The Art of the Tax Deal

Source: Hawaii Reporter
by Tom Yamachika

“One of the basic freedoms we have in this country, enshrined in our Constitution, is the freedom to contract. Two or more parties with differing interests can agree to just about anything, as long as it isn’t illegal, and our country’s court system will enforce that agreement. The rules work a little differently when the government is part of the agreement. The government has the ability to contract as well, but the ability is defined and limited by law. It should be. We, the people, have an interest in the deals that our government is making. Especially if tax money, or government resources paid for by tax money, is part of the deal.” (06/22/26)

https://www.hawaiireporter.com/the-art-of-the-tax-deal/

Has Netanyahu Destroyed the U.S.-Israel Alliance?

Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner

“Donald Trump’s Iran deal (or perhaps we should say ‘capitulation?’) is a fiasco for the United States and Trump’s presidency, but it is widely viewed as a catastrophe for Israel. The more Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu tries to undermine the deal by mounting attacks on southern Lebanon, the more he enrages Trump, who keeps pointing out that the U.S. is Israel’s only ally in the world. Israel is now more isolated than ever. Israel was deliberately excluded from negotiations with Iran, because Israel was known to oppose any deal that would shorten the war. Nonetheless, in the deal the U.S. bound Israel to cease attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Recent polls conducted in Israel show that some 92 percent of Israelis believe that Iran won the war. Comparable majorities say Netanyahu’s launching of the war was a calamitous mistake and achieved none of its objectives.” (06/23/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/06/23/has-netanyahu-destroyed-us-israel-alliance/

Enterprising the Final Frontier

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver

“In his new book, New Space Capitalism: The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars, Rainer Zitelmann presents the idea that private enterprise is the best way for space exploration to go forward, pointing out the ways in which public funding, since the days of the Moon landing, has been too uneven (and insufficient) to make the advances possible. When reaching space initially was a political contest, the spirit was there, but since the end of the Cold War, it has been less of a priority. … But today, billionaires have become more involved, and the prospect of space tourism has also put more money into the enterprise.” (06/22/26)

https://fee.org/articles/enterprising-the-final-frontier/

The Demented Origin of the War on Drugs and War on Terrorism Nexus

Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard

“If the U.S. government is entitled to summarily kill suspected drug traffickers abroad, there is no reason why the same prerogative would not eventually be invoked on the home front. If politicians truly want to protect Americans, why not authorize the U.S. military, state police, and county government dog catchers to summarily attack any boat suspected of transporting drugs on the nation’s lakes, rivers, or overgrown puddles? Actually, such warped logic has already been taken to absurd ends. The core follies of the Trump-Hegseth war of extermination on drug suspects were established almost a quarter-century ago. American illicit drug users miraculously became collectively guilty for every terrorist attack in the world.” (06/22/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-demented-origin-of-the-war-on-drugs-and-war-on-terrorism-nexus/

The United States of Underwriters

Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders

“It started in a London coffee house in the 1680s. Merchants and ship captains crowded the tables, and somewhere between the gossip and the gambling, they began betting on the things everyone else was afraid of. Hurricanes. Pirates. Ships lost at sea. Three hundred years later, the same place would ensure Bruce Springsteen’s voice and the legs of a Hollywood actress. It’s called Lloyd’s, and most people think it’s an insurance company. But it’s something stranger and far more interesting. Lloyd’s is a risk marketplace. And buried in how Lloyd’s works is a schematic for reinventing government itself.” (06/22/26)

https://underthrow.substack.com/p/the-united-states-of-underwriters

Trump’s Attempt to End the Iran War Infuriates the Uniparty

Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul

“President Trump started a war on Iran against all sober guidance and in violation of the US Constitution’s requirement that only Congress can declare war. There must be a reckoning for our elected leaders who violate their oath of office, the Constitution, and simple common sense. However, what is more telling is the reaction when President Trump finally took the correct move and attempted to end the war. The neocons who had hailed him as a great leader – Levin, Bolton, Pompeo, etc. – suddenly turned against him when he turned against further escalation of the war. Even Trump’s top funder, Miriam Adelson, attacked Trump in her newspaper Israel Hayom.” (06/22/26)

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/trumps-attempt-to-end-the-iran-war-infuriates-the-uniparty

Americans Discovered How to End Poverty

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“During my favorite period in history — around 1870 to 1910 — the standard of living of the American people skyrocketed. Suddenly, poor people were going from rags to riches in one, two, or three generations. In fact, some poor people were becoming multimillionaires. Real wages were soaring — and not because of inflation because there was no inflation. Multitudes of European immigrants were flooding into America to get in on the action. New inventions were coming into existence every day. The world had never seen anything like it. And everyone in the world marveled at what was happening. But why? Why the United States and not some long-established foreign country? The answer lies in what happened about a century before — in 1776, when two revolutionary concepts were introduced to the world — and then in 1788, when the U.S. Constitution was ratified.” (06/22/26)

https://www.fff.org/2026/06/22/americans-discovered-how-to-end-poverty/

The Conversion of JD Vance

Source: Free Press
by Robert P George

“What makes J.D. Vance tick? Most Americans, whether or not they’ve read J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, have some idea of his remarkable journey from poverty in Middletown, Ohio, to the vice presidency of the United States. In some ways it’s the Horatio Alger tale to beat all Horatio Alger tales. A gambler who knew James David Hamel (as he was then known) as a child would have given million to one odds against his attending Yale Law School, making a ton of money in tech investing, and then becoming a United States senator and vice president of the United States. But that’s exactly what he went on to do …. Another thing he managed to do before age 41: publish two memoirs. His second, released last week, is called Communion, and traces Vance’s decision, as an adult, to be received into the Catholic Church.” (06/21/26)

https://www.thefp.com/p/conversion-of-jd-vance-communion-book-robert-george?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics