Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux

“Weaponization is what governments do when they intervene in the affairs of others. Not only do they weaponize trade against foreign rulers, but tariffs and other trade barriers are a weapon for a government to favor some domestic producers against domestic consumers, as well as against other domestic producers. The conflict over exports marks a return to the 17th and 18th centuries. National governments frequently restricted not only foreign imports but also foreign exports. … As economists have quipped, protectionism is what we do to ourselves that is done by foreign enemies in time of war. Of course, the ‘what we do to ourselves’ must be read as ‘what some of us do to others among us.'” (06/15/25)

https://www.econlib.org/back-to-the-seventeenth-century/

Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon

“The world’s biggest spoiled child threw himself a special-boy birthday party in the nation’s capital yesterday: A tank parade showing off all the toys of death he now controls, and a demonstration that he now controls them. So the tanks rolled down the streets, possibly damaging them on the way, past an assemblage so diminished you could hear the squeak of the wheels. Soldiers marched in what appeared to be rather desultory fashion down Constitution Avenue, lined by crowds that stood one (or in some places none) deep. … the people were elsewhere yesterday. They gathered, millions of them, in the nation’s many cities, to convey the very clear message ‘fuck the birthday boy, and fuck all his evil works.'” (06/15/25)

https://www.the-reframe.com/shows-of-weakness

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“Iran and Israel are at war, with the US already intimately involved and likely to become more so. Which of course means we’ll be spending the foreseeable future getting bashed in the face with lies from the most powerful people in the world. The most immediately obvious of these is the Netanyahu-promoted narrative that Israel initiated this conflict because Iran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon. With absolutely no self-consciousness or sense of irony, the Israeli prime minister followed the attacks with a statement accusing Iran of ‘genocidal rhetoric’ which it has backed up with ‘a program to develop nuclear weapons.’ Israel, as we all know, has an unacknowledged nuclear arsenal, and its leaders are presently committing genocide in Gaza while spouting genocidal rhetoric.” (06/15/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/06/15/we-are-of-course-being-lied-to-about-iran/

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“Occasionally I think one up. Sometimes I discover from commenters that it already exists. Nobody, so far as I know, has taken the idea and run with it, but I can always hope.” (06/14/25)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/inventions-i-would-like-to-see

Source: Fox News
by Andrew Mark Miller & Alex Miller

“Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse faced immediate blowback on Thursday in response to a social media post where he compared his Democratic colleague’s outburst at a press conference to the work of Civil Rights pioneer and late Congressman John Lewis. Shortly after Sen. Alex Padilla [D-CA] was forcibly removed and handcuffed during a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles amid anti-ICE rioting, Sen. Whitehouse posted a photo of the incident alongside a historic photo of Lewis being confronted by police officers after being attacked by a mob at a South Carolina bus station. Lewis was arrested over 40 times during the Civil Rights Movement and was a major figure during many prominent moments of the era, including the Freedom Riders, speaking at the March on Washington and participating in the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama.” (06/13/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/social-media-erupts-after-dem-senator-compares-political-stunt-civil-rights-leader-woke-insult