Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“After the breakdown of talks in Pakistan, the ceasefire between the US and Iran is more fragile than ever, and now seems likely to give way to a new phase of the war. The ceasefire and talks have failed to end Israel’s devastating attacks on Lebanon or to negotiate international access to the Strait of Hormuz, now under Iran’s control. The world must use this pause in the war to push for a permanent ceasefire and peace agreement, but we must also start to assess the true human cost of the war–something the US is always reluctant to do in its wars, from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan. While we always know the exact number of Americans killed in these wars, we never have an accurate tally of how many people we have killed …” (04/13/26)
“Much of Adam Smith’s writing in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN) is concrete. He explores examples of contemporary and ancient economic, political, religious, and military situations to better understand the world he lived in. As a result, his commentary touched on the economic situations of many nations.” (04/13/26)
“The Constitution of the United States could not be clearer on the question of who possesses the authority to take the nation to war. Article I, Section 8 grants Congress alone the power ‘to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.’ The Founders understood that the decision to send Americans to kill and die in foreign lands was too consequential to rest in the hands of a single individual. They had witnessed the European monarchs drag their subjects into endless conflicts for dynastic glory and they resolved that the American republic would be different. That resolution lasted until 1950. President Harry Truman’s decision to send American forces into Korea without a congressional declaration of war established the precedent that every subsequent president has exploited.” (04/13/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Most Americans believe that Social Security is a retirement program, an income replacement program, a savings program, or an investment program. The truth, however, is that Social Security is just another welfare program like food stamps; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); Medicaid; section 8 housing vouchers; and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Social Security from the very beginning has always been an intergenerational income transfer program where the young who work are forced to support the elderly who don’t.” (04/13/26)
“The American people need the Iran war like a fish needs a bicycle. For our politicians and permanent bureaucrats, it’s a different story. The political class, adrift after the Soviet Union fell, needed a new animating mythos. Neoconservatives taught them to experience preemptive war against tinpot tyrants as a civilizational crusade. The Middle East – where America’s ‘greatest ally’ faced existential threats – offered the ideal stage for the clash between order and barbarism. Here was the role of a lifetime: to call the shots on a world-historical mission that cast unilateral hard power as virtue. No wonder they cling to it, even after every failed regime-change war.” (04/13/26)
“Between ages 12 and 17, I was obese, socially isolated and addicted to the fantasy video game RuneScape. I was home-schooled, lived with just my mother and rarely went outside. I logged over 10,000 hours in that game alone, nearly a third of my waking life during those years. That doesn’t include countless additional hours I spent on other video games, television and, of course, social media. I made friends through online chatrooms and pen pal websites because I had none in real life. I averaged well over 10 hours a day on devices. If ever there were a case study for the claim that screens destroy young minds, I would seem to fit it. And yet here I am as a 26-year-old developmental psychologist with a doctorate from Harvard. I am in good mental and physical health, with deep friendships online and off. Maybe I’m the exception. Or maybe the harms are overblown.” (04/12/26)
“Colorado mom Dana Grueser is still trying to piece together how her sweet son ended up on a locked ward screaming at her for being a Nazi and begging for his phone. … When her son Ari was 14 and starting high school, Dana says, his friend group fell apart. He and his girlfriend broke up, and his parents separated, too. Dana encouraged him to go outside, but he said no one else was out there. He started spending more time online. Dana wasn’t too worried. She’d set up parental controls. And yet, she would later learn, Ari got to the point where he was eluding all the safeguards and spending 12-14 hours online a day. Online he made new ‘friends,’ who urged him to do things like carve pentagrams and upside down crosses on his chest.” (04/12/26)
“As a badly battered Middle East hangs off the edge of a cliff by a string with a temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran, peace or anything remotely resembling it looks even less likely for Southern Lebanon than it does for the rest of that treacherous map drawn by dead British arseholes. Even if Israel were the kind of creature who could be trusted to respect a ceasefire with anyone, much of the damage is already done.” (04/12/26)
