06/17 -- Ukraine war: Crimea moped ban as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth; Trump Breaks It, We Pay for It: The Cost of Cleaning Up the Deep State’s Mess
8 views
Skip to first unread message
Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 17, 2026, 6:14:11 AMJun 17
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 06/17/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
More News, More Commentary, More Audio/Video at Our Web Edition!
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine war: Crimea moped ban as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth
2) GA: Republican primary delivers mixed results for Trump
3) Warsh to face spotlight as Federal Reserve likely to leave interest rates unchanged
4) Iran’s World Cup team ordered out of US right after opener, coach says
5) Report: Secret Service enraged at FBI Director Kash Patel after premature announcement about UFC event terror plot
6) Electric Vehicle Growth Outlook Slows As US Regime Pulls Back On Subsidies
7) Poland: Russian artist, critic of Putin, murdered
8) Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion
9) EU formally launches accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova
10) Italy: Seven Arrested Over Anarchist Network Linked to Winter Olympics Rail Sabotage
11) Musk’s SpaceX buys AI coding start-up for $60 billion days after IPO
12) UN-backed court opens trial of former Central African Republic president Bozizé
13) Colombia: Texan arrested after mob accuses him of sexually abusing boy he went there to adopt
14) Romania: PM-designate loses party support as political crisis deepens
15) A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shakes part of Indonesia, causing damage and injuries
16) China: Economy weakens further in May as retail sales post first drop in over three years
17) Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites
18) India: Regime blocks Telegram over “medical entrance exam fraud” concerns
19) OH: DeWine wants state to abolish the death penalty
20) FL: Mom shoots man accused of breaking into home, threatening family
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Trump Breaks It, We Pay for It: The Cost of Cleaning Up the Deep State’s Mess
22) Libertarians Are Wrong to Support an “Ellis Island” Immigration-Control System
23) Brexit’s paradoxical consequence: The unloved colossus of the City matters more than ever
24) Iran: Another Trophy for Trump’s “First” Shelf?
25) Economic Warfare, Militarized Diplomacy Are Brutal and Malfunctioning Tools
26) Who Really Won (or Is Winning) the American-Persian War?
27) Accountability Loops
28) Cutting the Red Tape
29) How Pakistan proved its mediation skills
30) Trump handcuffs congressional Republicans to the SAVE Act
31) Polling on Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris should alarm Californians
32) The Infectious Disease Frenzy
33) Obama’s legacy project offers little hope for Chicago’s South Side residents
34) Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine
35) Nearly All Monetary Rules Say the Fed Should Raise Rates
36) The Last Canadian Politician I’d Trust to Police the Internet
37) Is California Reaching Critical Mass?
38) How to Say No to an Imperial President
39) The King’s Rubber Empire: Democracy at Home, Terror in the Jungle
40) Fiscal Dominance and the Politicization of Money
41) A Warning From the UK for Centrist US Dems Who Refuse to Fight for the Working Class
42) 1776 All-Stars: Why George Mason Is Extremely Underrated
43) Radio Free Europe, the Cold War “Weapon” Congress Still Funds
44) The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic
45) Americans Want Republican Leadership That Acts
46) The online “safety” trap
47) Trump Celebrates Achieving Absolutely Nothing in Iran
48) Quantum Vibe, 06/15/26
49) Fox Solves Its “Death of Cable” Problem by Buying the Modern Cable Box
50) California Forces Venture Capitalists into DEI Regime
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Debate: Bryan Caplan v. Garett Jones on immigration
52) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 06/16/26
53) Cato Podcast, 06/16/26
54) Capital Record, episode 304
55) The Good Fight, 06/16/26
56) Advisory Opinions, 06/16/26
57) The Corbett Report, episode 504
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/15/26
59) Trump Watch, 06/15/26
60) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/15/26
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION (2nd edition), by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883853117
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE "YOUR" CONGRESS/SENATE MEMBERS?
https://congressionalindependence.deathbutt.org/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHARE YOUR OPINIONS. EARN POINTS. REDEEM POINTS FOR AWARDS
https://account.yougov.com/us-en/join?referral=eAi-FP2i9s1Jzb5lj2zw5A
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine war: Crimea moped ban as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, has banned riding moped scooters, quad bikes and motorcycles at night-time, saying they sound like drone attacks and suggesting children are doing it deliberately at Kyiv’s behest. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the … peninsula, said the ban would be in place between 8pm and 6am from Wednesday onwards. Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov’s adviser, claimed separately on Telegram: ‘The enemy is recruiting your children for night-time rides … The moped noise hampers the work of defence systems. Their engines sound similar [to drones].’ … A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at the refinery that is the largest fuel supplier to the Moscow region, and two industry sources told Reuters that it had halted operations. … Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least eight people on Tuesday, officials said.” (06/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/ukraine-war-briefing-sanctions-waiver-on-russian-oil-could-end-soon-trump-suggests
-----
2) GA: Republican primary delivers mixed results for Trump
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Georgia Republicans have delivered mixed results for United States President Donald Trump in the state’s primary elections, opting for the president’s preferred US Senate candidate but rejecting his choice for governor. Trump’s influence is being put to the test in this year’s midterm elections as four states and the District of Columbia held primaries on Tuesday. In the Senate race, Republican Mike Collins, 58, topped former football coach Derek Dooley and advanced to face Senator Jon Ossoff, the only Senate Democrat running for re-election in a state that Trump won two years ago. … In the race for Georgia governor, healthcare tycoon Rick Jackson, 71, outpaced Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones after spending about $100m of his own money on the campaign and surpassing Jones’s backing from the president. Jackson will face Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.” (06/17/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/17/georgia-republican-primary-delivers-mixed-results-for-trump
-----
3) Warsh to face spotlight as Federal Reserve likely to leave interest rates unchanged
Source: Associated Press
“The Federal Reserve will enter the Kevin Warsh era Wednesday, as President Trump’s pick to lead the central bank oversees his first policy meeting and holds his first news conference. Yet Warsh isn’t expected to immediately usher in significant policy changes. The Fed is likely to keep its key rate unchanged Wednesday at about 3.6% for the fourth straight meeting, economists say. Fed policymakers could change their post-meeting statement so that it no longer signals the central bank’s next move will be to reduce interest rates. Such a change would suggest it could keep rates unchanged for an extended period — or even raise them if inflation stays elevated. … since the Iran war began Feb. 28, inflation has accelerated to a three-year high of 4.2%, lifted mostly by costlier gas stemming from the Iran war. The Fed typically fights higher inflation by raising its key interest rate to cool spending and growth.” (06/17/26)
https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-kevin-warsh-interest-rates-103325df845d2d6bde63dfa4b8093d35
-----
4) Iran’s World Cup team ordered out of US right after opener, coach says
Source: The Hill
“The coach of the Iranian soccer team said that his team had to leave the U.S. shortly after its 2-2 draw against New Zealand to open the FIFA World Cup. Amir Ghalenoei said that officials did not give his team time to ‘recover’ from the match before ordering them to return to Tijuana, Mexico. The Iranians are staying in Tijuana, which is a short flight from southern California — where the team played on Monday and will compete in its second game against Belgium on Sunday. … Ghalenoei did not say who ordered his team to depart the U.S. back to Mexico. While all 31 Iranian players and their coaches received visas, multiple members of the team’s traveling party did not.” (06/16/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/sports-gaming/5925843-iran-world-cup-travel-issues/
-----
5) Report: Secret Service enraged at FBI Director Kash Patel after premature announcement about UFC event terror plot
Source: Independent [UK]
“Secret Service officials are reportedly angry with FBI Director Kash Patel for announcing Tuesday the FBI had intercepted an alleged plot targeting President Donald Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event before many arrests had been made in the case. Officials ‘woke up’ Tuesday morning to find Patel had posted on X, boasting about the FBI’s work to thwart the planned attack and arrest several individuals accused of conspiring in the plot. … However, not all suspects had been arrested and the case was sealed in court at the time, angering Secret Service officials who led the investigation, sources told MSNOW. … Federal law enforcement had five people in custody Monday but identified 23 others as part of a ‘network of plotters’ who allegedly planned to use a drone equipped with an explosive to hit buildings near the event, force a mass evacuation and steer crowds toward a sniper team, officials told Fox News Digital.” [editor’s note: A 19-year-old is identified as the alleged mastermind/leader of what would have been a large operation, so I suspect the whole thing is more law enforcement hype than reality – TLK] (06/16/26)
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/secret-enraged-fbi-director-kash-201604104.html
-----
6) Electric Vehicle Growth Outlook Slows As US Regime Pulls Back On Subsidies
Source: Business Today [Malaysia]
“The global outlook for electric vehicle demand has been cut for a second year in a row, with policy shifts in the United States driving a significant downgrade to long-term expectations, according to BloombergNEF. The latest forecast points to a slower pace of electrification across major automotive markets, even as overall adoption continues to rise. … EV sales are now expected to account for just 17% of [US] passenger vehicle sales by 2030, down sharply from 27% in last year’s forecast and far below earlier expectations of 48%. The revision reflects a cumulative loss of around 14 million EV sales through 2030 compared with previous projections, highlighting how quickly policy changes are reshaping the market outlook. Several policy adjustments are behind the slowdown. The $7,500 federal tax credit for EV buyers has expired, fuel economy standards have been eased, and efforts to limit California’s ability to set its own emissions rules are adding further uncertainty.” (06/16/26)
https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2026/06/16/ev-growth-outlook-slows-as-us-pulls-back-on-policy-support/
----
7) Poland: Russian artist, critic of Putin, murdered
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A Russian artist critical of Vladimir Putin and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been shot and killed in the eastern Polish town of Biała Podlaska, a prosecutor has said. Five shots were fired at the victim, including one to the head, in the attack on Monday, said Marcin Kozak, a spokesperson for the district prosecutor in Lublin. Two Belarusians have been detained but not charged in connection with the case, he added. Local media identified the victim as Robert Kuzovkov, who was also known by his artistic pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, a Russian artist and performer known for his criticism of the Russian leader.” (06/16/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/russia-artist-putin-critic-robert-kuzovkov-shot-dead-poland
----
8) Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion
Source: CNBC
“Yum Brands on Tuesday announced it is selling Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital for roughly $1.5 billion. The deal excludes the pizza chain’s locations in mainland China; Yum China will acquire those in a separate transaction for about $1.2 billion. The deals cap off years of struggles for Pizza Hut, which has weighed on Yum’s overall financial performance. In the U.S., the pizza chain has transitioned from the sit-down format and salad bars of yore to focus on delivery and carryout — far behind the curve. … The deal severs Pizza Hut’s decades-long ties to Taco Bell and KFC, its sister brands in Yum’s portfolio.” (06/16/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/yum-brands-sells-pizza-hut-to-private-equity-firm-longrange-capital-for-2point7-billion.html
----
9) EU formally launches accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova
Source: Firstpost [India]
“Ukraine and Moldova took a major step towards joining the European Union on Monday as the bloc formally launched the accession process for both countries, opening negotiations that will require years of political and institutional reforms. For Kyiv, the move comes as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion and pursues EU membership as both a security guarantee and a pathway towards deeper integration with the West. The launch of the process was marked by an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg attended by Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka.” (06/16/26)
https://www.firstpost.com/world/eu-formally-launches-accession-talks-with-ukraine-and-moldova-14022919.html
----
10) Italy: Seven Arrested Over Anarchist Network Linked to Winter Olympics Rail Sabotage
Source: US News & World Report
“Italian police have arrested seven people accused of belonging to an anarchist militant network and carrying out sabotage on a high-speed railway line during the Winter Olympics in February. In a statement on Tuesday, police said a judge had ordered five suspects to be held in prison and two placed under house arrest. The charges include terrorist association and subversion of the democratic order. Police said two of those arrested were accused of taking part in a February 14 attack on the Rome-Florence high-speed rail line. According to investigators, the sabotage was carried out using improvised explosive devices, causing severe damage to infrastructure estimated at €455,000 ($528,000). The attack led to train delays of more than an hour during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which ran from February 6 to 22.” (06/16/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-16/italy-arrests-seven-over-anarchist-network-linked-to-winter-olympics-rail-sabotage
----
11) Musk’s SpaceX buys AI coding start-up for $60 billion days after IPO
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“SpaceX has agreed to buy AI coding start-up Cursor for $60bn (£45bn) just days after its bumper initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk’s rocket company will take over Anysphere, which makes the artificial intelligence coding agent. The move comes after SpaceX joined New York’s tech-focused Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday in the biggest ever listing, valuing it at more than $2tn and raising $85.7bn. … Like OpenAI and Anthropic, Cursor’s technology uses AI to automate the process of writing code, one of the most prominent current uses for artificial intelligence.” (06/16/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgd5g7d7gyo
----
12) UN-backed court opens trial of former Central African Republic president Bozizé
Source: Seattle Times
“A U.N.-backed court in the Central African Republic on Tuesday opened the trial of former President François Bozizé, who is accused of crimes against humanity for abuses committed by members of his security forces between 2009 and 2013. The trial is the sixth held by the Special Criminal Court, a tribunal created in 2015 with U.N. support to prosecute serious crimes committed during the country’s conflicts. …Prosecutors accuse Bozizé of being responsible as a military commander for crimes committed by members of his presidential guard and other security forces, including ‘murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other inhumane acts.’ Bozizé, 79, is being tried in absentia. He has been living in exile in Guinea-Bissau since 2023, and authorities there have refused to extradite him despite an international arrest warrant issued by the court in 2024.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/XYx9N
----
13) Colombia: Texan arrested after mob accuses him of sexually abusing boy he went there to adopt
Source: New York Post
“A Texas man who was in Colombia to adopt a 7-year-old boy was arrested after a huge, angry mob accused him of sexually abusing the child in plain sight on a balcony, according to reports. The 36-year-old suspect was seen holding the boy in front of him on a balcony of a building in an upscale neighborhood in Bogota on Sunday afternoon — and an outraged crowd quickly formed below, according to viral video of the incident shared on social media. ‘He’s abusing the child, let him go!’ shouted the woman recording along with others before the man eventually took the child inside, the dramatic clip shows. The otherwise unidentified suspect was arrested at the scene …. the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare later said there were no physical signs of sexual violence, while stressing that the investigation is ongoing because ‘there are other factors involved in sexual abuse,’ according to Bogota-based newspaper El Espectador.” (06/16/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/16/world-news/texan-busted-in-colombia-after-huge-mob-accuses-him-of-sexually-abusing-boy-7-on-a-balcony/
----
14) Romania: PM-designate loses party support as political crisis deepens
Source: Politico
“Romania’s latest prime minister-designate failed to secure the backing of his own party on Tuesday, impeding the path to forming a new government. Adrian Veștea — a former mayor, county council president and development minister from the center-right National Liberal Party (PLN) — was announced on Sunday as Romanian President Nicușor Dan’s second prime minister-designate in two weeks, after previous candidate Eugen Tomac failed to win enough support to form a technocratic government. But on Monday evening, PNL chair and former Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan — who was forced from office when the government collapsed in May — announced that his party would not support Veștea as he seeks to form a governing coalition in Romania’s parliament. … Veștea is expected to rely on dissident PNL lawmakers to reach the parliamentary majority needed to form a government. But Bolojan has also threatened to expel PNL lawmakers who vote for Veștea.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/lwyxL
----
15) A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shakes part of Indonesia, causing damage and injuries
Source: SFGate
“A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook part of central Indonesia ’s Sulawesi island Tuesday, injuring dozens of people, damaging homes and infrastructure and rattling residents of a city devastated by a quake and tsunami eight years ago, officials said. The initial quake was centered inland about 43 kilometers (27 miles) east-southeast of Palu, and the U.S. Geological Survey said it was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. The strong shaking sent people fleeing into open areas in and around Palu, a city of about 400,000 people and the capital of Central Sulawesi province. Several hospitals evacuated patients, some with IV drips, outdoors as a safety measure. Four regencies close to the epicenter — with a combined population of 1.3 million — have yet to be fully assessed, but a preliminary report said at least 109 people have been displaced by the powerful earthquake.\” (06/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/strong-quake-shakes-part-of-indonesia-22306955.php
----
16) China: Economy weakens further in May as retail sales post first drop in over three years
Source: CNBC
“China’s retail sales fell for the first time in more than three years in May while urban investment contracted more than expected, piling pressure on Beijing to roll out meaningful stimulus to spur consumption, even as de-escalation in Middle East tensions offers some near-term relief. Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, declined in May for the first time since December 2022, dropping 0.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. The Labor Day holiday at the start of May failed to offset sluggish consumer spending, with Beijing scaling back trade-in subsidies earlier this year. The sales contraction was a surprise as economists polled by Reuters had estimated flat growth.” (06/15/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/china-economy-may-retail-sales-industrial-output-fixed-asset-investment-.html
----
17) Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The number of foreign travellers visiting Cuba has plummeted since the beginning of the year amid tightened US sanctions, figures released by Cuba’s national statistics agency suggest. Fewer than 360,000 people visited the Communist-run island in the first five months of 2026, a decrease of 58.4% compared to the same period last year, according to Onei. The Trump administration has targeted the tourism sector, a key source of income for Cuba’s beleaguered government, as part of its pressure campaign against the island’s leadership. As a result, a number of foreign airlines and hotel operators have stopped operating in Cuba, further driving down visitor numbers. Earlier this month, Air Canada announced it was suspending its flights to Cuba indefinitely, citing the ‘ongoing political and economic uncertainty’ as its reason. The carrier had already stopped flying to the island in February because of a shortage of aviation fuel on the Caribbean island.” (06/16/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8zrm20jjo
----
18) India: Regime blocks Telegram over “medical entrance exam fraud” concerns
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“India blocked access to Telegram messenger on Tuesday ahead of a retest of a nationwide medical college entrance examination, after a scandal last month over a question paper leak. The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate marking fiasco in high school tests, sparked outrage and fuelled youth protests demanding the education minister’s resignation. The Ministry of Electronics issued the order restricting access to Telegram until June 22, the day of the retest. Message-editing features, which allow users to alter existing posts, will remain restricted until June 30.” (06/16/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260616-india-blocks-telegram-over-medical-entrance-exam-fraud-concerns
----
19) OH: DeWine wants state to abolish the death penalty
Source: SFGate
“Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that Ohio should abolish the death penalty, saying it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime, confirming his change of heart on the policy he helped write as a state legislator 45 years ago. ‘I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change,’ the 79-year-old governor said during a news conference. ‘Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.’ DeWine has repeatedly postponed scheduled executions in the state over his seven years as governor. During a news conference, he said data indicates the death penalty is not working as intended to deter crime, even as it brings years of pain to victims’ loved ones and takes a toll on the mental health of state employees who serve on execution teams.” (06/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/republican-gov-mike-dewine-says-ohio-should-22307487.php
-----
20) FL: Mom shoots man accused of breaking into home, threatening family
Source: WFTV 9 News
“A Flagler County mother shot a man who deputies said forced his way into her home and threatened her and her two children. … Deputies said the homeowner called 911 around 1:50 p.m. and reported that she had shot a man who entered her home. When deputies arrived, they found blood at the scene, but the man and his vehicle were gone, according to the sheriff’s office. Detectives later identified the man as Michael McDonald, 33, of Palm Coast. According to deputies, McDonald knew the homeowner but showed up at the house uninvited and unexpected. The sheriff’s office said McDonald lifted open the garage door, left the garage, banged on a back window and then entered the home through the front door. … The woman repeatedly ordered McDonald to leave and warned him she would shoot, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies said McDonald kept advancing toward her. That’s when the woman fired one shot, hitting McDonald in the arm, investigators said.” (06/15/26)
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/flagler-county-mom-shoots-man-accused-breaking-into-home-threatening-family/FHXQOBC34VGERJFHPYO24O2CV4/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Trump Breaks It, We Pay for It: The Cost of Cleaning Up the Deep State’s Mess
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The American taxpayer has become the cleanup crew for the American Police State. We pay for the constitutional violations. We pay for the wars. We pay for the lawsuits, the settlements, the cover-ups, the damage control, the reconstruction, the overreach, the incompetence and the corruption. And when government officials are finally called to account for their misconduct, we pay for that, too. That is the dirty little secret of government accountability in America: even when the government loses, the government does not really pay. ‘We the people’ do. This is not a problem invented by Donald Trump.” (06/16/26)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/trump_breaks_it_we_pay_for_it_the_cost_of_cleaning_up_the_deep_states_mess
----
22) Libertarians Are Wrong to Support an “Ellis Island” Immigration-Control System
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“On the issue of immigration, there are two completely different positions within the libertarian movement. One position favors a government-controlled, government-managed system in which federal officials centrally plan the numbers and characteristics of immigrants that will be permitted to enter the United States. The other position is commonly known as ‘open borders.’ This position is based on the principles of economic liberty and the free market. … Some libertarians attempt to ‘straddle the fence’ by endorsing what they call an ‘Ellis Island’ type of immigration-control system. … it’s not freedom — not genuine freedom. That’s a problem for libertarians, who purport to favor freedom, especially economic liberty and free-market principles.” (06/16/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/06/16/libertarians-are-wrong-to-support-an-ellis-island-immigration-control-system/
----
23) Brexit’s paradoxical consequence: The unloved colossus of the City matters more than ever
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Miles Saltiel
“Ten years after Brexit, Britons must choke back an indigestible irony. Leaving the EU has been an unexpected success for those who voted against it: the prosperous Southeast, beneficiaries of the unloved colossus of London’s financial services. But it has been a disaster for those who voted for it, the left-behind of the neglected suburbs and provinces. Two reasons explain this paradox. First, the Brits let Barnier walk all over them on the backward-looking issues which dominated exit negotiations and regulate the rustbelt. Second, Brussels discovered that if it wanted to carry on its prodigal ways, it couldn’t do without London’s capital markets.” (06/16/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/brexits-paradoxical-consequence-the-unloved-colossus-of-the-city-matters-more-than-ever
----
24) Iran: Another Trophy for Trump’s “First” Shelf?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“US president Donald Trump loves being ‘first.’ Whenever something newsworthy happens, big or small, in fact or in fantasy, he reliably touts it as being unprecedented in American, possibly even world, history, and a either a personal, positive accomplishment or an unjustified persecution (‘witch hunt’). … now, he’s the first president to oversee US surrender in not one, but two, wars.” (06/16/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20701
----
25) Economic Warfare, Militarized Diplomacy Are Brutal and Malfunctioning Tools
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“On September 15, 1970, Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to ‘make the economy [of Chile] scream.’ (CIA Director Richard Helms’s actual note of the conversation can be seen here). But it wasn’t the economy that screamed: it was people. ‘The economy’ is an abstraction. The concrete reality of sanctions and embargos is people who are starving. Driving people to starvation has become the foreign policy of the United States.” (06/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/economic-warfare-militarized-diplomacy-are-brutal-and-malfunctioning-tools/
----
26) Who Really Won (or Is Winning) the American-Persian War?
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“Historian Will Durant on the ancient Persian empire: ‘[It is not] natural that nations diverse in language, religion, morals, and traditions should long remain united; there is nothing organic in such a union, and compulsion must repeatedly be applied to maintain the artificial bond. In its two hundred years of empire, Persia did nothing to lessen this heterogeneity, these centrifugal forces; she was content to rule a mob of nations, and never thought of making them into a state…’ (Our Oriental Heritage, 382). I have no objection to trying to prevent dangerous governments, run by questionably civilized radicals, from having nuclear weapons. Actually, I’d prefer to see nuclear weapons completely eradicated from this planet. But unfortunately, humans have this overwhelming lust to kill each other, and some, like communists and other barbarians, like to do it in massive numbers, when possible. So, civilized people must be protected against such.” (06/16/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/06/16/who-really-wonor-is-winningthe-american-persian-war-n2677787
----
27) Accountability Loops
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“You’ve heard of a feedback loop. The thermostat is a classic example. It senses the room, compares the reading to the target, and then acts to close the gap. Output bends back to become input. The system corrects itself because information about how it’s doing reaches the part that can do something about it. Now consider a particular kind of feedback loop, the kind bound up with human performance. Call it an accountability loop. Its defining feature is that the person responsible for an outcome feels its consequences. Do well, and good things follow. Fail, and the failure lands on you. The signal returns to its source.” (06/16/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/accountability-loops
----
28) Cutting the Red Tape
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“For the last couple of years, the EU has been on a mission to make European businesses more competitive through a process it calls ‘simplification.’ This means slashing red tape — especially in the form of reporting and compliance obligations — by 25% for all companies, and at least 35% for SMEs. Backed by Germany, Italy, and the Nordic countries, the project is said to have already saved EU companies €15 billion in administrative costs, almost halfway to the €37.5 billion savings goal set by Brussels for 2029.” (06/16/26)
https://fee.org/articles/cutting-the-red-tape/
----
29) How Pakistan proved its mediation skills
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“It’s been more than 100 days since the United States and Israel launched their first wave of attacks against Iran. With Iran and the U.S. now agreeing to sign a memorandum of understanding on Friday, it will likely be another 60 days before a conclusive end to the war is in sight. Given the thorny issues between the two countries – especially the still-unsettled matter of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program – finalizing a peace deal in the 60-day ceasefire window is a considerable challenge. If the envisioned ceasefire holds, and oil shipments move smoothly through the Strait of Hormuz, a longer period to work out all the details might not be a bad thing for what one analyst described as ‘the slow institutional work of conflict transformation.'” (06/15/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0615/How-Pakistan-proved-its-mediation-skills
----
30) Trump handcuffs congressional Republicans to the SAVE Act
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“Trump insisted the FISA 702 renewal must be linked to his top priority, the SAVE America Act, a clearly unconstitutional federalization of elections designed to make it harder for Americans to vote.” [editor’s note: Don’t pass either of them — “problem” solved – TLK] (06/16/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/06/16/trump-fisa-save-act-republicans-midterms/90559535007/
----
31) Polling on Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris should alarm Californians
Source: California Post
by staff
“As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair aptly said: A good way to measure a country is how many people want to get in, and how many want to get out. The same can be said of a state. And when it comes to California, people are increasingly opting for ‘out.’ The state is unaffordable, with a declining quality of life, a long list of crises and a failed yet arrogant governing class. It’s against this backdrop that Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom remain the front-runners for the 2028 presidential nomination, according to a Center Square Voters’ Voice poll. Per the early-June survey, 27% of registered Democratic and left-leaning independent voters favor Harris, followed by ‘not sure’ at 17% and Newsom at 14%. California voters might ask themselves: If a train-wreck (2024) presidential candidate and a plastic, egocentric governor are the best this state can offer, then what exactly are we doing here?” (06/15/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/15/opinion/poll-on-gavin-newsom-kamala-harris-should-raise-alarm/
----
32) The Infectious Disease Frenzy
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Bell
“If you had a heart attack in the 1960s, you got some morphine for pain and a firm mattress, a bit of nitroglycerin under the tongue or some basic drugs to steady an erratic heartbeat. Now you will be rushed into a maze of tubes and monitors, clot-dissolving drugs and pacing wires, multiple modes of imaging followed perhaps by rapid surgery to remove a persisting blockage. Far fewer people die; it’s all good and considered worth the money. The world of infectious diseases is very different. It faces an intrinsic market failure. While an increasingly old and fat population ensures a growing cardiac disease market, infectious diseases are on an inexorable decline.” (06/16/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-infectious-disease-frenzy/
----
33) Obama’s legacy project offers little hope for Chicago’s South Side residents
Source: Fox News
by Corey Brooks
“The Obama Presidential Center will open soon to the public in Jackson Park, Illinois, an $850 million gleaming monument to one man’s legacy. Yet for the families of Woodlawn, South Shore and the rest of Chicago’s South Side, there are many unhappy faces and concerns. Some of us wonder how this will better our neighborhood. Ever since the monument was announced, the local residents have dealt with unfulfilled promises, rising rents, displacement fears and continued violence. We have a right to be skeptical. After all, it’s common sense. For many of us, the varnish that Barack Obama once had as the first Black president of the United States has worn off. Many of us remember how Obama first came to these streets as a community organizer. What lasting impact did he leave? Very little.” (06/16/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/obamas-legacy-project-offers-little-hope-chicagos-south-side-residents
----
34) Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jennifer Kavanagh
“When Donald Trump arrived in the White House in January 2025, securing a quick end to the war in Ukraine was near the top of his foreign policy agenda. Despite political backlash, he pushed ahead with this objective early in his second term by resuming dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and initiating parallel diplomatic tracks with Kyiv and Moscow. Eighteen months later, however, peace talks have stalled and the war has only escalated. U.S. distraction in the Middle East is to blame for the most recent setback, but the failure of Trump’s initiative has deeper roots. Simply put, Trump’s efforts in Ukraine to this point have been counterproductive, pushing peace further off rather than bringing it closer.” (06/16/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-russia-ukraine-negotiations/
----
35) Nearly All Monetary Rules Say the Fed Should Raise Rates
Source: The Daily Economy
by Matthew Schaffer
“Continued inflation, hawkish regional bank presidents, and 11 of 12 monetary policy rules suggest the Fed should raise rates. The price of the Fed’s ‘patience’ could be paid economy wide.” (06/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/nearly-all-monetary-rules-say-the-fed-should-raise-rates/
----
36) The Last Canadian Politician I’d Trust to Police the Internet
Source: Quillette
by Jonathan Kay
“Marc Miller spread misinformation about unmarked graves and supports the criminal prosecution of residential-school ‘denialists.’ Why would Mark Carney use him to front his new plan for regulating online content?” (06/16/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/06/16/the-last-canadian-politician-id-trust-to-police-the-internet/
----
37) Is California Reaching Critical Mass?
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“By any measure, California is a failed state, and a national embarrassment. Taxes? It has the highest income and gas taxes in the nation. Roads? A Reason Foundation survey ranks it 49th among the states. Mass flight? Between 250,000 and 350,000 more Californians leave the state than move in each year. Housing, gas, insurance, and electricity prices? The highest in the continental U.S. Illegal aliens, the poor, the homeless, the foreign-born, and welfare recipients? The largest numbers in the U.S. Public K–12 schools? Test scores in the bottom quartile. Poverty? Twenty percent live below the poverty line. So, what happened to the nation’s most richly naturally endowed — and once best governed — state? The Left took total control — after millions of the embattled middle class fled.” (06/16/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/16/is-california-reaching-critical-mass/
----
38) How to Say No to an Imperial President
Source: Foreign Policy
by Julian E Zelizer
“Trump’s expansion of executive power would make even Richard Nixon blush.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/ib70x
----
39) The King’s Rubber Empire: Democracy at Home, Terror in the Jungle
Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes
“First published in 1999 and updated in a revised 2006 edition, Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost serves as a stark historical warning at a time when Western politicians and commentators habitually frame global politics as an epic struggle between virtuous democracies and barbarous autocracies. The book shows in forensic detail how one of Europe’s most constitutional monarchies oversaw a regime of forced labor, mutilation, rape, torture and mass death on a scale comparable to the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.” (06/16/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/06/15/the-kings-rubber-empire-democracy-at-home-terror-in-the-jungle/
----
40) Fiscal Dominance and the Politicization of Money
Source: EconLog
by Leonida Zelmanovitz
‘Much of the contemporary debate about monetary policy focuses on technical questions: whether reserves should be scarce or abundant, whether fintech companies should have master accounts at the Federal Reserve, whether those accounts should resemble the accounts held by banks, or how far the Fed’s independence should extend. These are not unimportant questions. Yet these questions are secondary to the central issue shaping American monetary policy today: the fiscal needs of the federal government.” (06/16/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/fiscal-dominance-and-the-politicization-of-money
----
41) A Warning From the UK for Centrist US Dems Who Refuse to Fight for the Working Class
Source: Common Dreams
by Corbin Trent
“The consensus is that this is the year for the Democrats. They have the political winds at their backs. Even with the gerrymandering and the voter suppression and everything Republicans have thrown at the wall, smart money says Democrats take the House and maybe the Senate. And anything that limits the power of this president is good. I’ll grant all of it. Net positive. But what happens after a good cycle or two, if the winners don’t understand what they won? If they don’t see the pain that powered their victories? We don’t have to guess because it already happened in Britain.” (06/16/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/warning-from-uk-for-dems
----
42) 1776 All-Stars: Why George Mason Is Extremely Underrated
Source: Reason
by Ilya Somin
“George Mason was not the greatest, the most admirable, or the most influential of the Founding Fathers. But he made enormous contributions that are often underrated. And I’m not saying that just because I teach at the university named after him. Mason was the principal drafter of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which became a key model for the other state constitutional bills of rights, and eventually for the federal Bill of Rights. Later, he was one of three members of the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the document. Afterward he opposed ratification. Not all his objections to the Constitution were sound, but several were compelling and prescient.” (for publication 07/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/16/1776-all-stars-george-mason/
----
43) Radio Free Europe, the Cold War “Weapon” Congress Still Funds
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Patrick Pillow
“More than three decades after the Cold War ended, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty remains in operation — and Congress is now considering a major increase in its funding. As Americans continue to grapple with rising prices and persistent inflation, Washington DC’s attention has increasingly shifted toward foreign policy priorities rather than domestic economic concerns. When foreign spending does enter the public conversation, it is often through provisions buried deep within legislative text and only briefly summarized in committee reports, with limited public attention.” (06/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/radio-free-europe-the-cold-war-weapon-congress-still-funds/
----
44) The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic
Source: Understanding AI
by Timothy B Lee
“Anthropic stunned the AI world on Friday by announcing it was revoking access to Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the powerful new models it released just three days earlier. The government, Anthropic said, had ‘issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.’ Because Anthropic doesn’t have a way to limit access to Americans, this amounted to a de facto ban on the technology.” (06/15/26)
https://www.understandingai.org/p/the-maga-power-struggle-that-could
----
45) Americans Want Republican Leadership That Acts
Source: The Federalist
by Eric Schmitt
“Over the past few weeks, the redistricting battles have revealed something important about the state of American politics: Republican voters are not recoiling from a fight. They are running toward it. Fights that the old Republican establishment would have treated as too aggressive, risky, or impolite have instead unleashed grassroots energy across the country. Why? Because Republican voters are starving for political courage. Republican voters have seen what courage looks like in their states. They want to see it in Washington. For too long, Republican politics was defined by caution masquerading as wisdom. Voters sent Republicans to Washington to stop the left, only to watch too many of them obsess over decorum, consultant-approved messaging, and the approval of people who despised them anyway. Meanwhile, the country they loved was slipping away …” (06/15/26)
https://thefederalist.com/2026/06/15/americans-want-republican-leadership-that-acts/
----
46) The online “safety” trap
Source: The Eternally Radical Idea
by Greg Lukianoff
“I am not a social media utopian. As regular ERI readers and FIRE supporters will know, I co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind with social psychologist Jon Haidt. In that book, we argued that overprotection was making young people more anxious, fragile, and less prepared for adult life. I also happen to think that the phone-based childhood has been a bad bargain for many kids, and that phones should be out of schools entirely. But that does not mean governments should build a national identity-checking system for the internet, give government a foot in the door for controlling artificial intelligence, or create broad new liabilities that pressure platforms to suppress lawful expression in the name of protecting minors.” (06/15/26)
https://eternallyradicalidea.com/p/the-online-safety-trap
----
47) Trump Celebrates Achieving Absolutely Nothing in Iran
Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse
The Trump administration is boasting about pending plans to conclude its war with Iran, having achieved none of the original objectives laid out by President Donald Trump. … If the deal is signed on this week, it will mark a return to the status quo antebellum when the Strait of Hormuz was open and no nuclear deal with Iran was in place. Aside from killing top regime leaders, thousands of civilians — including more than 150, most of them children, on a strike on an elementary school — and damaging almost 149,000 civilian infrastructures, the United States has functionally achieved nothing. The same regime is in power and it maintains missile capabilities, still has a navy, and still supports regional proxies.” (06/15/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/06/15/trump-us-iran-war/
----
48) Quantum Vibe, 06/15/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (06/15/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2593
----
49) Fox Solves Its “Death of Cable” Problem by Buying the Modern Cable Box
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“I have been talking for years now about the death of cable, which has functionally arrived even if the cable networks don’t quite know it yet. The Pew Research Center estimates that cable and satellite TV households were down to only 36 percent of the population in 2025; that number was 85 percent just a decade earlier. Among viewers under 30, cable subscriptions are at 16 percent of households. Streaming represents nearly half of all viewing among all age groups. Cable is a dying medium, and it’s a matter of time before it’s no longer cost-efficient to maintain cable systems, and they are shut down. Charter Communications is trying to grow its way to survival with the acquisition of Cox, but even the biggest cable companies can’t outrun reality forever.” (06/16/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/16/fox-solves-death-of-cable-problem-by-buying-modern-cable-box-roku/
-----
50) California Forces Venture Capitalists into DEI Regime
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“A California law requiring venture capital firms to report the race, gender, and sexual orientation of the companies they fund is being challenged in federal court, the California Globe reports. Attorneys for the Colorado-based 1517 Fund contend that the law is unconstitutional. Californians can make a case that the measure also violates the spirit of a state law the people approved in 1996.” (06/15/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/15/california-forces-venture-capitalists-into-dei-regime/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Debate: Bryan Caplan v. Garett Jones on immigration
Source: Bet On It
Debate at the University of Austin. (06/16/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/caplan-jones-uatx-debate-video
----
52) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 06/16/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“Risk, Reform, and Public Safety in Missouri with Doug Burris.” (06/16/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/criminal-justice/risk-reform-and-public-safety-in-missouri-with-doug-burris/
----
53) Cato Podcast, 06/16/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Retirement System That Works Against You.” (06/16/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/retirement-system-works-against-you
----
54) Capital Record, episode 304
Source: National Review
“Concentration of Power and Elon Musk’s Trillion-Dollar Net Worth.” (06/16/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/concentration-of-power-and-elon-musks-trillion-dollar-net-worth/
----
55) The Good Fight, 06/16/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Samuel Moyn on Why Old People Are Ruining America.” (06/16/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/samuel-moyn
----
56) Advisory Opinions, 06/16/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Trump Administration’s Internal Arguments Over Habeas Corpus.” (06/16/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-trump-administrations-internal-arguments-over-habeas-corpus/
----
57) The Corbett Report, episode 504
Source: The Corbett Report
“The CBC Exposed.” (06/16/26)
https://corbettreport.com/the-cbc-exposed/
----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/15/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israeli Officials Say No Lebanon Withdrawal, Vance: US-Iran MoU Has Been Signed Digitally, and More.” (06/15/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6MUjCrz-MU
----
59) Trump Watch, 06/15/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Time for Soul-Searching.” (06/15/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEFGsIyKUms
-----
60) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/15/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Iran’s Strategic Thinking: A View from Inside Iran w/ Peiman Salehi.” (06/15/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/psalehi6-15-26/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
More News, More Commentary, More Audio/Video at Our Web Edition!
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine war: Crimea moped ban as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth
2) GA: Republican primary delivers mixed results for Trump
3) Warsh to face spotlight as Federal Reserve likely to leave interest rates unchanged
4) Iran’s World Cup team ordered out of US right after opener, coach says
5) Report: Secret Service enraged at FBI Director Kash Patel after premature announcement about UFC event terror plot
6) Electric Vehicle Growth Outlook Slows As US Regime Pulls Back On Subsidies
7) Poland: Russian artist, critic of Putin, murdered
8) Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion
9) EU formally launches accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova
10) Italy: Seven Arrested Over Anarchist Network Linked to Winter Olympics Rail Sabotage
11) Musk’s SpaceX buys AI coding start-up for $60 billion days after IPO
12) UN-backed court opens trial of former Central African Republic president Bozizé
13) Colombia: Texan arrested after mob accuses him of sexually abusing boy he went there to adopt
14) Romania: PM-designate loses party support as political crisis deepens
15) A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shakes part of Indonesia, causing damage and injuries
16) China: Economy weakens further in May as retail sales post first drop in over three years
17) Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites
18) India: Regime blocks Telegram over “medical entrance exam fraud” concerns
19) OH: DeWine wants state to abolish the death penalty
20) FL: Mom shoots man accused of breaking into home, threatening family
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Trump Breaks It, We Pay for It: The Cost of Cleaning Up the Deep State’s Mess
22) Libertarians Are Wrong to Support an “Ellis Island” Immigration-Control System
23) Brexit’s paradoxical consequence: The unloved colossus of the City matters more than ever
24) Iran: Another Trophy for Trump’s “First” Shelf?
25) Economic Warfare, Militarized Diplomacy Are Brutal and Malfunctioning Tools
26) Who Really Won (or Is Winning) the American-Persian War?
27) Accountability Loops
28) Cutting the Red Tape
29) How Pakistan proved its mediation skills
30) Trump handcuffs congressional Republicans to the SAVE Act
31) Polling on Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris should alarm Californians
32) The Infectious Disease Frenzy
33) Obama’s legacy project offers little hope for Chicago’s South Side residents
34) Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine
35) Nearly All Monetary Rules Say the Fed Should Raise Rates
36) The Last Canadian Politician I’d Trust to Police the Internet
37) Is California Reaching Critical Mass?
38) How to Say No to an Imperial President
39) The King’s Rubber Empire: Democracy at Home, Terror in the Jungle
40) Fiscal Dominance and the Politicization of Money
41) A Warning From the UK for Centrist US Dems Who Refuse to Fight for the Working Class
42) 1776 All-Stars: Why George Mason Is Extremely Underrated
43) Radio Free Europe, the Cold War “Weapon” Congress Still Funds
44) The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic
45) Americans Want Republican Leadership That Acts
46) The online “safety” trap
47) Trump Celebrates Achieving Absolutely Nothing in Iran
48) Quantum Vibe, 06/15/26
49) Fox Solves Its “Death of Cable” Problem by Buying the Modern Cable Box
50) California Forces Venture Capitalists into DEI Regime
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Debate: Bryan Caplan v. Garett Jones on immigration
52) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 06/16/26
53) Cato Podcast, 06/16/26
54) Capital Record, episode 304
55) The Good Fight, 06/16/26
56) Advisory Opinions, 06/16/26
57) The Corbett Report, episode 504
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/15/26
59) Trump Watch, 06/15/26
60) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/15/26
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION (2nd edition), by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883853117
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE "YOUR" CONGRESS/SENATE MEMBERS?
https://congressionalindependence.deathbutt.org/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHARE YOUR OPINIONS. EARN POINTS. REDEEM POINTS FOR AWARDS
https://account.yougov.com/us-en/join?referral=eAi-FP2i9s1Jzb5lj2zw5A
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine war: Crimea moped ban as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, has banned riding moped scooters, quad bikes and motorcycles at night-time, saying they sound like drone attacks and suggesting children are doing it deliberately at Kyiv’s behest. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the … peninsula, said the ban would be in place between 8pm and 6am from Wednesday onwards. Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov’s adviser, claimed separately on Telegram: ‘The enemy is recruiting your children for night-time rides … The moped noise hampers the work of defence systems. Their engines sound similar [to drones].’ … A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at the refinery that is the largest fuel supplier to the Moscow region, and two industry sources told Reuters that it had halted operations. … Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least eight people on Tuesday, officials said.” (06/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/ukraine-war-briefing-sanctions-waiver-on-russian-oil-could-end-soon-trump-suggests
-----
2) GA: Republican primary delivers mixed results for Trump
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Georgia Republicans have delivered mixed results for United States President Donald Trump in the state’s primary elections, opting for the president’s preferred US Senate candidate but rejecting his choice for governor. Trump’s influence is being put to the test in this year’s midterm elections as four states and the District of Columbia held primaries on Tuesday. In the Senate race, Republican Mike Collins, 58, topped former football coach Derek Dooley and advanced to face Senator Jon Ossoff, the only Senate Democrat running for re-election in a state that Trump won two years ago. … In the race for Georgia governor, healthcare tycoon Rick Jackson, 71, outpaced Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones after spending about $100m of his own money on the campaign and surpassing Jones’s backing from the president. Jackson will face Democratic nominee and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.” (06/17/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/17/georgia-republican-primary-delivers-mixed-results-for-trump
-----
3) Warsh to face spotlight as Federal Reserve likely to leave interest rates unchanged
Source: Associated Press
“The Federal Reserve will enter the Kevin Warsh era Wednesday, as President Trump’s pick to lead the central bank oversees his first policy meeting and holds his first news conference. Yet Warsh isn’t expected to immediately usher in significant policy changes. The Fed is likely to keep its key rate unchanged Wednesday at about 3.6% for the fourth straight meeting, economists say. Fed policymakers could change their post-meeting statement so that it no longer signals the central bank’s next move will be to reduce interest rates. Such a change would suggest it could keep rates unchanged for an extended period — or even raise them if inflation stays elevated. … since the Iran war began Feb. 28, inflation has accelerated to a three-year high of 4.2%, lifted mostly by costlier gas stemming from the Iran war. The Fed typically fights higher inflation by raising its key interest rate to cool spending and growth.” (06/17/26)
https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-kevin-warsh-interest-rates-103325df845d2d6bde63dfa4b8093d35
-----
4) Iran’s World Cup team ordered out of US right after opener, coach says
Source: The Hill
“The coach of the Iranian soccer team said that his team had to leave the U.S. shortly after its 2-2 draw against New Zealand to open the FIFA World Cup. Amir Ghalenoei said that officials did not give his team time to ‘recover’ from the match before ordering them to return to Tijuana, Mexico. The Iranians are staying in Tijuana, which is a short flight from southern California — where the team played on Monday and will compete in its second game against Belgium on Sunday. … Ghalenoei did not say who ordered his team to depart the U.S. back to Mexico. While all 31 Iranian players and their coaches received visas, multiple members of the team’s traveling party did not.” (06/16/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/sports-gaming/5925843-iran-world-cup-travel-issues/
-----
5) Report: Secret Service enraged at FBI Director Kash Patel after premature announcement about UFC event terror plot
Source: Independent [UK]
“Secret Service officials are reportedly angry with FBI Director Kash Patel for announcing Tuesday the FBI had intercepted an alleged plot targeting President Donald Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event before many arrests had been made in the case. Officials ‘woke up’ Tuesday morning to find Patel had posted on X, boasting about the FBI’s work to thwart the planned attack and arrest several individuals accused of conspiring in the plot. … However, not all suspects had been arrested and the case was sealed in court at the time, angering Secret Service officials who led the investigation, sources told MSNOW. … Federal law enforcement had five people in custody Monday but identified 23 others as part of a ‘network of plotters’ who allegedly planned to use a drone equipped with an explosive to hit buildings near the event, force a mass evacuation and steer crowds toward a sniper team, officials told Fox News Digital.” [editor’s note: A 19-year-old is identified as the alleged mastermind/leader of what would have been a large operation, so I suspect the whole thing is more law enforcement hype than reality – TLK] (06/16/26)
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/secret-enraged-fbi-director-kash-201604104.html
-----
6) Electric Vehicle Growth Outlook Slows As US Regime Pulls Back On Subsidies
Source: Business Today [Malaysia]
“The global outlook for electric vehicle demand has been cut for a second year in a row, with policy shifts in the United States driving a significant downgrade to long-term expectations, according to BloombergNEF. The latest forecast points to a slower pace of electrification across major automotive markets, even as overall adoption continues to rise. … EV sales are now expected to account for just 17% of [US] passenger vehicle sales by 2030, down sharply from 27% in last year’s forecast and far below earlier expectations of 48%. The revision reflects a cumulative loss of around 14 million EV sales through 2030 compared with previous projections, highlighting how quickly policy changes are reshaping the market outlook. Several policy adjustments are behind the slowdown. The $7,500 federal tax credit for EV buyers has expired, fuel economy standards have been eased, and efforts to limit California’s ability to set its own emissions rules are adding further uncertainty.” (06/16/26)
https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2026/06/16/ev-growth-outlook-slows-as-us-pulls-back-on-policy-support/
----
7) Poland: Russian artist, critic of Putin, murdered
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A Russian artist critical of Vladimir Putin and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been shot and killed in the eastern Polish town of Biała Podlaska, a prosecutor has said. Five shots were fired at the victim, including one to the head, in the attack on Monday, said Marcin Kozak, a spokesperson for the district prosecutor in Lublin. Two Belarusians have been detained but not charged in connection with the case, he added. Local media identified the victim as Robert Kuzovkov, who was also known by his artistic pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, a Russian artist and performer known for his criticism of the Russian leader.” (06/16/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/russia-artist-putin-critic-robert-kuzovkov-shot-dead-poland
----
8) Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion
Source: CNBC
“Yum Brands on Tuesday announced it is selling Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital for roughly $1.5 billion. The deal excludes the pizza chain’s locations in mainland China; Yum China will acquire those in a separate transaction for about $1.2 billion. The deals cap off years of struggles for Pizza Hut, which has weighed on Yum’s overall financial performance. In the U.S., the pizza chain has transitioned from the sit-down format and salad bars of yore to focus on delivery and carryout — far behind the curve. … The deal severs Pizza Hut’s decades-long ties to Taco Bell and KFC, its sister brands in Yum’s portfolio.” (06/16/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/yum-brands-sells-pizza-hut-to-private-equity-firm-longrange-capital-for-2point7-billion.html
----
9) EU formally launches accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova
Source: Firstpost [India]
“Ukraine and Moldova took a major step towards joining the European Union on Monday as the bloc formally launched the accession process for both countries, opening negotiations that will require years of political and institutional reforms. For Kyiv, the move comes as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion and pursues EU membership as both a security guarantee and a pathway towards deeper integration with the West. The launch of the process was marked by an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg attended by Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka.” (06/16/26)
https://www.firstpost.com/world/eu-formally-launches-accession-talks-with-ukraine-and-moldova-14022919.html
----
10) Italy: Seven Arrested Over Anarchist Network Linked to Winter Olympics Rail Sabotage
Source: US News & World Report
“Italian police have arrested seven people accused of belonging to an anarchist militant network and carrying out sabotage on a high-speed railway line during the Winter Olympics in February. In a statement on Tuesday, police said a judge had ordered five suspects to be held in prison and two placed under house arrest. The charges include terrorist association and subversion of the democratic order. Police said two of those arrested were accused of taking part in a February 14 attack on the Rome-Florence high-speed rail line. According to investigators, the sabotage was carried out using improvised explosive devices, causing severe damage to infrastructure estimated at €455,000 ($528,000). The attack led to train delays of more than an hour during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which ran from February 6 to 22.” (06/16/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-16/italy-arrests-seven-over-anarchist-network-linked-to-winter-olympics-rail-sabotage
----
11) Musk’s SpaceX buys AI coding start-up for $60 billion days after IPO
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“SpaceX has agreed to buy AI coding start-up Cursor for $60bn (£45bn) just days after its bumper initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk’s rocket company will take over Anysphere, which makes the artificial intelligence coding agent. The move comes after SpaceX joined New York’s tech-focused Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday in the biggest ever listing, valuing it at more than $2tn and raising $85.7bn. … Like OpenAI and Anthropic, Cursor’s technology uses AI to automate the process of writing code, one of the most prominent current uses for artificial intelligence.” (06/16/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgd5g7d7gyo
----
12) UN-backed court opens trial of former Central African Republic president Bozizé
Source: Seattle Times
“A U.N.-backed court in the Central African Republic on Tuesday opened the trial of former President François Bozizé, who is accused of crimes against humanity for abuses committed by members of his security forces between 2009 and 2013. The trial is the sixth held by the Special Criminal Court, a tribunal created in 2015 with U.N. support to prosecute serious crimes committed during the country’s conflicts. …Prosecutors accuse Bozizé of being responsible as a military commander for crimes committed by members of his presidential guard and other security forces, including ‘murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other inhumane acts.’ Bozizé, 79, is being tried in absentia. He has been living in exile in Guinea-Bissau since 2023, and authorities there have refused to extradite him despite an international arrest warrant issued by the court in 2024.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/XYx9N
----
13) Colombia: Texan arrested after mob accuses him of sexually abusing boy he went there to adopt
Source: New York Post
“A Texas man who was in Colombia to adopt a 7-year-old boy was arrested after a huge, angry mob accused him of sexually abusing the child in plain sight on a balcony, according to reports. The 36-year-old suspect was seen holding the boy in front of him on a balcony of a building in an upscale neighborhood in Bogota on Sunday afternoon — and an outraged crowd quickly formed below, according to viral video of the incident shared on social media. ‘He’s abusing the child, let him go!’ shouted the woman recording along with others before the man eventually took the child inside, the dramatic clip shows. The otherwise unidentified suspect was arrested at the scene …. the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare later said there were no physical signs of sexual violence, while stressing that the investigation is ongoing because ‘there are other factors involved in sexual abuse,’ according to Bogota-based newspaper El Espectador.” (06/16/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/16/world-news/texan-busted-in-colombia-after-huge-mob-accuses-him-of-sexually-abusing-boy-7-on-a-balcony/
----
14) Romania: PM-designate loses party support as political crisis deepens
Source: Politico
“Romania’s latest prime minister-designate failed to secure the backing of his own party on Tuesday, impeding the path to forming a new government. Adrian Veștea — a former mayor, county council president and development minister from the center-right National Liberal Party (PLN) — was announced on Sunday as Romanian President Nicușor Dan’s second prime minister-designate in two weeks, after previous candidate Eugen Tomac failed to win enough support to form a technocratic government. But on Monday evening, PNL chair and former Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan — who was forced from office when the government collapsed in May — announced that his party would not support Veștea as he seeks to form a governing coalition in Romania’s parliament. … Veștea is expected to rely on dissident PNL lawmakers to reach the parliamentary majority needed to form a government. But Bolojan has also threatened to expel PNL lawmakers who vote for Veștea.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/lwyxL
----
15) A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shakes part of Indonesia, causing damage and injuries
Source: SFGate
“A 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook part of central Indonesia ’s Sulawesi island Tuesday, injuring dozens of people, damaging homes and infrastructure and rattling residents of a city devastated by a quake and tsunami eight years ago, officials said. The initial quake was centered inland about 43 kilometers (27 miles) east-southeast of Palu, and the U.S. Geological Survey said it was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. The strong shaking sent people fleeing into open areas in and around Palu, a city of about 400,000 people and the capital of Central Sulawesi province. Several hospitals evacuated patients, some with IV drips, outdoors as a safety measure. Four regencies close to the epicenter — with a combined population of 1.3 million — have yet to be fully assessed, but a preliminary report said at least 109 people have been displaced by the powerful earthquake.\” (06/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/strong-quake-shakes-part-of-indonesia-22306955.php
----
16) China: Economy weakens further in May as retail sales post first drop in over three years
Source: CNBC
“China’s retail sales fell for the first time in more than three years in May while urban investment contracted more than expected, piling pressure on Beijing to roll out meaningful stimulus to spur consumption, even as de-escalation in Middle East tensions offers some near-term relief. Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, declined in May for the first time since December 2022, dropping 0.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. The Labor Day holiday at the start of May failed to offset sluggish consumer spending, with Beijing scaling back trade-in subsidies earlier this year. The sales contraction was a surprise as economists polled by Reuters had estimated flat growth.” (06/15/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/china-economy-may-retail-sales-industrial-output-fixed-asset-investment-.html
----
17) Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The number of foreign travellers visiting Cuba has plummeted since the beginning of the year amid tightened US sanctions, figures released by Cuba’s national statistics agency suggest. Fewer than 360,000 people visited the Communist-run island in the first five months of 2026, a decrease of 58.4% compared to the same period last year, according to Onei. The Trump administration has targeted the tourism sector, a key source of income for Cuba’s beleaguered government, as part of its pressure campaign against the island’s leadership. As a result, a number of foreign airlines and hotel operators have stopped operating in Cuba, further driving down visitor numbers. Earlier this month, Air Canada announced it was suspending its flights to Cuba indefinitely, citing the ‘ongoing political and economic uncertainty’ as its reason. The carrier had already stopped flying to the island in February because of a shortage of aviation fuel on the Caribbean island.” (06/16/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8zrm20jjo
----
18) India: Regime blocks Telegram over “medical entrance exam fraud” concerns
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“India blocked access to Telegram messenger on Tuesday ahead of a retest of a nationwide medical college entrance examination, after a scandal last month over a question paper leak. The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate marking fiasco in high school tests, sparked outrage and fuelled youth protests demanding the education minister’s resignation. The Ministry of Electronics issued the order restricting access to Telegram until June 22, the day of the retest. Message-editing features, which allow users to alter existing posts, will remain restricted until June 30.” (06/16/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260616-india-blocks-telegram-over-medical-entrance-exam-fraud-concerns
----
19) OH: DeWine wants state to abolish the death penalty
Source: SFGate
“Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that Ohio should abolish the death penalty, saying it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime, confirming his change of heart on the policy he helped write as a state legislator 45 years ago. ‘I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change,’ the 79-year-old governor said during a news conference. ‘Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.’ DeWine has repeatedly postponed scheduled executions in the state over his seven years as governor. During a news conference, he said data indicates the death penalty is not working as intended to deter crime, even as it brings years of pain to victims’ loved ones and takes a toll on the mental health of state employees who serve on execution teams.” (06/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/republican-gov-mike-dewine-says-ohio-should-22307487.php
-----
20) FL: Mom shoots man accused of breaking into home, threatening family
Source: WFTV 9 News
“A Flagler County mother shot a man who deputies said forced his way into her home and threatened her and her two children. … Deputies said the homeowner called 911 around 1:50 p.m. and reported that she had shot a man who entered her home. When deputies arrived, they found blood at the scene, but the man and his vehicle were gone, according to the sheriff’s office. Detectives later identified the man as Michael McDonald, 33, of Palm Coast. According to deputies, McDonald knew the homeowner but showed up at the house uninvited and unexpected. The sheriff’s office said McDonald lifted open the garage door, left the garage, banged on a back window and then entered the home through the front door. … The woman repeatedly ordered McDonald to leave and warned him she would shoot, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies said McDonald kept advancing toward her. That’s when the woman fired one shot, hitting McDonald in the arm, investigators said.” (06/15/26)
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/flagler-county-mom-shoots-man-accused-breaking-into-home-threatening-family/FHXQOBC34VGERJFHPYO24O2CV4/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Trump Breaks It, We Pay for It: The Cost of Cleaning Up the Deep State’s Mess
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The American taxpayer has become the cleanup crew for the American Police State. We pay for the constitutional violations. We pay for the wars. We pay for the lawsuits, the settlements, the cover-ups, the damage control, the reconstruction, the overreach, the incompetence and the corruption. And when government officials are finally called to account for their misconduct, we pay for that, too. That is the dirty little secret of government accountability in America: even when the government loses, the government does not really pay. ‘We the people’ do. This is not a problem invented by Donald Trump.” (06/16/26)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/trump_breaks_it_we_pay_for_it_the_cost_of_cleaning_up_the_deep_states_mess
----
22) Libertarians Are Wrong to Support an “Ellis Island” Immigration-Control System
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“On the issue of immigration, there are two completely different positions within the libertarian movement. One position favors a government-controlled, government-managed system in which federal officials centrally plan the numbers and characteristics of immigrants that will be permitted to enter the United States. The other position is commonly known as ‘open borders.’ This position is based on the principles of economic liberty and the free market. … Some libertarians attempt to ‘straddle the fence’ by endorsing what they call an ‘Ellis Island’ type of immigration-control system. … it’s not freedom — not genuine freedom. That’s a problem for libertarians, who purport to favor freedom, especially economic liberty and free-market principles.” (06/16/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/06/16/libertarians-are-wrong-to-support-an-ellis-island-immigration-control-system/
----
23) Brexit’s paradoxical consequence: The unloved colossus of the City matters more than ever
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Miles Saltiel
“Ten years after Brexit, Britons must choke back an indigestible irony. Leaving the EU has been an unexpected success for those who voted against it: the prosperous Southeast, beneficiaries of the unloved colossus of London’s financial services. But it has been a disaster for those who voted for it, the left-behind of the neglected suburbs and provinces. Two reasons explain this paradox. First, the Brits let Barnier walk all over them on the backward-looking issues which dominated exit negotiations and regulate the rustbelt. Second, Brussels discovered that if it wanted to carry on its prodigal ways, it couldn’t do without London’s capital markets.” (06/16/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/brexits-paradoxical-consequence-the-unloved-colossus-of-the-city-matters-more-than-ever
----
24) Iran: Another Trophy for Trump’s “First” Shelf?
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“US president Donald Trump loves being ‘first.’ Whenever something newsworthy happens, big or small, in fact or in fantasy, he reliably touts it as being unprecedented in American, possibly even world, history, and a either a personal, positive accomplishment or an unjustified persecution (‘witch hunt’). … now, he’s the first president to oversee US surrender in not one, but two, wars.” (06/16/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20701
----
25) Economic Warfare, Militarized Diplomacy Are Brutal and Malfunctioning Tools
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“On September 15, 1970, Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to ‘make the economy [of Chile] scream.’ (CIA Director Richard Helms’s actual note of the conversation can be seen here). But it wasn’t the economy that screamed: it was people. ‘The economy’ is an abstraction. The concrete reality of sanctions and embargos is people who are starving. Driving people to starvation has become the foreign policy of the United States.” (06/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/economic-warfare-militarized-diplomacy-are-brutal-and-malfunctioning-tools/
----
26) Who Really Won (or Is Winning) the American-Persian War?
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“Historian Will Durant on the ancient Persian empire: ‘[It is not] natural that nations diverse in language, religion, morals, and traditions should long remain united; there is nothing organic in such a union, and compulsion must repeatedly be applied to maintain the artificial bond. In its two hundred years of empire, Persia did nothing to lessen this heterogeneity, these centrifugal forces; she was content to rule a mob of nations, and never thought of making them into a state…’ (Our Oriental Heritage, 382). I have no objection to trying to prevent dangerous governments, run by questionably civilized radicals, from having nuclear weapons. Actually, I’d prefer to see nuclear weapons completely eradicated from this planet. But unfortunately, humans have this overwhelming lust to kill each other, and some, like communists and other barbarians, like to do it in massive numbers, when possible. So, civilized people must be protected against such.” (06/16/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/06/16/who-really-wonor-is-winningthe-american-persian-war-n2677787
----
27) Accountability Loops
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“You’ve heard of a feedback loop. The thermostat is a classic example. It senses the room, compares the reading to the target, and then acts to close the gap. Output bends back to become input. The system corrects itself because information about how it’s doing reaches the part that can do something about it. Now consider a particular kind of feedback loop, the kind bound up with human performance. Call it an accountability loop. Its defining feature is that the person responsible for an outcome feels its consequences. Do well, and good things follow. Fail, and the failure lands on you. The signal returns to its source.” (06/16/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/accountability-loops
----
28) Cutting the Red Tape
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“For the last couple of years, the EU has been on a mission to make European businesses more competitive through a process it calls ‘simplification.’ This means slashing red tape — especially in the form of reporting and compliance obligations — by 25% for all companies, and at least 35% for SMEs. Backed by Germany, Italy, and the Nordic countries, the project is said to have already saved EU companies €15 billion in administrative costs, almost halfway to the €37.5 billion savings goal set by Brussels for 2029.” (06/16/26)
https://fee.org/articles/cutting-the-red-tape/
----
29) How Pakistan proved its mediation skills
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“It’s been more than 100 days since the United States and Israel launched their first wave of attacks against Iran. With Iran and the U.S. now agreeing to sign a memorandum of understanding on Friday, it will likely be another 60 days before a conclusive end to the war is in sight. Given the thorny issues between the two countries – especially the still-unsettled matter of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program – finalizing a peace deal in the 60-day ceasefire window is a considerable challenge. If the envisioned ceasefire holds, and oil shipments move smoothly through the Strait of Hormuz, a longer period to work out all the details might not be a bad thing for what one analyst described as ‘the slow institutional work of conflict transformation.'” (06/15/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0615/How-Pakistan-proved-its-mediation-skills
----
30) Trump handcuffs congressional Republicans to the SAVE Act
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“Trump insisted the FISA 702 renewal must be linked to his top priority, the SAVE America Act, a clearly unconstitutional federalization of elections designed to make it harder for Americans to vote.” [editor’s note: Don’t pass either of them — “problem” solved – TLK] (06/16/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/06/16/trump-fisa-save-act-republicans-midterms/90559535007/
----
31) Polling on Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris should alarm Californians
Source: California Post
by staff
“As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair aptly said: A good way to measure a country is how many people want to get in, and how many want to get out. The same can be said of a state. And when it comes to California, people are increasingly opting for ‘out.’ The state is unaffordable, with a declining quality of life, a long list of crises and a failed yet arrogant governing class. It’s against this backdrop that Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom remain the front-runners for the 2028 presidential nomination, according to a Center Square Voters’ Voice poll. Per the early-June survey, 27% of registered Democratic and left-leaning independent voters favor Harris, followed by ‘not sure’ at 17% and Newsom at 14%. California voters might ask themselves: If a train-wreck (2024) presidential candidate and a plastic, egocentric governor are the best this state can offer, then what exactly are we doing here?” (06/15/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/15/opinion/poll-on-gavin-newsom-kamala-harris-should-raise-alarm/
----
32) The Infectious Disease Frenzy
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Bell
“If you had a heart attack in the 1960s, you got some morphine for pain and a firm mattress, a bit of nitroglycerin under the tongue or some basic drugs to steady an erratic heartbeat. Now you will be rushed into a maze of tubes and monitors, clot-dissolving drugs and pacing wires, multiple modes of imaging followed perhaps by rapid surgery to remove a persisting blockage. Far fewer people die; it’s all good and considered worth the money. The world of infectious diseases is very different. It faces an intrinsic market failure. While an increasingly old and fat population ensures a growing cardiac disease market, infectious diseases are on an inexorable decline.” (06/16/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-infectious-disease-frenzy/
----
33) Obama’s legacy project offers little hope for Chicago’s South Side residents
Source: Fox News
by Corey Brooks
“The Obama Presidential Center will open soon to the public in Jackson Park, Illinois, an $850 million gleaming monument to one man’s legacy. Yet for the families of Woodlawn, South Shore and the rest of Chicago’s South Side, there are many unhappy faces and concerns. Some of us wonder how this will better our neighborhood. Ever since the monument was announced, the local residents have dealt with unfulfilled promises, rising rents, displacement fears and continued violence. We have a right to be skeptical. After all, it’s common sense. For many of us, the varnish that Barack Obama once had as the first Black president of the United States has worn off. Many of us remember how Obama first came to these streets as a community organizer. What lasting impact did he leave? Very little.” (06/16/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/obamas-legacy-project-offers-little-hope-chicagos-south-side-residents
----
34) Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jennifer Kavanagh
“When Donald Trump arrived in the White House in January 2025, securing a quick end to the war in Ukraine was near the top of his foreign policy agenda. Despite political backlash, he pushed ahead with this objective early in his second term by resuming dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and initiating parallel diplomatic tracks with Kyiv and Moscow. Eighteen months later, however, peace talks have stalled and the war has only escalated. U.S. distraction in the Middle East is to blame for the most recent setback, but the failure of Trump’s initiative has deeper roots. Simply put, Trump’s efforts in Ukraine to this point have been counterproductive, pushing peace further off rather than bringing it closer.” (06/16/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-russia-ukraine-negotiations/
----
35) Nearly All Monetary Rules Say the Fed Should Raise Rates
Source: The Daily Economy
by Matthew Schaffer
“Continued inflation, hawkish regional bank presidents, and 11 of 12 monetary policy rules suggest the Fed should raise rates. The price of the Fed’s ‘patience’ could be paid economy wide.” (06/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/nearly-all-monetary-rules-say-the-fed-should-raise-rates/
----
36) The Last Canadian Politician I’d Trust to Police the Internet
Source: Quillette
by Jonathan Kay
“Marc Miller spread misinformation about unmarked graves and supports the criminal prosecution of residential-school ‘denialists.’ Why would Mark Carney use him to front his new plan for regulating online content?” (06/16/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/06/16/the-last-canadian-politician-id-trust-to-police-the-internet/
----
37) Is California Reaching Critical Mass?
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“By any measure, California is a failed state, and a national embarrassment. Taxes? It has the highest income and gas taxes in the nation. Roads? A Reason Foundation survey ranks it 49th among the states. Mass flight? Between 250,000 and 350,000 more Californians leave the state than move in each year. Housing, gas, insurance, and electricity prices? The highest in the continental U.S. Illegal aliens, the poor, the homeless, the foreign-born, and welfare recipients? The largest numbers in the U.S. Public K–12 schools? Test scores in the bottom quartile. Poverty? Twenty percent live below the poverty line. So, what happened to the nation’s most richly naturally endowed — and once best governed — state? The Left took total control — after millions of the embattled middle class fled.” (06/16/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/16/is-california-reaching-critical-mass/
----
38) How to Say No to an Imperial President
Source: Foreign Policy
by Julian E Zelizer
“Trump’s expansion of executive power would make even Richard Nixon blush.” (06/16/26)
https://archive.is/ib70x
----
39) The King’s Rubber Empire: Democracy at Home, Terror in the Jungle
Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes
“First published in 1999 and updated in a revised 2006 edition, Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost serves as a stark historical warning at a time when Western politicians and commentators habitually frame global politics as an epic struggle between virtuous democracies and barbarous autocracies. The book shows in forensic detail how one of Europe’s most constitutional monarchies oversaw a regime of forced labor, mutilation, rape, torture and mass death on a scale comparable to the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.” (06/16/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/06/15/the-kings-rubber-empire-democracy-at-home-terror-in-the-jungle/
----
40) Fiscal Dominance and the Politicization of Money
Source: EconLog
by Leonida Zelmanovitz
‘Much of the contemporary debate about monetary policy focuses on technical questions: whether reserves should be scarce or abundant, whether fintech companies should have master accounts at the Federal Reserve, whether those accounts should resemble the accounts held by banks, or how far the Fed’s independence should extend. These are not unimportant questions. Yet these questions are secondary to the central issue shaping American monetary policy today: the fiscal needs of the federal government.” (06/16/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/fiscal-dominance-and-the-politicization-of-money
----
41) A Warning From the UK for Centrist US Dems Who Refuse to Fight for the Working Class
Source: Common Dreams
by Corbin Trent
“The consensus is that this is the year for the Democrats. They have the political winds at their backs. Even with the gerrymandering and the voter suppression and everything Republicans have thrown at the wall, smart money says Democrats take the House and maybe the Senate. And anything that limits the power of this president is good. I’ll grant all of it. Net positive. But what happens after a good cycle or two, if the winners don’t understand what they won? If they don’t see the pain that powered their victories? We don’t have to guess because it already happened in Britain.” (06/16/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/warning-from-uk-for-dems
----
42) 1776 All-Stars: Why George Mason Is Extremely Underrated
Source: Reason
by Ilya Somin
“George Mason was not the greatest, the most admirable, or the most influential of the Founding Fathers. But he made enormous contributions that are often underrated. And I’m not saying that just because I teach at the university named after him. Mason was the principal drafter of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which became a key model for the other state constitutional bills of rights, and eventually for the federal Bill of Rights. Later, he was one of three members of the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the document. Afterward he opposed ratification. Not all his objections to the Constitution were sound, but several were compelling and prescient.” (for publication 07/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/16/1776-all-stars-george-mason/
----
43) Radio Free Europe, the Cold War “Weapon” Congress Still Funds
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Patrick Pillow
“More than three decades after the Cold War ended, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty remains in operation — and Congress is now considering a major increase in its funding. As Americans continue to grapple with rising prices and persistent inflation, Washington DC’s attention has increasingly shifted toward foreign policy priorities rather than domestic economic concerns. When foreign spending does enter the public conversation, it is often through provisions buried deep within legislative text and only briefly summarized in committee reports, with limited public attention.” (06/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/radio-free-europe-the-cold-war-weapon-congress-still-funds/
----
44) The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic
Source: Understanding AI
by Timothy B Lee
“Anthropic stunned the AI world on Friday by announcing it was revoking access to Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the powerful new models it released just three days earlier. The government, Anthropic said, had ‘issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.’ Because Anthropic doesn’t have a way to limit access to Americans, this amounted to a de facto ban on the technology.” (06/15/26)
https://www.understandingai.org/p/the-maga-power-struggle-that-could
----
45) Americans Want Republican Leadership That Acts
Source: The Federalist
by Eric Schmitt
“Over the past few weeks, the redistricting battles have revealed something important about the state of American politics: Republican voters are not recoiling from a fight. They are running toward it. Fights that the old Republican establishment would have treated as too aggressive, risky, or impolite have instead unleashed grassroots energy across the country. Why? Because Republican voters are starving for political courage. Republican voters have seen what courage looks like in their states. They want to see it in Washington. For too long, Republican politics was defined by caution masquerading as wisdom. Voters sent Republicans to Washington to stop the left, only to watch too many of them obsess over decorum, consultant-approved messaging, and the approval of people who despised them anyway. Meanwhile, the country they loved was slipping away …” (06/15/26)
https://thefederalist.com/2026/06/15/americans-want-republican-leadership-that-acts/
----
46) The online “safety” trap
Source: The Eternally Radical Idea
by Greg Lukianoff
“I am not a social media utopian. As regular ERI readers and FIRE supporters will know, I co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind with social psychologist Jon Haidt. In that book, we argued that overprotection was making young people more anxious, fragile, and less prepared for adult life. I also happen to think that the phone-based childhood has been a bad bargain for many kids, and that phones should be out of schools entirely. But that does not mean governments should build a national identity-checking system for the internet, give government a foot in the door for controlling artificial intelligence, or create broad new liabilities that pressure platforms to suppress lawful expression in the name of protecting minors.” (06/15/26)
https://eternallyradicalidea.com/p/the-online-safety-trap
----
47) Trump Celebrates Achieving Absolutely Nothing in Iran
Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse
The Trump administration is boasting about pending plans to conclude its war with Iran, having achieved none of the original objectives laid out by President Donald Trump. … If the deal is signed on this week, it will mark a return to the status quo antebellum when the Strait of Hormuz was open and no nuclear deal with Iran was in place. Aside from killing top regime leaders, thousands of civilians — including more than 150, most of them children, on a strike on an elementary school — and damaging almost 149,000 civilian infrastructures, the United States has functionally achieved nothing. The same regime is in power and it maintains missile capabilities, still has a navy, and still supports regional proxies.” (06/15/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/06/15/trump-us-iran-war/
----
48) Quantum Vibe, 06/15/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (06/15/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2593
----
49) Fox Solves Its “Death of Cable” Problem by Buying the Modern Cable Box
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“I have been talking for years now about the death of cable, which has functionally arrived even if the cable networks don’t quite know it yet. The Pew Research Center estimates that cable and satellite TV households were down to only 36 percent of the population in 2025; that number was 85 percent just a decade earlier. Among viewers under 30, cable subscriptions are at 16 percent of households. Streaming represents nearly half of all viewing among all age groups. Cable is a dying medium, and it’s a matter of time before it’s no longer cost-efficient to maintain cable systems, and they are shut down. Charter Communications is trying to grow its way to survival with the acquisition of Cox, but even the biggest cable companies can’t outrun reality forever.” (06/16/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/16/fox-solves-death-of-cable-problem-by-buying-modern-cable-box-roku/
-----
50) California Forces Venture Capitalists into DEI Regime
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“A California law requiring venture capital firms to report the race, gender, and sexual orientation of the companies they fund is being challenged in federal court, the California Globe reports. Attorneys for the Colorado-based 1517 Fund contend that the law is unconstitutional. Californians can make a case that the measure also violates the spirit of a state law the people approved in 1996.” (06/15/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/15/california-forces-venture-capitalists-into-dei-regime/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Debate: Bryan Caplan v. Garett Jones on immigration
Source: Bet On It
Debate at the University of Austin. (06/16/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/caplan-jones-uatx-debate-video
----
52) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 06/16/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“Risk, Reform, and Public Safety in Missouri with Doug Burris.” (06/16/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/criminal-justice/risk-reform-and-public-safety-in-missouri-with-doug-burris/
----
53) Cato Podcast, 06/16/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Retirement System That Works Against You.” (06/16/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/retirement-system-works-against-you
----
54) Capital Record, episode 304
Source: National Review
“Concentration of Power and Elon Musk’s Trillion-Dollar Net Worth.” (06/16/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/concentration-of-power-and-elon-musks-trillion-dollar-net-worth/
----
55) The Good Fight, 06/16/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Samuel Moyn on Why Old People Are Ruining America.” (06/16/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/samuel-moyn
----
56) Advisory Opinions, 06/16/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Trump Administration’s Internal Arguments Over Habeas Corpus.” (06/16/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-trump-administrations-internal-arguments-over-habeas-corpus/
----
57) The Corbett Report, episode 504
Source: The Corbett Report
“The CBC Exposed.” (06/16/26)
https://corbettreport.com/the-cbc-exposed/
----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/15/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israeli Officials Say No Lebanon Withdrawal, Vance: US-Iran MoU Has Been Signed Digitally, and More.” (06/15/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6MUjCrz-MU
----
59) Trump Watch, 06/15/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Time for Soul-Searching.” (06/15/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEFGsIyKUms
-----
60) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/15/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Iran’s Strategic Thinking: A View from Inside Iran w/ Peiman Salehi.” (06/15/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/psalehi6-15-26/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages