Source: CounterPunch
by Stephen F Eisenman

“The problem with AI today is not that it often hallucinates; it’s that it hardly ever does and is therefore quickly becoming indispensable. For the moment, it’s a shared resource, a digital commons available free to the peasants (that’s us). But every day, more of it gets enclosed so it can be put to other uses: waging war, immigration enforcement, and the capitalist exploitation of people and expropriation of nature. In the hands of the rich and powerful, AI is bringing closer the omni-surveillance world of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). The essential task therefore – for us like for the protagonists in these novels — is to turn the apparatus against the people who control it.” (06/19/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/19/my-ai-comrade/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia

“Social Security’s financing problems stem not only from an aging population but also from benefit formulas that grow more generous with each generation.” (06/19/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-hidden-driver-of-social-securitys-fiscal-crisis/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Matt K Lewis

“While it’s impossible to know whether President Trump’s ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Iran will be deemed by history to be a blip or a humiliating defeat for America (if it even holds), one thing looks increasingly clear: Israel lost. That’s not just because Israel’s archenemy has arguably emerged more dangerous than ever. It’s also because Israel repelled large swaths of the American public along the way. When I was growing up as a Christian conservative kid in the 1980s, support for Israel wasn’t so much an option as it was a law of physics. Gravity pulled things downward, taxes were too damn high, and Israel was the good guy. But those days are gone, at least in terms of public perception.” (06/19/26)

https://archive.is/E3VWY

Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan

“Surrenders are rarely as categorical as this one. We went to war with no debate, no Congressional approval, and no notice. A foreign leader, Bibi Netanyahu, chose the timing by assassinating the entire leadership of the Iranian regime, thereby making the war an existential one for the IRGC, and all but forcing the US to join in. The US subsequently displayed its full and unequaled military might, raining missiles and bombs all over the country, demanding ‘unconditional surrender.’ And the surrender, a few short months later, is ours. You can try to put some lipstick on this porcine disaster — the dead-enders are still trying — but the reality is something even the hasbarists can’t quite spin. … The silver lining, however, is that the American public never wanted this bullshit war, and saw right through it.” (06/19/26)

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/americas-suez-moment-b4d

Source: In These Times
by Hamilton Nolan

“The farther south you go on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn the more it becomes the sort of lively hectic commercial strip/​ party that exists in few places outside of New York. The new sneaker stores and roti restaurants and weird places to buy garish $200 suits and fishnet body suits sit in chipped brick buildings with slapped-up painted wooden signs and you can feel the continuity of history pulsing through, like you could close your eyes and slide right back to the cigar stores and dressmakers that filled those spots a century ago. Set amid this strip is the refurbished King’s Theater — impossibly grand inside, soaring carved wooden columns with twisting, golden wooden flowers and fleur-de-lis and rich crimson curtains dripping in gold fringe. Spectacular. Its unlikely grandeur is somehow enhanced by the fact that it’s shoved down there next to the discount liquor store and the Taco Bell Cantina.” (06/19/26)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/dsa-nyc-zohran-mamdani-bernie-sanders-socialist-slate