Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“I’ve never considered myself a particularly brave person, but I’ve never been afraid enough to feel like I needed to be governed or to have you governed on my behalf. I’ve never been so afraid that I was willing to give up essential liberty for a false feeling of safety. I can’t comprehend this level of irrational fear.” (06/10/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“[A]fter saying 12 years ago that marijuana policy should decided by the states, the Times now wants the federal government to be involved: ‘The federal government needs to be part of these solutions. Leaving taxes and regulations to the states threatens to create a race to the bottom in which people can cross state lines to buy their pot. Congress can set a floor, as it has done, however inadequately, with alcohol and tobacco, and states can build on it as they choose.’ The goal should be ‘to balance personal freedom and public health.’ Libertarians have likewise had some second thoughts about marijuana legalization, but not for the same reasons as the New York Times, Republican and conservative drug warriors, or state marijuana prohibitionists. The issue with libertarians is that marijuana legalization is not marijuana freedom.” (06/10/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/second-thoughts-on-marijuana-legalization/
Source: Cato Institute
by Emily Ekins & Jonah Messinger
“The newly released Social Security Trustees’ annual report shows that the Social Security Trust Fund’s finances have deteriorated further. The trust fund is now projected to be depleted sooner than previously expected, meaning Congress will face an even larger financing gap. Closing that gap will require larger tax increases, deeper benefit cuts, or some combination of both. Recent polling on Social Security from the Cato Institute in collaboration with YouGov offers some clues about how Americans are likely to respond to this news. Americans are aware that Social Security is underfunded, but many do not understand the severity of the problem.” (06/10/26)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The handful of U.S. firms that dominate global tech and artificial intelligence has almost universal name recognition. And it’s quite widely known that they rely on semiconductors manufactured in East Asia, mainly Taiwan. But it’s safe to say that very, very few people realize that the world’s only maker of the complex lithography machines – used by Asian firms to fabricate the chips that power American tech advances – is headquartered in … Europe. (The Netherlands, to be precise.) Not knowing this little factoid is about more than industry trivia. It points to long-standing, and not entirely merited, views of the continent as an economic has-been, held back by red tape, capital constraints, and innovation inertia. In fact, the European Union is making quiet, consistent progress in undoing both limiting perceptions and policies – even as global markets are more focused on multitrillion-dollar Wall Street listings …” (06/09/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0609/Europe-shakes-off-innovation-gloom
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sofia Karstens
“By now, everyone knows the basics of the California fires that burned down the Palisades and Altadena. And most people are aware of the shady ‘Make it make sense’ particulars around our elected officials and the quasi- and government agencies like the LA DWP. Some people understand the corruption, fraud, and coordination of criminal activity that has led us here. Far fewer understand how deeply that dysfunction persists, and the degree to which it has been amplified.” (06/10/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“In mid-June, on the margins of the G7 France summit, Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi will tell Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, that Japan wishes to begin negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the Southern Common Market — or, Mercosur, the South American customs union comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The overture to the South American trade bloc, confirmed in the last week of May by Japanese officials familiar with the plan, would be the first large-scale trade negotiation launched under Takaichi’s administration. The potential for Japan is enormous — not just for international trade, but also for buttressing its free-market economic mission at home.” (06/10/26)
Source: The Hill
by Kiim Wehle
“On April 30, 2026, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) entered a statement into the Congressional Record by 36 physicians — including neurologists, psychiatrists, and specialists in cognitive disorders from Harvard, Tufts, Columbia, and George Washington University. These doctors warned of President Trump’s ‘rapidly worsening, reality-untethered, increasingly dangerous decline.’ They called him ‘mentally unfit’ and said he must be removed ‘with the greatest urgency,’ citing his ‘grandiose and delusional beliefs,’ ‘reckless threats of violence,’ ‘seemingly compulsive, manic-like late-night communications,’ and ‘fixation on perceived enemies.’ Citing his access to nuclear codes, they called for use of the 25th Amendment. But the chances now seem more remote than ever. Unlike during Trump’s first term, when the possibility of invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment was at least openly debated, no one in Trump’s close orbit will now speak truth to power.” (06/10/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5914003-trump-decline-25th-amendment/
Source: Liberalism.org
by Paul Carrese
“To address our civic disintegration, we must reprioritize a civics of reflective patriotism: grateful for America, while perpetually questioning and arguing.” (06/10/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/civic-education-for-liberal-freedom
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the definition and telos of the university so thought I’d think a bit about what universities are like now. Perhaps this will help those who are not in universities to understand what they are. Perhaps others will offer me different views regarding how they are now (and how they should be). I will call universities as they are ETCUs — Early 21st Century Universities. In part, that’s unfair. Universities didn’t suddenly become something new in 2000 or 2001. I’d say universities were already on a downward path in the 1980s; I suspect it goes back further.” (06/10/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/early-21st-century-universities
Source: New York Post
by staff
“‘The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,’ President Trump announced Tuesday of Iran’s shootdown of a US Apache attack chopper over the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command soon launched ‘proportional strikes,’ which don’t sound like enough: The prez needs to show he’s serious, or Tehran will keep trying to play him for a sucker as it has every president going back to Jimmy Carter. Consider: Trump told the press just hours before that attack, ‘We’re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal.’ A country that’s ‘very close’ to sealing a deal in good faith doesn’t escalate against its negotiating partner. This leaves us wondering which presidential advisers are leading him down this garden path to likely humiliation.” [editor’s note: The only way for Trump to show he’s “serious” is to accept the fact that he lost a war – TLK] (06/09/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/09/opinion/trumps-advisers-are-letting-tehran-play-him-for-a-sucker/