News of the Week for June 21st, 2026
- 2026 Election
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Socialized Medicine
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
2026 Election
Scandal engulfs Trump’s ‘MAGA warrior’ on election eve: Read megachurch pastor’s red-hot texts to Miss Oklahoma – and furious wife’s vile accusation that shatters family-man image
A Trump-backed congressional candidate has been caught sending a former Miss Oklahoma USA a series of intimate text messages, prompting his wife to brand her a ‘home wrecking whore.’
Is David Flippo’s primary win the death blow for Old Nevada politics?
He rallied Washington’s Trumpiest voices, poured in his own money and went straight for the jugular. That approach trounced James Settelmeyer’s legacy campaign.
Abortion
Court Cases & Legislation
Missouri judge finds state laws restricting abortion violate voter-approved constitutional amendment
A Missouri judge this week struck down a series of restrictions on abortion, finding they violated a constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2024. Many of the provisions were already on hold because of an earlier, preliminary court ruling. But it is resulting in one major change: The state’ Planned Parenthood affiliates say the new ruling means they’re going to start prescribing abortion pills to patients there for the first time since 2018.
Gun Rights
Supreme Court sides with a Texas man who says it’s not a crime for marijuana users to have guns
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday against a broad federal ban on gun ownership by marijuana users, the latest in a line of firearm cases from a court that has expanded gun rights.
Second Amendment Roundup: Arms and Accoutrements
The Ninth Circuit illogically excludes firearm parts from the text of “arms.”
Second Amendment Roundup: Gun Ban for Pot Users Unconstitutional
Supreme Court decides 9-0 that marijuana use per se fails to support firearm prohibition.
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
American Diabetes Association ejects researchers from conference for sharing editorial from its own journal
Last week, several medical researchers were kicked out of an American Diabetes Association conference after handing out copies of an editorial published in the organization’s own flagship journal.
Russia’s Crushing Energy Crisis
Moscow is feeling the squeeze as Russia’s war of conquest in Ukraine evolves into a deadly slog on the battlefield and with Ukrainian air power increasingly bringing the war home to the Kremlin’s doorstep.
Another ‘Elephants Are Persons’ Lawsuit Goes to a State Supreme Court
Here we go again. Several years ago, the radical Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) sued in New York to have chimps declared “persons.” The case lost in the trial court and, ultimately, the court of appeals (the highest court in the state) refused to review it.
Socialized Medicine
Government in Healthcare
Vermont’s Governor Scott vetoes Legislature’s latest attempt at healthcare reform
Gov. Phil Scott has vetoed a healthcare bill aimed at fast-tracking premium savings for public school employees and those buying plans on Vermont’s Affordable Care Act marketplace
War & Terror
Trump is turning victory in Iran into an American humiliation
The terms of the deal are as yet unclear. But it seems that he has betrayed his allies and handed Iran undeserved gains
Iran Boasts U.S. ‘Forced’ Into Deal, Expects $24 Billion Asset Release During Talks
According to Iran’s regime-run Mehr News, the agreement “provides for the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day talks.”
Always be closing
Vice President Vance has diclosed that that we have closed the deal with Iran by signing it digitally yesterday. The text is to be released later this week when the time is ripe, perhaps “some time after Friday,” as President Trump put it late this morning. Until that time, it might be wise to view this humiliating finale with the cynicism it deserves.
The closing continues
This is the second in a series of posts this morning on the memorandum of understanding the Trump administration has reached with Iran. Vice President Vance is out selling it in a mode that recalls the “Always Be Closing” message conveyed by Nick to the desperate real estate salesmen in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. In a “you have got to be kidding me” appearance on CNN yesterday, Vance argued that the Iranian regime is turning over a new leaf. It’s “the coolest thing.” You be the judge.
US official says Oman was “duplicitous” during Iran negotiations
A senior US administration official told reporters Monday that Oman was “duplicitous” during negotiating efforts with Iran — so they “threw them out””of the mediation role.
China controls trade chokepoints beyond rare earths. It’s squeezing them.
Stalled negotiations between Space X and a Chinese solar tech firm illustrate Beijing’s growing reach.
Trump to Israel: Let the al-Qaeda Guy Handle Hezbollah
More news along the lines of my last post regarding credible reports that the Trump administration has agreed with Iran that the United States will shield Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy and a long-designated anti-American terrorist organization) from the Israel Defense Forces (mobilized because Hezbollah routinely attacks northern Israel from southern Lebanon).
CIA director doubts Iran’s intentions on deal, sources say
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told President Trump and other senior officials that evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies raises serious doubts about Iran’s willingness to make the nuclear concessions the U.S. is seeking in any final deal, according to three sources familiar with those discussions.
A Peace Worse Than War
The Vance Plan fails to understand the regime
Leaked Alleged Text of Trump-Iran Deal
Al Arabiya English, an arm of the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya network, published what it called “a copy of the 14-point agreement expected to be signed on Friday between Washington and Tehran” on Tuesday afternoon that is sure to make waves amid widespread speculation about the Memorandum of Understanding agreed to by the Trump administration and Islamic Republic.
The terms of our surrender
The text of the Memorandum of Understanding to be signed formally by the United States and Iran has been posted here “as seen by Bloomberg News.” Bloomberg adds: “Iran’s Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed official on Wednesday as saying parts of the text published by Bloomberg are inaccurate. The report did not specify what was different. Bloomberg previously reported that there could be differences in the wording between the English and Persian versions of the MOU.”
Read the 14-Point Draft Memorandum Between the US and Iran
The US and Iran are expected to formally sign a memorandum of understanding on June 19 in Switzerland, paving the way for 60 days of talks aimed at ending their war for good and putting strict new limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump Says Iranian Missiles Don’t Matter Despite Attacking Obama Deal for Allowing Them
President Trump declared on Wednesday that Iranian development of ballistic missiles didn’t matter, despite previously attacking Barack Obama’s nuclear deal for allowing their development, and citing the missile program as one of the main reason’s he launched the Iran War.
U.S.-Iran MOU Language Released and Signed
The sum of our fears.
Rubio lets Vance take the fall as Iran deal questions mount
Rubio has remained effectively mum since a preliminary peace deal was announced by the administration on Sunday. The deal delays highly technical discussions over the mechanics of unwinding Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump Throws Vance and Rubio Under the Bus
The president has struck an obdurate pose in defense of his supposedly war-ending memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic. For the most part, at least.
Iran’s art of the deal
Consistent with President Trump’s prior formulation, Iran lost the war but won the negotiation. Relying on the Wall Street Journal’s annotated analysis of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran here, I broke down the provisions of the MOU into winners and losers for each side. NBC has posted a version of the final text of the MOU here. On second thought, however, it seems obvious that on balance the terms significantly favor Iran. Why belabor the obvious?
The Iran Deal in the Context of the President’s Astonishing Foreign Affairs Powers
Trump has taken the “one person decides” principle to new extremes
Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz closed again after US lifts blockade
Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz Friday instead of heading to Switzerland for nuclear negotiations, citing Israel’s refusal to pull forces out of southern Lebanon and US forces’ ongoing presence in the region.
Iran Announces Persian Gulf Strait Authority, Sets Stage for Tolls
Iran to the world: “That’s a nice oil tanker you got there; it would be a shame if something happened to it while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump’s Iran MOU Piles the Illegal atop the Unconstitutional
Not that anyone will do anything about it, but President Trump’s capitulatory memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran is the predicate for what is about to be an extortion payment of about $24 billion to Tehran that is illegal under federal law.
Iran says Strait of Hormuz is closed over ceasefire violations after continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Iran and the U.S. have both shown frustration with Israel for continuing to strike Lebanon despite the deal signed this week, which committed to end fighting on all fronts.
Donald Trump Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Catfighting with Our Allies
Donald Trump has never been the most temperate-minded of men. Even during his first term, his emotional volatility — particularly toward anyone perceived as an erstwhile ally — was legendary, and his capacity to hold on to grudges unending. But during his vastly more unmediated second term? Trump acts increasingly like a gambler on tilt, pushing as many of America’s chips as he can get his hands on into the center of the table while deliriously barking at anyone who tries to tell him not to riskily — indeed, foolishly — wager things which are not his to gamble with in the first place, only to steward. (To name but one timely example: America’s geopolitical credibility.)
National
Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Righteous gaolers, crooked feds, and interlocutory appeals.
Frustrated by Courts, Trump Weighed Suspending a Constitutional Right
Secret memos show that the White House debated last year, to a greater degree than previously known, whether to limit habeas corpus rights for undocumented immigrants.
Supreme Court Takes Case on How Long Criminal Aliens May Be Detained
The Supreme Court this morning granted certiorari to hear Genalo v. Black, a petition by the Trump administration seeking to overturn a Second Circuit decision placing due process limits on how long the government can detain criminal aliens
Auburn counseling course teaches ‘reverse racism’ doesn’t exist
Auburn University’s counseling course titled “Living and Communicating in a Diverse Society” has recently come under fire for allegedly shining a negative light on white men.
The Shapiro Education-Reform Sellout Continues in Pennsylvania
Data from the most recent national tracking poll for EdChoice (the nonprofit founded by Milton and Rose Friedman that’s dedicated to advancing education freedom and choice in the face of the competition-hating public-school monopoly) shows that Americans are strongly in favor of charter schools. The survey’s crosstab results (pages 107–08 for the curious) shows that 53 percent of all adults support them, with only 14 percent opposing, while favorability rises noticeably among school parents: 72 percent support charter schools, while only 11 percent oppose.
Potty Ruling in Idaho
In March, the Idaho legislature enacted a law (H.B. 752) that bars a person from using a public restroom that “is designated for use by the opposite biological sex of such person.” In an order yesterday (in Jackson-Edney v. Labrador), federal district judge Amanda Brailsford issued a preliminary injunction that broadly bars Idaho officials from enforcing the law “against all transgender people.” Under Brailsford’s potty logic, any law that designates restrooms—or showers or locker rooms—by sex (and that imposes a penalty for violation) is unconstitutionally vague. And in practice no such law could be enforced against anyone, transgender or not.
Trump ramps up Education Department’s dismantling with changes on special education and civil rights
President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday accelerated its dismantling of the Education Department, delegating much of its work to protect the nation’s at-risk students.
From dismantling capitalism to ‘queering menopause’: Top 10 craziest campus events of the 2025-26 school year
College campuses saw no shortage of controversial or ideologically charged events during the 2025-26 school year. From calls to hire transgender journalists and dismantle capitalism to a “two-spirit storyteller,” college campuses engaged in a wide range of absurdity.
Get Ready for a Catastrophic Leak That Reveals All Your Messages and Search History
“Companies are getting hacked every single day.”
Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down race-based college scholarships
The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a state-funded scholarship program Thursday that awarded financial aid to college students based on certain racial categories — a decision that drew praise from conservative legal groups.
The American Bar Association Drops Its Diversity Decree
Among the many institutions that have been captured during the left’s “long march” is the American Bar Association (ABA), which now is more interested in promoting “progressive” policy than in the integrity of the legal profession. It has been using its power to accredit law schools to push the DEI agenda.
Economy & Taxes
Trump’s Trade Delusion: Why Dismissing Canada and Mexico Echoes a Dynasty’s Downfall
In yet another of his unending twists on trade, President Donald Trump has suggested he may not renew the current United States trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Especially interesting was one of his explanations of why. “We don’t need anything that Canada has; we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better,” said Trump. “We don’t need their cars; we don’t need their lumber; we don’t need their energy; we don’t need anything that they have.”
California Will Now Certify Firms as ‘Gay’
What do you get when you combine woke, DEI, special subsidies, and technocrats? A bureaucratic standard for “gayness.” An actual, legal process to determine the sexual preferences of contractors.
70,000 Oregonians lost food stamps; the state didn’t see that vast drop coming
The number of Oregonians receiving federal food assistance has plunged much more precipitously in the wake of Trump administration-backed changes to the program than state experts had projected.
In California, the Damage of the ‘Billionaire Tax’ Has Already Been Done
“A proposal to tax the wealth of billionaires in California,” the New York Times reports, “has officially gathered enough signatures to appear on the November ballot.” And yet: “It isn’t yet certain that the tax initiative will actually be voted on.” Why? Because “several prominent Californians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have vowed to defeat the measure, and they could strike a last-minute deal to remove it from voter consideration.”
California labor union offers to scale back billionaire tax proposal after pushback
A labor union behind a controversial tax on California billionaires significantly scaled back its proposal a day after it qualified for the November ballot, but the offer Thursday wasn’t enough to get the governor on board.
International
Apple and Google to be forced to check ID over social media ban
Tech giants will be compelled to carry out age verification confirming users are over 16 when the government’s social media bad in implemented early next year.
‘National Narcissism’ Linked to Rising Stress in Young Adults
Young people who strongly believed their nation was secretly great reported higher stress over time, not relief. Feeling stressed or depressed did not push people toward stronger national narcissism, which runs counter to a widely assumed pattern. The link between national narcissism and stress looked the same across the status groups the researchers examined, pointing to a broad psychological pattern rather than one tied to specific life circumstances.
Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM, BBC reveals
Even after he set fire to Sir Keir Starmer’s house, Roman Lavrynovych – convicted on Monday of conspiring to commit arson – seemed to know as much about the prime minister as a bullet knows about its target.
Opinion
In Trump’s Second Term, Things Start to Fall Apart
Americans’ faith in Trump will decline if he cannot bring the Iran conflict to a sensible conclusion, while the loyalty of congressional Republicans is being tested by his solipsism.
Patriotism Should Not Be Another Partisan Costume
According to NBC News, “America at 250 is riven with doubt and pessimism.” The assessment is fueled by the outlet’s latest poll, which found that a “record-low number” of respondents “are extremely proud to be Americans.”
Natural Right and History: The Question of Strauss and the Postliberals
Conservatives will often talk about the point at which “everything went wrong” — for some, this is 2020, the year everything went woke. Many others will diagnose LBJ’s Great Society as the disaster defining our generation. For Leo Strauss, the German-American political philosopher, the West took a turn for the worse when Machiavelli sat down to write in the early 16th century.
Has Trump Promised Iran That He’ll Stop Israel from Fighting Hezbollah?
Again, it’s the Trump administration’’s own fault that there is speculation (some educated, some not) about the terms of its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran. That’s the price to be paid for simultaneously refusing to disclose the MOU and having Vice President Vance hold forth extravagantly on what we should think about what he won’t let us see.
The Trump Administration Thinks We’re Imbeciles
Let’s take it down to the simple basics. Trump’s agreement with Iran is not an agreement, it’s a memorandum of understanding (MOU), reportedly stating that the parties will talk about making an agreement, for infinitely extendable 60-day limits. That is, other than the billions to which the Trump administration has agreed to give the implacably anti-American jihadist regime, the MOU is a nothing that Neville Trump is peddling as peace in our time.
Iran Found Trump’s Bone Spur
Iran’s military leaders have greeted the cease-fire agreement with President Trump as a triumph, crowing that “through the imposition of their divine and iron will” they had “humiliated American and Zionist enemies.”
Robocalls Are Annoying. Eroding Privacy Is Not the Right Way To Stop Them.
A proposed FCC rule would require Americans to share more personal information with phone service providers. Bye, bye burner phones?
Trump’s feeble threats are not credible
Donald Trump’s aides and allies continue to claim that the versions of the Iran War-ending Memorandum of Understanding presently circulating in Western media outlets do not reflect the text of the actual document. Perhaps the language in the real MOU departs from the drafts that have been made public, but it’s unlikely that those departures are significant or substantive. It stands to reason that the administration could not suppress the most sought-after document on earth.
The Humiliations Yet to Come from Trump’s Iran Deal
Donald Trump has had a hard time selling his Iran war-ending memorandum of understanding to its skeptics. That’s in part because the president and his subordinates have tried to assuage their concerns by papering over the agreement’s terms. If the MOU were followed to the letter, the humiliations to which Trump has committed the United States could exceed his critics’ most fatalistic expectations.
The Two-Choice Lie
The pressure campaign is on. If you are on the right and you decline to salute the President’s deal with Iran, you are to be otherized — branded a warmonger, a neocon fossil, a man itching to put other people’s sons in the sand. The choice, we’re assured, is binary: boots on the ground or the President’s memorandum. That is a lie, and the people repeating it loudest know it is a lie.
The Fantastical Abstract World of the Democratic Socialists
If you were looking for an excruciating experience, the New York Editorial Board — a Substack — has you covered.
The Outward Appearance
Y’all, I just wanted to send a quick note. First, if you want to get tickets to the Not Safe For Radio Show, you can do so here.
