Source: Town Hall
by Larry Elder
“It’s been five years since the George Floyd/BLM protests and riots. Therefore, the leftwing legacy media seizes upon this occasion to pull out its race-colored thermometer to measure America’s post George Floyd ‘racial progress.’ A recent New York Times headline read, ‘Five Years After Floyd — We look at what has changed since George Floyd’s murder.’ According to the Times, not much: ‘States and cities enacted new policies aimed at improving policing, but the data suggests that these changes have had little impact on accountability or the number of killings by police officers.’ Another Times article wrote: ‘Sunday is the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, a searing moment of brutality that ignited what may have been the largest social movement in U.S. history. Five years later, the movement that his death helped begin may feel like it’s in reverse.'” (06/05/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2025/06/05/5th-anniversary-of-the-death-of-george-floyd-the-damage-continues-part-1-n2658214
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Goods brought into the US plunged by 20% in April, recording their largest ever monthly drop in the face of a wave of tariffs unleashed by US President Donald Trump. The retreat reflects the abrupt hit to trade, after firms had rushed products into the country earlier this year to try to get ahead of new taxes on imports Trump had promised. US purchases from major trade partners such as Canada and China fell to their lowest levels since 2021 and 2020 respectively, the Commerce Department said. The collapse helped to cut the US trade deficit – the gap between exports and imports – in goods by almost half, a record decline, according to the report. ‘The April trade report indicates the impact from tariffs has well and truly arrived,’ said Oxford Economics, while noting that the latest figures should be interpreted with caution, given the surge in activity earlier this year.” (06/05/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgqzpljx3do
Source: Semafor
“The European Union gave Bulgaria the green light to join the euro, but political ructions in Sofia threaten to torpedo its accession. The European Commission and European Central Bank’s approval for Bulgaria to become the 21st country to join the common currency marks a significant step for the Balkan nation, which joined the EU in 2007 and has pegged its lev currency to the euro since 1999. Yet domestic enthusiasm for the euro has waned, with half of Bulgarians now skeptical of the currency union and far-right parties demanding a delay or dismissal of the plans.” (06/05/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/06/05/2025/eu-greenlights-bulgaria-joining-the-euro
Source: Politico
“Trump’s after-hours hat trick” (06/05/25)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL8903557022.mp3?updated=1749103453
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“When Libertarian Institute Senior Fellow Ted Galen Carpenter published America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course Over Taiwan in 2005, it was met with polite attention and quiet dismissal by most of the foreign policy establishment, which at that time was focused on destruction and destabilization in the Middle East. Two decades later, his arguments read not as theoretical provocations but as tragic prophecies. The deepening crisis in U.S.-China relations, particularly as it relates to the increasingly volatile question of Taiwan, is unfolding precisely along the lines Carpenter warned about. In an era of bipartisan hawkishness, Carpenter’s sober realism and principled non-interventionism deserve renewed attention.” (06/05/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-timely-warning-reassessing-ted-galen-carpenters-americas-coming-war-with-china/
Source: CounterPunch
by Peter Bach
“While the Trump administration deploys Palantir to create detailed portraits of millions of Americans, the UK Data (Use and Access) Bill sits on its own edge of becoming law. This could mean more Palantir as they already have contracts here — notably the £330 million (nearly $440 million) one developing the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP). The same Palantir of course said to be enabling ICE with their mass US deportations through their innocently called Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS). … The government says it’s progress. They always do. But critics, those who still care about liberty and a person’s right to be left alone, call it something else: surveillance.” (06/05/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/05/big-data-small-liberties/
Source: US News & World Report
“Popular vape brands like Geek Bar may get more expensive in the U.S. — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the U.S. ground to a near halt in May from a year ago, official data shows, hit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorised e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavoured vapes that is not authorised to sell in the U.S. but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named because their business sells unauthorised vapes, told Reuters that one of the store’s vape suppliers normally receives 100 boxes of Geek Bar vapes per week, but is now getting just ten. Another supplier imposed unprecedented purchase limits.” 906/05/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-06-05/us-faces-vape-shortage-as-china-tariffs-seizures-hit-geek-bar
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Vetoes UN Resolution for Ceasefire in Gaza, Putin To Respond to Ukrainian Drone Attack, and More.” (06/05/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHYJc59Ed8
Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“Musk’s MAGA self-deportation isn’t a total victory for any political faction. The Department of Government Efficiency remains in place; Democrats and liberal groups are still suing to undo its work. And the Musk/DOGE effort to demolish USAID fulfilled a basic nationalist project, pulling back resources for noncitizens and giving the money to Americans. (The agency’s offices are being refitted for Customs and Border Protection.) But the long-term Trump project, which has been succeeding all year, is transforming the Republican Party from Reaganite national greatness to nationalism — more like Viktor Orban’s Fidesz than George W. Bush’s GOP. … The punishment matters less than the policy, which is to stop seeing the national debt as an existential threat, and understand immigration as an existential threat. Who wins if Trump-endorsed Republicans run on that, and candidates backed by a Musk PAC talk about cutting the deficit? The ending to that story is even more predictable than the ending of this one.” (06/05/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/06/05/2025/the-maga-right-declares-victory-over-elon-musk
Source: Racket News
by Eric Salzman
“Will Rodgers once said, ‘It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.’ One way or another we have all been given this sage advice, and some of us have learned the lesson the hard way. Reputation is everything. Except for Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs seems to defy reputation risk time and time again. The story of the 1MDB (Malaysian Development Berhad) scandal shows beyond much doubt, Goldman can pretty much do whatever the hell it wants. If Goldman gets caught, it enters a deferred prosecution agreement — as was the case with 1MDB — or pays a fine and then goes on its way as if nothing happened.” (06/05/25)
https://www.racket.news/p/nothing-stops-goldman-sachs
