The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who claimed his deeply-held religious views prevented him from baking a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. While many conservatives may cheer what appears to be a victory for their cause, the Supreme Court ruling missed the central point — property rights — in favor of a highly subjective “deeply held views” test. The decision is very shaky territory even for social conservatives — who gets to decide which views are “deeply-held”? — and it is little help at all for libertarians. We look at the pros and cons of the decision in today’s Liberty Report:

Rumors continue to spread that the US is preparing to deploy its THAAD anti-missile system in Germany for the first time. What’s the threat? Iran, we are told. Particularly as the US pulling out of the deal has increased tensions. But is this really about defense of Europe, as the US military claims, or is it more about keeping the big US defense contractors fat and happy? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

US Commander of the Europe Command, Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, has called for thousands more US troops to “deter Russian aggression” in Europe. He has even suggested that the US troops should be pulled off of counter-terrorism duty and sent to Europe. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced a massive shipment of military equipment to Europe, including tanks and other tracked vehicles. Do US military officials really believe that Russia is about to invade western Europe? Are we back in the 1940s? Or is Washington’s military-industrial complex looking for new ways to justify an ever-expanding military budget? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

It looks like the neocons may not succeed with their plot to blow up the Trump/Kim meeting next month. With Trump canceling the meeting at the end of last week, the North and South Korean leaders held an impromptu meeting on the border to look for a path ahead toward peace. President Trump has taken notice and plans are again underway for the historic meeting. Are neocons sidelined for now? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

After repeated references to the “Libya scenario” for North Korea — a point not lost on Pyongyang considering that the US destroyed Libya and killed its leader — the North Korean government finally struck back verbally, calling US Vice President Mike Pence a “dummy” for again warning that North Korea could end up like Libya. That was enough for President Trump to cancel next month’s historic summit meeting. Does following the neocons make Trump look tough…or weak? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

As the US names its 18th military commander in the 17 year long war on Afghanistan, is there any reason to believe that victory is in sight? The latest reports by the Pentagon to Congress show that no progress has been made and another recent report by the Special Inspector General found that the Afghan army is losing soldiers at an alarming rate. Washington’s proxies in Afghanistan don’t want to fight. So why not just end the war? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech to the neoconservative Heritage Foundation in which he made 12 US demands of the Iranian government. The demands were in places laughably inaccurate — demanding Iran close a heavy water reactor that has been dismantled for years — that one wonders whether it was just incompetence or whether they simply don’t care. The US is backing itself into a corner over Iran, risking losing its European allies and further emboldening Russia and China. What’s next? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Turns out there really was foreign collusion in the 2016 US presidential election. UK spies colluded with Obama hold-overs in the US deep state to try and get Hillary elected. When that failed they invented “Russiagate” to try and overthrow the US election. Will President Trump wake up and see the danger that the US intelligence agencies pose not only to his presidency, but to the whole country? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

The European Union is furious over President Trump’s “capricious aggressiveness” in foreign policy, particularly after his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement. While Washington Beltway “deep state” denizens moan over losing influence in Europe, there is a silver lining in Trump’s bombastic foreign policy: if Europe gets a divorce from the US there will be much less opportunities for US meddling. What will Russia do? Join today’s Liberty Report:

If President Trump is serious in his desire to seal an historic deal with North Korea then his employees are actively working against him. Based on National Security Advisor John Bolton’s bombastic CNN appearance over the weekend, the North Koreans have cancelled a high-level inter-Korea meeting scheduled for today and have suggested that the Trump/Kim summit scheduled for next month might be cancelled. Will warmongering Bolton trump Trump on Korea? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

As President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law were celebrating the US embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinian protesters were being shot dead in Gaza protesting the move. Supporters of the embassy move say it will bring a new era of peace to the longstanding conflict between Israel and Palestine, but it’s hard to see their rosy predictions coming to pass. In fact, yesterday’s violence seems to be a classic case of blowback from a wrong-headed US foreign policy move. Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are upset that US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement. We agree that it was a dumb move on his part that will likely bring us closer to yet another war, but when Merkel said the Europeans needed to start taking care of their own security and stop relying on the Americans, a silver lining was revealed in an otherwise dark cloud. European countries spend very little on defense compared to the US and benefit from the US picking up more than one-fifth the total NATO budget. A Europe that takes care of its own security would likely be less belligerent toward Russia, thus lowering the risks of a catastrophic war. More silver linings in today’s Liberty Report: