“Dozens of artists participating in this year’s Venice Biennale contemporary art show are threatening legal action if their names are not removed from the ballot allowing visitors to vote for the best national pavilion and overall participants in the absence of a jury to award the prestigious Golden Lions. The Venice Biennale opened its most chaotic and contested edition in recent memory on May 9, with the prestigious Golden Lion yanked from contention after the jury quit in protest of Israel’s and Russia’s participation. The week of previews leading up to the public opening was characterized by loud protests outside the Israeli and Russian pavilions. … Signatories seeking to be removed from visitor prize contention include some 70 artists participating in the main show and nearly 40 national pavilions, including those of Iceland, Norway and Denmark, which have led the call to have Russia barred from returning to the Biennale for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” (06/04/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“When the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and 1991, followers of the Austrian School of Economics knew that socialism’s lack of a coherent method of economic calculation certainly led to the demise of these regimes. Economists had known for years of the chronic shortages, shoddy workmanship, and all of the other negative aspects of economic life in those countries and why no one who understood socialism was surprised at these results.” (06/04/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“We are losing ground economically. We are losing credibility abroad. We are losing tourists, workers, stability, trust, constitutional guardrails, and whatever remained of the illusion that the government answers to ‘we the people.’ The tourism economy is taking a hit, with international visitors increasingly reluctant to come to the United States. Even migration—the lifeblood of America’s economic growth, innovation, labor force and national renewal—is now moving in the wrong direction. Fewer people are coming in, more Americans are leaving, and by some estimates the country has already crossed into negative net migration. That is not the mark of a nation ‘winning.’ It is the mark of a nation people are increasingly choosing to escape.” (06/03/26)
“Germany’s foreign minister says support for Ukraine and Israel may have cost votes after Berlin failed to secure a rotating spot on the UN Security Council. Johann Wadephul described losing out to Portugal and Austria as a ‘bitter defeat’ after a vote on which countries would become one of the five new members of the council was held on Wednesday evening. ‘There is our firm support for Ukraine, the fact that Russia does not want such a voice at the Security Council,’ Wadephul said, adding it was ‘no secret’ Russia had stirred up sentiment against Germany. There are five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – and 10 temporary ones.” (06/04/26)
“There’s a lot of hostility toward ‘the rich.’ Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced. The real divide is not ‘the rich’ versus ‘everyone else.’ It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule.” (06/03/26)
“The bottom income quintile is not a static social class but a temporary snapshot of lives in motion. Most Americans do not remain poor for life, and removing policy barriers can help more people move up.” (06/04/26)
