Conservatives Miss the Point on Marijuana

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance

“[T]he only real argument for the legalization of marijuana is freedom. It doesn’t matter if marijuana has no medical benefits and that advocates of the legalization of medical marijuana just want to get high. Just like it doesn’t matter if using marijuana for recreational purposes is addictive, harmful, risky, unhealthy, immoral, sinful, or dangerous. It is not the business of government at any level to concern itself in any way with the eating, drinking, and smoking habits of Americans. It is not the business of the American Enterprise Institute or any other conservative think tank. It is not the business of Naomi Schaefer Riley or any other nanny-state, conservative drug warrior.” (06/03/26)

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/conservatives-miss-the-point-on-marijuana/

Crimea: Ukrainian drone strikes kill four

Source: Reuters

“Ukrainian attacks killed four people in the Russia-annexed Crimea peninsula, ‌Kremlin-installed officials in the region said on Thursday, one day after Moscow and Kyiv traded strikes on each other’s cities. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said Ukrainian forces had hit a non-residential part of Simferopol, the peninsula’s ​main administrative town, killing three people and injuring seven. Aksyonov later said on Telegram that ​one person had been killed and three wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a ⁠commuter train in eastern Crimea. Ukraine did not immediately comment.” (06/04/26)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-strikes-kill-three-russia-annexed-crimea-2026-06-04/

The Draft Is Unpopular. Registration Becomes Automatic in December Anyway.

Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille

“Americans aren’t interested in reinstating a military draft, but that’s not stopping the government from ‘streamlining’ Selective Service registration — for young men’s own good, we’re told. That’s right, the government is automating draft registration, using the excuse that it’s saving registrants from the legal peril inherent in choosing to not register. The real reason, of course, is that fewer men were voluntarily registering, and the government wants to gloss over that mass rejection by potential draftees.” (06/03/26)

https://reason.com/2026/06/03/the-draft-is-unpopular-registration-becomes-automatic-in-december-anyway/

Seven states sue Trump regime over nearly $1 billion deal to halt offshore wind farm

Source: ABC News

“Seven states are suing the Trump administration over a nearly $1 billion deal to end French energy company TotalEnergies’ offshore wind development off the East Coast, accusing the deal of being ‘unlawful.’ In March, the U.S. Department of the Interior reached a $928 million deal with TotalEnergies to halt construction of the wind farms and redirect the investment into domestic fossil fuel initiatives. … Attorneys general in seven states in the Northeast, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, alleging the Trump administration illegally used nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars for the deal. The coalition also accuses the deal of violating the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which restricts the Interior Department’s ability to cancel offshore wind leases.” (06/03/26)

https://abcnews.com/US/7-states-sue-trump-administration-1-billion-deal/story?id=133525483

Bitcoin briefly drops below $62,000 as $1.5 billion in crypto longs get wiped out

Source: CoinDesk

“Bitcoin briefly plunged below $62,000 Thursday morning Hong Kong time, triggering more than $1.5 billion in leveraged crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours as a wave of forced selling accelerated the market’s steepest decline in months. More than 208,000 traders were liquidated across crypto markets, according to CoinGlass data, with bitcoin accounting for over $800 million of the losses and ether another $386 million. The liquidation wave coincided with continued weakness in institutional demand. Investors have pulled approximately $1 billion from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs this week, according to SoSoValue data, extending the funds’ record streak of net outflows.” (06/03/26)

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/04/bitcoin-drops-below-usd62-000-as-usd1-5-billion-in-crypto-longs-get-wiped-out

Frank Kameny was fired for being gay. What he did next changed America.

Source: Expression
by James Kirchick

“Though he had been, by his own description, ‘shy and retiring’ as a young man, Kameny was ‘radicalized’ by the way his government had treated him. How could his homosexual orientation possibly affect his work as an astronomer or, as he one day hoped to be, an astronaut floating hundreds of miles away from Earth’s surface? On the contrary, it was the government that had wronged him. ‘I simply felt something had to be done,’ he recalled. And so, Kameny did what no gay man or woman in his position had yet done: He fought back.” (06/03/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/frank-kameny-was-fired-for-being

Amazon overthrows Walmart to become Fortune 500’s top company

Source: New York Post

“Amazon has overtaken Walmart to claim the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500, ending the retailer’s 13-year run at the top of the annual ranking of America’s biggest companies by revenue. The latest list, based on fiscal 2025 revenue, puts Amazon in the top spot, followed by Walmart and UnitedHealth Group. The shakeup marks the first time since 2013 that Walmart has not held the No. 1 position on the Fortune 500. Amazon generated roughly $717 billion in revenue during the most recent reporting period, narrowly surpassing Walmart’s $713 billion. UnitedHealth Group rounded out the top three with $447.6 billion in revenue.” (06/03/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/06/03/business/amazon-overthrows-walmart-to-become-fortune-500s-top-company-ending-superstores-13-year-reign-at-the-top/