“It’s getting harder to hit innocent Coloradans over the head with civil forfeiture laws. If you live in the Rocky Mountain State and the police want to grab some of your stuff on the basis of a suspicion (or a claimed suspicion) that you have committed a crime, you’re better off today than you would have been a few weeks ago. Colorado has become the second state of the union to entitle you to a lawyer if police are seizing your property.” (06/22/26)
“America should continue to lead the world in clinical research and medical innovation. Instead, we are losing ground. A recent study found that China now conducts more early-stage clinical trials than the United States. In 2025, Chinese companies accounted for nearly half of global pharmaceutical licensing deal activity. Those trends should concern every American. For nearly 80 years, clinical trials have driven medical progress. They transform scientific discoveries into treatments that save lives. They establish whether new therapies are safe and effective. They generate the evidence that physicians, patients and regulators use to make decisions. But clinical trials do more than generate evidence. They attract investment, scientific talent and the infrastructure that supports future innovation. When clinical research moves overseas, those advantages often move with it.” (06/22/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Mother Jones claims seizing private wealth solves the 2032 shortfall. I show you why government plans to raid your retirement accounts violate individual liberty and ignore structural insolvency.” (06/22/26)
“For more than twenty years now, American leaders from both parties have talked about turning over a new leaf in the Middle East. One president pushed hard for democracy promotion, another tried diplomatic outreach, and someone else swore we’d finally end the ‘forever wars.’ Yet every time a crisis hits, Washington’s first move is rarely sitting down to hammer out a political deal. Instead, it reaches for sanctions, sends in more troops, ramps up deterrence, and leans on the threat – or actual use – of force. This pattern raises a tough question. If the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq didn’t create stable governments, if years of pressure haven’t really changed Iran’s behavior, and if coercion keeps delivering only mixed results, why does the U.S. keep relying on the same old toolbox?” (06/22/26)
“Not so long ago, the Republicans who ran elections in one of the nation’s most important battlegrounds—Maricopa County, Arizona—largely got along. There were egos and quibbles, sure. But in the face of unyielding attacks on elections led by President Trump, the recorder and board of supervisors—which together split election duties—resolved conflicts without blowing up a delicate system built on trust and cooperation. Today’s recorder and board, a mostly new cast chosen by voters in 2024, are different. They’re locked in an all-out war over the machinery, money, and operations that make the democratic process possible. Both sides agree that the standoff threatens their ability to carry out November’s midterm elections free of complications for the county’s 2.6 million voters, more than half the state’s total.” (06/22/26)
“It’s difficult to say this without bragging, but I have faxed. This year. The earliest fax machines used telegraph lines; fax machines are (still!) transmitters of information over space, but also over time. Jules Verne, predicting 1960 from 1863, imagined fax machines all over Paris. Journalists, doctors and governments still demand to be faxed from time to time, as I found out. I have now done it twice since the heyday of faxing. The first time was last year, and it went okay after 45 or so minutes of squinting and with the help of two other office professionals. … The second came in the year of our Lord twenty-twenty-six. This time, I knew exactly what to do and could do it alone. But I didn’t. I walked over to some desks near mine. ‘Interns,’ I said, ‘want to watch me send a fax?'” (06/22/26)
“That subhead of mine is certainly repetitive of me (me, me), but how can you not be repetitive in the distinctly repeated world of Donald J. Trump (Trumped, Trumped)? I mean, twice already and who really knows what’s to come? Here’s the question nobody seems to be asking right now, though: What country will Donald Trump attack next? Yes, at the moment, he’s still wildly wound up in his Iran war/truce/peace/or you name it (tomorrow). Yesterday, it was, of course, Venezuela, and next week it might be Cuba or Greenland, or who on (or off) this planet knows where? … who knows what I’ve forgotten or what to expect in this increasingly bizarre world of ours from the president who swore repeatedly in his third election campaign that he would never, never, never go to… yes, of course, war?” (06/22/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“Trust: allow someone to have, use, or look after (someone or something of importance or value) with confidence: I’d trust you with my life. Most people don’t trust politicians, yet they dominate our lives. How did this arrangement come about? Trust is a critical consideration in every relationship. Do people mean what they say? Do they deliver on their promises? If enough people didn’t trust Amazon it would have folded long ago. Friends would cease being friends if they proved untrustworthy. We don’t trust politicians but we are stuck with them, at least for now.” (06/22/26)
