Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum

“When state and local officials decline to help enforce federal firearm rules they view as unconstitutional, The New York Times says, they are adopting ‘a legally shaky but politically potent strategy’ with racist roots. But when state and local officials decline to help enforce federal immigration rules they view as ‘unjust, self-defeating and harmful to public safety,’ the Times says, they should be ‘proud’ of ‘choos[ing] not to participate in deportation crackdowns.’ That blatant double standard illustrates how policy preferences and partisan allegiances color people’s views of federalism, which they tend to endorse when it serves their purposes and reject when it doesn’t. But as Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt recently observed while defending that state’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, ‘you cannot have it both ways.'” (06/23/21)

https://reason.com/2021/06/23/the-feds-cant-compel-states-to-enforce-restrictions-on-guns-or-immigrants/

Source: Acton Institute
by Marcin Rzegocki

“Hard times require brave solutions. In times of economic hardship, it is important to look for ethical and moral solutions to address social problems and alleviate material poverty. One such example is the phenomenon of the montes pietatis, or the mounts of piety, a series of medieval Christian banking institutions that provided an innovative response to difficult times. Mounts of piety were small credit institutions conceived in late medieval Italy to support the poor in their personal and family difficulties.” (06/23/21)

https://www.acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2021/06/23/mounts-piety-case-study-christian-innovation

Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Pemberton

“Last year I predicted that as a ploy to get more support for police officers, the media would frame a defunded police force as the reason for a rising crime rate. The headlines by the same media companies who claim to be woke read daily about crime. The media intends to scare the public. But their plan has hit a hiccup. The police are the ones scared, not the public. What am I referring to? The movement by police to cancel themselves and go on leave! While this did create the shortage of cops the media fear mongered about it looks a little different when the cops walked out on their comrades.” (06/23/21)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/23/the-police-cant-be-reformed/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“The US government has shut down multiple news media websites based in the Middle East, including Iran’s state-owned Press TV, and al-Masirah TV which is owned by the Houthi group Ansarullah in Yemen. The Department of Justice said on Tuesday it had seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, claiming without evidence that they were associated with ‘either disinformation activities or violent organizations’ and were shut down for a violation of US sanctions. This would be the same US government that is imprisoning Julian Assange for journalism which exposed US war crimes, the same US government which paid for the weapons used to destroy more than 20 Palestinian media outlets in Gaza last month, the same US government whose unipolar domination of the planet is made possible by the journalism-destroying propaganda of the media-owning plutocratic class in alliance with sociopathic government agencies.” (06/23/21)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/06/23/rules-based-international-order-means-washington-based-international-order/