Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler
“Suddenly my cynicism vanished and things started making sense… America started making sense, from past to present. I was already in the process of writing this column — hey, the nation’s 250th birthday is coming up — and had never felt more lost. Where, where, where am I going with this? What am I trying to say? My words had no core, no soul. I felt like I had given myself the random rubble of a bombed-out building to write about. Then a friend sent me a link to a New York Times opinion piece. I decided to give it a quick read. I don’t necessarily trust the Times. It can be smugly wrong. But I took a look — it was by literary critic A.O. Scott — and I couldn’t stop reading it.” (06/14/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/all-humans-are-equal
Source: Reuters
“A Spanish High Court judge investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for suspected corruption has opened a separate probe over jewellery found during a search of his office, the court said on Friday. Zapatero, prime minister from 2004 to 2011, remains a leading figure in the main ruling Socialist Party and the graft allegations — which he has denied — have added to pressure on the government following a series of corruption scandals. Investigating judge Jose Luis Calama said the jewellery items seized during the May 19 search, provisionally valued at about €1.3 million ($1.5 million), currently lack documented proof of origin. He said the possession of high-value assets without clear fiscal traceability could indicate possible tax evasion or smuggling offences, citing the absence of customs documents or evidence that import duties had been paid.” (06/12/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/spain-opens-new-probe-into-ex-pm-zapatero-over-jewellery-found-office-2026-06-12/
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on a report from POLITICO claiming that tensions in the White House are rising, even between President Trump and his own advisors.” (06/12/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5911474-rising-june-12-2026/
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is likely that we will hear a common, but mistaken, interpretation of the Declaration by both establishment conservatives and progressive egalitarians. After repeating Jefferson’s words ‘that all men are created equal,’ they will make a simple, true observation — at the time of writing, not everyone was treated as ‘equal’ (e.g., slavery). Following that observation comes the supposition: since the historical period of colonial America did not match the ideal of modern, progressive egalitarianism, therefore, the centralized nation-state was required to increasingly achieve that ideal.” (06/12/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/declaration-independence-versus-egalitarianism
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“When three judges in courtroom 250 deliver their verdict at Oslo District Court early on Monday, Marius Borg Høiby — the son of the crown princess of Norway — will find out the extent of his sentence. Høiby, 29, will appear via video link because of unspecified health reasons, almost three months after his trial came to an end on 40 charges, including four counts of rape. He denies the most serious offences but admits some of the lesser charges involving drugs and traffic offences. Prosecutors say he should be given seven years and seven months in jail, whereas his defence lawyers believe he should serve a year-and-a-half. Høiby, whose mother married into the royal family when he was four, has been in custody since the start of February.” (06/14/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd95xvk4vn2o
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Hits Record-Breaking Low in Polls as Aides Leak: He’s ‘Furious.'” (06/12/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/211734/trump-hits-record-breaking-low-polls-aides-leak-he-furious
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“America has become an occupied nation. Not by one invading army, but by many occupying powers: the police state, the surveillance state, the war state, the corporate state, the foreign influence machine, and a ruling class that treats the American people as little more than collateral damage in its pursuit of power, profit and control. We have been policed, surveilled, taxed, indebted, manipulated, censored, tracked, searched, silenced and sold out.” (06/12/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/12/america-the-unfree-home-of-the-policed-surveilled-and-occupied/
Source: New York Post
by Victor Davis Hanson
“The grotesque sexual misconduct involving Democratic politicians (from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to California Rep. Eric Swalwell) has finally put #MeToo to rest. We were reminded of its demise when it was revealed that Maine senatorial candidate and socialist heartthrob Graham Platner had been discovered to possess a long social media history of crude and pornographic put-downs of women. The demise of Black Lives Matter offers another example of a recurring left-wing phenomenon: movements that begin as moral crusades and end as self-parodies. Almost every BLM cause célèbre has proved fraudulent, following a long tradition that stretches from Al Sharpton’s Tawana Brawley myth to the Duke lacrosse scandal. The aftermath of the death of George Floyd did lasting damage to the country that still reverberates. The current leftist habit of urban intersection takeovers, statue-toppling, name-changing, and violent demonstrations is a legacy of that summer of lawlessness.” (06/14/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/06/14/opinion/the-most-destructive-pillars-of-lefty-lunacy-are-finally-beginning-to-fall/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Rebecca Burgess
“Today’s veterans owe a special debt to the Greatest Generation of World War II.” (06/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/generational-debts-of-gratitude/
Source: NBC News
“The Pentagon on Friday released a third batch of vintage classified files related to ‘flying saucers’ and other unidentified anomalous phenomena — better known to most Americans as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs — that the government has been hanging on to for decades. The 72 newly released files date from the 1940s to this year and showed that government investigators had looked into UFO sightings not just in the United States, but also around the world. The files contain more reports of UFO sightings from the public and more reports on the phenomenon from both the CIA and the FBI. … just as the two previous times when the government, at the urging of President Donald Trump, released two tranches of ‘never-before-seen’ files on a subject that has intrigued Americans for generations, the new document drop will likely be a disappointment to those seeking definitive proof that we are not alone in the universe.” (06/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/third-batch-declassified-ufo-files-reveals-sightings-world-investigate-rcna349775