Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Everyone’s talking about the Memo of Understanding that has been reached between the US and Iran, set to be signed on Friday. All the most fanatical Zionist warmongers are rending their garments in heartbreak over the development, which is always a good sign, but it remains to be seen how much of this thing actually happens and for how long. One major sticking point in the deal is ending Israel’s assault on Lebanon, which Tehran remains adamant about, warning of an Iranian military response if the IDF doesn’t cease its constant attacks on the country. This could easily end up tanking the whole thing. Either way, I personally can’t see a whole lot to get excited about right now. Any ‘peace deal’ with Iran is at best a temporary pause in the US/Israeli efforts to topple Tehran while the US pursues other war agendas like regime change in Cuba.” (06/17/26)
“Private companies—whether making medical goods or anything else — flourish or fail by assessing risk well. The FDA doesn’t face that discipline. The agency’s only real power is to remove products from the market or stop them from entering it. That is a blunt instrument applied to an incredibly dynamic market for medical goods. More importantly, accepting risk is a matter of personal preference and available alternatives — circumstances that differ for every patient and cannot be aggregated into a one-size-fits-all standard without discarding what makes medical treatment effective in the first place.” (06/16/26)
“The results of my ACX Grants 2024 project are in. The project attempted to replicate the 2023 study ‘Learning at your brain’s rhythm: individualized entrainment boosts learning for perceptual decisions.’ It claimed that if you read a person’s brain waves, figured out an individual peak alpha frequency, and flashed a bright white light at that frequency, then they learned a certain perceptual task faster. Why bother? The result hinted that learning may depend in part on how well the brain keeps its rhythms coordinated.” (06/16/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
by Sarah McLaughlin
“The United Kingdom is unveiling a grand new policy it claims will protect children on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and X. The exact rules governing the ban will be released before its launch next year, but it will use age verification tools to restrict youth access to social media and other programs. But this new ‘under-16’ policy, like many others before it, is a misnomer. Because whether you’re 15 or 55, it will affect people regardless of age — and drain away all UK citizens’ ability to speak freely and anonymously online.” (06/16/26)
“A $69 billion merger between two real estate behemoths is set to create the largest publicly traded apartment landlord in U.S. history, dramatically expanding the market power of two firms that have been sued repeatedly over alleged tenant abuses and illegal price-fixing. Together, real estate investment trusts (REITs) AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential own more than 180,000 apartments nationwide, with another 20,000 under development. Were these two companies banks or broadcast networks or grocery stores, their merger would face mandatory review by federal regulators. But long-standing loopholes exempt real estate mergers from antitrust scrutiny — even as concerns mount about the consolidation of housing in the hands of large investors.” (06/17/26)
“With midterm elections just around the corner, both major political parties are themselves coping with divided constituencies. The Democratic Socialists vie for dominance against more moderate Democrats. MAGA Republicans confront disaffected libertarians and neocons. And outside all these polarized factions are millions of voters that don’t find any politician or political agenda credible enough to earn their allegiance. But there is a common thread shared by most disillusioned voters. They believe that America’s ruling class has abandoned its fellow citizens. They’re right. Notwithstanding notable recent defections, America’s elites view ordinary citizens as no longer necessary. Because of globalism, they are replaceable. Because of automation, supercharged by AI, they are superfluous. Because of environmentalism, they are unsustainable. A plurality (at the least) of America’s elites have decided the nation’s middle class is disposable, and this is the real reason they continue to push woke degeneracy and extreme environmentalism, designed to lower birthrates and reduce standards of living.” (06/17/26)
“The US government crackdown on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 hides a glaring truth: AI models with advanced hacking capabilities will soon be the norm.” (06/16/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The American taxpayer has become the cleanup crew for the American Police State. We pay for the constitutional violations. We pay for the wars. We pay for the lawsuits, the settlements, the cover-ups, the damage control, the reconstruction, the overreach, the incompetence and the corruption. And when government officials are finally called to account for their misconduct, we pay for that, too. That is the dirty little secret of government accountability in America: even when the government loses, the government does not really pay. ‘We the people’ do. This is not a problem invented by Donald Trump.” (06/16/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“On the issue of immigration, there are two completely different positions within the libertarian movement. One position favors a government-controlled, government-managed system in which federal officials centrally plan the numbers and characteristics of immigrants that will be permitted to enter the United States. The other position is commonly known as ‘open borders.’ This position is based on the principles of economic liberty and the free market. … Some libertarians attempt to ‘straddle the fence’ by endorsing what they call an ‘Ellis Island’ type of immigration-control system. … it’s not freedom — not genuine freedom. That’s a problem for libertarians, who purport to favor freedom, especially economic liberty and free-market principles.” (06/16/26)
“Ten years after Brexit, Britons must choke back an indigestible irony. Leaving the EU has been an unexpected success for those who voted against it: the prosperous Southeast, beneficiaries of the unloved colossus of London’s financial services. But it has been a disaster for those who voted for it, the left-behind of the neglected suburbs and provinces. Two reasons explain this paradox. First, the Brits let Barnier walk all over them on the backward-looking issues which dominated exit negotiations and regulate the rustbelt. Second, Brussels discovered that if it wanted to carry on its prodigal ways, it couldn’t do without London’s capital markets.” (06/16/26)
