The University As We Know It Is Finished

Source: Persuasion
by Nils Gilman

“Any reimagining of the university in the age of AI must begin with an honest reckoning with what AI cannot do — and what therefore becomes relatively valuable precisely because AI can do everything else. The key distinction is between work that AI does well (such as synthesis of known patterns, argument elaboration, template instantiation, and generating local coherence) and work it structurally cannot do because of the architecture of the technology as such. AI cannot build the trust on which institutional cooperation depends, because trust is not a conclusion reached by processing information about another agent but instead is a relationship constituted over time between persons who have staked something on each other, and who can be betrayed. AI cannot give a person good taste or style, because taste and style are about personal distinctiveness within a community which shares an aesthetic.” (06/17/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-multiversity-is-finished

Everyone Should Be Free To Stay In or Get Out Of Social Security

Source: Town Hall
by Star Parker

“Trustees of the Social Security program just issued their annual report. Each year, the picture of the program’s solvency is dismal. But this year it’s even worse. Rather than falling short in 2033, as reported last year, this year the shortfall is projected to be in late 2032. That’s six years from now. Without action taken, benefits, per the report, will be cut 22% late in 2032. That means that every young working person is now forced to pay, by law, 12.4% of their pay — half paid by them and half paid by their employee — into a bankrupt system. As I recall, this is a free country. So, the fault is ours. We, the voters, sit by and allow this to be done to us. Even if the system was not broken and could pay benefits as promised, it still is a horrible situation.” (06/17/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2026/06/17/everyone-should-be-free-to-stay-in-or-get-out-of-social-security-n2677864

South Africa: Labour Unions Urge Workers to Shun Anti-Migrant Protests

Source: US News & World Report

“South Africa’s biggest labour unions ⁠on ⁠Wednesday urged workers not to ⁠participate in anti-immigrant protests that have seized the country, and said ​they could face consequences if they skip work to attend. South Africa is on edge ahead of a ‌June 30 deadline which anti-immigrant ‌groups have given for all undocumented foreigners to leave the country. Protests and potential civil ⁠unrest are ⁠expected, after weeks of sometimes violent xenophobic attacks. Four major unions including ​the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which represents around 2 million people, said in a statement that workers would not be protected if they do not go to work on June 30. … ‘Removing foreign nationals from workplaces, communities or public ​spaces will not reopen ⁠factories, repair municipalities, strengthen public healthcare or create sustainable jobs,’ said the unions COSATU, FEDUSA, SAFTU and NACTU.” (06/17/26)

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-17/south-african-labour-unions-urge-workers-to-shun-anti-migrant-protests

Your financial records have no Fourth Amendment protections

Source: The Hill
by Jay Rogers

“The protection that the framers wrote into our Constitution was not a general right to privacy. Rather, it was a specific warrant requirement for specific records — the same records that federal agencies can now reach through administrative subpoenas that require no judge’s signature. This is because of two key and relatively recent Supreme Court decisions. U.S. v. Miller in 1976 and Smith v. Maryland in 1979 replaced the Fourth Amendment’s requirement with a doctrine the Founders never intended. They established that information voluntarily shared with a third party loses Fourth Amendment protection.” (06/17/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5926033-financial-records-fourth-amendment/

The US-Iran Deal Could Help Transform America’s Mideast Strategy

Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov

“The threat of war had preserved American leverage, and the waging of war destroyed it. So long as the prospect of the use of force remained ambiguous, Iran had to hedge. Once force was actually applied and failed to produce decisive results, Tehran learned that the United States could not achieve its maximalist objectives militarily. That knowledge permanently shifted the bargaining dynamic. But this outcome need not be seen as catastrophic. It can instead produce a realistic reassessment of American presence and partnerships in the Middle East.” (06/17/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-u-s-iran-deal-could-help-transform-americas-mideast-strategy/

The Paradoxical Utopia of the World Cup

Source: Flagler Live
by Pierre Tristam

“Simon Kuper is 56 now. His first memory of a World Cup, if not his first-ever vivid memory — for many of us who grew up outside the United States, the two are often the same — was the 1978 final between the Netherlands and Argentina. ‘I recall that night as vividly as almost anything else in my childhood,’ he writes in World Cup Fever. ‘A World Cup is like Proust’s Madeleine. Each new World Cup reminds you of past World Cups, and the people you watched them with.’ The book is a history of the World Cup through a few dozen madeleines. For Americans, it’s as good a guide as any to a tournament of paradoxes, this too-big-to-fail quadrennial festival of corruption, cheating, profiteering, nationalist chauvinism, and mostly crappy soccer that nevertheless can hypnotize and transport to a utopia of competition as idealized and convincing as Pelé’s deification of the sport as ‘the beautiful game.'” (06/17/26)

https://flaglerlive.com/world-cup-fever/

US asks judge to halt first reparations program for black people in US

Source: The Hill

“The Justice Department is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging a Chicago suburb’s housing reparations program for [b]lack residents, arguing it is ‘racially discriminatory’ and unconstitutional. The city council in Evanston, Ill., earmarked $10 million in revenue generated from cannabis sales taxes in 2019 for a first-of-its-kind local reparations program for [b]lack residents and their direct descendants who suffered housing discrimination due to the city’s policies and practices between 1919 and 1969. … The Justice Department has alleged that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Fair Housing Act because it is ‘not narrowly tailored to remediating specific, identified instances of past discrimination’ and public money is distributed solely based on race.” (06/17/26)

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5927763-justice-department-evanston-reparations-housing-discrimination/