In the WSJ’s “Free Expressions,” Kyle Smith warns that nostalgia is a vice, a drug, a disease. Don’t fall for it, Smith cautions. Almost nothing was better in the old days. Things tend to get better over time.

It is nonsense to think America was staggering out from underneath Vietnam and Watergate. The average person was not bedeviled by those things. How quickly Richard Nixon transgressed from most-loathed person to being the #1 punchline. After all, didn’t Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, both of whom were running for president in the summer of 1976, represent a new page: a renewal, if you will.

At the end of 1974, which also ended Nixon’s nightmare, America yearned to talk about something positive. That’s a sign of a healthy culture, writes Mr. Smith – a yearning for something positive.

Right around the time we abandoned Saigon to the Communists, the bicentennial took over the American imagination. The spring and summer of 1975 bopped along to the tune of Elton John’s chart-topper “Philadelphia Freedom” which (though it turned out to be about a tennis team) became a sort of unofficial new pop anthem and continued to earn major radio attention throughout 1976.

Will the 2026 celebration turn out better than expected due to a last-minute surge of competence, wonders Mr. Smith. Smith continues:

Regardless of who the political leaders are at any given moment, we’re the best nation that ever was. We should be shouting our appreciation from Hyannis Port to Honolulu.

Celebrate the Bicentennial
Debbie Young

When you listen to nearly any politician’s speech, and it comes to the point of paying for all of their agenda, they never mention that they’ll raise taxes or put off paying for their plans by loading your grandchildren with debt; instead, you hear that they’ll pay for it by cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Of course, Your Survival Guy wants waste, fraud, and abuse (what’s abuse?) cut, but the same politicians promising to make the cuts are the ones who designed the programs currently being wasted, defrauded, and abused. So temper your expectations.

At the Cato Institute, Romina Boccia and Tyler Turman drill down on four of the programs being abused the most: Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, and SSI. They write:

Waste, fraud, and abuse in federal welfare programs cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), child nutrition programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are among the largest of the more than 90 means-tested federally funded welfare programs, which collectively cost taxpayers nearly $1.2 trillion in fiscal year (FY) 2025.1 Whether administered by state or federal agencies, these programs share structural flaws that make financial mismanagement pervasive.

The most tracked form of misspending is improper payments, which include underpayments and overpayments from administrative errors and outright fraud. Medicaid and SNAP alone accounted for more than $47 billion in improper payments in FY 2025, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).2 Another type of mismanagement is the manipulation of program rules. This includes state exploitation of financing mechanisms, waiver authorities, and eligibility loopholes to maximize federal funding, avoid accountability, or redirect federal dollars beyond programs’ intended purposes.

These problems are driven largely by two reinforcing weaknesses. The first is a financing mismatch whereby states process applications and distribute benefits while federal taxpayers finance most, or all, of the expenditures. This leaves states with weak incentives to enforce eligibility standards, invest in fraud prevention, or control waste, since the consequences of financial mismanagement fall overwhelmingly on federal taxpayers. The second is administrative complexity, which is exacerbated by outdated verification systems, reliance on self-reported eligibility data, and underutilized fraud-prevention tools, such as the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system.3

These deficiencies produce error-prone processes that make programs vulnerable to misspending that is difficult to prevent and easy to overlook. Addressing them requires structural reforms that align incentives, modernize verification systems, and hold program administrators accountable for poor outcomes. Congress began that work through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which strengthened program integrity in Medicaid and SNAP. This brief recommends ways for Congress to build on those reforms and bring similar accountability measures to child nutrition programs, TANF, and SSI. Savings estimates drawn from Congressional Budget Office scores, other publicly available analyses, and the authors’ calculations are included where available.

After detailing the problems in the various programs, the authors conclude:

Waste, fraud, and abuse are not confined to any one agency or federally funded welfare program. They persist because of misaligned incentives, fragmented administration, and outdated verification systems. Effective reforms should better align program authority with financing responsibility. In most state-administered welfare programs, states exercise broad discretion over program administration while bearing little of the cost. This dilutes accountability and creates incentives that reward more spending over better stewardship. Yet, as SSI demonstrates, even without this state–federal incentive misalignment, administrative complexity and outdated verification systems contribute to billions of dollars in improper payments each year. Structural reform must therefore address both the incentives that allow financial mismanagement to persist with little accountability and the administrative failures that make fraud and payment errors difficult to prevent.

Congress can save federal taxpayers nearly $6 trillion over the next decade by adopting the structural reforms proposed in this brief, namely eliminating federal SNAP, TANF, and child nutrition funding, and converting Medicaid and CHIP into a zero-growth block grant.74 These reforms would help address the structural incentive problems that are driving widespread financial mismanagement in these programs, giving states a more direct financial stake in improving program performance by preventing fraud and reducing administrative failures that they have been slow to address. Short of that, Congress can still save federal taxpayers nearly $500 billion over the next decade by tightening eligibility standards, ending financing gimmicks, and eliminating outdated funding streams.75

If the federal government continues to operate and fund these programs, it has an obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not lost to preventable waste, fraud, and administrative failures. Congress should, at a minimum, pursue reforms that strengthen verification systems, enhance oversight, and reduce abuse.

Action Line: Adding additional debt and taxes to support fraudsters and wasters is not an option when America’s debt is soaring exponentially. Every dollar spent must be for maximum efficiency. Vice President JD Vance is working hard with the administration’s fraud task force to eliminate fraud from the system, but even more must be done. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.

Where America Needs to Cut Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

At LewRockwell.com, Moon of Alabama suggests that the war with Iran will reignite “into a much larger conflagration” after developments in Lebanon.

In the last days there were two developments in Lebanon and Iran that will likely cause the war to reignite into a much larger conflagration.

Iran insists on having control over the Strait of Hormuz. But at least half of the passage way is under Oman’s jurisdiction.

Oman is, unlike Iran, a member of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and has as such a different view of the international law with regards to the Strait situation. Oman is also a (former) UK/U.S. dependent. Iran’s attempts to pull the traditionally neutral Oman onto its side of the conflict have failed.

On Thursday the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) had arranged for a convoy of ships that had been stuck in the Persian Gulf for weeks to sail through the Strait right next to the coast of Oman. Iran saw this (falsely) as a breach of the Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. and (correctly) as an attempt to undermine its leverage.

Read more here.

Will the Iran War Reignite?
Richard C. Young

Tucker Breaks Down Trump and the Israel-Firsters
Richard C. Young

The US Air Force is pursuing a new family of long-range missiles capable of striking targets more than 1,000 nautical miles away, with air-to-air and air-to-surface variants designed to counter Chinese forces in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict. The program prioritizes an air-to-air missile and aims to give US aircraft the ability to engage enemy air, land, and maritime targets from outside heavily defended areas.

The effort supports the Air Force’s broader “long-range kill chain” strategy, which focuses on detecting and destroying Chinese forces at extended ranges while operating beyond Beijing’s anti-access/area-denial networks, according to USNI News.

The missiles would significantly exceed the range of many current US air-launched weapons and complement other initiatives such as long-range maritime strike missiles, dispersed basing, and new unmanned combat aircraft designed for a potential conflict over Taiwan or in the South China Sea.

Air Force Seeks Game-Changing 1,000-Nautical Mile Missile for Pacific War
Steve Schneider

This summer, it’s sweltering in France and much of Europe, with some regions topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, reports the WSJ. Stranger still is how various sundry government agencies would have their citizens sweat it out rather than use more modern inventions. Like air conditioning.

AC may be necessary for the elderly, the chronically ill, or pregnant people, according to the French ecological transition agency. Realizing that some people might not live without AC, the ecological transition agency offers some useful tips:

if you really can’t live without it, use it in only one room of your home, and don’t set the temperature below 79 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s because AC uses too much energy and contributes to climate change.

But wait. There’s more:

From France’s government information service, public health agency, and national health insurance fund, the following tips are offered for those sans AC:

“Wet your body (at least your face and forearms) several times a day.” Wear a hat outside. Drink more water and try cold soups and other “water-rich foods to help you stay hydrated.”

If you give up your will to live (and before you collapse into a smoldering heap), you could try this:

Covering your windows and blinds, including with “homemade protections” made of cardboard. “Dim the electric lights” in your home, and avoid using appliances like a computer or a hair dryer that could generate heat.

It seems as though green virtual signaling itself is a health risk:

A report released recently by IGNES, a French trade alliance, warns of “a massive inadequacy of housing to cope with high temperatures.” Nearly half of the homes it looked at become “thermal kettles” during heat waves.

The French paper Le Parisien interviewed a 67-year-old resident of one such home. When the temperature in her living room reached 90 degrees last month, as temperatures outside soared, she described taking three to four showers a day to cool down and using her garden hose to wet the exterior of her home. “I’ve even fallen over due to dizziness because I was too hot,” she added.

During May’s heat wave, France’s public-health agency reported a spike in heat-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

Yet its advisory did not mention the use of air conditioning.

The Summer of Our Discontent
Debbie Young

When you finally say, “Honey, I think it’s time I retire,” somewhere early in the discussion that follows will be the question, “Do we have enough?” Which is a tough question to answer. Because spending money is a key variable, and it’s terrifying when there’s no longer a paycheck coming in, which is why it makes sense to kick the tires, to perhaps work part-time for a bit, keeping your hand in the mix and not burning any bridges.

For example, if you’re considering a move after retirement, Your Survival Guy has been a big proponent of renting in your eventual destination to make sure you like living  there before plunking down a fortune only to later realize “that’s not for me.” But knowing that you’re ready to fully retire oftentimes answers itself for you. You just know. You’re ready to commit to Your Retirement Life.

Once you’re committed to retirement, you want to have a master class understanding of your spend rate. This is key. I don’t want you using market expectations to back into answering “Do we have enough?” You don’t want to rely on thinking
“If the market does ‘x’” we’ll be just fine.”

A good place to begin your study is understanding Dick Young’s North Star or the risk-free rate of return on T-bills. This gives you a lay of the land.

Your Survival Guy has worked with hundreds of clients, many of whom are living the Retirement Life of their dreams, and many who are about to. Understanding one’s risk tolerance beforehand rather than after the fact is about risk tolerance. When I’m asked what to do in a market downturn, I think of the wisdom expressed by Jack Bogle: “Don’t just do something, stand there.” Easier said than done if you don’t have a plan.

Action Line: Take the time to understand your risk tolerance before you leave the dock. It can get stormy out there. And when you’re ready to talk, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.

Read the entire series here.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.

“Honey, I Think It’s Time I Retire:” Part 6
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Sometimes quantity beats quality, and this appears to be happening in Ukraine’s drone war against Russia. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the war evolved into one dominated by drones, both on the frontline and for deeper attacks behind the lines. Now, Ukraine’s drone-building capacity is potentially changing the tide of the war. Using waves of drones, Ukraine has begun dismantling Russia’s energy infrastructure, forcing the oil-rich country to ration gasoline and diesel fuel. Videos of a recent Ukrainian attack on a refinery near Moscow show the devastation caused by the inexpensive but lethal technology.

Smoke fills the sky over the Russian capital of Moscow early Thursday, rising from across the extent of the Moscow Oil Refinery, resulting from several dozen successful drone and missile strikes as part of a large-scale attack launched by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tjZ3ZjiaeI

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 19, 2026

Archival footage of the flight of the Ukrainian kamikaze drone ‘Lyutyi’ over Moscow after the last attack on the Moscow Oil Refinery pic.twitter.com/oGVI3mT6iw

— MilitaryNewsUA (@front_ukrainian) June 25, 2026

But the attacks aren’t limited to Moscow or oil infrastructure. Ukraine has been hammering bridges and logistics in Crimea as well.

What are russians so worried about? There’s only been a 1,000 percent increase in mid range drone strikes on logistic routes to Crimea. pic.twitter.com/myoUnbbsBh

— Rock – NA-FO Raccoon (@NAAF0Racoon) June 25, 2026

Ukraine Expands Crimea Drone Campaign, Claims 38 Russian Targets Hit Overnight

Ukraine says its drone forces carried out one of their largest overnight strike waves in occupied Crimea, targeting 38 sites including radar systems, an oil depot, energy infrastructure, gas…

— The Finance Streets (@finance_streets) June 25, 2026

Can Russia Survive Ukraine’s Overwhelming Drone Waves?
Richard C. Young

The war with Iran sent oil prices spiking as the vital Strait of Hormuz was shut to the massive oil tanker traffic that navigates it each day in normal times. Now that peace appears near, prices for oil have fallen back to near pre-war levels.

The fall has been complicated somewhat by an attack on a Singapore-flagged tanker yesterday by what was alleged to have been an Iranian drone. It has been reported that the Iranians were angry that the tanker passed through the Strait outside of Iran’s designated transit zone.

BREAKING NOW: New details on Iranian drone attack on cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/9o2wxq71iY

— Larry Dean (@larry_mcwethy) June 26, 2026

An Iranian attack targeted a Singaporean ship, and Tehran warned maritime traffic:

“Stay out of our routes… you alone will bear the responsibility.” pic.twitter.com/BbHE15ipgE

— Iran Force (@IranArmystan_) June 26, 2026

Oil Prices Near Pre-War Levels
Richard C. Young

A Business Insider report explains that Ukraine’s “e-Points” system is reshaping how its military chooses and prioritizes targets by rewarding verified battlefield successes with points that can be exchanged for drones, robots, and electronic warfare equipment.

According to the RBC-Ukraine report, the system allows frontline units to earn digital points for verified battlefield actions, which they can then spend directly on equipment such as FPV drones, reconnaissance UAVs, electronic warfare systems, and unmanned ground vehicles. More than 400 combat units are currently participating in the program, which is fully integrated into a digital procurement marketplace that connects units with manufacturers.

Ukrainian forces have ordered over 500,000 drones and related systems through the Brave1 Market using the “e-Points” system.

The system is often compared to a video game-like reward loop, where successful missions earn “points” that unlock better gear, encouraging units to prioritize high-value targets and measurable results. This gamified structure is designed to make procurement faster and more flexible while directly tying battlefield performance to access to resources.

Ukraine’s Amazon for War: Inside the e-Points Marketplace Transforming the Battlefield
Steve Schneider