Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen

“The energy index surged 3.9% in May, accounting for the lion’s share, over 60%, of the monthly CPI gain. Gasoline prices jumped about 7% MoM (with even larger unadjusted moves) and sit 40.5% higher than a year ago. Overall energy costs are up 23.5% YoY. Food prices rose more modestly, while shelter costs continued their steady grind higher in the core measure. This isn’t abstract economic noise. It’s a direct hit to real incomes. … The primary culprit is unmistakable: the ongoing U.S.-involved conflict with Iran that Washington and Tel Aviv launched in late February 2026.” (06/11/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-iran-wars-hidden-tax-on-american-households

Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse

“None of Trump’s stated goals in his war with Iran have been achieved.” (06/11/26)

https://theintercept.com/2026/06/11/trump-iran-war-claims-failures/

Source: The UnPopulist
by Debasish Roy Chowdhury

“A celebrity MAGA influencer and conspiracy theorist walked into a conclave in India under fire for mocking Indians as ‘third-world invaders’ with low IQ and bad hygiene, but walked out as a new mascot for India’s Islamophobes earlier this year. Framing herself as a ‘proud Islamophobe,’ Laura Loomer during her March visit to India delivered a heady cocktail of rants on ‘Islamic terrorism’ and Pakistan’s ‘jihad export,’ garnished with a message of affection from President Donald Trump for India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, enough to win over an audience primed to forgive racism if it comes wrapped in anti-Muslim fervor. Loomer’s passage to India points both to the power of an emerging pattern of global far-right networks of anti-democratic politics shaping today’s geopolitics, as well as the limitations of such transnational solidarities because of the contradictions engendered in these movements’ racist core.” (06/11/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/hindu-supremacists-laura-loomer-despite

Source: The American Spectator
by Paul Kengor

“[T]he American pontiff doesn’t appear to agree with the American president’s war policy with Iran. And Trump doesn’t take kindly to people who disagree with him. He can be downright ugly to those not on his side. Even popes. As for Leo, he’s unafraid. He sees his job as preaching the Gospel fearlessly, and he said so from the very outset of his papacy. What he said ought to inspire and uplift all of us at a time when so much else in the world seems to be falling apart.” (06/10/26)

https://spectator.org/be-not-afraid-fear-pope-leo-and-donald-trump/

Source: The Dispatch
by Annalise DeVries

“There is a strain of anti-liberalism regarding women’s rights that goes from one end of the horseshoe to the other. Thirty years ago, it was post-modern scholars arguing that liberalism did not know how to adequately approach women’s womb-bearing bodies, and so the liberal political system ought to be dismantled. More recently, Christian nationalists have argued that women’s rights upset the natural order. As Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist pastor, put it in an interview with CNN, women shouldn’t exert individual rights because they ‘are the kind of people other people come out of.’ While one’s inclination might be to scoff at these arguments, their common conviction that women’s rights expose the weakness of liberalism should give all of us pause.” (06/11/26)

https://thedispatch.com/article/womens-rights-abortion-online-privacy-rights/