Stupid State Stories

Chuck and Megan try to untangle Schrödinger's ceasefire, a confusing Middle East agreement that is somehow simultaneously happening and not happening. We also examine Lindsey Graham's unique interpretation of war powers, where he essentially treats the Constitution's mandate for congressional approval like a decorative throw pillow. Meanwhile, normal shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted as Iran sets up a lethal new toll booth system backed by threats of absolute destruction. Back at home, we break down the math-defying absurdity of Donald Trump's proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget as the national deficit continues to balloon out of control. Finally, we cover his recent Bond-villain-style threats to send a whole civilization "back to the Stone Age" and his bizarre boasting over the bombing of an unfinished bridge, on the appropriately-named B1, that tragically killed civilians at a family picnic.

https://reason.com/2026/03/06/jobs-are-down-while-the-u-s-spends-2-billion-a-day-on-war-with-iran/https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/24/proposal-to-create-counterintelligence-unit-receives-bipartisan-pushback/?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://reason.com/2026/03/06/the-federal-government-was-told-to-make-a-list-of-everything-it-funds-15-years-later-there-still-isnt-one/

• ICE Legal Observer Added to Terrorist Database https://reason.com/2026/01/23/ice-tells-legal-observer-we-have-a-nice-little-database-and-now-youre-considered-a-domestic-terrorist/ • WH Domestic Terrorism Memo Sept 2025 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/ • Arrested for Observing ICE https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/arrested-for-observing-ice-minnesota-lesson.html • Ben Jordan: Flock Camera Security Exposé 40min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB0gr7Fh6lY • Flock Security Vulnerabilities https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/17/ben-jordan-exposes-severe-security-vulnerabilities-in-flock-surveillance-cameras/ • Flock Safety Security Research https://gainsec.com/2025/11/05/formalizing-my-flock-safety-security-research/ • Campus Protests Fail vs History https://www.aei.org/society-and-culture/performative-politics-why-todays-campus-protests-fail-where-historys-movements-succeeded/ • Diminishing Power of Protests https://thesciencesurvey.com/editorial/2025/02/12/the-diminishing-power-of-protests-a-call-for-activism-redefined/ • Trump Two-Faced Gun Rights https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-alex-pretti-nra-cbp-minneapolis-shooting-essayli • Debunking Immigrant Crime Myth https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/debunking-myth-immigrants-and-crime/ • Undocumented Immigration and Violent Crime https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6241529/ • USCIS Record Backlogs Q2 FY2025 https://www.boundless.com/blog/uscis-q2-fy2025-data • Dignity Act 2025 Summary https://forumtogether.org/article/the-dignity-act-of-2025-bill-summary/ • Legal Immigration Data https://www.niskanencenter.org/immigrationdata/

- The U.S. Navy under Trump: A Tool of Modern Piracy - Global Research- Assange's war crimes accusation: Nobel Prize faces criminal complaint over 2025 winner - Natural News- Donald Trump's squeeze on Venezuela - The Week- How oil, drugs and immigration fueled Trump's Venezuela campaign - Times of India

America's longest government shutdown shows why we must free air traffic control from politicsCongressman Thomas Massie's Official Website - Information on his work to reform the appropriations process and restore regular order in government spendingCongress Should Pass 12 Separate Spending Bills, Not Omnibus - Analysis supporting Massie's approach to budget reform

- [The War on Poverty After 50 years](https://www.cato.org/policy-report/may/june-2015/war-poverty-after-fifty-years)- [EconTalk: Robert Chitester](https://www.econlib.org/econtalk-with-bob-chitester/)- [The Ballad of Price Controls](https://redcircle.com/shows/nebuphony/ep/63d2b1ca-b763-4edf-84fe-a264fa4fa99c)- [Food Stamps and Mises’ Theory of Intervention](https://mises.org/mises-wire/food-stamps-and-misess-theory-intervention)- [Drug War History](https://drugpolicy.org/drug-war-history/)- [Human Cost of Post 9/11 Wars](https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Costs-of-War_Direct-War-Deaths_9-1-21.pdf)

Occupational LicensingHours required to braid hairAMAFlight 328The Machinery of Freedom

https://www.influencewatch.org/labor-union/national-education-association-nea/https://fee.org/articles/power-grab-how-the-national-education-association-is-betraying-our-children/

FDA Delays Patients’ Access to a New Alzheimer’s TreatmentProfits and DrugsPrice Controls for Medicines Risk Harming InnovationA Blueprint for FDA ReformAn FDA Report Card

That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seenhttps://mises.org/articles-interest/which-seen-and-which-not-seenhttps://www.aei.org/op-eds/the-beltways-energy-transition-relies-on-the-broken-window-fallacy/

Basic EconomicsTaxation, Forced Labor, and TheftThe Ethics of Liberty

Real ID - bringing 2005 to you with a side of authoritarian inconvenience.https://mises.org/mises-wire/real-id-not-about-keeping-you-safehttps://reason.com/2023/03/31/tsas-biometric-screening-may-not-be-optional-for-long/

From one ribbon cutting ceremony to the next, Public Choice explains why we can't have nice systems.But don't take it from us, Mike Munger wrote the book on Public ChoiceIs Capitalism Sustainable?https://amzn.to/44uEtYlhttps://rzadek.medium.com/mike-munger-is-taking-public-choice-seriously-e4832ffdd649https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRNjQP3UuAY&ab_channel=AustralianTaxpayers%27Alliance

DOGE cuts violently, while congress spends more than ever.https://reason.com/2025/03/12/the-houses-budget-bill-cuts-earmarks-but-spending-will-be-going-up-anyway/https://thenewamerican.com/us/politics/trump-massie-feud-highlights-gop-refusal-to-get-serious-about-spending/

This St. Patrick's day, remember: Tariffs are taxes.https://reason.com/2025/03/15/pour-one-out-for-purchasing-power-this-st-patricks-day/https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/fiscal-economic-and-distributional-effects-20-tariffs-china-and-25-tariffs-canada-and-mexico

"Why, sometimes I’ve devalued six currencies before breakfast!" boasted the Mad Chairman, tipping his hat to the Fed's fine feast of fiscal folly.

D.S.T. is D.U.M.B.https://www.standardtime.com/proposal.htmlhttps://enddaylightsavingtime.org/

Hallucinations of Critical State Theory