“Global Witness is telling us all that the things put in place to make sure that coltan (columbo-tantalite, a source of tantalum for mobile phone capacitors) does not come from slave driven mines aren’t working …. We agree, slave driven mines are a bad thing. It’s just that this problem was brought up before and a solution imposed. We disagreed with the solution imposed at the time as well, while Global Witness, Global Justice Now and the like all argued, vociferously, for that solution to be imposed. … In normal life something that’s an abject failure stops being done. In politics abject failure just carries on to the impoverishment of everyone — costs imposed that achieve nothing.” (06/11/26)
“In the early days of the republic (back when government was really small), tariffs were the primary means of both raising revenue and doling out ‘rents’ to businesses that organized and lobbied for them. The wonderfully named Tariff of Abominations (1828) was heavily influenced by Northern textile and iron producers. The post-Civil War decades were a golden age of tariff rent-seeking, with the U.S. iron, steel, wool, and sugar industries essentially writing U.S. tariff schedules. As I’ve documented at Cato and as Dartmouth economic historian Douglas Irwin thoroughly chronicles in his great book, Clashing Over Commerce, 19th-century tariff lobbying was in many respects an incubator for the entire U.S. lobbying and interest-group machine that exists today. And it began because American trade policy was openly auctioned off to the highest bidder. Offer the rents, and the rents get sought.” (06/11/26)
“Tim Kaine and Rand Paul made a shocking revelation last week about the U.S. military’s boat strikes in the East Pacific and Caribbean — attacks legal experts agree are illegal. In questioning Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing, they revealed that the targeting decisions about which boats would be attacked did not take into account whether they had drugs or arms aboard. In other words, the military may have attacked — and may attack in the future — a boat that carries neither drugs nor weapons, yet somehow, according to the Trump administration, constitutes a military threat to national security. … This is a ludicrous position. At the very least, insurgency and asymmetric warfare have to include some warlike activity, and merely sailing a boat through international waters is no more inherently warlike than taking a walk in the park or eating a hamburger.” (06/11/26)
“The time is ripe for European leaders to set aside the self-licking summits in European capitals and get in the room with the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia to orchestrate a modern-day Helsinki Conference. A durable peace for Ukraine will require several interlocking agreements, each of which will be incredibly difficult to negotiate, but all of which will be vital if we are to avoid a general war in Europe.” (06/11/26)
“Graham Platner is now through to the general election in Maine. He has survived another scandal, despite the fact that June is an unlikely time for the final story on him to drop. And his supporters, both in Maine and across the country, appear unwilling to abandon him for any reason. I want to argue here that Platner is a beneficiary of two kinds of populist thought, moving from both the bottom up and the top down. The first kind is the traditional sort, the kind that leads to Platner being excused as a hardscrabble everyman with rough edges. The second is an elite driven form of populism …. that underwrites the audacity of a Hotchkiss School dropout turned military adventurist turned oyster farmer to run for a Senate seat with no prior experience and no recognition that a single one of his subsequent scandals could be disqualifying.” (06/11/26)
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)
“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)
“SpaceX goes public Friday at around $1.7 trillion. Elon Musk owns enough SpaceX stock that, on top of everything else he holds, Musk becomes the first person in human history to cross the trillion-dollar line. The coverage will be all hype. Unprecedented. A genius. Where’s he going next? What does the future hold? It wasn’t like Elon Musk invented some amazing capacity. He didn’t do something transformational for the world. He didn’t harness electricity. He didn’t invent the transistor. He didn’t invent rocket flight. He didn’t invent satellite technology. He didn’t even make them much better. What he did was learn how to game the system. He took what America built through generations of investment and generations of hard work and turned it into a profit center for himself. He took American loans, American intellectual property, American space, American airwaves, and turned them into a wealth engine for one man.” (06/11/26)
