“A woman who previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop, according to a Politico report released Monday, leading prominent supporters to pull their endorsements and throwing a must-win race for the party into turmoil. Platner denied the allegation, but said he would be considering next steps for his campaign. … Platner won the Democratic nomination last month, setting himself up to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has beaten back previous attempts to dislodge her from the seat that she’s held for nearly three decades. Although Platner has long been controversial, the sexual allegation sparked a flight away from the candidate, who canceled a handful of town hall events.” (07/07/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“Thomas Paine did not sign any of the founding documents, either the Declaration or the Constitution. … He was not a member of the Continental Congress. He never held political office at any level. His only military experience was as an aide-de-camp for Major General Nathanael Greene. Thomas Paine was ‘a man who had failed as a skilled craftsman, as a teacher, as a shopkeeper, as a street preacher, as a petty customs official in the Excise, dismissed more than once and a sometime debtor and bankrupt.’ In short, a nobody. At his death in 1809 he was one of the most despised people in the country. Yet, without Thomas Paine, America might have become like Canada—a self-governing dominion under the Crown rather than an independent republic. Without Paine, we don’t get Common Sense and his clarion call for independence from England.” (07/06/26)
“Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Omsk refinery, the country’s largest and located deep in Siberia, in what would be one of the longest-ranged Ukrainian strikes since the beginning of the war, Kyiv’s military said on Monday, with local Russian authorities also confirming a strike. In a statement, Ukraine’s General Staff said that the strike had caused a fire at the Omsk refinery, which is located around 2,700 km (1,700 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory and close to Russia’s border with Kazakhstan. … Aside from Omsk, Ukraine’s military overnight hit Russia’s Ust-Luga and Vysotsk ports, which handle oil exports on the Baltic Sea, as well as targets in the Kaluga and Yaroslavl regions, local governors said. In Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014, one woman was killed in a strike on the port of Kerch, Russian-installed authorities said. Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city, suffered a blackout, they said.” (07/06/26)
“The official line remains the same: The 10-month campaign of strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has nearly stopped the flow of drugs by sea into the United States. In December, President Trump boasted about a 92 percent drop in seaborne shipments. Last month, in an apparent sign of further progress, he said the decline was up to 97.2 percent. But government officials and agencies closest to the action, at sea and on America’s streets, tell a different story. In hearings, official reports, and interviews they have all but given up the pretense that the campaign has succeeded in reducing the flow of drugs into the U.S., even as 221 people have been killed in more than 60 strikes. … street prices for cocaine in the United States have plummeted, the opposite of what would be expected if smugglers were being deterred.” (07/06/26)
“Every generation experiences the same fear: technology is going to permanently displace workers. The spinning jenny was supposed to idle England’s textile workers. The steam engine would hollow out the trades. Electricity would render physical labor unnecessary. The computer and the Internet would finish the job of ending work. Now, artificial intelligence models have assumed the role of civilization-ending technology, and the doomsayers are back at their posts. This time, however, some of the loudest alarms are coming from the inside.” (07/06/26)
“EasyJet has agreed to be acquired by U.S. private equity firm Castlelake in a deal that values the U.K. budget airline at £5 billion ($6.7 billion). EasyJet’s board of directors and Castlelake said on Sunday they had reached an agreement in principle after the carrier had previously rejected four earlier bids from the firm. EasyJet shares jumped nearly 10% Monday on the London Stock Exchange. … EasyJet, whose main U.K. hub is London Gatwick Airport, was founded in 1995 by entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and grew quickly on the strength of its no-frills, low-cost flights around Europe. Recently, the carrier has faced challenges, including soaring jet fuel costs stemming from the Iran war, that have cut into airline profits.” (07/06/26)
“The U.S. Constitution is our secular society’s most revered text. It is the bedrock on which the republic was built. It has generally served us well for the last 237 years. Changing it is like trying to rewrite the Ten Commandments. More than 11,000 amendments have been proposed since 1791, when the Bill of Rights was added. Only 17 have been ratified. This anniversary year is a time to celebrate how far America has come and to ask a direct question: Is the Constitution still fit for purpose?” (07/06/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Douglas Carswell
“Perhaps it is not so much the party of those we send to Congress or to our state legislature that counts. Perhaps what matters more is that so many of the decisions about how your money is spent are made in the dark. Setting a budget is complicated. The data might exist. Some of it might even be public. But it sits squirreled away on a spreadsheet somewhere, and you would need a CPA to make sense of it. Frankly, most folk do not have the time. But what if technology could suddenly take all that data and build something that makes it easy to see? Easy to see who gets your tax dollars, and what they do with them once they have them.” (07/06/26)
“Tanzanian authorities arrested dozens of people ahead of planned anti-government protests, part of a crackdown on calls demanding democratic reforms and the release of a key opposition figure. Sylvester Mangure, the army spokesperson, warned Sunday against any demonstrations, following last week’s government ban on political rallies. He also accused ‘some people,’ whom he didn’t identify, of ‘recruiting youth’ to join the protests as they claimed the country’s army supported the planned demonstrations. Young people have called for protests on Tuesday, coinciding with the 72nd anniversary of the ruling party’s establishment, to demand democratic changes and the release of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who was arrested on treason charges after calling for electoral reforms ahead of last year’s general election.” (07/06/26)
