provide the revenue needed to fund everything from universal childcare to expanded healthcare and housing programs. Listening to them, one gets the impression that society is perpetually just one new tax away from solving its big problems. That’s fantastical thinking. The wealth tax is often presented as an obvious way to fund government programs—basically free money. Yet its proponents rarely grapple with two realities. First, the tax may be practically unworkable. Second, even if it could be implemented, the revenue would not solve the problems these politicians identify, and may even worsen them. These are separate questions, and both deserve examination.” (06/20/26)
“AI is everywhere. It’s getting incorporated into everything. That’s simply progress, we’re told. And therefore we need to embrace it, lest we look like a Luddite and let China win (whatever that means). Yet, simultaneously, a lot of people also are afraid because of AI. Very afraid. And sometimes, we’re told that we should be afraid too. However, in public discourse surrounding AI, there often can be a lack of detail regarding what specifically we’re supposed to be afraid of. Sometimes it is not even clear what is meant by the term ‘AI.’ … these more hyperbolic, sci-fi depictions of the threat(s) posed by AI tend to get more attention than, and consequently distract from, more realistic and more imminent threats pertaining to privacy, freedom, autonomy, and even just a way of life many of us have come to enjoy.” (06/19/26)
“It has never been a better time in America to be a socialist. We aging Gen Xers who thought that socialism had been decisively refuted by the fall of the Berlin Wall have been refuted ourselves: Democratic socialists now run Seattle and New York City, and come January, probably D.C. too, where Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary that generally decides the district’s mayoral elections. … The challenge is that socialism’s rise is spiky, concentrated in blue cities where affluent (but often downwardly mobile) college graduates cluster. That’s a problem for the Democratic Party, where the excesses of progressive governance are helping to make the party’s brand toxic in the less true-blue areas. But it’s also a challenge for the socialists, because cities are the hardest place to execute big plans for new taxing and spending.” (06/21/26)
“Most of you have heard of Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman who visited America in the 1830s and wrote a two-volume classic, Democracy in America, about his findings. De Tocqueville was an incredibly brilliant man, and I’d like to share with readers a little of his genius. Like our Founding Fathers, he had a solid grasp of history, human nature, and great, eternal spiritual truths. Here are a few of his thoughts: 1. ‘The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.’ … I find it interesting that he said that Congress would bribe the people with their own money. The man was honest. … 2. ‘I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.'” (06/21/26)
“It is a sad and disturbing fact that the white supremacist cis hetero chauvinists behind the mirage factory that is Atlantic neoliberalism have adopted the notion of ‘LGBTQ rights’ as one of their many excuses for flattening the planet and turning it into a colossal beige fulfillment center at the service of the global 1%. But this must be seen for what it truly is; fickle, empty and totally deceptive propaganda.” (06/20/26)
“This week, a federal judge in Montana cancelled oil and gas leases on 1.5 MILLION acres of land in the State of Wyoming (a different district). And more acres in Montana and the Dakotas. … The State of Wyoming alone will lose $330 million in royalties and fees – not counting the taxes paid by the people who work getting and transporting the natural gas, and the taxes as the money circulates through the local economies. Now, as lovers of liberty, we are of mixed feelings about the bureaucrats and politicos down in Cheyenne (or Helena, or Bismarck and Pierre) getting less money. But it is the people that won’t get paid because that oil and gas will stay in the ground, instead of fueling the economy, that really take it in the shorts. … So why did this judge do this? Including going outside his district? Bluntly, because the guy is in bed with the environists.” (06/20/26)
