06/17 -- China: Regime launches third aircraft carrier; Free Exchange Is Win-Win
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 17, 2022, 6:42:49 AM6/17/22
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 06/17/22
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https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) China: Regime launches third aircraft carrier
2) Capitol riot exploitation committee asks Ginni Thomas to testify
3) India: Protesters set fire to trains over regime's plans for new short-term military jobs
4) NM: Supreme Court orders all-GOP county commission to certify primary's results
5) Palestine: Israeli police clear officers who attacked mourners at reporter's funeral
6) Tesla to raise prices in US as inflation bites
7) DC: Saudi Embassy street renamed after murdered journalist Khashoggi
8) If Roe falls, some DAs won't enforce anti-abortion laws
9) GM announces Cadillac Celestiq electric car is going to be hand-built and 3D printed in low volume
10) Researchers: Ancient teeth reveal where Black Death (Plague) began
11) France: McDonald's to pay €1.25 billion bribe to regime to avoid prosecution for extortion evasion
12) MI: Production at bedeviled baby formula factory halted by storm
13) NH: State outlines youth center abuse settlement process
14) Ukraine: Two US citizens missing, feared captured by Russians
15) In "Crisis Moment" for Abortion Rights, Biden Weighs EO Declaring Public Health Emergency
16) Cosmetics giant Revlon files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
17) Russian GRU spy tried to infiltrate International Criminal Court
18) Tunisia: Regime workers strike, signaling national crisis
19) Brazil: Amazon fisherman confesses to killing missing men
20) Court documents in Proud Boys case detail plans to occupy Capitol
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Free Exchange Is Win-Win
22) Mike Pence Could Have (And Should Have) Invoked the 25th Amendment on January 6
23) More Bad News for the Mask Cult
24) The Mainstream Worldview Is Self-Evidently Bullshit
25) Trump's "Big Lie" Was Also a Big Grift
26) Graph of the Day: Public Transit on the Rocks
27) A predictable outcome of January 6 hearings: Opinions about Trump won't change
28) What Kind of Education do Lotteries Fund?
29) Interview: Welcome to a Science-Fiction Planet
30) Day of Reckoning for Federal Spending, Debt, and Inflation?
31) US Treasury Secretary Admits She Was Wrong About Inflation Prospects
32) Why is everything so bad right now?
33) Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson's State House Speech
34) Biden's Budget Deficit Victory Lap Is Unearned and Unjustified
35) The Hidden Driver of High Gas Prices
36) Beyond Revenge, What Does Jane's Revenge Want?
37) The Chill on Campus
38) It's Adam Smith's Birthday!
39) When will we accept the reality of a new multipolar world?
40) They Even Dislike Joe In Biden Country
41) Your Grandkids Will Care About the January 6 Hearings, Even if You Don't
42) Why It's Hard To Take America's Word on the Summit of the Americas
43) What happened to good news?
44) The strategic incoherence of copying North Korea
45) Before Wokeness, There Was "Political Correctness"
46) For Presidents, Unpopularity Is a Simple PR Problem. Biden Is No Exception
47) Unthinkable Rhetoric: Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine War
48) The Coffee Connection
49) Fifty Years Later, the Motive Behind Watergate Remains Clouded
50) What the January 6 Committee Might Have Been
51) The Elite Press Remains The Handmaid Of War
52) High Gas Prices Do Not Stop Traffic
53) Markets Must Have Their Day of Reckoning
54) We're Here To Become As Conscious As Possible
55) Beyond NIMBY vs. YIMBY -- How Current Homeowners Can Benefit from Zoning Deregulation
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) Free Talk Live, 06/16/22
57) The Chris Spangle Show, 06/15/22
58) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/16/22
59) Rising, 06/16/22
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 06/16/22
61) Finding Freedom, episode 337
62) Part Of the Problem, 06/16/22
63) The Science of Politics, 06/15/22
64) Reason Interview: Robert Breedlove
65) Conflicts of Interest, episode 289
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) China: Regime launches third aircraft carrier
Source: Reuters
"China launched its third aircraft carrier on Friday, the Fujian, named after the province opposite self-ruled Taiwan, sending a statement of intent to rivals as it modernises its military. President Xi Jinping has made overhauling the world's largest armed forces a central part of his agenda, seeking to project power well beyond China's shores, though the government says it has no hostile intent. ... The aircraft carrier features a full-length flight deck with a catapult launch system, according to state media. The Fujian will join the Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted domestically. China is still honing its ability to operate the carriers, and integrate them into battle groups, something the United States has been doing for decades. Only the United States, with 11 aircraft carriers, has more of the vessels." (06/17/22)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-launches-third-aircraft-carrier-fujian-state-media-2022-06-17/
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2) Capitol riot exploitation committee asks Ginni Thomas to testify
Source: Politico
"The Jan. 6 committee has invited Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify about her connections to Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the election, panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters Thursday. 'We have sent Ms. Thomas a letter asking [her] to come and talk to the committee,' Thompson (D-Miss.) said. ... Thompson's remarks and Cheney's agreement -- confirmed to POLITICO by an aide -- coincided with news reports suggesting Thomas had been in touch with at least one key architect of Trump's bid to cling to power: Attorney John Eastman. The emails might come up 'at some point' in their hearings, Thompson said earlier Thursday, though they were still in the 'discovery phase.' Thomas told the conservative-leaning Daily Caller later Thursday she was open to testifying." (06/16/22)
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/jan-6-panel-leaders-prepare-to-call-ginni-thomas-00040208
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3) India: Protesters set fire to trains over regime's plans for new short-term military jobs
Source: Sky News [UK]
"Trains have been set on fire as thousands of people took part in protests in India against a new military recruitment system. Police used batons and tear gas to break up demonstrations in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states after young people took to the streets and damaged government buildings. ... The government is planning a new jobs programme which would allow the armed forces to recruit 46,000 men and women aged 17-and-a-half to 21 at non-officer level but only for four years. After that just 25% of them will be retained, and the other 75% will not be entitled to pension benefits. Previously, soldiers have been recruited by the army, navy and air force separately and typically enter service for up to 17 years for the lowest ranks." (06/16/22)
https://news.sky.com/story/india-protesters-set-fire-to-trains-over-plans-for-new-short-term-military-jobs-12635037
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4) NM: Supreme Court orders all-GOP county commission to certify primary's results
Source: CBS News
"The conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines that erupted during the 2020 presidential contest flared this week in a remote New Mexico county in what could be just a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming in the fall midterms and in 2024. The governing commission in Otero County refused to certify the local results of the state's June 7 primary because of the equipment, in what was seen as another instance of how the falsehoods spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies have infected elections and threaten the democratic process. ... New Mexico's secretary of state asked the state Supreme Court to step in and order the county to certify the votes, and the high court did so on Wednesday. That would ensure that the nearly 7,400 ballots that were cast in Otero County are recorded as legal votes. The deadline for county certification is Friday." (06/16/22)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mexico-supreme-court-order-otero-county-commissioners-primarys-results/
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5) Palestine: Israeli police clear officers who attacked mourners at reporter's funeral
Source: SFGate
"An Israeli police investigation has found that police engaged in misconduct during the funeral of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but those who supervised the event will not face serious punishment, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. Israeli riot police pushed and beat mourners at the funeral, causing the pallbearers to nearly drop the casket in a shocking start to the May 14 procession in east Jerusalem. The violence drew international condemnations and added to the sense of grief and outrage across the Arab world that followed the death of Abu Akleh, who was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses and Palestinian officials say Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted by Israeli troops, while the Israeli military says she was killed during a shootout with Palestinian gunmen and it is unclear who fired the fatal bullet." (06/16/22)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Report-Israeli-police-clear-officers-at-17246429.php
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6) Tesla to raise prices in US as inflation bites
Source: Reuters
"Tesla Inc again raised prices for all its car models in the United States in response to persistent global supply-chain problems and soaring raw material costs. The electric carmaker increased its Model Y long-range price to $65,990 from $62,990, its website showed on Thursday, after delaying the deliveries of some long-range models in the United States by up to a month. The 5% price hike comes as costs of raw materials of everything from aluminum to lithium used in cars and batteries surge, while automakers struggle to source chips and other supplies due to an industry-wide shortage." (06/16/22)
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-hikes-us-prices-across-car-models-2022-06-16/
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7) DC: Saudi Embassy street renamed after murdered journalist Khashoggi
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"A street in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington DC has been renamed after Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder by Saudi agents caused shock around the world. The local government in the US capital said it had changed the name to Jamal Khashoggi Way to ensure the dissident's memory 'cannot be covered up'. US intelligence concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing. He denied this. Next month, he will hold his first talks with US President Joe Biden. Human rights activists, members of the US Congress and local councillors gathered outside the embassy on New Hampshire Avenue for the street sign unveiling." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61831193
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8) If Roe falls, some DAs won't enforce anti-abortion laws
Source: Hastings Tribune
"As the Supreme Court appears on track to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, progressive prosecutors around the U.S. are declaring they won't enforce some of the most restrictive and punitive anti-abortion laws that GOP-led states have waited years to implement. The move is sure to rankle Republican lawmakers and governors, with about half the states poised to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is weakened or overturned. Many of those Republican-led states have abortion clinics nestled in the large metro areas represented by Democratic district attorneys. Anti-abortion laws in the U.S. largely shy away from explicitly punishing pregnant women and instead tend to target physicians, who could face loss of their medical license and lengthy prison sentences for performing the procedure illegally. But some abortion restrictions would penalize those who assist in an abortion and others could require women who secured the procedure to testify against those who helped her." (06/16/22)
https://www.hastingstribune.com/ap/health/if-roe-falls-some-das-wont-enforce-anti-abortion-laws/article_85944fcf-2f6f-5551-9473-cb9335095f13.html
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9) GM announces Cadillac Celestiq electric car is going to be hand-built and 3D printed in low volume
Source: electrek
"GM announces today that the Cadillac Celestiq, the brand's electric car after the Lyriq, is going to be a hand-built and 3D-printed ultra-luxury low-volume production vehicle. GM has just started production of the Cadilac Lyriq, the brand's first all-electric vehicle and GM's second electric vehicle based on its new Ulitum electric platform. ... We knew that the electric vehicle would be in the higher end of the market, but now GM has revealed that it will actually be competing in the 'ultra-luxury space' and it will even be 'hand-built' -- making it a very low-production volume vehicle." (06/16/22)
https://electrek.co/2022/06/16/gm-cadillac-celestiq-electric-car-hand-built-3d-printed-low-volume/
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10) Researchers: Ancient teeth reveal where Black Death (Plague) began
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, more than 600 years after it killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia and north Africa. The mid-14th Century health catastrophe is one of the most significant disease episodes in human history. But despite years of research, scientists had been unable to pinpoint where the bubonic plague began. Now analysis suggests it was in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, in the 1330s. A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Germany's Max Planck Institute and University of Tubingen analysed ancient DNA samples from the teeth of skeletons in cemeteries near Lake Issyk Kul, in Kyrgyzstan. They chose the area after noting a significant spike in burials there in 1338 and 1339. Dr Maria Spyrou, a researcher at the University of Tubingen, said the team sequenced DNA from seven skeletons." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61820604
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11) France: McDonald's to pay €1.25 billion bribe to regime to avoid prosecution for extortion evasion
Source: France 24 [French state media]
"McDonald's will pay 1.25 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in France to avoid a legal case over tax evasion between 2009 and 2020, under an agreement approved Thursday by a Paris court. Judge Stephane Noel confirmed the second-biggest tax settlement in French history, made up of a 508-million-euro fine and 737 million euros in back taxes already agreed in May, years after McDonald's was accused of reporting artificially low profits to reduce its tax bill." (06/16/22)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220616-mcdonald-s-to-pay-%E2%82%AC1-25-billion-in-france-to-avoid-prosecution-for-tax-evasion
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12) MI: Production at bedeviled baby formula factory halted by storm
Source: Seattle Times
"Severe weather has forced Abbott Nutrition to pause production at a Michigan baby formula factory that had just restarted after being closed for several months, contributing to a national shortage. Production for Abbott's EleCare specialty formula has been suspended, but there is enough supply to meet demand until production is restarted, the company said. Abbott had prioritized ramping up production of the specialty formula for infants with severe food allergies and digestive problems who have few other options for nutrition. Abbott says it needs to assess damage and re-sanitize the factory after severe thunderstorms and heavy rains swept through southwestern Michigan late Monday." (06/16/22)
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/production-at-bedeviled-baby-formula-factory-halted-by-storm/
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13) NH: State outlines youth center abuse settlement process
Source: US News & World Report
"Raped? $200,000. Infected with a sexually transmitted disease? Add $100,000. Impregnated? Add $200,000. These are among the possible payments for those physically and sexually abused as children at the state-run Youth Development Center, according to preliminary drafts released by the New Hampshire attorney general's office this week. After lawyers for the victims provide feedback, the drafts for calculating payments will be updated and submitted to the Legislature's fiscal committee for approval. ... The Manchester facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center after former Gov. John H. Sununu, has been the target of a broad criminal investigation since 2019. Ten of its former workers and an 11th who worked at a Concord detention facility were arrested last year, and nearly 450 former residents have sued the state based on allegations involving more than 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018." (06/16/22)
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-06-16/new-hampshire-outlines-youth-center-abuse-settlement-process
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14) Ukraine: Two US citizens missing, feared captured by Russians
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatar state media]
"Two United States military veterans who were in Ukraine fighting against Russian forces have gone missing and are feared captured, family members and US Congress members have said. The men -- Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27 -- who had been living in Alabama before travelling to Ukraine following the February 24 invasion by Russia, were last heard from in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia. Their families said they had last been in contact with both men on June 8 and were told they would be going offline for a few days. ... The Telegraph newspaper, which first reported on the disappearances, had quoted an unnamed fellow fighter who said the two men were captured after running into a larger Russian group during a June 9 battle northeast of Kharkiv." (06/16/22)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/16/two-us-citizens-missing-in-ukraine-feared-captured-by-russians
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15) In "Crisis Moment" for Abortion Rights, Biden Weighs EO Declaring Public Health Emergency
Source: Common Dreams
"With the right-wing [sic] U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn Roe v. Wade as soon as this month, President Joe Biden is reportedly weighing a number of executive orders to protect abortion rights at the federal level -- including declaration of a national public health emergency, as progressive lawmakers and rights groups push him to act. The New York Times, citing unnamed administration officials, reported Thursday that 'some of the ideas under consideration include declaring a national public health emergency, readying the Justice Department to fight any attempt by states to criminalize travel for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, and asserting that Food and Drug Administration regulations granting approval to abortion medications preempt any state bans.'" (06/16/22)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/16/crisis-moment-abortion-rights-biden-weighs-declaring-public-health-emergency
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16) Cosmetics giant Revlon files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Source: CNBC
"Cosmetics giant Revlon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday evening as it grappled with a cumbersome debt load and a snarled supply chain. The company said it expects to receive $575 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lender base, which will help to support its day-to-day operations. ... Revlon's bankruptcy filing said the company is currently unable to timely fill almost one-third of customer demand for its products, due to an inability to source a 'sufficient and regular supply of raw materials.' Shipping components from China to the United States takes Revlon eight to 12 weeks and costs four times 2019 prices, it said." (06/16/22)
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/16/cosmetics-giant-revlon-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection.html
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17) Russian GRU spy tried to infiltrate International Criminal Court
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"A deep-cover Russian spy tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC), the security service of the Netherlands says. The man used the name Viktor Muller Ferreira and pretended to be Brazilian but was refused entry as he arrived to start work in the Netherlands. Authorities say his real name is Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov and he is a spy for the GRU -- Russian military intelligence. The man is said to have spent years building a fake identity, before applying for an internship the ICC in The Hague. The Dutch security agency, the AIVD, said if he had been successful in taking up the position and infiltrate the organisation, he could have done real damage." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61831961
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18) Tunisia: Regime workers strike, signaling national crisis
Source: ABC News
"A nationwide public sector strike in Tunisia is poised to paralyze land and air transportation and other vital activities Thursday with the North African nation already in the midst of a deteriorating economic crisis. Tunisia's powerful General Labour Union (UGTT) announced the walkout, which was expected to include 159 state enterprises, on the basis of pressing social and economic demands. The union is demanding wage increases and protesting the government's planned economic reforms. ... President Kais Saied's government unveiled plans last week to cut its massive public wage bill and said it would progressively reduce energy and food subsidies starting next year." (06/16/22)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/public-workers-strike-tunisia-signaling-national-crisis-85432263
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19) Brazil: Amazon fisherman confesses to killing missing men
Source: SFGate
"A fisherman confessed to killing a British journalist and an Indigenous expert in Brazil's remote Amazon region and took police to a site where human remains were recovered, a federal investigator said after a grim 10-day search for the missing pair. Authorities said Wednesday that they expected to make more arrests in the case of freelance reporter Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira of Brazil, who disappeared June 5. None had been made as of Thursday, but police said searches for the boat the two had used were about to restart. They gave no immediate explanation of a motive for the killing, but earlier suggested that Pereira's work to stop illegal fishing in an Indigenous reserve had angered local fishermen." (06/16/22)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Police-Amazon-fisherman-confesses-to-killing-17245139.php
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20) Court documents in Proud Boys case detail plans to occupy Capitol
Source: United Press International
"Court documents filed in federal court Wednesday in the case against extremist group Proud Boys detailed plans to occupy buildings at the on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, for what it called 'free and fair elections.' The nine-page document was filed as part of a recent motion made by one of Enrique Tarrio's co-defendants. Tarrio, 38, and four others were indicted last week on seditious conspiracy charges in the attack. ... The document, which was given to Tarrio, includes lists and maps showing targeted buildings where 'the goal is to ensure there is an entry point for the masses to rush the building.'" (06/15/22)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/15/capitol-attack-document-plans-1776-returns-proud-boys-Enrique-Tarrio/9441655339302/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Free Exchange Is Win-Win
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
"In the marketplace, profits come from voluntary exchange, which requires that buyers and sellers freely choose to transact business. Why would they do that? They do it because each party expects to benefit -- to be made better off -- by giving up something they own for something that they would rather own. This is clear with barter, but it's equally true when one party trades money. Money, a medium of exchange, expands the opportunity for exchange by enabling people to get what they want even when they don't have the particular items that their available trading partners want. When Smith trades a sum of money to Jones to acquire shoes, Smith demonstrates that he prefers those shoes to anything else he might have feasibly used the money for, including holding on to it. Jones demonstrates the opposite preference." (06/17/22)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2022/06/tgif-free-exchange-is-win-win.html
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22) Mike Pence Could Have (And Should Have) Invoked the 25th Amendment on January 6
Source: The Daily Beast
by Andy Craig
"'Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets,' according to Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair. 'But Mike Pence did each of those things.' That's a remarkable claim, not just about former President Donald Trump's dereliction of duty, which was already fairly apparent. It also shows that in the midst of a violent constitutional crisis, then-Vice President Mike Pence flatly usurped the president's constitutional authority without following the proper procedures for doing so. And the rest of the government, including the military, appears to have gone along with it. ... His actions amount to invoking the 25th Amendment in practice but not in name, with none of the legitimacy and transparency the amendment was intended to create." (06/16/22)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pence-could-have-and-should-have-invoked-the-25th-amendment-on-jan-6
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23) More Bad News for the Mask Cult
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Scott Morefield
"Unless you're visiting a medical facility still taken in by the mask-cult or you live in a big city or some obscure California county run by hypochondriac Democrat whack-jobs, you're probably generally living your life without being forced to wear a useless, bacteria-laden piece of t-shirt material over your face. However, if your overlords have gone out of their way to clarify that mask mandates have only been lifted because Covid rates have gone down ... they are purposefully missing the overall picture and slyly holding on to the pretext that will invite the insanity back at any point -- that masks 'work' to stop or curb the spread of highly contagious respiratory viruses. Thankfully, the tide is turning. Key research and data gathering is being conducted and released that continue to put a stake in the heart of forced masking. Here's a sampling of the latest ..." (06/16/22)
https://brownstone.org/articles/more-bad-news-for-the-mask-cult/
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24) The Mainstream Worldview Is Self-Evidently Bullshit
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"They've lied about every war, and they've openly acknowledged lying about this very war, but you're a Kremlin agent if you say they're lying to us about this war. ... The mainstream worldview is self-evidently bullshit. If our media and education systems were telling us the truth about the world and our 'democratic' systems actually worked, our society would be arranged to serve the interests of the many rather than an elite few. You can tell the mainstream worldview is bullshit just by looking at its fruits. We're killing our biosphere to serve an economic system that's creating greater and greater inequality while wars rage and nuclear brinkmanship threatens to wipe us all out and corruption rules the earth. The world is as it is because the way the majority of people in the most influential nations think, act and vote is being continuously manipulated by the powerful, for the powerful." (06/17/22)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/17/the-mainstream-worldview-is-self-evidently-bullshit-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
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25) Trump's "Big Lie" Was Also a Big Grift
Source: The Nation
by Elie Mystal
"On Monday, the January 6 Select Committee revealed that former president of the United States Donald J. Trump may have committed wire and mail fraud, to the tune of $250 million. The committee alleged that Trump and his campaign sent out fundraising letters asking people to donate to the 'Official Election Defense Fund.' But, as the committee's chief investigative counsel, Amanda Wick, said in video testimony, 'no such fund existed.' The money Trump raised was instead funneled to a Trump leadership PAC and other Trump-adjacent organizations, the committee claimed. ... Every single state attorney general in the country now has cause to investigate Trump and his campaign for fraud. That includes Republican attorneys general in Trump-leaning states. I know they won't, but it's worth remembering that Trump's apparent crime was to fleece Republican voters. He did this to his own people." (06/16/22)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-mail-fraud/
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26) Graph of the Day: Public Transit on the Rocks
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Davis Hunt
"Around the nation, public transit ridership continues to stay well below pre-pandemic levels. Nationally, transit ridership in April 2022 was 58.7 percent of April 2019. Driving, flying, and even train travel via Amtrak have all recovered nicely by comparison. New York City carries 30% of the entire nation's transit riders, and though their recovery has advanced at a better clip than other cities, it's still only back to 64% of pre-pandemic levels. With reduced revenues, it's likely we'll begin to see transit services beg for more subsidies. In San Francisco (where ridership is only back to 56% of what it was pre-pandemic) a proposed $400 million bill to modernize MUNI just failed a public vote. In Nashville, we've only recovered 30.9% of pre-pandemic bus riders even as routes have expanded ..." (06/16/22)
https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/no-276-all-the-gossip-thats-fit-to-print/
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27) A predictable outcome of January 6 hearings: Opinions about Trump won't change
Source: The Hill
by Bernard Goldberg
"It's a safe bet that hard-core Democrats will come out of the hearings with the same opinions they had when they went in -- that Donald Trump tried to stage a coup and overthrow a legitimate presidential election. As for hard-core Republicans, no matter how damning the evidence and testimony against Trump, they won't be swayed. As I say, both sides predictably rush to their corners and put up walls to keep the other side out. But not everyone is hard core when it comes to politics. There still are swing voters out there, moderates who vote Republican sometimes and Democrat at other times. What they see on TV may influence how they vote. They're up for grabs." (06/16/22)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3524685-a-predictable-outcome-of-jan-6-hearings-opinions-about-trump-wont-change/
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28) What Kind of Education do Lotteries Fund?
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Laura Williams
"For at least 350 years, economists and (other) cynics have told each other that the lottery is a tax on stupidity. More accurately, modern American lotteries are a voluntary tax paid by those who fail to understand statistics, or who are willing to suspend critical thinking. State-run lotteries were marketed to the public as a means to fund 'educational opportunities' via supplemental revenue for public education. But buyers of lottery tickets are overwhelmingly those who were failed by that system." (06/16/22)
https://www.aier.org/article/what-kind-of-education-do-lotteries-fund/
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29) Interview: Welcome to a Science-Fiction Planet
Source: TomDispatch
by David Barsamian & Noam Chomsky
"DAVID BARSAMIAN: Let's head into the most obvious nightmare of this moment, the war in Ukraine and its effects globally. But first a little background. Let's start with President George H.W. Bush's assurance to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move 'one inch to the east' -- and that pledge has been verified. My question to you is, why didn't Gorbachev get that in writing? NOAM CHOMSKY: He accepted a gentleman's agreement, which is not that uncommon in diplomacy. Shake-of-the-hand. Furthermore, having it on paper would have made no difference whatsoever. Treaties that are on paper are torn up all the time. What matters is good faith. And in fact, H.W. Bush, the first Bush, did honor the agreement explicitly." (06/16/22)
https://tomdispatch.com/welcome-to-a-science-fiction-planet/
-----
30) Day of Reckoning for Federal Spending, Debt, and Inflation?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
"Do you recall all those 'debates' over the federal debt ceiling that have taken place over the past 30 years? Every time the debt ceiling came up, here at FFF we said, 'Don't raise the debt ceiling. Force the feds to live within their means. No more debt.' Every time, we have been drowned out by statist commentators within the mainstream press who, like Chicken Little, have consistently cried, 'Raise the debt ceiling one more time! If you don't, the sky will fall in on us! Just one more time!' ... After each time, they have continued spending money like there was no tomorrow, knowing that they could make the same Chicken Little arguments for raising the debt ceiling the next time." (06/16/22)
https://www.fff.org/2022/06/16/day-of-reckoning-for-federal-spending-debt-and-inflation/
-----
31) US Treasury Secretary Admits She Was Wrong About Inflation Prospects
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
"According to the Financial Times June 1, 2022, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary conceded she was wrong last year about the path inflation would take. ... To be able to say something meaningful about inflation, it is necessary to establish what inflation is all about. Note that for Yellen inflation is about the growth rate in the consumer price index, which year-on-year stood at 8.3% in April against 4.2% in April the year before. We suggest that increases in the prices of goods and services is not inflation but rather the symptoms of inflation. To establish the definition of inflation it is helpful to go back in time to ascertain how it originated." (06/16/22)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2022/06/us-treasury-secretary-admits-she-was-wrong-about-inflation-prospects/
-----
32) Why is everything so bad right now?
Source: Fox News Forum
by Greg Gutfeld
"All right. But we're also going to try something out here. We're breaking new ground. It's time for. Scratch and sniff monologues. This has never been done, and probably for good reason. But it's true. At any moment, you, dear viewers, will be asked to scratch the TV screen when an image appears. And then you have to guess what that image smells like. ... So let's go to the first one. [Hunter Biden shown] ... There you go. The scratch and sniff. ... Smell your fingers. What's that smell like? What's that about? Now, if you guessed Parmesan cheese, you win. Disgusting. ... According to new leaked audio obtained by The Washington Examiner. Hunter claims his dad viewed him as a god. And if that's not an argument for atheism, what is?" (06/16/22)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/greg-gutfeld-everything-so-bad
-----
33) Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson's State House Speech
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Bob Fiedler
"On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention, finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. The Anti-Federalists wasted no time in denouncing the document. The first stand-alone counterattack against the anti-federalists took place in Philadelphia on October 6, 1787, when James Wilson delivered his 'State House Speech.' Anti-federalist opponents of ratification took up their pens to counter the arguments Wilson made in his speech. Some believe Tench Coxe used the penname 'A Democratic Federalist,' though this essay bears little resemblance to anything known to have been authored by him. While the identity of the author is still debatable, what is not debatable is the author's uncanny ability to look to legal theory and history to illustrate some of the deep flaws in Wilson's argument." (06/16/22)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2022/06/16/anti-federalists-strike-back-two-responses-to-james-wilsons-state-house-speech/
-----
34) Biden's Budget Deficit Victory Lap Is Unearned and Unjustified
Source: The American Spectator
by Veronique de Rugy
"President Joe Biden is taking victory laps for last year's reduced budget deficit. No one would be happier than me to see this number fall in a significant way. But the decline has nothing to do with the president's policies, and it changes little about the dangers of our fiscal situation." (06/16/22)
https://spectator.org/bidens-budget-deficit-victory-lap-is-unearned-and-unjustified/
-----
35) The Hidden Driver of High Gas Prices
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
"At this point, it is hard to disentangle overall inflation from surging gas prices. Last week, the national average rose above $5 a gallon for the first time in U.S. history, and it should only increase, given the summer driving season. Gasoline alone accounted for about 20 percent of inflation in May, and fuel also factors into the transportation costs of virtually every good. Many explanations can be offered for the spike, from generalized inflation to post-pandemic supply disruptions to Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the unwillingness of Wall Street to invest in domestic production after severe losses in the past. But President Biden has now correctly pointed out a different driver: a lack of refinery capacity." (06/16/22)
https://prospect.org/environment/hidden-driver-of-high-gas-prices/
-----
36) Beyond Revenge, What Does Jane's Revenge Want?
Source: The Intercept
by Judith Levine
"When I read that a group calling itself Jane's Revenge had firebombed anti-abortion 'crisis pregnancy centers' in Madison, Wisconsin, Des Moines, Iowa, and other locations from Washington state to Washington, D.C., my first thought was: What the fuck? Was this a false flag? Who but the extreme right, which had looked the other way while its terrorist armies murdered abortion providers, would besmirch the name of Jane, the Chicago collective that provided over 11,000 safe, illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade? ... Or was Jane's Revenge a first -- the anarcho-feminist descendant of the Weather Underground .... The threat Jane's Revenge scrawled on the walls of the wrecked buildings -- If abortion isn't safe, you aren't either -- only increased my dread. Was this the next step toward a Hobbesian war of all against all?" (06/16/22)
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/16/janes-revenge-abortion-rights/
-----
37) The Chill on Campus
Source: The Atlantic
by Yascha Mounk
"According to one recent study by the Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit devoted to promoting viewpoint diversity, almost all students believe passionately in the need for an open culture of debate. About nine out of every 10 students agreed that 'colleges should encourage students and professors to be open to learning from people whose beliefs differ from their own.' Nearly as many believe that 'colleges should welcome students and professors with a lot of different points of view.' So, as I've found, the appetite for debate remains strong. But the same study also reflects the impression I got from talking with countless students: Although they are keen to discuss big ideas, many fear doing so." (06/16/22)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/campus-free-speech-self-censorship/661282/
-----
38) It's Adam Smith's Birthday!
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Eamonn Butler
"Well, sort of. We know when his birth was registered at the local church in 1723, and it's likely that he was born a couple of days earlier. Then you need to add on a few days for the calendar change that happened in 1750, and you get 16 June. Which is why some enterprising group has christened this 'Liberalism Day.'" (06/16/22)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/its-adam-smiths-birthday-1
-----
39) When will we accept the reality of a new multipolar world?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by John Wight
"In his estimable book, 'The New Silk Roads,' Peter Frankopan makes the salient point that 'the decisions being made in today's world that really matter are not being made in Paris, London, Berlin or Rome -- as they were a hundred years ago -- but in Beijing, Moscow, in Tehran and Riyadh, in Delhi and Islamabad, in Kabul and in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan, in Ankara, Damascus and Jerusalem.' ... In the West, particularly when it comes to London and Washington, hysteria and panic has colonized their respective ruling establishments, made up of men and women who are no longer able to comprehend a world that is shifting beneath their feet." (06/16/22)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/06/16/when-will-we-accept-the-reality-of-a-new-multipolar-world/
-----
40) They Even Dislike Joe In Biden Country
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
"I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week in Joe Biden's playground. No, not his vacant head, but Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Honestly, it was glorious. The wife and I took the kids and the in-laws here to have fun in the sand and at Funland (If you don't know what Funland is and you have young kids, find out here and either make the trip or find a similar place near you). Walking down the busy boardwalk you can't help but notice something: the people who live here don't like the Joe Biden any more than people anywhere else in the country. ... I didn't see one pro-Biden anything down there. I'm sure there were pro-Biden bumper stickers, who looks at bumper stickers when they're walking?" (06/16/22)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2022/06/16/they-even-dislike-joe-in-biden-country-n2608783
-----
41) Your Grandkids Will Care About the January 6 Hearings, Even if You Don't
Source: The Daily Beast
by Anthony L Fisher
"The Jan. 6 Committee hearings will not move the needle of public opinion even one inch in 2022. But should this country ever recover from its present state of constant anxiety and hysterical tumult, there's a chance the evidence produced at these hearings will be of tremendous value to future generations. ... They're not about Jan. 6, they're about Trump's Big Lie and attempted coup. And they're not about 2022 politics, they're about the future." (06/16/22)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/your-grandkids-will-care-about-the-jan-6-hearings-even-if-you-dont
-----
42) Why It's Hard To Take America's Word on the Summit of the Americas
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
"President Biden has made the battle between autocracy and democracy a theme of his presidency. He invoked that theme again last week to explain to Latin America and the world why Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were cut from the list of nations invited to the US hosted Summit of the Americas. The State Department explained that 'It's the president's decision, but I think the president has been very clear about the presence of countries that by their actions do not respect democracy -- they will not receive invitations.' But by Biden's actions, it is difficult to take the US at its word that the Summit snubs were about democracy. ... it is in Latin America that the US has least respected democracy. There is hardly a country in the region that has not been crushed by a US coup. Despite his Manichean rhetoric, that pragmatism has remained true in Biden's time." (06/16/22)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2022/06/15/why-its-hard-to-take-americas-word-on-the-summit-of-the-americas/
-----
43) What happened to good news?
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
"Last year, Matt Yglesias did a post suggesting that all news is bad news. Allowing for hyperbole, I think that's roughly true. But I recall a time when it was not true, when much of the news was good. To be fair, Yglesias is mostly considering a certain type of popular headline news, which has always been dominated by bad events. There have always been many more stories of houses that burned down than houses that did not burn down. But today, even the more intellectual news sources are dominated by bad news. That was not true in the 1980s and 1990s." (06/16/22)
https://www.econlib.org/what-happened-to-good-news/
-----
44) The strategic incoherence of copying North Korea
Source: Orange County Register
by Bonnie Kristian
"North Korea's test-fire of eight short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean this month was in many ways utterly ordinary. The Kim Jong Un regime has launched missiles 18 times in 2022, an average of one round every nine days, and short-range missiles have been a favorite of the isolated totalitarian state in recent years. Also standard was the test's timing one day after joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises in the Philippine Sea. ... Not so ordinary was Washington's response to the test. The day after, the U.S. and South Korea fired eight missiles of their own into the sea. While it was supposed to demonstrate 'readiness,' per a statement from Seoul, this move encapsulates the incoherence of U.S. policy toward North Korea and its nuclear arms. ... North Korea knows we're ready. What could firing eight missiles into the sea add here?" (06/16/22)
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/06/16/the-strategic-incoherence-of-copying-north-korea/
-----
45) Before Wokeness, There Was "Political Correctness"
Source: In These Times
by staff
"Leftists and conservatives have often found common ground in their antipathy toward political correctness, from the 'dirtbag Left' (and its critiques of 'woke' capitalism) to the new Compact magazine (a social-democratic rag with a conservative co-founder). Back in 1992, Barbara Epstein was making a leftist case against PC culture. A professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and editorial board member of the Socialist Revolution and the Socialist Review, Epstein worried a fear of speaking out of line would weaken the movement for progressive change, arguing that 'political correctness' stifles classroom conversations and establishes a moral status based on subordination -- a superficial stand-in for radical politics." (06/16/22)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/wokeness-political-correctness-dirtbag-left-capitalism-pc-cancel-identity-politics
-----
46) For Presidents, Unpopularity Is a Simple PR Problem. Biden Is No Exception
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
"When the United States in 1982 was mired in the worst recession since the end of World War II, supporters of President Ronald Reagan were sure that they had the answer: just let Reagan be Reagan. Conservative friends of mine wore 'Let Reagan Be Reagan' buttons to show that the problem at hand wasn't the fact that the economy, fueled by massive inflation, was in the middle of a much-needed and inevitable correction. No, it was a PR problem. ... the 'real Reagan' never was unleashed, but his presidency was saved by a recovery fueled in part by major deregulation initiatives that had come from Reagan's predecessor, Jimmy Carter. ... fast-forward to the presidency of Joe Biden .... none of this is Biden's fault, according to the White House inner circles. No, the fault is in those White House handlers who refuse to proclaim the Mighty Works of Joe Biden." (06/16/22)
https://mises.org/wire/presidents-unpopularity-simple-pr-problem-biden-no-exception
-----
47) Unthinkable Rhetoric: Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine War
Source: CounterPunch
by Ray Acheson
"The words and actions of Putin and other Russian officials have elevated the risks and dangers of nuclear war back into mainstream consciousness. But the threat of nuclear weapons is not limited to the Russian government. Eight other governments -- those of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom and the United States -- also possess nuclear weapons, and US nuclear bombs are stored on the territory of five other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members -- Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey. Each and every one of these bombs is a threat to peace and security." (06/16/22)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/16/unthinkable-rhetoric-nuclear-weapons-and-the-ukraine-war/
-----
48) The Coffee Connection
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"The great thing about a coffee maker with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is that you can set things up with a few taps on your smartphone. Brewing times, strength, temperature, etc., can all be arranged without ever having to trudge from bedroom to kitchen. The horrible thing, though -- in addition to the slim possibility that a hacker will take your coffee machine hostage -- is that a Wi-Fi-capable coffee maker made in China may be spying on you on behalf of the Chinazi government. This is the conclusion of Christopher Balding, a researcher who finds evidence that coffee machines manufactured by Kalerm in Jiangsu, China, collect a diverse array of data." (06/16/22)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2022/06/16/the-coffee-connection/
-----
49) Fifty Years Later, the Motive Behind Watergate Remains Clouded
Source: Reason
by Glenn Garvin
"One strange thing about Watergate, the scandal that led Richard Nixon to resign as president, is that 50 years later we still don't know who ordered the core crime or why. This was the crime: On June 17, 1972, a squad of five bagmen, all with at least past connections to the CIA, broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the Watergate office building. ... Even Nixon administration figures who ended up doing time in prison due to the shock waves from that peculiar break-in, such as former White House counsel John Dean, former special counsel Chuck Colson, and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, never seemed to understand themselves the whys behind the scandal that ended up with them disgraced and imprisoned." (for publication 07/22)
https://reason.com/2022/06/16/the-weird-world-of-watergate/
-----
50) What the January 6 Committee Might Have Been
Source: Town Hall
by Victor Davis Hanson
"Congress should investigate fully the January 6 riot at the Capitol -- and similar recent riots at iconic federal sites. But unfortunately, it never will. Why not? The current committee is not bipartisan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., forbade Republican nominees traditionally selected by the House minority leader to serve on the committee. No speaker had ever before rejected the minority party's nominees to a select House committee. Pelosi's own cynical criteria for Republican participation was twofold: Any willing minority Republican members had to have voted to impeach former President Donald Trump while having no realistic chance of being reelected in 2022. ... A real investigation would have ignited argumentation, cross-examination, and disagreements. ... In contrast, the January 6 show trial features no dissenting views. Its subtext was right out of the Soviet minister of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's credo: 'Show me the man and I'll show you the crime.'" (06/16/22)
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2022/06/16/what-the-january-6-committee-might-have-been-n2608827
-----
51) The Elite Press Remains The Handmaid Of War
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter
"Far too often, the elite U.S. press has been a reliable mouthpiece for Washington's dubious foreign policies. That was true during the Cold War, except for a brief period of disillusionment and dissent once the Vietnam War became such an obvious debacle. That period of more vigorous scrutiny and skepticism did not last long, however. When George H. W. Bush launched his drive for U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait ... elite outlets were fully on board with that agenda, as their shamelessly biased treatment of the relevant issues confirmed. That pro-interventionist bias became even more flagrant .... There was very little daylight between the official U.S. government positions on those issues and the dominant media narratives. A similar pattern has emerged with press coverage of the war in Ukraine." (06/16/22)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-media-plays-lapdog-for-the-national-security-state/
-----
52) High Gas Prices Do Not Stop Traffic
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Froma Harrop
"It's easy to find people who say gas prices will keep them from driving. They're on the roads. That is an early hint that the 'crisis' of high prices at the pump is less dramatic than the testimonials make it. And if history is any guide, it is temporary. Florida is seeing a record number of tourists. They are driving, and they are flying in, having bought air tickets made extra expensive by the high cost of jet fuel. The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, expects travel this season to match or even exceed the pre-pandemic levels. And Florida is surely not alone. ... A recent Longwoods International Travel Sentiment study has two-thirds of American drivers saying that higher gas prices would factor into their decision about traveling the next six months. But only 6% of those surveyed said they are actually canceling trips because of it." (06/15/22)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/06/16/high_gas_prices_do_not_stop_traffic_147748.html
-----
53) Markets Must Have Their Day of Reckoning
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Dan Sanchez
"A worse-than-expected inflation report released Friday spooked the Federal Reserve into contemplating steeper-than-expected interest rate hikes on Monday. That in turn spooked traders into a stock sell-off, driving the S&P 500 into a bear market that same day. And that in turn is spooking everyone about the prospect of an imminent recession. And the Fed just confirmed investor fears when it 'approved the largest interest rate increase since 1994 and signaled it would continue lifting rates this year at the most rapid pace in decades ...' as The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Scary as the prospect may be, the economy is long overdue for a crash. And the more we postpone that Day of Reckoning, the worse it will be." (06/15/22)
https://fee.org/articles/markets-must-have-their-day-of-reckoning/
-----
54) We're Here To Become As Conscious As Possible
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"If there is a purpose of human life, as near as I can tell from these severely limited sense organs and this very limited brain, it's to become as conscious as possible. If you were given a video game to play without knowing anything about it, one of the first things you'd probably try to work out is what the objective is. How do you do well in the game? What do you need to do to move from this part of the game to the next part? How do you win? If you didn't receive any instructions, you'd probably try to deduce the game's objective by seeing what actions make things better for the character you're controlling on the screen." (06/16/22)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/16/were-here-to-become-as-conscious-as-possible/
-----
55) Beyond NIMBY vs. YIMBY -- How Current Homeowners Can Benefit from Zoning Deregulation
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
"Rapidly increasing housing costs over the last few months underscore the need for zoning reform. By breaking down regulatory barriers to new housing construction, we can greatly reduce the cost of housing and also enable large numbers of people to move to places where there are better job and educational opportunities. We can also empower more people to 'vote with their feet' for state and local government policies that best fit their needs. But zoning reform is often stymied by fears that it is inimical to the interests of current homeowners." (06/15/22)
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/06/15/beyond-nimby-vs-yimby-how-current-homeowners-can-benefit-from-zoning-deregulation/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) Free Talk Live, 06/16/22
Source: Free Talk Live
"Over 50% of Americans Believe US Democracy to End :: Civil War Coming? :: Mark says Move! :: Cities and Dating :: Housing Prices to Fall? :: The Resolve :: Second Amendment :: Texas Takeover? :: El Salvador :: Mises Caucus :: Free State Project :: Show: 2022-06-16 Ian, Mark, Bonnie." [Flash audio or MP3] (06/16/22)
https://freetalklive.com/archives?ppplayer=5c48425a5422918dc6f904bd1cb7e00f&ppepisode=c0203b43ccce935381a5d9b15d6cb73e
-----
57) The Chris Spangle Show, 06/15/22
Source: We Are Libertarians
"What Will Happen if We Cancel Student Loan Debt?" [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://wearelibertarians.com/css-what-will-happen-if-we-cancel-student-loan-debt/
-----
58) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/16/22
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"NATO Summit Demands: More Weapons For Ukraine!" [Flash video] (06/16/22)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/nato-summit-demands-more-weapons-for-ukraine
-----
59) Rising, 06/16/22
Source: The Hill
"Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave debate whether Covid-19 is truly unavoidable in light of Dr. Fauci's recent positive test." [Flash video] (06/16/22)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/3525951-rising-june-16-2022/
-----
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 06/16/22
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
"Congress seems to be under the spell of the 'do something' siren song. Should they pass red flag legislation, John & Nisha Whitehead warn that it will put a target on the back of every American." [various formats] (06/16/22)
https://anchor.fm/bryan-hyde/episodes/2022-June-16-The-Bryan-Hyde-Show-e1k1do1
-----
61) Finding Freedom, episode 337
Source: Lions of Liberty
"Entrepreneurship and the Fight for Freedom with Clay Clark." [various formats] (06/16/22)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/entrepreneurship-and-the-fight-for-freedom-with-clay-clark
-----
62) Part Of the Problem, 06/16/22
Source: GaS Digital Network
"The Economy Is Crashing And Nobody Cares." [MP3] (06/16/22)
https://chrt.fm/track/9C8FAD/pdst.fm/e/rss.art19.com/episodes/7414b678-8ddf-4e98-83a8-89a2cd652b4b.mp3
-----
63) The Science of Politics, 06/15/22
Source: Niskanen Center
"Did the Birchers win after all?" [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/did-the-birchers-win-after-all/
-----
64) Reason Interview: Robert Breedlove
Source: Reason
"The self-described freedom maximalist explains why he isn't put off bitcoin by its decline since last November." [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://reason.com/podcast/2022/06/15/robert-breedlove-just-follow-the-energy-on-bitcoin-not-the-price/
-----
65) Conflicts of Interest, episode 289
Source: Libertarian Institute
"Ukraine Suffering Significant Losses, Zelensky Pledges to Push War Forward." [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-289-ukraine-suffering-signiant-losses-zelensky-pledges-to-push-war-forward/
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https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) China: Regime launches third aircraft carrier
2) Capitol riot exploitation committee asks Ginni Thomas to testify
3) India: Protesters set fire to trains over regime's plans for new short-term military jobs
4) NM: Supreme Court orders all-GOP county commission to certify primary's results
5) Palestine: Israeli police clear officers who attacked mourners at reporter's funeral
6) Tesla to raise prices in US as inflation bites
7) DC: Saudi Embassy street renamed after murdered journalist Khashoggi
8) If Roe falls, some DAs won't enforce anti-abortion laws
9) GM announces Cadillac Celestiq electric car is going to be hand-built and 3D printed in low volume
10) Researchers: Ancient teeth reveal where Black Death (Plague) began
11) France: McDonald's to pay €1.25 billion bribe to regime to avoid prosecution for extortion evasion
12) MI: Production at bedeviled baby formula factory halted by storm
13) NH: State outlines youth center abuse settlement process
14) Ukraine: Two US citizens missing, feared captured by Russians
15) In "Crisis Moment" for Abortion Rights, Biden Weighs EO Declaring Public Health Emergency
16) Cosmetics giant Revlon files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
17) Russian GRU spy tried to infiltrate International Criminal Court
18) Tunisia: Regime workers strike, signaling national crisis
19) Brazil: Amazon fisherman confesses to killing missing men
20) Court documents in Proud Boys case detail plans to occupy Capitol
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Free Exchange Is Win-Win
22) Mike Pence Could Have (And Should Have) Invoked the 25th Amendment on January 6
23) More Bad News for the Mask Cult
24) The Mainstream Worldview Is Self-Evidently Bullshit
25) Trump's "Big Lie" Was Also a Big Grift
26) Graph of the Day: Public Transit on the Rocks
27) A predictable outcome of January 6 hearings: Opinions about Trump won't change
28) What Kind of Education do Lotteries Fund?
29) Interview: Welcome to a Science-Fiction Planet
30) Day of Reckoning for Federal Spending, Debt, and Inflation?
31) US Treasury Secretary Admits She Was Wrong About Inflation Prospects
32) Why is everything so bad right now?
33) Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson's State House Speech
34) Biden's Budget Deficit Victory Lap Is Unearned and Unjustified
35) The Hidden Driver of High Gas Prices
36) Beyond Revenge, What Does Jane's Revenge Want?
37) The Chill on Campus
38) It's Adam Smith's Birthday!
39) When will we accept the reality of a new multipolar world?
40) They Even Dislike Joe In Biden Country
41) Your Grandkids Will Care About the January 6 Hearings, Even if You Don't
42) Why It's Hard To Take America's Word on the Summit of the Americas
43) What happened to good news?
44) The strategic incoherence of copying North Korea
45) Before Wokeness, There Was "Political Correctness"
46) For Presidents, Unpopularity Is a Simple PR Problem. Biden Is No Exception
47) Unthinkable Rhetoric: Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine War
48) The Coffee Connection
49) Fifty Years Later, the Motive Behind Watergate Remains Clouded
50) What the January 6 Committee Might Have Been
51) The Elite Press Remains The Handmaid Of War
52) High Gas Prices Do Not Stop Traffic
53) Markets Must Have Their Day of Reckoning
54) We're Here To Become As Conscious As Possible
55) Beyond NIMBY vs. YIMBY -- How Current Homeowners Can Benefit from Zoning Deregulation
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) Free Talk Live, 06/16/22
57) The Chris Spangle Show, 06/15/22
58) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/16/22
59) Rising, 06/16/22
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 06/16/22
61) Finding Freedom, episode 337
62) Part Of the Problem, 06/16/22
63) The Science of Politics, 06/15/22
64) Reason Interview: Robert Breedlove
65) Conflicts of Interest, episode 289
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) China: Regime launches third aircraft carrier
Source: Reuters
"China launched its third aircraft carrier on Friday, the Fujian, named after the province opposite self-ruled Taiwan, sending a statement of intent to rivals as it modernises its military. President Xi Jinping has made overhauling the world's largest armed forces a central part of his agenda, seeking to project power well beyond China's shores, though the government says it has no hostile intent. ... The aircraft carrier features a full-length flight deck with a catapult launch system, according to state media. The Fujian will join the Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted domestically. China is still honing its ability to operate the carriers, and integrate them into battle groups, something the United States has been doing for decades. Only the United States, with 11 aircraft carriers, has more of the vessels." (06/17/22)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-launches-third-aircraft-carrier-fujian-state-media-2022-06-17/
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2) Capitol riot exploitation committee asks Ginni Thomas to testify
Source: Politico
"The Jan. 6 committee has invited Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify about her connections to Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the election, panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters Thursday. 'We have sent Ms. Thomas a letter asking [her] to come and talk to the committee,' Thompson (D-Miss.) said. ... Thompson's remarks and Cheney's agreement -- confirmed to POLITICO by an aide -- coincided with news reports suggesting Thomas had been in touch with at least one key architect of Trump's bid to cling to power: Attorney John Eastman. The emails might come up 'at some point' in their hearings, Thompson said earlier Thursday, though they were still in the 'discovery phase.' Thomas told the conservative-leaning Daily Caller later Thursday she was open to testifying." (06/16/22)
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/jan-6-panel-leaders-prepare-to-call-ginni-thomas-00040208
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3) India: Protesters set fire to trains over regime's plans for new short-term military jobs
Source: Sky News [UK]
"Trains have been set on fire as thousands of people took part in protests in India against a new military recruitment system. Police used batons and tear gas to break up demonstrations in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states after young people took to the streets and damaged government buildings. ... The government is planning a new jobs programme which would allow the armed forces to recruit 46,000 men and women aged 17-and-a-half to 21 at non-officer level but only for four years. After that just 25% of them will be retained, and the other 75% will not be entitled to pension benefits. Previously, soldiers have been recruited by the army, navy and air force separately and typically enter service for up to 17 years for the lowest ranks." (06/16/22)
https://news.sky.com/story/india-protesters-set-fire-to-trains-over-plans-for-new-short-term-military-jobs-12635037
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4) NM: Supreme Court orders all-GOP county commission to certify primary's results
Source: CBS News
"The conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines that erupted during the 2020 presidential contest flared this week in a remote New Mexico county in what could be just a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming in the fall midterms and in 2024. The governing commission in Otero County refused to certify the local results of the state's June 7 primary because of the equipment, in what was seen as another instance of how the falsehoods spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies have infected elections and threaten the democratic process. ... New Mexico's secretary of state asked the state Supreme Court to step in and order the county to certify the votes, and the high court did so on Wednesday. That would ensure that the nearly 7,400 ballots that were cast in Otero County are recorded as legal votes. The deadline for county certification is Friday." (06/16/22)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mexico-supreme-court-order-otero-county-commissioners-primarys-results/
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5) Palestine: Israeli police clear officers who attacked mourners at reporter's funeral
Source: SFGate
"An Israeli police investigation has found that police engaged in misconduct during the funeral of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but those who supervised the event will not face serious punishment, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. Israeli riot police pushed and beat mourners at the funeral, causing the pallbearers to nearly drop the casket in a shocking start to the May 14 procession in east Jerusalem. The violence drew international condemnations and added to the sense of grief and outrage across the Arab world that followed the death of Abu Akleh, who was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses and Palestinian officials say Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted by Israeli troops, while the Israeli military says she was killed during a shootout with Palestinian gunmen and it is unclear who fired the fatal bullet." (06/16/22)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Report-Israeli-police-clear-officers-at-17246429.php
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6) Tesla to raise prices in US as inflation bites
Source: Reuters
"Tesla Inc again raised prices for all its car models in the United States in response to persistent global supply-chain problems and soaring raw material costs. The electric carmaker increased its Model Y long-range price to $65,990 from $62,990, its website showed on Thursday, after delaying the deliveries of some long-range models in the United States by up to a month. The 5% price hike comes as costs of raw materials of everything from aluminum to lithium used in cars and batteries surge, while automakers struggle to source chips and other supplies due to an industry-wide shortage." (06/16/22)
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-hikes-us-prices-across-car-models-2022-06-16/
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7) DC: Saudi Embassy street renamed after murdered journalist Khashoggi
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"A street in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington DC has been renamed after Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder by Saudi agents caused shock around the world. The local government in the US capital said it had changed the name to Jamal Khashoggi Way to ensure the dissident's memory 'cannot be covered up'. US intelligence concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing. He denied this. Next month, he will hold his first talks with US President Joe Biden. Human rights activists, members of the US Congress and local councillors gathered outside the embassy on New Hampshire Avenue for the street sign unveiling." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61831193
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8) If Roe falls, some DAs won't enforce anti-abortion laws
Source: Hastings Tribune
"As the Supreme Court appears on track to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, progressive prosecutors around the U.S. are declaring they won't enforce some of the most restrictive and punitive anti-abortion laws that GOP-led states have waited years to implement. The move is sure to rankle Republican lawmakers and governors, with about half the states poised to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is weakened or overturned. Many of those Republican-led states have abortion clinics nestled in the large metro areas represented by Democratic district attorneys. Anti-abortion laws in the U.S. largely shy away from explicitly punishing pregnant women and instead tend to target physicians, who could face loss of their medical license and lengthy prison sentences for performing the procedure illegally. But some abortion restrictions would penalize those who assist in an abortion and others could require women who secured the procedure to testify against those who helped her." (06/16/22)
https://www.hastingstribune.com/ap/health/if-roe-falls-some-das-wont-enforce-anti-abortion-laws/article_85944fcf-2f6f-5551-9473-cb9335095f13.html
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9) GM announces Cadillac Celestiq electric car is going to be hand-built and 3D printed in low volume
Source: electrek
"GM announces today that the Cadillac Celestiq, the brand's electric car after the Lyriq, is going to be a hand-built and 3D-printed ultra-luxury low-volume production vehicle. GM has just started production of the Cadilac Lyriq, the brand's first all-electric vehicle and GM's second electric vehicle based on its new Ulitum electric platform. ... We knew that the electric vehicle would be in the higher end of the market, but now GM has revealed that it will actually be competing in the 'ultra-luxury space' and it will even be 'hand-built' -- making it a very low-production volume vehicle." (06/16/22)
https://electrek.co/2022/06/16/gm-cadillac-celestiq-electric-car-hand-built-3d-printed-low-volume/
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10) Researchers: Ancient teeth reveal where Black Death (Plague) began
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, more than 600 years after it killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia and north Africa. The mid-14th Century health catastrophe is one of the most significant disease episodes in human history. But despite years of research, scientists had been unable to pinpoint where the bubonic plague began. Now analysis suggests it was in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, in the 1330s. A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Germany's Max Planck Institute and University of Tubingen analysed ancient DNA samples from the teeth of skeletons in cemeteries near Lake Issyk Kul, in Kyrgyzstan. They chose the area after noting a significant spike in burials there in 1338 and 1339. Dr Maria Spyrou, a researcher at the University of Tubingen, said the team sequenced DNA from seven skeletons." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61820604
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11) France: McDonald's to pay €1.25 billion bribe to regime to avoid prosecution for extortion evasion
Source: France 24 [French state media]
"McDonald's will pay 1.25 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in France to avoid a legal case over tax evasion between 2009 and 2020, under an agreement approved Thursday by a Paris court. Judge Stephane Noel confirmed the second-biggest tax settlement in French history, made up of a 508-million-euro fine and 737 million euros in back taxes already agreed in May, years after McDonald's was accused of reporting artificially low profits to reduce its tax bill." (06/16/22)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220616-mcdonald-s-to-pay-%E2%82%AC1-25-billion-in-france-to-avoid-prosecution-for-tax-evasion
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12) MI: Production at bedeviled baby formula factory halted by storm
Source: Seattle Times
"Severe weather has forced Abbott Nutrition to pause production at a Michigan baby formula factory that had just restarted after being closed for several months, contributing to a national shortage. Production for Abbott's EleCare specialty formula has been suspended, but there is enough supply to meet demand until production is restarted, the company said. Abbott had prioritized ramping up production of the specialty formula for infants with severe food allergies and digestive problems who have few other options for nutrition. Abbott says it needs to assess damage and re-sanitize the factory after severe thunderstorms and heavy rains swept through southwestern Michigan late Monday." (06/16/22)
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/production-at-bedeviled-baby-formula-factory-halted-by-storm/
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13) NH: State outlines youth center abuse settlement process
Source: US News & World Report
"Raped? $200,000. Infected with a sexually transmitted disease? Add $100,000. Impregnated? Add $200,000. These are among the possible payments for those physically and sexually abused as children at the state-run Youth Development Center, according to preliminary drafts released by the New Hampshire attorney general's office this week. After lawyers for the victims provide feedback, the drafts for calculating payments will be updated and submitted to the Legislature's fiscal committee for approval. ... The Manchester facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center after former Gov. John H. Sununu, has been the target of a broad criminal investigation since 2019. Ten of its former workers and an 11th who worked at a Concord detention facility were arrested last year, and nearly 450 former residents have sued the state based on allegations involving more than 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018." (06/16/22)
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-06-16/new-hampshire-outlines-youth-center-abuse-settlement-process
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14) Ukraine: Two US citizens missing, feared captured by Russians
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatar state media]
"Two United States military veterans who were in Ukraine fighting against Russian forces have gone missing and are feared captured, family members and US Congress members have said. The men -- Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27 -- who had been living in Alabama before travelling to Ukraine following the February 24 invasion by Russia, were last heard from in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia. Their families said they had last been in contact with both men on June 8 and were told they would be going offline for a few days. ... The Telegraph newspaper, which first reported on the disappearances, had quoted an unnamed fellow fighter who said the two men were captured after running into a larger Russian group during a June 9 battle northeast of Kharkiv." (06/16/22)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/16/two-us-citizens-missing-in-ukraine-feared-captured-by-russians
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15) In "Crisis Moment" for Abortion Rights, Biden Weighs EO Declaring Public Health Emergency
Source: Common Dreams
"With the right-wing [sic] U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn Roe v. Wade as soon as this month, President Joe Biden is reportedly weighing a number of executive orders to protect abortion rights at the federal level -- including declaration of a national public health emergency, as progressive lawmakers and rights groups push him to act. The New York Times, citing unnamed administration officials, reported Thursday that 'some of the ideas under consideration include declaring a national public health emergency, readying the Justice Department to fight any attempt by states to criminalize travel for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, and asserting that Food and Drug Administration regulations granting approval to abortion medications preempt any state bans.'" (06/16/22)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/16/crisis-moment-abortion-rights-biden-weighs-declaring-public-health-emergency
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16) Cosmetics giant Revlon files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Source: CNBC
"Cosmetics giant Revlon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday evening as it grappled with a cumbersome debt load and a snarled supply chain. The company said it expects to receive $575 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lender base, which will help to support its day-to-day operations. ... Revlon's bankruptcy filing said the company is currently unable to timely fill almost one-third of customer demand for its products, due to an inability to source a 'sufficient and regular supply of raw materials.' Shipping components from China to the United States takes Revlon eight to 12 weeks and costs four times 2019 prices, it said." (06/16/22)
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/16/cosmetics-giant-revlon-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection.html
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17) Russian GRU spy tried to infiltrate International Criminal Court
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"A deep-cover Russian spy tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC), the security service of the Netherlands says. The man used the name Viktor Muller Ferreira and pretended to be Brazilian but was refused entry as he arrived to start work in the Netherlands. Authorities say his real name is Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov and he is a spy for the GRU -- Russian military intelligence. The man is said to have spent years building a fake identity, before applying for an internship the ICC in The Hague. The Dutch security agency, the AIVD, said if he had been successful in taking up the position and infiltrate the organisation, he could have done real damage." (06/16/22)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61831961
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18) Tunisia: Regime workers strike, signaling national crisis
Source: ABC News
"A nationwide public sector strike in Tunisia is poised to paralyze land and air transportation and other vital activities Thursday with the North African nation already in the midst of a deteriorating economic crisis. Tunisia's powerful General Labour Union (UGTT) announced the walkout, which was expected to include 159 state enterprises, on the basis of pressing social and economic demands. The union is demanding wage increases and protesting the government's planned economic reforms. ... President Kais Saied's government unveiled plans last week to cut its massive public wage bill and said it would progressively reduce energy and food subsidies starting next year." (06/16/22)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/public-workers-strike-tunisia-signaling-national-crisis-85432263
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19) Brazil: Amazon fisherman confesses to killing missing men
Source: SFGate
"A fisherman confessed to killing a British journalist and an Indigenous expert in Brazil's remote Amazon region and took police to a site where human remains were recovered, a federal investigator said after a grim 10-day search for the missing pair. Authorities said Wednesday that they expected to make more arrests in the case of freelance reporter Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira of Brazil, who disappeared June 5. None had been made as of Thursday, but police said searches for the boat the two had used were about to restart. They gave no immediate explanation of a motive for the killing, but earlier suggested that Pereira's work to stop illegal fishing in an Indigenous reserve had angered local fishermen." (06/16/22)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Police-Amazon-fisherman-confesses-to-killing-17245139.php
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20) Court documents in Proud Boys case detail plans to occupy Capitol
Source: United Press International
"Court documents filed in federal court Wednesday in the case against extremist group Proud Boys detailed plans to occupy buildings at the on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, for what it called 'free and fair elections.' The nine-page document was filed as part of a recent motion made by one of Enrique Tarrio's co-defendants. Tarrio, 38, and four others were indicted last week on seditious conspiracy charges in the attack. ... The document, which was given to Tarrio, includes lists and maps showing targeted buildings where 'the goal is to ensure there is an entry point for the masses to rush the building.'" (06/15/22)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/15/capitol-attack-document-plans-1776-returns-proud-boys-Enrique-Tarrio/9441655339302/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Free Exchange Is Win-Win
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
"In the marketplace, profits come from voluntary exchange, which requires that buyers and sellers freely choose to transact business. Why would they do that? They do it because each party expects to benefit -- to be made better off -- by giving up something they own for something that they would rather own. This is clear with barter, but it's equally true when one party trades money. Money, a medium of exchange, expands the opportunity for exchange by enabling people to get what they want even when they don't have the particular items that their available trading partners want. When Smith trades a sum of money to Jones to acquire shoes, Smith demonstrates that he prefers those shoes to anything else he might have feasibly used the money for, including holding on to it. Jones demonstrates the opposite preference." (06/17/22)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2022/06/tgif-free-exchange-is-win-win.html
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22) Mike Pence Could Have (And Should Have) Invoked the 25th Amendment on January 6
Source: The Daily Beast
by Andy Craig
"'Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets,' according to Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair. 'But Mike Pence did each of those things.' That's a remarkable claim, not just about former President Donald Trump's dereliction of duty, which was already fairly apparent. It also shows that in the midst of a violent constitutional crisis, then-Vice President Mike Pence flatly usurped the president's constitutional authority without following the proper procedures for doing so. And the rest of the government, including the military, appears to have gone along with it. ... His actions amount to invoking the 25th Amendment in practice but not in name, with none of the legitimacy and transparency the amendment was intended to create." (06/16/22)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pence-could-have-and-should-have-invoked-the-25th-amendment-on-jan-6
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23) More Bad News for the Mask Cult
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Scott Morefield
"Unless you're visiting a medical facility still taken in by the mask-cult or you live in a big city or some obscure California county run by hypochondriac Democrat whack-jobs, you're probably generally living your life without being forced to wear a useless, bacteria-laden piece of t-shirt material over your face. However, if your overlords have gone out of their way to clarify that mask mandates have only been lifted because Covid rates have gone down ... they are purposefully missing the overall picture and slyly holding on to the pretext that will invite the insanity back at any point -- that masks 'work' to stop or curb the spread of highly contagious respiratory viruses. Thankfully, the tide is turning. Key research and data gathering is being conducted and released that continue to put a stake in the heart of forced masking. Here's a sampling of the latest ..." (06/16/22)
https://brownstone.org/articles/more-bad-news-for-the-mask-cult/
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24) The Mainstream Worldview Is Self-Evidently Bullshit
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"They've lied about every war, and they've openly acknowledged lying about this very war, but you're a Kremlin agent if you say they're lying to us about this war. ... The mainstream worldview is self-evidently bullshit. If our media and education systems were telling us the truth about the world and our 'democratic' systems actually worked, our society would be arranged to serve the interests of the many rather than an elite few. You can tell the mainstream worldview is bullshit just by looking at its fruits. We're killing our biosphere to serve an economic system that's creating greater and greater inequality while wars rage and nuclear brinkmanship threatens to wipe us all out and corruption rules the earth. The world is as it is because the way the majority of people in the most influential nations think, act and vote is being continuously manipulated by the powerful, for the powerful." (06/17/22)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/17/the-mainstream-worldview-is-self-evidently-bullshit-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
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25) Trump's "Big Lie" Was Also a Big Grift
Source: The Nation
by Elie Mystal
"On Monday, the January 6 Select Committee revealed that former president of the United States Donald J. Trump may have committed wire and mail fraud, to the tune of $250 million. The committee alleged that Trump and his campaign sent out fundraising letters asking people to donate to the 'Official Election Defense Fund.' But, as the committee's chief investigative counsel, Amanda Wick, said in video testimony, 'no such fund existed.' The money Trump raised was instead funneled to a Trump leadership PAC and other Trump-adjacent organizations, the committee claimed. ... Every single state attorney general in the country now has cause to investigate Trump and his campaign for fraud. That includes Republican attorneys general in Trump-leaning states. I know they won't, but it's worth remembering that Trump's apparent crime was to fleece Republican voters. He did this to his own people." (06/16/22)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-mail-fraud/
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26) Graph of the Day: Public Transit on the Rocks
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Davis Hunt
"Around the nation, public transit ridership continues to stay well below pre-pandemic levels. Nationally, transit ridership in April 2022 was 58.7 percent of April 2019. Driving, flying, and even train travel via Amtrak have all recovered nicely by comparison. New York City carries 30% of the entire nation's transit riders, and though their recovery has advanced at a better clip than other cities, it's still only back to 64% of pre-pandemic levels. With reduced revenues, it's likely we'll begin to see transit services beg for more subsidies. In San Francisco (where ridership is only back to 56% of what it was pre-pandemic) a proposed $400 million bill to modernize MUNI just failed a public vote. In Nashville, we've only recovered 30.9% of pre-pandemic bus riders even as routes have expanded ..." (06/16/22)
https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/no-276-all-the-gossip-thats-fit-to-print/
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27) A predictable outcome of January 6 hearings: Opinions about Trump won't change
Source: The Hill
by Bernard Goldberg
"It's a safe bet that hard-core Democrats will come out of the hearings with the same opinions they had when they went in -- that Donald Trump tried to stage a coup and overthrow a legitimate presidential election. As for hard-core Republicans, no matter how damning the evidence and testimony against Trump, they won't be swayed. As I say, both sides predictably rush to their corners and put up walls to keep the other side out. But not everyone is hard core when it comes to politics. There still are swing voters out there, moderates who vote Republican sometimes and Democrat at other times. What they see on TV may influence how they vote. They're up for grabs." (06/16/22)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3524685-a-predictable-outcome-of-jan-6-hearings-opinions-about-trump-wont-change/
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28) What Kind of Education do Lotteries Fund?
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Laura Williams
"For at least 350 years, economists and (other) cynics have told each other that the lottery is a tax on stupidity. More accurately, modern American lotteries are a voluntary tax paid by those who fail to understand statistics, or who are willing to suspend critical thinking. State-run lotteries were marketed to the public as a means to fund 'educational opportunities' via supplemental revenue for public education. But buyers of lottery tickets are overwhelmingly those who were failed by that system." (06/16/22)
https://www.aier.org/article/what-kind-of-education-do-lotteries-fund/
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29) Interview: Welcome to a Science-Fiction Planet
Source: TomDispatch
by David Barsamian & Noam Chomsky
"DAVID BARSAMIAN: Let's head into the most obvious nightmare of this moment, the war in Ukraine and its effects globally. But first a little background. Let's start with President George H.W. Bush's assurance to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move 'one inch to the east' -- and that pledge has been verified. My question to you is, why didn't Gorbachev get that in writing? NOAM CHOMSKY: He accepted a gentleman's agreement, which is not that uncommon in diplomacy. Shake-of-the-hand. Furthermore, having it on paper would have made no difference whatsoever. Treaties that are on paper are torn up all the time. What matters is good faith. And in fact, H.W. Bush, the first Bush, did honor the agreement explicitly." (06/16/22)
https://tomdispatch.com/welcome-to-a-science-fiction-planet/
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30) Day of Reckoning for Federal Spending, Debt, and Inflation?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
"Do you recall all those 'debates' over the federal debt ceiling that have taken place over the past 30 years? Every time the debt ceiling came up, here at FFF we said, 'Don't raise the debt ceiling. Force the feds to live within their means. No more debt.' Every time, we have been drowned out by statist commentators within the mainstream press who, like Chicken Little, have consistently cried, 'Raise the debt ceiling one more time! If you don't, the sky will fall in on us! Just one more time!' ... After each time, they have continued spending money like there was no tomorrow, knowing that they could make the same Chicken Little arguments for raising the debt ceiling the next time." (06/16/22)
https://www.fff.org/2022/06/16/day-of-reckoning-for-federal-spending-debt-and-inflation/
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31) US Treasury Secretary Admits She Was Wrong About Inflation Prospects
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
"According to the Financial Times June 1, 2022, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary conceded she was wrong last year about the path inflation would take. ... To be able to say something meaningful about inflation, it is necessary to establish what inflation is all about. Note that for Yellen inflation is about the growth rate in the consumer price index, which year-on-year stood at 8.3% in April against 4.2% in April the year before. We suggest that increases in the prices of goods and services is not inflation but rather the symptoms of inflation. To establish the definition of inflation it is helpful to go back in time to ascertain how it originated." (06/16/22)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2022/06/us-treasury-secretary-admits-she-was-wrong-about-inflation-prospects/
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32) Why is everything so bad right now?
Source: Fox News Forum
by Greg Gutfeld
"All right. But we're also going to try something out here. We're breaking new ground. It's time for. Scratch and sniff monologues. This has never been done, and probably for good reason. But it's true. At any moment, you, dear viewers, will be asked to scratch the TV screen when an image appears. And then you have to guess what that image smells like. ... So let's go to the first one. [Hunter Biden shown] ... There you go. The scratch and sniff. ... Smell your fingers. What's that smell like? What's that about? Now, if you guessed Parmesan cheese, you win. Disgusting. ... According to new leaked audio obtained by The Washington Examiner. Hunter claims his dad viewed him as a god. And if that's not an argument for atheism, what is?" (06/16/22)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/greg-gutfeld-everything-so-bad
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33) Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson's State House Speech
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Bob Fiedler
"On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention, finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. The Anti-Federalists wasted no time in denouncing the document. The first stand-alone counterattack against the anti-federalists took place in Philadelphia on October 6, 1787, when James Wilson delivered his 'State House Speech.' Anti-federalist opponents of ratification took up their pens to counter the arguments Wilson made in his speech. Some believe Tench Coxe used the penname 'A Democratic Federalist,' though this essay bears little resemblance to anything known to have been authored by him. While the identity of the author is still debatable, what is not debatable is the author's uncanny ability to look to legal theory and history to illustrate some of the deep flaws in Wilson's argument." (06/16/22)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2022/06/16/anti-federalists-strike-back-two-responses-to-james-wilsons-state-house-speech/
-----
34) Biden's Budget Deficit Victory Lap Is Unearned and Unjustified
Source: The American Spectator
by Veronique de Rugy
"President Joe Biden is taking victory laps for last year's reduced budget deficit. No one would be happier than me to see this number fall in a significant way. But the decline has nothing to do with the president's policies, and it changes little about the dangers of our fiscal situation." (06/16/22)
https://spectator.org/bidens-budget-deficit-victory-lap-is-unearned-and-unjustified/
-----
35) The Hidden Driver of High Gas Prices
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
"At this point, it is hard to disentangle overall inflation from surging gas prices. Last week, the national average rose above $5 a gallon for the first time in U.S. history, and it should only increase, given the summer driving season. Gasoline alone accounted for about 20 percent of inflation in May, and fuel also factors into the transportation costs of virtually every good. Many explanations can be offered for the spike, from generalized inflation to post-pandemic supply disruptions to Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the unwillingness of Wall Street to invest in domestic production after severe losses in the past. But President Biden has now correctly pointed out a different driver: a lack of refinery capacity." (06/16/22)
https://prospect.org/environment/hidden-driver-of-high-gas-prices/
-----
36) Beyond Revenge, What Does Jane's Revenge Want?
Source: The Intercept
by Judith Levine
"When I read that a group calling itself Jane's Revenge had firebombed anti-abortion 'crisis pregnancy centers' in Madison, Wisconsin, Des Moines, Iowa, and other locations from Washington state to Washington, D.C., my first thought was: What the fuck? Was this a false flag? Who but the extreme right, which had looked the other way while its terrorist armies murdered abortion providers, would besmirch the name of Jane, the Chicago collective that provided over 11,000 safe, illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade? ... Or was Jane's Revenge a first -- the anarcho-feminist descendant of the Weather Underground .... The threat Jane's Revenge scrawled on the walls of the wrecked buildings -- If abortion isn't safe, you aren't either -- only increased my dread. Was this the next step toward a Hobbesian war of all against all?" (06/16/22)
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/16/janes-revenge-abortion-rights/
-----
37) The Chill on Campus
Source: The Atlantic
by Yascha Mounk
"According to one recent study by the Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit devoted to promoting viewpoint diversity, almost all students believe passionately in the need for an open culture of debate. About nine out of every 10 students agreed that 'colleges should encourage students and professors to be open to learning from people whose beliefs differ from their own.' Nearly as many believe that 'colleges should welcome students and professors with a lot of different points of view.' So, as I've found, the appetite for debate remains strong. But the same study also reflects the impression I got from talking with countless students: Although they are keen to discuss big ideas, many fear doing so." (06/16/22)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/campus-free-speech-self-censorship/661282/
-----
38) It's Adam Smith's Birthday!
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Eamonn Butler
"Well, sort of. We know when his birth was registered at the local church in 1723, and it's likely that he was born a couple of days earlier. Then you need to add on a few days for the calendar change that happened in 1750, and you get 16 June. Which is why some enterprising group has christened this 'Liberalism Day.'" (06/16/22)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/its-adam-smiths-birthday-1
-----
39) When will we accept the reality of a new multipolar world?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by John Wight
"In his estimable book, 'The New Silk Roads,' Peter Frankopan makes the salient point that 'the decisions being made in today's world that really matter are not being made in Paris, London, Berlin or Rome -- as they were a hundred years ago -- but in Beijing, Moscow, in Tehran and Riyadh, in Delhi and Islamabad, in Kabul and in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan, in Ankara, Damascus and Jerusalem.' ... In the West, particularly when it comes to London and Washington, hysteria and panic has colonized their respective ruling establishments, made up of men and women who are no longer able to comprehend a world that is shifting beneath their feet." (06/16/22)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/06/16/when-will-we-accept-the-reality-of-a-new-multipolar-world/
-----
40) They Even Dislike Joe In Biden Country
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
"I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week in Joe Biden's playground. No, not his vacant head, but Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Honestly, it was glorious. The wife and I took the kids and the in-laws here to have fun in the sand and at Funland (If you don't know what Funland is and you have young kids, find out here and either make the trip or find a similar place near you). Walking down the busy boardwalk you can't help but notice something: the people who live here don't like the Joe Biden any more than people anywhere else in the country. ... I didn't see one pro-Biden anything down there. I'm sure there were pro-Biden bumper stickers, who looks at bumper stickers when they're walking?" (06/16/22)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2022/06/16/they-even-dislike-joe-in-biden-country-n2608783
-----
41) Your Grandkids Will Care About the January 6 Hearings, Even if You Don't
Source: The Daily Beast
by Anthony L Fisher
"The Jan. 6 Committee hearings will not move the needle of public opinion even one inch in 2022. But should this country ever recover from its present state of constant anxiety and hysterical tumult, there's a chance the evidence produced at these hearings will be of tremendous value to future generations. ... They're not about Jan. 6, they're about Trump's Big Lie and attempted coup. And they're not about 2022 politics, they're about the future." (06/16/22)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/your-grandkids-will-care-about-the-jan-6-hearings-even-if-you-dont
-----
42) Why It's Hard To Take America's Word on the Summit of the Americas
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
"President Biden has made the battle between autocracy and democracy a theme of his presidency. He invoked that theme again last week to explain to Latin America and the world why Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were cut from the list of nations invited to the US hosted Summit of the Americas. The State Department explained that 'It's the president's decision, but I think the president has been very clear about the presence of countries that by their actions do not respect democracy -- they will not receive invitations.' But by Biden's actions, it is difficult to take the US at its word that the Summit snubs were about democracy. ... it is in Latin America that the US has least respected democracy. There is hardly a country in the region that has not been crushed by a US coup. Despite his Manichean rhetoric, that pragmatism has remained true in Biden's time." (06/16/22)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2022/06/15/why-its-hard-to-take-americas-word-on-the-summit-of-the-americas/
-----
43) What happened to good news?
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
"Last year, Matt Yglesias did a post suggesting that all news is bad news. Allowing for hyperbole, I think that's roughly true. But I recall a time when it was not true, when much of the news was good. To be fair, Yglesias is mostly considering a certain type of popular headline news, which has always been dominated by bad events. There have always been many more stories of houses that burned down than houses that did not burn down. But today, even the more intellectual news sources are dominated by bad news. That was not true in the 1980s and 1990s." (06/16/22)
https://www.econlib.org/what-happened-to-good-news/
-----
44) The strategic incoherence of copying North Korea
Source: Orange County Register
by Bonnie Kristian
"North Korea's test-fire of eight short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean this month was in many ways utterly ordinary. The Kim Jong Un regime has launched missiles 18 times in 2022, an average of one round every nine days, and short-range missiles have been a favorite of the isolated totalitarian state in recent years. Also standard was the test's timing one day after joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises in the Philippine Sea. ... Not so ordinary was Washington's response to the test. The day after, the U.S. and South Korea fired eight missiles of their own into the sea. While it was supposed to demonstrate 'readiness,' per a statement from Seoul, this move encapsulates the incoherence of U.S. policy toward North Korea and its nuclear arms. ... North Korea knows we're ready. What could firing eight missiles into the sea add here?" (06/16/22)
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/06/16/the-strategic-incoherence-of-copying-north-korea/
-----
45) Before Wokeness, There Was "Political Correctness"
Source: In These Times
by staff
"Leftists and conservatives have often found common ground in their antipathy toward political correctness, from the 'dirtbag Left' (and its critiques of 'woke' capitalism) to the new Compact magazine (a social-democratic rag with a conservative co-founder). Back in 1992, Barbara Epstein was making a leftist case against PC culture. A professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and editorial board member of the Socialist Revolution and the Socialist Review, Epstein worried a fear of speaking out of line would weaken the movement for progressive change, arguing that 'political correctness' stifles classroom conversations and establishes a moral status based on subordination -- a superficial stand-in for radical politics." (06/16/22)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/wokeness-political-correctness-dirtbag-left-capitalism-pc-cancel-identity-politics
-----
46) For Presidents, Unpopularity Is a Simple PR Problem. Biden Is No Exception
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
"When the United States in 1982 was mired in the worst recession since the end of World War II, supporters of President Ronald Reagan were sure that they had the answer: just let Reagan be Reagan. Conservative friends of mine wore 'Let Reagan Be Reagan' buttons to show that the problem at hand wasn't the fact that the economy, fueled by massive inflation, was in the middle of a much-needed and inevitable correction. No, it was a PR problem. ... the 'real Reagan' never was unleashed, but his presidency was saved by a recovery fueled in part by major deregulation initiatives that had come from Reagan's predecessor, Jimmy Carter. ... fast-forward to the presidency of Joe Biden .... none of this is Biden's fault, according to the White House inner circles. No, the fault is in those White House handlers who refuse to proclaim the Mighty Works of Joe Biden." (06/16/22)
https://mises.org/wire/presidents-unpopularity-simple-pr-problem-biden-no-exception
-----
47) Unthinkable Rhetoric: Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine War
Source: CounterPunch
by Ray Acheson
"The words and actions of Putin and other Russian officials have elevated the risks and dangers of nuclear war back into mainstream consciousness. But the threat of nuclear weapons is not limited to the Russian government. Eight other governments -- those of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom and the United States -- also possess nuclear weapons, and US nuclear bombs are stored on the territory of five other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members -- Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey. Each and every one of these bombs is a threat to peace and security." (06/16/22)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/16/unthinkable-rhetoric-nuclear-weapons-and-the-ukraine-war/
-----
48) The Coffee Connection
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"The great thing about a coffee maker with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is that you can set things up with a few taps on your smartphone. Brewing times, strength, temperature, etc., can all be arranged without ever having to trudge from bedroom to kitchen. The horrible thing, though -- in addition to the slim possibility that a hacker will take your coffee machine hostage -- is that a Wi-Fi-capable coffee maker made in China may be spying on you on behalf of the Chinazi government. This is the conclusion of Christopher Balding, a researcher who finds evidence that coffee machines manufactured by Kalerm in Jiangsu, China, collect a diverse array of data." (06/16/22)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2022/06/16/the-coffee-connection/
-----
49) Fifty Years Later, the Motive Behind Watergate Remains Clouded
Source: Reason
by Glenn Garvin
"One strange thing about Watergate, the scandal that led Richard Nixon to resign as president, is that 50 years later we still don't know who ordered the core crime or why. This was the crime: On June 17, 1972, a squad of five bagmen, all with at least past connections to the CIA, broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the Watergate office building. ... Even Nixon administration figures who ended up doing time in prison due to the shock waves from that peculiar break-in, such as former White House counsel John Dean, former special counsel Chuck Colson, and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, never seemed to understand themselves the whys behind the scandal that ended up with them disgraced and imprisoned." (for publication 07/22)
https://reason.com/2022/06/16/the-weird-world-of-watergate/
-----
50) What the January 6 Committee Might Have Been
Source: Town Hall
by Victor Davis Hanson
"Congress should investigate fully the January 6 riot at the Capitol -- and similar recent riots at iconic federal sites. But unfortunately, it never will. Why not? The current committee is not bipartisan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., forbade Republican nominees traditionally selected by the House minority leader to serve on the committee. No speaker had ever before rejected the minority party's nominees to a select House committee. Pelosi's own cynical criteria for Republican participation was twofold: Any willing minority Republican members had to have voted to impeach former President Donald Trump while having no realistic chance of being reelected in 2022. ... A real investigation would have ignited argumentation, cross-examination, and disagreements. ... In contrast, the January 6 show trial features no dissenting views. Its subtext was right out of the Soviet minister of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's credo: 'Show me the man and I'll show you the crime.'" (06/16/22)
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2022/06/16/what-the-january-6-committee-might-have-been-n2608827
-----
51) The Elite Press Remains The Handmaid Of War
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter
"Far too often, the elite U.S. press has been a reliable mouthpiece for Washington's dubious foreign policies. That was true during the Cold War, except for a brief period of disillusionment and dissent once the Vietnam War became such an obvious debacle. That period of more vigorous scrutiny and skepticism did not last long, however. When George H. W. Bush launched his drive for U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait ... elite outlets were fully on board with that agenda, as their shamelessly biased treatment of the relevant issues confirmed. That pro-interventionist bias became even more flagrant .... There was very little daylight between the official U.S. government positions on those issues and the dominant media narratives. A similar pattern has emerged with press coverage of the war in Ukraine." (06/16/22)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-media-plays-lapdog-for-the-national-security-state/
-----
52) High Gas Prices Do Not Stop Traffic
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Froma Harrop
"It's easy to find people who say gas prices will keep them from driving. They're on the roads. That is an early hint that the 'crisis' of high prices at the pump is less dramatic than the testimonials make it. And if history is any guide, it is temporary. Florida is seeing a record number of tourists. They are driving, and they are flying in, having bought air tickets made extra expensive by the high cost of jet fuel. The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, expects travel this season to match or even exceed the pre-pandemic levels. And Florida is surely not alone. ... A recent Longwoods International Travel Sentiment study has two-thirds of American drivers saying that higher gas prices would factor into their decision about traveling the next six months. But only 6% of those surveyed said they are actually canceling trips because of it." (06/15/22)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/06/16/high_gas_prices_do_not_stop_traffic_147748.html
-----
53) Markets Must Have Their Day of Reckoning
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Dan Sanchez
"A worse-than-expected inflation report released Friday spooked the Federal Reserve into contemplating steeper-than-expected interest rate hikes on Monday. That in turn spooked traders into a stock sell-off, driving the S&P 500 into a bear market that same day. And that in turn is spooking everyone about the prospect of an imminent recession. And the Fed just confirmed investor fears when it 'approved the largest interest rate increase since 1994 and signaled it would continue lifting rates this year at the most rapid pace in decades ...' as The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Scary as the prospect may be, the economy is long overdue for a crash. And the more we postpone that Day of Reckoning, the worse it will be." (06/15/22)
https://fee.org/articles/markets-must-have-their-day-of-reckoning/
-----
54) We're Here To Become As Conscious As Possible
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"If there is a purpose of human life, as near as I can tell from these severely limited sense organs and this very limited brain, it's to become as conscious as possible. If you were given a video game to play without knowing anything about it, one of the first things you'd probably try to work out is what the objective is. How do you do well in the game? What do you need to do to move from this part of the game to the next part? How do you win? If you didn't receive any instructions, you'd probably try to deduce the game's objective by seeing what actions make things better for the character you're controlling on the screen." (06/16/22)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/16/were-here-to-become-as-conscious-as-possible/
-----
55) Beyond NIMBY vs. YIMBY -- How Current Homeowners Can Benefit from Zoning Deregulation
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
"Rapidly increasing housing costs over the last few months underscore the need for zoning reform. By breaking down regulatory barriers to new housing construction, we can greatly reduce the cost of housing and also enable large numbers of people to move to places where there are better job and educational opportunities. We can also empower more people to 'vote with their feet' for state and local government policies that best fit their needs. But zoning reform is often stymied by fears that it is inimical to the interests of current homeowners." (06/15/22)
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/06/15/beyond-nimby-vs-yimby-how-current-homeowners-can-benefit-from-zoning-deregulation/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) Free Talk Live, 06/16/22
Source: Free Talk Live
"Over 50% of Americans Believe US Democracy to End :: Civil War Coming? :: Mark says Move! :: Cities and Dating :: Housing Prices to Fall? :: The Resolve :: Second Amendment :: Texas Takeover? :: El Salvador :: Mises Caucus :: Free State Project :: Show: 2022-06-16 Ian, Mark, Bonnie." [Flash audio or MP3] (06/16/22)
https://freetalklive.com/archives?ppplayer=5c48425a5422918dc6f904bd1cb7e00f&ppepisode=c0203b43ccce935381a5d9b15d6cb73e
-----
57) The Chris Spangle Show, 06/15/22
Source: We Are Libertarians
"What Will Happen if We Cancel Student Loan Debt?" [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://wearelibertarians.com/css-what-will-happen-if-we-cancel-student-loan-debt/
-----
58) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/16/22
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"NATO Summit Demands: More Weapons For Ukraine!" [Flash video] (06/16/22)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/nato-summit-demands-more-weapons-for-ukraine
-----
59) Rising, 06/16/22
Source: The Hill
"Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave debate whether Covid-19 is truly unavoidable in light of Dr. Fauci's recent positive test." [Flash video] (06/16/22)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/3525951-rising-june-16-2022/
-----
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 06/16/22
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
"Congress seems to be under the spell of the 'do something' siren song. Should they pass red flag legislation, John & Nisha Whitehead warn that it will put a target on the back of every American." [various formats] (06/16/22)
https://anchor.fm/bryan-hyde/episodes/2022-June-16-The-Bryan-Hyde-Show-e1k1do1
-----
61) Finding Freedom, episode 337
Source: Lions of Liberty
"Entrepreneurship and the Fight for Freedom with Clay Clark." [various formats] (06/16/22)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/entrepreneurship-and-the-fight-for-freedom-with-clay-clark
-----
62) Part Of the Problem, 06/16/22
Source: GaS Digital Network
"The Economy Is Crashing And Nobody Cares." [MP3] (06/16/22)
https://chrt.fm/track/9C8FAD/pdst.fm/e/rss.art19.com/episodes/7414b678-8ddf-4e98-83a8-89a2cd652b4b.mp3
-----
63) The Science of Politics, 06/15/22
Source: Niskanen Center
"Did the Birchers win after all?" [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/did-the-birchers-win-after-all/
-----
64) Reason Interview: Robert Breedlove
Source: Reason
"The self-described freedom maximalist explains why he isn't put off bitcoin by its decline since last November." [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://reason.com/podcast/2022/06/15/robert-breedlove-just-follow-the-energy-on-bitcoin-not-the-price/
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65) Conflicts of Interest, episode 289
Source: Libertarian Institute
"Ukraine Suffering Significant Losses, Zelensky Pledges to Push War Forward." [various formats] (06/15/22)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-289-ukraine-suffering-signiant-losses-zelensky-pledges-to-push-war-forward/
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