01/23 -- Syria: Regime, rebels to begin talks; Yes, Trump is unethical

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Thomas L. Knapp

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Jan 23, 2017, 6:47:59 AM1/23/17
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 01/23/17
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Today's Freedom News:

1)  Syria: Regime, rebels to begin talks
2)  Gambia: West African invasion force enters capital as Jammeh flees
3)  Snowden's preferred email provider, Lavabit, has been resurrected
4)  Conway: Spicer used "alternative facts" in press briefing
5)  Trump, Netanyahu speak as Israeli regime moves on squats
6)  Ireland: Police federation condemns "terrorist gun attack"
7)  TX: Brady Campaign opens San Antonio office
8)  UK: Bristol police shoot Taser at their own race relations adviser
9)  Some women skip Washington Women's March in rift over abortion
10) NY: Cuomo requires insurance companies to cover some abortions & most contraception
11) Trump makes it official: He will renegotiate NAFTA
12) Conway: Trump may not enforce individual health insurance mandate
13) Trump regime condemns America's "dangerous anti-police atmosphere"
14) CA: Obama grants last-minute clemency to Modesto pot shop owner
15) UK: May has "faith" in Trident after test "malfunction"
16) DC: Pot protesters welcome Trump with 4,200 joints
17) China: Regime unveils stealth drone with 4,400 lbs payload
18) Billion-dollar hacker gang now using Google services to control its banking malware
19) MI: Students arrested for passing out pocket Constitutions sue school
20) Army: Your new handgun will be a Sig Sauer

Today's Freedom Commentary:

21) Yes, Trump is unethical
22) If cops can't kill mundanes on a whim, what's the point of having police?
23) Secrets and lies
24) FCC's Net Neutrality enforcement policy should be rated zero
25) Snitches get dents
26) How not to respond to remorseful Trump voters
27) Now the left should focus on its own backyard
28) Why trade restrictions always backfire
29) A tale of two moralities, part 1: Regional inequality and moral polarization
30) The meaning of Chelsea Manning
31) Stop trying to control one another
32) 2017: From Bolshevism to "polite persecution?"
33) With Trump, a VERY DIFFERENT presidency
34) It's not transphobic to question transgenderism
35) Inauguration riots only serve Trump's interests
36) We demand inefficiency
37) Trump's protectionism isolates US on global stage, emboldens China
38) Post-inaugural rage & loathing -- my hot times in 2005
39) Huh? Say what?
40) The poisonous politics of David Brock
41) Are "deficit hawks" prepared for Trump's proposed spending cuts?
42) The slow-motion state murder of Michael Whiteley
43) What the clemency of Chelsea Manning means about Obama
44) A principle for all seasons
45) Divide and rule: Class, hate, and the 2016 election
46) As the briefing room turns
47) Donald Trump's authoritarian politics of memory
48) The ship of state, really? Or, everyone's #NotMyPresident
49) Trump will not make America great again
50) This week in the patriarchy ...? Jessica Valenti, you lunatic
51) New boss speaks ...
52) Pricing laws violate free speech
53) Hate corporations and love governments -- an ideological monstrosity
54) A field guide to humanoids
55) Abortion extortion

Today's Freedom Podcast & Video

56) The KN@PP Stir Podcast, episode 113
57) Cato Daily Podcast, 01/20/17
58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 830
59) Felony Friday, episode 55
60) Free Talk Live, 01/21/17

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FREEDOM NEWS
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1)  Syria: Regime, rebels to begin talks
Source: USA Today

"The Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the rebel militants working to oust him will begin the latest round of talks Monday aimed at solidifying a cease-fire and easing the humanitarian crisis that has dragged on for much of the six-year civil war. The talks held in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana, if successful, could also lay the groundwork for a comprehensive political solution to the crisis. The two-day talks are led by Russia, Turkey and Iran, the same nations that brokered the rickety cease-fire that began Dec. 30." (01/22/17)


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2)  Gambia: West African invasion force enters capital as Jammeh flees
Source: France 24 [France]

"Gambia's capital was awaiting the arrival of the country's new leader Adama Barrow as West African troops moved to secure the capital, just hours after Yahya Jammeh, the authoritarian ruler of 22 years, flew into exile. West African military forces were seen entering the Gambian presidential compound in the country's capital on Sunday as they sought to secure new President Adama Barrow's arrival before he takes office. Yahya Jammeh, who led Gambia for 22 years but refused to accept defeat in the December 1st presidential election, flew out of Banjul late on Saturday en route to Equatorial Guinea as the regional force threatened to intervene. Barrow is waiting to get the green light from the ECOWAS forces before he returns to Banjul." (01/22/17)


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3)  Snowden's preferred email provider, Lavabit, has been resurrected
Source: Engadget

"Lavabit, the encrypted email provider Edward Snowden favored, has risen from the ashes with more security features than before. If you'll recall, company chief Ladar Levison shut it down in 2013 instead of complying with the government's demand to hand over its SSL encryption key. Authorities targeted the provider in order to get to the whistleblower's communications, but a gag order prevented Lavabit from confirming that was the case until last year. In order to ensure its users' privacy, the resurrected Lavabit uses a new architecture that physically prevents the company from handing over its SSL key." (01/21/17)


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4)  Conway: Spicer used "alternative facts" in press briefing
Source: The Hill

"A top adviser to President Donald Trump on Sunday said White House press secretary Sean Spicer provided 'alternative facts' to reporters during his first briefing. 'You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving, Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,' [Kellyanne] Conway said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Host Chuck Todd fired back at Conway over her comments. 'Look, alternative facts are not facts,' said Chuck Todd. 'They're falsehoods.' Spicer on Saturday conducted his first press briefing with reporters, railing against the media for its coverage of the crowd size at Trump's inauguration ceremony." (01/22/17)


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5)  Trump, Netanyahu speak as Israeli regime moves on squats
Source: NDTV [India]

"US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak on Sunday for the first time since his inauguration, with Israel already taking advantage of his support by pushing through settlement [sic] plans. Netanyahu said he was to speak with Trump later in the day, while Israeli officials also approved hundreds of new [squatter] homes that had been postponed until after he took office. Beyond that, hardline Israeli ministers were pushing a plan to unilaterally annex a large Jewish [squat] near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, a move many say could badly damage prospects for a two-state solution." (01/22/17)


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6)  Ireland: Police federation condemns "terrorist gun attack"
Source: CBS News

"Northern Ireland officials say that a police officer has been shot in the arm in Belfast -- a shooting a police federation condemned as 'a terrorist gun attack.' ... The officer was shot in the arm in a drive-by attack at a gas station. Since a peace deal ended decades of violence between pro-British Protestant unionists and Catholic Irish nationalists in 1998, shootings targeting police have been relatively infrequent, Reuters reported." (01/22/17)


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7)  TX: Brady Campaign opens San Antonio office
Source: NBC News

"A suspect was in custody and a second remained at large Sunday after a bystander was killed and five other people were injured in an attempted robbery at a mall in San Antonio, Texas, police said. At least two of the five people with injuries were struck by gunfire, said authorities, who didn't report their conditions. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus described a terrifying scene in which a bystander who was simply trying to help was shot and killed, one suspect was shot and wounded, and a second suspect fled through Rolling Oaks Mall spraying bullets as he ran." (01/22/17)


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8)  UK: Bristol police shoot Taser at their own race relations adviser
Source: New York Daily News

"A pair of Bristol police officers were caught on video firing a Taser at a man tasked with easing relations between the black community and law enforcement after they mistook him for a wanted criminal. Judah Adunbi, 63, was approached by officers while he was walking his dog near his home in the Easton area, the Guardian reported. Video footage recorded by a neighbor show police asking Adunbi to identify himself, which he refuses to do. Officers repeatedly ask the man his name and explain to him they believe he's a wanted person. 'I've done no wrong,' he tells them in the recording. 'Leave me alone.' When Adunbi tries to get through the gates and into his home, officers can be seen wrestling with him for a moment before stunning him in the face with the Taser. The discharge was enough to knock him to the ground." (01/22/17)


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9)  Some women skip Washington Women's March in rift over abortion
Source: Raw Story

"Melissa Linebaugh was looking forward to taking part in the Women's March on Washington with her mother and her 9-year-old daughter. A self-described Christian liberal from Dover, Pa., she was horrified by Donald Trump's rhetoric toward women and minorities during the presidential campaign. This was their chance, she thought, to stand with other women in support of a more inclusive and equal world. Then she read that the organizers had refused to partner with a group of anti-abortion feminists. Would she, Linebaugh wondered, be welcome? 'As liberal as I am, my one real issue that I struggle with is abortion,' she said. Across the United States, many women who oppose abortion decided to stay away from the marches planned in Washington and around the country Saturday. Others said that they would march anyway, though in some cases it would be to protest what they see as the outsize influence of abortion providers on the women's movement." (01/22/17)


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10) NY: Cuomo requires insurance companies to cover some abortions & most contraception
Source: Fox News

"New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that he was requiring health insurance companies to cover medically necessary abortions and most forms of contraception at no cost [sic] to women. Cuomo's announcement comes on the same day that over a million people around the world took to the streets to protest Donald Trump just hours into his presidency. The 'Women's March' attracted protesters who mostly sported pro-women and anti-Trump messages. Hundreds of 'sister marches' were held in cities across the U.S. and internationally. Cuomo took to Twitter to talk about his effort to 'firmly secure access to reproductive health services in New York State.'" (01/22/17)


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11) Trump makes it official: He will renegotiate NAFTA
Source: USA Today

"Donald Trump's incoming administration has wasted no time setting as official policy the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, moves send shock waves through the automotive industry. Until now, automakers and auto executives have been reluctant to publicly speak out about the potential consequences of renegotiating or pulling out of NAFTA because Trump's comments on the campaign trail were not official White House policy. But on Friday, shortly after Trump was sworn in, the administration pledged to negotiate 'tough and fair' trade agreements with the goal of creating more U.S. jobs as one of its top policy issues posted on Whitehouse.gov." (01/22/17)


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12) Conway: Trump may not enforce individual health insurance mandate
Source: Reuters

"The Trump administration may no longer enforce a rule requiring individual Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty if they do not, a senior White House official said on Sunday. Speaking on ABC's 'This Week' program, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said President Donald Trump 'may stop enforcing the individual mandate.' Separately, on CBS' 'Face the Nation' show, she reiterated Republican promises that no one would lose their health insurance under Obamacare while a replacement is being developed. 'For the 20 million who rely upon the Affordable Care Act in some form, they will not be without coverage during this transition time,' she said. On Friday Trump signed an executive order concerning the 2010 healthcare law, urging U.S. agencies to 'waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation' of provisions deemed to impose fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals." (01/22/17)


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13) Trump regime condemns America's "dangerous anti-police atmosphere"
Source: Reuters

"The Trump administration condemned what it called the 'anti-police atmosphere' in America and called for more law enforcement and more effective policing in a statement on the White House website after President Donald Trump's inauguration. 'The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump administration will end it,' said the statement on (www.whitehouse.gov) after it was taken over by the new administration." (01/20/17)


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14) CA: Obama grants last-minute clemency to Modesto pot shop owner
Source: Smell the Truth

"In one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of a Modesto man serving 20 years for simply operating a legal medical marijuana dispensary. The White House announced Thursday that 37-year-old Ricardo Montes will be released from prison on May 19 after serving nearly half of a 20-year sentence for illegal marijuana distribution and conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, reports the Sacramento Bee. Montes and his high school friend Luke Scarmazzo were charged for crimes in 2008 related to the running of their medical marijuana dispensary, the California Healthcare Collective. Since then, over half of the U.S. has legalized marijuana use for either medical or recreational use, while a 2015 decision by U.S. lawmakers blocked both the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration from interfering with state-legal marijuana dispensaries." [editor's note: Nice, but too little, too late – SAT] (01/20/17)


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15) UK: May has "faith" in Trident after test "malfunction"
Source: BBC News [UK state media]

"Theresa May says she has 'absolute faith' in the UK's nuclear weapons system despite reports that an unarmed missile went off course during a test. The Sunday Times says the missile, fired in June, veered off course, weeks before a crucial Commons vote on Trident's future. When questioned by the BBC, Mrs. May repeatedly refused to say if she knew about the misfire ahead of the vote. Nicola Sturgeon said it was a 'hugely serious issue.'" (01/22/17)


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16) DC: Pot protesters welcome Trump with 4,200 joints
Source: The Daily Liberator

"The only place in town Trump supporters and Trump protesters could be found doing something together on inauguration day is 'waiting in line for marijuana,' says Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ, the pro-cannabis advocacy group that was key in making pot legal in the nation's capital. Eidinger and his colleagues spent the day handing out thousands of free joints to anyone in D.C. who wanted one. It's a way of 'welcoming Donald Trump to Washington,' he says, 'and letting him know we've legalized here and we don't want our rights taken away.'" (01/22/17)


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17) China: Regime unveils stealth drone with 4,400 lbs payload
Source: Times of Islamabad [Pakistan]

"China has revealed a stealth drone that that has two internal bomb bays that could carry payload of about 4,400lbs. Dubbed 'Sharp Sword,' built by Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the unmanned aerial vehicle won second place in China's National Science and Technology Advancement Prizes, and is the first non-NATO craft of its kind, according to Popular Science." (01/20/17)


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18) Billion-dollar hacker gang now using Google services to control its banking malware
Source: The Hacker News

"Carbanak -- One of the most successful cybercriminal gangs ever that's known for the theft of one billion dollars from over 100 banks across 30 countries back in 2015 -- is back with a BANG! The Carbanak cyber gang has been found abusing various Google services to issue command and control (C&C) communications for monitoring and controlling the machines of unsuspecting malware victims." (01/19/17)


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19) MI: Students arrested for passing out pocket Constitutions sue school
Source: Reason

"Two members of Young Americans for Liberty's (YAL) Kellogg Community College (KCC) chapter have filed suit against the Michigan school following their arrest on campus last September for passing out pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution without administrative permission. Michelle Gregoire (a student at KCC) and Brandon Withers, along with KCC's YAL chapter are suing the school, its Board of Trustees, and several high-ranking administrators for violating the students' 'clearly established constitutional rights' when they were charged with trespassing and jailed for seven hours (the charges which were dismissed 10 days later, according to Watchdog.org)." (01/21/17)


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20) Army: Your new handgun will be a Sig Sauer
Source: Army Times

"Half a decade into its search for a new handgun, the Army has chosen Sig Sauer's version of the Modular Handgun System, according to a Thursday announcement from the Army. The new sidearm will replace the M9 Beretta, the Army's pistol of choice for more than 30 years. 'I am tremendously proud of the Modular Handgun System team,' said Army acquisition executive Steffanie Easter in the release. 'By maximizing full and open competition across our industry partners, we have optimized private sector advancements in handguns, ammunition and magazines and the end result will ensure a decidedly superior weapon system for our warfighters.'" (01/19/17)


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FREEDOM COMMENTARY
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21) Yes, Trump is unethical
Source: Cafe Hayek
by Don Boudreaux

"Mr. Trump's ethics tell him that he (or other state officials) have the right to restrict the ways in which I may peacefully spend my own income. But my income belongs to me; it does not belong to Trump; it does not belong to the government; it does not belong to the country or to 'the People;' it does not belong to American corporations or to American workers. It belongs to me and to me alone. And of course what's true for my income is true for the income of every other peaceful person. Yet Trump bellows as if it is not only appropriate, but downright noble, for him to interfere in my and others' peaceful commercial affairs, conducted with our own incomes, for the sole reason that some of those affairs are with non-Americans. Such interference is unethical." (01/21/17)


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22) If cops can't kill mundanes on a whim, what's the point of having police?
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Will Grigg

"To the ears of reasonable people, the expression 'de-policing' would refer to the process of abolishing police departments -- not the exercise of restraint by police officers in the use of lethal force by police officers. The latter would be described as 'de-escalation,' an approach that was once taught to, and expected of, officials whose formal designation, after all, is 'peace officers.' De-escalation is incompatible with the militarized mindset of police who have undergone 'Bulletproof Warrior' and 'No More Hesitation' training that indoctrinates them to view the public they supposedly serve as an undifferentiated mass of menace." (01/20/17)


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23) Secrets and lies
Source: The Libertarian Enterprise
by L Neil Smith

"Naturally, all of the conservatives in the New Media are going fully as ape-shit as they accuse their unhappy anti-Trump opponents of going. They are absolutely beside themselves (and kind of funny to watch), with self-righteous indignation because a very humble and vulnerable Army private did their job for them. She paid the price. Manning was tried and imprisoned for releasing 750,000 secret government documents, many of them detailing dubious or illegal government activity, not to some enemy, but to Wikileaks, and thus to the entire world, including the very individuals who are forced, every year, at implicit IRS gunpoint, to pay for them. In a democracy, supposedly comprised of self-ruling people, the government has absolutely no right to secrecy, or else how will these self-ruling people know what decisions to make?" (01/22/17)


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24) FCC's Net Neutrality enforcement policy should be rated zero
Source: Heartland Institute
by Scott Cleland

"Apparently, no good deed goes unpunished for the outgoing Federal Communications Commission. A week before the transition to the new administration, the FCC's Wireless Bureau issued a report about mobile 'zero-rating' plans, which provide consumers the option of free data usage paid by advertising. The report posited that AT&T's Sponsored Data and Verizon Wireless'[s] FreeBee Data offerings could be net neutrality violations. How can providing consumers the freedom of choice to pay less for more content in trade for seeing ads be a problem for consumers?" (01/22/17)


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25) Snitches get dents
Source: A Geek With Guns
by Christopher Burg

"Is your vehicle a snitch? If you have a modern vehicle, especially one with Internet connectivity, the answer is almost certainly yes ... As a quick aside, it should also be noted that the cell phone you carry around contains the hardware necessary to perform these same forms of surveillance. So don't start bragging about the old vehicle you drive if you're carrying around a cell phone. There are two major problems here. The first problem is technological and the second is statism." (01/20/17)


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26) How not to respond to remorseful Trump voters
Source: Cracked
by John Cheese

"For the past two weeks, I haven't been able to get on Twitter for more than a few minutes before seeing someone retweet a Trump supporter who's expressing regret over their vote. In every instance, without fail, the responses I've seen to people who are realizing they're in danger of losing their insurance has been one of the following statements ... and as much as you're going to hate hearing it, none of this shit is even remotely helpful. 'What did you expect to happen, you fucking idiot?!' This is a flat-out 'I told you so,' and it does absolutely nothing outside of making the person who says it feel like they won. It's a self-gratifying, bullshit response that people use to make themselves feel better. It's emotional masturbation." [editor's note: I disagree. Coddling regretful winning voters is a bad idea. Always make them own what they bought – TLK] (01/22/16)


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27) Now the left should focus on its own backyard
Source: The New Republic
by Graham Vyse

"'I need to ask a second question,' Liz Jaff said, 'and it's not going to work well with the lighting.' The 31-year-old head of business development for Crowdpac, the political crowdfunder, was on stage at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night, squinting into a dark audience of liberal lawyers and progressive activists gathered for the Rise Above conference -- a strategy session for the left to convert the energy behind the day's expectations -- shattering Women's March into practical political resistance and revival under President Donald Trump. Jaff, though, wanted everyone to understand how Democrats got here: devastated at the local, state, and national level. 'Please put up your hand if you donated to the presidential race,' Jaff said to the audience." (01/20/17)


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28) Why trade restrictions always backfire
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed

"When the U.S. imposed a tariff on magazine paper from Canada in 2015, workers at a financially troubled paper mill in Maine cheered. Less than two years later, their jobs are gone and the mill is closed. It wasn't supposed to happen that way. Tariffs, protectionists tell us, help the domestic economy, or at least certain industries. The truth is that restrictions on imports almost always backfire. By suppressing competition, they make domestic industries less efficient; they raise prices both on imports and the competing domestic products; they don't spur us to fix our own problems or products but instead, they make us sloppy; and they hurt consumers who face higher prices and often fewer choices." (01/22/17)


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29) A tale of two moralities, part 1: Regional inequality and moral polarization
Source: Niskanen Center
by Will Wilkinson

"The United States is not very united. Americans have been sorting themselves along ideological lines into like-minded regions of the country, increasing polarization in congressional voting patterns, and creating a striking division in political preference and party loyalty between city-dwellers and the denizens of low-density exurban and rural counties. That's how Hillary Clinton managed to lose the Electoral College vote to Donald Trump despite beating his overall vote total by nearly three million votes. There are more Democratic voters, but they are densely concentrated in a handful of Democrat-heavy cities and states, while Republicans are spread relatively thinly but evenly across the country's non-urban expanse." (01/19/17)


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30) The meaning of Chelsea Manning
Source: Reuters
by John Lloyd

"Outgoing President Barack Obama required some nerve to commute Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who was responsible for a 2010 leak of classified materials to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Manning, previously known as U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, was clearly guilty of violating the Espionage Act, the main charge against her. The 35-year sentence was designed not so much to punish Manning, as to warn others in the services against following her lead, with possibly disastrous consequences. As Manning admitted while accepting guilt for ten of the charges against her, uploading 250,000 diplomatic cables and many thousands of battlefield reports into WikiLeaks, whose purpose (according to its creator, Julian Assange, is to destabilise governments) was not a good idea. But in a democratic society, the day-to-day relationship between the state and the news media only partly depends on the law: it is also a series of bargains. This is especially true in the United States, which has probably the world's greatest commitment to journalistic freedom." [editor's note: Actually, according to Reporters Without Borders, the US ranks 41st worldwide in its commitment to press freedom – TLK](01/20/17)


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31) Stop trying to control one another
Source: Everything Volulntary
by Parrish Miller

"Most conservatives think I'm a liberal .... Most liberals think I'm a conservative .... Most libertarians think I'm an anarchist .... Most anarchists think I'm a statist .... In reality, I'm just a guy who believes it's wrong to hurt people or take their stuff ..." (01/21/17)


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32) 2017: From Bolshevism to "polite persecution?"
Source: Acton Institute
by Michael Severance & Andrea Gaglarducci

"For many, the new year probably does not mark any special occasion or evoke any particular historical memory. 2017 is just another odd year on the way to a more potentially significant round number, like 2020, to ring in a new decade of change and progress. But for those who have carefully observed political, religious, and economic history unfold in the last century, this year is indeed rich in memory and meaning. The year 2017 is the centennial of an uprising that changed the face of Eastern Europe and set a passionate tone for politics throughout much of the twentieth century." (01/20/17)


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33) With Trump, a VERY DIFFERENT presidency
Source: Reuters
by Peter Apps

"By the end of this week, what could well be one of the most unorthodox, idiosyncratic presidencies in American history will be underway. The gap between Donald Trump and Barack Obama (in temperament, worldview and techniques) could scarcely be wider. At best, the new administration could deliver a much-needed blast of fresh air -- but it could also prove profoundly, perhaps dangerously destabilizing. The last two months, however, have provided a range of clues as to what we can expect. Trump's Jan. 11 press conference – together with the handful of interviews he has given since his victory – offer perhaps the best idea of his priorities. By and large, however, the incoming president has communicated with the outside world through social media. At worst, his utterances have reinforced almost every negative perception Trump's detractors have of him." (01/20/17)


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34) It's not transphobic to question transgenderism
Source: spiked
by Christian Butler

"Last week the BBC aired a documentary called Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? It investigated the best approaches for parents to take if their child has gender-dysphoria issues. It generated immense controversy, not least for featuring the views of Kenneth Zucker, a doctor considered a leading authority on gender dysphoria until he was fired from Canada's largest child gender clinic for allegedly practising conversion therapy. Trans activists were so terrified of what the interviewees in the documentary might say that they started a petition demanding the documentary be shelved until it had been 'reviewed by experts.'" (01/20/17)


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35) Inauguration riots only serve Trump's interests
Source: USA Today
by staff

"President Trump won only 4% of the votes in Washington, D.C., during the election, but he found some valuable friends among those destroying property and throwing rocks at police during Friday's inaugural events in the nation's capital. These knuckleheads may have thought they were protesting the new president. But, in fact, they are playing right into his hands. Frequently replayed images of protesters battling police officers, along with dozens of arrests, reinforce Trump's over-the-top rhetoric about 'American carnage' in the streets. Continued violent protests will undermine efforts to curb police misconduct. And they will also make it more likely that Trump will take, and the public will accept, extraordinary steps to restore 'law and order.'" (01/20/17)


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36) We demand inefficiency
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

"It's all about the money. Well, that is what Senator Elizabeth Warren believes. Grilling Republican Congressman Tom Price, the physician turned congressman Donald Trump picked to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Warren demanded that Price answer a simple question: would he swear on a stack of medical books that he would never, ever 'carry out a single dollar of cuts to Medicare or Medicaid eligibility or benefits.' Trump had said he would not cut either program. But Price, who is known for his skepticism about the efficiency of government programs and has proposed cuts to the programs before, worries Warren." (01/20/17)


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37) Trump's protectionism isolates US on global stage, emboldens China
Source: Cato Institute
by Christine Guluzian

"Chinese President Xi Jinping's address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Tuesday may have sent the strongest signal yet that China is more willing than the United States to champion free trade and globalization, thanks to President Donald Trump's protectionist and anti-trade leanings." (01/20/17)


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38) Post-inaugural rage & loathing -- my hot times in 2005
Source: JimBovard.com
by Jim Bovard

"There have been some screaming matches on Washington-bound flights between people coming for Trump's inauguration versus the Women's March on the day after. A dozen years ago, I saw -- well, maybe sparked -- similar fracases on a flight from Washington to Dallas, Texas, two days after Bush's second inauguration during which he whooped up forcibly spreading freedom & democracy all over the world. I was stuck in a middle seat between a chubby little 14-year-old boy and a tripwire-tense Air Force enlisted man. The kid asked me, 'Did you go to the inauguration Thursday?' I smiled and said no, and asked if he had gone." (01/22/17)


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39) Huh? Say what?
Source: The Zelman Partisans
by Sheila Stokes-Begley

"If you must ask permission of the federal government before you can defend your life, your liberty, your property, you are not free. You are a slave. In 2013 the state of Kansas passed its version of the Second Amendment Protection Act. Eighty percent of the state legislators in Kansas agreed that Kansas was a sovereign state and that its citizens were free and sovereign citizens. And Eric Holder promptly threw a hissy fit and as KrisAnne Hall stated, sent a letter threatening an entire sovereign state. Like she says, no shortage of ego on the man responsible for countless deaths stemming from Operation Gunwalker, aka Fast & Furious. But there was much chest thumping and back slapping in the state of Kansas when this bill passed. No shortage of chests and backs on those Kansas legislators. What there IS a shortage of, is balls." (01/20/17)


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40) The poisonous politics of David Brock
Source: Our Future
by Robert Borosage

"David Brock is the darling of Democratic Party millionaires and billionaires. ... Brock's empire, including Media Matters, American Bridge, ShareBlue, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, served as a hit squad for the Clinton campaign last year. Now that Clinton has lost, Brock is retooling his machine to lead the attack on all things Trump. 'We really aspire to be like the Kochs,' he explained, referring to the circle of ultra-wealthy right-wing donors convened by the notorious Koch brothers. Brock, known for his silver pompadour and penchant for high drama, is a controversial figure among Democratic operatives. Nurtured in the netherworld of the far right, Brock was a foot soldier in what Hillary Clinton famously dubbed the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' before converting." (01/20/17)


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41) Are "deficit hawks" prepared for Trump's proposed spending cuts?
Source: National Center for Policy Analysis
by Pam Villareal

"[T]o his credit, Trump is taking a proactive approach and proposing spending cuts of about $10.5 trillion over 10 years. While newly-evolved deficit hawks are clutching their pearls over his wish list of cuts such as eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, these ideas are nothing new. Many a taxpayer has questioned the need for government to subsidize art and educational programming. Also on the list are reductions in some duplicative programs from the State Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation. These are actual recommendations from the Government Accountability Office''s 2016 Annual Report, which was produced under the Obama administration. It will be a tough road to pass any spending reductions in Congress, but it is worth a try." [editor's note: As Villareal notes, Trump's plan would balloon deficits, and therefore debt. Any "cuts" would be more than offset by spending increases – TLK] (01/19/17)


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42) The slow-motion state murder of Michael Whiteley
Source: Pro Libertate
by William Norman Grigg

"Facing the prospect of life in prison -- and the plausible threat of execution -- Idaho Falls resident Michael Whiteley had every conceivable reason to plead guilty to a charge of second-degree kidnapping, save one: He didn't commit the crime. 'I have to plead not guilty, Your Honor,' Whiteley told Bonneville County District Judge Marvin Smith just minutes after being offered a plea bargain through which he would have avoided prison altogether. 'I had originally intended to plead the other way, but now that I sit here and run it through my heart and my mind, I don't feel, your honor, that it is right to lie.'" (01/20/17)


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43) What the clemency of Chelsea Manning means about Obama
Source: Antiwar.com
by Lucy Steigerwald

"The Barack Obama who ordered drone assassinations of American citizens, including -- allegedly by mistake -- that of a 16-year-old, and who went after whistleblowers with particular enthusiasm seems like a strange man to have passed out this mercy after Manning spent seven years behind bars. However, if you'll pardon the attempted psychoanalyzing, as an act of the Obama who likes to think of himself as a man of the people, and a civil libertarian, and someone who did drugs, and got away with it, while others weren't so lucky, well, it's not as surprising. And it's not as radical a move as some people might be interpreting it." (01/20/17)


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44) A principle for all seasons
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Sheldon Richman

"Despite my utter disdain for Donald Trump, I am uneasy about many who oppose him. My specific concern is that they apparently believe that, because of the kind of person Trump is, they may dispense with all constraint when fighting him. Thus the common-sense rules of just conduct and decency that are normally honored at least by lip service, if not by strict observance, are not regarded as binding when Trump is the target. It is a bad -- not to mention shortsighted -- idea." (01/19/17)


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45) Divide and rule: Class, hate, and the 2016 election
Source: CounterPunch
by Paul Street

"Listen and you can hear the sneering 'elite' liberal left narrative about how the big dumb white working class is about to get screwed over by the incoming multi-millionaire- and billionaire-laden Trump administration it voted into office. Once those poor saps in the white working class wake up to their moronic mistake, the narrative suggests, they'll come running back to their supposed friends the Democrats. It's true, of course, that Trump is going to betray white working class people who voted for him in the hope that he would be a populist champion of their interests -- a hope he mendaciously cultivated. But there are three basic and related problems with the scornful liberal-left storyline." (01/20/17)


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46) As the briefing room turns
Source: Town Hall
by Debra J Saunders

"President-elect Donald Trump's transition team had been flirting with moving the daily White House press briefing from the West Wing to nearby quarters that could accommodate more journalists. The White House Correspondents Association registered its concern -- while not present in public sentiment, umbrage followed. By Thursday, Team Trump assured the media that Monday's press briefing -- the first daily briefing from the new Trump administration -- would indeed take place in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. It was another episode in which Trump played the media like a fiddle." (01/20/17)


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47) Donald Trump's authoritarian politics of memory
Source: The Atlantic
by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

"While authoritarian rule begins with the leader in office, the boundaries for what can be seen, said, done, and recalled are often set earlier. Even before he takes power, a savvy strongman has used a combination of intimidation and flattery to begin to colonize the nation at the emotional and bodily level, preparing it to accept his coming crackdowns and extralegal actions -- and remember them as necessary and justified. President Donald Trump's journey to the pinnacle of American power has offered the opportunity to study these processes in real time." (01/22/17)


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48) The ship of state, really? Or, everyone's #NotMyPresident
Source: Independent Country
by James Leroy Wilson

"You are not a sailor; you're the captain of your own body and your own body only. You don't need a leader called a President. You don't need to be told what to do. You won't sink the Ship of State, because it doesn't exist. And its leader doesn't exist. Trump isn't your leader, and Obama wasn't your leader, nor any Presidents before them. ... If you really want a 'leader' to tell you and others what to do, volunteer to work on a real ship. Don't pretend we all must do our 'duty' for a fake one." (01/21/17)


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49) Trump will not make America great again
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

"With today's inauguration, supporters of Donald Trump have high hopes that he is going to 'make America great again,' which was his signature slogan during his presidential campaign. Forgive me for raining on Trump's inaugural parade but it just ain't going to happen. Trump is not going to make America great again. He's going to do the exact opposite." (01/20/17)


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50) This week in the patriarchy ...? Jessica Valenti, you lunatic
Source: The Anarchist Shemale
by Aria DiMezzo

"That Jessica Valenti would, in her liberal-soaked hysteria, resort to using such an inapplicable word to describe the situation in the United States serves as a wonderful example of exactly what is wrong with modern 'progressives' and why Democrats just lost the election. So let me put it briefly. Liberals, in case you haven't noticed, you are preaching to the choir, and everyone who isn't in your choir is absolutely sick of your raving, hyperbolic, nonsensical bullshit; everyone except dyed-in-the-wool Democrats are already sick and tired of the false dichotomy world you have attempted to craft, where either women are uncontestedly dominant or we live in a patriarchy, where any act of racism against a black person represents an oppressive neo-Nazi system, but where your frequent attacks against white people, men, and Christians go unchallenged by your very own condemnations of racism, sexism, and religious discrimination." (01/20/17)


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51) New boss speaks ...
Source: The Price of Liberty
by MamaLiberty

"I just finished reading Trump's inaugural address. Here are some of my thoughts ..." (01/22/17)


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52) Pricing laws violate free speech
Source: Reason
by Timothy Sandefur

"The comedian Gallagher once joked that customers don't like to hear they're being charged more for using credit cards -- they'd rather hear they're getting a 'discount for cash.' But in New York and some other states, it's not just what customers want to hear. Telling customers there's a surcharge to pay by credit card can actually land business owners in jail. Yet it's perfectly legal to tell them something costs less if they pay cash." (01/21/17)


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53) Hate corporations and love governments -- an ideological monstrosity
Source: Independent Institute
by Robert Higgs

"Many Americans (and others) obviously fear corporations more than they fear governments. Indeed, they look to governments to 'save' them from grave harm at the hands of vicious corporations and to punish corporations for their evil, destructive actions. On such a mindset a large part of modern Progressivism and other leftist ideologies rests." (01/19/17)


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54) A field guide to humanoids
Source: Liberty Unbound
by Lori Heine

"Equal parts children of the gods and descendants of the apes, we possess about the same number of traits from each. If aliens from outer space were to come to earth, intent on learning all they could about us, they'd probably be puzzled. Just as birdwatchers consult field guides to the species native to their area, our visiting aliens might make good use of a field guide to humanoids. Having studied the human drama all my life, I think I could write a pretty decent one. I know just what I'd want to tell them, especially if they ever obtained the vote." (01/18/17)


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55) Abortion extortion
Source: Authority!
by Timothy J Taylor

"What would you think of a law that allowed new home buyers to sue the builder when they change their mind about the design long after the house is built? Do you think that home builders would be willing to build houses under such circumstances? Obviously, such a law would encourage buyers to extort product and service providers for money damages without cause for simply doing what they contracted to do. You would think that's ridiculous. You would think that's unconstitutional. Tell that to the Iowa Republican parasite politicians who are considering a law that would allow a woman who gets a legal abortion to sue the doctor who performed it if she experiences emotional distress later." (01/20/17)


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FREEDOM PODCAST & VIDEO
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56) The KN@PP Stir Podcast, episode 113
Source: KN@PPSTER

"In this episode: Thanks For Asking! (2016 -- The Year in Stupid; dL's opioid epidemic; Target groups for a libertarian political party); Buckle up, we're in for a bumpy four years." [Flash audio or MP3] (01/22/17)


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57) Cato Daily Podcast, 01/20/17
Source: Cato Institute

"Barack Obama expressed concerns about 'leaving a loaded weapon lying around' for future presidents to wield. And then he did exactly that. Gene Healy comments on the outgoing President's aggrandizement of the Oval Office." [various formats] (01/20/17)


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58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 830
Source: The Tom Woods Show

"Steve Patterson, an independent scholar, recently released a self-published book on logic. A couple of established academics (both libertarians, by the way) scoffed: why, if this book were any good, it would have been submitted to the peer-review process! Is this the right way to think?" [various formats] (01/20/17)


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59) Felony Friday, episode 55
Source: Lions of Liberty

"Felony Friday host John Odermatt is joined by award-winning investigative journalist Jordan Smith." [various formats] (01/20/17)


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60) Free Talk Live, 01/21/17
Source: Free Talk Live

"Women's March on DC :: Political Fearmongering :: Political Promises :: Nonviolence :: Pro-Life Groups Kicked Out :: Universities :: Money Grubbing Clinton :: Corruption :: Mexican Given Scholarship to Yale :: Costs of College :: Alt-Righter :: Free Online College :: Certifications :: Contractors and Competition :: Self-Deportation :: Dialog :: Black Lady Trump Supporter :: Good People Disobey Bad Laws :: Learning." [Flash audio or MP3] (01/21/17)


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