The Last Canadian Politician I’d Trust to Police the Internet

Source: Quillette
by Jonathan Kay

“Marc Miller spread misinformation about unmarked graves and supports the criminal prosecution of residential-school ‘denialists.’ Why would Mark Carney use him to front his new plan for regulating online content?” (06/16/26)

https://quillette.com/2026/06/16/the-last-canadian-politician-id-trust-to-police-the-internet/

Is California Reaching Critical Mass?

Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson

“By any measure, California is a failed state, and a national embarrassment. Taxes? It has the highest income and gas taxes in the nation. Roads? A Reason Foundation survey ranks it 49th among the states. Mass flight? Between 250,000 and 350,000 more Californians leave the state than move in each year. Housing, gas, insurance, and electricity prices? The highest in the continental U.S. Illegal aliens, the poor, the homeless, the foreign-born, and welfare recipients? The largest numbers in the U.S. Public K–12 schools? Test scores in the bottom quartile. Poverty? Twenty percent live below the poverty line. So, what happened to the nation’s most richly naturally endowed — and once best governed — state? The Left took total control — after millions of the embattled middle class fled.” (06/16/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/16/is-california-reaching-critical-mass/

Green Growth: Data Show Freeing Economies Doesn’t Harm the Environment

Source: The Daily Economy
by Vincent Geloso

“Economic liberalization has often been assumed to have environmental tradeoffs. But decades of data show the incentives of prosperity and preservation are aligned.” (06/16/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/green-growth-data-show-freeing-economies-doesnt-harm-the-environment/

The King’s Rubber Empire: Democracy at Home, Terror in the Jungle

Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes

“First published in 1999 and updated in a revised 2006 edition, Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost serves as a stark historical warning at a time when Western politicians and commentators habitually frame global politics as an epic struggle between virtuous democracies and barbarous autocracies. The book shows in forensic detail how one of Europe’s most constitutional monarchies oversaw a regime of forced labor, mutilation, rape, torture and mass death on a scale comparable to the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.” (06/16/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/06/15/the-kings-rubber-empire-democracy-at-home-terror-in-the-jungle/

The Iran War’s Biggest Loser? Definitely Netanyahu

Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher

“The American president’s ‘Art of the Deal’ reputation is in tatters. But the Israeli prime minister’s attempt to impose a military solution on the region makes him the war’s biggest loser—and Israel isolated and vulnerable.” (06/16/26)

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/16/iran-war-netanyahu-trump-iran-deal/

Fiscal Dominance and the Politicization of Money

Source: EconLog
by Leonida Zelmanovitz

‘Much of the contemporary debate about monetary policy focuses on technical questions: whether reserves should be scarce or abundant, whether fintech companies should have master accounts at the Federal Reserve, whether those accounts should resemble the accounts held by banks, or how far the Fed’s independence should extend. These are not unimportant questions. Yet these questions are secondary to the central issue shaping American monetary policy today: the fiscal needs of the federal government.” (06/16/26)

https://www.econlib.org/econlog/fiscal-dominance-and-the-politicization-of-money

A Warning From the UK for Centrist US Dems Who Refuse to Fight for the Working Class

Source: Common Dreams
by Corbin Trent

“The consensus is that this is the year for the Democrats. They have the political winds at their backs. Even with the gerrymandering and the voter suppression and everything Republicans have thrown at the wall, smart money says Democrats take the House and maybe the Senate. And anything that limits the power of this president is good. I’ll grant all of it. Net positive. But what happens after a good cycle or two, if the winners don’t understand what they won? If they don’t see the pain that powered their victories? We don’t have to guess because it already happened in Britain.” (06/16/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/warning-from-uk-for-dems

1776 All-Stars: Why George Mason Is Extremely Underrated

Source: Reason
by Ilya Somin

“George Mason was not the greatest, the most admirable, or the most influential of the Founding Fathers. But he made enormous contributions that are often underrated. And I’m not saying that just because I teach at the university named after him. Mason was the principal drafter of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which became a key model for the other state constitutional bills of rights, and eventually for the federal Bill of Rights. Later, he was one of three members of the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the document. Afterward he opposed ratification. Not all his objections to the Constitution were sound, but several were compelling and prescient.” (for publication 07/26)

https://reason.com/2026/06/16/1776-all-stars-george-mason/

Radio Free Europe, the Cold War “Weapon” Congress Still Funds

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Patrick Pillow

“More than three decades after the Cold War ended, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty remains in operation — and Congress is now considering a major increase in its funding. As Americans continue to grapple with rising prices and persistent inflation, Washington DC’s attention has increasingly shifted toward foreign policy priorities rather than domestic economic concerns. When foreign spending does enter the public conversation, it is often through provisions buried deep within legislative text and only briefly summarized in committee reports, with limited public attention.” (06/16/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/radio-free-europe-the-cold-war-weapon-congress-still-funds/