Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Arman Sidhu
“There is a contradiction at the heart of the G7’s new approach to critical minerals. When the Group of Seven closed its summit in Évian-les-Bains on June 17, it issued a statement insisting that these supply chains should be ‘governed by market principles.’ Yet almost every measure the alliance endorsed would put governments in charge instead.” (06/24/26)
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“The man accused of killing several in Montreal before being shot dead by police wrote a manifesto. Somewhat unfortunately, it wasn’t completely insane. I cannot, of course, endorse his ultimate conclusion. He takes Jordan B Peterson a step further. Rather than leaving vague how we’re going to enforce monogamy, our shooter asks his fellow men to follow his lead in taking up arms and doing enough terrorism to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a semi-Marxist state that will force women into lifelong monogamy with losers at gunpoint. That plan has a few problems. Among them (not even near the top) is that the vast majority of men who have the ability to plan and execute a successful terrorist attack do not have anywhere near enough trouble getting laid to seriously consider it.” (06/24/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/on-hypergamy-and-what-the-montreal
Source: Politico
“The Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday allowing President Petr Pavel to attend the July NATO summit in Ankara. The court’s ruling partially resolves the ongoing dispute between Pavel and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who announced on Monday that Pavel could not be part of the country’s delegation. Pavel filed a competency lawsuit the following day, seeking clarity on who has the authority to decide whether the head of state may attend the NATO summit. While the court will take up the ultimate question in an expedited manner in the coming weeks, it cited precedent from past presidents’ summit attendance, as well as Friday’s accreditation deadline, as grounds for the immediate injunction.” (06/24/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/czech-constitutional-court-petr-pavel-nato-summit/
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Mark Leonard on Whether Europe is Doomed.” (06/23/26)
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker
“The closest thing we have in this country to a pandemic plan is called the Pandemic Action Crisis Plan or PanCap. It remains the prevailing unclassified document. It posits stay-at-home orders, school closures, business shutdowns, office closures, travel restrictions, testing, track-and-trace, and the creation and distribution of countermeasures called vaccines. … This approach has no precedent in the long history of public health. The old way was to keep calm, understand the illness, treat those affected, and use rational approaches to mitigate the impacts. The new way invented in 2005 is about command and control, pretending to manage the microbial kingdom like an engineering project.” (06/24/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-pandemic-plan-needs-to-be-torn-up/
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ian Proud
“Sir Keir Starmer bowed to the inevitable Monday and resigned from leadership of the Labour Party and, therefore, from his role as prime minister. The resignation had been brewing for some time. While Starmer led the Labour Party to an astounding landslide election victory in July 2024, by September 2025, he was already being labeled the most unpopular prime minister since polling began; this followed a series of U-turns and poorly handled crises. After heavy losses of council seats in local elections in May, the Labour Party moved quickly to remove him. Former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is expected to become prime minister after an internal Labour Party leadership contest. (Labour maintains a majority in parliament, so it maintains the right to form a government.) Burnham will quickly find that he doesn’t have the money to fix public services, double defense spending, and continue to fund an unwinnable war in Ukraine.” (06/24/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uk-burnham-starmer-ukraine/
Source: SFGate
“U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jerrold Nadler, two of the top Democrats in Congress, are retiring when their terms expire in January, but they will continue to make their imprints on Washington. The pair passed the torch Tuesday night to former aides who won the Democratic primaries to replace them on Capitol Hill, and because both districts are overwhelmingly blue, they are all but certain to win in November and get sworn in to replace their former bosses. Hoyer and Nadler are the latest lawmakers to successfully anoint their successors after spending decades in Congress. Among 68 members of Congress not seeking reelection this year, at least five have endorsed former staffers to replace them and more than a dozen others have, to varying degrees, worked to smooth the path to Capitol Hill for their favored replacements.” (06/24/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/ex-aides-win-primaries-to-replace-retiring-22318270.php
Source: Checks & Balances
“Corruption Blooming Like Algae in the Reflecting Pool.” (06/24/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/corruption-blooming-like-algae-in
Source: Liberal Currents
by Steve Kennedy
“Most attention surrounding Callais has focused on congressional maps, particularly in Louisiana and other Southern states where Black voters have successfully challenged racially discriminatory district lines since the passage of the VRA. But the decision will have effects up and down the ballot, including for races as consequential as for state supreme courts.” (06/24/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/callais-affects-more-than-just-congress/
Source: Los Angeles Times
by David Helvarg
“The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington has turned pea green with algal growth — as shallow bodies of still water tend to do in summer when temperatures rise. President Trump’s $14-million no-bid ‘American flag blue’ paint job was never going to stop that. It may in fact have contributed, as being darker than the previous pool bottom it absorbs heat more readily.” (06/24/26)