06/19 -- Ukraine: Three dead in Russian strikes as Lavrov warns of "massive" retaliation for refinery attack; Tail Wags Dog
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 19, 2026, 6:17:58 AMJun 19
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 06/19/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Three dead in Russian strikes as Lavrov warns of “massive” retaliation for refinery attack
2) UK: Labour Mayor Wins Special Election, Clearing Path to Challenge Starmer
3) Iran war: Post-US-surrender negotiations delayed
4) SCOTUS sides partially with Constitution, against drug warriors on gun rights
5) US FDA panel backs mRNA flu vaccine
6) Bosch agrees to pay $36 million bribe as DOJ declines prosecution in export case
7) Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% amid Iran war peace prospects
8) Ecuador: Suspected gang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport
9) Three Saudi-flagged supertankers sail through Hormuz after Iran deal signed, data shows
10) Trump’s firing power faces twin SCOTUS tests, but one agency may get special treatment
11) Waymo recalls more than 3,800 robotaxis that might drive onto closed freeways
12) CA: San Francisco socialites found dead on side of Interstate 5
13) Bitcoin Steadies Near $64k as Analysts Eye Floor After Hawkish Fed
14) Expert: Newly released UFO files allege China, Russia retrieved downed UAPs — and attempted to reverse-engineer them
15) UK: Ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died
16) Apple to raise prices as AI boom pushes up chip costs
17) Hegseth announces six-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops “at risk”
18) Niger: Gunmen attack airport in capital as explosions, gunfire heard
19) CA: Renters could avoid PG&E bills and turn to solar energy under new bill
20) US: Gas dips below $4 a gallon after months of pump pain
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Tail Wags Dog
22) Sound Money, Artificial Intelligence, and the Pope
23) “Sit Down, Theodore!” Slang and Spontaneous Order
24) Mandatory Internet IDs
25) Lessons from Trump’s Reckless Iran War
26) We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government
27) Europe Refuses to Spend on Defense. That Means America Needs to Stop Defending Europe
28) Petty and Idiotic Immigration Tyranny in the World Cup
29) California’s Insane “Prove You’re Gay” Law
30) Five Ideas to Survive a Hot, Dry Summer
31) India reckons with “a woman’s worth”
32) 1776 All-Stars: Why a Pseudonymous Anti-Federalist Is My Favorite Founder
33) Humans Create Empires For The Same Reason They Create Egos
34) How Stable Is the China-North Korea Alliance?
35) If the US Government Won’t Respect Freedom of Speech, AI Firms Should Move
36) From Victimhood to Agency: Understanding What is Up to Us
37) Dems want us to focus on Graham Platner’s policies; he fails Maine there, too
38) Oppose Graham Platner for His Socialism, Not Just His Outrageous Behavior
39) Foundations of Public Choice: A Primer
40) After the Iran War, is UAE the odd man out?
41) The Democrats Offer No Real Alternative to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” for Latin America
42) Strategic Ambiguity (If We Must)
43) Vance’s Dishonest Diplomatic Spin
44) The Voter’s Audit: How to Spot a True Fiscal Conservative in 2026
45) Trump showing the world, G7 leaders who’s the “boss”
46) This Is Why Missouri Families Need Choice
47) Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero
48) Liberalism in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence
49) The Oligarch-on-Oligarch Fight That Defines Politics in 2026
50) Forgotten Declaration: Why they were Fighting Back
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Libertarian Angle, 06/18/26
52) Nonzero, 06/18/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/18/26
54) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 06/18/16
55) Capital Record, episode 305
56) Underthrow Podcast, 06/18/26
57) Cato Podcast, 06/18/26
58) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargenta, 06/18/26
59) The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen, 06/18/26
60) Homeschool Workshop, 06/17/26
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/17/26
62) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 391
63) Free Speech Unmuted, 06/17/26
64) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/17/26
65) Trita Parsi on The Scott Horton Show
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Three dead in Russian strikes as Lavrov warns of “massive” retaliation for refinery attack
Source: Independent [UK]
“Russian strikes killed at least two people and wounded two others in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy after Moscow threatened escalation for Ukraine’s biggest assault so far. Another nine people, including four children, suffered injuries in Kharkiv, which was attacked with Russian guided aerial bombs. Ukraine on Friday morning claimed that a crew member of a Panama-flagged ship was killed in a Russian drone attack in the Black Sea waters. Oleksiy Kuleba said that another vessel under the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag was also hit. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov previously warned of ‘massive coordinated strikes on a regular basis’ in response to Ukraine’s attack on a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week.” (06/19/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-putin-trump-zelensky-moscow-drone-attack-b2998879.html
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2) UK: Labour Mayor Wins Special Election, Clearing Path to Challenge Starmer
Source: New York Times
“Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England, won a seat in Parliament on Thursday, a pivotal step in his plans to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and the country. Mr. Burnham easily defeated a field of more than a half-dozen candidates, winning 24,937 votes — a resounding majority of about 55 percent. … When Mr. Burnham might challenge the prime minister — and how Mr. Starmer will respond — remains unclear. The prime minister has said he will fight to stay in the office he won almost two years ago. But several Labour lawmakers have publicly said Mr. Starmer should step aside, for the good of the party and the country, if Mr. Burnham challenges him.” (06/19/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06/19/world/makerfield-election-results-uk-burnham
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3) Iran war: Post-US-surrender negotiations delayed
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Planned talks in Switzerland between the United States and Iran to discuss the technical terms of their ceasefire deal have been postponed. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed early on Friday that the talks, which were scheduled to take place in Burgenstock, would not go ahead. The postponement has raised fears that the ceasefire deal signed by the US and Iran earlier this week could unwind already. Reports suggest that Iran has delayed sending its delegation to discuss the technical issues linked to the ceasefire deal – digitally signed by the two countries on Wednesday – due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. … Chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that any talks would remain bound by Tehran’s ‘red lines.’ A halt to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon was one of Tehran’s key demands in negotiations around the deal.” [editor’s note: Israel is not, so far as I know, a party to the deal – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/19/us-iran-talks-postponed-as-israel-attacks-lebanon
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4) SCOTUS sides partially with Constitution, against drug warriors on gun rights
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday the government can’t criminally prosecute a man for possessing a firearm simply because he regularly smoked marijuana, rejecting the government’s comparison to the disarmament [of] habitual drunkards in the founding era. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that it violates his right to keep arms under the conservative justices’ expanded Second Amendment test. It requires gun control measures be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. … At issue was the federal law making it a crime for someone ‘who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance’ to possess a firearm.” [editor’s note: Any supposed “historical tradition” is irrelevant. The court’s job is to enforce the Constitution, which says “shall not be infringed,” with a period immediately after – TLK] (06/18/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5929977-second-amendment-firearm-ruling/
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5) US FDA panel backs mRNA flu vaccine
Source: Santa Fe New Mexican
“A new kind of flu vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Thursday as federal health advisers recommended approval of the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending [sic] the coronavirus pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Moderna’s new shot, dubbed mFlusiva, for older Americans ahead of the winter flu season. Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine’s use in people ages 50 to 64 — along with authorization for use in those 65 and older while it conducts additional testing.” [editor’s note: The mRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” didn’t “end” the pandemic. They reduced some symptoms, but didn’t reduce transmission, actually INCREASING spread of the virus – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/ap/business/fda-panel-backs-first-of-its-kind-flu-vaccine-using-mrna-technology/article_c558b67c-7a73-5fa1-9146-b3331b1ae69c.html
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6) Bosch agrees to pay $36 million bribe as DOJ declines prosecution in export case
Source: United Press International
“German engineering and technology firm Bosch has agreed to pay a $36 million [bribe] to resolve federal allegations that it exported restricted products and software to China’s Huawei. Federal prosecutors announced the agreement Wednesday, saying the Bosch resolution was the National Security Division’s first declination under the Justice Department’s new corporate self-disclosure policy. The company has agreed to forfeit the $11.4 million in profits it made in the alleged transactions, with a portion being credited against the [bribe]. As a result, the NSD has declined to prosecute the company.” (06/18/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/06/18/Bosch-pays-export-fine/5371781769505/
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7) Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% amid Iran war peace prospects
Source: CNBC
“The Bank of England held U.K. interest rates at 3.75% on Thursday, as policymakers continue to balance the need to address above-target inflation with lackluster economic output. The hold, which was in-line with the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, was backed by seven of the nine monetary policy committee members in the BOE’s May meeting. BoE chief economist Huw Pill and Megan Greene, an external member of the rates-setting Monetary Policy Committee, were the two dissenting voices. Pill and Greene both cast votes to hike the BOE’s ‘base rate’ by 25 basis points to 4%.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/18/inflation-interest-rates-uk-bank-of-england-iran-deal.html
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8) Ecuador: Suspected gang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“An Ecuadorean man, who police accuse of leading a faction of one of the country’s most feared criminal gangs, has been shot dead as he was leaving the airport in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil. Security footage shows two young men waiting outside the arrivals terminal holding stuffed toys and flowers before one of them approaches the victim, pulls his gun from behind a teddy and shoots him point-blank. Police have detained two teenagers in connection with the crime, the latest in a widespread wave of gang violence. … Ecuador’s interior minister, John Reimberg, identified the victim of Wednesday’s attack as 39-year-old Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva, who he said was the leader of the Los Águilas gang in El Triunfo, a region east of Guayaquil.” (06/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gy2l30dd0o
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9) Three Saudi-flagged supertankers sail through Hormuz after Iran deal signed, data shows
Source: Reuters
“Three Saudi-flagged supertankers with six million barrels of crude onboard sailed through the Strait of Hormuz hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran over an end to their war, ship tracking data showed on Thursday. Other tankers showed their positions sailing through the strait on public ship tracking on Thursday after weeks of ships concealing their voyages when crossing through the waterway. The sailings from Saudi ports were the biggest departures through the strait in weeks, according to Reuters analysis of shipping movements. Saudi Arabia has mainly used its Red Sea port terminal of Yanbu to ship out oil due to the conflict which started on February 28 and which has stopped hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from leaving from Gulf producer ports through the Strait of Hormuz.” (06/18/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-saudi-flagged-supertankers-sail-through-hormuz-after-iran-deal-signed-data-2026-06-18/
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10) Trump’s firing power faces twin SCOTUS tests, but one agency may get special treatment
Source: Fox News
“Two high-stakes Supreme Court battles over President Donald Trump’s authority to remove federal officials could reshape the balance of power in Washington, but legal experts say the justices may draw a sharp line between the cases. At the center of the debate are Slaughter v. Trump, involving the firing of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Trump v. Cook, involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. While both cases touch on presidential removal power, legal scholars say the disputes present fundamentally different legal questions. In Slaughter, the administration is directly challenging statutory restrictions on the president’s ability to remove FTC commissioners, arguing that limits on the president’s authority to fire commissioners violate his Article II executive powers. But in Cook, the central question is whether Trump met the Federal Reserve Act’s ‘for cause’ removal requirement.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-firing-power-faces-twin-supreme-court-tests-one-agency-may-get-special-treatment
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11) Waymo recalls more than 3,800 robotaxis that might drive onto closed freeways
Source: Engadget
“Waymo is recalling over 3,800 of its self-driving taxis due to a software issue that could cause them to enter closed freeway construction zones at speed, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Admininstration (NHTSA) bulletin seen by Reuters. The company is reportedly working on a fix and has ‘restricted freeway driving,’ the NHTSA safety notice states. It’s not known if Waymo had an incident that prompted the recall. … This is the second recall for the Alphabet-owned robotaxi company in a bit more than a month. Back in May, Waymo recalled 3,791 robotaxis after a vehicle drove onto a flood road in San Antonio. Fortunately, no one was injured as the taxi was unoccupied, but the vehicle was swept away by the flood. Prior to that, the fleet was recalled for a particularly dangerous situation when some of its robotaxis were seen failing to stop for school buses that had their stop signs and flashing lights deployed.” (06/18/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2197051/waymo-recalls-3800-robotaxis-that-might-drive-onto-closed-freeways/
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12) CA: San Francisco socialites found dead on side of Interstate 5
Source: SFGate
“The San Francisco arts community is mourning the loss of Judith and Wylie Sheldon, longtime patrons of film and performances in the city. On Monday evening, a California Highway Patrol officer discovered the couple’s bodies inside their car on the side of Interstate 5 north of Redding. Judy was 84, and Wylie was 86. … Lieutenant Josh Smith with the CHP told SFGATE that the couple was traveling to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when, on June 15 around 5:46 p.m., a CHP officer checked on their Jeep Compass parked along the highway approaching Lake Shasta. The car’s engine was still running, and the couple was found unresponsive inside. … Smith said they do not suspect foul play.” (06/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/san-francisco-patrons-dead-22310168.php
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13) Bitcoin Steadies Near $64k as Analysts Eye Floor After Hawkish Fed
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Bitcoin steadied near $64,100 on Thursday, down about 1% over the past 24 hours, as traders weighed a hawkish debut from new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh against early signs the market may be carving out a bottom. The leading cryptocurrency held a market cap near $1.29 trillion and — despite the post-Fed pullback — remained up 2% over the past week. Ethereum and Solana also eased, trading near $1,740 and $72, respectively.” (06/18/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/bitcoin-steadies-near-64k-analysts-100712131.html
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14) Expert: Newly released UFO files allege China, Russia retrieved downed UAPs — and attempted to reverse-engineer them
Source: New York Post
“China and Russia have retrieved downed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) and tried to reverse-engineer them, an expert claimed, citing newly released documents. Jordan Flowers, executive director of the UAP Disclosure Foundation, said one of the most significant takeaways from the third tranche of UFO files made public on June 12 was that the US’s foreign adversaries also appear to be engaged in research that could threaten national security. … The suggestion that Russia and China may have retrieved downed UAPs and are surveilling the US’s research wasn’t the only mention of a foreign nation in the newly released files. A cable from the Central Intelligence Agency placed its assets in the African nation of Zimbabwe on high alert on July 2, 2008, after a UFO was spotted hovering directly over the country’s main airport.” (06/18/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/18/us-news/newly-released-ufo-files-allege-china-and-russia-retrieved-downed-uaps-and-attempted-to-reverse-engineer-them/
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15) UK: Ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died
Source: ABC News
“A massive ancient oak tree linked to the legend of Robin Hood may have been loved to death. The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it didn’t sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday. Visitors who viewed the tree’s gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy in Nottingham over the past two centuries compressed the soil around it, making it difficult for rain to reach its roots, the conservation group said. … The tree is said to have sheltered Robin Hood, the legendary 13th century bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor and took refuge in the forest when being pursued by the sheriff of Nottingham.” (06/18/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/ancient-oak-tree-sheltered-legendary-robin-hood-died-133988689
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16) Apple to raise prices as AI boom pushes up chip costs
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Apple plans to raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant’s boss has said. Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that price increases were ‘unavoidable’ as the situation around memory chips had become ‘unsustainable.’ He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.” (06/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wyxvqdx1zo
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17) Hegseth announces six-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops “at risk”
Source: Fox News
“US defense secretary] Pete Hegseth had harsh words for NATO allies during an address to his European counterparts on Thursday, announcing a six-month review of U.S. force deployment on the continent. Hegseth said the review’s outcome will depend on how quickly European nations act to support themselves militarily. ‘This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,’ he told NATO officials in Brussels. Hegseth also lashed out at European countries for refusing to assist U.S. forces in the war against Iran, particularly those that withheld use of military bases.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-announces-6-month-review-american-forces-europe-blasts-nato-allies-putting-troops-risk
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18) Niger: Gunmen attack airport in capital as explosions, gunfire heard
Source: The Hill
“Gunmen attacked the main airport in Niger’s capital of Niamey early Thursday morning, leading to an exchange of fire and explosions, witnesses and a local security official said. Security forces were deployed to repel the attack after the gunmen breached the airport security, said the official …. It was the second attack at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey this year, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a similar attack in January.” (06/18/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-gunmen-attack-airport-in-nigers-capital-as-explosions-gunfire-heard/
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19) CA: Renters could avoid PG&E bills and turn to solar energy under new bill
Source: SFGate
“Renters may be able to significantly lower their monthly energy bills under a new piece of legislation that could let Californians power homes on their own with an abundant resource: solar. Senate Bill 868, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, would allow consumers to buy solar panels at no extra cost to their utility, and it would also allow large retailers or your local hardware store to sell plug-in solar panels to power your home on your own — and ideally reduce your monthly utility bills. The idea was inspired by a bill passed in Utah last year, and plug-in solar is also popularly used in Europe.” (06/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/energy-cost-california-solar-22309856.php
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20) US: Gas dips below $4 a gallon after months of pump pain
Source: Axios
“The U.S. national average gas price has dropped back below $4 a gallon, per AAA, a sign of Americans’ pain at the pump easing after months of war in Iran. Iran’s squeeze on oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz battered the global economy. But crude prices in June fell to their lowest levels in over three months on news of an extended ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran. … The national average is now $3.9990 a gallon, per AAA. A year ago, the average was $3.1880.” (06/18/26)
https://archive.is/dHf8y
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Tail Wags Dog
Source: The Realist Review
by Martin Sieff
“It should be cold comfort indeed, but the successive inability of one US administration after another to control Israel and the extraordinary passion with which the leaders of Western Europe, Canada and NATO continue to defy the United States to risk thermonuclear world war with Russia at the whims of Ukrainian junta leader Volodymyr Zelensky are not unprecedented. For the dark, universally unacknowledged world history of the past 120 years is clear: Tails Wag Dogs. Global superpowers and great continent-spanning empires are brought into needless total conflict and utter mutually assured destruction by the machinations, betrayals and petty intrigues of tiny postage stamp states — usually with unacknowledged, disgusting and even genocidal recent political histories.” (06/18/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/tail-wags-dog
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22) Sound Money, Artificial Intelligence, and the Pope
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley
“How to safeguard the human person in the time of artificial intelligence? It is hardly a surprise that Pope Leo XIV in answering that question in his first encyclical does not include money as part of the solution. More is the pity. The present unsound money regime has abetted vast malinvestment in the digital revolution now in its AI phase. Malinvestment takes various forms and is driven by mal signalling in capital markets caused by monetary inflation. Alongside the legal and constitutional backbone of the free-market economy falters. The build-up of the surveillance state is one consequence. All of this endangers ‘the human person.'” (06/18/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/06/sound-money-artificial-intelligence-and-the-pope/
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23) “Sit Down, Theodore!” Slang and Spontaneous Order
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
The other day, I texted my youngest a reminder to take out the trash. In response I received, ‘sit down theodore.’ I was, to say the least, confused. It turns out that ‘sit down theodore’ had evolved as a complicated joke with a friend about the word ‘noted.’ First it became ‘no ted.’ That transformed into ‘stop it, teddy’ then into ‘enough, teddy.’ That morphed into ‘sit teddy’ and finally ‘sit down theodore.’ The joke became so ingrained in their texting conversations that they set the autocorrect feature on their phones to transform the word ‘noted’ into ‘sit down theodore’ whenever they typed it. All of this explained the text I received, but it also got me thinking about one of the most important aspects of a liberal society — spontaneous order.” (06/18/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/sit-down-theodore-slang-and-spontaneous-order
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24) Mandatory Internet IDs
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“An assault on your freedom to use your computer without having to ‘verify your age’ has migrated from states like California, Colorado, and New York to the United States Congress. This is the so-called Parents Decide Act, which would ‘require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system.’ … ‘Save the children’ is the familiar sales pitch, but if government is in charge of saving the children, our children are in trouble.” (06/18/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/18/mandatory-internet-ids/
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25) Lessons from Trump’s Reckless Iran War
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“[T]he Blunderer-in-Chief’s disastrous war has at least one silver lining: It inadvertently demonstrated the case for closing U.S. bases throughout the Middle East and bringing American forces home. Disengagement is long overdue, especially for an administration supposedly committed to America First.” (06/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/lessons-from-trumps-reckless-iran-war/
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26) We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government
Source: The Nation
by US Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
“You will hear no more disorienting or self-defeating a platitude uttered on Capitol Hill in this 250th year of the American journey, by politicians of either party, than the sixth-grade dogma that America has ‘three co-equal branches of government.’ That ‘co-equal’ thing is confected nonsense. To begin with, if it is a real word at all, ‘co-equal’ is a mediocre concoction whose lackadaisical users cannot even decide whether it should be hyphenated. By adding the gratuitous prefix to the indispensable stand-alone word, which the Declaration of Independence applied to people, ‘co-equal’ establishes a confusing false equivalency among institutions, making it seem as if the framers wanted the three branches to be involved in a perpetual game of rock-paper-scissors with no apparent preference for actual progress toward a more perfect union.” [editor’s note: Ironic that this do-nothing Congressthug is writing this screed; if he and his colleagues ever bothered to pass a competent bill he might have some standing – SAT] (06/18/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/congress-constitution-jamie-raskin/
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27) Europe Refuses to Spend on Defense. That Means America Needs to Stop Defending Europe
Source: Cato Institute
by Doug Bandow
“Rather than telling Europe how much to spend on its defense, the Trump administration should begin a phased military disengagement from the continent.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/europe-refuses-spend-defense-means-america-needs-stop-defending-europe
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28) Petty and Idiotic Immigration Tyranny in the World Cup
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“I can’t help but wonder whether advocates of America’s socialist (i.e., central planning) system of immigration controls and the vicious immigration police state that comes with it are proud of how their system is being used against the Iranian soccer team that is competing in the World Cup games here in the United States. All three soccer games in which the Iranian team is competing are being played inside the United States. But with their socialist system of immigration controls, U.S. officials wield the omnipotent power to determine who enters the United States and under what conditions.” (06/18/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/06/18/petty-and-idiotic-immigration-tyranny-in-the-world-cup/
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29) California’s Insane “Prove You’re Gay” Law
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I challenge you to prove your sexual orientation. Go! Not sure how to do that? Good, because I don’t really want to know what you might come up with to prove it, any of it, in any direction. Plus, I’m not really interested; I don’t care what you do as long as whoever you do it with is of age and willing. That being said, California is asking some people to prove that they’re gay so their companies can qualify for certain government contracts. Why? Because if there are set-asides for gay-owned businesses, someone might simply claim to be bisexual and get some of those contracts. How can you prove they’re lying? The state has a checklist to make sure recipients of gay set-asides are gay enough, which means we finally found some fraud Democrats are against.” [editor’s note: It reminds me of when conservatives were claiming that jobsite quotas would mean daily blowjobs for the foreman – SAT] (06/18/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/06/18/californias-insane-prove-youre-gay-law-n2677924
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30) Five Ideas to Survive a Hot, Dry Summer
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by staff
“As American summers grow drier and hotter, the institutions built to manage lands, water, and wildlife have not kept pace. These institutions, made up of laws, policies, contracts, and other rules that govern how we allocate water, manage forests, prevent wildfire, and conserve wildlife, were designed for a cooler, wetter, and more stable environment. This report focuses on helping institutions adapt to our changing reality. It proposes practical recommendations within five topical areas that can help people and ecosystems weather this summer as well as the years ahead.” (06/18/26)
https://www.perc.org/2026/06/18/five-ideas-to-survive-a-hot-dry-summer/
-----
31) India reckons with “a woman’s worth”
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In a society where a woman’s status is still largely viewed as subordinate to that of a man, a recent ruling by India’s Supreme Court spotlights the significant, and largely unacknowledged, contributions of women to both individual households and the national economy. In dry legalese, the June 11 verdict establishes a monetary value for ‘loss of domestic care’ in a compensation case for a 2001 vehicle crash that claimed the life of a young wife and mother of three. The court granted the woman’s family a sum of 6.3 million rupees (about $66,000) – more than 25 times the initial award offered in 2003. And the judges also set a minimum estimate for domestic ‘homemaker’ duties at 30,000 rupees ($317) per month – which is about 10 times the amount previously used. Arriving at the current award and the benchmark for future compensation is about much more than numbers, however.” (06/17/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0617/India-reckons-with-a-woman-s-worth
-----
32) 1776 All-Stars: Why a Pseudonymous Anti-Federalist Is My Favorite Founder
Source: Reason
by Jesse Walker
“I do not know my favorite Founder’s name. I just know that in 1788 a Baltimore newspaper published a series of pseudonymous essays where he warned against standing armies, called for a bill of rights, and declared, paraphrasing Jonathan Swift, that ‘laws are cobwebs, catching only the flies and letting the wasps escape.’ See-sawing between fears of an aristocratic legislature and a tyrannical executive, he argued that we’d be best off with the highly decentralized democracy found in certain Swiss cantons.” (06/18/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/18/1776-all-stars-a-farmer/
-----
33) Humans Create Empires For The Same Reason They Create Egos
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s all about the impulse to control. We come into this world boundless and free with eyes full of wonder, but within a few years our minds create and solidify a sense of self around which our mental lives revolve. We do this because we are helpless when we are born, and things happen which are uncomfortable or startling, so we naturally begin seeking out strategies to control what happens to us. Before you know it we’ve got vast spires of psychological architecture within us dedicated to using thought to promote the interests and security of an entirely symbolic me-character that we made up in our minds. And from that point on we are cut off from the Eden of perception.” (06/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/06/18/humans-create-empires-for-the-same-reason-they-create-egos/
-----
34) How Stable Is the China-North Korea Alliance?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“There is an indisputably crucial history of very close relations between Beijing and Pyongyang. In late 1950, PRC forces intervened in the war between communist North Korea and anti-communist South Korea (whose government was massively supported with military personnel and weaponry from the United States and other Western countries). The armistice that ended the fighting in 1953 left the Korean Peninsula split between two intensely hostile countries, with the United States and the PRC firmly backing their respective clients throughout the remainder of the Cold War. Despite that history, the current connection between the two communist states is decidedly more nuanced, ambiguous, and even contentious than the lips and teeth cliché would imply.” (06/18/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/06/17/how-stable-is-the-china-north-korea-alliance
-----
35) If the US Government Won’t Respect Freedom of Speech, AI Firms Should Move
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Code is speech (as ruled by a US district court and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bernstein v. Department of Justice). AI models are code. Therefore, AI models are speech, and the government doesn’t get to control them. Not that the current administration, or any other, or Congress, or the courts, can be counted on to respect the Constitution. The ink wasn’t dry on that document before the American political establishment started ignoring its inconveniences. Which leaves Anthropic and other artificial intelligence firms in a bind. … As a practical matter, if Anthropic et al. want to innovate and compete in a growing market that’s already changing how the world works, they need to get away from the US government, which means getting away from the US.” (06/18/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20703
-----
36) From Victimhood to Agency: Understanding What is Up to Us
Source: The Daily Economy
by Barry Brownstein
“Excuses protect us from guilt, but they also rob us of hope. The habit of denying responsibility may be one of the greatest obstacles to personal and social flourishing.” (06/18/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/from-victimhood-to-agency-understanding-what-is-up-to-us/
-----
37) Dems want us to focus on Graham Platner’s policies; he fails Maine there, too
Source: Fox News
by Laurel Libby
“Now that Graham Platner is officially the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate to face Sen. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins this November, his campaign staff and the far-left establishment that back him will undoubtedly spend the next five months trying to contain the fallout from his personal history. They will ask voters to look past the domestic abuse allegations, the rhetoric glorifying political violence, the racially charged comments and the Nazi tattoo. They will argue that those controversies are distractions and urge Mainers to focus instead on the issues facing our state. As a Republican serving in the Maine House, I wholeheartedly agree. Because when Mainers look beyond the colorful Platner headlines and turn their focus to his policies, they will find an extreme version of the same progressive agenda that has already made life harder for working families across our state.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-want-us-focus-graham-platners-policies-fails-maine
-----
38) Oppose Graham Platner for His Socialism, Not Just His Outrageous Behavior
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“Thanks in large part to the erratic and often-destructive policies coming from Donald Trump’s White House, the Democrats are favored to win both houses of Congress, as they hope to flip several Republican-held seats in the House and the Senate. One of the most closely-watched races is the Senate campaign in Maine, where upstart Democrat Graham Platner is favored to end Sen. Susan Collins’s long political career. Platner’s campaign has been deemed controversial mostly because of his unhinged behavior with women, his Nazi tattoo, and social media statements that alone would have disqualified most people even before they could run for office. … the political crudeness that has become the hallmark of Trump and his MAGA followers is not the reason that someone as morally compromised as Platner is now the darling of the Democratic Party. Instead, they love Platner because of his unabashed fealty to socialism.” (06/18/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/oppose-graham-platner-his-socialism-not-just-his-outrageous-behavior
-----
39) Foundations of Public Choice: A Primer
Source: EconLog
by Michael Munger
“Public Choice is more than you think. The usual quick definition — ‘applying economics to the study of politics’ — is not wrong, but it’s facile. Public Choice asks how political actors use information and respond to incentives. That’s a lot more than just an application of economic tools to a new context.” (06/18/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/mungerpublicchoice
-----
40) After the Iran War, is UAE the odd man out?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Giorgio Cafiero
“The roles played by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey in facilitating the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ underscore the extent to which regional actors have invested in creating off-ramps for the United States and Iran, and steering the conflict away from further escalation. Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), this diplomatic off-ramp has garnered broad relief that the conflict appears to be moving toward de-escalation as Washington and Tehran prepare for talks on the sensitive nuclear and non-nuclear issues. But where the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fits into this broader picture is far from straightforward.” (06/18/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uae-iran-war/
-----
41) The Democrats Offer No Real Alternative to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” for Latin America
Source: Common Dreams
by Roger D Harris & John Perry
“Donald Trump’s second term has precipitated a tsunami of criticism from Democrats over his foreign policy. Yet when it comes to Washington’s efforts to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean, the substantive dispute (if there is any substance remaining, once stripped of partisan bickering) is less about ends than means. Beneath the rhetoric of inter-party conflict lies a broad bipartisan consensus in favor of promoting US hemispheric hegemony and crushing governments that resist it, with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua at the forefront. While Democrats frequently portray Trump as reckless, they generally accept the underlying premises of economic coercion, political intervention, and regime-change pressure. Their objections mainly focus on the execution of policy rather than its legitimacy. Under Democratic administrations, the US forged and institutionalized what may be its most effective instrument of hegemony.” (06/18/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems-donroe-doctrine
-----
42) Strategic Ambiguity (If We Must)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“In recent years, critics on both sides of the aisle have taken aim at the longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan. They argue that Washington should abandon ambiguity and embrace ‘strategic clarity,’ explicitly pledging to fight China over Taiwan. Others, such as Hoover Institute Fellow Eyck Freymann, have offered more sophisticated sounding alternatives like ‘structured ambiguity,’ attempting to codify precisely what America would and would not do in various contingencies, particularly involving gray zone activities. But abandoning a long-established policy that, whatever its faults, has prevented a major war between great powers for over half a century, in favor of a new policy, would be a serious mistake.” (06/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/strategic-ambiguity-if-we-must/
-----
43) Vance’s Dishonest Diplomatic Spin
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Vance is trying to spin U.S.-Israeli aggression as having been successful in delivering something that it absolutely did not deliver.” (06/18/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/vances-dishonest-diplomatic-spin
-----
44) The Voter’s Audit: How to Spot a True Fiscal Conservative in 2026
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Don’t be fooled by campaign rhetoric. Here is how to evaluate voting records and hold Florida candidates accountable this election cycle.” (06/17/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-voters-audit-how-to-spot-a-true
-----
45) Trump showing the world, G7 leaders who’s the “boss”
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“‘I’m the boss,’ President Trump joked when he arrived a bit late to a meeting with G7 leaders in France Wednesday. He is. That’s what his detractors forget. America is ‘the boss’ again, the colossus. Iran doesn’t bully us. Israel doesn’t instruct us. Europe can sneer at Donald Trump all it likes, but it’s a supplicant. China respects us. Canada bows. Trump understands power, and it rests easy on his shoulders. He joked about it at the G7 in his relaxed American fashion, and European leaders now get it. They laughed along, but they understood. By the time he had emerged from a glittering dinner at Versailles to fly home, he had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran that has the great and the good worked up into a symphony of hysterical catastrophizing.” [editor’s note: It’s sometimes hard to discern what percentages of Devine’s brain are “clueless” vs. “crazy,” but the total of other percentages is zero – TLK] (06/17/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/17/opinion/miranda-devine-trump-is-showing-the-world-g7-leaders-whos-the-boss-and-deserves-respect-for-his-deal-making/
-----
46) This Is Why Missouri Families Need Choice
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Susan Pendergrass
“Why do families need school choice? The answer is straightforward — a single, zip-code-assigned school cannot possibly be everything to every child. And when a school fails a student, that student needs a lifeline. A recent iteration of EdChoice’s long-running Public Opinion Tracker survey shows that roughly one in four parents indicate that they have had to switch their children’s school at some point. When you dig into why these families are switching, the reasons are straightforward. Parents pull their children out of schools because of unfortunate, everyday problems that directly impact a child’s well-being and future.” (06/17/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/this-is-why-missouri-families-need-choice/
-----
47) Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero
Source: Expression
by Angel Eduardo
“Through her detailed reporting on lynching after the Civil War, Wells did more than most to demonstrate the power of using one’s voice in the pursuit of truth and justice.” (06/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/ida-b-wells-journalist-activist-civil
-----
48) Liberalism in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence
Source: Liberalism.org
by Paul Dragos Aligica
“From time to time, we liberals must rethink the world. Deglobalization, the rise of economic decoupling, the return of tariffs, and the increasing salience of weaponized interdependence have come to define the current landscape. Where once the dominant terms were efficiency, integration, and mutual gains, now they are geoeconomics, resilience, chokepoints, and decoupling. The vocabulary shift is an indicator and a diagnostic. Rhetorical change of this order reflects structural change in how economic exchange and political power actually relate. A liberal position adequate to that new reality cannot be built by repeating arguments shaped by an earlier phase of globalization. We must rebuild — analytically and institutionally — for the world that integration, pushed to its limits, has actually produced.” (06/17/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/liberalism-in-the-age-of-weaponized-interdependence
-----
49) The Oligarch-on-Oligarch Fight That Defines Politics in 2026
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“If a lab could create the perfect congressional candidate for a particular district at this political moment, it might spit out Alexis Goldstein. She was a federal worker who was fired amid the Trump administration’s push to cripple the administrative state, and she’s running in the Sixth Congressional District in Maryland, a state full of federal workers downsized in the DOGE push. Goldstein, a former program manager in the chief technologist’s office at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was fired, in fact, for confronting DOGE functionaries at the CFPB offices last February. Plus, Goldstein is a highly skilled financial analyst—she worked as a programmer on Wall Street before quitting to join Occupy Wall Street in 2010—at a time when one of the most operatic and unusual financial schemes of the century is playing out in the highly leveraged data center build-out.” (06/18/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/18/oligarch-fight-defines-politics-in-2026-maryland-congressional-race-alexis-goldstein/
-----
50) Forgotten Declaration: Why they were Fighting Back
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson, and the Second Continental Congress said those were their two terrible options less than three months after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the ‘shot heard ‘round the world.’ This is the story of the forgotten declaration in which they explained why they fought back.” (06/17/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/06/17/forgotten-declaration-why-they-were-fighting-back/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Libertarian Angle, 06/18/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Tyranny of a National Security State, Foreign Interventionism.” (06/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm2Zv89GagU
-----
52) Nonzero, 06/18/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
"The World After the Iran War | Robert Wright & Joshua Landis." (06/18/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69561
-----
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/18/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Who Caused The Threat to ‘Economic Catastrophe?'” (06/18/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rGmqqgkwDqGy
-----
54) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 06/18/16
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Rules for Radicals, Tactics (Pt 2) wJohn Weeks.” (06/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/rules-for-radicals-tactics-pt-2-wjohn-weeks
-----
55) Capital Record, episode 305
Source: National Review
“The Different Motives to Cure Cancer.” (06/18/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/the-different-motives-to-cure-cancer/
-----
56) Underthrow Podcast, 06/18/26
Source: Underthrow
“If cooperative relationships give rise to flourishing, why don’t we transition away from government by submission to government by subscription?” (06/18/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/subscription-government
-----
57) Cato Podcast, 06/18/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Degrowth Temptation.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/degrowth-temptation
-----
58) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargenta, 06/18/26
Source: The New Republic
“Angry and Rattled, Trump’s Fox Allies Blurt It Out on Live TV: He Lost.” (06/18/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/212027/angry-rattled-trump-fox-allies-blurt-live-tv-lost
-----
59) The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen, 06/18/26
Source: The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen
“America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick.” (06/18/26)
https://rosenjeffrey.substack.com/p/americas-founding-son-john-quincy
-----
60) Homeschool Workshop, 06/17/26
Source: Homeschool Workshop
“JD Vance brought chickens to the VP house.” (06/17/26)
https://rumble.com/v7bg2ty-jd-vance-brought-chickens-to-the-vp-house.html
-----
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/17/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“MoU Says Iran’s Uranium Will Be Downblended, Over 1,000 Killed in Gaza Since ‘Ceasefire,’ and More.” (06/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjsHNk965a4
-----
62) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 391
Source: Free the People
“We Were Lied into War with Iran | Guest: Joe Kent.” (06/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfN3eVFd8mc
-----
63) Free Speech Unmuted, 06/17/26
Source: Hoover Institution
“Shrexting: Free Speech or Criminal Harassment? | Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer.” (06/17/26)
https://free-speech-unmuted.podbean.com/e/shrexting-free-speech-or-criminal-harassment-eugene-volokh-and-jane-bambauer-hoover-institution/
-----
64) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/17/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Antiwar Dissent & Free Speech Special w/ Medea Benjamin, Chip Gibbons, David Swanson & Angela Keaton.” (06/17/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/2026antiwarspecial/
-----
65) Trita Parsi on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews Trita Parsi about the deal Trump has apparently made with the Iranians to end the war. They discuss the panic we’re seeing about it from the Israelis and what Trump must do to rein them in and prevent Tel Aviv from sabotaging the peace process. They also discuss Parsi’s recent appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show and The Free Press story that tried to start a deportation scare about him.” (06/17/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/6-15-26-trita-parsi-on-the-israeli-panic-over-trumps-peace-deal/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Three dead in Russian strikes as Lavrov warns of “massive” retaliation for refinery attack
2) UK: Labour Mayor Wins Special Election, Clearing Path to Challenge Starmer
3) Iran war: Post-US-surrender negotiations delayed
4) SCOTUS sides partially with Constitution, against drug warriors on gun rights
5) US FDA panel backs mRNA flu vaccine
6) Bosch agrees to pay $36 million bribe as DOJ declines prosecution in export case
7) Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% amid Iran war peace prospects
8) Ecuador: Suspected gang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport
9) Three Saudi-flagged supertankers sail through Hormuz after Iran deal signed, data shows
10) Trump’s firing power faces twin SCOTUS tests, but one agency may get special treatment
11) Waymo recalls more than 3,800 robotaxis that might drive onto closed freeways
12) CA: San Francisco socialites found dead on side of Interstate 5
13) Bitcoin Steadies Near $64k as Analysts Eye Floor After Hawkish Fed
14) Expert: Newly released UFO files allege China, Russia retrieved downed UAPs — and attempted to reverse-engineer them
15) UK: Ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died
16) Apple to raise prices as AI boom pushes up chip costs
17) Hegseth announces six-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops “at risk”
18) Niger: Gunmen attack airport in capital as explosions, gunfire heard
19) CA: Renters could avoid PG&E bills and turn to solar energy under new bill
20) US: Gas dips below $4 a gallon after months of pump pain
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Tail Wags Dog
22) Sound Money, Artificial Intelligence, and the Pope
23) “Sit Down, Theodore!” Slang and Spontaneous Order
24) Mandatory Internet IDs
25) Lessons from Trump’s Reckless Iran War
26) We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government
27) Europe Refuses to Spend on Defense. That Means America Needs to Stop Defending Europe
28) Petty and Idiotic Immigration Tyranny in the World Cup
29) California’s Insane “Prove You’re Gay” Law
30) Five Ideas to Survive a Hot, Dry Summer
31) India reckons with “a woman’s worth”
32) 1776 All-Stars: Why a Pseudonymous Anti-Federalist Is My Favorite Founder
33) Humans Create Empires For The Same Reason They Create Egos
34) How Stable Is the China-North Korea Alliance?
35) If the US Government Won’t Respect Freedom of Speech, AI Firms Should Move
36) From Victimhood to Agency: Understanding What is Up to Us
37) Dems want us to focus on Graham Platner’s policies; he fails Maine there, too
38) Oppose Graham Platner for His Socialism, Not Just His Outrageous Behavior
39) Foundations of Public Choice: A Primer
40) After the Iran War, is UAE the odd man out?
41) The Democrats Offer No Real Alternative to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” for Latin America
42) Strategic Ambiguity (If We Must)
43) Vance’s Dishonest Diplomatic Spin
44) The Voter’s Audit: How to Spot a True Fiscal Conservative in 2026
45) Trump showing the world, G7 leaders who’s the “boss”
46) This Is Why Missouri Families Need Choice
47) Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero
48) Liberalism in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence
49) The Oligarch-on-Oligarch Fight That Defines Politics in 2026
50) Forgotten Declaration: Why they were Fighting Back
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Libertarian Angle, 06/18/26
52) Nonzero, 06/18/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/18/26
54) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 06/18/16
55) Capital Record, episode 305
56) Underthrow Podcast, 06/18/26
57) Cato Podcast, 06/18/26
58) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargenta, 06/18/26
59) The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen, 06/18/26
60) Homeschool Workshop, 06/17/26
61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/17/26
62) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 391
63) Free Speech Unmuted, 06/17/26
64) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/17/26
65) Trita Parsi on The Scott Horton Show
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Three dead in Russian strikes as Lavrov warns of “massive” retaliation for refinery attack
Source: Independent [UK]
“Russian strikes killed at least two people and wounded two others in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy after Moscow threatened escalation for Ukraine’s biggest assault so far. Another nine people, including four children, suffered injuries in Kharkiv, which was attacked with Russian guided aerial bombs. Ukraine on Friday morning claimed that a crew member of a Panama-flagged ship was killed in a Russian drone attack in the Black Sea waters. Oleksiy Kuleba said that another vessel under the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag was also hit. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov previously warned of ‘massive coordinated strikes on a regular basis’ in response to Ukraine’s attack on a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week.” (06/19/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-putin-trump-zelensky-moscow-drone-attack-b2998879.html
-----
2) UK: Labour Mayor Wins Special Election, Clearing Path to Challenge Starmer
Source: New York Times
“Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England, won a seat in Parliament on Thursday, a pivotal step in his plans to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and the country. Mr. Burnham easily defeated a field of more than a half-dozen candidates, winning 24,937 votes — a resounding majority of about 55 percent. … When Mr. Burnham might challenge the prime minister — and how Mr. Starmer will respond — remains unclear. The prime minister has said he will fight to stay in the office he won almost two years ago. But several Labour lawmakers have publicly said Mr. Starmer should step aside, for the good of the party and the country, if Mr. Burnham challenges him.” (06/19/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06/19/world/makerfield-election-results-uk-burnham
-----
3) Iran war: Post-US-surrender negotiations delayed
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Planned talks in Switzerland between the United States and Iran to discuss the technical terms of their ceasefire deal have been postponed. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed early on Friday that the talks, which were scheduled to take place in Burgenstock, would not go ahead. The postponement has raised fears that the ceasefire deal signed by the US and Iran earlier this week could unwind already. Reports suggest that Iran has delayed sending its delegation to discuss the technical issues linked to the ceasefire deal – digitally signed by the two countries on Wednesday – due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. … Chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that any talks would remain bound by Tehran’s ‘red lines.’ A halt to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon was one of Tehran’s key demands in negotiations around the deal.” [editor’s note: Israel is not, so far as I know, a party to the deal – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/19/us-iran-talks-postponed-as-israel-attacks-lebanon
-----
4) SCOTUS sides partially with Constitution, against drug warriors on gun rights
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday the government can’t criminally prosecute a man for possessing a firearm simply because he regularly smoked marijuana, rejecting the government’s comparison to the disarmament [of] habitual drunkards in the founding era. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that it violates his right to keep arms under the conservative justices’ expanded Second Amendment test. It requires gun control measures be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. … At issue was the federal law making it a crime for someone ‘who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance’ to possess a firearm.” [editor’s note: Any supposed “historical tradition” is irrelevant. The court’s job is to enforce the Constitution, which says “shall not be infringed,” with a period immediately after – TLK] (06/18/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5929977-second-amendment-firearm-ruling/
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5) US FDA panel backs mRNA flu vaccine
Source: Santa Fe New Mexican
“A new kind of flu vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Thursday as federal health advisers recommended approval of the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending [sic] the coronavirus pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Moderna’s new shot, dubbed mFlusiva, for older Americans ahead of the winter flu season. Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine’s use in people ages 50 to 64 — along with authorization for use in those 65 and older while it conducts additional testing.” [editor’s note: The mRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” didn’t “end” the pandemic. They reduced some symptoms, but didn’t reduce transmission, actually INCREASING spread of the virus – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/ap/business/fda-panel-backs-first-of-its-kind-flu-vaccine-using-mrna-technology/article_c558b67c-7a73-5fa1-9146-b3331b1ae69c.html
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6) Bosch agrees to pay $36 million bribe as DOJ declines prosecution in export case
Source: United Press International
“German engineering and technology firm Bosch has agreed to pay a $36 million [bribe] to resolve federal allegations that it exported restricted products and software to China’s Huawei. Federal prosecutors announced the agreement Wednesday, saying the Bosch resolution was the National Security Division’s first declination under the Justice Department’s new corporate self-disclosure policy. The company has agreed to forfeit the $11.4 million in profits it made in the alleged transactions, with a portion being credited against the [bribe]. As a result, the NSD has declined to prosecute the company.” (06/18/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/06/18/Bosch-pays-export-fine/5371781769505/
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7) Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% amid Iran war peace prospects
Source: CNBC
“The Bank of England held U.K. interest rates at 3.75% on Thursday, as policymakers continue to balance the need to address above-target inflation with lackluster economic output. The hold, which was in-line with the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, was backed by seven of the nine monetary policy committee members in the BOE’s May meeting. BoE chief economist Huw Pill and Megan Greene, an external member of the rates-setting Monetary Policy Committee, were the two dissenting voices. Pill and Greene both cast votes to hike the BOE’s ‘base rate’ by 25 basis points to 4%.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/18/inflation-interest-rates-uk-bank-of-england-iran-deal.html
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8) Ecuador: Suspected gang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“An Ecuadorean man, who police accuse of leading a faction of one of the country’s most feared criminal gangs, has been shot dead as he was leaving the airport in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil. Security footage shows two young men waiting outside the arrivals terminal holding stuffed toys and flowers before one of them approaches the victim, pulls his gun from behind a teddy and shoots him point-blank. Police have detained two teenagers in connection with the crime, the latest in a widespread wave of gang violence. … Ecuador’s interior minister, John Reimberg, identified the victim of Wednesday’s attack as 39-year-old Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva, who he said was the leader of the Los Águilas gang in El Triunfo, a region east of Guayaquil.” (06/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gy2l30dd0o
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9) Three Saudi-flagged supertankers sail through Hormuz after Iran deal signed, data shows
Source: Reuters
“Three Saudi-flagged supertankers with six million barrels of crude onboard sailed through the Strait of Hormuz hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran over an end to their war, ship tracking data showed on Thursday. Other tankers showed their positions sailing through the strait on public ship tracking on Thursday after weeks of ships concealing their voyages when crossing through the waterway. The sailings from Saudi ports were the biggest departures through the strait in weeks, according to Reuters analysis of shipping movements. Saudi Arabia has mainly used its Red Sea port terminal of Yanbu to ship out oil due to the conflict which started on February 28 and which has stopped hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from leaving from Gulf producer ports through the Strait of Hormuz.” (06/18/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-saudi-flagged-supertankers-sail-through-hormuz-after-iran-deal-signed-data-2026-06-18/
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10) Trump’s firing power faces twin SCOTUS tests, but one agency may get special treatment
Source: Fox News
“Two high-stakes Supreme Court battles over President Donald Trump’s authority to remove federal officials could reshape the balance of power in Washington, but legal experts say the justices may draw a sharp line between the cases. At the center of the debate are Slaughter v. Trump, involving the firing of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Trump v. Cook, involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. While both cases touch on presidential removal power, legal scholars say the disputes present fundamentally different legal questions. In Slaughter, the administration is directly challenging statutory restrictions on the president’s ability to remove FTC commissioners, arguing that limits on the president’s authority to fire commissioners violate his Article II executive powers. But in Cook, the central question is whether Trump met the Federal Reserve Act’s ‘for cause’ removal requirement.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-firing-power-faces-twin-supreme-court-tests-one-agency-may-get-special-treatment
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11) Waymo recalls more than 3,800 robotaxis that might drive onto closed freeways
Source: Engadget
“Waymo is recalling over 3,800 of its self-driving taxis due to a software issue that could cause them to enter closed freeway construction zones at speed, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Admininstration (NHTSA) bulletin seen by Reuters. The company is reportedly working on a fix and has ‘restricted freeway driving,’ the NHTSA safety notice states. It’s not known if Waymo had an incident that prompted the recall. … This is the second recall for the Alphabet-owned robotaxi company in a bit more than a month. Back in May, Waymo recalled 3,791 robotaxis after a vehicle drove onto a flood road in San Antonio. Fortunately, no one was injured as the taxi was unoccupied, but the vehicle was swept away by the flood. Prior to that, the fleet was recalled for a particularly dangerous situation when some of its robotaxis were seen failing to stop for school buses that had their stop signs and flashing lights deployed.” (06/18/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2197051/waymo-recalls-3800-robotaxis-that-might-drive-onto-closed-freeways/
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12) CA: San Francisco socialites found dead on side of Interstate 5
Source: SFGate
“The San Francisco arts community is mourning the loss of Judith and Wylie Sheldon, longtime patrons of film and performances in the city. On Monday evening, a California Highway Patrol officer discovered the couple’s bodies inside their car on the side of Interstate 5 north of Redding. Judy was 84, and Wylie was 86. … Lieutenant Josh Smith with the CHP told SFGATE that the couple was traveling to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when, on June 15 around 5:46 p.m., a CHP officer checked on their Jeep Compass parked along the highway approaching Lake Shasta. The car’s engine was still running, and the couple was found unresponsive inside. … Smith said they do not suspect foul play.” (06/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/san-francisco-patrons-dead-22310168.php
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13) Bitcoin Steadies Near $64k as Analysts Eye Floor After Hawkish Fed
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Bitcoin steadied near $64,100 on Thursday, down about 1% over the past 24 hours, as traders weighed a hawkish debut from new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh against early signs the market may be carving out a bottom. The leading cryptocurrency held a market cap near $1.29 trillion and — despite the post-Fed pullback — remained up 2% over the past week. Ethereum and Solana also eased, trading near $1,740 and $72, respectively.” (06/18/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/bitcoin-steadies-near-64k-analysts-100712131.html
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14) Expert: Newly released UFO files allege China, Russia retrieved downed UAPs — and attempted to reverse-engineer them
Source: New York Post
“China and Russia have retrieved downed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) and tried to reverse-engineer them, an expert claimed, citing newly released documents. Jordan Flowers, executive director of the UAP Disclosure Foundation, said one of the most significant takeaways from the third tranche of UFO files made public on June 12 was that the US’s foreign adversaries also appear to be engaged in research that could threaten national security. … The suggestion that Russia and China may have retrieved downed UAPs and are surveilling the US’s research wasn’t the only mention of a foreign nation in the newly released files. A cable from the Central Intelligence Agency placed its assets in the African nation of Zimbabwe on high alert on July 2, 2008, after a UFO was spotted hovering directly over the country’s main airport.” (06/18/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/18/us-news/newly-released-ufo-files-allege-china-and-russia-retrieved-downed-uaps-and-attempted-to-reverse-engineer-them/
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15) UK: Ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died
Source: ABC News
“A massive ancient oak tree linked to the legend of Robin Hood may have been loved to death. The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it didn’t sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday. Visitors who viewed the tree’s gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy in Nottingham over the past two centuries compressed the soil around it, making it difficult for rain to reach its roots, the conservation group said. … The tree is said to have sheltered Robin Hood, the legendary 13th century bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor and took refuge in the forest when being pursued by the sheriff of Nottingham.” (06/18/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/ancient-oak-tree-sheltered-legendary-robin-hood-died-133988689
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16) Apple to raise prices as AI boom pushes up chip costs
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Apple plans to raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant’s boss has said. Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that price increases were ‘unavoidable’ as the situation around memory chips had become ‘unsustainable.’ He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.” (06/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wyxvqdx1zo
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17) Hegseth announces six-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops “at risk”
Source: Fox News
“US defense secretary] Pete Hegseth had harsh words for NATO allies during an address to his European counterparts on Thursday, announcing a six-month review of U.S. force deployment on the continent. Hegseth said the review’s outcome will depend on how quickly European nations act to support themselves militarily. ‘This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,’ he told NATO officials in Brussels. Hegseth also lashed out at European countries for refusing to assist U.S. forces in the war against Iran, particularly those that withheld use of military bases.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-announces-6-month-review-american-forces-europe-blasts-nato-allies-putting-troops-risk
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18) Niger: Gunmen attack airport in capital as explosions, gunfire heard
Source: The Hill
“Gunmen attacked the main airport in Niger’s capital of Niamey early Thursday morning, leading to an exchange of fire and explosions, witnesses and a local security official said. Security forces were deployed to repel the attack after the gunmen breached the airport security, said the official …. It was the second attack at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey this year, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a similar attack in January.” (06/18/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-gunmen-attack-airport-in-nigers-capital-as-explosions-gunfire-heard/
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19) CA: Renters could avoid PG&E bills and turn to solar energy under new bill
Source: SFGate
“Renters may be able to significantly lower their monthly energy bills under a new piece of legislation that could let Californians power homes on their own with an abundant resource: solar. Senate Bill 868, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, would allow consumers to buy solar panels at no extra cost to their utility, and it would also allow large retailers or your local hardware store to sell plug-in solar panels to power your home on your own — and ideally reduce your monthly utility bills. The idea was inspired by a bill passed in Utah last year, and plug-in solar is also popularly used in Europe.” (06/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/energy-cost-california-solar-22309856.php
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20) US: Gas dips below $4 a gallon after months of pump pain
Source: Axios
“The U.S. national average gas price has dropped back below $4 a gallon, per AAA, a sign of Americans’ pain at the pump easing after months of war in Iran. Iran’s squeeze on oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz battered the global economy. But crude prices in June fell to their lowest levels in over three months on news of an extended ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran. … The national average is now $3.9990 a gallon, per AAA. A year ago, the average was $3.1880.” (06/18/26)
https://archive.is/dHf8y
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Tail Wags Dog
Source: The Realist Review
by Martin Sieff
“It should be cold comfort indeed, but the successive inability of one US administration after another to control Israel and the extraordinary passion with which the leaders of Western Europe, Canada and NATO continue to defy the United States to risk thermonuclear world war with Russia at the whims of Ukrainian junta leader Volodymyr Zelensky are not unprecedented. For the dark, universally unacknowledged world history of the past 120 years is clear: Tails Wag Dogs. Global superpowers and great continent-spanning empires are brought into needless total conflict and utter mutually assured destruction by the machinations, betrayals and petty intrigues of tiny postage stamp states — usually with unacknowledged, disgusting and even genocidal recent political histories.” (06/18/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/tail-wags-dog
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22) Sound Money, Artificial Intelligence, and the Pope
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley
“How to safeguard the human person in the time of artificial intelligence? It is hardly a surprise that Pope Leo XIV in answering that question in his first encyclical does not include money as part of the solution. More is the pity. The present unsound money regime has abetted vast malinvestment in the digital revolution now in its AI phase. Malinvestment takes various forms and is driven by mal signalling in capital markets caused by monetary inflation. Alongside the legal and constitutional backbone of the free-market economy falters. The build-up of the surveillance state is one consequence. All of this endangers ‘the human person.'” (06/18/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/06/sound-money-artificial-intelligence-and-the-pope/
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23) “Sit Down, Theodore!” Slang and Spontaneous Order
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
The other day, I texted my youngest a reminder to take out the trash. In response I received, ‘sit down theodore.’ I was, to say the least, confused. It turns out that ‘sit down theodore’ had evolved as a complicated joke with a friend about the word ‘noted.’ First it became ‘no ted.’ That transformed into ‘stop it, teddy’ then into ‘enough, teddy.’ That morphed into ‘sit teddy’ and finally ‘sit down theodore.’ The joke became so ingrained in their texting conversations that they set the autocorrect feature on their phones to transform the word ‘noted’ into ‘sit down theodore’ whenever they typed it. All of this explained the text I received, but it also got me thinking about one of the most important aspects of a liberal society — spontaneous order.” (06/18/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/sit-down-theodore-slang-and-spontaneous-order
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24) Mandatory Internet IDs
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“An assault on your freedom to use your computer without having to ‘verify your age’ has migrated from states like California, Colorado, and New York to the United States Congress. This is the so-called Parents Decide Act, which would ‘require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system.’ … ‘Save the children’ is the familiar sales pitch, but if government is in charge of saving the children, our children are in trouble.” (06/18/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/18/mandatory-internet-ids/
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25) Lessons from Trump’s Reckless Iran War
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“[T]he Blunderer-in-Chief’s disastrous war has at least one silver lining: It inadvertently demonstrated the case for closing U.S. bases throughout the Middle East and bringing American forces home. Disengagement is long overdue, especially for an administration supposedly committed to America First.” (06/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/lessons-from-trumps-reckless-iran-war/
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26) We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government
Source: The Nation
by US Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
“You will hear no more disorienting or self-defeating a platitude uttered on Capitol Hill in this 250th year of the American journey, by politicians of either party, than the sixth-grade dogma that America has ‘three co-equal branches of government.’ That ‘co-equal’ thing is confected nonsense. To begin with, if it is a real word at all, ‘co-equal’ is a mediocre concoction whose lackadaisical users cannot even decide whether it should be hyphenated. By adding the gratuitous prefix to the indispensable stand-alone word, which the Declaration of Independence applied to people, ‘co-equal’ establishes a confusing false equivalency among institutions, making it seem as if the framers wanted the three branches to be involved in a perpetual game of rock-paper-scissors with no apparent preference for actual progress toward a more perfect union.” [editor’s note: Ironic that this do-nothing Congressthug is writing this screed; if he and his colleagues ever bothered to pass a competent bill he might have some standing – SAT] (06/18/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/congress-constitution-jamie-raskin/
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27) Europe Refuses to Spend on Defense. That Means America Needs to Stop Defending Europe
Source: Cato Institute
by Doug Bandow
“Rather than telling Europe how much to spend on its defense, the Trump administration should begin a phased military disengagement from the continent.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/europe-refuses-spend-defense-means-america-needs-stop-defending-europe
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28) Petty and Idiotic Immigration Tyranny in the World Cup
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“I can’t help but wonder whether advocates of America’s socialist (i.e., central planning) system of immigration controls and the vicious immigration police state that comes with it are proud of how their system is being used against the Iranian soccer team that is competing in the World Cup games here in the United States. All three soccer games in which the Iranian team is competing are being played inside the United States. But with their socialist system of immigration controls, U.S. officials wield the omnipotent power to determine who enters the United States and under what conditions.” (06/18/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/06/18/petty-and-idiotic-immigration-tyranny-in-the-world-cup/
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29) California’s Insane “Prove You’re Gay” Law
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I challenge you to prove your sexual orientation. Go! Not sure how to do that? Good, because I don’t really want to know what you might come up with to prove it, any of it, in any direction. Plus, I’m not really interested; I don’t care what you do as long as whoever you do it with is of age and willing. That being said, California is asking some people to prove that they’re gay so their companies can qualify for certain government contracts. Why? Because if there are set-asides for gay-owned businesses, someone might simply claim to be bisexual and get some of those contracts. How can you prove they’re lying? The state has a checklist to make sure recipients of gay set-asides are gay enough, which means we finally found some fraud Democrats are against.” [editor’s note: It reminds me of when conservatives were claiming that jobsite quotas would mean daily blowjobs for the foreman – SAT] (06/18/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/06/18/californias-insane-prove-youre-gay-law-n2677924
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30) Five Ideas to Survive a Hot, Dry Summer
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by staff
“As American summers grow drier and hotter, the institutions built to manage lands, water, and wildlife have not kept pace. These institutions, made up of laws, policies, contracts, and other rules that govern how we allocate water, manage forests, prevent wildfire, and conserve wildlife, were designed for a cooler, wetter, and more stable environment. This report focuses on helping institutions adapt to our changing reality. It proposes practical recommendations within five topical areas that can help people and ecosystems weather this summer as well as the years ahead.” (06/18/26)
https://www.perc.org/2026/06/18/five-ideas-to-survive-a-hot-dry-summer/
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31) India reckons with “a woman’s worth”
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In a society where a woman’s status is still largely viewed as subordinate to that of a man, a recent ruling by India’s Supreme Court spotlights the significant, and largely unacknowledged, contributions of women to both individual households and the national economy. In dry legalese, the June 11 verdict establishes a monetary value for ‘loss of domestic care’ in a compensation case for a 2001 vehicle crash that claimed the life of a young wife and mother of three. The court granted the woman’s family a sum of 6.3 million rupees (about $66,000) – more than 25 times the initial award offered in 2003. And the judges also set a minimum estimate for domestic ‘homemaker’ duties at 30,000 rupees ($317) per month – which is about 10 times the amount previously used. Arriving at the current award and the benchmark for future compensation is about much more than numbers, however.” (06/17/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0617/India-reckons-with-a-woman-s-worth
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32) 1776 All-Stars: Why a Pseudonymous Anti-Federalist Is My Favorite Founder
Source: Reason
by Jesse Walker
“I do not know my favorite Founder’s name. I just know that in 1788 a Baltimore newspaper published a series of pseudonymous essays where he warned against standing armies, called for a bill of rights, and declared, paraphrasing Jonathan Swift, that ‘laws are cobwebs, catching only the flies and letting the wasps escape.’ See-sawing between fears of an aristocratic legislature and a tyrannical executive, he argued that we’d be best off with the highly decentralized democracy found in certain Swiss cantons.” (06/18/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/18/1776-all-stars-a-farmer/
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33) Humans Create Empires For The Same Reason They Create Egos
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s all about the impulse to control. We come into this world boundless and free with eyes full of wonder, but within a few years our minds create and solidify a sense of self around which our mental lives revolve. We do this because we are helpless when we are born, and things happen which are uncomfortable or startling, so we naturally begin seeking out strategies to control what happens to us. Before you know it we’ve got vast spires of psychological architecture within us dedicated to using thought to promote the interests and security of an entirely symbolic me-character that we made up in our minds. And from that point on we are cut off from the Eden of perception.” (06/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/06/18/humans-create-empires-for-the-same-reason-they-create-egos/
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34) How Stable Is the China-North Korea Alliance?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“There is an indisputably crucial history of very close relations between Beijing and Pyongyang. In late 1950, PRC forces intervened in the war between communist North Korea and anti-communist South Korea (whose government was massively supported with military personnel and weaponry from the United States and other Western countries). The armistice that ended the fighting in 1953 left the Korean Peninsula split between two intensely hostile countries, with the United States and the PRC firmly backing their respective clients throughout the remainder of the Cold War. Despite that history, the current connection between the two communist states is decidedly more nuanced, ambiguous, and even contentious than the lips and teeth cliché would imply.” (06/18/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/06/17/how-stable-is-the-china-north-korea-alliance
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35) If the US Government Won’t Respect Freedom of Speech, AI Firms Should Move
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Code is speech (as ruled by a US district court and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bernstein v. Department of Justice). AI models are code. Therefore, AI models are speech, and the government doesn’t get to control them. Not that the current administration, or any other, or Congress, or the courts, can be counted on to respect the Constitution. The ink wasn’t dry on that document before the American political establishment started ignoring its inconveniences. Which leaves Anthropic and other artificial intelligence firms in a bind. … As a practical matter, if Anthropic et al. want to innovate and compete in a growing market that’s already changing how the world works, they need to get away from the US government, which means getting away from the US.” (06/18/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20703
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36) From Victimhood to Agency: Understanding What is Up to Us
Source: The Daily Economy
by Barry Brownstein
“Excuses protect us from guilt, but they also rob us of hope. The habit of denying responsibility may be one of the greatest obstacles to personal and social flourishing.” (06/18/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/from-victimhood-to-agency-understanding-what-is-up-to-us/
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37) Dems want us to focus on Graham Platner’s policies; he fails Maine there, too
Source: Fox News
by Laurel Libby
“Now that Graham Platner is officially the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate to face Sen. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins this November, his campaign staff and the far-left establishment that back him will undoubtedly spend the next five months trying to contain the fallout from his personal history. They will ask voters to look past the domestic abuse allegations, the rhetoric glorifying political violence, the racially charged comments and the Nazi tattoo. They will argue that those controversies are distractions and urge Mainers to focus instead on the issues facing our state. As a Republican serving in the Maine House, I wholeheartedly agree. Because when Mainers look beyond the colorful Platner headlines and turn their focus to his policies, they will find an extreme version of the same progressive agenda that has already made life harder for working families across our state.” (06/18/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-want-us-focus-graham-platners-policies-fails-maine
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38) Oppose Graham Platner for His Socialism, Not Just His Outrageous Behavior
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“Thanks in large part to the erratic and often-destructive policies coming from Donald Trump’s White House, the Democrats are favored to win both houses of Congress, as they hope to flip several Republican-held seats in the House and the Senate. One of the most closely-watched races is the Senate campaign in Maine, where upstart Democrat Graham Platner is favored to end Sen. Susan Collins’s long political career. Platner’s campaign has been deemed controversial mostly because of his unhinged behavior with women, his Nazi tattoo, and social media statements that alone would have disqualified most people even before they could run for office. … the political crudeness that has become the hallmark of Trump and his MAGA followers is not the reason that someone as morally compromised as Platner is now the darling of the Democratic Party. Instead, they love Platner because of his unabashed fealty to socialism.” (06/18/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/oppose-graham-platner-his-socialism-not-just-his-outrageous-behavior
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39) Foundations of Public Choice: A Primer
Source: EconLog
by Michael Munger
“Public Choice is more than you think. The usual quick definition — ‘applying economics to the study of politics’ — is not wrong, but it’s facile. Public Choice asks how political actors use information and respond to incentives. That’s a lot more than just an application of economic tools to a new context.” (06/18/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/mungerpublicchoice
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40) After the Iran War, is UAE the odd man out?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Giorgio Cafiero
“The roles played by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey in facilitating the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ underscore the extent to which regional actors have invested in creating off-ramps for the United States and Iran, and steering the conflict away from further escalation. Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), this diplomatic off-ramp has garnered broad relief that the conflict appears to be moving toward de-escalation as Washington and Tehran prepare for talks on the sensitive nuclear and non-nuclear issues. But where the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fits into this broader picture is far from straightforward.” (06/18/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uae-iran-war/
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41) The Democrats Offer No Real Alternative to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” for Latin America
Source: Common Dreams
by Roger D Harris & John Perry
“Donald Trump’s second term has precipitated a tsunami of criticism from Democrats over his foreign policy. Yet when it comes to Washington’s efforts to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean, the substantive dispute (if there is any substance remaining, once stripped of partisan bickering) is less about ends than means. Beneath the rhetoric of inter-party conflict lies a broad bipartisan consensus in favor of promoting US hemispheric hegemony and crushing governments that resist it, with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua at the forefront. While Democrats frequently portray Trump as reckless, they generally accept the underlying premises of economic coercion, political intervention, and regime-change pressure. Their objections mainly focus on the execution of policy rather than its legitimacy. Under Democratic administrations, the US forged and institutionalized what may be its most effective instrument of hegemony.” (06/18/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems-donroe-doctrine
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42) Strategic Ambiguity (If We Must)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“In recent years, critics on both sides of the aisle have taken aim at the longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan. They argue that Washington should abandon ambiguity and embrace ‘strategic clarity,’ explicitly pledging to fight China over Taiwan. Others, such as Hoover Institute Fellow Eyck Freymann, have offered more sophisticated sounding alternatives like ‘structured ambiguity,’ attempting to codify precisely what America would and would not do in various contingencies, particularly involving gray zone activities. But abandoning a long-established policy that, whatever its faults, has prevented a major war between great powers for over half a century, in favor of a new policy, would be a serious mistake.” (06/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/strategic-ambiguity-if-we-must/
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43) Vance’s Dishonest Diplomatic Spin
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Vance is trying to spin U.S.-Israeli aggression as having been successful in delivering something that it absolutely did not deliver.” (06/18/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/vances-dishonest-diplomatic-spin
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44) The Voter’s Audit: How to Spot a True Fiscal Conservative in 2026
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Don’t be fooled by campaign rhetoric. Here is how to evaluate voting records and hold Florida candidates accountable this election cycle.” (06/17/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-voters-audit-how-to-spot-a-true
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45) Trump showing the world, G7 leaders who’s the “boss”
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“‘I’m the boss,’ President Trump joked when he arrived a bit late to a meeting with G7 leaders in France Wednesday. He is. That’s what his detractors forget. America is ‘the boss’ again, the colossus. Iran doesn’t bully us. Israel doesn’t instruct us. Europe can sneer at Donald Trump all it likes, but it’s a supplicant. China respects us. Canada bows. Trump understands power, and it rests easy on his shoulders. He joked about it at the G7 in his relaxed American fashion, and European leaders now get it. They laughed along, but they understood. By the time he had emerged from a glittering dinner at Versailles to fly home, he had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran that has the great and the good worked up into a symphony of hysterical catastrophizing.” [editor’s note: It’s sometimes hard to discern what percentages of Devine’s brain are “clueless” vs. “crazy,” but the total of other percentages is zero – TLK] (06/17/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/17/opinion/miranda-devine-trump-is-showing-the-world-g7-leaders-whos-the-boss-and-deserves-respect-for-his-deal-making/
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46) This Is Why Missouri Families Need Choice
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Susan Pendergrass
“Why do families need school choice? The answer is straightforward — a single, zip-code-assigned school cannot possibly be everything to every child. And when a school fails a student, that student needs a lifeline. A recent iteration of EdChoice’s long-running Public Opinion Tracker survey shows that roughly one in four parents indicate that they have had to switch their children’s school at some point. When you dig into why these families are switching, the reasons are straightforward. Parents pull their children out of schools because of unfortunate, everyday problems that directly impact a child’s well-being and future.” (06/17/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/this-is-why-missouri-families-need-choice/
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47) Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero
Source: Expression
by Angel Eduardo
“Through her detailed reporting on lynching after the Civil War, Wells did more than most to demonstrate the power of using one’s voice in the pursuit of truth and justice.” (06/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/ida-b-wells-journalist-activist-civil
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48) Liberalism in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence
Source: Liberalism.org
by Paul Dragos Aligica
“From time to time, we liberals must rethink the world. Deglobalization, the rise of economic decoupling, the return of tariffs, and the increasing salience of weaponized interdependence have come to define the current landscape. Where once the dominant terms were efficiency, integration, and mutual gains, now they are geoeconomics, resilience, chokepoints, and decoupling. The vocabulary shift is an indicator and a diagnostic. Rhetorical change of this order reflects structural change in how economic exchange and political power actually relate. A liberal position adequate to that new reality cannot be built by repeating arguments shaped by an earlier phase of globalization. We must rebuild — analytically and institutionally — for the world that integration, pushed to its limits, has actually produced.” (06/17/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/liberalism-in-the-age-of-weaponized-interdependence
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49) The Oligarch-on-Oligarch Fight That Defines Politics in 2026
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“If a lab could create the perfect congressional candidate for a particular district at this political moment, it might spit out Alexis Goldstein. She was a federal worker who was fired amid the Trump administration’s push to cripple the administrative state, and she’s running in the Sixth Congressional District in Maryland, a state full of federal workers downsized in the DOGE push. Goldstein, a former program manager in the chief technologist’s office at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was fired, in fact, for confronting DOGE functionaries at the CFPB offices last February. Plus, Goldstein is a highly skilled financial analyst—she worked as a programmer on Wall Street before quitting to join Occupy Wall Street in 2010—at a time when one of the most operatic and unusual financial schemes of the century is playing out in the highly leveraged data center build-out.” (06/18/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/06/18/oligarch-fight-defines-politics-in-2026-maryland-congressional-race-alexis-goldstein/
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50) Forgotten Declaration: Why they were Fighting Back
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson, and the Second Continental Congress said those were their two terrible options less than three months after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the ‘shot heard ‘round the world.’ This is the story of the forgotten declaration in which they explained why they fought back.” (06/17/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/06/17/forgotten-declaration-why-they-were-fighting-back/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Libertarian Angle, 06/18/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Tyranny of a National Security State, Foreign Interventionism.” (06/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm2Zv89GagU
-----
52) Nonzero, 06/18/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
"The World After the Iran War | Robert Wright & Joshua Landis." (06/18/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69561
-----
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/18/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Who Caused The Threat to ‘Economic Catastrophe?'” (06/18/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rGmqqgkwDqGy
-----
54) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 06/18/16
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Rules for Radicals, Tactics (Pt 2) wJohn Weeks.” (06/18/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/rules-for-radicals-tactics-pt-2-wjohn-weeks
-----
55) Capital Record, episode 305
Source: National Review
“The Different Motives to Cure Cancer.” (06/18/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/the-different-motives-to-cure-cancer/
-----
56) Underthrow Podcast, 06/18/26
Source: Underthrow
“If cooperative relationships give rise to flourishing, why don’t we transition away from government by submission to government by subscription?” (06/18/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/subscription-government
-----
57) Cato Podcast, 06/18/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Degrowth Temptation.” (06/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/degrowth-temptation
-----
58) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargenta, 06/18/26
Source: The New Republic
“Angry and Rattled, Trump’s Fox Allies Blurt It Out on Live TV: He Lost.” (06/18/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/212027/angry-rattled-trump-fox-allies-blurt-live-tv-lost
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59) The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen, 06/18/26
Source: The Blessings of Liberty with Jeffrey Rosen
“America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick.” (06/18/26)
https://rosenjeffrey.substack.com/p/americas-founding-son-john-quincy
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60) Homeschool Workshop, 06/17/26
Source: Homeschool Workshop
“JD Vance brought chickens to the VP house.” (06/17/26)
https://rumble.com/v7bg2ty-jd-vance-brought-chickens-to-the-vp-house.html
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61) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/17/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“MoU Says Iran’s Uranium Will Be Downblended, Over 1,000 Killed in Gaza Since ‘Ceasefire,’ and More.” (06/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjsHNk965a4
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62) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 391
Source: Free the People
“We Were Lied into War with Iran | Guest: Joe Kent.” (06/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfN3eVFd8mc
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63) Free Speech Unmuted, 06/17/26
Source: Hoover Institution
“Shrexting: Free Speech or Criminal Harassment? | Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer.” (06/17/26)
https://free-speech-unmuted.podbean.com/e/shrexting-free-speech-or-criminal-harassment-eugene-volokh-and-jane-bambauer-hoover-institution/
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64) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 06/17/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Antiwar Dissent & Free Speech Special w/ Medea Benjamin, Chip Gibbons, David Swanson & Angela Keaton.” (06/17/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/2026antiwarspecial/
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65) Trita Parsi on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews Trita Parsi about the deal Trump has apparently made with the Iranians to end the war. They discuss the panic we’re seeing about it from the Israelis and what Trump must do to rein them in and prevent Tel Aviv from sabotaging the peace process. They also discuss Parsi’s recent appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show and The Free Press story that tried to start a deportation scare about him.” (06/17/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/6-15-26-trita-parsi-on-the-israeli-panic-over-trumps-peace-deal/
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