06/15 -- Ukraine: Nine killed, historic monastery on fire in Russian attacks; The Hidden Price of Social Security
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 15, 2026, 6:11:48 AM (8 days ago) Jun 15
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 06/15/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Nine killed, historic monastery on fire in Russian attacks
2) US regime to sign instrument of surrender to Iran on Friday
3) NY: Idiot pols fantasize that they can control guns, 3D printing
4) Switzerland: Voters projected to reject population cap proposal
5) Bitcoin hits a two-week high above $65,500
6) Poll: Trump’s Support in Rural America Slips as Fuel and Food Prices Climb
7) Taiwan: Spy agency launches webpage for Chinese nationals to report tips
8) TX: Voters Reject Anti-Islam Candidate in Suburban Mayoral Race
9) Mexico: Police discover body in trunk near Iranian soccer team’s World Cup training grounds
10) English Channel: UK-based pirates board, steal tanker
11) Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Center’s facade after court rulings
12) Gene Shalit, 1926-2026
13) 50k G7 protesters shut down major city ahead of Trump visit to French-Swiss border
14) Spain: Regime opens new probe into former PM over jewelry found in office
15) Norway braces for verdict in rape trial of crown princess’s son Høiby
16) Third batch of declassified UFO files reveals sightings around the world were investigated
17) NYC: More than 60 arrests as “unruly” Knicks fans wrought destruction, injured police
18) Mexico: Gunmen murder journalist
19) CA: Two arrested in connection with wild Pokemon card robbery in San Francisco
20) Appeals court denies former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Hidden Price of Social Security
22) Could Donald Trump Finally End America’s Twice Yearly Clock-Setting Nightmare?
23) Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
24) Politics ain’t beanbag. But character still matters.
25) The Right Kind of Eugenics
26) The Entire Human Species Has Been Turned Into A Profit-Generating Machine
27) Illinois’s doomed plan to tax social media
28) A tale of two Republicans who crossed Trump
29) Why Mainstream Media Should Stop Using ADL as Their Go-To Antisemitism Source
30) Limits of power, limits on corruption?
31) When journalists whine about #MeToo, they don’t mean Platnertoo
32) The forever war in Ukraine?
33) “An Ordinary Insanity” Keeps Daniel Ellsberg’s Anti-Nuclear Warning Alive
34) Forget About “Healthy Life”
35) Force, Direct and “Indirect”
36) Trump, Not Netanyahu, Has the Cards. He Should Play Them
37) Let’s Have a Serious Conversation About Race
38) Social Security Insolvency: The Lies and the Fixes
39) Churchill, Keynes, and the General Strike at 100
40) In an age of “false realism,” Pope Leo presses for strategic restraint
41) Wake Up America: All Humans Are Created Equal
42) The Declaration of Independence versus Egalitarianism
43) America the Unfree — Home of the Policed, Surveilled and Occupied
44) The Beau Idéal Historian
45) The Face of Modern Britain: Jihad’s Triumph
46) Celebrate the Fourth of July. But Don’t Forget the Twelfth of June.
47) Punish Energy Producers?
48) Graham Platner Signals a Problem for Democrats, and the Rest of Us
49) Trump’s Bait and Switch on Top Intelligence Job
50) Why Bother Considering Whether Government is Necessary?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 344
52) The Good Fight, 06/13/26
53) The Dispatch Podcast, 06/12/26
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/12/26
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 06/12/26
56) The Climate Realism Show, episode 205
57) Rising, 06/12/26
58) The Fifth Column, 06/12/26
59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/12/26
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 06/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Nine killed, historic monastery on fire in Russian attacks
Source: Reuters
“Four people were killed while the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire, in the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, authorities said on Monday. The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week. … Four emergency service rescuers and one municipal official were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, with three people, including a child, wounded in Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.” (06/15/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-injured-ukraine-repels-air-attacks-over-kyiv-local-authorities-say-2026-06-14/
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2) US regime to sign instrument of surrender to Iran on Friday
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran and the United States have agreed to a memorandum of understanding to end more than 100 days of war, with Tehran saying the agreement includes Lebanon, which has been under intense Israeli attacks since March 2. Mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, the deal will be formally signed in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday. … According to the Iranian news agency Mehr, the draft agreement contains 14 points. It includes: A permanent and immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon; the complete lifting of the naval blockade within 30 days; a US commitment to withdraw its forces from around Iran; and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The draft also mentions the suspension of sanctions on oil sales, reaching a final agreement on nuclear issues within 60 days of signing the deal, and the release of $24bn in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiation period.” (06/15/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/15/us-iran-to-sign-a-peace-deal-on-friday-what-we-know-so-far
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3) NY: Idiot pols fantasize that they can control guns, 3D printing
Source: The Columbian
“A first-of-its-kind law in New York could force 3D printers sold for homes and business to come equipped with technology blocking them from making guns. The new requirement, also under consideration in California, attempts to thwart the latest technique for producing untraceable ‘ghost guns’ that have turned up in crimes. … A New York law signed last month and a bill in the California Legislature both would direct panels of experts to come up with standards for firearm blueprint detection algorithms. The technology would analyze every design submitted for 3D printing, compare it to a digital library of firearm parts and reject those that are similar.” [editor’s note: If the idea wasn’t so irredeemably evil, it would be kind of funny to watch them fantasize about their ability to implement it – TLK] (06/14/26)
https://www.columbian.com/news/2026/jun/14/n-y-law-targets-printed-weapons/
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4) Switzerland: Voters projected to reject population cap proposal
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Voters in Switzerland on Sunday cast ballots to decide the fate of a proposal to cap the Alpine nation’s population at 10 million by 2050. Preliminary projections by national broadcaster SRF have indicated that the proposal has been rejected by some 55% as against 45% in favor. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, referendums are mostly binding in their effect. The proposal has been put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which has the most seats in the Swiss parliament. Currently, Switzerland has a population of 9.1 million.” (06/14/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-voters-projected-to-reject-population-cap-proposal/a-77543868
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5) Bitcoin hits a two-week high above $65,500
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin climbed to its highest level in nearly two weeks after the US and Iran reached a deal to end hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, removing the energy-supply fear that had weighed on markets for months. The token traded around $65,844 on Monday, up 2.1% over 24 hours, after touching a low near $63,722 in the early hours of Asian trading before the deal news broke, per CoinDesk data. The move puts bitcoin about 9% above the sub-$60,000 low it hit last week, its weakest level since October 2024.” (06/15/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/15/bitcoin-hits-a-two-week-high-above-usd65-500-as-the-us-iran-deal-sends-oil-sliding
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6) Poll: Trump’s Support in Rural America Slips as Fuel and Food Prices Climb
Source: US News & World Report
“Brian Rauch has felt the squeeze of higher gas prices on his 30-mile (50-km) drives from his home in rural Stevensville, Montana, to the doctor’s office. He has also noticed food prices going up and, as an Air Force veteran, sees little rationale for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. These are among the reasons the 42-year-old increasingly disapproves of the performance of President Donald Trump, the man he voted for in the last three presidential elections, putting him among a growing portion of rural Americans disappointed by his leadership in Washington. Trump’s approval rating among rural Americans dropped in June to a new low of 50%, according to the June 3-8 Reuters/Ipsos poll. That compares with 60% approval in February 2025 shortly after Trump took office. Rural disapproval of Trump’s performance meanwhile rose to 48% from 34% in February 2025, according to the poll of 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide.” (06/14/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-14/trumps-support-in-rural-america-slips-as-fuel-and-food-prices-climb-reuters-ipsos-poll-shows
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7) Taiwan: Spy agency launches webpage for Chinese nationals to report tips
Source: Seattle Times
“Taiwan’s intelligence agency said on Sunday it is establishing an information-reporting channel for Chinese nationals to offer tips securely, at a time when tensions between Beijing and the self-ruled island remain elevated. In a statement, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said they are launching a webpage that will act as a secure channel for Chinese nationals to provide intelligence-related information, saying that an increasing number of people have recently approached relevant agencies in Taiwan wishing to ‘provide various types of information.’ … China had earlier said it launched an online platform to encourage reporting of ‘Taiwan independence’ activities, aiming at holding ‘separatists’ accountable.” (06/14/26)
https://archive.is/2Z0ww
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8) TX: Voters Reject Anti-Islam Candidate in Suburban Mayoral Race
Source: New York Times
“Mark Hill, a conservative lawyer who served on the local school board, won a divisive mayoral runoff on Saturday in Frisco, Texas, that turned into a referendum on the city’s diversity and a testing ground for the power of anti-Muslim messaging. Mr. Hill defeated Rod Vilhauer, a retired construction company owner who gained a following on the hard right with his promises to keep ‘terrorists’ from gaining a foothold in Frisco and to prevent Shariah, or Islamic religious codes, from taking precedence over local and federal law.” (06/13/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/us/frisco-texas-mayor-election-mark-hill.html
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9) Mexico: Police discover body in trunk near Iranian soccer team’s World Cup training grounds
Source: Fox News
“Mexican authorities discovered a decomposing corpse with ‘signs of violence’ near Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium, where the Iranian national soccer team is training during the World Cup, according to a New York Post report. Authorities responded to complaints about a bad smell wafting from a gray Toyota SUV with California plates parked in a grocery store parking lot near the stadium, the Post reported. ‘Upon inspecting the vehicle, they found a person wrapped in a black bag in the trunk, showing signs of violence,’ a spokesperson for the Tijuana prosecutor’s office told the Post.” (06/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexican-authorities-discover-body-trunk-near-iranian-soccer-teams-world-cup-training-grounds-report
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10) English Channel: UK-based pirates board, steal tanker
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“British [pirates] have seized a Russian shadow-fleet oil tanker that was trying to transit the English Channel, Prime Minister Keir Starmer says. ‘This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,’ Starmer said in a post on X on Sunday. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence also confirmed the early Sunday seizure of the vessel Smyrtos. It said the tanker, sailing under a Cameroon flag, was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and National Crime Agency officials with support from Chinook helicopters and other aircraft, a frigate and a minehunter.” (06/14/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/14/uk-boards-and-seizes-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-in-english-channel
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11) Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Center’s facade after court rulings
Source: SFGate
“The curtain may have come down for President Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center but the tarp stays up for now. Matt Floca, executive director and chief operating officer of the performing arts venue, told a federal court Saturday that the institution had complied with an order to remove Trump’s name from the facade. … But for onlookers who have gathered on the plaza in front of the center over the past day hoping to witness a dramatic moment symbolizing the limits of Trump’s power, it was virtually impossible to see whether the signage was gone. A tarp hung over the scaffolding constructed for workers to perform that task. It was unclear when the tarp might be removed to reveal the original lettering that had endured for decades: ‘The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.'” (06/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/trump-s-name-is-still-on-the-kennedy-center-22303721.php
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12) Gene Shalit, 1926-2026
Source: Washington Post
“Gene Shalit, a movie critic and arts reporter for the ‘Today’ show over four decades who was known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100. Shalit’s family announced the death Friday to NBC News, saying in a statement that he ‘passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.'” (06/12/26)
https://archive.is/WUFGK
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13) 50k G7 protesters shut down major city ahead of Trump visit to French-Swiss border
Source: New York Post
“President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday night but the real battle may be on the streets of Geneva, where 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Switzerland’s second largest city to protest the G7 summit. Geneva essentially shut down on Sunday. Businesses closed and boarded up their windows. Anti-protester wire fencing was raised around the streets. And police vans took their places on corners, with officers wearing riot gear in preparation. Trump arrives at the G7 on Monday. He, like most world leaders, will arrive at Geneva’s airport before traveling to the summit location in nearby Evian, France. French and Swiss authorities shut down 27 border crossings on Sunday to keep the protesters away from the small spa-town on the shores of Lake Geneva where Trump and the other world leaders will stay.” (06/14/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/14/us-news/50000-g7-protesters-shut-down-major-city-ahead-of-trump-visit-to-french-swiss-border/
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14) Spain: Regime opens new probe into former PM over jewelry found in office
Source: Reuters
“A Spanish High Court judge investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for suspected corruption has opened a separate probe over jewellery found during a search of his office, the court said on Friday. Zapatero, prime minister from 2004 to 2011, remains a leading figure in the main ruling Socialist Party and the graft allegations — which he has denied — have added to pressure on the government following a series of corruption scandals. Investigating judge Jose Luis Calama said the jewellery items seized during the May 19 search, provisionally valued at about €1.3 million ($1.5 million), currently lack documented proof of origin. He said the possession of high-value assets without clear fiscal traceability could indicate possible tax evasion or smuggling offences, citing the absence of customs documents or evidence that import duties had been paid.” (06/12/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/spain-opens-new-probe-into-ex-pm-zapatero-over-jewellery-found-office-2026-06-12/
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15) Norway braces for verdict in rape trial of crown princess’s son Høiby
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“When three judges in courtroom 250 deliver their verdict at Oslo District Court early on Monday, Marius Borg Høiby — the son of the crown princess of Norway — will find out the extent of his sentence. Høiby, 29, will appear via video link because of unspecified health reasons, almost three months after his trial came to an end on 40 charges, including four counts of rape. He denies the most serious offences but admits some of the lesser charges involving drugs and traffic offences. Prosecutors say he should be given seven years and seven months in jail, whereas his defence lawyers believe he should serve a year-and-a-half. Høiby, whose mother married into the royal family when he was four, has been in custody since the start of February.” (06/14/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95xvk4vn2o
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16) Third batch of declassified UFO files reveals sightings around the world were investigated
Source: NBC News
“The Pentagon on Friday released a third batch of vintage classified files related to ‘flying saucers’ and other unidentified anomalous phenomena — better known to most Americans as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs — that the government has been hanging on to for decades. The 72 newly released files date from the 1940s to this year and showed that government investigators had looked into UFO sightings not just in the United States, but also around the world. The files contain more reports of UFO sightings from the public and more reports on the phenomenon from both the CIA and the FBI. … just as the two previous times when the government, at the urging of President Donald Trump, released two tranches of ‘never-before-seen’ files on a subject that has intrigued Americans for generations, the new document drop will likely be a disappointment to those seeking definitive proof that we are not alone in the universe.” (06/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/third-batch-declassified-ufo-files-reveals-sightings-world-investigate-rcna349775
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17) NYC: More than 60 arrests as “unruly” Knicks fans wrought destruction, injured police
Source: Fox News
“More than 60 people were arrested in the streets of New York City in the hours after the Knicks captured their first championship in 53 years Saturday night as celebration gave way to mayhem and violence, the New York Police Department said Sunday morning. Police said 63 people were arrested in relation to the game on charges ranging from assault on a police officer, criminal possession of weapon (gun), criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration. Ten members of the NYPD were injured, including one member who was punched in the face and another who was struck with a glass bottle, police said. … Around 2 a.m., police said a 17-year-old boy was shot once in the left foot near 43rd Street and Broadway. … Other violence included four slashings/stabbings and large physical fights breaking out, according to police.” (06/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/knicks-championship-celebration-nyc-chaos-06-14-26
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18) Mexico: Gunmen murder journalist
Source: ABC News
“Gunmen shot and killed a journalist Thursday in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz, authorities said. It was the country’s second killing of a media worker this year — both of them in Veracruz, known as exceptionally dangerous for journalists. The Veracruz prosecutor’s office confirmed the killing, while the State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists identified the victim as Luis Ángel López Valdez. He was the director of a local media outlet and a reporter for the Vanguardia de Veracruz newspaper. According to Vanguardia, López Valdez was walking along a street in the city of Poza Rica when he was intercepted by gunmen who shot him at close range before fleeing. He specialized in police and security reporting.” (06/12/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-shoot-kill-mexican-journalist-eastern-state-veracruz-133794679
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19) CA: Two arrested in connection with wild Pokemon card robbery in San Francisco
Source: SFGate
“Two people were arrested in San Francisco in connection with a chaotic robbery of Pokemon cards, the San Francisco Police Department announced on Thursday. On May 28, police said, a person agreed to meet with someone he believed was going to buy his collection of trading cards. … The suspect then allegedly pepper-sprayed the seller and ran into a getaway car with two more suspects inside. Medical crews assessed the seller at the scene and determined he had non-life-threatening injuries. Police used Flock cameras to find the suspects’ car …. Officers used drones to follow the car and watched two suspects exit the car and enter a jewelry and pawn shop near O’Farrell and Polk streets. Plainclothes officers then took the suspects into custody and booked them into the Juvenile Justice Center, where they are facing robbery and conspiracy charges.” [editor’s note: Did even Orwell foresee this level of surveillance capability? – TLK] (06/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/pokemon-card-robbery-sf-22303395.php
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20) Appeals court denies former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried
Source: United Press International
“The conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will stay after an appeals court shot down his bid to overturn his 2023 conviction of fraud. Bankman-Fried, 34, a former cryptocurrency mogul and CEO, argued that his trial was unfair and that the firm would have paid out to investors in the long term. Judge Barrington Parker wrote in the ruling that ‘the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust,’ Politico reported.” (06/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/06/12/sam-bankman-fried-appeal-denied/9281781280437/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Hidden Price of Social Security
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Athan Clark
“A worker earning $60,000 a year sends 12.4% of his wages to Social Security: $7,440 annually, every year of his working life. Half is deducted from his paycheck; the other half is paid by his employer, which economists broadly agree comes out of the worker’s wages anyway, though he never sees it. There is no deposit slip or account with his name on it, but this is money that would otherwise be his. That same $7,440 a year, invested for 40 years at an inflation-adjusted 7% — roughly the long-run historical performance of US equities — would accumulate to about $1.5 million. Social Security, by contrast, offers most younger workers an implicit inflation-adjusted return in the range of 1% to 2%, and lower still for higher earners.” (06/12/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-hidden-price-of-social-security/
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22) Could Donald Trump Finally End America’s Twice Yearly Clock-Setting Nightmare?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Twice a year, every year, for more than a century now, most Americans ‘spring forward’ or ‘fall back,’ pretending that an hour has been deleted from, or inserted into, our sleep schedules. Our bodies spend weeks adjusting to each ‘new normal,’ leading to, among other things, measurable increases in traffic fatalities. … US president Donald Trump wants the government to knock off its weird time-shifting magic routine. Some Trump-watchers even suggest that he cares enough to make it one of his ‘loyalty test’ issues, punishing politicians who don’t toe the line. Therefore, Congress will likely vote on something called the ‘Sunshine Protection Act’ later this summer. … Thank you, President Trump, for your attention to this matter!” (06/13/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20699
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23) Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“In his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Trump boasted that ‘one of the primary reasons for our country’s stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history, where the Dow Jones broke 50,000, four years ahead of schedule, and the S&P hit 7000 where it wasn’t supposed to do it for many years, were tariffs.’ The facts tell a different story. First, because there is no schedule for stock-market gains, it is meaningless to say that the Dow Jones or S&P 500 rose ‘ahead of schedule.’ The reality is that the US economy during the first year of President Trump’s second term simply did not perform a ‘turnaround,’ much less one that could be ranked as ‘the biggest in history.'” (06/12/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/measuring-trump-2-0-against-trump-1-0-tariff-boasts-meet-the-data/
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24) Politics ain’t beanbag. But character still matters.
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“It’s hard to denounce [Graham] Platner while supporting [Ken] Paxton (or Donald Trump), but that won’t stop many Republicans from trying. The reverse is also true. Many Democrats will assure themselves that this is entirely different, even though it’s much the same. It is a rejection of the idea that character matters in politics. Some readers may retort that it doesn’t matter, that people of bad character can still make fine public servants. Politicians needn’t be saints. But nor should Americans mindlessly vote for whoever represents their party without any care for character. Nominating those who are obviously unscrupulous and unstable is bad for the country — and, frequently, for America’s parties.” (06/14/26)
https://archive.is/zgYVP
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25) The Right Kind of Eugenics
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Eugenics, broadly defined, is the use of selective breeding to improve the human race. Most people imagine it as government control of reproduction intended to improve the population’s genetics by encouraging reproduction by those with good genes, discouraging or banning reproduction by those with bad; what policies qualify depends on what you count as improvement. Getting parents more nearly the children they want is in my view a better definition of ‘improvement’ than giving them more nearly the children the government wants them to have. Getting parents the children they want, like getting other people what they want, is best done by leaving the choice up to them. If making it easier for parents to affect the genetics of their children seems to you an odd form of eugenics, consider the equivalent issue in economics.” (06/13/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/the-right-kind-of-eugenics
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26) The Entire Human Species Has Been Turned Into A Profit-Generating Machine
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Under capitalism [sic], humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.” [editor’s note: Johnstone is often great on foreign policy, but nearly always completely clueless on economics – TLK] (06/12/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/06/12/the-entire-human-species-has-been-turned-into-a-profit-generating-machine/
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27) Illinois’s doomed plan to tax social media
Source: Expression
by Tyler Tone
“Illinois can tax income. It can tax profits. It can tax businesses. It can even impose generally applicable taxes that happen to reach content mediums like cable or newspapers. But the First Amendment strictly prohibits taxes that single out content the state doesn’t like. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Illinois’[s] new state spending plan does, and it’s poised to soon be signed by Governor Pritzker. Buried in the 1600-page budget, the relevant provision would charge the secretary of state with collecting a ‘social media platform fee.’ … The proposal’s biggest hurdle is the decades of case law that have squarely labeled this kind of tax as exactly what it is: a regulation of speech. And social media sites are very much speech.” (06/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/illinois-doomed-plan-to-tax-social
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28) A tale of two Republicans who crossed Trump
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Matt K Lewis
“For those of us struggling to understand today’s Republican Party, this past week’s primary elections in South Carolina offered a useful case study. The key developments were these: Rep. Nancy Mace — a former conservative rising star who seems tailor-made for the Trump-era attention economy — finished fifth in her state’s Republican primary for governor. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham — who seems like a relic from an earlier time in the Republican Party — easily dispatched a wealthy ‘America First’ primary challenger. At first glance, none of this makes sense. Making matters more confusing, when it comes to the defining ‘issue’ of our time — Donald Trump — Graham and Mace have both spent years criticizing him and then crawling back to him. Until, that is, one found the door locked.” (06/12/26)
https://archive.is/HJVIa
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29) Why Mainstream Media Should Stop Using ADL as Their Go-To Antisemitism Source
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Ari Paul
“More than a decade ago, a video (Mondoweiss, 8/7/14) showed Jodi Rudoren, then The New York Times’[s] Jerusalem bureau chief, having a casual and friendly meeting with Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League. The cozy relationship in the video was telling enough, but when the video captured Foxman complaining that ‘the Arabs’ had taken over a famous New York City hotel, and Rudoren shrugging it off, many skeptics viewed this as a window into the Times’[s] pro-Israel bias. The recently deceased Foxman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5/12/26), famous for promoting the pro-Israel viewpoint and insinuating that critics of Israel were antisemitic, wasn’t Rudoren’s source in this video; they were pals. Emmaia Gelman’s new book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, is a history of the group, framing it not as a racial justice organization but as a deputy sheriff for the US empire.” [editor’s note: Is ADL just as messed up as SPLC? Film at eleven – SAT] (06/14/26)
https://fair.org/home/why-do-us-media-still-treat-adl-as-a-credible-source-on-antisemitism/
-----
30) Limits of power, limits on corruption?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We have surrendered power for more than a century and a half to the parasites (elected and appointed) in DC and fifty State capitols and thousands of local jurisdictions. We have given them power over our minute-to-minute lives that I think it is safe to say that few nations and societies in history have ever held. Yet we continue to claim that we are free, in this Anno Libertatus 250. Yes, we have won a few victories, in a number of States, and sometimes at the FedGov level. But while we celebrate those victories for a few essential rights we often fail to understand the significance of the creeping loss of many, many more. Worse, we fail to see and understand why these liberties are being stolen away.” (06/12/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/06/12/limits-of-power-limits-on-corruption/
-----
31) When journalists whine about #MeToo, they don’t mean Platnertoo
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“Some people just like classic Coke. Others insist on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: This is really not the classic #MeToo allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage. Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is OK for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims. None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.” (06/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-when-journalists-whine-about-metoo-dont-mean-platner-too
-----
32) The forever war in Ukraine?
Source: spiked
by Frank Furedi
“On 11 June 2026, we passed an important and disturbing milestone. This was the day that the war in Ukraine, at four years, three months and 15 days, surpassed the First World War in duration. Sometimes it can seem as if this conflict has turned into a genuine forever war. The seeming interminability of the war is not a surprise. As I argued in my 2022 book, The Road To Ukraine: How The West Lost Its Way, this was a conflict that neither side could afford to lose. And, as a result, it always threatened to become a typical frontier war that could last indefinitely.” (06/13/26)
https://archive.is/W3T3J
-----
33) “An Ordinary Insanity” Keeps Daniel Ellsberg’s Anti-Nuclear Warning Alive
Source: Progressive Hub
by Robert Ellsberg
“This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning. He believed that with these weapons both the US and the USSR, now Russia, had constructed Doomsday Machines, capable of destroying most life on Earth—machines that are particularly dangerous because neither side acknowledges this reality but continue to proceed as if there were some circumstances in which it was possible to win a nuclear war. The epigraph from Dad’s book is from Nietzsche: ‘Madness in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.'” (06/14/26)
https://progressivehub.net/the-new-documentary-an-ordinary-insanity/
-----
34) Forget About “Healthy Life”
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sinead Murphy
“It has been reported that ‘healthy life expectancy’ in the UK has fallen during the past decade. Disparity between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in different regions of the UK has been described. A 20-year gap between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Richmond and the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Blackpool has been alleged. The concept of ‘healthy life expectancy’ has been bandied about as if we have used it always. Its precursor, ‘healthy lifestyle,’ is already ubiquitous. Its successor, surely to be ‘healthy lifespan.’ But the concept of ‘healthy life-anything’ should be unusable. It should say nothing. Like ‘unmarried bachelor.’ Or ‘free gift.’ Or ‘organic food.’” (06/12/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/forget-about-healthy-life/
-----
35) Force, Direct and “Indirect”
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“In ‘The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State’ (1885), British liberal Auberon Herbert replied to those who objected to his call for complete individual liberty, that is, respect for the rights of all. For example, he took on big-government advocates who claimed that they also wanted to ‘diminish the use of force in the world.’ Herbert wasn’t buying it.” (06/12/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-force-direct-and-indirect
-----
36) Trump, Not Netanyahu, Has the Cards. He Should Play Them
Source: The American Conservative
by Josh Paul
“The U.S.-Israel relationship has never been less popular in America, but at the same time that support for Israel is cratering in American public opinion, Congress appears to be fast-tracking an effort to entrench the relationship and give Israel enduring access to both our most sensitive technologies and our most sensitive intelligence — in exchange for nothing more, it seems, than a thank you note from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. … Given the challenges posed by the Israeli leader, a common complaint on both the right and the left of American politics is that Israel exerts far too much power in U.S. politics. But a closer look at the facts demonstrates that Netanyahu is actually in an incredibly weak position — or would be, if the administration was willing to assess and deal with the entire U.S.-Israel portfolio holistically.” (06/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-not-netanyahu-has-the-cards-he-should-play-them/
-----
37) Let’s Have a Serious Conversation About Race
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“‘What the hell is wrong with these people?’ I heard someone ask as a clip of Jasmine Crockett played on the television at the restaurant bar the other day. What was Crockett talking about? Her sympathy for the murderer named Karmelo Anthony because he’s black. Yes, that’s why she cares, or at least pretends to care, about the fate of the man who’ll spend at least the next 17.5 years of his life in prison in Texas. How could anyone, real or not, go on camera and express sympathy for a murderer, at the expense of the murder victim and his family, no less? There’s really only one possibility: the cancerous cultural rot Democrats have forced and enforced on the black community. … How do you address a problem if you aren’t willing to talk about it honestly?” (06/14/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/06/14/lets-have-a-serious-conversation-about-race-n2677727
-----
38) Social Security Insolvency: The Lies and the Fixes
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Citizens worry about promised benefits as the Trust Fund runs dry by 2033. Instead of tax hikes that punish the young, here are four proven reforms.” (06/12/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/social-security-insolvency-the-lies
-----
39) Churchill, Keynes, and the General Strike at 100
Source: EconLog
by John Phelan
“When Winston Churchill was named Chancellor in November 1924, he is said to have assumed it was the largely ceremonial post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was as surprised as anyone, given his lack of interest in economics, to find that it was Chancellor of the Exchequer, constitutionally the second most powerful office in the British government. ‘I was surprised,’ he wrote, ‘and the Conservative Party dumbfounded.’ The controversy that would follow Churchill’s tenure has implications for policy debates today. It all has to do with macroeconomics and exchange rates: how they affect trade and development, whether they should be fixed or floating, and the problems these questions create for policymakers. In the short term, the decisions Churchill made led to the General Strike of 1926, and these debates continue to echo in the longer term.” (06/12/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/churchill-keynes-and-the-general-strike-at-100
-----
40) In an age of “false realism,” Pope Leo presses for strategic restraint
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joshua Villanueva
“Observers could easily dismiss Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ as just another document on artificial intelligence. But under the surface lies a deeper question: whether modern political elites still have both the ability and the moral clarity to place restraints on power.” (06/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pope-leo-on-war/
-----
41) Wake Up America: All Humans Are Created Equal
Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler
“Suddenly my cynicism vanished and things started making sense… America started making sense, from past to present. I was already in the process of writing this column — hey, the nation’s 250th birthday is coming up — and had never felt more lost. Where, where, where am I going with this? What am I trying to say? My words had no core, no soul. I felt like I had given myself the random rubble of a bombed-out building to write about. Then a friend sent me a link to a New York Times opinion piece. I decided to give it a quick read. I don’t necessarily trust the Times. It can be smugly wrong. But I took a look — it was by literary critic A.O. Scott — and I couldn’t stop reading it.” (06/14/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/all-humans-are-equal
-----
42) The Declaration of Independence versus Egalitarianism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is likely that we will hear a common, but mistaken, interpretation of the Declaration by both establishment conservatives and progressive egalitarians. After repeating Jefferson’s words ‘that all men are created equal,’ they will make a simple, true observation — at the time of writing, not everyone was treated as ‘equal’ (e.g., slavery). Following that observation comes the supposition: since the historical period of colonial America did not match the ideal of modern, progressive egalitarianism, therefore, the centralized nation-state was required to increasingly achieve that ideal.” (06/12/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/declaration-independence-versus-egalitarianism
-----
43) America the Unfree — Home of the Policed, Surveilled and Occupied
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“America has become an occupied nation. Not by one invading army, but by many occupying powers: the police state, the surveillance state, the war state, the corporate state, the foreign influence machine, and a ruling class that treats the American people as little more than collateral damage in its pursuit of power, profit and control. We have been policed, surveilled, taxed, indebted, manipulated, censored, tracked, searched, silenced and sold out.” (06/12/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/12/america-the-unfree-home-of-the-policed-surveilled-and-occupied/
-----
44) The Beau Idéal Historian
Source: Law & Liberty
by Aaron N Coleman
“The celebrations of the 250th anniversary of independence will be a bit dimmer now with the sudden passing of the greatest historian of the American founding, Gordon S. Wood. Since the 1960s, Wood stood at the pinnacle of the historical profession. The list of awards and accolades he received over his sixty-year career, including the National Medal of the Humanities, is longer than most academics’ CVs. For all the deserved laurels, however, Wood accomplished something most academics only dream of: he crossed into popular culture.” (06/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-beau-ideal-historian/
-----
45) The Face of Modern Britain: Jihad’s Triumph
Source: American Greatness
by Roger Kimball
“It turns out that I have found something to agree with Keir Starmer about. During Ramadan this year, the prime minister described Muslims as ‘the face of modern Britain.’ I think that is correct. Whether it is also something to be happy about is another question. The PM, for his part, couldn’t be more pleased. Muslims in Britain, he went on to say, are ‘a success story when it comes to diversity.’ Was that qualification (‘when it comes to diversity’) just a nod to reality? Or was it merely his capitulation to some sort of self-imposed linguistic quota according to which he must punctuate two out of three pronouncements with the word ‘diversity’ or go without his pudding? The jury is still out on that.” (06/14/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/14/the-face-of-modern-britain-jihads-triumph/
-----
46) Celebrate the Fourth of July. But Don’t Forget the Twelfth of June.
Source: Independent Institute
by William J Watkins, Jr.
“Naturally, the main event of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations will be the Fourth of July, in honor of the Declaration of Independence. But a little tailgate party would be appropriate for the Twelfth of June. For it was on that date, 250 years ago, that Virginia’s Declaration of Rights was adopted. Written primarily by George Mason, Virginia’s declaration inspired Thomas Jefferson in writing the nation’s founding document. It set forth in plain language America’s first principles and provided guideposts for the establishment of a republican government.” (06/12/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/12/celebrate-the-fourth-of-july-but-dont-forget-the-twelfth-of-june/
-----
47) Punish Energy Producers?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The latest attempt to hamper our ability to do things? A series of lawsuits against oil companies for allegedly committing global warming. The plaintiffs want billions and billions to be extracted from these companies for fueling civilization.” (06/12/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/12/punish-energy-producers/
-----
48) Graham Platner Signals a Problem for Democrats, and the Rest of Us
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The ‘progressive’ wing of the Democratic Party is on a roll, winning nominations and elections. Left-wing leaders are taking earned victory laps as they chalk up victories for candidates espousing socialism, hostility to Israel (and often Jews), identity politics, and other leftist positions that were until recently thankfully rare in American politics. But the radicals’ support for Maine’s deeply troubled Graham Platner, who won the party’s nod to compete in the U.S. Senate race, shows the dangers posed by a movement that seemingly holds ideological lunacy as its highest value. It’s not clear that anybody is in a position to stop them.” (06/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/12/graham-platner-signals-a-problem-for-democrats-and-the-rest-of-us/
-----
49) Trump’s Bait and Switch on Top Intelligence Job
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“On Thursday, Donald Trump belatedly reacted to the revolt (which included several key Republicans) over his preposterous installation of uber-loyalist Bill Pulte, who has not a shred of national security experience, as acting director of national intelligence, by nominating Jay Clayton for the position. But he has no such experience either. Clayton, SEC chair in Trump’s first term, was a longtime Wall Street lawyer at the power-law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He now serves as U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Some Democrats were quick to take the bait, which matters at a time when the party is allowing a key warrantless wiretapping provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire today, because of the Pulte appointment.” (06/12/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/12/trumps-bait-and-switch-top-intelligence-job-dni-clayton/
-----
50) Why Bother Considering Whether Government is Necessary?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“Is the existence of government an issue that should occupy the minds of those who believe that liberty supports human flourishing? As far as I know, there is no country in the world in which citizens are currently faced with a choice between having a minimal state or no state at all. In liberal democracies – the countries that currently enjoy the greatest personal and economic freedom – liberty is being threatened by political movements with authoritarian tendencies. Authoritarianism is presented in the wrapping of different varieties of collectivist idealism which offer citizens the opportunity to attribute personal and social problems to immigration, foreign competition, the greed of the wealthy, systemic discrimination, environmental degradation or anything else that appears to justify a larger role for government. Shouldn’t libertarians be focusing their attention on supporting the political/legal order – democracy, or representative government – that has been most successful in promoting personal and economic freedom?” (06/12/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/06/why-bother-considering-whether.html
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 344
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Grok just stole your retirement.” (06/13/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-344-grok-just-stole-your
-----
52) The Good Fight, 06/13/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“David Bau on How — and Whether — Artificial Intelligence Thinks.” (06/13/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/david-bau-2
-----
53) The Dispatch Podcast, 06/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“How the Epstein Files Stumped the White House.” (06/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/how-the-epstein-files-stumped-the-white-house/
-----
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/12/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“The Empire is Failing, the Police State is Intensifying w/ Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski.” (06/12/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/kkwiatkowski6-12-26/
-----
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 06/12/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Susan DeGennaro (software engineer and technical trainer specializing in Machine Learning and Generative Artificial Intelligence) comes on the show to discuss AI.” (06/12/26)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/397012-2026-06-10-2026-06-12-ernest-hancock-interviews-susan-degennaro-mp3-4.htm
-----
56) The Climate Realism Show, episode 205
Source: Heartland Institute
‘Godzilla El Niño is Coming!” (06/12/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/climate-energy-and-the-election-the-climate-realism-show-181/
-----
57) Rising, 06/12/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on a report from POLITICO claiming that tensions in the White House are rising, even between President Trump and his own advisors.” (06/12/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5911474-rising-june-12-2026/
-----
58) The Fifth Column, 06/12/26
Source: The Fifth Column
“The guys celebrate New York at its best, then turn to politics at its dumbest.” (06/12/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-knicks-oyster-man-and-the-infinite
-----
59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump Says ‘I Love Inflation’ — But The American People Can’t Afford It!” (06/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rxmqqAolZVxy
-----
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 06/12/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Romina Boccia ‘The Social Security Trust Fund Myth.'” (06/12/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-06-12_zfw006102026.mp3
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Nine killed, historic monastery on fire in Russian attacks
2) US regime to sign instrument of surrender to Iran on Friday
3) NY: Idiot pols fantasize that they can control guns, 3D printing
4) Switzerland: Voters projected to reject population cap proposal
5) Bitcoin hits a two-week high above $65,500
6) Poll: Trump’s Support in Rural America Slips as Fuel and Food Prices Climb
7) Taiwan: Spy agency launches webpage for Chinese nationals to report tips
8) TX: Voters Reject Anti-Islam Candidate in Suburban Mayoral Race
9) Mexico: Police discover body in trunk near Iranian soccer team’s World Cup training grounds
10) English Channel: UK-based pirates board, steal tanker
11) Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Center’s facade after court rulings
12) Gene Shalit, 1926-2026
13) 50k G7 protesters shut down major city ahead of Trump visit to French-Swiss border
14) Spain: Regime opens new probe into former PM over jewelry found in office
15) Norway braces for verdict in rape trial of crown princess’s son Høiby
16) Third batch of declassified UFO files reveals sightings around the world were investigated
17) NYC: More than 60 arrests as “unruly” Knicks fans wrought destruction, injured police
18) Mexico: Gunmen murder journalist
19) CA: Two arrested in connection with wild Pokemon card robbery in San Francisco
20) Appeals court denies former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Hidden Price of Social Security
22) Could Donald Trump Finally End America’s Twice Yearly Clock-Setting Nightmare?
23) Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
24) Politics ain’t beanbag. But character still matters.
25) The Right Kind of Eugenics
26) The Entire Human Species Has Been Turned Into A Profit-Generating Machine
27) Illinois’s doomed plan to tax social media
28) A tale of two Republicans who crossed Trump
29) Why Mainstream Media Should Stop Using ADL as Their Go-To Antisemitism Source
30) Limits of power, limits on corruption?
31) When journalists whine about #MeToo, they don’t mean Platnertoo
32) The forever war in Ukraine?
33) “An Ordinary Insanity” Keeps Daniel Ellsberg’s Anti-Nuclear Warning Alive
34) Forget About “Healthy Life”
35) Force, Direct and “Indirect”
36) Trump, Not Netanyahu, Has the Cards. He Should Play Them
37) Let’s Have a Serious Conversation About Race
38) Social Security Insolvency: The Lies and the Fixes
39) Churchill, Keynes, and the General Strike at 100
40) In an age of “false realism,” Pope Leo presses for strategic restraint
41) Wake Up America: All Humans Are Created Equal
42) The Declaration of Independence versus Egalitarianism
43) America the Unfree — Home of the Policed, Surveilled and Occupied
44) The Beau Idéal Historian
45) The Face of Modern Britain: Jihad’s Triumph
46) Celebrate the Fourth of July. But Don’t Forget the Twelfth of June.
47) Punish Energy Producers?
48) Graham Platner Signals a Problem for Democrats, and the Rest of Us
49) Trump’s Bait and Switch on Top Intelligence Job
50) Why Bother Considering Whether Government is Necessary?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 344
52) The Good Fight, 06/13/26
53) The Dispatch Podcast, 06/12/26
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/12/26
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 06/12/26
56) The Climate Realism Show, episode 205
57) Rising, 06/12/26
58) The Fifth Column, 06/12/26
59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/12/26
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 06/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Nine killed, historic monastery on fire in Russian attacks
Source: Reuters
“Four people were killed while the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire, in the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, authorities said on Monday. The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week. … Four emergency service rescuers and one municipal official were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, with three people, including a child, wounded in Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.” (06/15/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-injured-ukraine-repels-air-attacks-over-kyiv-local-authorities-say-2026-06-14/
-----
2) US regime to sign instrument of surrender to Iran on Friday
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran and the United States have agreed to a memorandum of understanding to end more than 100 days of war, with Tehran saying the agreement includes Lebanon, which has been under intense Israeli attacks since March 2. Mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, the deal will be formally signed in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday. … According to the Iranian news agency Mehr, the draft agreement contains 14 points. It includes: A permanent and immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon; the complete lifting of the naval blockade within 30 days; a US commitment to withdraw its forces from around Iran; and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The draft also mentions the suspension of sanctions on oil sales, reaching a final agreement on nuclear issues within 60 days of signing the deal, and the release of $24bn in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiation period.” (06/15/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/15/us-iran-to-sign-a-peace-deal-on-friday-what-we-know-so-far
-----
3) NY: Idiot pols fantasize that they can control guns, 3D printing
Source: The Columbian
“A first-of-its-kind law in New York could force 3D printers sold for homes and business to come equipped with technology blocking them from making guns. The new requirement, also under consideration in California, attempts to thwart the latest technique for producing untraceable ‘ghost guns’ that have turned up in crimes. … A New York law signed last month and a bill in the California Legislature both would direct panels of experts to come up with standards for firearm blueprint detection algorithms. The technology would analyze every design submitted for 3D printing, compare it to a digital library of firearm parts and reject those that are similar.” [editor’s note: If the idea wasn’t so irredeemably evil, it would be kind of funny to watch them fantasize about their ability to implement it – TLK] (06/14/26)
https://www.columbian.com/news/2026/jun/14/n-y-law-targets-printed-weapons/
-----
4) Switzerland: Voters projected to reject population cap proposal
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Voters in Switzerland on Sunday cast ballots to decide the fate of a proposal to cap the Alpine nation’s population at 10 million by 2050. Preliminary projections by national broadcaster SRF have indicated that the proposal has been rejected by some 55% as against 45% in favor. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, referendums are mostly binding in their effect. The proposal has been put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which has the most seats in the Swiss parliament. Currently, Switzerland has a population of 9.1 million.” (06/14/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-voters-projected-to-reject-population-cap-proposal/a-77543868
-----
5) Bitcoin hits a two-week high above $65,500
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin climbed to its highest level in nearly two weeks after the US and Iran reached a deal to end hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, removing the energy-supply fear that had weighed on markets for months. The token traded around $65,844 on Monday, up 2.1% over 24 hours, after touching a low near $63,722 in the early hours of Asian trading before the deal news broke, per CoinDesk data. The move puts bitcoin about 9% above the sub-$60,000 low it hit last week, its weakest level since October 2024.” (06/15/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/15/bitcoin-hits-a-two-week-high-above-usd65-500-as-the-us-iran-deal-sends-oil-sliding
-----
6) Poll: Trump’s Support in Rural America Slips as Fuel and Food Prices Climb
Source: US News & World Report
“Brian Rauch has felt the squeeze of higher gas prices on his 30-mile (50-km) drives from his home in rural Stevensville, Montana, to the doctor’s office. He has also noticed food prices going up and, as an Air Force veteran, sees little rationale for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. These are among the reasons the 42-year-old increasingly disapproves of the performance of President Donald Trump, the man he voted for in the last three presidential elections, putting him among a growing portion of rural Americans disappointed by his leadership in Washington. Trump’s approval rating among rural Americans dropped in June to a new low of 50%, according to the June 3-8 Reuters/Ipsos poll. That compares with 60% approval in February 2025 shortly after Trump took office. Rural disapproval of Trump’s performance meanwhile rose to 48% from 34% in February 2025, according to the poll of 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide.” (06/14/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-14/trumps-support-in-rural-america-slips-as-fuel-and-food-prices-climb-reuters-ipsos-poll-shows
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7) Taiwan: Spy agency launches webpage for Chinese nationals to report tips
Source: Seattle Times
“Taiwan’s intelligence agency said on Sunday it is establishing an information-reporting channel for Chinese nationals to offer tips securely, at a time when tensions between Beijing and the self-ruled island remain elevated. In a statement, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said they are launching a webpage that will act as a secure channel for Chinese nationals to provide intelligence-related information, saying that an increasing number of people have recently approached relevant agencies in Taiwan wishing to ‘provide various types of information.’ … China had earlier said it launched an online platform to encourage reporting of ‘Taiwan independence’ activities, aiming at holding ‘separatists’ accountable.” (06/14/26)
https://archive.is/2Z0ww
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8) TX: Voters Reject Anti-Islam Candidate in Suburban Mayoral Race
Source: New York Times
“Mark Hill, a conservative lawyer who served on the local school board, won a divisive mayoral runoff on Saturday in Frisco, Texas, that turned into a referendum on the city’s diversity and a testing ground for the power of anti-Muslim messaging. Mr. Hill defeated Rod Vilhauer, a retired construction company owner who gained a following on the hard right with his promises to keep ‘terrorists’ from gaining a foothold in Frisco and to prevent Shariah, or Islamic religious codes, from taking precedence over local and federal law.” (06/13/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/us/frisco-texas-mayor-election-mark-hill.html
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9) Mexico: Police discover body in trunk near Iranian soccer team’s World Cup training grounds
Source: Fox News
“Mexican authorities discovered a decomposing corpse with ‘signs of violence’ near Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium, where the Iranian national soccer team is training during the World Cup, according to a New York Post report. Authorities responded to complaints about a bad smell wafting from a gray Toyota SUV with California plates parked in a grocery store parking lot near the stadium, the Post reported. ‘Upon inspecting the vehicle, they found a person wrapped in a black bag in the trunk, showing signs of violence,’ a spokesperson for the Tijuana prosecutor’s office told the Post.” (06/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexican-authorities-discover-body-trunk-near-iranian-soccer-teams-world-cup-training-grounds-report
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10) English Channel: UK-based pirates board, steal tanker
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“British [pirates] have seized a Russian shadow-fleet oil tanker that was trying to transit the English Channel, Prime Minister Keir Starmer says. ‘This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,’ Starmer said in a post on X on Sunday. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence also confirmed the early Sunday seizure of the vessel Smyrtos. It said the tanker, sailing under a Cameroon flag, was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and National Crime Agency officials with support from Chinook helicopters and other aircraft, a frigate and a minehunter.” (06/14/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/14/uk-boards-and-seizes-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-in-english-channel
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11) Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Center’s facade after court rulings
Source: SFGate
“The curtain may have come down for President Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center but the tarp stays up for now. Matt Floca, executive director and chief operating officer of the performing arts venue, told a federal court Saturday that the institution had complied with an order to remove Trump’s name from the facade. … But for onlookers who have gathered on the plaza in front of the center over the past day hoping to witness a dramatic moment symbolizing the limits of Trump’s power, it was virtually impossible to see whether the signage was gone. A tarp hung over the scaffolding constructed for workers to perform that task. It was unclear when the tarp might be removed to reveal the original lettering that had endured for decades: ‘The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.'” (06/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/trump-s-name-is-still-on-the-kennedy-center-22303721.php
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12) Gene Shalit, 1926-2026
Source: Washington Post
“Gene Shalit, a movie critic and arts reporter for the ‘Today’ show over four decades who was known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100. Shalit’s family announced the death Friday to NBC News, saying in a statement that he ‘passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.'” (06/12/26)
https://archive.is/WUFGK
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13) 50k G7 protesters shut down major city ahead of Trump visit to French-Swiss border
Source: New York Post
“President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday night but the real battle may be on the streets of Geneva, where 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Switzerland’s second largest city to protest the G7 summit. Geneva essentially shut down on Sunday. Businesses closed and boarded up their windows. Anti-protester wire fencing was raised around the streets. And police vans took their places on corners, with officers wearing riot gear in preparation. Trump arrives at the G7 on Monday. He, like most world leaders, will arrive at Geneva’s airport before traveling to the summit location in nearby Evian, France. French and Swiss authorities shut down 27 border crossings on Sunday to keep the protesters away from the small spa-town on the shores of Lake Geneva where Trump and the other world leaders will stay.” (06/14/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/14/us-news/50000-g7-protesters-shut-down-major-city-ahead-of-trump-visit-to-french-swiss-border/
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14) Spain: Regime opens new probe into former PM over jewelry found in office
Source: Reuters
“A Spanish High Court judge investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for suspected corruption has opened a separate probe over jewellery found during a search of his office, the court said on Friday. Zapatero, prime minister from 2004 to 2011, remains a leading figure in the main ruling Socialist Party and the graft allegations — which he has denied — have added to pressure on the government following a series of corruption scandals. Investigating judge Jose Luis Calama said the jewellery items seized during the May 19 search, provisionally valued at about €1.3 million ($1.5 million), currently lack documented proof of origin. He said the possession of high-value assets without clear fiscal traceability could indicate possible tax evasion or smuggling offences, citing the absence of customs documents or evidence that import duties had been paid.” (06/12/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/spain-opens-new-probe-into-ex-pm-zapatero-over-jewellery-found-office-2026-06-12/
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15) Norway braces for verdict in rape trial of crown princess’s son Høiby
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“When three judges in courtroom 250 deliver their verdict at Oslo District Court early on Monday, Marius Borg Høiby — the son of the crown princess of Norway — will find out the extent of his sentence. Høiby, 29, will appear via video link because of unspecified health reasons, almost three months after his trial came to an end on 40 charges, including four counts of rape. He denies the most serious offences but admits some of the lesser charges involving drugs and traffic offences. Prosecutors say he should be given seven years and seven months in jail, whereas his defence lawyers believe he should serve a year-and-a-half. Høiby, whose mother married into the royal family when he was four, has been in custody since the start of February.” (06/14/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95xvk4vn2o
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16) Third batch of declassified UFO files reveals sightings around the world were investigated
Source: NBC News
“The Pentagon on Friday released a third batch of vintage classified files related to ‘flying saucers’ and other unidentified anomalous phenomena — better known to most Americans as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs — that the government has been hanging on to for decades. The 72 newly released files date from the 1940s to this year and showed that government investigators had looked into UFO sightings not just in the United States, but also around the world. The files contain more reports of UFO sightings from the public and more reports on the phenomenon from both the CIA and the FBI. … just as the two previous times when the government, at the urging of President Donald Trump, released two tranches of ‘never-before-seen’ files on a subject that has intrigued Americans for generations, the new document drop will likely be a disappointment to those seeking definitive proof that we are not alone in the universe.” (06/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/third-batch-declassified-ufo-files-reveals-sightings-world-investigate-rcna349775
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17) NYC: More than 60 arrests as “unruly” Knicks fans wrought destruction, injured police
Source: Fox News
“More than 60 people were arrested in the streets of New York City in the hours after the Knicks captured their first championship in 53 years Saturday night as celebration gave way to mayhem and violence, the New York Police Department said Sunday morning. Police said 63 people were arrested in relation to the game on charges ranging from assault on a police officer, criminal possession of weapon (gun), criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration. Ten members of the NYPD were injured, including one member who was punched in the face and another who was struck with a glass bottle, police said. … Around 2 a.m., police said a 17-year-old boy was shot once in the left foot near 43rd Street and Broadway. … Other violence included four slashings/stabbings and large physical fights breaking out, according to police.” (06/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/knicks-championship-celebration-nyc-chaos-06-14-26
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18) Mexico: Gunmen murder journalist
Source: ABC News
“Gunmen shot and killed a journalist Thursday in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz, authorities said. It was the country’s second killing of a media worker this year — both of them in Veracruz, known as exceptionally dangerous for journalists. The Veracruz prosecutor’s office confirmed the killing, while the State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists identified the victim as Luis Ángel López Valdez. He was the director of a local media outlet and a reporter for the Vanguardia de Veracruz newspaper. According to Vanguardia, López Valdez was walking along a street in the city of Poza Rica when he was intercepted by gunmen who shot him at close range before fleeing. He specialized in police and security reporting.” (06/12/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-shoot-kill-mexican-journalist-eastern-state-veracruz-133794679
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19) CA: Two arrested in connection with wild Pokemon card robbery in San Francisco
Source: SFGate
“Two people were arrested in San Francisco in connection with a chaotic robbery of Pokemon cards, the San Francisco Police Department announced on Thursday. On May 28, police said, a person agreed to meet with someone he believed was going to buy his collection of trading cards. … The suspect then allegedly pepper-sprayed the seller and ran into a getaway car with two more suspects inside. Medical crews assessed the seller at the scene and determined he had non-life-threatening injuries. Police used Flock cameras to find the suspects’ car …. Officers used drones to follow the car and watched two suspects exit the car and enter a jewelry and pawn shop near O’Farrell and Polk streets. Plainclothes officers then took the suspects into custody and booked them into the Juvenile Justice Center, where they are facing robbery and conspiracy charges.” [editor’s note: Did even Orwell foresee this level of surveillance capability? – TLK] (06/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/pokemon-card-robbery-sf-22303395.php
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20) Appeals court denies former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried
Source: United Press International
“The conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will stay after an appeals court shot down his bid to overturn his 2023 conviction of fraud. Bankman-Fried, 34, a former cryptocurrency mogul and CEO, argued that his trial was unfair and that the firm would have paid out to investors in the long term. Judge Barrington Parker wrote in the ruling that ‘the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust,’ Politico reported.” (06/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/06/12/sam-bankman-fried-appeal-denied/9281781280437/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Hidden Price of Social Security
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Athan Clark
“A worker earning $60,000 a year sends 12.4% of his wages to Social Security: $7,440 annually, every year of his working life. Half is deducted from his paycheck; the other half is paid by his employer, which economists broadly agree comes out of the worker’s wages anyway, though he never sees it. There is no deposit slip or account with his name on it, but this is money that would otherwise be his. That same $7,440 a year, invested for 40 years at an inflation-adjusted 7% — roughly the long-run historical performance of US equities — would accumulate to about $1.5 million. Social Security, by contrast, offers most younger workers an implicit inflation-adjusted return in the range of 1% to 2%, and lower still for higher earners.” (06/12/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-hidden-price-of-social-security/
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22) Could Donald Trump Finally End America’s Twice Yearly Clock-Setting Nightmare?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Twice a year, every year, for more than a century now, most Americans ‘spring forward’ or ‘fall back,’ pretending that an hour has been deleted from, or inserted into, our sleep schedules. Our bodies spend weeks adjusting to each ‘new normal,’ leading to, among other things, measurable increases in traffic fatalities. … US president Donald Trump wants the government to knock off its weird time-shifting magic routine. Some Trump-watchers even suggest that he cares enough to make it one of his ‘loyalty test’ issues, punishing politicians who don’t toe the line. Therefore, Congress will likely vote on something called the ‘Sunshine Protection Act’ later this summer. … Thank you, President Trump, for your attention to this matter!” (06/13/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20699
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23) Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“In his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Trump boasted that ‘one of the primary reasons for our country’s stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history, where the Dow Jones broke 50,000, four years ahead of schedule, and the S&P hit 7000 where it wasn’t supposed to do it for many years, were tariffs.’ The facts tell a different story. First, because there is no schedule for stock-market gains, it is meaningless to say that the Dow Jones or S&P 500 rose ‘ahead of schedule.’ The reality is that the US economy during the first year of President Trump’s second term simply did not perform a ‘turnaround,’ much less one that could be ranked as ‘the biggest in history.'” (06/12/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/measuring-trump-2-0-against-trump-1-0-tariff-boasts-meet-the-data/
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24) Politics ain’t beanbag. But character still matters.
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“It’s hard to denounce [Graham] Platner while supporting [Ken] Paxton (or Donald Trump), but that won’t stop many Republicans from trying. The reverse is also true. Many Democrats will assure themselves that this is entirely different, even though it’s much the same. It is a rejection of the idea that character matters in politics. Some readers may retort that it doesn’t matter, that people of bad character can still make fine public servants. Politicians needn’t be saints. But nor should Americans mindlessly vote for whoever represents their party without any care for character. Nominating those who are obviously unscrupulous and unstable is bad for the country — and, frequently, for America’s parties.” (06/14/26)
https://archive.is/zgYVP
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25) The Right Kind of Eugenics
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Eugenics, broadly defined, is the use of selective breeding to improve the human race. Most people imagine it as government control of reproduction intended to improve the population’s genetics by encouraging reproduction by those with good genes, discouraging or banning reproduction by those with bad; what policies qualify depends on what you count as improvement. Getting parents more nearly the children they want is in my view a better definition of ‘improvement’ than giving them more nearly the children the government wants them to have. Getting parents the children they want, like getting other people what they want, is best done by leaving the choice up to them. If making it easier for parents to affect the genetics of their children seems to you an odd form of eugenics, consider the equivalent issue in economics.” (06/13/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/the-right-kind-of-eugenics
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26) The Entire Human Species Has Been Turned Into A Profit-Generating Machine
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Under capitalism [sic], humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.” [editor’s note: Johnstone is often great on foreign policy, but nearly always completely clueless on economics – TLK] (06/12/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/06/12/the-entire-human-species-has-been-turned-into-a-profit-generating-machine/
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27) Illinois’s doomed plan to tax social media
Source: Expression
by Tyler Tone
“Illinois can tax income. It can tax profits. It can tax businesses. It can even impose generally applicable taxes that happen to reach content mediums like cable or newspapers. But the First Amendment strictly prohibits taxes that single out content the state doesn’t like. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Illinois’[s] new state spending plan does, and it’s poised to soon be signed by Governor Pritzker. Buried in the 1600-page budget, the relevant provision would charge the secretary of state with collecting a ‘social media platform fee.’ … The proposal’s biggest hurdle is the decades of case law that have squarely labeled this kind of tax as exactly what it is: a regulation of speech. And social media sites are very much speech.” (06/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/illinois-doomed-plan-to-tax-social
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28) A tale of two Republicans who crossed Trump
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Matt K Lewis
“For those of us struggling to understand today’s Republican Party, this past week’s primary elections in South Carolina offered a useful case study. The key developments were these: Rep. Nancy Mace — a former conservative rising star who seems tailor-made for the Trump-era attention economy — finished fifth in her state’s Republican primary for governor. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham — who seems like a relic from an earlier time in the Republican Party — easily dispatched a wealthy ‘America First’ primary challenger. At first glance, none of this makes sense. Making matters more confusing, when it comes to the defining ‘issue’ of our time — Donald Trump — Graham and Mace have both spent years criticizing him and then crawling back to him. Until, that is, one found the door locked.” (06/12/26)
https://archive.is/HJVIa
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29) Why Mainstream Media Should Stop Using ADL as Their Go-To Antisemitism Source
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Ari Paul
“More than a decade ago, a video (Mondoweiss, 8/7/14) showed Jodi Rudoren, then The New York Times’[s] Jerusalem bureau chief, having a casual and friendly meeting with Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League. The cozy relationship in the video was telling enough, but when the video captured Foxman complaining that ‘the Arabs’ had taken over a famous New York City hotel, and Rudoren shrugging it off, many skeptics viewed this as a window into the Times’[s] pro-Israel bias. The recently deceased Foxman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5/12/26), famous for promoting the pro-Israel viewpoint and insinuating that critics of Israel were antisemitic, wasn’t Rudoren’s source in this video; they were pals. Emmaia Gelman’s new book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, is a history of the group, framing it not as a racial justice organization but as a deputy sheriff for the US empire.” [editor’s note: Is ADL just as messed up as SPLC? Film at eleven – SAT] (06/14/26)
https://fair.org/home/why-do-us-media-still-treat-adl-as-a-credible-source-on-antisemitism/
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30) Limits of power, limits on corruption?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We have surrendered power for more than a century and a half to the parasites (elected and appointed) in DC and fifty State capitols and thousands of local jurisdictions. We have given them power over our minute-to-minute lives that I think it is safe to say that few nations and societies in history have ever held. Yet we continue to claim that we are free, in this Anno Libertatus 250. Yes, we have won a few victories, in a number of States, and sometimes at the FedGov level. But while we celebrate those victories for a few essential rights we often fail to understand the significance of the creeping loss of many, many more. Worse, we fail to see and understand why these liberties are being stolen away.” (06/12/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/06/12/limits-of-power-limits-on-corruption/
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31) When journalists whine about #MeToo, they don’t mean Platnertoo
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“Some people just like classic Coke. Others insist on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: This is really not the classic #MeToo allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage. Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is OK for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims. None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.” (06/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-when-journalists-whine-about-metoo-dont-mean-platner-too
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32) The forever war in Ukraine?
Source: spiked
by Frank Furedi
“On 11 June 2026, we passed an important and disturbing milestone. This was the day that the war in Ukraine, at four years, three months and 15 days, surpassed the First World War in duration. Sometimes it can seem as if this conflict has turned into a genuine forever war. The seeming interminability of the war is not a surprise. As I argued in my 2022 book, The Road To Ukraine: How The West Lost Its Way, this was a conflict that neither side could afford to lose. And, as a result, it always threatened to become a typical frontier war that could last indefinitely.” (06/13/26)
https://archive.is/W3T3J
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33) “An Ordinary Insanity” Keeps Daniel Ellsberg’s Anti-Nuclear Warning Alive
Source: Progressive Hub
by Robert Ellsberg
“This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning. He believed that with these weapons both the US and the USSR, now Russia, had constructed Doomsday Machines, capable of destroying most life on Earth—machines that are particularly dangerous because neither side acknowledges this reality but continue to proceed as if there were some circumstances in which it was possible to win a nuclear war. The epigraph from Dad’s book is from Nietzsche: ‘Madness in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.'” (06/14/26)
https://progressivehub.net/the-new-documentary-an-ordinary-insanity/
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34) Forget About “Healthy Life”
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sinead Murphy
“It has been reported that ‘healthy life expectancy’ in the UK has fallen during the past decade. Disparity between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in different regions of the UK has been described. A 20-year gap between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Richmond and the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Blackpool has been alleged. The concept of ‘healthy life expectancy’ has been bandied about as if we have used it always. Its precursor, ‘healthy lifestyle,’ is already ubiquitous. Its successor, surely to be ‘healthy lifespan.’ But the concept of ‘healthy life-anything’ should be unusable. It should say nothing. Like ‘unmarried bachelor.’ Or ‘free gift.’ Or ‘organic food.’” (06/12/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/forget-about-healthy-life/
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35) Force, Direct and “Indirect”
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“In ‘The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State’ (1885), British liberal Auberon Herbert replied to those who objected to his call for complete individual liberty, that is, respect for the rights of all. For example, he took on big-government advocates who claimed that they also wanted to ‘diminish the use of force in the world.’ Herbert wasn’t buying it.” (06/12/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-force-direct-and-indirect
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36) Trump, Not Netanyahu, Has the Cards. He Should Play Them
Source: The American Conservative
by Josh Paul
“The U.S.-Israel relationship has never been less popular in America, but at the same time that support for Israel is cratering in American public opinion, Congress appears to be fast-tracking an effort to entrench the relationship and give Israel enduring access to both our most sensitive technologies and our most sensitive intelligence — in exchange for nothing more, it seems, than a thank you note from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. … Given the challenges posed by the Israeli leader, a common complaint on both the right and the left of American politics is that Israel exerts far too much power in U.S. politics. But a closer look at the facts demonstrates that Netanyahu is actually in an incredibly weak position — or would be, if the administration was willing to assess and deal with the entire U.S.-Israel portfolio holistically.” (06/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-not-netanyahu-has-the-cards-he-should-play-them/
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37) Let’s Have a Serious Conversation About Race
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“‘What the hell is wrong with these people?’ I heard someone ask as a clip of Jasmine Crockett played on the television at the restaurant bar the other day. What was Crockett talking about? Her sympathy for the murderer named Karmelo Anthony because he’s black. Yes, that’s why she cares, or at least pretends to care, about the fate of the man who’ll spend at least the next 17.5 years of his life in prison in Texas. How could anyone, real or not, go on camera and express sympathy for a murderer, at the expense of the murder victim and his family, no less? There’s really only one possibility: the cancerous cultural rot Democrats have forced and enforced on the black community. … How do you address a problem if you aren’t willing to talk about it honestly?” (06/14/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/06/14/lets-have-a-serious-conversation-about-race-n2677727
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38) Social Security Insolvency: The Lies and the Fixes
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Citizens worry about promised benefits as the Trust Fund runs dry by 2033. Instead of tax hikes that punish the young, here are four proven reforms.” (06/12/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/social-security-insolvency-the-lies
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39) Churchill, Keynes, and the General Strike at 100
Source: EconLog
by John Phelan
“When Winston Churchill was named Chancellor in November 1924, he is said to have assumed it was the largely ceremonial post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was as surprised as anyone, given his lack of interest in economics, to find that it was Chancellor of the Exchequer, constitutionally the second most powerful office in the British government. ‘I was surprised,’ he wrote, ‘and the Conservative Party dumbfounded.’ The controversy that would follow Churchill’s tenure has implications for policy debates today. It all has to do with macroeconomics and exchange rates: how they affect trade and development, whether they should be fixed or floating, and the problems these questions create for policymakers. In the short term, the decisions Churchill made led to the General Strike of 1926, and these debates continue to echo in the longer term.” (06/12/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/churchill-keynes-and-the-general-strike-at-100
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40) In an age of “false realism,” Pope Leo presses for strategic restraint
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joshua Villanueva
“Observers could easily dismiss Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ as just another document on artificial intelligence. But under the surface lies a deeper question: whether modern political elites still have both the ability and the moral clarity to place restraints on power.” (06/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pope-leo-on-war/
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41) Wake Up America: All Humans Are Created Equal
Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler
“Suddenly my cynicism vanished and things started making sense… America started making sense, from past to present. I was already in the process of writing this column — hey, the nation’s 250th birthday is coming up — and had never felt more lost. Where, where, where am I going with this? What am I trying to say? My words had no core, no soul. I felt like I had given myself the random rubble of a bombed-out building to write about. Then a friend sent me a link to a New York Times opinion piece. I decided to give it a quick read. I don’t necessarily trust the Times. It can be smugly wrong. But I took a look — it was by literary critic A.O. Scott — and I couldn’t stop reading it.” (06/14/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/all-humans-are-equal
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42) The Declaration of Independence versus Egalitarianism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is likely that we will hear a common, but mistaken, interpretation of the Declaration by both establishment conservatives and progressive egalitarians. After repeating Jefferson’s words ‘that all men are created equal,’ they will make a simple, true observation — at the time of writing, not everyone was treated as ‘equal’ (e.g., slavery). Following that observation comes the supposition: since the historical period of colonial America did not match the ideal of modern, progressive egalitarianism, therefore, the centralized nation-state was required to increasingly achieve that ideal.” (06/12/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/declaration-independence-versus-egalitarianism
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43) America the Unfree — Home of the Policed, Surveilled and Occupied
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“America has become an occupied nation. Not by one invading army, but by many occupying powers: the police state, the surveillance state, the war state, the corporate state, the foreign influence machine, and a ruling class that treats the American people as little more than collateral damage in its pursuit of power, profit and control. We have been policed, surveilled, taxed, indebted, manipulated, censored, tracked, searched, silenced and sold out.” (06/12/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/12/america-the-unfree-home-of-the-policed-surveilled-and-occupied/
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44) The Beau Idéal Historian
Source: Law & Liberty
by Aaron N Coleman
“The celebrations of the 250th anniversary of independence will be a bit dimmer now with the sudden passing of the greatest historian of the American founding, Gordon S. Wood. Since the 1960s, Wood stood at the pinnacle of the historical profession. The list of awards and accolades he received over his sixty-year career, including the National Medal of the Humanities, is longer than most academics’ CVs. For all the deserved laurels, however, Wood accomplished something most academics only dream of: he crossed into popular culture.” (06/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-beau-ideal-historian/
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45) The Face of Modern Britain: Jihad’s Triumph
Source: American Greatness
by Roger Kimball
“It turns out that I have found something to agree with Keir Starmer about. During Ramadan this year, the prime minister described Muslims as ‘the face of modern Britain.’ I think that is correct. Whether it is also something to be happy about is another question. The PM, for his part, couldn’t be more pleased. Muslims in Britain, he went on to say, are ‘a success story when it comes to diversity.’ Was that qualification (‘when it comes to diversity’) just a nod to reality? Or was it merely his capitulation to some sort of self-imposed linguistic quota according to which he must punctuate two out of three pronouncements with the word ‘diversity’ or go without his pudding? The jury is still out on that.” (06/14/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/14/the-face-of-modern-britain-jihads-triumph/
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46) Celebrate the Fourth of July. But Don’t Forget the Twelfth of June.
Source: Independent Institute
by William J Watkins, Jr.
“Naturally, the main event of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations will be the Fourth of July, in honor of the Declaration of Independence. But a little tailgate party would be appropriate for the Twelfth of June. For it was on that date, 250 years ago, that Virginia’s Declaration of Rights was adopted. Written primarily by George Mason, Virginia’s declaration inspired Thomas Jefferson in writing the nation’s founding document. It set forth in plain language America’s first principles and provided guideposts for the establishment of a republican government.” (06/12/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/12/celebrate-the-fourth-of-july-but-dont-forget-the-twelfth-of-june/
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47) Punish Energy Producers?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The latest attempt to hamper our ability to do things? A series of lawsuits against oil companies for allegedly committing global warming. The plaintiffs want billions and billions to be extracted from these companies for fueling civilization.” (06/12/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/12/punish-energy-producers/
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48) Graham Platner Signals a Problem for Democrats, and the Rest of Us
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The ‘progressive’ wing of the Democratic Party is on a roll, winning nominations and elections. Left-wing leaders are taking earned victory laps as they chalk up victories for candidates espousing socialism, hostility to Israel (and often Jews), identity politics, and other leftist positions that were until recently thankfully rare in American politics. But the radicals’ support for Maine’s deeply troubled Graham Platner, who won the party’s nod to compete in the U.S. Senate race, shows the dangers posed by a movement that seemingly holds ideological lunacy as its highest value. It’s not clear that anybody is in a position to stop them.” (06/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/12/graham-platner-signals-a-problem-for-democrats-and-the-rest-of-us/
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49) Trump’s Bait and Switch on Top Intelligence Job
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“On Thursday, Donald Trump belatedly reacted to the revolt (which included several key Republicans) over his preposterous installation of uber-loyalist Bill Pulte, who has not a shred of national security experience, as acting director of national intelligence, by nominating Jay Clayton for the position. But he has no such experience either. Clayton, SEC chair in Trump’s first term, was a longtime Wall Street lawyer at the power-law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He now serves as U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Some Democrats were quick to take the bait, which matters at a time when the party is allowing a key warrantless wiretapping provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire today, because of the Pulte appointment.” (06/12/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/12/trumps-bait-and-switch-top-intelligence-job-dni-clayton/
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50) Why Bother Considering Whether Government is Necessary?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“Is the existence of government an issue that should occupy the minds of those who believe that liberty supports human flourishing? As far as I know, there is no country in the world in which citizens are currently faced with a choice between having a minimal state or no state at all. In liberal democracies – the countries that currently enjoy the greatest personal and economic freedom – liberty is being threatened by political movements with authoritarian tendencies. Authoritarianism is presented in the wrapping of different varieties of collectivist idealism which offer citizens the opportunity to attribute personal and social problems to immigration, foreign competition, the greed of the wealthy, systemic discrimination, environmental degradation or anything else that appears to justify a larger role for government. Shouldn’t libertarians be focusing their attention on supporting the political/legal order – democracy, or representative government – that has been most successful in promoting personal and economic freedom?” (06/12/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/06/why-bother-considering-whether.html
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 344
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Grok just stole your retirement.” (06/13/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-344-grok-just-stole-your
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52) The Good Fight, 06/13/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“David Bau on How — and Whether — Artificial Intelligence Thinks.” (06/13/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/david-bau-2
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53) The Dispatch Podcast, 06/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“How the Epstein Files Stumped the White House.” (06/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/how-the-epstein-files-stumped-the-white-house/
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54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/12/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“The Empire is Failing, the Police State is Intensifying w/ Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski.” (06/12/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/kkwiatkowski6-12-26/
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55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 06/12/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Susan DeGennaro (software engineer and technical trainer specializing in Machine Learning and Generative Artificial Intelligence) comes on the show to discuss AI.” (06/12/26)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/397012-2026-06-10-2026-06-12-ernest-hancock-interviews-susan-degennaro-mp3-4.htm
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56) The Climate Realism Show, episode 205
Source: Heartland Institute
‘Godzilla El Niño is Coming!” (06/12/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/climate-energy-and-the-election-the-climate-realism-show-181/
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57) Rising, 06/12/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on a report from POLITICO claiming that tensions in the White House are rising, even between President Trump and his own advisors.” (06/12/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5911474-rising-june-12-2026/
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58) The Fifth Column, 06/12/26
Source: The Fifth Column
“The guys celebrate New York at its best, then turn to politics at its dumbest.” (06/12/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-knicks-oyster-man-and-the-infinite
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59) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump Says ‘I Love Inflation’ — But The American People Can’t Afford It!” (06/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rxmqqAolZVxy
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60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 06/12/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Romina Boccia ‘The Social Security Trust Fund Myth.'” (06/12/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-06-12_zfw006102026.mp3
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