• Marie Le Pen leader of France’s far right party, the National Rally, failed to secure a single region in the decisive second round of voting in France’s off-year regional election. Le Pen and French President Emmanuel Macron hoped to use the election to boost their prospects before next year’s presidential election. But the outcome revived hopes for traditional conservative and socialist parties, which had been displaced by the rise of centrist Macron.
(“Far Right Stumbles in France,” Foreign Policy, June 28 2021; “Far Right National Rally Fails in Key Regional Elections,” BBC News, June 28, 2021)
• Billionaire Peter Thiel, a founder of PayPal, has publicly condemned ‘confiscatory taxes.” He’s been a major funder of Republican politicians and one of the most prominent anti-tax political action committees in the country. And he’s bankrolled a group that promotes building floating nations in the open ocean that would impose no compulsory income taxes.
(“How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account Into a $5 Billion Dollar Tax-Free Piggy Bank,” ProPublica, June 24, 2021)
• This November, Minneapolis voters will be asked if they want to change the charter to have a department of public safety instead of a police department. The Yes 4 Minneapolis Coalition wants to make it clear that getting rid of cops is not their intent. Instead, they say handing off tasks such as mental health intervention and low-level traffic enforcement to other professionals would help police do their jobs.
(“The Fight To Abolish a Police Department in Minneapolis,” In These Times, July, 2021)
