Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“For decades Congress has been gradually ceding its constitutional authority to the executive branch of government. And the executive branch has stretched that authority far beyond anything Congress or the Constitution intended. As the branch of government charged with levying taxes, including tariffs, it’s time for Congress to reclaim that constitutional authority. … It’s Congress’s job to impose and collect taxes and duties, which include tariffs. It’s not about whether tariffs are good or bad economic policy. It’s about who has the constitutional authority to impose them. … Remember how critical Republicans were of President Biden for searching for new legal authority when the Supremes ruled against his student loan forgiveness schemes? Would Republicans be just as critical if Trump does the same?” (06/03/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5329660-congress-regain-tariff-authority/
Source: Fox News
by Hugh Hewitt
“On Thursday, May 29, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation awarded an Honorary Bradley Prize to Jimmy Lai, a political prisoner of China’s General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Lai was a serial entrepreneur who began with nothing and founded and grew major businesses in China before his imprisonment, where his Hong Kong-based media organizations, including Apple News, prospered and where he had become a symbol of free speech in the embattled city. Lai is also the most prominent persecuted Catholic in the world and should be all that Pope Leo XIV needs to know about Xi and his sinister plans for the church in China. (Leo should exit the ill-advised agreement his predecessor entered into with the Chinese communists, an agreement that is as sacrilegious as it is dangerous to the worldwide church.)” (06/03/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/morning-glory-why-world-should-care-about-hong-kong-activist-jimmy-lai
Source: Ars Technica
“Tracking code that Meta and Russia-based Yandex embed into millions of websites is de-anonymizing visitors by abusing legitimate Internet protocols, causing Chrome and other browsers to surreptitiously send unique identifiers to native apps installed on a device, researchers have discovered. Google says it’s investigating the abuse, which allows Meta and Yandex to convert ephemeral web identifiers into persistent mobile app user identities. The covert tracking — implemented in the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica trackers — allows Meta and Yandex to bypass core security and privacy protections provided by both the Android operating system and browsers that run on it. … A representative for Google said the behavior violates the terms of service for its Play marketplace and the privacy expectations of Android users.” (06/03/25)
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are-de-anonymizing-android-users-web-browsing-identifiers/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trade, Immigration, Harvard, and Spending.” (06/03/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wf9RS1qyuw
Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse
“The Houston office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the most reliable engines of America’s deportation machine. Even before Donald Trump took office a second time, with the goal of 1 million immigrant expulsions in a year, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office was deporting 12,000 to 15,000 people annually, according to its director, Bret Bradford. Bradford — a darling of right-wing deportation coverage, from the New York Post to Fox News — touts his determination to ‘restore law and order in our communities.’ … Scores of internal documents reviewed by The Intercept paint a different picture and suggest a commitment to safety and law and order may stop at the entrance to ICE’s Houston Field Office.” (06/03/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/06/03/ice-houston-deportation-immigrants-whistleblower/
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Police in Mexico have detained a man known by the alias of M-47, whom they suspect of ordering the murder of members of the band Grupo Fugitivo. The bodies of four musicians from the band and their manager were discovered on Thursday in Tamaulipas state, four days after the men had been reported missing. Their relatives had reported receiving ransom demands in the days after the men’s disappearance. While kidnappings for ransom are not uncommon in violence-wracked Tamaulipas, the way band members were apparently lured to an abandoned lot by their kidnappers with the promise of a gig at a private party and then killed has shocked locals, who held rallies demanding their release. Police said they arrested M-47 during raids on three properties, in which they also seized drugs, weapons, cash and suspicious vehicles and detained two other suspects.” (06/03/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clygr1v6z2mo
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“Members of the Continental Congress were not all rich, possessed of prestigious degrees, or lawyers. But many had established leadership skills and could generally be considered successful individuals. Paine had none of these attributes. In no sense could he be considered an elite. His life until late 1774 was a train of personal and occupational failures. So how did he become — in some 13 months — the American Revolution’s major catalyst?” (06/03/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/failure-stop-thomas-paine
Source: Common Dreams
by Teri Mattson
“A storm is brewing in U.S.-Mexico relations, and its epicenter is the newly appointed U.S. ambassador: Ronald Johnson, a former Green Beret and CIA operative with deep ties to U.S. military interventions in Central America. Johnson arrived in Mexico City on May 15 and presented his diplomatic credentials to President Claudia Sheinbaum on May 19, triggering alarm among activists, political observers, and civil society leaders on both sides of the border. To many, Johnson’s appointment is not just a diplomatic formality — it’s a signal. ‘It’s a declaration of war, basically, on Mexico,’ said Marco Castillo, co-executive director of Global Exchange, during a recent episode of the podcast WTF Is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean. ‘It feels like one step before Trump attempts to set foot in Mexico.'” (06/03/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-hawk-mexico
Source: Seattle Times
“Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sued New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor on Tuesday over his arrest on a trespassing charge at a federal immigration detention facility, saying the Trump-appointed attorney had pursued the case out of political spite. Baraka, who leads New Jersey’s biggest city, is a candidate in a crowded primary field for the Democratic nomination for governor next Tuesday. The lawsuit against interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba coincided with the day early in-person voting began.
The lawsuit seeks damages for ‘false arrest and malicious prosecution,’ and also accuses Habba of defamation for comments she made about his case, which was later dropped.” (06/03/25)
https://archive.is/bkFpI
Source: US News & World Report
“Citigroup said on Tuesday it was rolling back a 2018 policy that placed restrictions on providing banking services to retail clients selling firearms, citing recent regulatory developments. Since the Trump administration took office in January, U.S. banks and regulators have come under scrutiny from lawmakers over allegations of denying services to certain industries or political groups. The banking industry has fiercely resisted the accusations, arguing that onerous, outdated and opaque rules make it difficult for them to sometimes provide services, or explain why they cannot. … The move comes after Republican-led states pushed legislation to discourage perceived discrimination by banks, and the patchwork of varying laws meant to ensure banks lend fairly has led to frustration in the industry.” (06/03/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-06-03/citi-to-drop-policy-restricting-services-to-retail-clients-selling-firearms
