Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Under capitalism [sic], humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.” [editor’s note: Johnstone is often great on foreign policy, but nearly always completely clueless on economics – TLK] (06/12/26)
“Illinois can tax income. It can tax profits. It can tax businesses. It can even impose generally applicable taxes that happen to reach content mediums like cable or newspapers. But the First Amendment strictly prohibits taxes that single out content the state doesn’t like. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Illinois’[s] new state spending plan does, and it’s poised to soon be signed by Governor Pritzker. Buried in the 1600-page budget, the relevant provision would charge the secretary of state with collecting a ‘social media platform fee.’ … The proposal’s biggest hurdle is the decades of case law that have squarely labeled this kind of tax as exactly what it is: a regulation of speech. And social media sites are very much speech.” (06/12/26)
“For those of us struggling to understand today’s Republican Party, this past week’s primary elections in South Carolina offered a useful case study. The key developments were these: Rep. Nancy Mace — a former conservative rising star who seems tailor-made for the Trump-era attention economy — finished fifth in her state’s Republican primary for governor. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham — who seems like a relic from an earlier time in the Republican Party — easily dispatched a wealthy ‘America First’ primary challenger. At first glance, none of this makes sense. Making matters more confusing, when it comes to the defining ‘issue’ of our time — Donald Trump — Graham and Mace have both spent years criticizing him and then crawling back to him. Until, that is, one found the door locked.” (06/12/26)
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Ari Paul
“More than a decade ago, a video (Mondoweiss, 8/7/14) showed Jodi Rudoren, then The New York Times’[s] Jerusalem bureau chief, having a casual and friendly meeting with Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League. The cozy relationship in the video was telling enough, but when the video captured Foxman complaining that ‘the Arabs’ had taken over a famous New York City hotel, and Rudoren shrugging it off, many skeptics viewed this as a window into the Times’[s] pro-Israel bias. The recently deceased Foxman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5/12/26), famous for promoting the pro-Israel viewpoint and insinuating that critics of Israel were antisemitic, wasn’t Rudoren’s source in this video; they were pals. Emmaia Gelman’s new book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, is a history of the group, framing it not as a racial justice organization but as a deputy sheriff for the US empire.” [editor’s note: Is ADL just as messed up as SPLC? Film at eleven – SAT] (06/14/26)
“We have surrendered power for more than a century and a half to the parasites (elected and appointed) in DC and fifty State capitols and thousands of local jurisdictions. We have given them power over our minute-to-minute lives that I think it is safe to say that few nations and societies in history have ever held. Yet we continue to claim that we are free, in this Anno Libertatus 250. Yes, we have won a few victories, in a number of States, and sometimes at the FedGov level. But while we celebrate those victories for a few essential rights we often fail to understand the significance of the creeping loss of many, many more. Worse, we fail to see and understand why these liberties are being stolen away.” (06/12/26)
“Some people just like classic Coke. Others insist on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: This is really not the classic #MeToo allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage. Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is OK for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims. None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.” (06/14/26)
“On 11 June 2026, we passed an important and disturbing milestone. This was the day that the war in Ukraine, at four years, three months and 15 days, surpassed the First World War in duration. Sometimes it can seem as if this conflict has turned into a genuine forever war. The seeming interminability of the war is not a surprise. As I argued in my 2022 book, The Road To Ukraine: How The West Lost Its Way, this was a conflict that neither side could afford to lose. And, as a result, it always threatened to become a typical frontier war that could last indefinitely.” (06/13/26)
“This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning. He believed that with these weapons both the US and the USSR, now Russia, had constructed Doomsday Machines, capable of destroying most life on Earth—machines that are particularly dangerous because neither side acknowledges this reality but continue to proceed as if there were some circumstances in which it was possible to win a nuclear war. The epigraph from Dad’s book is from Nietzsche: ‘Madness in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.'” (06/14/26)
“It has been reported that ‘healthy life expectancy’ in the UK has fallen during the past decade. Disparity between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in different regions of the UK has been described. A 20-year gap between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Richmond and the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Blackpool has been alleged. The concept of ‘healthy life expectancy’ has been bandied about as if we have used it always. Its precursor, ‘healthy lifestyle,’ is already ubiquitous. Its successor, surely to be ‘healthy lifespan.’ But the concept of ‘healthy life-anything’ should be unusable. It should say nothing. Like ‘unmarried bachelor.’ Or ‘free gift.’ Or ‘organic food.’” (06/12/26)
“Most of the complaints inflate the costs of data centers and overlook the fact that, in some contexts at least, they can bring real benefits. If saying no is good politics, it isn’t always good policy.” (06/12/26)
