Source: Town Hall
by Larry Elder
“In dealing with the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles police chief described his force as ‘overwhelmed’ by the protesters and rioters. The city, as is the case with many of America’s other large cities, suffers from inadequate manpower. The size of the LAPD is the smallest in 20 years. The George Floyd protest/riots-inspired ‘cops-are-out-to-get blacks’ narrative is not just false and insulting to cops — it gets people killed. The narrative has caused police officers to quit or retire early, and the negative image of the police discourages new applicants, resulting in manpower shortages in city after city.” [editor’s note: So what’s the down side? – TLK] (06/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2025/06/12/5th-anniversary-of-the-death-of-george-floyd-the-damage-continues-part-2-n2658637
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has appointed eight new people to the committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations, days after removing all 17 previous members. In an announcement on X, Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic, said reconstituting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) was ‘a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines.’ Kennedy said the new members ‘have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.’ Health experts have criticised his questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines, although he previously told the Senate he is ‘not going to take them away.’ Kennedy named the new members as Joseph R Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth and Michael A Ross to the committee.” (06/12/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4zyp26xn2o
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“Yet another former official in the government of Viktor Yanukovvch, the pro-Russia political leader who served as Ukraine’s elected president from 2010 until his ouster in Western-backed demonstrations in 2014, has been assassinated. On May 21, 2025, multiple gunmen shot Andriy Portnov, who had been a senior aide to Yanukovych, outside his children’s school near the Spanish capital, Madrid, after Portnov had dropped off his children. According to Spanish authorities, the assailants shot him several times before escaping into nearby woods. The incident had all the earmarks of a professional hit, and the current Ukrainian government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky is the principal suspect.” (06/12/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2025/06/11/more-wet-work-from-democratic-ukraine/
Source: CNBC
“Mounting trade tensions and tariffs have become the single biggest worry for global investors, overshadowing all other economic risks, a new survey shows. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of institutional investors and wealth managers identified trade levies as the most significant macroeconomic concern impacting their strategy, according to a survey published by British investment manager Schroders. The perceived risk from tariffs was more than six times greater than the next highest-ranking concern. The poll, which surveyed nearly 1,000 top investors representing a combined $67 trillion in assets, found that this trade uncertainty is fueling a demand for stability.” (06/12/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/12/tariffs-are-the-biggest-macroeconomic-concern-for-two-in-three-investors-poll-finds.html
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Press Sec Seethes at Journos as Harsh New Poll Shows Him Tanking.” (06/12/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/196718/trump-press-sec-seethes-journos-harsh-new-poll-shows-tanking
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“Ask around today and you’ll find most people treat rebellion like a relic – something you read about in school, never something you do. That wasn’t how George Mason saw things. On June 12, 1776, he put the right to overthrow government into law – bold, unapologetic, and binding. This wasn’t the language of a protest movement or the fine print of a petition. The Virginia Declaration of Rights didn’t ask permission. It made the right to alter or abolish government explicit. If government stops doing its job, the people step in and take charge. Most Americans have never even heard of this document. That’s no accident. Schools and politicians would rather you remember slogans than the law that made those slogans real.” (06/12/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/06/12/virginia-declaration-of-rights-the-legal-right-to-alter-or-abolish-government/
Source: SFGate
“The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action that Administrator Lee Zeldin said would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help ‘unleash’ American energy. The EPA also proposed weakening a regulation that requires power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm the brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults. The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Republican President Donald Trump’s repeated pledge to ‘unleash American energy’ and make it more affordable for Americans to power their homes and operate businesses.” (06/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/epa-set-to-roll-back-rules-that-limit-greenhouse-20372404.php
Source: Law & Liberty
by John O McGinnis
“Few debates matter more to the West’s future than the widening divide between left and right over the simple act of having children. Inside an April pronatalism conference in Austin, the roster stretched from the more traditionalist Catherine Pakaluk to libertarian Bryan Caplan. Outside, left-wing protesters branded the gathering ‘neo-Nazi.’ The answer to the question of whether children are worth having will shape everything from fiscal policy to cultural identity. The roots of the quarrel are worth tracing.” (06/12/25)
https://lawliberty.org/politics-of-the-cradle/
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“If there is one thing that threatens the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it’s the fact that it blows up the budget deficit. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will increase borrowing by a total of $2.4 trillion by 2034, because the $1.3 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs do not come close to canceling out $3.7 trillion in tax cuts for the rich. … A loud faction of Republican ‘deficit hawks’ are reportedly unhappy with this, not so much because of the tax cuts, but because the welfare and food aid cuts are not savage enough. But a smaller faction of Senate Republicans (perhaps scenting danger if they vote to throw millions of their own constituents off their health insurance) are wavering on the existing Medicaid cuts.” (06/12/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-06-12-republicans-beautiful-bill-deficit-medicaid/
Source: Seattle Times
“Sudanese paramilitaries at war with the country’s military for over two years claimed to have seized a strategic area along the border with neighboring Libya and Egypt. The Rapid Support Forces said in a statement Wednesday that they captured the triangular zone, fortifying their presence along Sudan’ s already volatile border with chaos-stricken Libya. The RSF’s announcement came hours after the military said it had evacuated the area as part of ‘its defensive arrangements to repel aggression’ by the paramilitaries. On Tuesday the military accused the forces of powerful Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter of supporting the RSF’s attack on the area, in a ‘blatant aggression against Sudan, its land, and its people.'” (06/12/25)
https://archive.is/485BZ
