Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The UK is getting crazier and crazier in its defense of Israel. Now they’re canceling the visas of mainstream normie political pundits for criticizing the state of Israel, and investigating people for antisemitic hate crimes when they denounce Zionists who aren’t even Jewish. American progressive commentator Cenk Uygur and his nephew Hasan Piker have both been denied visas by the British government, saying they were blocked from entering the country because of their criticism of Israel. ‘I’ve been banned from the UK,’ Uygur said in a tweet. ‘I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!'” (06/01/26)
“Anti-AIPAC sentiment is helping to swing Democratic primaries across the country. In Michigan, the pro-Israel group’s support for Rep. Haley Stevens has become somewhat of an anchor weighing down her Senate bid. In Philadelphia, a liberal group that had received some support from AIPAC’s network just once found that the association was now toxic, hurting its ability to help a candidate. And in the race to replace Hoyer, Boafo got condemned by other Democrats for his support from AIPAC’s best-known campaign committee. … As progressive Democrats use weariness of war in Iran and skepticism of big money to keep driving voters away from AIPAC, however, other sectors of the party are getting dragged down.” (06/01/26)
“Proper editors, back when that was still a thing, would not sign off on an article until the reporter had gotten to the heart of the matter and captured the essence of the other worldview. But none of that happens in health science reporting today. Instead, these wet-behind-the-ears reporters all follow the same script — ‘anyone who disagrees with the mainstream narrative must be a nutter who could not possibly be understood by anyone in polite society.’” (06/01/26)
“Could it be that Israel’s 30-year narrative about Iran – one that persuaded US President Donald Trump to wage a criminal and disastrous war of aggression – was always a fiction, an invention cooked up in Tel Aviv? Far from Tehran posing an existential danger to Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed for decades, might Israel’s real fear be that a stronger Iran would undermine its unique leverage over Washington, threatening its status as the region’s sole – and unmonitored – nuclear power? Might large parts of the globe be facing economic meltdown simply so that Israel can remain the Middle East’s top dog – an unaccountable apartheid state committing genocide against the Palestinian people and ethnically cleansing southern Lebanon? We got a definitive answer last week, care of the New York Times. It is an uncompromising yes to all of these questions.” (06/01/26)
“Impatient anarchists are very often looking for someone to blame, for something to steal, or for some type of recognition. The world will someday leave rulers behind, but only once most people are ready for it, and that time must come organically, not by force. The necessary recognition and fortitude must grow into place.” (05/31/26)
“Throughout most of human history, commerce and government have been intricately linked, at least geographically. Hubs of trade and business have almost always also been the seats of government. As cities grew and flourished, as commerce grew and flourished, and as both expanded into surrounding areas, governance became necessary and, thus, inevitable. And as cities preceded ‘countries’ or empires by decades, if not centuries, those cities that tended to fare the best at enduring and growing were also the ones that were most successful at enabling commerce, creating wealth, conquering neighbors and their lands, etc. All of which is to say that the governments of the richest and most productive cities evolved into regional governments and into imperial governments and national governments, etc.” (06/01/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Commenters on my previous posts argued that I was overestimating how much abundance liberals had in common with libertarians, that my view might be correct for a few of the most libertarian members of the faction but not for most of them and, in particular, not for Yglesias. My view was based partly on his Substack post, which endorsed Ilya Somin’s proposal that libertarians attempt ‘to build bridges with the abundance camp on the center-left,’ partly on a few relatively libertarian Democrats of my acquaintance. What does ‘build bridges with’ mean in this context? Libertarians have limited political power on the right, Abundance Democrats even less on the left. What I am imagining is not a political alliance but an intellectual one.” (05/31/26)
“Palantir, a data-analytics and logistics company, poses a challenge for its critics. ‘We make public services better,’ it argues. ‘They become more efficient and productive with our technology. Which means the taxpayer’s pound is being better spent. What exactly is your problem with that?’ … The temptation to see Palantir as a force for good is strong. However, politicians are strangely reluctant to take a gift horse to the veterinary dentist before accepting it. There are costs to any relationship, and some of these are quite subtle.” (05/31/26)
“After nabbing Cuba from a collapsing Spanish Empire around the turn of the twentieth century, America reigned over that island for over fifty years, using a mix of fascist strongmen and direct military occupation. The last bastard we propped up there was a bloodthirsty thug named Fulgencio Batista who is believed to be responsible for as many as 20,000 deaths in less than a decade. None of which seemed to bother the opportunistic democracy enthusiasts back in Washington and Wall Street, not so long as Batista gave them free access to Cuba’s sugar, tobacco, and railroads that is. It was only after Fidel Castro kicked Batista out of Havana in 1959 and made it clear that Cuba’s resources no longer belonged to Yankee conquistadors that America began its long war for ‘democracy’ in Cuba and it was a war defined by what can only be described as craven acts of barely covert terrorism.” (05/31/26)
“Primary care physicians—internists, general practitioners, family doctors, and pediatricians—are the key point of patient contact with the medical system. They have been leaving the medical profession in droves because their conditions of practice have become intolerable. These doctors are being pressured to see more patients in shorter appointments despite ever more complex cases and treatment options, even as they are required to spend more time at computer terminals entering patient data. One recent paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine calculates that primary care doctors, to meet all of their clinical and clerical obligations, would literally need to work 26.7 hours a day.” (06/01/26)
