“The ‘progressive’ wing of the Democratic Party is on a roll, winning nominations and elections. Left-wing leaders are taking earned victory laps as they chalk up victories for candidates espousing socialism, hostility to Israel (and often Jews), identity politics, and other leftist positions that were until recently thankfully rare in American politics. But the radicals’ support for Maine’s deeply troubled Graham Platner, who won the party’s nod to compete in the U.S. Senate race, shows the dangers posed by a movement that seemingly holds ideological lunacy as its highest value. It’s not clear that anybody is in a position to stop them.” (06/12/26)
“The conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will stay after an appeals court shot down his bid to overturn his 2023 conviction of fraud. Bankman-Fried, 34, a former cryptocurrency mogul and CEO, argued that his trial was unfair and that the firm would have paid out to investors in the long term. Judge Barrington Parker wrote in the ruling that ‘the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust,’ Politico reported.” (06/12/26)
“Is the existence of government an issue that should occupy the minds of those who believe that liberty supports human flourishing? As far as I know, there is no country in the world in which citizens are currently faced with a choice between having a minimal state or no state at all. In liberal democracies – the countries that currently enjoy the greatest personal and economic freedom – liberty is being threatened by political movements with authoritarian tendencies. Authoritarianism is presented in the wrapping of different varieties of collectivist idealism which offer citizens the opportunity to attribute personal and social problems to immigration, foreign competition, the greed of the wealthy, systemic discrimination, environmental degradation or anything else that appears to justify a larger role for government. Shouldn’t libertarians be focusing their attention on supporting the political/legal order – democracy, or representative government – that has been most successful in promoting personal and economic freedom?” (06/12/26)
“FISA was always terrible, and section 702 always made it even worse. I’m glad it failed of re-passage. It needs to die in a fire, permanently. But there’s nothing really to celebrate here, because we’ve known — since at least as far back as 2013 — how the US regime operates with regard to its surveillance powers. If the US regime doesn’t like the law, it breaks the law. If US regime figures are asked (under oath) about breaking the law, they deny (under oath) breaking the law. If a whistleblower outs the evidence that the US regime is breaking the law, the US regime charges the whistleblower with espionage and chases him out of the country, while the perjurers continue their skulduggery without penalty or punishment.” (06/11/26)
“Three people have been killed in the border region between Russia and Ukraine, according to officials, as the two sides launched attacks on each other in the latest exchange of fire. In Russia, two civilians were killed and two wounded in the region of Bryansk after Kyiv struck the settlement of Suzemka with artillery, Acting Governor Egor Kovalchuk said in a post on Telegram on Friday. A drone also hit an apartment building in Russia’s central region of Tatarstan, injuring three people …. In Ukraine, a drone attack in the border region of Sumy caused casualties. A 44-year-old woman working as a rail station operator died on her way to a shelter during the strike, according to the head of Ukrainian Railways, Oleksandr Pertsovkyi. Another woman, a station attendant, was wounded in the attack, Pertsovkyi added. Three people were wounded in separate attacks on Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region.” (06/12/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s reason for launching a ‘special military operation’ against Iran in February remains disputed. But the United States’[s] broad goals were clear: compel Iran, which the 2025 National Security Strategy labeled as ‘the region’s chief destabilizing force,’ to abandon its sponsorship of a regional network of violent nonstate actors and curtail its nuclear program. In short, the United States sought to force Iran to comprehensively overhaul its grand strategy, through either regime change or a deal. To understand how badly this effort has failed, it’s important to understand how Iran’s grand strategy has shifted.” (06/11/26)
“A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday over charges linked to military drones sent over Pyongyang to help create a pretext for his failed December 2024 martial law declaration, Yonhap reported. The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy, saying he had conspired in the October 2024 drone incursion from the outset, the news agency said. Yoon denied wrongdoing. His lawyers said he neither ordered nor later approved the operation, which they said was unrelated to martial law and instead a response to months of North Korean launches across the border of balloons stuffed with rubbish. … In February, a South Korean court sentenced Yoon to life in prison after finding him guilty of leading an insurrection linked to the martial law attempt.” (06/11/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ulrich Fromy
“The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas by Pope Leo XIV is a remarkable text in many ways. It recognizes the dangers of technological concentration and the threat that large private platforms pose to human dignity. The text warns of ‘social control made possible by the massive collection of data and use of algorithmic systems’ and speaks of ‘the architecture of visibility.’ However, it has a blind spot: it does not dare to name states as possible architects of these surveillance structures.” (06/11/26)
