“Almost 60 years ago, in his book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, historian Howard Zinn wrote a speech for Lyndon Johnson in which the then president announced a withdrawal and the end of the US attempt to control Vietnam. Unfortunately, Johnson did not embrace Zinn’s sensible approach. Instead, he announced the end of his reelection bid, and the US war effort continued for another six years, with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement, or eight years, with the ending of the war and the reunification of Vietnam. President Donald Trump is at least as concerned as Johnson about not looking like a loser. So, my effort to compose a speech for Trump certainly seems like a quixotic effort. … Here is the speech I think Trump should deliver.” (08/11/26)
“The first proposed Trump-class battleship now has a price tag: $23 billion. This cost, as assessed by the Congressional Budget Office, will garner a lot of attention. But the primary concern for policymakers and citizens alike should be the complexity of the ship’s design. The U.S. Navy has a poor shipbuilding record in the 21st century. The Zumwalt-class destroyer, the Littoral Combat Ship, and the Constellation-class frigate have been complete failures. The final verdict of the Ford-class aircraft carrier is not yet in, but when the ship’s crew can’t even rely on the sewage system to work properly, the case isn’t looking too good. It becomes clear reading through the CBO’s report that Navy officials in Washington have learned nothing over the past 25 years from their shipbuilding mistakes.” (08/11/26)
“A number of highly successful fund managers and investors have emphasised patience as one of the core virtues in investing, often linking it to long-term compounding, waiting for the right opportunities, and resisting short-term market noise, the siren song of ‘news, or the urge to overtrade.” (08/11/26)
“There is a lot of Richad Nixon rehabilitation going on these days. Before we get too far down that road, we should note that this month marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of one of the most pernicious acts of monetary destruction by modern presidents. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced a sweeping set of economic policies, his eerily Soviet-sounding ‘New Economic Policy.’ Today’s sympathy for the thirty-seventh president has something to do with a welcome recognition of the Deep State’s hand in his removal from office.” (08/10/26)
“What binds the new Democratic Party to the new Democratic Socialists is a set of shared issues and values. That is, the radicalism of the Democrats in the age of Trump Derangement Syndrome (lawfare, de-balloting, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and calls to destroy the Electoral College, the nine-justice Supreme Court, and the filibuster) helped give birth to the socialists. But the overriding commonality among those on the new Left is that if they do not get their way, they blame ‘the system’. Then they seek to change the rules, no matter how hallowed those laws and conventions may have been or how much they themselves benefited from them in the past. When the Left lost the White House, Congress, and, for the most part, the Supreme Court, it began clamoring to change the system.” (08/11/26)
“To most Americans, the momentous event ten years ago when Britain voted to leave the European Union seems a lesser curiosity when compared to, say, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Few Americans understand the real struggle to compose an economic union among Europe’s many nations that had for hundreds of years shown a distinct proclivity to war with each other. Twice, America had [sic] to enter global conflicts that were triggered by Germany’s belligerence toward its immediate neighbors.” (08/10/26)
“We are constantly told that democracy is the worst form of government… except for all the rest. We are constantly told that in a true democratic scheme of government, minority rights are protected against the tyranny of the majority. We are also told that representative democracy is one of the best forms of democracy because we can elect and empower men and women who can concentrate on the matters and decisions facing our polity – town, county, tribe, State, etc. – and make wise decisions. We are told that fears of corrupt elections, vote-buying, fake voters, fraud, and all the rest of the limpets on the hull of democracy can be and are controlled. Especially now that we have electronic voting and counting systems and because we have a watchful, vigilant press and courts and all the trappings that are wrapped around modern democracy. But what have we seen?” (08/10/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Ally Duong
“‘Romantasy’ is a genre marriage of romance and fantasy that has been selling books like wildfire. And this year, your local bookstore’s romantasy section is likely lined with covers featuring a curly-haired brunette heroine next to a suave, silver-haired hero–all because fans who saw what an author couldn’t see decided to write stories about a couple that never came to be. … The attraction for publishers is obvious: a popular fanfic may arrive with a ready-made audience and social-media buzz. But that shift raises a serious legal question: What must an author change before an unauthorized derivative work becomes an independent — and lawfully marketable — novel?” (08/10/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“An anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit in Utah whose founder resigned after multiple women accused him of trafficking and sexual abuse has won a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in government custody. The Trump administration gave Our Rescue a no-bid $244,034,658 contract on August 7, according to the federal award notice posted late Friday night. The deal floods the organization with seven times the amount of money it had in 2025, according to its most recently available Form 990, which put total assets at $36.9 million. It’s unclear how many children Our Rescue will represent. The notice says only that it will provide legal services to children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), established to offer support for victims of human trafficking and those seeking asylum in the United States. Nearly 1,800 children were in the agency’s care in June; over the last year, it has averaged about 1,908 children monthly.” (08/11/26)
“To economists, America’s housing crisis — in the form of high prices — is no surprise. For years, lawmakers have distorted the market through zoning laws that restrict new building and limit housing density. More recently, however, cities around the United States have been working to loosen restrictive zoning codes to increase housing supply. Chicago, meanwhile, has so far kicked the can down the road on zoning reform.” (08/10/26)
