11/13 -- Epstein emails: Trump "knew about the girls;" Reject kings of all political stripes
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Thomas L. Knapp
Nov 13, 2025, 6:17:55 AM (8 days ago) Nov 13
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 11/13/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Epstein emails: Trump “knew about the girls”
2) Ukraine: Regime suspends justice minister for alleged link to $100 million corruption case
3) Trump signs bill to close out latest Shutdown Theater run
4) IL: Judge orders release of hundreds abducted during Chicago gang riot
5) Bitcoin ETFs log best day in a month, add $524 million as cumulative trading volume approaches $1.5 trillion
6) Atlanta Fed president Bostic to retire in February, opening seat on key committee
7) Myanmar: Junta forces take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Russia and China
8) Algeria: Tebboune pardons political prisoner Boualem Sansal
9) Switzerland: Blue diamond sells for $25.6 million
10) Biovac starts trials on South Africa’s first domestically developed cholera vaccine
11) US mortgage demand from homebuyers hits highest level since September, despite rising interest rates
12) France: Trial of former Congolese rebel leader Lumbala over wartime atrocities opens in Paris
13) South Korea: Special Counsel detains ex-PM Hwang over alleged insurrection incitement
14) GM wants parts makers to pull supply chains from China
15) Trump officially asks Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu
16) UN watchdog hasn’t been able to verify Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months
17) Google lawsuit accuses China-based cybercriminals of massive text-message phishing scams
18) FL: “Operation Dirtbag,” apparently named for Noem, grandstands on sexual predation to promote gang abduction op
19) US Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
20) Trump regime officially notices that CFPB’s funding is illegal
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Reject kings of all political stripes
22) Don’t count on regime change to stabilize Venezuela
23) Eternal Sunshine of the Changing Time
24) Five Legal Reforms To Consider as Government Officials Lean on Critics
25) Was Milei Bailed Out?
26) Release the Epstein files — expose the untouchables and their elite enablers
27) Taking the Rural Route
28) Gen Z Blames Capitalism, But We Chose the Cage That Traps Us
29) War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Grocery Prices Are Way Down.
30) An Ideal Foreign Policy
31) Has CNN lost its soul?
32) No historical event benefited the world more than the Revolutionary War
33) Sometimes The Media Ignoring A Major Story Becomes The Story
34) Muslim Fusionism
35) Folk, Feedback, and Fury
36) Tariff Dividend Checks for Dummies (i.e., the People in Policy Debates)
37) Brave reformers must dethrone radical political zealots to save our universities
38) The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations
39) Trump Should Welcome Saudi Pragmatism — But Not Offer Security Guarantees
40) Liberalism’s Positive Vision Must Be the Open Society
41) “Regime change” in Venezuela a Euphemism for US-Inflicted Carnage and Chaos
42) The days to come: Modeling refugee flows from Venezuela after US intervention
43) What Happened To San Francisco Homelessness?
44) More Federal Intervention in Education
45) Gen Z loves both Trump and Mamdani for the same reason
46) The Dark Crusade of “Little” Wars
47) Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage Will Bring More Inflation and Corporate Bailouts
48) The economy is running on magic beans
49) Homeland Security Tightens Rule on Anti-ICE Activities
50) Adam Smith vs. The Engineers of Utopia
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Political Orphanage, 11/12/25
52) Reason Interview: Katie Herzog
53) Collateral Damage, episode 6
54) Underthrow Podcast, 11/12/25
55) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/12/25
56) Questions for Corbett, 11/12/25
57) The Daily, 11/12/25
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/12/25
59) Nonzero, 11/11/25
60) Capital Record, episode 267
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors TM, CJTS, and MB! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $32.50, bring our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5:30am on Thursday) to $1165.84!
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Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Epstein emails: Trump “knew about the girls”
Source: The Hill
“Emails released by Democrats show deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein telling associates that ‘of course’ President Trump knew about his relationships with underaged girls. The three emails, released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, show Epstein’s correspondence with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well as columnist and author Michael Wolff. In the short exchanges, Epstein says Trump ‘spent hours at my house’ while another says the president ‘knew about the girls.’ … In a[n] April 2, 2011 email to Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges of trafficking young girls to Epstein, the disgraced financier wrote: ‘i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump … [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.'” (11/12/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5601668-epstein-trump-emails-released
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2) Ukraine: Regime suspends justice minister for alleged link to $100 million corruption case
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Ukraine has suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal involving the state-run nuclear power company, Energoatom, during his tenure as the country’s energy minister. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on Wednesday that Galushchenko had been suspended from his duties, which will be carried out by Deputy Justice Minister for European Integration Lyudmyla Sugak. Galushchenko, who served as energy minister for four years before taking over the justice portfolio in July, is accused of profiting from a scheme that laundered money from Energoatom. Ukraine’s Pravda news outlet reported that anticorruption authorities raided Galushchenko’s offices on Monday.” (11/12/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/12/ukraine-suspends-justice-minister-for-alleged-link-to-100m-corruption-case
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3) Trump signs bill to close out latest Shutdown Theater run
Source: Bloomberg
“President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest government shutdown in US history, bringing to a close a 43-day standoff that disrupted public services, halted federal aid programs, and sidelined federal workers. The interim spending bill funds most of the government through Jan. 30, leaving open the possibility of another confrontation early next year. Federal operations are set to resume immediately, though agencies may take days or weeks to clear the backlog created since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.” (11/13/25)
https://archive.is/PgRrk
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4) IL: Judge orders release of hundreds abducted during Chicago gang riot
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds of people who were [abducted] over the last few months in the Chicago area amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raids across the city. On Wednesday, US district judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the justice department to produce a list showing which of the 615 possible class members are still in custody by 19 November, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to Cummings, he would allow the members’ release on a $1,500 bond as long as they have no criminal history or prior removal order. The ACLU of Illinois said that the order will mean the immediate release of 13 people who have been [abducted] by federal officials. As part of Wednesday’s order, Cummings also prohibited the government from pressuring [abductees] to agree to voluntary deportation while their cases are pending, the Chicago Tribune added.” (11/12/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/12/trump-chicago-immigration-raids-arrests
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5) Bitcoin ETFs log best day in a month, add $524 million as cumulative trading volume approaches $1.5 trillion
Source: The Block
“The U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds bounced back to add $524 million worth of net inflows on Tuesday — the largest daily figure since just after the cryptocurrency hit all-time highs of around $126,000 on Oct. 6. … The inflows come despite bitcoin dropping roughly 3% on Tuesday to around $103,000. However, the foremost cryptocurrency has recovered somewhat in early trading on Wednesday …” (11/12/25)
https://www.theblock.co/post/378517/bitcoin-etfs-524-million-usd-inflows-cumulative-trading-volume-1-5-trillion-usd
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6) Atlanta Fed president Bostic to retire in February, opening seat on key committee
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will retire at the end of his current term in February, opening up a new seat on the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee at a time that President Donald Trump is seeking to exert more control over the central bank. As president of one of the Fed’s 12 regional banks, Bostic, 59, serves on the 19-member committee that meets eight times a year to decide whether to change a key short-term interest rate that influences borrowing costs throughout the economy. Only 12 of the 19 participants vote on rates at each meeting. The regional Fed presidents rotate as voters, and the Atlanta Fed’s president will next vote in 2027. Bostic’s replacement will be selected by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, which are made up of local business and community leaders, not the Trump administration.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/12/fed-president-retires-trump-interest/
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7) Myanmar: Junta forces take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Russia and China
Source: ABC News
“Myanmar says it has commissioned Russian helicopters and Chinese airplanes into its air force as the two nations continue to supply the military-run government with equipment despite international pressure to end its bloody civil war. The United States, the European Union and others have imposed sanctions on Myanmar that include the prohibition of arms sales, but Russia and China have been steadily supplying the military, known as the Tatmadaw, with hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment, according to the U.N. Photos provided by the military indicate it received three Russian Mi-38T helicopters and two Chinese Y-8 aircraft, which experts said will likely be used for operations to bring troops to fight in mountainous areas.” (11/12/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/myanmar-military-takes-delivery-helicopters-aircraft-russia-china-127442461
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8) Algeria: Tebboune pardons political prisoner Boualem Sansal
Source: Associated Press
“Algeria’s president on Wednesday granted a humanitarian pardon to the French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, releasing him after a yearlong imprisonment that sparked widespread criticism. The 76-year-old author — whose works have been critical of Islam, colonialism and contemporary Algeria’s leaders — had been imprisoned since being arrested at the airport in Algiers in November 2024 upon his return from France. He was convicted of undermining national unity and insulting public institutions and was sentenced to five years in prison under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws in March. Sansal has cancer, and his attorney said his health was deteriorating.” (11/12/25)
https://apnews.com/article/algeria-author-pardoned-sansal-07681fada5fadd15840eeaa40a485f9e
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9) Switzerland: Blue diamond sells for $25.6 million
Source: New York Times
“A 9.51-carat blue diamond sold for $25.6 million at an auction in Switzerland on Tuesday — a steal compared to what it fetched a decade ago. The teardrop-shaped stone, which previously belonged to Rachel Lambert Mellon, the American heiress and art collector better known as Bunny, had last been auctioned in 2014, when it went for $32.6 million. But diamonds aren’t what they used to be. Christie’s, the auction house that put it up for bid on Tuesday, had predicted a lower selling price this time of $20 million to $30 million. It landed in the middle of that range.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/lSC8h
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10) Biovac starts trials on South Africa’s first domestically developed cholera vaccine
Source: SFGate
“Researchers and scientists in South Africa on Tuesday launched clinical trials on the first domestically developed vaccine. The oral cholera vaccine, developed by the Cape Town-based pharmaceutical firm Biovac, is currently undergoing trials to determine its safety in adults and will be followed by trials to compare it to existing cholera vaccines that are already in the market. Depending on the results, the vaccine could be approved and ready for use in Africa by 2028, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said. The development of the vaccine has been praised as a significant milestone for vaccine access in the country and across the rest of the continent. Motsoaledi said that while South Africa experienced relatively low levels of cholera, many countries in Africa often hit hard by outbreaks would greatly benefit. He said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable African countries were to pandemics as they relied on imported vaccines.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/biovac-starts-trials-on-south-africa-s-first-21162780.php
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11) US mortgage demand from homebuyers hits highest level since September, despite rising interest rates
Source: CNBC
“As the housing market heads into its traditionally slowest season, homebuyers are making one last gasp, likely due to more supply on the market and softening prices. Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 6% last week to their strongest pace since September, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 31% higher than the same week one year ago. This came despite the fact that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, increased to 6.34% from 6.31%, with points rising to 0.62 from 0.58, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.” (11/12/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/12/mortgage-demand-from-homebuyers-hits-highest-level-since-september.html
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12) France: Trial of former Congolese rebel leader Lumbala over wartime atrocities opens in Paris
Source: SFGate
“The trial of Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala began Wednesday in Paris over atrocities committed two decades ago during the Second Congo War. Lumbala has been charged with ‘criminal conspiracy to prepare crimes against humanity’ and ‘complicity of crimes against humanity’ during the conflict from 1998 to 2003. Lumbala faces a possible sentence of life in prison. A verdict is expected Dec. 19 following the trial at the Paris criminal court. The 67-year-old led the Congolese Rally for National Democracy, a rebel group backed by neighboring Uganda and accused of atrocities against civilians, particularly targeting the Nande and Bambuti ethnic minorities in eastern Congo in 2002 and 2003. The group committed widespread torture, executions, rape, forced labor and sexual slavery, according to U.N. reports.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/trial-of-former-congolese-rebel-leader-lumbala-21168357.php
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13) South Korea: Special Counsel detains ex-PM Hwang over alleged insurrection incitement
Source: United Press International
“A special counsel team detained former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn Wednesday on charges of inciting an insurrection following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law. Hwang, who served under former President Park Geun-hye, made Facebook posts following the martial law imposition Dec. 3 to call for the eradication of pro-North Korea forces and those involved in alleged electoral fraud. He also called for the arrest of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and then People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon. Investigators from special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team executed a detention warrant for Hwang at his home in Seoul’s Yongsan Ward after he ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.” (11/12/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/11/12/korea-special-counsel-detains-ex-Prime-Minister-Hwang-Kyo-ahn-insurrection-incitement/2261762938851/
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14) GM wants parts makers to pull supply chains from China
Source: Reuters
“General Motors has directed several thousand of its suppliers to scrub their supply chains of parts from China, four people familiar with the matter said, reflecting automakers’ growing frustration over geopolitical disruptions to their operations. GM executives have been telling suppliers they should find alternatives to China for their raw materials and parts, with the goal of eventually moving their supply chains out of the country entirely, the people said. The automaker has set a 2027 deadline for some suppliers to dissolve their China sourcing ties, some of the sources said.” (11/12/25)
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-wants-parts-makers-pull-supply-chains-china-2025-11-12/
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15) Trump officially asks Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu
Source: Axios
“President Trump sent an official letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog calling on him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed the corruption charges against him are ‘political lawfare.’ Trump has repeatedly intervened in Israel’s judicial system and domestic politics over Netanyahu’s ongoing trial. His letter, released on Wednesday morning by the Israeli President’s office, is the first official step he has taken on this matter. … While Israeli law allows President Herzog to pardon almost any person charged or convicted of a crime, Supreme Court rulings and other legal guidelines limit his authority. Under the current legal procedures, only a defendant or a member of his family can appeal to the president for a pardon. In all cases in recent years, Israeli defendants had to plead guilty and acknowledge wrongdoing. In addition, the Ministry of Justice usually has to weigh in and recommend a pardon.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/7hLZ4
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16) UN watchdog hasn’t been able to verify Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months
Source: SFGate
“The International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to verify the status of Iran’s near weapons-grade uranium stockpile since Israel struck the country’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Wednesday by The Associated Press. The IAEA said that the status of the near weapons-grade material ‘needs urgently to be addressed.’ According to the IAEA’s last report in September, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/un-watchdog-hasn-t-been-able-to-verify-iran-s-21168365.php
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17) Google lawsuit accuses China-based cybercriminals of massive text-message phishing scams
Source: CBS News
“Google is filing a federal lawsuit against a network of foreign cybercriminals based in China that is accused of launching massive text-message phishing attacks, the tech giant told CBS News in an exclusive interview. Google said the messages are part of a criminal network called ‘Lighthouse.’ The texts look legitimate, often warning recipients of a ‘stuck package’ or an ‘unpaid toll,’ but they’re actually phishing or what’s called smishing — a type of phishing scam that uses text messages to try to trick recipients into revealing personal and sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, which are then stolen.” (11/12/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-lawsuit-text-message-phishing-attacks/
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18) FL: “Operation Dirtbag,” apparently named for Noem, grandstands on sexual predation to promote gang abduction op
Source: New York Post
“More than 150 illegal [sic] migrant [alleged] sexual predators have been [abducted] in Florida as part of a massive sweep dubbed ‘Operation Dirtbag,’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on Wednesday. The [alleged] sex offenders were among more than 230 illegals [sic] rounded up in the Sunshine State after being wanted for crimes including drug offenses and even murder. Others who were arrested had prior convictions for child molestation and sexual assault, according to the Department of Homeland Security.” (11/12/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/12/us-news/operation-dirtbag-sees-over-150-illegal-migrant-sexual-predators-nabbed-in-florida/
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19) US Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
Source: SFGate
“Back in 1793, a penny could get you a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. These days, many sit in drawers or glass jars and are basically cast aside or collected as lucky keepsakes. But their luck is about to run out. The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny on Wednesday as the president has canceled the 1-cent coin as the cost of making them became more than their value. President Donald Trump has ordered its demise as costs climb to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation becomes somewhat obsolete. The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Today, there are billions of them in circulation, but they are rarely essential for financial transactions in the modern economy or the digital age.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/unlucky-penny-us-mint-in-philadelphia-to-press-21168390.php
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20) Trump regime officially notices that CFPB’s funding is illegal
Source: Politico
“The Trump administration has formally determined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current funding mechanism is unlawful, a move that puts the agency on track to close in the coming months when its existing cash runs out. The decision, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, marks the administration’s most direct effort yet to dismantle the consumer watchdog …. A new opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, submitted in court, contends that the CFPB cannot draw money from the Federal Reserve currently because the agency is only entitled to the central bank’s surpluses and the Fed has operated at a loss since 2022. The Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB, requires the Fed to transfer from the ‘combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System’ the amount that the CFPB director determines is necessary to operate the agency, with certain limits.” (11/11/25)
https://archive.is/w88WJ
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Reject kings of all political stripes
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“A few short weeks ago, people who largely represented one political faction were protesting for ‘No Kings.’ Then, too many of those from the very same faction in New York City did a flip-flop and voted for a man who promises to act exactly like a king. During his election night victory speech, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said, ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.’ This is real-world king-level stuff. His supporters didn’t notice the contradiction within themselves, but were thrilled at the prospect. Politics makes people stupid. Apparently, those voters aren’t opposed to kings at all. They just don’t like Donald Trump being the president. Who knew? All of us did.” (11/12/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/11/12/voices/opinion-reject-kings-of-all-political-stripes/232112.html
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22) Don’t count on regime change to stabilize Venezuela
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Daniel R DePetris
“This year’s Nobel Prize laureate has spent much of her time recently in the U.S. lobbying policymakers to squeeze Maduro into vacating power. Constantly at risk of detention in her own country, [María Corina] Machado is granting interviews and dialing into conferences to advocate for regime change. Her talking points are clearly tailored for the Trump administration: Maduro is the head of a drug cartel that is poisoning Americans; his dictatorship rests on weak pillars; and the forces of democracy inside Venezuela are fully prepared to seize the mantle once Maduro is gone. … But as the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While there’s no disputing that Maduro is a despot and a fraud who steals elections, U.S. policymakers can’t simply take what Machado is saying for granted.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/SkVbH
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23) Eternal Sunshine of the Changing Time
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Though there is consensus in both the EU and US that clock-changing is a damaging and outdated practice, the debate about whether to adopt ST or DST permanently continues. Perhaps Franklin had the right answer two-and-a-half centuries ago: go to bed when it’s dark and rise with the sun, regardless of the arbitrarily-assigned hour. All governments have to do is supply the cannons needed to encourage this.” (11/12/25)
https://fee.org/articles/eternal-sunshine-of-the-changing-time/
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24) Five Legal Reforms To Consider as Government Officials Lean on Critics
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Next month, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr will testify before the Senate Commerce Committee over his role in browbeating ABC into briefly suspending late-night ‘comedian’ Jimmy Kimmel. After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Kimmel made stupid and insensitive comments that prompted Carr to wade into the fray, threatening to use his regulatory power to punish the TV host and his network. That prompted bipartisan condemnation of government interference and the upcoming Senate hearing. Now, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wants to go further, suggesting five legal changes to make censorship by government officials more difficult.” (11/12/25)
https://reason.com/2025/11/12/5-legal-reforms-to-consider-as-government-officials-lean-on-critics/
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25) Was Milei Bailed Out?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Were Milei’s radical reforms saved at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer? Bessant was asked this, yesterday, directly on MSNBC, and had a response: ‘Do you know what a swap line is?’ I had to brush up on it. … A currency swap is a financial agreement between two parties to exchange principal amounts and interest payments in different currencies over a set period — a temporary loan in one currency backed by collateral in another, designed to provide liquidity, hedge exchange rate risks, or access cheaper funding without the full risks of outright borrowing. ‘In most bailouts you don’t make money,’ Bessent said. ‘The U.S. government made money.’ In an exchange, both parties gain. But in any exchange involving extended spans of time, there is risk, so any initial win for Treasury could be wasted by a failure of Milei’s course.” (11/12/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/12/was-milei-bailed-out/
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26) Release the Epstein files — expose the untouchables and their elite enablers
Source: The Hill
by Christine Black Szarzynski
“Regardless of who or what political party is in power, the untouchable layer does not seem to change much, from marble-walled compounds in Dubai or Bahrain to gilded palaces in Palm Springs — and a billionaire’s private island where other billionaires visit and do whatever they want, no matter whom they hurt. Untouchables enrich one another, protect one another’s power and keep each others’ secrets. At this societal layer, Democratic and Republican parties become irrelevant, and debate is merely theater. There is only one party, and we are not in it. … President Trump promised full disclosures and investigations into Epstein, then backtracked on his promise.” (11/12/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5601175-epstein-untouchable-elite-abuse/
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27) Taking the Rural Route
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Rural voters may be disproportionately dependent on certain kinds of government services, and their families often depend on income and benefits associated with government employment, but they are not left-wing radicals either as a matter of policy preference or as a matter of temperament. … Trump did not run in those counties as a socialist talking about income redistribution and intersectionality: He ran as a guy bitching about high prices at the grocery store. Rural America listened. And Trump, being Trump, has repaid rural America for its support by screwing over America’s farmers …. There are votes there in the countryside to be had by those willing to fight for them — they probably should not send the incoming mayor of New York City to do the asking, but one would think that would be obvious enough even for Democrats.” (11/12/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/rural-voters-moderate-spanberger-trump/
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28) Gen Z Blames Capitalism, But We Chose the Cage That Traps Us
Source: The Daily Economy
by Julian Adorney
“We’re living in cages of anxious boredom and disconnection. Markets deliver what we ask for, but they can’t teach us what to value.” (11/12/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/zoochosis-economy-have-we-made-ourselves-miserable/
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29) War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Grocery Prices Are Way Down.
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Lying has worked for Trump in the past. Is this a lie too far?” (11/12/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/war-is-peace-freedom-is-slavery-grocery
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30) An Ideal Foreign Policy
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Americans living today have lived their entire lives under governmental systems and policies that have come with perpetual war, interventionism, embargoes, sanctions, coups, state-sponsored assassinations, extrajudicial murders, foreign aid to brutal regimes, torture, invasions, occupations, tariffs, trade wars, immigration controls, an immigration police state, wars of aggression, out of control federal spending and debt, and massive infringements on civil liberties. From the first grade on up, Americans have been inculcated with the notion that all this is ‘freedom.’ As adults and oftentimes to the day they die, they enthusiastically stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and thank the troops, the CIA, and the NSA for protecting their ‘freedom.’ Given such, I believe it’s important to periodically set forth the libertarian ideal with respect to all this statism.” (11/12/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/11/12/an-ideal-foreign-policy-2/
-----
31) Has CNN lost its soul?
Source: Washington Times
by Brent Sadler
“I can still see and hear it in my mind’s eye: cruise missiles skimming low over Baghdad during the Gulf War, the air vibrating, my voice raised above the roar and the crack of anti-aircraft fire. Back then, we were reporters, not presenters. We didn’t measure risk in ratings or clicks or choose our words from lists approved by diversity, equity and inclusion committees. We told it as it was: raw, immediate and real. Today, CNN faces yet another ‘strategic reset’ under David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery. The network confronts a reckoning far more profound than shrinking ratings or revenue. It must decide whether it stands for good, independent journalism. To my generation, good journalism matters. We bear witness. We write and broadcast the first draft of history from the front, not the studio floor or some convenient live-shot location well behind the lines.” (11/11/25)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/11/cnn-lost-soul/
-----
32) No historical event benefited the world more than the Revolutionary War
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“History’s gears are lubricated by gore. Witness America’s Revolutionary War, whose continuing reverberations have done more to improve the course of human events than any other event in history. The war was fueled by crystalline ideas couched in elegant prose authored by members of the Colonial upper crust. But from 1777 on, most bleeding was done by ‘the poorest of the poor — jobless laborers and landless tenants, second and third sons without hope of an inheritance, debtors and British deserters, indentured servants and apprentices, felons hoping to win pardons.’ So says a new telling of America’s origin story, which is a tapestry of suffering, viciousness, selflessness and nobility. Beginning Sunday, in six two-hour episodes on PBS, ‘The American Revolution’ will immerse viewers in an often bewildering, sometimes dismaying, but ultimately exhilarating documentary by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/AdGf5
-----
33) Sometimes The Media Ignoring A Major Story Becomes The Story
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the craziest things happening right now is how there’s been report after report confirming that Jeffrey Epstein really was an Israeli intelligence operative, based on publicly available documents, and yet it’s had no measurable impact on mainstream media or politics. Over the last month and a half, Drop Site News has published four reports about Epstein’s intelligence ties …. In the latest article, Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussein write, ‘we’re left wondering why the rest of the media, which has demonstrated no lack of excitement when it comes to the saga of Jeffrey Epstein, has all of a sudden lost its reporting capacity, in the face of reams of publicly available newsworthy documents.'” (11/12/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/12/sometimes-the-media-ignoring-a-major-story-becomes-the-story/
-----
34) Muslim Fusionism
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jacob Williams
“The debate about Islam’s compatibility with Western freedoms often seems to have reached an impasse. Everyone knows that most Muslims are not violent extremists or actively working to undermine liberty. Everyone also knows that Muslims are more likely than other communities to support (at least in principle) the coercive imposition of religious norms. Thus, we play the game of essence and accidents: is this or that anti-liberal tendency of a particular Muslim community the result of Islam’s deep essence or of more culturally contingent accidents? I doubt such questions will ever be settled. Not because I think there is no right answer or that Islam doesn’t have an essence — as a Muslim, I am committed to thinking that there is, and it does — but because in a pluralistic society, we should not expect agreement on the essence of any religion.” (11/12/25)
https://lawliberty.org/muslim-fusionism/
-----
35) Folk, Feedback, and Fury
Source: Quillette
by David Cohen
“‘Listen to your own voice,’ Neil Young once remarked. ‘Don’t listen to someone else’s. To me the way to live is to always move forward — to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you.’ At eighty, Young is still a defiantly idiosyncratic songwriter and a singer and instrumentalist so raw and ragged that his music feels like a protest against polish. One of rock’s mad masters of excess, he has always moved too fast, and overdone more or less everything he has turned his gnarled hand to. ‘It’s better to burn out than to fade away,’ he famously declared in a lyric that would find its way into Kurt Cobain’s parting thoughts. And after nearly fifty studio albums and countless live performances, Canada’s spikiest artist is still at it.” (11/12/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/12/folk-feedback-and-fury-neil-young-is-eighty/
-----
36) Tariff Dividend Checks for Dummies (i.e., the People in Policy Debates)
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“I learned basic arithmetic skills in third grade. I wasn’t exceptional; everyone in my public school third-grade class learned them. Of course, we all can now use computers to have calculations done for us in a fraction of a second. But still, somehow we have major national debates that show zero understanding of even the most basic arithmetic. The latest example is the $2,000 tariff dividend check that Trump is promising us. The arithmetic here is about as simple as it gets. We have roughly 340 million people in the country. Let’s say 10 percent don’t get the check because they meet Trump’s category of ‘high-income.’ That leaves over 300 million people getting Trump’s $2,000 checks. That comes to more than $600 billion. Trump’s tariffs are raising around $270 billion. That means we will be paying out $330 billion more in Trump tariff dividend checks than he is raising in tariff revenue.” (11/12/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/12/tariff-dividend-checks-for-dummies-i-e-the-people-in-policy-debates/
-----
37) Brave reformers must dethrone radical political zealots to save our universities
Source: New York Post
by John Ellis
“Of the 10 sections of President Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the second is the real key to reform. It asks that schools cultivate a ‘vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus’ — exactly what campus radicals have destroyed, reducing higher education to its present appalling condition. But this remedy also exposes the main weakness of the White House’s compact — and of most reform efforts. Asking radical university staff to create ideological diversity is rather like relying on Nancy Pelosi to choose Republican representatives for the Jan. 6 committee. While radicals remain in control of campuses, reform will proceed glacially — if at all. The discrepancy between what we fund the campuses for and what they are doing is enormous. Promotion of knowledge and understanding has given way to inculcation of a poisonous fringe ideology.” (11/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/11/opinion/brave-reformers-must-dethrone-radical-political-zealots-to-save-our-universities/
-----
38) The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stavroula Pabst
“As Trump amasses lots of ships, drones, and missiles off the coast of Venezuela, the weapons industry is already reaping the benefits.” (11/12/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-us-military/
-----
39) Trump Should Welcome Saudi Pragmatism — But Not Offer Security Guarantees
Source: The American Conservative
by Trita Parsi
“When Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) arrives in Washington this week, he comes not as a reformer seeking American approval, but as a ruler who no longer needs it. In the seven years since his last U.S. visit, the Saudi crown prince has transformed his kingdom’s foreign policy, tested the limits of American patience, and discovered the leverage that comes from acting independently of Washington. His return offers a revealing measure of how much both Saudi Arabia — and America’s role in the Middle East — have changed. The last thing Donald Trump should do is undo the forces that compelled these shifts.” (11/12/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-should-welcome-saudi-pragmatism-but-not-offer-security-guarantees/
-----
40) Liberalism’s Positive Vision Must Be the Open Society
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri
“In arguing for liberal democracy and against dictatorship, my own tendency is to emphasize a set of common problems all types of societies face in the modern world and to explain why liberalism offers the most practical tools for addressing them. While one might argue that advocating for liberal rights and representative institutions counts as standing ‘for things’ rather than against them, it is possible to advocate in an entirely ‘ameliorative, mitigating spirit’ as Schliesser put it. For societies exhausted by years of open ethnic conflict, or experiencing the always precarious transition from dictatorship to democracy, that mitigating spirit may be more than enough. The practical merit of liberalism for achieving social peace under difficult conditions cannot be overstated. Nevertheless, liberals have no need to settle for this negative vision.” (11/12/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalisms-positive-vision-must-be-the-open-society/
-----
41) “Regime change” in Venezuela a Euphemism for US-Inflicted Carnage and Chaos
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“For decades, Washington has sold the world a deadly lie: that ‘regime change’ brings freedom, that US bombs and blockades can/somehow deliver democracy. But every country that has lived through this euphemism knows the truth: it instead brings death, dismemberment, and despair. Now that the same playbook is being dusted off for Venezuela, the parallels with Iraq and other US interventions are an ominous warning of what could follow. As a US armada gathers off Venezuela, a US special operations aviation unit aboard one of the warships has been flying helicopter patrols along the coast. This is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR, the ‘Nightstalkers’) the same unit that, in US-occupied Iraq, worked with the Wolf Brigade, the most feared Interior Ministry death squad.” (11/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/no-regime-change-venezuela
-----
42) The days to come: Modeling refugee flows from Venezuela after US intervention
Source: Niskanen Center
by Gil Guerra & Claire Holba
“The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis has become a key pillar in the administration’s justification for military action. President Trump has accused the Venezuelan government of sending criminal migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border, and stemming the flow of Venezuelan migrants appears to be one of the major motivations guiding current policy. Migration should therefore also be one of the key considerations that policymakers weighing intervention should take into account. Our report attempts to model what new outflows from Venezuela might look like based on different U.S. actions.” (11/12/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-days-to-come-modeling-refugee-flows-from-venezuela-after-u-s-intervention/
-----
43) What Happened To San Francisco Homelessness?
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“Last year, I wrote that it would be very hard to decrease the number of mentally ill homeless people in San Francisco. Commenters argued that no, it would be easy, just build more jails and mental hospitals. A year later, San Francisco feels safer. Visible homelessness is way down. But there wasn’t enough time to build many more jails or mental hospitals. So what happened? Were we all wrong? Probably not.” (11/12/25)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/what-happened-to-sf-homelessness
-----
44) More Federal Intervention in Education
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Among the many other things contained in the OBBBA, some are good and some are bad. It is a good thing that the OBBBA expands federal work requirements for able-bodied recipients of food stamps, institutes federal work requirements for able-bodied recipients of Medicaid, and tightens Medicaid eligibility requirements, because it means that fewer people will be eligible to receive welfare. However, it is a bad thing that the OBBBA includes a $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. But what are we to make of the little-known provision in the OBBBA that creates the nation’s first private federal tax-credit-based school choice program?” (11/11/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/more-federal-intervention-in-education/
-----
45) Gen Z loves both Trump and Mamdani for the same reason
Source: Fox News
by Kaylee McGhee White
“What do President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have in common? Not much, except this: young adults love them. In fact, both men owe their electoral victories in part to Gen Z, my generation. Seventy-eight percent of voters ages 18 to 29 turned out for Mamdani on Nov. 4, according to one breakdown, including 67% of young men and 84% of young women. Just a year earlier, many in this same demographic were heading to the polls to cast their votes for Trump. The president won 46% of Gen Zers last year, including 56% of young men and 40% of young women, significantly improving his standing among this group compared to 2020 and 2016. If this wild swing from right to left has given you whiplash, I don’t blame you. But there is some method to the madness.” (11/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gen-z-loves-both-trump-mamdani-same-reason
-----
46) The Dark Crusade of “Little” Wars
Source: The Realist Review
by Chris Mott
“Armed conflict’s power to shape societies in unconventional ways means that big wars are often viewed as something uncanny, horrifying, and romantic. Be it through the writings of a figure like Ernst Junger, or perhaps a backdrop to bring heightened stakes to a fictitious setting, these colossal and undeniable struggles have a habit of becoming the dominant archetype of discussion when it comes to trials of both individuals and societies. But what happens when the war does not unfold with much public drama and media coverage? What happens when it remains out of sight and mind, unfolding in the background with little to no public input? Is the effect just as dramatic if less obvious? I would contend that the answer is yes.” (11/11/25)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-dark-crusade-of-little-wars
-----
47) Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage Will Bring More Inflation and Corporate Bailouts
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“The politics behind the new proposal are fairly straightforward. Trump will promote the 50-year mortgage as a more affordable alternative to the 30-year mortgage. This seems plausible at a superficial level. The idea here is that the cost of the home is stretched out over a longer period of time, and therefore the monthly payment will be lower than it would be for a 30-year mortgage. … Unfortunately, the President’s scheme is unlikely to make homeownership more secure or affordable for ordinary Americans. It will further financialize the economy, enable more fiat-money fueled debt, and likely require more monetary inflation and more corporate bailouts down the line. That is, a fifty-year mortgage will require even more government intervention to guarantee loans and to keep interest rates at a politically acceptable level.” (11/12/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-50-year-mortgage-will-bring-more-inflation-and-corporate-bailouts
-----
48) The economy is running on magic beans
Source: Semafor
by Liz Hoffman
“In the 1970s, if you wanted to understand a company’s worth, you could literally kick the tires. More than 80% of S&P 500 companies’ assets were, in accountant-speak, ‘tangible’ — buildings, inventory, land, and securities with measurable value. Today, it’s about 10%. The rest is a corporate ectoplasm of code, data, and brand power. Marriott is a hotel company that doesn’t own hotels. Delta Airlines’ credit card partnership is more profitable than its airplanes. This shift from hard assets to soft ones isn’t necessarily bad. It mirrors the broader pivot in the US economy from manufacturing to services, which are more profitable and less vulnerable to outsourcing. … But the wealth being created today is a haze of licensing agreements and magic beans.” (11/11/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/11/2025/the-economy-is-running-on-magic-beans
-----
49) Homeland Security Tightens Rule on Anti-ICE Activities
Source: The American Prospect
by Kate Morrissey
“The Department of Homeland Security suddenly moved up the implementation of a rule change that gives the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting federal buildings, more power to charge people with crimes for a variety of activities on or near federal property. The regulation, which went into effect on Nov. 5, prohibits a wide range of activities, including creating a loud or unusual noise, distributing informational materials and flying drones. It makes it illegal for people to wear masks to conceal their identities if they break any federal or state law or local ordinance. It forbids obstructing access to federal property or impeding operations there and specifically calls out photography and videography. Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S./Mexico Border Program, said he’s concerned that vague definitions in the regulations will give officers too much discretion.” (11/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/12/homeland-security-tightens-rule-on-anti-ice-activities/
-----
50) Adam Smith vs. The Engineers of Utopia
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“As Peter Boettke argues, in a world where all means and ends are known, the only task left is an engineering one. That is, essentially, what students learn in Econ 101—a world of perfect knowledge, known preferences, known prices and calculable costs, where solving equations yields all the answers. But the real wisdom of economics lies in understanding deviations from this perfection.” (11/11/25)
https://fee.org/articles/adam-smith-vs-the-engineers-of-utopia/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Political Orphanage, 11/12/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“‘The Walking Dead’ and Pagan Values.” (11/12/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-walking-dead-and-pagan-values
-----
52) Reason Interview: Katie Herzog
Source: Reason
“There’s More Than One Way To Get Sober.” (11/12/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/11/12/theres-more-than-one-way-to-get-sober/
-----
53) Collateral Damage, episode 6
Source: The Intercept
“Airborne Imperialism: The Tragic Deaths of Veronica and Charity Bowers.” (11/12/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/12/collateral-damage-episode-six-airborne-imperalism/
-----
54) Underthrow Podcast, 11/12/25
Source: Underthrow
“Sweden’s Great Seer on Post-Industrial Capitalism and Freedom.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOynPikg7fo
-----
55) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/12/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Wrecks His Own Case for Tariffs as Bizarre SCOTUS Rant Backfires.” (11/12/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/203061/trump-wrecks-case-tariffs-bizarre-scotus-rant-backfires
-----
56) Questions for Corbett, 11/12/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“What is the Deep State?” (11/12/25)
https://corbettreport.com/what-is-the-deep-state/
-----
57) The Daily, 11/12/25
Source: New York Times
“An Interview With the Man Behind Trump’s Current Immigration Crackdown.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjYYOEXZLKc
-----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/12/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Aircraft Carrier Arrives Near Venezuela, Report: US To Build Military Base Near Gaza, and More.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgnps9T7ugo
-----
59) Nonzero, 11/11/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Is American Might Right? | Robert Wright & Shadi Hamid.” (11/11/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69117
-----
60) Capital Record, episode 267
Source: National Review
“Solving Housing Affordability by Making It Worse.” (11/11/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/solving-housing-affordability-by-making-it-worse/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Epstein emails: Trump “knew about the girls”
2) Ukraine: Regime suspends justice minister for alleged link to $100 million corruption case
3) Trump signs bill to close out latest Shutdown Theater run
4) IL: Judge orders release of hundreds abducted during Chicago gang riot
5) Bitcoin ETFs log best day in a month, add $524 million as cumulative trading volume approaches $1.5 trillion
6) Atlanta Fed president Bostic to retire in February, opening seat on key committee
7) Myanmar: Junta forces take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Russia and China
8) Algeria: Tebboune pardons political prisoner Boualem Sansal
9) Switzerland: Blue diamond sells for $25.6 million
10) Biovac starts trials on South Africa’s first domestically developed cholera vaccine
11) US mortgage demand from homebuyers hits highest level since September, despite rising interest rates
12) France: Trial of former Congolese rebel leader Lumbala over wartime atrocities opens in Paris
13) South Korea: Special Counsel detains ex-PM Hwang over alleged insurrection incitement
14) GM wants parts makers to pull supply chains from China
15) Trump officially asks Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu
16) UN watchdog hasn’t been able to verify Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months
17) Google lawsuit accuses China-based cybercriminals of massive text-message phishing scams
18) FL: “Operation Dirtbag,” apparently named for Noem, grandstands on sexual predation to promote gang abduction op
19) US Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
20) Trump regime officially notices that CFPB’s funding is illegal
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Reject kings of all political stripes
22) Don’t count on regime change to stabilize Venezuela
23) Eternal Sunshine of the Changing Time
24) Five Legal Reforms To Consider as Government Officials Lean on Critics
25) Was Milei Bailed Out?
26) Release the Epstein files — expose the untouchables and their elite enablers
27) Taking the Rural Route
28) Gen Z Blames Capitalism, But We Chose the Cage That Traps Us
29) War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Grocery Prices Are Way Down.
30) An Ideal Foreign Policy
31) Has CNN lost its soul?
32) No historical event benefited the world more than the Revolutionary War
33) Sometimes The Media Ignoring A Major Story Becomes The Story
34) Muslim Fusionism
35) Folk, Feedback, and Fury
36) Tariff Dividend Checks for Dummies (i.e., the People in Policy Debates)
37) Brave reformers must dethrone radical political zealots to save our universities
38) The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations
39) Trump Should Welcome Saudi Pragmatism — But Not Offer Security Guarantees
40) Liberalism’s Positive Vision Must Be the Open Society
41) “Regime change” in Venezuela a Euphemism for US-Inflicted Carnage and Chaos
42) The days to come: Modeling refugee flows from Venezuela after US intervention
43) What Happened To San Francisco Homelessness?
44) More Federal Intervention in Education
45) Gen Z loves both Trump and Mamdani for the same reason
46) The Dark Crusade of “Little” Wars
47) Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage Will Bring More Inflation and Corporate Bailouts
48) The economy is running on magic beans
49) Homeland Security Tightens Rule on Anti-ICE Activities
50) Adam Smith vs. The Engineers of Utopia
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Political Orphanage, 11/12/25
52) Reason Interview: Katie Herzog
53) Collateral Damage, episode 6
54) Underthrow Podcast, 11/12/25
55) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/12/25
56) Questions for Corbett, 11/12/25
57) The Daily, 11/12/25
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/12/25
59) Nonzero, 11/11/25
60) Capital Record, episode 267
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
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-----
1) Epstein emails: Trump “knew about the girls”
Source: The Hill
“Emails released by Democrats show deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein telling associates that ‘of course’ President Trump knew about his relationships with underaged girls. The three emails, released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, show Epstein’s correspondence with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well as columnist and author Michael Wolff. In the short exchanges, Epstein says Trump ‘spent hours at my house’ while another says the president ‘knew about the girls.’ … In a[n] April 2, 2011 email to Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges of trafficking young girls to Epstein, the disgraced financier wrote: ‘i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump … [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.'” (11/12/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5601668-epstein-trump-emails-released
-----
2) Ukraine: Regime suspends justice minister for alleged link to $100 million corruption case
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Ukraine has suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal involving the state-run nuclear power company, Energoatom, during his tenure as the country’s energy minister. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on Wednesday that Galushchenko had been suspended from his duties, which will be carried out by Deputy Justice Minister for European Integration Lyudmyla Sugak. Galushchenko, who served as energy minister for four years before taking over the justice portfolio in July, is accused of profiting from a scheme that laundered money from Energoatom. Ukraine’s Pravda news outlet reported that anticorruption authorities raided Galushchenko’s offices on Monday.” (11/12/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/12/ukraine-suspends-justice-minister-for-alleged-link-to-100m-corruption-case
-----
3) Trump signs bill to close out latest Shutdown Theater run
Source: Bloomberg
“President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest government shutdown in US history, bringing to a close a 43-day standoff that disrupted public services, halted federal aid programs, and sidelined federal workers. The interim spending bill funds most of the government through Jan. 30, leaving open the possibility of another confrontation early next year. Federal operations are set to resume immediately, though agencies may take days or weeks to clear the backlog created since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.” (11/13/25)
https://archive.is/PgRrk
-----
4) IL: Judge orders release of hundreds abducted during Chicago gang riot
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds of people who were [abducted] over the last few months in the Chicago area amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raids across the city. On Wednesday, US district judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the justice department to produce a list showing which of the 615 possible class members are still in custody by 19 November, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to Cummings, he would allow the members’ release on a $1,500 bond as long as they have no criminal history or prior removal order. The ACLU of Illinois said that the order will mean the immediate release of 13 people who have been [abducted] by federal officials. As part of Wednesday’s order, Cummings also prohibited the government from pressuring [abductees] to agree to voluntary deportation while their cases are pending, the Chicago Tribune added.” (11/12/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/12/trump-chicago-immigration-raids-arrests
-----
5) Bitcoin ETFs log best day in a month, add $524 million as cumulative trading volume approaches $1.5 trillion
Source: The Block
“The U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds bounced back to add $524 million worth of net inflows on Tuesday — the largest daily figure since just after the cryptocurrency hit all-time highs of around $126,000 on Oct. 6. … The inflows come despite bitcoin dropping roughly 3% on Tuesday to around $103,000. However, the foremost cryptocurrency has recovered somewhat in early trading on Wednesday …” (11/12/25)
https://www.theblock.co/post/378517/bitcoin-etfs-524-million-usd-inflows-cumulative-trading-volume-1-5-trillion-usd
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6) Atlanta Fed president Bostic to retire in February, opening seat on key committee
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will retire at the end of his current term in February, opening up a new seat on the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee at a time that President Donald Trump is seeking to exert more control over the central bank. As president of one of the Fed’s 12 regional banks, Bostic, 59, serves on the 19-member committee that meets eight times a year to decide whether to change a key short-term interest rate that influences borrowing costs throughout the economy. Only 12 of the 19 participants vote on rates at each meeting. The regional Fed presidents rotate as voters, and the Atlanta Fed’s president will next vote in 2027. Bostic’s replacement will be selected by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, which are made up of local business and community leaders, not the Trump administration.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/12/fed-president-retires-trump-interest/
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7) Myanmar: Junta forces take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Russia and China
Source: ABC News
“Myanmar says it has commissioned Russian helicopters and Chinese airplanes into its air force as the two nations continue to supply the military-run government with equipment despite international pressure to end its bloody civil war. The United States, the European Union and others have imposed sanctions on Myanmar that include the prohibition of arms sales, but Russia and China have been steadily supplying the military, known as the Tatmadaw, with hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment, according to the U.N. Photos provided by the military indicate it received three Russian Mi-38T helicopters and two Chinese Y-8 aircraft, which experts said will likely be used for operations to bring troops to fight in mountainous areas.” (11/12/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/myanmar-military-takes-delivery-helicopters-aircraft-russia-china-127442461
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8) Algeria: Tebboune pardons political prisoner Boualem Sansal
Source: Associated Press
“Algeria’s president on Wednesday granted a humanitarian pardon to the French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, releasing him after a yearlong imprisonment that sparked widespread criticism. The 76-year-old author — whose works have been critical of Islam, colonialism and contemporary Algeria’s leaders — had been imprisoned since being arrested at the airport in Algiers in November 2024 upon his return from France. He was convicted of undermining national unity and insulting public institutions and was sentenced to five years in prison under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws in March. Sansal has cancer, and his attorney said his health was deteriorating.” (11/12/25)
https://apnews.com/article/algeria-author-pardoned-sansal-07681fada5fadd15840eeaa40a485f9e
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9) Switzerland: Blue diamond sells for $25.6 million
Source: New York Times
“A 9.51-carat blue diamond sold for $25.6 million at an auction in Switzerland on Tuesday — a steal compared to what it fetched a decade ago. The teardrop-shaped stone, which previously belonged to Rachel Lambert Mellon, the American heiress and art collector better known as Bunny, had last been auctioned in 2014, when it went for $32.6 million. But diamonds aren’t what they used to be. Christie’s, the auction house that put it up for bid on Tuesday, had predicted a lower selling price this time of $20 million to $30 million. It landed in the middle of that range.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/lSC8h
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10) Biovac starts trials on South Africa’s first domestically developed cholera vaccine
Source: SFGate
“Researchers and scientists in South Africa on Tuesday launched clinical trials on the first domestically developed vaccine. The oral cholera vaccine, developed by the Cape Town-based pharmaceutical firm Biovac, is currently undergoing trials to determine its safety in adults and will be followed by trials to compare it to existing cholera vaccines that are already in the market. Depending on the results, the vaccine could be approved and ready for use in Africa by 2028, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said. The development of the vaccine has been praised as a significant milestone for vaccine access in the country and across the rest of the continent. Motsoaledi said that while South Africa experienced relatively low levels of cholera, many countries in Africa often hit hard by outbreaks would greatly benefit. He said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable African countries were to pandemics as they relied on imported vaccines.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/biovac-starts-trials-on-south-africa-s-first-21162780.php
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11) US mortgage demand from homebuyers hits highest level since September, despite rising interest rates
Source: CNBC
“As the housing market heads into its traditionally slowest season, homebuyers are making one last gasp, likely due to more supply on the market and softening prices. Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 6% last week to their strongest pace since September, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 31% higher than the same week one year ago. This came despite the fact that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, increased to 6.34% from 6.31%, with points rising to 0.62 from 0.58, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.” (11/12/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/12/mortgage-demand-from-homebuyers-hits-highest-level-since-september.html
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12) France: Trial of former Congolese rebel leader Lumbala over wartime atrocities opens in Paris
Source: SFGate
“The trial of Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala began Wednesday in Paris over atrocities committed two decades ago during the Second Congo War. Lumbala has been charged with ‘criminal conspiracy to prepare crimes against humanity’ and ‘complicity of crimes against humanity’ during the conflict from 1998 to 2003. Lumbala faces a possible sentence of life in prison. A verdict is expected Dec. 19 following the trial at the Paris criminal court. The 67-year-old led the Congolese Rally for National Democracy, a rebel group backed by neighboring Uganda and accused of atrocities against civilians, particularly targeting the Nande and Bambuti ethnic minorities in eastern Congo in 2002 and 2003. The group committed widespread torture, executions, rape, forced labor and sexual slavery, according to U.N. reports.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/trial-of-former-congolese-rebel-leader-lumbala-21168357.php
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13) South Korea: Special Counsel detains ex-PM Hwang over alleged insurrection incitement
Source: United Press International
“A special counsel team detained former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn Wednesday on charges of inciting an insurrection following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law. Hwang, who served under former President Park Geun-hye, made Facebook posts following the martial law imposition Dec. 3 to call for the eradication of pro-North Korea forces and those involved in alleged electoral fraud. He also called for the arrest of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and then People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon. Investigators from special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team executed a detention warrant for Hwang at his home in Seoul’s Yongsan Ward after he ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.” (11/12/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/11/12/korea-special-counsel-detains-ex-Prime-Minister-Hwang-Kyo-ahn-insurrection-incitement/2261762938851/
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14) GM wants parts makers to pull supply chains from China
Source: Reuters
“General Motors has directed several thousand of its suppliers to scrub their supply chains of parts from China, four people familiar with the matter said, reflecting automakers’ growing frustration over geopolitical disruptions to their operations. GM executives have been telling suppliers they should find alternatives to China for their raw materials and parts, with the goal of eventually moving their supply chains out of the country entirely, the people said. The automaker has set a 2027 deadline for some suppliers to dissolve their China sourcing ties, some of the sources said.” (11/12/25)
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-wants-parts-makers-pull-supply-chains-china-2025-11-12/
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15) Trump officially asks Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu
Source: Axios
“President Trump sent an official letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog calling on him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed the corruption charges against him are ‘political lawfare.’ Trump has repeatedly intervened in Israel’s judicial system and domestic politics over Netanyahu’s ongoing trial. His letter, released on Wednesday morning by the Israeli President’s office, is the first official step he has taken on this matter. … While Israeli law allows President Herzog to pardon almost any person charged or convicted of a crime, Supreme Court rulings and other legal guidelines limit his authority. Under the current legal procedures, only a defendant or a member of his family can appeal to the president for a pardon. In all cases in recent years, Israeli defendants had to plead guilty and acknowledge wrongdoing. In addition, the Ministry of Justice usually has to weigh in and recommend a pardon.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/7hLZ4
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16) UN watchdog hasn’t been able to verify Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months
Source: SFGate
“The International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to verify the status of Iran’s near weapons-grade uranium stockpile since Israel struck the country’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Wednesday by The Associated Press. The IAEA said that the status of the near weapons-grade material ‘needs urgently to be addressed.’ According to the IAEA’s last report in September, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/un-watchdog-hasn-t-been-able-to-verify-iran-s-21168365.php
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17) Google lawsuit accuses China-based cybercriminals of massive text-message phishing scams
Source: CBS News
“Google is filing a federal lawsuit against a network of foreign cybercriminals based in China that is accused of launching massive text-message phishing attacks, the tech giant told CBS News in an exclusive interview. Google said the messages are part of a criminal network called ‘Lighthouse.’ The texts look legitimate, often warning recipients of a ‘stuck package’ or an ‘unpaid toll,’ but they’re actually phishing or what’s called smishing — a type of phishing scam that uses text messages to try to trick recipients into revealing personal and sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, which are then stolen.” (11/12/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-lawsuit-text-message-phishing-attacks/
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18) FL: “Operation Dirtbag,” apparently named for Noem, grandstands on sexual predation to promote gang abduction op
Source: New York Post
“More than 150 illegal [sic] migrant [alleged] sexual predators have been [abducted] in Florida as part of a massive sweep dubbed ‘Operation Dirtbag,’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on Wednesday. The [alleged] sex offenders were among more than 230 illegals [sic] rounded up in the Sunshine State after being wanted for crimes including drug offenses and even murder. Others who were arrested had prior convictions for child molestation and sexual assault, according to the Department of Homeland Security.” (11/12/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/12/us-news/operation-dirtbag-sees-over-150-illegal-migrant-sexual-predators-nabbed-in-florida/
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19) US Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
Source: SFGate
“Back in 1793, a penny could get you a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. These days, many sit in drawers or glass jars and are basically cast aside or collected as lucky keepsakes. But their luck is about to run out. The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny on Wednesday as the president has canceled the 1-cent coin as the cost of making them became more than their value. President Donald Trump has ordered its demise as costs climb to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation becomes somewhat obsolete. The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Today, there are billions of them in circulation, but they are rarely essential for financial transactions in the modern economy or the digital age.” (11/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/unlucky-penny-us-mint-in-philadelphia-to-press-21168390.php
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20) Trump regime officially notices that CFPB’s funding is illegal
Source: Politico
“The Trump administration has formally determined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current funding mechanism is unlawful, a move that puts the agency on track to close in the coming months when its existing cash runs out. The decision, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, marks the administration’s most direct effort yet to dismantle the consumer watchdog …. A new opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, submitted in court, contends that the CFPB cannot draw money from the Federal Reserve currently because the agency is only entitled to the central bank’s surpluses and the Fed has operated at a loss since 2022. The Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB, requires the Fed to transfer from the ‘combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System’ the amount that the CFPB director determines is necessary to operate the agency, with certain limits.” (11/11/25)
https://archive.is/w88WJ
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Reject kings of all political stripes
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“A few short weeks ago, people who largely represented one political faction were protesting for ‘No Kings.’ Then, too many of those from the very same faction in New York City did a flip-flop and voted for a man who promises to act exactly like a king. During his election night victory speech, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said, ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.’ This is real-world king-level stuff. His supporters didn’t notice the contradiction within themselves, but were thrilled at the prospect. Politics makes people stupid. Apparently, those voters aren’t opposed to kings at all. They just don’t like Donald Trump being the president. Who knew? All of us did.” (11/12/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/11/12/voices/opinion-reject-kings-of-all-political-stripes/232112.html
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22) Don’t count on regime change to stabilize Venezuela
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Daniel R DePetris
“This year’s Nobel Prize laureate has spent much of her time recently in the U.S. lobbying policymakers to squeeze Maduro into vacating power. Constantly at risk of detention in her own country, [María Corina] Machado is granting interviews and dialing into conferences to advocate for regime change. Her talking points are clearly tailored for the Trump administration: Maduro is the head of a drug cartel that is poisoning Americans; his dictatorship rests on weak pillars; and the forces of democracy inside Venezuela are fully prepared to seize the mantle once Maduro is gone. … But as the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While there’s no disputing that Maduro is a despot and a fraud who steals elections, U.S. policymakers can’t simply take what Machado is saying for granted.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/SkVbH
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23) Eternal Sunshine of the Changing Time
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Though there is consensus in both the EU and US that clock-changing is a damaging and outdated practice, the debate about whether to adopt ST or DST permanently continues. Perhaps Franklin had the right answer two-and-a-half centuries ago: go to bed when it’s dark and rise with the sun, regardless of the arbitrarily-assigned hour. All governments have to do is supply the cannons needed to encourage this.” (11/12/25)
https://fee.org/articles/eternal-sunshine-of-the-changing-time/
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24) Five Legal Reforms To Consider as Government Officials Lean on Critics
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Next month, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr will testify before the Senate Commerce Committee over his role in browbeating ABC into briefly suspending late-night ‘comedian’ Jimmy Kimmel. After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Kimmel made stupid and insensitive comments that prompted Carr to wade into the fray, threatening to use his regulatory power to punish the TV host and his network. That prompted bipartisan condemnation of government interference and the upcoming Senate hearing. Now, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wants to go further, suggesting five legal changes to make censorship by government officials more difficult.” (11/12/25)
https://reason.com/2025/11/12/5-legal-reforms-to-consider-as-government-officials-lean-on-critics/
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25) Was Milei Bailed Out?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Were Milei’s radical reforms saved at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer? Bessant was asked this, yesterday, directly on MSNBC, and had a response: ‘Do you know what a swap line is?’ I had to brush up on it. … A currency swap is a financial agreement between two parties to exchange principal amounts and interest payments in different currencies over a set period — a temporary loan in one currency backed by collateral in another, designed to provide liquidity, hedge exchange rate risks, or access cheaper funding without the full risks of outright borrowing. ‘In most bailouts you don’t make money,’ Bessent said. ‘The U.S. government made money.’ In an exchange, both parties gain. But in any exchange involving extended spans of time, there is risk, so any initial win for Treasury could be wasted by a failure of Milei’s course.” (11/12/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/12/was-milei-bailed-out/
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26) Release the Epstein files — expose the untouchables and their elite enablers
Source: The Hill
by Christine Black Szarzynski
“Regardless of who or what political party is in power, the untouchable layer does not seem to change much, from marble-walled compounds in Dubai or Bahrain to gilded palaces in Palm Springs — and a billionaire’s private island where other billionaires visit and do whatever they want, no matter whom they hurt. Untouchables enrich one another, protect one another’s power and keep each others’ secrets. At this societal layer, Democratic and Republican parties become irrelevant, and debate is merely theater. There is only one party, and we are not in it. … President Trump promised full disclosures and investigations into Epstein, then backtracked on his promise.” (11/12/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5601175-epstein-untouchable-elite-abuse/
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27) Taking the Rural Route
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Rural voters may be disproportionately dependent on certain kinds of government services, and their families often depend on income and benefits associated with government employment, but they are not left-wing radicals either as a matter of policy preference or as a matter of temperament. … Trump did not run in those counties as a socialist talking about income redistribution and intersectionality: He ran as a guy bitching about high prices at the grocery store. Rural America listened. And Trump, being Trump, has repaid rural America for its support by screwing over America’s farmers …. There are votes there in the countryside to be had by those willing to fight for them — they probably should not send the incoming mayor of New York City to do the asking, but one would think that would be obvious enough even for Democrats.” (11/12/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/rural-voters-moderate-spanberger-trump/
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28) Gen Z Blames Capitalism, But We Chose the Cage That Traps Us
Source: The Daily Economy
by Julian Adorney
“We’re living in cages of anxious boredom and disconnection. Markets deliver what we ask for, but they can’t teach us what to value.” (11/12/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/zoochosis-economy-have-we-made-ourselves-miserable/
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29) War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Grocery Prices Are Way Down.
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Lying has worked for Trump in the past. Is this a lie too far?” (11/12/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/war-is-peace-freedom-is-slavery-grocery
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30) An Ideal Foreign Policy
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Americans living today have lived their entire lives under governmental systems and policies that have come with perpetual war, interventionism, embargoes, sanctions, coups, state-sponsored assassinations, extrajudicial murders, foreign aid to brutal regimes, torture, invasions, occupations, tariffs, trade wars, immigration controls, an immigration police state, wars of aggression, out of control federal spending and debt, and massive infringements on civil liberties. From the first grade on up, Americans have been inculcated with the notion that all this is ‘freedom.’ As adults and oftentimes to the day they die, they enthusiastically stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and thank the troops, the CIA, and the NSA for protecting their ‘freedom.’ Given such, I believe it’s important to periodically set forth the libertarian ideal with respect to all this statism.” (11/12/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/11/12/an-ideal-foreign-policy-2/
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31) Has CNN lost its soul?
Source: Washington Times
by Brent Sadler
“I can still see and hear it in my mind’s eye: cruise missiles skimming low over Baghdad during the Gulf War, the air vibrating, my voice raised above the roar and the crack of anti-aircraft fire. Back then, we were reporters, not presenters. We didn’t measure risk in ratings or clicks or choose our words from lists approved by diversity, equity and inclusion committees. We told it as it was: raw, immediate and real. Today, CNN faces yet another ‘strategic reset’ under David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery. The network confronts a reckoning far more profound than shrinking ratings or revenue. It must decide whether it stands for good, independent journalism. To my generation, good journalism matters. We bear witness. We write and broadcast the first draft of history from the front, not the studio floor or some convenient live-shot location well behind the lines.” (11/11/25)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/11/cnn-lost-soul/
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32) No historical event benefited the world more than the Revolutionary War
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“History’s gears are lubricated by gore. Witness America’s Revolutionary War, whose continuing reverberations have done more to improve the course of human events than any other event in history. The war was fueled by crystalline ideas couched in elegant prose authored by members of the Colonial upper crust. But from 1777 on, most bleeding was done by ‘the poorest of the poor — jobless laborers and landless tenants, second and third sons without hope of an inheritance, debtors and British deserters, indentured servants and apprentices, felons hoping to win pardons.’ So says a new telling of America’s origin story, which is a tapestry of suffering, viciousness, selflessness and nobility. Beginning Sunday, in six two-hour episodes on PBS, ‘The American Revolution’ will immerse viewers in an often bewildering, sometimes dismaying, but ultimately exhilarating documentary by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt.” (11/12/25)
https://archive.is/AdGf5
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33) Sometimes The Media Ignoring A Major Story Becomes The Story
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the craziest things happening right now is how there’s been report after report confirming that Jeffrey Epstein really was an Israeli intelligence operative, based on publicly available documents, and yet it’s had no measurable impact on mainstream media or politics. Over the last month and a half, Drop Site News has published four reports about Epstein’s intelligence ties …. In the latest article, Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussein write, ‘we’re left wondering why the rest of the media, which has demonstrated no lack of excitement when it comes to the saga of Jeffrey Epstein, has all of a sudden lost its reporting capacity, in the face of reams of publicly available newsworthy documents.'” (11/12/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/12/sometimes-the-media-ignoring-a-major-story-becomes-the-story/
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34) Muslim Fusionism
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jacob Williams
“The debate about Islam’s compatibility with Western freedoms often seems to have reached an impasse. Everyone knows that most Muslims are not violent extremists or actively working to undermine liberty. Everyone also knows that Muslims are more likely than other communities to support (at least in principle) the coercive imposition of religious norms. Thus, we play the game of essence and accidents: is this or that anti-liberal tendency of a particular Muslim community the result of Islam’s deep essence or of more culturally contingent accidents? I doubt such questions will ever be settled. Not because I think there is no right answer or that Islam doesn’t have an essence — as a Muslim, I am committed to thinking that there is, and it does — but because in a pluralistic society, we should not expect agreement on the essence of any religion.” (11/12/25)
https://lawliberty.org/muslim-fusionism/
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35) Folk, Feedback, and Fury
Source: Quillette
by David Cohen
“‘Listen to your own voice,’ Neil Young once remarked. ‘Don’t listen to someone else’s. To me the way to live is to always move forward — to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you.’ At eighty, Young is still a defiantly idiosyncratic songwriter and a singer and instrumentalist so raw and ragged that his music feels like a protest against polish. One of rock’s mad masters of excess, he has always moved too fast, and overdone more or less everything he has turned his gnarled hand to. ‘It’s better to burn out than to fade away,’ he famously declared in a lyric that would find its way into Kurt Cobain’s parting thoughts. And after nearly fifty studio albums and countless live performances, Canada’s spikiest artist is still at it.” (11/12/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/12/folk-feedback-and-fury-neil-young-is-eighty/
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36) Tariff Dividend Checks for Dummies (i.e., the People in Policy Debates)
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“I learned basic arithmetic skills in third grade. I wasn’t exceptional; everyone in my public school third-grade class learned them. Of course, we all can now use computers to have calculations done for us in a fraction of a second. But still, somehow we have major national debates that show zero understanding of even the most basic arithmetic. The latest example is the $2,000 tariff dividend check that Trump is promising us. The arithmetic here is about as simple as it gets. We have roughly 340 million people in the country. Let’s say 10 percent don’t get the check because they meet Trump’s category of ‘high-income.’ That leaves over 300 million people getting Trump’s $2,000 checks. That comes to more than $600 billion. Trump’s tariffs are raising around $270 billion. That means we will be paying out $330 billion more in Trump tariff dividend checks than he is raising in tariff revenue.” (11/12/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/12/tariff-dividend-checks-for-dummies-i-e-the-people-in-policy-debates/
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37) Brave reformers must dethrone radical political zealots to save our universities
Source: New York Post
by John Ellis
“Of the 10 sections of President Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the second is the real key to reform. It asks that schools cultivate a ‘vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus’ — exactly what campus radicals have destroyed, reducing higher education to its present appalling condition. But this remedy also exposes the main weakness of the White House’s compact — and of most reform efforts. Asking radical university staff to create ideological diversity is rather like relying on Nancy Pelosi to choose Republican representatives for the Jan. 6 committee. While radicals remain in control of campuses, reform will proceed glacially — if at all. The discrepancy between what we fund the campuses for and what they are doing is enormous. Promotion of knowledge and understanding has given way to inculcation of a poisonous fringe ideology.” (11/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/11/opinion/brave-reformers-must-dethrone-radical-political-zealots-to-save-our-universities/
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38) The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stavroula Pabst
“As Trump amasses lots of ships, drones, and missiles off the coast of Venezuela, the weapons industry is already reaping the benefits.” (11/12/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-us-military/
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39) Trump Should Welcome Saudi Pragmatism — But Not Offer Security Guarantees
Source: The American Conservative
by Trita Parsi
“When Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) arrives in Washington this week, he comes not as a reformer seeking American approval, but as a ruler who no longer needs it. In the seven years since his last U.S. visit, the Saudi crown prince has transformed his kingdom’s foreign policy, tested the limits of American patience, and discovered the leverage that comes from acting independently of Washington. His return offers a revealing measure of how much both Saudi Arabia — and America’s role in the Middle East — have changed. The last thing Donald Trump should do is undo the forces that compelled these shifts.” (11/12/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-should-welcome-saudi-pragmatism-but-not-offer-security-guarantees/
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40) Liberalism’s Positive Vision Must Be the Open Society
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri
“In arguing for liberal democracy and against dictatorship, my own tendency is to emphasize a set of common problems all types of societies face in the modern world and to explain why liberalism offers the most practical tools for addressing them. While one might argue that advocating for liberal rights and representative institutions counts as standing ‘for things’ rather than against them, it is possible to advocate in an entirely ‘ameliorative, mitigating spirit’ as Schliesser put it. For societies exhausted by years of open ethnic conflict, or experiencing the always precarious transition from dictatorship to democracy, that mitigating spirit may be more than enough. The practical merit of liberalism for achieving social peace under difficult conditions cannot be overstated. Nevertheless, liberals have no need to settle for this negative vision.” (11/12/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalisms-positive-vision-must-be-the-open-society/
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41) “Regime change” in Venezuela a Euphemism for US-Inflicted Carnage and Chaos
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“For decades, Washington has sold the world a deadly lie: that ‘regime change’ brings freedom, that US bombs and blockades can/somehow deliver democracy. But every country that has lived through this euphemism knows the truth: it instead brings death, dismemberment, and despair. Now that the same playbook is being dusted off for Venezuela, the parallels with Iraq and other US interventions are an ominous warning of what could follow. As a US armada gathers off Venezuela, a US special operations aviation unit aboard one of the warships has been flying helicopter patrols along the coast. This is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR, the ‘Nightstalkers’) the same unit that, in US-occupied Iraq, worked with the Wolf Brigade, the most feared Interior Ministry death squad.” (11/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/no-regime-change-venezuela
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42) The days to come: Modeling refugee flows from Venezuela after US intervention
Source: Niskanen Center
by Gil Guerra & Claire Holba
“The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis has become a key pillar in the administration’s justification for military action. President Trump has accused the Venezuelan government of sending criminal migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border, and stemming the flow of Venezuelan migrants appears to be one of the major motivations guiding current policy. Migration should therefore also be one of the key considerations that policymakers weighing intervention should take into account. Our report attempts to model what new outflows from Venezuela might look like based on different U.S. actions.” (11/12/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-days-to-come-modeling-refugee-flows-from-venezuela-after-u-s-intervention/
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43) What Happened To San Francisco Homelessness?
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“Last year, I wrote that it would be very hard to decrease the number of mentally ill homeless people in San Francisco. Commenters argued that no, it would be easy, just build more jails and mental hospitals. A year later, San Francisco feels safer. Visible homelessness is way down. But there wasn’t enough time to build many more jails or mental hospitals. So what happened? Were we all wrong? Probably not.” (11/12/25)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/what-happened-to-sf-homelessness
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44) More Federal Intervention in Education
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Among the many other things contained in the OBBBA, some are good and some are bad. It is a good thing that the OBBBA expands federal work requirements for able-bodied recipients of food stamps, institutes federal work requirements for able-bodied recipients of Medicaid, and tightens Medicaid eligibility requirements, because it means that fewer people will be eligible to receive welfare. However, it is a bad thing that the OBBBA includes a $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. But what are we to make of the little-known provision in the OBBBA that creates the nation’s first private federal tax-credit-based school choice program?” (11/11/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/more-federal-intervention-in-education/
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45) Gen Z loves both Trump and Mamdani for the same reason
Source: Fox News
by Kaylee McGhee White
“What do President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have in common? Not much, except this: young adults love them. In fact, both men owe their electoral victories in part to Gen Z, my generation. Seventy-eight percent of voters ages 18 to 29 turned out for Mamdani on Nov. 4, according to one breakdown, including 67% of young men and 84% of young women. Just a year earlier, many in this same demographic were heading to the polls to cast their votes for Trump. The president won 46% of Gen Zers last year, including 56% of young men and 40% of young women, significantly improving his standing among this group compared to 2020 and 2016. If this wild swing from right to left has given you whiplash, I don’t blame you. But there is some method to the madness.” (11/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gen-z-loves-both-trump-mamdani-same-reason
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46) The Dark Crusade of “Little” Wars
Source: The Realist Review
by Chris Mott
“Armed conflict’s power to shape societies in unconventional ways means that big wars are often viewed as something uncanny, horrifying, and romantic. Be it through the writings of a figure like Ernst Junger, or perhaps a backdrop to bring heightened stakes to a fictitious setting, these colossal and undeniable struggles have a habit of becoming the dominant archetype of discussion when it comes to trials of both individuals and societies. But what happens when the war does not unfold with much public drama and media coverage? What happens when it remains out of sight and mind, unfolding in the background with little to no public input? Is the effect just as dramatic if less obvious? I would contend that the answer is yes.” (11/11/25)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-dark-crusade-of-little-wars
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47) Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage Will Bring More Inflation and Corporate Bailouts
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“The politics behind the new proposal are fairly straightforward. Trump will promote the 50-year mortgage as a more affordable alternative to the 30-year mortgage. This seems plausible at a superficial level. The idea here is that the cost of the home is stretched out over a longer period of time, and therefore the monthly payment will be lower than it would be for a 30-year mortgage. … Unfortunately, the President’s scheme is unlikely to make homeownership more secure or affordable for ordinary Americans. It will further financialize the economy, enable more fiat-money fueled debt, and likely require more monetary inflation and more corporate bailouts down the line. That is, a fifty-year mortgage will require even more government intervention to guarantee loans and to keep interest rates at a politically acceptable level.” (11/12/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-50-year-mortgage-will-bring-more-inflation-and-corporate-bailouts
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48) The economy is running on magic beans
Source: Semafor
by Liz Hoffman
“In the 1970s, if you wanted to understand a company’s worth, you could literally kick the tires. More than 80% of S&P 500 companies’ assets were, in accountant-speak, ‘tangible’ — buildings, inventory, land, and securities with measurable value. Today, it’s about 10%. The rest is a corporate ectoplasm of code, data, and brand power. Marriott is a hotel company that doesn’t own hotels. Delta Airlines’ credit card partnership is more profitable than its airplanes. This shift from hard assets to soft ones isn’t necessarily bad. It mirrors the broader pivot in the US economy from manufacturing to services, which are more profitable and less vulnerable to outsourcing. … But the wealth being created today is a haze of licensing agreements and magic beans.” (11/11/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/11/2025/the-economy-is-running-on-magic-beans
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49) Homeland Security Tightens Rule on Anti-ICE Activities
Source: The American Prospect
by Kate Morrissey
“The Department of Homeland Security suddenly moved up the implementation of a rule change that gives the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting federal buildings, more power to charge people with crimes for a variety of activities on or near federal property. The regulation, which went into effect on Nov. 5, prohibits a wide range of activities, including creating a loud or unusual noise, distributing informational materials and flying drones. It makes it illegal for people to wear masks to conceal their identities if they break any federal or state law or local ordinance. It forbids obstructing access to federal property or impeding operations there and specifically calls out photography and videography. Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S./Mexico Border Program, said he’s concerned that vague definitions in the regulations will give officers too much discretion.” (11/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/12/homeland-security-tightens-rule-on-anti-ice-activities/
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50) Adam Smith vs. The Engineers of Utopia
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“As Peter Boettke argues, in a world where all means and ends are known, the only task left is an engineering one. That is, essentially, what students learn in Econ 101—a world of perfect knowledge, known preferences, known prices and calculable costs, where solving equations yields all the answers. But the real wisdom of economics lies in understanding deviations from this perfection.” (11/11/25)
https://fee.org/articles/adam-smith-vs-the-engineers-of-utopia/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Political Orphanage, 11/12/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“‘The Walking Dead’ and Pagan Values.” (11/12/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-walking-dead-and-pagan-values
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52) Reason Interview: Katie Herzog
Source: Reason
“There’s More Than One Way To Get Sober.” (11/12/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/11/12/theres-more-than-one-way-to-get-sober/
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53) Collateral Damage, episode 6
Source: The Intercept
“Airborne Imperialism: The Tragic Deaths of Veronica and Charity Bowers.” (11/12/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/12/collateral-damage-episode-six-airborne-imperalism/
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54) Underthrow Podcast, 11/12/25
Source: Underthrow
“Sweden’s Great Seer on Post-Industrial Capitalism and Freedom.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOynPikg7fo
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55) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/12/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Wrecks His Own Case for Tariffs as Bizarre SCOTUS Rant Backfires.” (11/12/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/203061/trump-wrecks-case-tariffs-bizarre-scotus-rant-backfires
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56) Questions for Corbett, 11/12/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“What is the Deep State?” (11/12/25)
https://corbettreport.com/what-is-the-deep-state/
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57) The Daily, 11/12/25
Source: New York Times
“An Interview With the Man Behind Trump’s Current Immigration Crackdown.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjYYOEXZLKc
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58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/12/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Aircraft Carrier Arrives Near Venezuela, Report: US To Build Military Base Near Gaza, and More.” (11/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgnps9T7ugo
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59) Nonzero, 11/11/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Is American Might Right? | Robert Wright & Shadi Hamid.” (11/11/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69117
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60) Capital Record, episode 267
Source: National Review
“Solving Housing Affordability by Making It Worse.” (11/11/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/solving-housing-affordability-by-making-it-worse/
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