Almost every other European nation can claim some territory held by its neighbors. After WWII, Europeans accepted that peaceful cooperation is more beneficial to all than endless wars over this or that scrap of land. It worked until Russia decided to move the border by starting the war with Ukraine. For Europe, this war is a test of the fragile peace after 1945. If Russia gains one square inch of Ukrainian territory by war, other Putin-alike politicians will pop up in Europe and start wars.  It is not about Ukraine or NATO. It is about peace in Europe. To keep it, Europe needs to push Russia out of Ukraine. For peace to endure, the world needs to send a clear message: wars do not pay.

Senator Bernie Sanders cites examples of families whose health insurance premiums would increase by as much as $2,000 or even $3,000 without government subsidies. He does not ask why those premiums go up much faster than inflation. Who gets that extra money? One can check the data: profits of health-related corporations are at record highs. So, the subsidies are paid to regular folks, but collected by a bunch of billionaires. The government cannot fund those subsidies by taxing billionaires – taxes paid by those who still can afford to buy health insurance pay for those subsidies. With premiums rising, more of us will soon qualify for subsidies. So, in reality, Senator Sanders advocates for making most of us poorer and the very few already rich even richer.

Michael Smerconish asked today: “What is more of a cause of political violence by young men: ideology or mental health?” Wrong question. We do not have more people with mental health issues. When it comes to ideology, we have an ideological hodgepodge resulting in a sick society. Since the beginning of time, all young men have had an excess of energy and a lack of maturity. In healthy societies, they were drawn into industry, science, religion, the military, or other productive pursuits. When the social fabric disintegrates, the abundant energy of these young men redirects into all sorts of weird ways to fix it. Violence is one of them.

We learned that during the upcoming meeting, Putin will try to convince Trump to help him subdue Ukraine and take about 20% of its territory. Trump should answer that, regardless of the validity of Russia’s claims, Putin did not use any peaceful means to reach his aims. So, Ukraine deserves the right to reject Russia’s claims in the same way Russia executes them. As of now, it looks like Russia is less able to reach its goal than it was when starting the war. Ergo, Putin can get peace today on terms that Ukraine might accept, or continue the war until Ukraine is capable of reaching its objective in the same manner as Russia does.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “There’s a new programming language. It’s called English.” He works with people who are skilled enough to formulate programming tasks in any language. So his view is skewed. The rest of us should know that once knowing English made America great the first time around. Now, the same language divides Americans to the point that dystopian visions propagate. The language is not important, but what our mind can say. And this is where the stairs begin. Good programmers do not lose their sleep; they instruct AI in English on how to perform routine coding when tackling the tough stuff.

Instead of a celebratory commentary on Independence Day, Michael Smerconish reminded us that the 250^th anniversary is coming next year. And he asked a provocative question: “Will the U.S. endure for another 250 years?” The answers are almost split in half, with “yes” prevailing slightly. A more interesting question would be: Do Americans today know what they need to do to keep America prosperous for the next 250 years? Do most of them even care? And those who care, do they agree on what they need to do? By looking around, one could worry if the U.S. will endure to its 250^th anniversary.

Gaza is a thorn in Israel’s politics. There are still speculations about why the attack on October 7, 2023 happened. But there is no doubt that Israel’s military did not annihilate Palestinians’ resistance and did not free all hostages, despite that no one house was left standing. Iran helped Palestinians in Gaza, so now Israel went after Iran, which has 45 times more residents and 4,500 times larger territory. Israel’s armory is technologically the most advanced; Iran’s is not. Judging by Israel’s success in Gaza, what outcome can one expect from its venture in Iran?

In the criticism of the Trump administration’s concepts and methods of implementation, some see parallels to what extremists like Hitler had done in the past. Others see that comparison as an unacceptable exaggeration. After all, we cannot compare Trump’s policies to the Holocaust. However, we should not forget that until 1939, Hitler was a respected leader of a large nation, vide Munich in 1938. Therefore, if we see signs of the same behavior in current leaders that Hitler exhibited before revealing his true nature, it is our civic duty to call it out. We may or may not be right about a particular politician, but it is the only way to prevent another Hitler from reemerging. The warning of Martin Niemöller comes to mind.

The interview at FOX sounded good. In the early 1990s, I was looking to expand my small business. I checked the SBA loan option; it smelled of corruption, so I passed. From what I have heard since then, almost everyone interacting with the SBA had the same impression. Why did everyone pretend no one knew? I am leaning toward DOGE’s conclusions. However, I will patiently await criminal charges in the cases of loans given to children or seniors over 100 years old. When those who committed these frauds are in prison, DOGE will be credible.

Donald Trump asks Ukraine to make territorial concessions because Russia is stronger. If we accept war as a way of resolving disputes, and if Russia will get even one square inch of Ukraine thanks to the aggression, it means that the UN is a joke and NATO stands for nothing; those with more guns rule. That approach gave us WWI. So, in 1928, nations signed the Pact of Paris, agreeing that solutions to conflicts shall be by pacific means. They forgot about it in Munich in 1938, yielding to Hitler because he had more guns. We got WWII as a result. Trump does not get that the UN and NATO protected us for 80 years from the next global war. By attacking Ukraine, Putin tells the world that values and signed accords promoting peace are worthless. By that, he started WWIII, which is not full-blown yet. But it will become hot if Putin gets any reward for starting this war.