“A federal judge in Georgia has apologized to a former law clerk for ‘harmful, offensive, and unprofessional behavior’ amid allegations she had engaged in sexual activity with a high-ranking uniformed police officer in her office during working hours and within earshot of staff. The apology comes as two House Republicans from Georgia have filed articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross. ‘You deserved better than to have your experience marred by my own offensive conflict,’ Ross, who serves in the Northern District of Georgia, wrote in a letter last week, adding that her ‘actions were patently wrong, and there is no excuse’, and her previous letter to the clerk was ‘entirely deficient, as I did not take full accountability for my actions, and I failed to give you the apology that you deserve.'” (06/15/26)
“The following is a statement released in response to news of an interim agreement between the US and Iran for a ceasefire in the war started by the US and Israel on February 28, 2026. With news of a ceasefire agreement to end the disastrous and unnecessary US-Israeli war on Iran, the tragic failure of Donald Trump’s Iran policy has now played out exactly as anti-war critics warned it would. Trump said that his war on Iran would be quick, decisive and force the regime to totally capitulate or collapse. We warned it would become a quagmire that would fail to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, ignite a regional conflict that could threaten the global economy, further strengthen the Iranian regime’s hold on power and cost thousands of lives — including American servicemembers. We were right.” (06/15/26)
“If you touch one of the Democrats’ sacred cow nonprofits, they’ll start whining about how you’re attacking ‘civil society.’ But what if the sacred cow Democrats want to defend is actually a violent bull — one of the worst forces undermining civil society in America today? Democrats and their allies portray criticism of the Southern Poverty Law Center as a threat to civil society. That’s rather ironic. You see, the SPLC is an engine of the very fear and suspicion that are driving Americans apart. Conservatives increasingly fear that our opponents don’t just disagree, but actively despise us. The SPLC doesn’t just publish papers explaining why it thinks conservatives are wrong. No, this organization — which gained its reputation by suing the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy — puts its political opponents on a ‘hate map’ alongside Klan chapters, a map the SPLC says reveals the ‘infrastructure upholding white supremacy.'” (06/14/26)
“Media giant Fox is buying streaming firm Roku in a deal the companies say will create the third largest player in US TV by share of viewing. Fox’s move is being seen as a bet that combining streaming with its news and sport offering will leave it in a strong position as TV audiences move online. The offer of $160 per share, made up of cash and stock, values Roku at $22bn (£16bn). ‘This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,’ said Fox chief executive Lachlan Murdoch. ‘In 2019, we reoriented the company around live news and sports. In 2020, we acquired Tubi and under our stewardship it has become one of the most successful businesses in streaming.'” [editor’s note: As a long-time Roku device owner/subscriber, I hope Fox doesn’t ruin the service – TLK] (06/15/26)
“A group of Democratic senators and one Republican, as well as two Democratic House committees, sent letters Monday to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course on its plan to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network, with House lawmakers going further and accusing the agency of acting illegally. The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a network of more than 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386 million. Over the last decade it has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change and extreme weather, producing data freely available to the public and informing more than 500 scientific publications. The project was slated to run another 15 to 20 years. The National Science Foundation had directed the removal of most of the system’s instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland by 2027 — a decision scientists said came with no warning and no scientific review.” (06/15/26)
“Can the Graham Platner whirlwind sweep Susan Collins out of one of Maine’s Senate seats? Scandalous Reddit posts, tattoos, sexting, rapid-fire accusations, and denials didn’t make it any easier for Gov. Janet Mills to mount a serious challenge against the harbormaster of a small Maine town north of Acadia National Park. Platner soundly defeated the two-term governor who steered the state safely out of the COVID-19 pandemic and stood up to President Trump. Mills’s name was still on the ballot after she pulled out of the Senate primary race on the last day of April. Yet she didn’t get even a sympathy bump from voters in what turned out to be a contest of Platner against Platner: the champion of the aggrieved working class vs. the man who lived online too much.” (06/15/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Under capitalism [sic], humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.” [editor’s note: Johnstone is often great on foreign policy, but nearly always completely clueless on economics – TLK] (06/12/26)
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Ari Paul
“More than a decade ago, a video (Mondoweiss, 8/7/14) showed Jodi Rudoren, then The New York Times’[s] Jerusalem bureau chief, having a casual and friendly meeting with Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League. The cozy relationship in the video was telling enough, but when the video captured Foxman complaining that ‘the Arabs’ had taken over a famous New York City hotel, and Rudoren shrugging it off, many skeptics viewed this as a window into the Times’[s] pro-Israel bias. The recently deceased Foxman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5/12/26), famous for promoting the pro-Israel viewpoint and insinuating that critics of Israel were antisemitic, wasn’t Rudoren’s source in this video; they were pals. Emmaia Gelman’s new book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, is a history of the group, framing it not as a racial justice organization but as a deputy sheriff for the US empire.” [editor’s note: Is ADL just as messed up as SPLC? Film at eleven – SAT] (06/14/26)
“Some people just like classic Coke. Others insist on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: This is really not the classic #MeToo allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage. Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is OK for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims. None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.” (06/14/26)
“This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning. He believed that with these weapons both the US and the USSR, now Russia, had constructed Doomsday Machines, capable of destroying most life on Earth—machines that are particularly dangerous because neither side acknowledges this reality but continue to proceed as if there were some circumstances in which it was possible to win a nuclear war. The epigraph from Dad’s book is from Nietzsche: ‘Madness in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.'” (06/14/26)
