Source: CounterPunch
by Paul Donnelly

“The colonists despised monarchy, having risked their lives fighting for independence and autonomy. Consequently, when the newly independent states created their first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, there was no executive branch. The people feared that a strong central government would threaten citizens’ rights. That weak government failed, so a new framework of government was created that included a President. Under the Constitution, this executive would be constrained by Congress. Congress issues orders, and the President executes them. Two hundred and fifty years later, our country is facing a crisis. Donald J. Trump is acting more like a monarch than an elected executive.” (06/11/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/11/the-monarchical-president/

Source: The American Conservative
by Anik Joshi

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has been the longest serving prime minister of Israel, having assumed the office in 1996 and served off and on for a total of almost two decades. His upcoming election looks to be a tossup, so there’s a fair chance voters will show him the door. Even if they do, analysts would be fools to write him off altogether, as they’ve tried to do many times before. And even if ‘Bibi,’ as he is known, doesn’t find a way back to power, the hardline militarism he represents will probably dominate Israeli politics for a long time. … for all the blame the man receives, he is doing what he was elected to do, and even his most hawkish supporters are far from the fringes of Israeli politics.” (06/11/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/you-cant-blame-netanyahu-for-israels-militarism/

Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey

“Trump threatens strikes on Iran, seizes oil islands, then cancels everything and claims a phantom peace deal. This erratic foreign policy spikes energy markets, expands government power …” (06/11/26)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/trumps-iran-flip-flops-bluff-madness

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen

“Throughout history, innovation has often provoked worry, and artificial intelligence has become the latest source of economic anxiety. Workers fear displacement, recent graduates worry that entry-level jobs may disappear, and politicians increasingly speak of the need to manage the transition. Across the world, governments are searching for ways to soften the disruptive effects of a technology that promises dramatic increases in productivity. The debate is often framed as a struggle between technological progress and employment. But that is not the real issue. The more important question is whether economic decisions will remain economic or become increasingly political. China’s response to artificial intelligence offers an early glimpse of this dilemma.” (06/10/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/ai-creative-destruction-and-politicization-economic-change

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“I had a post on the subject a few months ago; a recent online discussion started me thinking about it again and I have some new ideas. One was due to a poster whose list of ways government could reduce the birth rate included banning divorce. I suspected he had it backwards. The obvious reason to think that is that modern societies have both easy divorce and low birth rates. But correlation is not causation; there are other plausible reasons for low birth rates, some discussed in my earlier post. There are better reasons.” (06/10/26)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/how-to-raise-birth-rates