“Canada knows the drill. Prime Minister Mark Carney worked hard to stage-manage President Trump’s whirlwind G7 appearance. It went sideways anyway, as the president sidetracked a press briefing into lobbying for Russia, absent from the proceedings since the invasion of Crimea. Then came the predictable mendacities about former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and diatribes about blue cities, undocumented immigrants, and for some reason, Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, ‘probably the worst governor in the country’. After seven long minutes of the president’s freestyling, the prime minister all but performed a body block between Trump and reporters to shut down questions. The American president hurried off soon after to his Iran-Israel decision-making back in Washington, leaving Carney with another trade deadline to navigate and a second collapsed Canadian summit. Trump did a similar early disappearing act in 2018, with Trudeau as host.” (06/19/25)
“Israel has framed the U.S. entering the fray as a way to bring its conflict with Iran to a quick conclusion. But, absent an Iranian diplomatic capitulation, a U.S. attack would likely only be a prelude to a much longer and drawn-out military engagement with Iran. A U.S. war with Iran focused on stopping Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, rather than beginning and ending with the destruction of Fordow, would need to extend to a much broader campaign of searching for and destroying new and undisclosed nuclear sites across the country, particularly as Iran is likely to respond to an attack by diverting nuclear equipment to other sites across its vast territory.” (06/18/25)
“In the last 25 years, in the name of spreading democracy and freedom, the U.S. completely destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Mali, Syria, Iraq again, Yemen and major parts of Pakistan and Ukraine, killing and getting killed upwards of four million people, displacing 40 million more and spreading terrorism and chaos in reaction all across the Middle East, Central Asia, North and Eastern Africa and now Eastern Europe as well. You noticed, right? That the US government has shown no interest in spreading democracy to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, or Egypt – because they’re Washington’s allies. And that when the people vote wrong, like in Algeria, Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgystan, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine or Egypt – after they overthrew America’s last puppet dictator there – the U.S. will immediately move to intervene with a coup if necessary to protect what they consider to be their interests.” (06/18/25)
“If you want to make people angry, mention immigration. If you want to make some of them really angry, scoff at the whole concept. There is no immigration; there are people where they have a right to be, and there are trespassers. Their place of origin and government permission, or the lack thereof, don’t figure into it at all. An uninvited police officer on your front step is a trespasser. The guy from Central America living in the house next door, with the owner’s permission, but without jumping through the government hoops, is not. The U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow for immigration control by the federal government, no matter how its words are ‘interpreted.'” (06/18/25)
“The public interest theory of regulation offers a lovely fairy tale: wise functionaries, armed with clipboards and rectitude, stand vigilant against corporate predators’ rapacious appetites. … Purveyors of public choice economics commit the unforgivable sin of treating regulators as mere mortals rather than secular saints. Heretics such as [James] Buchanan and writing partner Gordon Tullock dared to explain that civil servants are no angels, and like the rest of our species, are motivated by self-interest. Public choice economists champion what’s known as ‘capture theory’ — the idea that government regulations too often serve the firms they were set up to constrain.” (06/18/25)
“When shooting, especially at indoor ranges, one of the bigger concerns is hearing protection. Most firearms are loud, and shooting without some means of moderating the noise — ear plugs or muffs — is a sure path to tinnitus and hearing loss. Also helpful are sound suppressors, which reduce the decibel level of firearms’ discharges (they remain loud, but less so). Unfortunately, suppressors have been severely regulated at the federal level since the 1930s and are banned in some states. But this year, a race is on between litigation and legislation to ease the legal barriers to buying and using suppressors.” (06/18/25)
“The Chicago Police Department’s motto is: ‘We serve and protect.’ Philadelphia’s is: ‘Honor. Integrity. Service.’ Dallas’s is: ‘One city, one team.’ Atlanta’s FBI office motto might be: ‘Oops!’ Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the victims of a bungled predawn raid can sue members of the six-member SWAT team that was looking for drug dealers. With guns drawn, the agents used a battering ram to smash the front door of, and threw a stun grenade into, the wrong house.” (06/18/25)
“As President Trump weighs whether to attack Iran, the truth is, no one knows what he will do — and that uncertainty is exactly the point. But amid the chaos, one familiar question looms: What about Congress? The pattern is now well-worn. A president — Democrat or Republican — considers the use of force. A bipartisan group of lawmakers demands a vote. The White House sidesteps congressional approval. And a handful of Members introduce War Powers Resolutions that go nowhere. … The era of meaningful congressional authorizations of force may be behind us. And the war powers debate, for now, will remain one fought on procedural margins, not through constitutional muscle.” (06/18/25)
“[Bill] Gates says over the last 25 years, his foundation has put $100 billion into various projects and causes, funded through his own wealth as well as the wealth of other billionaires like Warren Buffett. His goal is for the foundation to now pick up the pace – in the next 20 years until it closes, he expects his foundation will be donating another $200 billion, with Gates giving away virtually all his wealth as part of this process. The Gates Foundation has done tremendous good in the world – by any reasonable estimate many millions of lives have been saved and millions more improved. Billionaires like Bill Gates are often criticized for not paying enough in taxes. However, opportunity cost cannot be ignored.” (06/18/25)
“And so the global-capitalist empire’s destabilization and restructuring of the Middle East continues. Yes, I’m referring to Israel’s ‘preemptive attack’ on the Islamic Republic of Iran, or ‘World War III,’ or whatever the establishment media and social media influencers are trying to get you to call it at the moment. You’ll forgive me if I don’t engage with either the official ‘Israel is defending itself from the nuclear weapon that Iran has been days away from developing for the last twenty-five years’ narrative, or the unofficial ‘the evil Zionists who control the US government are trying to draw Trump into a war for Israel’ narrative. The global-capitalist empire, not ‘America’ or ‘Israel,’ has been destabilizing and restructuring the Greater Middle East since the end of the Cold War.” (06/18/25)
