“A bill to update the antitrust laws in the nation’s most populous state faces a critical legislative hearing this week. At a time when California is among the states being relied upon as a substitute for proper antitrust enforcement, which is moribund at the federal level thanks to Trump administration corruption, advocates say the state must have a full suite of tools to succeed. Monied interests are working diligently to stop the bill, but it gained important momentum late last week when a key senator signed on. The office of state Sen. Ben Allen, who is running for statewide office to become California’s insurance commissioner, told the Prospect that ‘the Senator is very likely going to be supporting the bill.’ Allen was one of a handful of Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats whose position on the bill was uncertain as of last week.” (06/29/26)
“In a few days, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There will be fireworks, concerts, speeches, and millions of backyard barbecues. But what precisely are we celebrating?” (06/29/26)
“The U.S. lost its war of choice against Iran. Trump and Netanyahu failed to eliminate the perceived Iranian nuclear threat, despite relentless bombing that killed thousands and destroyed both military assets and civilian infrastructure. The desired ‘regime change’ left a more hawkish leader in charge. Iranian forces then deployed missiles and drones to carry out devastating attacks on American bases in the Gulf. Thirteen U.S. soldiers lost their lives. Most significantly, Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz sparked global panic in energy, fertilizer, and other vital markets. … If the just-signed MOU maintains the 60-day ceasefire and becomes a full-fledged agreement, America’s benefits could ultimately outweigh what it loses. The possible gains are three: an end to a costly war, a downscaling of U.S. relations with Israel, and a modest retreat from American imperialism.” (06/29/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“The voters who put Trump over the top and gave Republicans control of the Senate in 2024 were not casting their ballots for higher inflation and more foreign wars. Nor was that what Trump delivered in his first term, despite taking a hard line against the ayatollahs, shredding Barack Obama’s version of an Iran nuclear deal, applying maximum pressure, and striking Qasem Soleimani. Trump left office with inflation at 1.4 percent, below the Fed’s long-term target, and leaving no new wars to his successor in Iran or elsewhere. … Vance’s intraparty detractors should realize that if voters are still talking about the war in Iran rather than domestic issues in November, much less 2028, Democrats are going to have to nominate the world’s most crazed Marxists for Republicans to have a chance.” (06/29/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“Gavin Newsom likes to boast that California has the world’s fourth-largest economy. So why can’t it build high-speed rail, while Morocco—which ranks 57th—has had it for years? … The total cost of California’s vaunted ‘bullet train’ has surged from the original $33 billion in 2008, when voters approved Proposition 1A, to a staggering $231 billion, all before any track was laid.” (06/29/26)
“Everybody loves local control when they run towns and counties and their opponents hold federal or state offices. It works in reverse, too, with presidents and governors denouncing rebellious officials who won’t follow dictates from the state or federal capital. So it is in Virginia, where Democrats who dominate the state government are upset that local prosecutors and police decline to enforce new restrictive gun laws they justifiably view as unconstitutional and dangerous to their constituents’ liberty. … Unsurprisingly, the politicians who pushed for the restrictive new laws that are set to take effect next month are unhappy that so many local officials disdain their legislative efforts.” (06/29/26)
“There’s a moment in our film ‘The American Revolution’ when the historian Jane Kamensky, now president of Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, reflects on the lasting meaning of the war: ‘Everybody, on every side, including people denied even the ownership of themselves, had the sense of possibility worth fighting for.’ That line captures something essential about the Revolution that can get lost beneath the familiar portraits and marble monuments. The Revolution was not only a war for independence but also an argument about possibility — who counted, who belonged, and whether so-called ordinary people could claim ownership over their own lives and their own future. In 1776, citizenship itself was a radical idea. Most human beings in history had been subjects.” (06/29/26)
“On this date in 1969, a rebellion began that unfolded over six days, a landmark in the battle for human freedom and personal autonomy & authenticity. In the wee hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-owned gay bar in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village, was raided by police for the umpteenth time. One might say that the mob had a keen business sense in catering to a marginalized population, while paying off the police to turn a blind eye. But on this night, the illegal collusions didn’t seem to matter. The patrons had had enough with routine police brutality. And they fought back.” (06/28/26)
“For much of the eighty years following the end of the Second World War, there existed a healthy, sometimes fierce competition among Democrats regarding the US and its role in the world: On one side, there were what I call the Rooseveltians; on the other side, the Achesonians. The competition between the two camps shaped US foreign policy throughout the Cold War. It was only with the arrival of the post-Cold War era that the competition dried up—and turned into a rout in which the Achesonians triumphed. The dueling camps take their names from, of course, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) and Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893–1971).” (06/28/26)
“This! Dearest motherfuckers! Is the Pride Industrial Complex! A network of once-benevolent LGBTQ+ organizations, operated by rich old white lesbians, spending most of their time and millions of your donation dollars on throwing parades just so they can raise enough money to throw more goddamn parades, all of which serve little other purpose than to offer diabolical corporations and two-timing politicians’ platforms to celebrate themselves celebrating diversity while they murder entire populations behind the rainbow flag. What more can I say without literally smashing things? Big money does hideous things to beautiful people and beautiful things for hideous operations.” (06/28/26)
