Longtime drug war chronicler Jacob Sullum provided in a Friday Reason article an assessment of the failure of this new tactic to achieve even a modest US government gain in its war on drugs. Concluded Sullum in his article, “nearly nine months after Trump launched his new, deadlier version of the war on drugs, there is no evidence that it is more effective than the traditional tactics he derides as insufficiently homicidal.” This conclusion, Sullum detailed, is supported by outcomes including increased cocaine seizures at the border, stability in street prices of cocaine and the amount of adulterants added to cocaine, and no drop in cocaine being detected in drug fatalities.

Enough with pursuing this and the other foreign interventions, as well as violations of liberty in America, in the name of fighting the war on drugs. Instead, stop the destruction, killing, and oppression. End the war on drugs.

At The Intercept, Nick Turse is keeping a tally of the ongoing slaughter at sea. He counts, relying on information derived from US government sources, 60 strikes killing 197 people. The number of survivors of the strikes is just six.

This is a killing spree, not an ordinary drug interdiction effort.

The blowing up of small boats started in conjunction with the movement toward a regime change war against Venezuela. The small boats were claimed by the Trump administration, though never with convincing argument, to be part of a supposed grand threat of “narco-terrorism” from the South American country. Even if that argument had some credibility, discerning observers asked: Why were the small boats being summarily destroyed and everyone on board killed instead of more typical actions being taken, such as stopping and searching boats and detaining and arresting people on board?

Come January 3, the US military invaded Venezuela and carried off its president to America. The Trump administration has since been imposing demands on the nation’s government. The war justifying rationale for the US government blowing up small boats had thus come to an end. But, the slaughter at sea has continued nonetheless. The latest strike included in Turse’s tally was on Wednesday. It was the fifth such strike this month in the Pacific and Caribbean. The continuation of attacks on boats and the people on them seems to be either a macabre demonstration of the tendency of a government program to continue even after the reason for its creation is gone or part of the preparation for further intervention abroad.

The announcement also suggested future easing of marijuana prohibition may be on the way in noting the initiation of an expedited administrative hearing process to consider the broader rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.

While all cutbacks in the US government’s war on marijuana are welcome, what is really needed is for the US government to just call it quits on the war. That is an argument put forward well by National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Deputy Director Paul Armentano in a May 12 editorial at the NORML website. Armentano addressed in the editorial various benefits of his suggested approach. He then noted that entirely removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act that provides for its illegality “would affirm America’s longstanding principles of federalism and appeal to Americans’ deep-rooted desires to be free from undue government intrusion into their daily lives.”

Hear! Hear! The US government’s war on marijuana is more than a war on a drug or a plant; it is a war on people, freedom, and the constitutionally defined system of American government.

Read Armentano’s editorial here.

With that grab for profits having largely petered out, it looks like the US government is back to help Moderna along with subjecting Americans to Moderna’s new experimental mRNA flu shots. In a Thursday report on the matter, journalist Alex Berenson provided a one-word summation of the trial results Moderna has provided to US regulators in the effort to obtain approval for the shots: “awful.” Further wrote Berenson:

The trial showed severe side effects from the mRNA shot dwarfed whatever protection against flu it may offer.

Compared to a standard flu shot, the mRNA jab prevented about 1 hospitalization in every 5,000 people who received it.¹ But compared to the standard shot, the mRNA jab caused severe after-injection side effects such as vomiting or a 102- to 104-degree fever in an extra 1 out of 18 people.

In other words, Moderna’s own data show that about 270 people will suffer severe vaccine side effects from its shot to stop a single flu hospitalization. In what world does that risk ratio make sense?²

The trial also showed that more people who received the mRNA shot died from all causes in the next six months than those who got the standard jab.

Read Berenson’s complete report here.

Berenson also explained in his report that Moderna’s new mRNA flu shots’ path to regulatory approval would have been blocked earlier but for the forced resignation in March of Vinay Prasad from the position of chief medical officer of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “largely because of pressure from Moderna — and Blackstone, the giant private equity company that has invested $750 million into Moderna’s mRNA flu shot.”

Interestingly, on Friday news broke that President Donald Trump, who in his first term as president launched Operation Warp Speed that made Moderna its first fortune, has signed off on a plan to fire the top person at the FDA — Commissioner Marty Makary.

Will the Moderna mRNA flu shot achieve approval via political string pulling? That result would be yet another indication that the Make America Healthy Again movement at the Department of Health and Human Services, where the FDA resides, is being consumed by the swamp that Trump used to be fond of promising to drain.

In February, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock touted in a press release that the state government was doubling its holdings of Israel bonds “from approximately $140 million to $280 million, marking the largest one-time investment in Israel bonds in Texas history and elevating the state from the sixth-largest to the second-largest U.S. state investor in these securities.”

That is a significant investment action. How did Hancock describe that the action was taken to best preserve and grow the wealth held by state government? He did not. Instead, Hancock provided a political justification in the press release:

‘Texas proudly stands with Israel,’ Hancock said. ‘This expanded investment reinforces our long-standing relationship and shared commitment to faith, freedom and economic opportunity. Texas and Israel have built a partnership that stretches beyond finance, and this step reflects both our solidarity and our belief in what we can accomplish together.’

This sort of reasoning does not bode well of the finances of the state. Liking a government is not a valid investment reason for buying its bonds. Is Hancock next going to “invest” in truckloads of puppies because he thinks they are adorable?

The state government, in addition to piling up Israel bonds, has also decreed that government entities in Texas can buy Israel government bonds but are forbidden from buying bonds of any other foreign government. This special permission to purchase Israel government bonds is provided in chapter 2256 of the Texas Government Code (the Public Funds Investment Act). There the listed “authorized investments” for government entities in Texas include “bonds issued, assumed, or guaranteed by the State of Israel” but no similar investments related to any other foreign government.

Is there any reason to think that the bonds of Israel are uniquely good investments when compared to the bonds of every other foreign nation? It seems the answer to that question is “no.” Consider that in May of 2025 Daniel Liberto reported at Investopedia that then “10 countries had perfect credit ratings from all three rating companies” — Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service, and S&P Global Ratings. Israel did not make the list. Yet, Israel’s bonds are determined by the Texas government to be an acceptable investment while these other bond options that have been rated safer are verboten.

It looks like the Texas government, through its preferred treatment of Israel bonds, is ensuring that politics triumphs over sound investing.

Now, it looks like much of the vaccine mandates, including those related to the childhood vaccination schedule, will be remaining in place because state legislators have failed to act on adopting repeal legislation. While the state Senate did approve less ambitions legislation that would make it easier for parents to seek exemption for their children, the House did not even move forward on that. In response to DeSantis calling a special session of the state legislature for this week dealing with vaccines, artificial intelligence, and redistricting, House Speaker Daniel Perez has declared the House members will just vote on redistricting on Wednesday and return home because no bills were filed regarding the other matters.

The failure of the legislature to act on issues beyond redistricting perturbed DeSantis who commented Tuesday at Twitter:

Voters elected Republicans to protect freedom against both the Big Tech cartel and the medical industrial complex.

Yet, when given the chance to deliver for their constituents, not a single Republican House member could even be bothered to file a bill.

Typical political shenanigans.

Political shenanigans indeed. Legislators rush to vote on approving district lines for political campaigns, but they shy from taking on the big money special interests, including what DeSantis aptly terms the “medical industrial complex” that routinely seeks the advancement of vaccine profits even when such comes at the cost of diminished health and violated liberty.

Milei’s devotion to the Israel government and its US-backed wars has continued in the years since. In video of Milei on Sunday greeting Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Milei’s third visit to Israel since becoming president of Argentina, Milei exhibited the excitement of a groupie having a chance to meet a favorite singer. Watch here Milei greeting Netanyahu, who Milei declares is his “dearest friend,” “good friend,” and “dear friend”:

Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, meets with Netanyahu in Israel. pic.twitter.com/fJMkYxWJmZ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 19, 2026

The friends fest among national leaders extends to America as well. Declared Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, while standing alongside Milei and Netanyahu at a subsequent event related to Argentina and Israel increasing the ties between the two nations:

It is a distinct honor to be able to stand here with two of President Trump’s greatest friends. I don’t know of any two world leaders on our planet that our president has more respect for and more personal relationship with than President Milei and Prime Minister Netanyahu. So, it’s an honor to represent the president of the United States and to bring greetings from America to these two wonderful friends and allies.

War on Iran is among the top shared priorities of these three besties, confirmed Milei during his latest Israel visit, declaring the Argentina government’s “firm support for the United States and Israel in their war against terrorism and against the Iranian regime.”

The subject matter of this part of the Bible ties in with Trump’s relentless support of the Israel government in its war efforts in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and beyond. The connection is that among the most avid American supporters of the Israel government’s war efforts are those who are committed to helping bring about the creation of a Third Temple in Jerusalem.

The First Temple ended up being destroyed as foreshadowed in Second Chronicles. Later, a Second Temple was built and then destroyed as well.

Among some American diehard supporters of the Israel government’s wars during Trump’s second presidential administration, a key part of their basis for their support is a desire to help ensure the creation of a Third Temple in Jerusalem. They see this as a step moving things along their desired course based on reasoning related to their understanding of Hebrew or Christian theology.

Maybe Trump chose the section of the Bible he will be reading for some other reason. But, it is interesting that the reading he chose fits right in with the reasoning behind a significant portion of the Americans’ strong support for the US government providing the aid necessary for the Israel government to wage its wars.

After exiting from the stirred-up crisis, it seems many Americans are wise to the broader vaccines pushing program of government and its pharmaceutical and medical industries allies. This situation is indicated in a new poll conducted for Politico.

Laura Gardner reported Tuesday at Politico:

Results from the March poll of 3,851 U.S. adults conducted by Public First show that a plurality of Americans question the safety of vaccines, support reducing the number administered and believe that people’s right to decide what they put in their bodies is more important than preventing the spread of disease.

Nearly half of U.S. adults surveyed last month signaled they think the science on vaccines remains up for debate and that it’s damaging to require people to receive them, rather than that the science is clear and it is dangerous to challenge it.

While there is plenty of interesting information in Gardner’s article, one particularly revealing argument is made in the final paragraph regarding the role expediency instead of “the science” played in government imposing vaccine mandates on children. There Garnder, quoting Berkeley Professor Elena Conis, wrote that “[p]art of the reason vaccines were made mandatory for children for school entry, she said, is that ‘it’s always been hard to vaccinate adults’ due to a level of resistance, ‘and vaccinating children…was the most expedient way to get a healthy adult population.’”

Read Gardner’s article here.

So reported Lucas Aulbach in a Tuesday USA Today article discussing Massie’s answers to students’ questions at an event the day before at the University of Louisville. Read the detailed article here.

Massie is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.