The Oppenheimer of AI
Source: Law & Liberty
by Walter Donway
“Great scientists probably cannot be relied upon to control the perils of new technologies by exercising personal restraint.” (06/10/26)
Category: Opinion
The Long, Long Two Weeks
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Nothing is so permanent, wrote Milton Friedman, as a temporary government program. Six years ago, Americans learned that not only vaguely temporary measures go on and on, even precisely marked-out periods with clear starts and stops stated at the outset can be dragged on well past their expiration date.” (06/10/26)
Philanthropy Must Evolve: How we redefined business as usual to move $500 million
Source: Common Dreams
by Carmen Rojas & Daniel Gould
“For too long, philanthropy has hidden behind the twin gatekeepers of fiduciary duty and perpetuity to avoid giving more when communities need it most. Last year, the Marguerite Casey Foundation provided a one-time fivefold increase in funding to meet a deepening moment of crisis. We learned this was a lifeline to many organizations facing increasing attacks and whose funders were pulling back from supporting racial and economic justice organizing. The damage we’re seeing (from cuts to essential government services and ICE raids to a corrupt federal government orchestrating the largest transfer of wealth from the poorest people to the richest in our nation) will have impacts for a generation. Philanthropy must provide resources at a scale and with a fervor that meaningfully responds to the reality of the world around us.” (06/10/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/philanthropy-must-evolve
Why Did the President’s Son-In-Law Acquire A Nuclear Fortress in Albania?
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Karat
“On a podcast this spring, Ivanka Trump described how she and her husband Jared Kushner came upon Sazan Island. A friend’s boat, a stop to swim, a captivation that would not release them. ‘We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.’ … Sazan’s coastline is so forbidding that sailors gave it a name: Gryka e Xhehenemit, the Gorge of Hell. The slopes are studded with some 3,600 concrete bunkers, most of them one-man domes built to survive a nuclear blast, threaded together by ten miles of reinforced tunnels and a buried command center. In the water around the island lie World War II artillery shells, anti-submarine mines, and tons of undetonated ordnance, enough that the area is mapped as a hazard. Nobody walks barefoot up that.” (06/10/26)
Mitch McConnell’s Hemp Ban Betrays the Industry He Helped Create
Source: Reason
by Tosin Akintola
“Federal prohibition of hemp-derived THC products would destroy a $37.5 billion industry to solve a problem states are already handling.” (06/10/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/10/mitch-mcconnells-hemp-ban-betrays-the-industry-he-helped-create/
Is the Iran War Tipping the Gulf Away From the US?
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The countries that have borne the brunt of Iranian retaliation have an incentive to diversify their security structures.” (06/10/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-the-iran-war-tipping-the-gulf-away-from-the-u-s/
Dem Congressman prediction: Platner to get “off the ballot soon”
Source: Fox News Forum
by Lindsay Kornick
“Rep. Josh Gottheimer [D-NJ] predicted on Tuesday that Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner will be ‘off the ballot soon’ even if he wins the primary election. Gottheimer, who has criticized Platner for his scandals in the past, called support for far-left candidates like him a ‘major concern’ for the Democratic Party and encouraged people not to support him during the primaries. While he stopped short of supporting Platner’s presumptive Republican opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, Gottheimer told ‘CNN News Central’ that he would call for Platner to step down regardless of how the race goes. ‘What I would suggest is that Graham Platner get off if he wins today, which I assume he will, because there‘s no one actively campaigning against him, that he get off the ballot and let another Democrat step in, that the Maine Democratic Party puts somebody else in,’ Gottheimer said.” (06/09/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/graham-platner-get-off-ballot-soon-democratic-lawmaker-predicts
Trump’s Iran Predicament Is His Own Fault
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“It is hard to see how Trump could possibly reach some lasting peace agreement in the near future that all sides will abide by. Just about anything the Iranians are willing to agree to will be a political disaster domestically, but so is any prolonged closure of the Strait if Trump can’t deliver something the Iranians will accept. And everything that even appears like a step towards ending the war rather than restarting it will probably be resisted, if not sabotaged, by the Israelis — barring some major escalation against Hezbollah that Iran would never agree to or allow. Trump is in a genuinely difficult position. But it’s important to remember that it’s entirely his fault.” (06/10/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-iran-predicament-his-own-fault
Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US
Source: Wired
by Dell Cameron
“A Florida man was wrongfully arrested for attempting to illegally lure a child after police relied on a face recognition match that was inaccurate, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, even though he lived more than 300 miles from the scene and says he had never set foot in the city where the crime took place. Robert Dillon, a 52-year-old commercial crabber from Fort Myers, was arrested after FACES — a face recognition system operated by Florida’s Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office — matched his face against a photo of a man on a computer screen taken with a cellphone. … ACLU says Dillon’s case is one of at least 15 known wrongful arrests in the United States attributed to face recognition technology.” (06/10/26)
For first time, Americans are getting more of their electricity from solar than coal
Source: Grist
by Tik Root
“Solar energy just provided more electricity in the United States than coal for the first time on record — marking a milestone for the rise of renewables in America. While gas and nuclear plants still lead the country’s energy mix, solar contributed 12.8 percent of the nation’s electrons in May, according to an analysis of government data by Ember, an energy think tank. Coal, meanwhile, provided just 12.2 percent. Just five years ago, solar was less than half of its current levels and coal was at 20 percent.” (06/10/26)