Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“And neither do I. We are living in an uncertainty landscape worsened by people paid to extort and distort all within the confines of belief mazes and human transcription errors.” (06/24/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/you-dont-know-what-youre-talking
Source: Racket News
by Eric Salzman
“The Private Equity deal machine is in trouble, so of course it’s time to bring back perhaps the most idiotic product Wall Street has ever produced.” (06/24/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver
“Free speech is under threat in Britain. Individuals have been arrested and charged for social media posts. The concepts of ‘malicious communication’ and ‘public order’ (in legislation designed to address civil unrest) have been broadly interpreted by police — and the Communications Act allows for charges of posting ‘grossly offensive’ material, a category that is very much in the eye of the beholder. The result has been prosecutions for commentary that, whether obnoxious or disgusting, should be permitted in a liberal society that believes in free expression. But possibly more disturbing, and more insidious, than criminal charges for mouthing off on Facebook, is learning that the police are keeping records against citizens without them even knowing. This is happening under the concept of a ‘non-crime hate incident.'” (06/24/25)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Patrick J Sobkowski
“Through the first four months of his second term, Donald Trump has governed by aggressive assertions of executive power. Trump has relied on Article II of the Constitution to attempt to accomplish his economic and immigration policies, as well as in gutting the administrative state. Trump is a fervent believer in the unitary executive theory (UET). But what is the UET? I’ve written extensively on this issue, primarily as a critic. The goal of this essay is to provide the public with a primer on the UET.” (06/24/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-unitary-executive-a-primer-for-the-people/
Source: Town Hall
by Victor Davis Hanson
“California Senator Alex Padilla recently crashed [sic] a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He deliberately wore no identification. He gave no advance warning that he would disrupt her briefing. Instead, Padilla barged forward to the podium, shouting about the deportation of illegal aliens. Immediately, Padilla got his media moment wish — once Secret Service agents, who had no idea who Padilla was, forcibly removed him. Sen. Cory Booker [D-NJ] recently attempted a pseudo-filibuster, speaking nonstop for 25 hours straight — not to delay legislation, but to fixate on President Donald Trump. South Carolina Democratic state Representative Julie von Haefen just posted on social media an image of a bloody guillotine. It bore the title ‘In these difficult times, some cuts may be necessary’ and was juxtaposed with an image of a hanging, beheaded Trump, who, a year ago, was the target of two failed assassination attempts.” (06/24/25)
Source: The Hill
by George Fisher
“The U.N. Charter allows attacks on sovereign nations in only two cases — if authorized by the U.N. Security Council or in self-defense after an armed attack. Because waiting for an armed attack can prove disastrous, international law has long countenanced ‘anticipatory’ self-defense to ward off imminent attacks … After the British justified an attack on U.S. territory as an act of self-defense, [Daniel] Webster delivered a famous riposte. Self-defense can justify one nation’s invasion of another, he wrote in 1842, only if the ‘necessity of that self-defence is instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.’ … No serious observer thinks that Iran poses an imminent danger to the American people or U.S. territory.” (06/24/25)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“A new kind of political dialogue opened among the Iranian people during the bombing by Israel and the United States. Social media posts and interviews by journalists indicate that some Iranians welcomed the attacks on security sites of the highly unpopular regime. Others felt a nationalist resentment toward any foreign intervention or a war that might usurp the pro-democracy movement. Many who were struggling to survive simply did not want to speak out at all. Thousands fled the country. Yet some see an opening, even a necessity, for individuals to plan for a transition from an Islamic Republic that was faltering long before the bombing and before the regime’s disastrous support of Hamas’[s] 2023 attack on Israel.” (06/23/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0623/Iran-s-opening-for-liberty
Source: Persuasion
by Kateryna Kibarova
“A report from Ukraine in the age of drone warfare.”
Source: TomDispatch
by Rebecca Gordon
“Sometime in the late 1980s, I was talking with a friend on my landline (the only kind of telephone we had then). We were discussing logistics for an upcoming demonstration against the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras fighting the elected government of Nicaragua. We agreed that, when our call was done, I’d call another friend, ‘Mary,’ to update her on the plans. I hung up. But before I could make the call, my phone rang. ‘Hi, this is Mary,’ my friend said. ‘Mary! I was just about to call you.’ ‘But you did call me,’ she said. ‘No, I didn’t. My phone just rang, and you were on the other end.’ It was pretty creepy, but that was how surveillance worked in the days of wired telephone systems.” (06/24/25)
Source: Foreign Policy
by Nate Schenkkan
“Is he an interventionist or not? The debate has endured for the last decade, ever since Trump carved out a lane for himself in the Republican Party by denouncing the Iraq War. Nearly 10 years later, his position still sparked curiosity from across the political spectrum and fueled attacks on Democrats for not being anti-war enough. As recently as early June, you could read serious commentators circumspectly applauding Trump for renouncing nation-building during his latest trip to the Middle East. Finally, they hoped, the forever wars would end and an American administration would focus on rebuilding the region through trade and investment. A lot has changed in a few weeks. By backing Israel’s air war on Iran, and then joining it, Trump has made clear that he is most certainly an interventionist, just not a liberal one.” (06/24/25)