Rip’s Newsletter
June 22, 2026
Rip’s Newsletter
June 22, 2026
Compiled and Edited
by
Jim Reynolds
Articles in This Issue
Jay Rogers - Your Castle, Their Plans: 21 Years After Kelo, the Government Still Holds the Key
Terry Stoops - 5 Years Post-Covid, Public Middle Schoolers Still Can’t Read
Hugh Fitzgerald - USAID Confirms Israeli Claims: More Than 100 UNRWA Staff in Gaza Connected to Hamas | Frontpage Mag
Kevin McCullough - This Is America, FIFA
Bill Schoettler - Was America “Better” In the Past?
I’m looking at a set of stories that all point to the same ugly truth: the institutions that are supposed to protect ordinary people keep siding with power, bureaucracy, and bad ideas. The Supreme Court left Kelo standing, which means government still has a green light to seize private property for the benefit of developers and city hall favorites. USAID’s referral of more than 100 UNRWA staff tied to Hamas is another reminder that the aid-industrial complex has been feeding the very forces it claims to oppose. And while FIFA polices Iranian dissidents for waving the Lion and Sun flag, our schools are still failing to teach too many kids how to read.
Your Castle, Their Plans: 21 Years After Kelo, the Government Still Holds the Key
Site: Townhall
Author: Jay Rogers
Date: 2026-06-22
Supreme Court declined to revisit Kelo, leaving permissive eminent-domain precedent intact.
Kelo redefined “public use” as “public purpose,” enabling takings for economic development.
Fort Trumbull’s seized neighborhood was bulldozed, then left vacant for years.
Forty-seven states tightened laws, but loopholes and federal standards still permit abuse.
The author urges Congress, states, and the Court to restore stronger property protections.
Kelo still threatens ordinary property owners, making this a live fight over constitutional limits and economic freedom.
🅱️ This one knows what it’s mad about. Kelo is the kind of ruling that turns a Constitution into a suggestion box for city hall. Good spine, good memory, and it remembers the little guy gets steamrolled when the planners smell money.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
5 Years Post-Covid, Public Middle Schoolers Still Can’t Read
Site: The Federalist
Author: Terry Stoops
Date: 2026-06-22
NAEP long-term trend results show 9-year-olds improving in reading and math since 2022.
Those gains mostly restore pre-COVID levels, while achievement gaps still persist.
Thirteen-year-olds remain stuck: reading unchanged since 2023 and near 1971 levels.
Math for 13-year-olds is slightly above 1973, but far below 2012 and 2020.
The article blames shutdowns and failed reforms, urging basics, discipline, tutoring, and parental choice.
Public schools still lag badly for middle schoolers, making academic recovery and reform urgent.
🅱️ Here’s the part they keep trying to bury: kids got kneecapped, and the adults in charge called it prudence. The numbers do the talking, which is nice because the excuses are tired and smell like old conference coffee. Not fancy, just damning. That’s usually how the truth shows up.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
USAID Confirms Israeli Claims: More Than 100 UNRWA Staff in Gaza Connected to Hamas | Frontpage Mag
Site: FrontPage Magazine
Author: Hugh Fitzgerald
Date: 2026-06-22
USAID referred 101 current or former UNRWA staff to State over Hamas ties.
Referred employees included teachers, principals, security staff, counselors, and medical workers.
Some allegedly held senior Hamas roles or supported October 7 operations directly.
The report bolsters Israel’s claims that UNRWA was infiltrated by Hamas members.
The article urges donors to cut UNRWA funding and fold it into UNHCR.
This report could reshape aid policy by exposing alleged Hamas infiltration inside UNRWA.
🅱️ Funny how the paperwork always catches up after the damage is done. This one lands because it’s not theory — it’s the swamp’s own receipts. Could use a little more bite, but the core message is simple: the “humanitarian” costume was doing a lot of work.
Reader Experience: ★★★☆☆ Moderate ads and interruptions.
Read the original article HERE
This Is America, FIFA
Site: Townhall
Author: Kevin McCullough
Date: 2026-06-22
FIFA reportedly objected to Iranian fans displaying the historic Lion and Sun flag at SoFi Stadium.
The column says the flag symbolizes pre-theocracy Iran and anti-regime dissident identity.
It argues FIFA wrongly policed peaceful opposition while ignoring Tehran’s repression and terror.
Iranian-Americans are portrayed as loving Iran while rejecting the Ayatollahs’ regime.
The piece frames the incident as proof authoritarianism fears visible, public dissent.
The story matters because it spotlights how symbols of freedom can challenge tyranny on American soil.
🅱️ This one knows exactly where the stink is coming from. Bureaucrats always find a way to side with the wrong people and call it procedure. Good outrage, clean target, and the flag does the heavy lifting. Could use a little more bite in the landing, but the point gets through without a translator.
Reader Experience: ★★★★☆ Minor clutter but easy reading.
Read the original article HERE
Guest Contributor: Bill Schoettler
Note: Bill Schoettler is a Founder Member and Contributor to Rip’s Newsletter. Bill submitted this essay, and after a few editorial discussions and minor revisions, we decided to publish it here in its entirety.
As many readers know, Rip frequently accepted submissions from outside writers for publication in Rip’s Newsletter. I intend to continue that tradition while maintaining the same editorial standards Rip expected.
If you are interested in becoming a contributor, send me a message. Contributor opportunities are reserved for Founder Members, and all submissions are subject to editorial review and approval. Publishing quality work takes time, effort, and editorial commitment.
Bring only your best. That is what Rip expected—and it is what our readers deserve.
WAS AMERICA “BETTER” IN THE PAST?
Bill Schoettler (6/17/26)
I was born almost ninety years ago. I was alive when World War II began. I learned to drive a stick-shift car, rode a streetcar to high school, and did many of the things that now appear on the internet under the heading, “Things old people used to do.”
Gasoline sold for less than twenty-five cents a gallon. Service station attendants pumped the gas, checked the oil, inspected the radiator, and made sure the tires were properly inflated. Helms Bakery trucks delivered fresh bread. The milkman brought milk and eggs to the front door. Salesmen walked neighborhoods selling vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias.
Most of those things are gone today.
The reasons are not mysterious. Economics changed. Labor costs increased. Customers became more mobile. Why bring products to the neighborhood when customers can drive to a central location? Businesses adapted, and many familiar institutions simply disappeared.
That is the normal course of history. New things replace old things.
What interests me more, however, are the institutions that disappeared even though they provided something valuable.
A good example is the Boy Scouts of America.
For much of the twentieth century, scouting offered boys adventure, responsibility, outdoor skills, leadership training, and a chance to test themselves. Boys learned to camp, cook, hike, navigate, work together, and solve problems. The rewards were not financial. The rewards were confidence, maturity, and character.
Millions of boys embraced the experience.
Today, however, the organization that once occupied such a prominent place in American life has largely faded from public importance.
Why?
Part of the answer was competition. Beginning in the 1960s, organized youth activities expanded dramatically. Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, tutoring programs, and countless after-school opportunities competed for the time once devoted to scouting.
Family life changed as well. Mothers increasingly entered the workforce, often with the same skill and success as men. As households adapted to two working parents, structured and closely supervised activities became more attractive and more practical.
At the same time, public awareness of child abuse increased. Such misconduct had always existed, but it received little public attention during the first half of the century. As highly publicized cases emerged, parents became understandably more cautious about entrusting their children to adults outside the family, even though the overwhelming majority of Scout leaders were honorable volunteers who generously gave their time to young people.
Questions of gender equality added another challenge. As women gained opportunities throughout society, many began asking why daughters should be excluded from activities available to sons. The issue was understandable, but it also created practical questions regarding supervision, privacy, and the management of mixed-gender outdoor activities.
Finally came the legal profession. Organizations that sponsored Scout troops—churches, schools, civic clubs, and businesses—became increasingly concerned about liability. A single incident, however rare, could lead to costly litigation. Many sponsors simply decided the risk was no longer worth assuming.
None of these developments, by themselves, destroyed scouting. Rather, they gradually made participation more difficult, supervision more complicated, liability more expensive, and volunteer leadership harder to find. Like many institutions, scouting did not collapse because people stopped valuing it. It declined because the social conditions that once sustained it slowly disappeared.
The result was the quiet fading of an organization that had once helped shape generations of American boys. Along with milk deliveries, bread trucks, and the Good Humor Man, scouting became one more familiar feature of American life that slipped into history.
Does this mean America was better in the past?
Not necessarily.
The America of my youth had advantages that have disappeared, but it also lacked many opportunities that exist today. Modern medicine, technology, communications, and education have opened doors that earlier generations could scarcely imagine.
Every generation gains something and loses something.
What matters is recognizing what was valuable and finding new ways to preserve it. The lesson of scouting is not that boys need campfires and merit badges. The lesson is that young people still need challenge, responsibility, adventure, and opportunities to develop character.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow remains unknown.
What we do have is today—and the responsibility to make it worthy of those who will someday look back on our time as the “good old days.”
Bill Schoettler is a retired Judge, former trial attorney, and holds graduate degrees in Spiritual Psychology and Counseling Psychology. He also holds a Commercial Pilot’s License and has been a hunter, fisherman, author, editor, skier, parachutist, diver, teacher, and counselor.
I really like your new format. One of the things that I liked about Rip’s newsletter was the occasional article from a writer like Bill Schoettler and others that don’t get widespread distribution but are excellent. I know you and I are from the same generation and background along with many of these writers, like Hanson and Schoettler so their point of view resonates. Hopefully you will reach the younger generations with the truth of what’s happening in and to our country.