Celebrate but remain vigilant.
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Happy Independence Day!
Posted by M. C. on July 4, 2025
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Independence Day 2025
Posted by M. C. on July 3, 2025
Empire: That would be the form of government from which Jefferson and his colleagues violently and successfully seceded.
Unchecked government is the archenemy of personal liberty. And a government that rejects its founding values, that keeps persons dependent upon it rather than independent of it, one that recognizes no limits to its powers and assaults the liberties of those it governs should be altered or abolished before liberty’s last gleaming becomes a long cold darkness.
We are independent of London, but are we independent of Washington?
Is there more freedom when governed by one tyrant 3,000 miles away or by 3,000 tyrants a few miles away?
Does government today remotely resemble the values articulated on July 4th 1776?
When the President of the United States bombs the lawful facilities of a foreign country that pose no threat whatsoever to American national security and does so without a congressional declaration of war as the Constitution requires, when thousands of non-violent folks in America are arrested by masked federal agents without warrants and kicked out of the country without due process, when troops patrol the streets of a large city in defiance of federal law, when both major political parties support mass surveillance, undeclared foreign wars and borrowing trillions of dollars a year to fund a bloated government, nearly all of which is nowhere countenanced by the Constitution, we can safely conclude that personal liberty in our once-free society has been radically diminished and is in the twilight of its existence.
Two hundred and forty-nine years ago this week, Thomas Jefferson was fuming in his rented rooms in Philadelphia as the Continental Congress was softening the tone of his final draft of what would become the most critical document and radical articulation of the origins of human freedom in American history.
The Declaration of Independence is an indictment of King George III as well as a manifestation of limited government and maximum individual freedom. Though the final version dropped some of Jefferson’s more bellicose language, the document as we know it is largely his — not only his lofty language but also the three principal Jeffersonian values that it manifests.
The first of those values is natural law. The natural law teaches that our rights come from our humanity and our humanity is a gift from God.
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A Countdown of the Greatest Threats to Liberty
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2025
The minimum wage has been used as a tool to buy votes, under the guise of providing a “living wage.” However, what politicians don’t tell you is that every time the minimum wage increases, available job openings for entry level, or low skill positions decrease.
© 2025 LNC — All Rights Reserved. Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee, Inc. (LP.org) 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3403 Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
| July 4th will always be remembered as the day that would-be Americans shed the shackles of abusive taxation and their dominance by an oppressive government, risking everything to found what would become the most prosperous and free nation ever created. Throughout the month of July, the Libertarian Party will be counting down the 31 greatest threats to liberty, as voted on by our membership. We encourage sharing these themes on social platforms, debating the order and magnitude of each threat, and of course demanding course-correction and eradication of these threats. To kick things off, the 31st ranked threat to liberty: The Minimum Wage Help us push back against minimum wage increases across the country >>> The minimum wage has been used as a tool to buy votes, under the guise of providing a “living wage.” However, what politicians don’t tell you is that every time the minimum wage increases, available job openings for entry level, or low skill positions decrease. Minimum wage laws make large businesses contract, and hurt small businesses even more, who can’t afford to pay wages to hire desperately needed help for start-ups that have razor thin profits or aren’t even breaking even. Laws passed to impact wages in big cities with high costs of living are forced upon businesses in small towns that can’t possibly afford to pay them. They do not discriminate, they simply mandate. Increasing the minimum wage is no magic bullet to cure poverty, or enrich anyone. It doesn’t pay a “living wage” no matter the increase. This is because every product made, every good and service, every ounce of food bought, must cost more due to a forced increase in wages. This means we are simply staying even at best, but in almost every case, costs outpace wages, so we are actually poorer, in a market that now has fewer jobs. |
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Sentinel ICBM first flight date now in flux, Air Force says
Posted by M. C. on July 1, 2025
The troubled ICBM program was supposed to fly for the first time in 2026, but now the Air Force says that the date is unknown.
Despite the program’s woes, officials have emphasized fielding the new missile is imperative to maintain America’s strategic deterrence…
Lucky thing major (non-nuclear) threat Iran’s missiles can barely reach the Mediterranean.
Feeling better about war with Iran, China and Russia while stuck in quagmires against such formidable adversaries as Iraq and Somalia “terror groups”?
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/06/sentinel-icbm-first-flight-date-now-in-flux-service-says/
WASHINGTON — An ongoing restructuring of the beleaguered Sentinel ICBM program has left its flight testing schedule up in the air, and a new date for the missile’s first flight is now unknown, an Air Force official tells Breaking Defense.
Officials previously planned to fly the missile for the first time in 2026, itself a delay of over two years. But as part of the program’s overhaul, mandated after an 81 percent cost spike last year, “the team is actively assessing the overall schedule, including potential impacts on the timeline for the first full-system flight,” the Air Force official said today.
The revelation of the shifting flight test plan came in response to Breaking Defense’s query about a Government Accountability Office report published Wednesday [PDF], which stated that the Sentinel’s first flight is now set for March 2028, a total delay of over four years. The Air Force official did not comment directly on the GAO timeline, saying only, “Updated schedule details, including key milestone dates, will be available once” officials complete the program’s restructuring — a statement that does not deny 2028 as a possible date, but leaves open options for it to be both sooner and later.
Since the cost increase caused what’s known as a Nunn-McCurdy breach last year, officials have been rethinking several aspects of the over-budget plan to modernize the land leg of America’s nuclear triad, such as whether they can reuse existing Minuteman III silos. The Sentinel program has apparently also decided to make changes to the flight testing campaign itself, which the Air Force official said now involves “a more deliberate, phased” approach.
“Rather than waiting until the end of development for a single, comprehensive test, the new strategy introduces an incremental ‘crawl, walk, run’ method that allows for earlier flight testing of key components. This approach is designed to reduce risk, validate technologies earlier, and ensure a more reliable path to full system integration,” the official said. As the overall restructuring continues, the official pointed to continued progress for the missile, such as a full-scale, static fire qualification test of the missile’s first stage solid rocket motor held in March.
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The Real Winners: The Strategic Fallout of the Israel-Iran War
Posted by M. C. on June 30, 2025
Perhaps the most significant development of all is one that cannot be measured in missiles or casualties: the surge in national unity within Iran and the widespread support it received across the Arab and Muslim world.
The message from Tehran is unmistakable: We are here. We are proud. And we will not be broken.
That is the message Israel, and perhaps even Washington, did not anticipate. And it is the one that could reshape the region for years to come.
Blowback (a CIA term and they should know!) is the unintended consequences and unwanted side-effects of a covert operation. from Wikipedia
by Ramzy Baroud
On June 24, US President Donald Trump announced a truce between Israel and Iran following nearly two weeks of open warfare.
Israel began the war, launching a surprise offensive on June 13, with airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, missile installations, and senior military and scientific personnel, in addition to numerous civilian targets.
In response, Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles and drones deep into Israeli territory, triggering air raid sirens across Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba and numerous other locations, causing unprecedented destruction in the country.
What began as a bilateral escalation quickly spiraled into something far more consequential: a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran.
On June 22, the United States Air Force and Navy carried out a full-scale assault on three Iranian nuclear sites – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – in a coordinated strike dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. Seven B-2 bombers of the 509th Bomb Wing allegedly flew nonstop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to deliver the strikes.
The following day, Iran retaliated by bombing the Al-Udeid US military base in Qatar and firing a new wave of missiles at Israeli targets.
This marked a turning point. For the first time, Iran and the United States faced each other on the battlefield without intermediaries. And for the first time in recent history, Israel’s long-standing campaign to provoke a US-led war against Iran had succeeded.
Strategic Fallout
Following 12 days of war, Israel achieved two of its goals. First, it pulled Washington directly into its conflict with Tehran, setting a dangerous precedent for future US involvement in Israel’s regional wars. Second, it generated immediate political capital at home and abroad, portraying US military backing as a ‘victory’ for Israel.
However, beyond these short-term gains, the cracks in Israel’s strategy are already showing.
Netanyahu did not achieve regime change in Tehran – the real objective of his years-long campaign. Instead, he faced a resilient and unified Iran that struck back with precision and discipline. Worse still, he may have awakened something even more threatening to Israeli ambitions: a new regional consciousness.
Iran, for its part, emerges from this confrontation significantly stronger. Despite US and Israeli efforts to cripple its nuclear program, Iran has demonstrated that its strategic capabilities remain intact and highly functional.
Tehran established a powerful new deterrence equation – proving that it can strike not only Israeli cities but US bases across the region.
Even more consequentially, Iran waged this fight independently, without leaning on Hezbollah or Ansarallah, or even deploying Iraqi militias. This independence surprised many observers and forced a recalibration of Iran’s regional weight.
Iranian Unity
Perhaps the most significant development of all is one that cannot be measured in missiles or casualties: the surge in national unity within Iran and the widespread support it received across the Arab and Muslim world.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Al-Udeid, Fordow, Isfahan, Israel-Iran War, Natanz | Leave a Comment »
How the Fed Made Housing Unaffordable
Posted by M. C. on June 28, 2025
In other words, falling interest rates are a manifestation of monetary inflation, and monetary inflation often shows up as asset price inflation. We see this reflected in home prices when the central bank works to drive down interest rates. This, of course, is also reflected in consumer price inflation, which rose to forty-year highs in 2022. It is not a coincidence that after a decade of extreme efforts to inflate home prices after 2009, consumer prices surged nearly 25 percent in only five years, from 2020 to 2025.
Donald Trump and his allies continue to complain that the central bank isn’t inflating the money supply enough. Last week, Bill Pulte, Trump’s appointee to the Federal Housing and Finance Administration—and the head of Fannie and Freddie—complained that Powell and the FOMC weren’t forcing down interest rates enough.
Pulte wrote on X/Twitter:
Because President Trump has crushed inflation, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell needs to lower interest rates today, and if not Chairman Powell needs to resign, immediately. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can help so many more Americans if Chair Powell will just do his job and lower rates.
With these comments, Pulte is demonstrating that he, like his boss Donald Trump, subscribes to the standard Yellen-Bernanke inflationist model of monetary policy: the job of the central bank is to forever force down interest rates, churn out more easy money, and devalue the currency.
Pulte claims publicly that this somehow makes homes more affordable. As we’ll see below, though, the Fed’s easy-money policy of recent decades has not made home more affordable. Rather, Fed policy has helped to relentless increase home prices through the Fed’s asset purchases, interest rate policy, and monetary inflation.
Although Pulte is engaging in performative protests against “too-high” interest rates, it is more likely he is being motivated by the usual crony “capitalist” agenda: press for more monetary inflation so Wall Street will enjoy the fruits of more asset-price inflation.
Of course, that’s just speculation. But, his actual motivations are immaterial to the fact that following the recommendation of Trump, Vance, Pulte, et al, will only continue to blow up a housing bubble and place housing ever more beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Do Falling Interest Rates Increase Home Prices?
There is a fairly clear inverse relationship between interest rates and home prices. This is certainly obvious to real estate agents and their lobbyists who perennially lobby for lower interest rates because they know that lower interest rates lead to more home purchases and higher prices. This in turn, leads to higher commissions for agents.
The inverse relationship is reflected in this graph:
Source: Source: US Census Bureau and Freddie Mac.
There are many factors that affect mortgage rates, of course, but over the past thirty years—and especially since 2009—falling interest rates have coincided with rising home prices. In fact, falling interest rates slightly precede rising home prices, suggesting a causal relationship.
It’s easy to picture how falling interest rates lead to higher prices. When mortgage rates are low, it is easier to afford monthly payments on, say, a $300,000 mortgage. At three percent, the monthly payment is about $1700 per month. At six percent, though, the payment on the same mortgage is nearly $2300 per month. Clearly, there are more potential buyers for the house at the lower interest rate.
But there are important monetary reasons that explain why low interest rates drive prices higher. In the modern context of inflationary fiat currency, lower interest rates are usually fueled by new money creation, and this monetary inflation drives more asset price inflation.
This is because central banks “set” their lower interest rates through open market operations that involve increases in the money supply. In Understanding Money Mechanics, economist Bob Murphy explains:
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America First – We Hardly Knew Ye
Posted by M. C. on June 25, 2025
In fact, the range on its numerous short range (SRBM) and medium range (MRBM) missiles is only 300 to 2,000 kilometers. That is, the maximum extent of Iran’s military attack perimeter is not even the Strait of Gibraltar, which is 5,000 kilometers from Tehran!
So when we say zero military threat to the US homeland we mean exactly that. The only thing Iran can really threaten is a limited number of US bases, military personnel and naval ships that Washington has foolishly put in harm’s way in the middle east, Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Mediterranean.
Yet and yet. All of those military assets are about the operations of Empire, not the military security of the American homeland situated between the great ocean moats.
https://original.antiwar.com/David_Stockman/2025/06/15/america-first-we-hardly-knew-ye
The Donald called Fed Chairman Powell a “numbskull” last week and deservedly so. But to paraphrase an old adage, when the cap fits said numbskulls tend to wear it themselves.
Surely, that’s where we are this morning upon Israel’s reprehensible attack on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities and decapitation of its military and scientific leadership. Self-evidently, the attack was well known to Trump and tacitly greenlighted by him during the course of several conversations this past week with Netanyahu himself.
And that’s no armchair surmise. The Donald has been yapping like a banshee this morning telling one and all reporters that the attack fits like hand-in-glove to his “art of the deal” maneuvers. It may look like more war but its actually just part of the Donald’s brilliant pursuit of peace. Says he.
Thus, he told CNN’s Dana Bash that he had given Iran 60 days to capitulate to his demands regarding a new nuke treaty, and yesterday was day 61. The implication, of course, is that he gave them fair warning and therefore Tehran needed a 2X4 between the eyes for failing to satisfy the Great Dealmaker on the Potomac on a timely basis.
Likewise, ABC’s Trump-hating Jonathan Karl also got a heads up to the effect that –
I just spoke to President Trump and asked him about the Israeli attack on Iran. Here’s what he told me: “I think it’s been excellent. We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. a lot more.”
Moreover, just in case the message through these ordinarily hostile reporters wasn’t clear, the Donald let loose on social media a fusillade of bombast, bravado and sheer juvenile depravity that has never before been issued from the Oval Office in such raw and unfiltered form.
No, MAGA fanboys, these aren’t the art-of-the-deal words of even a blustering real estate developer from the backstreets of Queens. Indeed, we can’t imagine even in the Queens that you would expect an amicable cancellation of your plumber’s bill after you put a contract out on his brother-in-law.
And yet and yet. What in the hell is the Donald doing bringing America to the brink of yet another Forever War against a country that is in no way, shape or form a threat to the Homeland Security of the United States?
Indeed, the whole Iranian imbroglio is a direct repudiation of the entire America First proposition. Iran’s capacity to inflict military harm on the US homeland amounts to zero, nichts, nada, nugatory, nein and nyet. So why is POTUS giving bellicosity a new name by threatening that American weapons will be used to wipe Iran from the face of the earth?
For want of doubt, here are the facts about Iran’s nonexistent military threat to the American homeland. First, it has no blue water Navy such as aircraft carriers or world-scale cruisers, destroyers and attack submarines.
Instead, its Navy operates almost exclusively in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea and consists of a mix of small, coastal patrol boats including corvettes, frigates and mini submarines, totaling at most 100,000 tons of displacement. That figure is just 2% of the 4.5 million tons of Blue Water capacity embedded in the US Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers, 70 destroyers, 22 cruisers and 66 attack submarines, among others.
Secondly, Iran also has no long range bombers at all with a range of more than 2,800 kilometers. Even then its most advanced longer-range aircraft, the Su-24MK, is for the most part not operational, owing to lack of spare parts and maintenance. Only 20 of possibly 40 of these longer range aircraft are currently believed to be air worthy combatants.
Finally, while it does have upwards of 1,400 to 2,700 short and medium range missiles, none of these have the range to come anywhere near the continental US. That’s because the distance between Tehran and Washington DC, Chicago and Denver is 10,050, 10,300 and 11,100 kilometers, respectively, but Iran posses zero intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of spanning that distance.
In fact, the range on its numerous short range (SRBM) and medium range (MRBM) missiles is only 300 to 2,000 kilometers. That is, the maximum extent of Iran’s military attack perimeter is not even the Strait of Gibraltar, which is 5,000 kilometers from Tehran!
Iran’s Inventory Of Short And Medium Range Ballistic Missiles
| Missile Type | Class | Range (km) | Estimated Quantity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shahab-1 | SRBM | ~300 | ~200–300 | Older missile, based on Scud-B, used for regional tactical strikes. |
| Fateh-110 | SRBM | ~300 | ~500–1,000 | Precision-guided, widely deployed, backbone of SRBM arsenal. |
| Fateh-313 | SRBM | ~500 | ~200–400 | Improved Fateh variant with enhanced accuracy. |
| Raad-500 | SRBM | ~500 | ~100–200 | Solid-fuel, precision-guided, newer addition to arsenal. |
| Quds-1 | SRBM | ~600 | ~50–100 | Used by proxies, less common in Iran’s direct arsenal. |
| Ya-Ali | SRBM | ~700 | ~50–100 | Cruise missile variant, less frequently cited. |
| Jahad | SRBM | ~1,000 | ~50–100 | Newly unveiled in 2024, limited data on deployment. |
| Shahab-3 | MRBM | ~2,000 | ~100–200 | Liquid-fuel, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. bases. |
| Emad | MRBM | ~1,700 | ~50–100 | Precision-guided, improved Shahab-3 variant. |
| Fattah-1 | MRBM | ~1,400 | ~20–50 | Hypersonic, designed to evade missile defenses. |
| Kheibar-Shekan | MRBM | ~1,450 | ~50–100 | Solid-fuel, precision-guided, newer model. |
| Khorramshahr | MRBM | ~2,000 | ~20–50 | Liquid-fuel, high payload capacity, reaches Israel. |
| New Solid-Fuel Missile(2025) | MRBM | ~1,200 | Unknown | Unveiled May 2025, limited data on production. |
| Total | SRBM/MRBM | 300–2,000 | 1,390–2,700 | Excludes unknown quantity for New Solid-Fuel (2025) missile. |
Sources: Estimates are derived from U.S. Central Command (2023 testimony by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie), Iran Watch, CSIS reports, and posts on X. Quantities are approximate due to Iran’s secretive program.
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“Why Are American Politicians Selling Out for Israel?” Starting at 54:36 thru 1:02:30
Posted by M. C. on June 24, 2025
Like him or not there are questions you should consider asking yourself
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‘I Don’t Know If America Should Be Involved In Another Middle Eastern War,’ Says Raging Antisemite
Posted by M. C. on June 21, 2025
Worldviews · Jun 19, 2025 · BabylonBee.com
SAN DIEGO, CA — A local man expressed mild concern about the U.S. getting involved in another Middle Eastern War, forever exposing himself as a vile, raging antisemite.
“I dunno, I’m just a bit nervous about the possibility of an endless war that could claim thousands of American lives,” said the man who clearly wants all Jews to die and probably loves Hitler. “It hasn’t worked out too well for us in the past, you know?”
The man’s friends were reportedly horrified to hear him outing himself as an actual anti-Jew Nazi.
“He always seemed so nice and reasonable,” said one friend to reporters after the incident. “It’s so sad to see someone you care about fall into this irrational wish for the total destruction of Jews. There’s no other possible way to interpret his expressed concern over American involvement in foreign wars. It’s one of the most antisemitic things I’ve ever heard.”
“No! I’m not an antisemite! I love Jews! I have Jewish friends!” the Jew-hating bigot desperately insisted, clearly trying to hide his gross antisemitism. “I just don’t want another foreign war! That’s it!”
At publishing time, the man had also expressed concern over American spending in the Russia/Ukraine war, forever outing himself as a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
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Awsome!
Posted by M. C. on June 19, 2025
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