“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)
“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)
“To address our civic disintegration, we must reprioritize a civics of reflective patriotism: grateful for America, while perpetually questioning and arguing.” (06/10/26)
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)
“‘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)
“Why couldn’t Steyer pull this off? What did his 12 years as a ‘donor-doer’ leave behind for his party? Quite a lot, mostly related to the ballot measures he funded before getting more tied to national politics. But as he grew more ambitious, Steyer embodied the Democratic Party’s problems.” (06/10/26)
“Nothing is so permanent, wrote Milton Friedman, as a temporary government program. Six years ago, Americans learned that not only vaguely temporary measures go on and on, even precisely marked-out periods with clear starts and stops stated at the outset can be dragged on well past their expiration date.” (06/10/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Carmen Rojas & Daniel Gould
“For too long, philanthropy has hidden behind the twin gatekeepers of fiduciary duty and perpetuity to avoid giving more when communities need it most. Last year, the Marguerite Casey Foundation provided a one-time fivefold increase in funding to meet a deepening moment of crisis. We learned this was a lifeline to many organizations facing increasing attacks and whose funders were pulling back from supporting racial and economic justice organizing. The damage we’re seeing (from cuts to essential government services and ICE raids to a corrupt federal government orchestrating the largest transfer of wealth from the poorest people to the richest in our nation) will have impacts for a generation. Philanthropy must provide resources at a scale and with a fervor that meaningfully responds to the reality of the world around us.” (06/10/26)
