Daily Business Report: Monday, June 16, 2025
Don’t Overlook The Union Factor In California’s Chaos
By Will Swaim | California Policy Center
All social movements require a patron saint. Californians who support illegal immigration believe they have theirs: David Huerta, president of the state’s Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Federal officers in Los Angeles arrested Huerta during a protest outside a business where ICE was executing a search warrant Friday — just one skirmish in what U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called “a coordinated” campaign of violence aimed at federal officers executing search warrants. Video seems to show that Huerta was part of a group attempting to block the driveway at a federal detention center. At one point in the chaotic scene, officers push Huerta and others to clear a path for an ICE vehicle. Huerta resists, then stumbles, falls, and appears to hit his head on a curb — but continues fighting with officers. He was reportedly pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, and taken to a hospital before being moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Crowds immediately attacked that building, with protesters spray-painting its walls with “Abolish ICE,” “F*** ICE,” and “Burn Prisons.”
Trump’s first 100 days show him dictating the terms of press coverage — and following Orbán’s playbook for media control
By Adam G. Klein | NiemanLab
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood before a captivated audience of conservative activists from the U.S. and laid out his vision for American politics.
The Western media, he declared at a May 2022 special meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee in Budapest, are “the root of the problem.” The key to conservatives reclaiming power in the United States? “Have your own media.”
Orbán spoke from experience, having systematically reshaped Hungary’s political landscape since 2010, largely by reining in the independent press and replacing it with a loyal media apparatus. His advice, though at odds with democratic values, was warmly embraced by his American admirers, including conservative journalists, podcasters and political leaders.
California’s battle against homelessness needs a ‘combined arms’ approach
By Dan Walters | CalMatters
World War II was the most massive military conflict in recorded history and one that redefined effective military strategy, moving away from the static set-piece battles of previous wars and toward mechanization, speed and, most importantly, “combined arms.”
As military strategist William S. Lind has written, “Combined arms hits the enemy with two or more arms simultaneously in such a manner that the actions he must take to defend himself from one make him more vulnerable to another.”
Nazi Germany was an early adopter, allowing it to quickly sweep through Western Europe during the early months of the war. Despite having the world’s largest army at the time, France was committed to static defenses rather than rigorous offense and fell in just a few weeks.
Germany’s lesson was not lost on its foes, particularly Great Britain and the U.S. The allies’ adoption of combined arms led to victory in Europe and the Pacific War against Japan.
This bit of military history is offered because California is losing its war on homelessness, largely because state and local governments are operating in political silos rather than combining their resources effectively.
