So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 06/17/26
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
“Stress-testing the limits of the First Amendment w/ Chaz Stevens.” (06/17/26)
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
Iran war: Trump, Pezeshkian sign instrument of US surrender
Source: CNBC
“President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday digitally signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing a permanent peace deal to end the war between their two nations, officials said. … Trump signed the MOU before a dinner in Versailles, France, with French President Emmanuel Macron, France’s first lady Brigitte Macron, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others, according to a video posted online by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.” (06/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/17/trump-vance-iran-deal-nuclear-g7.html
Tariff Math Doesn’t Work, and the White House Already Admitted It
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Clement
“The Trump Administration’s initial demand for renegotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) includes an opening position that vehicles covered by the deal be composed of at least 50 percent American-made components, in terms of dollar value. It’s a revealing concession, because if the goal is truly to manufacture everything in America, the threshold would be 100 percent, not 50 percent. As it turns out, executive orders cannot unwind a global economy. The White House’s concession should jump-start a more honest accounting of what their tariffs actually are: a consumption tax, paid by American households, spread across nearly every goods-producing sector in the economy.” (06/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/tariff-math-doesnt-work-and-the-white-house-already-admitted-it/
FL: US regime transfers abductees out of “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that all immigrant [abductees] have been transferred out of a Florida [concentration camp] known as Alligator Alcatraz, effectively shuttering the controversial facility. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that everyone being held in the state-run facility had been transferred out, citing concerns about the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. … reports of its impending closure had intensified for months. Several anonymous officials told The New York Times in May that the isolated facility, located inside Florida’s Big Cypress Natural Preserve, was too costly to maintain.” (06/18/26)
Find better solutions without government
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“I hear a lot of people saying the community should have this or that. Or pointing out things they believe should be improved. But they always seem to want government, or at least someone else, to provide what they want or to fix their problems. If you have complaints about the community, don’t wait for government to fix them. See what you can do for yourself, maybe with help from others, with or without government permission. Government wants you to depend on it for solutions, but its solutions can be worse than the original problem.” (06/17/26)
Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady but leaves door open to hike
Source: CBS News
“The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rate unchanged amid resurgent inflation, but nearly half of its policymakers said they would support a rate hike later this year. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept the federal funds rate, which affects borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, in its current range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Economists had widely expected the central bank to keep rates steady. … The central bank’s previous forecast, issued in March, forecast that the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, would end the year at an annual rate of 2.7%. But in today’s forecast, the FOMC members are penciling in inflation rising to an annualized 3.6% by year-end.” (06/17/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fed-meeting-fomc-today-kevin-warsh-interest-rates/
Trump Bump Is a Welfare Increase
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“This year’s [Social Security] COLA was 2.8 percent — the fifth straight year of a COLA at or above 2.5 percent. The COLA was called a ‘Trump bump’ because Trump’s tariff increases led to increased prices on certain goods, which increased the CPI-W, which increased the COLA. Retirement analysts are expecting an even larger ‘Trump bump’ next year due to the tremendous increase in fuel prices due to Trump’s war in Iran. … These ‘Trump bumps’ are nothing more than welfare increases that will be eaten up by inflation, higher premiums for Medicare Part B (which are deducted from Social Security checks), and taxes on Social Security benefits.” (06/17/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/trump-bump-is-a-welfare-increase/
Finland: Parliament votes to lift decades-old ban on nuclear weapons
Source: Fox News
“Finland’s parliament on Wednesday voted to lift a decades-old ban on nuclear weapons, approving a major defense policy shift aimed at aligning the country more closely with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deterrence strategy. Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said a strong majority backed the amendment to the Nuclear Energy Act, calling it a ‘historic reform’ that strengthens Finland’s security and that of the alliance. … The measure repeals provisions in Finland’s 1987 Nuclear Energy Act that banned the import, production, possession and detonation of nuclear explosives. If enacted, the legislation would allow nuclear weapons to be transported, supplied or possessed in Finland where the country’s military defense requires it. … The bill now moves to the president for final approval.” (06/17/26)
The University As We Know It Is Finished
Source: Persuasion
by Nils Gilman
“Any reimagining of the university in the age of AI must begin with an honest reckoning with what AI cannot do — and what therefore becomes relatively valuable precisely because AI can do everything else. The key distinction is between work that AI does well (such as synthesis of known patterns, argument elaboration, template instantiation, and generating local coherence) and work it structurally cannot do because of the architecture of the technology as such. AI cannot build the trust on which institutional cooperation depends, because trust is not a conclusion reached by processing information about another agent but instead is a relationship constituted over time between persons who have staked something on each other, and who can be betrayed. AI cannot give a person good taste or style, because taste and style are about personal distinctiveness within a community which shares an aesthetic.” (06/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-multiversity-is-finished
South Africa: Labour Unions Urge Workers to Shun Anti-Migrant Protests
Source: US News & World Report
“South Africa’s biggest labour unions on Wednesday urged workers not to participate in anti-immigrant protests that have seized the country, and said they could face consequences if they skip work to attend. South Africa is on edge ahead of a June 30 deadline which anti-immigrant groups have given for all undocumented foreigners to leave the country. Protests and potential civil unrest are expected, after weeks of sometimes violent xenophobic attacks. Four major unions including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which represents around 2 million people, said in a statement that workers would not be protected if they do not go to work on June 30. … ‘Removing foreign nationals from workplaces, communities or public spaces will not reopen factories, repair municipalities, strengthen public healthcare or create sustainable jobs,’ said the unions COSATU, FEDUSA, SAFTU and NACTU.” (06/17/26)