05/14 -- Ship reported seized off UAE coast, heading toward Iran; The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
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Thomas L. Knapp
May 14, 2026, 6:14:23 AM (11 days ago) May 14
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 05/14/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ship reported seized off UAE coast, heading toward Iran
2) Ukraine: Rescuers search rubble of Kyiv flats after massive Russian strikes kill two
3) Philippines: ICC suspect flees Senate
4) Senate confirms Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, ending standoff over Powell probe
5) NH: Libertarian Party Saboteur Charged After Alleged Fender Bender Meltdown
6) France: More than 1,700 people banned from leaving British cruise ship over likely stomach flu outbreak
7) Russia: City regime issues censorship order on photos/videos of drone strike effects
8) Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas’s disarmament
9) Shrinking Milka chocolate bar tricked consumers, says German court
10) TX: Home invasion ends in fatal shooting
11) LA: State senate advances plan to eliminate majority-black US House district
12) Tunisia: Court upholds sentence against journalist political prisoners
13) SC: Supreme Court unanimously overturns Murdaugh double murder conviction
14) US appeals court pauses sexual predator’s $83 million defamation payment to victim
15) Iran: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi needs months of care after collapse in prison
16) Trump picks new ICE gang shot-caller
17) Epstein abused me while under house arrest, survivor tells US lawmakers
18) Israel: Haredi factions push to dissolve Knesset, increasing likelihood of slightly earlier elections
19) Meta launches WhatsApp “incognito” mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats
20) Trump’s re-gerrymandering push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
22) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: How Qualified Immunity Gave Us Lawless Law Enforcement
23) No good reason to reject liberty
24) The Trump Hustle: Distraction, Deception and the Heist of the American Economy
25) Foreign Policy Payback: Russia Backs Iran Against United States
26) Trump May Wish to Reconsider Supporting Term Limits
27) The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
28) Hantavirus, the WHO, and the Conflicts in Weighing Mortality
29) Africa refashions relations with the West
30) Ben Sasse’s Warning: Reclaim Your Attention Before It’s Too Late
31) America needs drone defense plan before disaster strikes
32) America can’t afford year-round E15 fuel — Congress must reject it
33) Either You Believe Israel Is Evil Or You Believe It’s All An Elaborate Conspiracy
34) In Cuba, Socialism Has Morphed Into A Racket
35) Progressives and Conservatives Are Wrong About Taxing the Rich
36) The Trump Administration Is a Powerful but Unreliable Ally of Second Amendment Advocates
37) Hochul’s funny money only enables Mamdani’s even-funnier “fiscal plan” for NYC
38) The Malignant Hypocrisy of Conservatives Is on Full Display in Venezuela
39) Why J Street Does Not Go Far Enough
40) Bob Dylan’s Argument With God
41) Redistricting Wars Prove History Doesn’t Move in Just One Direction
42) Is Housing Less Affordable Than Ever? Sort Of
43) Sean Duffy’s family vacation was funded by companies he regulates
44) The Privacy Protection Act protects watchdogs. What if it’s ignored?
45) The Hantavirus Cruise: A Ship of Fools
46) 2 hearings, 0 justification for a $1.5 trillion military budget
47) License Plate Reader Baton Passing
48) Homeschooling under fire
49) ICE Is Counting on Our Silence
50) Capitalists of the World Aren’t Uniting Against Workers
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Political Orphanage, 05/13/26
52) Reasonably Optimistic, 05/13/26
53) Rising, 05/13/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/13/26
55) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/13/26
56) The Cost of Bureaucracy
57) Reason Interview: John Fetterman
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/12/26
59) Trump Watch, 05/12/26
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ship reported seized off UAE coast, heading toward Iran
Source: Associated Press
“A ship anchored off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates has been seized and is heading toward Iranian territorial waters, the British military said Thursday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the vessel was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70 kilometers, 44 miles) northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz. … UKMTO did not name the ship and said it is investigating. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the seizure.” (05/14/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-war-oil-hormuz-may-14-2026-efb53c39ee6334733e1cb22ca4a6c279
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2) Ukraine: Rescuers search rubble of Kyiv flats after massive Russian strikes kill two
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Two people have been killed and children are among dozens wounded after Russia launched a massive wave of strikes against Ukraine overnight, officials have said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was an ‘especially difficult night for Kyiv,’ where rescuers are searching through the rubble of a residential building after a combined missile and drone attack on the capital. At least 40 people have been injured, including two children, the city’s mayor said. Some 31 of those are being treated in hospital. It marks the third day in a row Ukraine has reported deaths, as Moscow ramps up its assault after a three-day ceasefire expired on Monday.” (05/14/26)
https://archive.is/JbkXg
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3) Philippines: ICC suspect flees Senate
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Philippine Senate President says that a politician wanted by the International Court (ICC) was no longer in the Senate building where he had been taking refuge, fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody ‘war on drugs,’ has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. ‘The sergeant-at-arms has confirmed that he is no longer in the building,’ Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Thursday. The announcement comes a day after gunfire rang out at the Senate, where dela Rosa had been holed up. Confusion and chaos filled the legislature as people inside scrambled for cover on Wednesday, hours after dela Rosa, had appealed to his supporters on social media to mobilise and said law enforcement agents were planning on arresting him.” (05/14/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/14/philippine-politician-wanted-by-icc-flees-senate
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4) Senate confirms Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, ending standoff over Powell probe
Source: ABC News
“The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh, clearing the way for Warsh to replace central bank head Jerome Powell when his term ends later this week. The Senate confirmed Warsh by a vote of 54 to 45. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh. The vote comes weeks after the Department of Justice moved to drop its criminal probe into Powell. Before that, Warsh had faced a bipartisan stonewall in the Senate Banking Committee over the investigation. The probe into Powell focused on alleged false testimony to Congress about an office renovation. Powell, whose term ends on Friday, called the investigation a politically motivated effort to influence interest-rate policy.” (05/13/26)
https://abcnews.com/Business/senate-confirms-fed-chair-nominee-kevin-warsh-ending/story?id=132875814
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5) NH: Libertarian Party Saboteur Charged After Alleged Fender Bender Meltdown
Source: Independent Political Report
“As prominent New Hampshire Libertarian Jeremy Kauffman mounts an effort to dissolve the national Libertarian Party, he’s also dealing with a legal drama for his alleged racist behavior in a grocery store parking lot. Kauffman, 41, is scheduled for trial in July on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration stemming from an April 4 incident in which he allegedly tried to fight several people while hurling racist insults, according to Manchester Police reports. Police were called to the Elm Street Market Basket parking lot around 2 p.m. on April 4 to deal with reports that a man hit another car in the parking lot with his car, fought with several people, and then went inside the store and continued yelling.” (05/13/26)
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2026/05/nh-libertarian-leader-charged-after-alleged-racist-incident/
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6) France: More than 1,700 people banned from leaving British cruise ship over likely stomach flu outbreak
Source: Sky News [UK]
“More than 1,700 passengers and crew members have been ordered not to leave their cruise ship while French health officials carry out tests after a likely stomach flu outbreak onboard. The cruise liner Ambition, which set sail from Belfast on 8 May, on a 14-night tour of western France and Spain, has seen dozens of cases of suspected gastroenteritis among those onboard. The vessel called at Liverpool on Saturday and cases of gastroenteritis were said to have risen after passengers boarded at that stop. There is no reason to link what looks like a stomach flu outbreak on the ship with the hantavirus cluster on the luxury MV Hondius ship, the regional health authority said.” (05/13/26)
https://news.sky.com/story/over-1-000-passengers-banned-from-leaving-british-cruise-ship-docked-in-france-over-likely-stomach-flu-outbreak-13543587
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7) Russia: City regime issues censorship order on photos/videos of drone strike effects
Source: US News & World Report
“Moscow authorities have imposed restrictions on the publication of photos and videos showing the aftermath of ‘terrorist attacks,’ including drone strikes, the office of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Wednesday. An order appearing on the mayor’s official website, referring to the city’s ‘Anti-terrorist Commission’ said the directive was aimed at ‘preventing the dissemination of unreliable information.’ It prevents media, as well as individuals and emergency services, from publishing any pictures or videos of ‘terrorist acts, including drone attacks’ until they appear on websites of the Defence Ministry or city government. … Other parts of Russia have already imposed similar bans.” (05/13/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-13/moscow-authorities-restrict-publication-of-photos-and-videos-of-aftermath-of-drone-strikes
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8) Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas’s disarmament
Source: SFGate
“Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday the truce hinged on Hamas’ disarmament, a sticking point that has stalled progress on other fronts, including rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave. The high representative for U.S. President Donald Trump’s International Board of Peace in Gaza, Mladenov, said months without progress implementing the deal benefited neither Israel nor Palestinians. He said the phased deal was paralyzed over Hamas not yet disarming, calling it ‘not negotiable.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/envoy-tasked-with-overseeing-post-war-gaza-visits-22256726.php
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9) Shrinking Milka chocolate bar tricked consumers, says German court
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“In a landmark German case targeting chocolate ‘shrinkflation’, a court has found that the manufacturer of Milka’s classic Alpine Milk bar cheated consumers and broke competition law. Cutting back on the amount of chocolate while having the same kind of wrapper meant that customers were being misled, Bremen regional court ruled. The three-week court case was brought by Hamburg’s consumer protection office (VZHH), which accused manufacturer Mondelēz of deceiving consumers by cutting the weight of the ‘Alpenmilch’ bar from 100g to 90g. Reacting to the ruling Mondelēz told the BBC it was ‘taking the decision of the court seriously’ and would ‘look at it in detail now’. ” (05/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmp428zylko
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10) TX: Home invasion ends in fatal shooting
Source: Yahoo! News
“A home invasion in Hopkins County ended in gunfire Tuesday when a homeowner fatally shot an alleged intruder, local authorities said. … investigators reviewed footage from a Ring doorbell camera that showed an individual, identified as Buck Clary, striking the glass front door of the residence while yelling. The footage reportedly showed Clary breaking a ‘portion of the glass and reaching inside the home,’ the sheriff’s office said. The homeowner then discharged a firearm through the door, striking Clary.” (05/13/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/home-invasion-ends-fatal-shooting-160205157.html
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11) LA: State senate advances plan to eliminate majority-black US House district
Source: SFGate
“Republican senators in Louisiana advanced a plan Wednesday to eliminate one of two majority-[b]lack, Democratic-held congressional seats following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s U.S. House map as an illegal racial gerrymander. The early morning Senate committee vote came after hours of impassioned testimony from [b]lack residents and Democrats opposed to the move. Republicans opted not to pursue a more aggressive approach, which could have targeted both Democratic seats for elimination. … The redistricting efforts to undo minority districts are the latest variation in a 10-month-long national redistricting battle that already has involved about one-third of the states.” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/louisiana-advances-plan-to-eliminate-22256775.php
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12) Tunisia: Court upholds sentence against journalist political prisoners
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“A Tunisian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the three-and-a-half-year prison sentences of two prominent journalists jailed for alleged financial crimes, according to their lawyer. The journalists, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, were sentenced in January for money laundering and tax evasion — accusations they denied. … Since President Kais Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, rights groups have denounced a regression in freedoms in Tunisia. Dozens of Saied’s critics are currently behind bars. The case against Zeghidi and Bsaies has been condemned by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as ‘judicial harassment.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/tunisia-upholds-sentence-against-jailed-journalists
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13) SC: Supreme Court unanimously overturns Murdaugh double murder conviction
Source: Fox News
“The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted in March 2023 of double homicide of his wife and son. The court ordered a new trial, saying that Mary Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill, who served as the court clerk in Colleton County, exercised ‘improper external influences’ during Murdaugh’s first trial. Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian said in a statement that Murdaugh will remain in custody. The state supreme court voted unanimously on the decision. ‘Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial,’ their ruling said.” (05/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/alex-murdaughs-double-murder-conviction-unanimously-overturned-south-carolina-supreme-court
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14) US appeals court pauses sexual predator’s $83 million defamation payment to victim
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump will not have to pay the $83.3m defamation award to writer E Jean Carroll until the US supreme court either reviews the case or rejects an appeal. The second US circuit court of appeals in New York issued the order on Monday …. But the court also required that Trump increase the bond by $7.46m, to account for interest that would accrue on Carroll’s award during any further legal proceedings before the nation’s highest court. … In January 2024, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3m for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of raping her inside the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. It came a year after a separate jury awarded Carroll $5m in damages after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.” (05/13/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/appeals-court-delays-trump-payment-e-jean-carroll-case
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15) Iran: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi needs months of care after collapse in prison
Source: SFGate
“Doctors who examined Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi more than a week after she collapsed at a prison in Iran say she needs months of treatment, her foundation said Wednesday. An angiography procedure showed two of her main arteries have significant blockage and that her vascular disease has significantly deteriorated since she last had the procedure in 2024, the foundation said in a statement. Mohammadi, 53, was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran on May 1 after she fell unconscious. She was released on bail nearly 10 days later and transferred to a hospital in Tehran where her specialists examined her. The attending physician said her blood pressure continues to fluctuate, in part due to damage to part of the brain that is responsible for such regulations. The doctors recommended an eight-month treatment course in an environment ‘free from external stressors, where she can receive permanent care and long-term treatment.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/nobel-laureate-narges-mohammadi-needs-months-of-22256961.php
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16) Trump picks new ICE gang shot-caller
Source: The Hill
“A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to The Hill’s broadcast partner NewsNation that President Trump will select Dave Venturella to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an acting capacity after the departure of Todd Lyons, who is currently serving as the acting ICE chief. Lyons is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector on May 31, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in a post on social platform X last month. … The Senate has not confirmed a director for ICE since 2017, resulting in almost ten years of the agency having a leader in an acting capacity.” (05/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5875195-trump-picks-new-acting-ice-director
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17) Epstein abused me while under house arrest, survivor tells US lawmakers
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has told how the late sex offender sexually abused her while he was under house arrest for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Roza, who was recruited from Uzbekistan as a teenager by Epstein’s associate and modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, spoke publicly for the first time alongside a number of victims in a field hearing that was organised by House Democrats. She told the session that she was introduced to Epstein by Brunel in July 2009, was offered work by Epstein ‘to help me with my financial troubles,’ and he later subjected her to rape over a period of three years. Democratic lawmaker Robert Garcia said the unofficial hearing was held in West Palm Beach, Florida, because it was ‘where Epstein’s crimes first came to light.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clypr378l2wo
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18) Israel: Haredi factions push to dissolve Knesset, increasing likelihood of slightly earlier elections
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“The seven-strong ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party said Tuesday that it would seek to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections, because of the coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining the decades-old exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from military service. Multiple opposition MKs promptly submitted bills for the dissolution of parliament, with the Yesh Atid party seeking to begin the process on Wednesday. Nonetheless, it was not immediately clear when and whether such a vote would be held, whether it would pass, and, if so, when elections might be held. In any case, general elections must be held no later than October 27, 2026. … UTJ, a core member when Netanyahu assembled his coalition after the 2022 elections, formally pulled out of the government and the coalition last year in the protracted dispute over the legislation.” (05/13/26)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-factions-back-dissolving-knesset-increasing-chance-for-early-elections/
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19) Meta launches WhatsApp “incognito” mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats
Source: SFGate
“Meta Platforms said Wednesday it’s rolling out an ‘incognito’ mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns about sensitive information that users share in chats. The social media company said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant that’s been available on WhatsApp for a few years. Messages will be processed ‘in a secure environment’ that even Meta can’t access, won’t be saved by default and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said. Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns because the large language models that underpin these systems are trained on vast troves of data, sometimes including personal information provided by users themselves in their conversations with AI chatbots.” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/meta-launches-whatsapp-incognito-mode-to-22256790.php
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20) Trump’s re-gerrymandering push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court
Source: Associated Press
“President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the nation’s U.S. House districts received mixed results Tuesday as South Carolina senators defied his desires but Missouri’s top court upheld a new map that could help Republicans win an additional seat in the November midterm elections. … Trump urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an attempt to help Republicans win another seat. A House committee endorsed a map Tuesday that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held seat, and the chamber voted previously to let lawmakers return after their regular work ends Thursday to further consider redistricting. But the Senate had to give permission too. The 29-17 vote failed, coming just two votes short of the two-thirds needed, as five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition.” (05/12/26)
https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-congress-voting-rights-trump-1ed6f8c68884b372efca79fbb50e343a
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Bilbro
“Whenever a new technology comes down the pike, some people identify themselves as agents who can benefit from it, and others see themselves as victims who will be harmed by it. Agents get excited about how AI will enable them to get work done more easily and quickly. They can generate code, whip out targeted ad campaigns, analyze data, cheat on quizzes, respond to customer inquiries, or eliminate military targets. Victims fear that AI will empower the systems that already constrain or oppress them. They will suffer from software bugs or security vulnerabilities, be inundated with AI slop, get surveilled by governments and corporations, have their relationships infected by mistrust, get lost in labyrinthine bureaucracies, or be eliminated (perhaps erroneously) by an autonomous drone. This distinction helps make sense of the wildly varying responses to AI technologies: Agents generate utopian hype narratives while victims succumb to doomer fears.” (05/13/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/the-decline-and-fall-of-human-agency/
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22) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: How Qualified Immunity Gave Us Lawless Law Enforcement
Source: Liberalism.org
by Radley Balko
“At the state and local level, police officers (and government employees in general) are protected from lawsuits by a policy called qualified immunity. The policy isn’t in the Constitution, nor was it ever enacted by Congress. It’s a legal fiction that the U.S. Supreme Court invented from whole cloth. In fact, qualified immunity’s very existence cuts against the clear intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. … We commonly hear that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ — you can’t defend yourself from criminal charges by claiming that you didn’t know that what you did was illegal. Qualified immunity not only provides an excuse for law enforcement officers when they violate someone’s constitutional rights, it’s an incentive for police agencies to keep their officers ignorant of how courts expect officers to treat members of the public.” (04/13/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/federal-courts-local-wrongs-how-qualified-immunity-gave-us-lawless-law-enforcement
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23) No good reason to reject liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“People find many reasons to reject liberty. Fear. Envy. Ignorance. Tradition. In fact, there are probably as many reasons to reject liberty as there are people on this planet. Those whose careers depend on violating liberty will use any excuse they are handed. If they use envy, they can impose socialism and raise taxes on the rich. They can make people believe they have a ‘right’ to things that others must work to provide them. It can never be your right to enslave others! Using ignorance, political criminals lie and hope that too few notice to do anything about it. It’s how we get things like ‘assault weapon’ rules, carbon credits, and the war on (some) drugs. They also combine ignorance with envy, so those cheated in the brain department will demand to be coddled to dumb down society so that no one feels stupid.” (05/13/26)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/05/13/voices/opinion-no-good-reason-to-reject-liberty/233414.html
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24) The Trump Hustle: Distraction, Deception and the Heist of the American Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by John Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“Call it what it is: a heist. The corruption, cronyism, and self-dealing that now define the American government—under Donald Trump in particular—amount to a slow-motion stick-up carried out in broad daylight. But here’s the trick: it’s a heist hidden behind spectacle. The Trump administration is flooding the stage with noise so ‘we the people’ don’t notice what’s happening behind the curtain. We’re being manipulated into watching the wrong thing. The distractions are part of the plan to rob us blind. You don’t have to look far to see how the con works. Nowhere is the hustle more obvious than in how the presidency itself is being used.” (05/13/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/13/the-trump-hustle-distraction-deception-and-the-heist-of-the-american-economy/
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25) Foreign Policy Payback: Russia Backs Iran Against United States
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The previous proxy wars over the decades have had one important feature in common. The two great power rivals have successfully exploited ill-advised military ventures that the other country pursued. Taking advantage of such folly enabled the opponent to score relatively rewarding victories with minimal risk and effort. The Soviet Union took advantage of the foolish decision by multiple U.S. administrations to intervene in Vietnam’s civil war. … In the late 1970s, the Kremlin helped topple Afghanistan’s royalist government and install a communist successor. That ill-advised power play gave Washington an opportunity to achieve revenge for Moscow’s geopolitical success in Southeast Asia. … It’s still too early to be certain about the ultimate results of the ongoing proxy wars in Ukraine and Iran. There are opportunities for geopolitical triumphs on either side, but the potential for spectacular failures also exists.” (05/13/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/foreign-policy-payback-russia-backs-iran-against-united-states/
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26) Trump May Wish to Reconsider Supporting Term Limits
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring
“Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this. Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good.” (05/13/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/13/trump-may-wish-to-reconsider-supporting-term-limits/
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27) The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Rindala Alajaji
“As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California State Assembly to the Massachusetts and Minnesota legislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a ‘public health epidemic,’ or a ‘mental health crisis,’ even though we have yet to see any of the settled science that those labels usually invoke. As a digital rights organization dedicated to the civil liberties of all users, EFF’s expertise lies in reminding lawmakers that young people enjoy largely the same free speech and privacy rights as adults.” (05/14/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/science-not-settled-how-weak-evidence-fueling-national-push-ban-social-media-youth
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28) Hantavirus, the WHO, and the Conflicts in Weighing Mortality
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Bell
“Yesterday, almost 2,000 people, mostly young children, died of malaria because they could not access effective and relatively cheap treatment quickly enough. About 4,000 people died of tuberculosis (TB), including many young adults leaving orphans. This happens every day. Progress in reducing these numbers is stalling, as partly due to the continuing economic damage from the Covid-19 response. … The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus cases occur every year, spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The current media coverage and WHO news conferences therefore concern about one-thousandth of the cases expected this year. The United States averages about 30 – they simply have not been newsworthy. … So, among the 170,000 average deaths in the world each day, and thousands from the WHO’s traditional focus diseases, why the excitement over Hantavirus?” (05/13/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/hantavirus-the-who-and-the-conflicts-in-weighing-mortality/
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29) Africa refashions relations with the West
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“This week’s Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, Kenya, signals both continuity and change – or, to put it differently, continuing change in perceptions of the continent’s opportunities and abilities to decisively shape its future. Co-hosted by Kenya and France, the May 11-12 event has drawn some 30 heads of state and 7,000 government and business representatives to the East African capital city. Discussions are focused on investment (in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and infrastructure) and on ways to reform international trade and finance systems to address indebtedness and unlock capital flows.” (05/12/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0512/Africa-refashions-relations-with-the-West
-----
30) Ben Sasse’s Warning: Reclaim Your Attention Before It’s Too Late
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“The ability to direct one’s attention is an increasingly scarce and valuable practice — and a prerequisite for meaningful freedom.” (05/13/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/ben-sasses-warning-reclaim-your-attention
-----
31) America needs drone defense plan before disaster strikes
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jason Chaffetz
“In the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones. As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025. Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed.” (05/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-america-needs-drone-defense-plan-disaster-strikes
-----
32) America can’t afford year-round E15 fuel — Congress must reject it
Source: The Hill
by David Widawsky
“As Congress debates proposals to allow the year-round sale of E15 gasoline — fuel blended with 15 percent corn ethanol rather than the common 10 percent blend — lawmakers are being told this is a simple win for consumers, farmers and energy security. Unfortunately, evidence shows that is not the case. In reality, ‘year-round E15’ legislation would deepen an environmentally damaging and economically inefficient policy while increasing costs for American families already struggling with inflation. And let’s be real, the proposal is not about energy independence. It is a back-door way to expand the domestic market for U.S. corn at consumers’ expense, after U.S. corn farmers and exports were shocked by the cancellation of more than 1 million tons of U.S. food aid (mostly corn) to countries with poor and undernourished children.” [editor’s note: Allow? Absolutely. Subsidize? Absolutely not. End all ethanol subsidies and let the idea succeed or fail on its own – TLK] (05/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5873925-year-round-e15-gasoline-debate/
-----
33) Either You Believe Israel Is Evil Or You Believe It’s All An Elaborate Conspiracy
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Basically you have two choices: either you believe Israel is a genocidal state that is morally comparable to Nazi Germany, or you believe there’s a giant global conspiracy of mainstream western institutions and media outlets dedicated to making Israel look bad. Believing the second option is the only way to get around believing the first. That’s the only way to believe mainstream outlets like The New York Times are committing antisemitic blood libel with their reporting on the systemic sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. It’s the only way to dismiss the fact that every relevant human rights group on earth says Israel is guilty of genocide, while zero comparable human rights groups say it isn’t. You necessarily need to espouse a wild conspiracy theory. You need to believe the conspiracy goes all the way to the top, with its tentacles in mainstream institutions all across the globe.” (05/13/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/14/either-you-believe-israel-is-evil-or-you-believe-its-all-an-elaborate-conspiracy-and-other-notes/
-----
34) In Cuba, Socialism Has Morphed Into A Racket
Source: Persuasion
by James Bloodworth
“For decades, Cuba has presented itself—both to its citizens and to the world—as a socialist alternative to the inequalities of global capitalism. That story still has its defenders abroad. But spend any time on the island today and it becomes clear that something else has taken its place: not socialism in any meaningful sense, but a post-ideological system run by a military-commercial elite that continues to speak the language of revolution long after the revolution itself has faded. Socialism has already fallen in Havana, even if some of the country’s intransigent foreign admirers remain staunchly ignorant of the fact. That the implacable state continues to wave a red flag is neither here nor there.” (05/13/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/socialism-has-already-fallen-in-cuba
-----
35) Progressives and Conservatives Are Wrong About Taxing the Rich
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“[B]oth progressives and conservatives show a complete unwillingness or inability to distinguish between those who got rich by genuinely creating value that left society as a whole better off and those who are getting rich by expropriating wealth through force. Establishment conservatives will often agree that some businessmen and companies engage in rent-seeking or work with government regulators to protect themselves from competition. But they’ll usually write that behavior off as an isolated issue that in no way defines the economic status quo in the US. But it’s a major factor. The government has been intervening heavily in the economy on behalf of well-connected companies for at least the last century.” (05/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/progressives-and-conservatives-are-wrong-about-taxing-rich
-----
36) The Trump Administration Is a Powerful but Unreliable Ally of Second Amendment Advocates
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“After the Supreme Court clarified the constitutional test for gun control laws in 2022, many longstanding restrictions on the right to arms looked newly vulnerable. Second Amendment groups jumped at the opportunity, filing one lawsuit after another in cases that frequently pitted them against the Biden administration. Those groups now have a powerful ally in the Trump administration, which has filed several lawsuits aimed at vindicating Americans’ gun rights, including two filed last week in Colorado. But even as the Justice Department advertises its commitment to defending the Second Amendment, its position in other gun cases belies that stance.” (05/13/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/13/the-trump-administration-is-a-powerful-but-unreliable-ally-of-second-amendment-advocates/
-----
37) Hochul’s funny money only enables Mamdani’s even-funnier “fiscal plan” for NYC
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Mayor Zohran Mamdani boasted Tuesday that he plugged the city’s multibillion-dollar budget gap for the coming fiscal year — but it’s only ‘balanced’ with gimmicks that guarantee oceans more red ink in the years ahead. With a late assist from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s own flim-flammery, the new, $124.7 billion Mamdani spending plan relies on one-time cash infusions, postponed payments and dubious calculations of future tax windfalls and theoretical savings. The day began with Hochul boldly announcing yet another of her trademark cave-ins: After weeks of insisting she’d given the mayor as much help as she could, the gov magically found another $4 billion for him just hours before he presented his plan. Yet half the windfall comes down to new debt, much of the rest is pretty vaporous — and all of it amounts to just telling the spending addict he can keep on shooting up.” (05/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/opinion/hochuls-funny-money-only-enables-mamdanis-even-funnier-fiscal-plan-for-nyc/
-----
38) The Malignant Hypocrisy of Conservatives Is on Full Display in Venezuela
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“For decades, conservatives have condemned the socialist-communist regime in Venezuela. They have called it evil, immoral, deadly, and destructive. In fact, conservatives even came to describe the Venezuelan regime as a ‘narco-terrorist’ regime. Why, they have even supported unsuccessful regime-change efforts within the country. … What’s the situation today? It’s hard to believe. The U.S. government, led by President Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA, is actively partnering with the very socialist-communist, narco-terrorist regime that conservatives have long criticized and condemned.” (05/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/05/13/the-malignant-hypocrisy-of-conservatives-is-on-full-display-in-venezuela/
-----
39) Why J Street Does Not Go Far Enough
Source: Antiwar.com
by Harrison Berger
“An illegal auction of stolen Palestinian land at an elite Upper East Side synagogue, and the swift condemnations from groups like J Street launched against New Yorkers who attempted to protest it, reveal the Zionist rot at the heart of the American Jewish elite establishment that is bastardizing and corrupting the religion from within, and why liberal Zionist groups present only an impotent challenge to it. … J Street’s response to those protests – condemning both the protesters and the land sales in equal measure – is indicative of the balancing act the organization has attempted to manage, one that is unstable and contradictory, with its guiding (or rather, mis-guiding) principle that Zionism can ultimately be reformed …. and that the American Jewish elite institutions which have funded settlement expansion, armed soldiers to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and laundered Israel’s atrocity propaganda bears no meaningful responsibility for what Israel does.” (05/13/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/harrison_berger/2026/05/12/why-j-street-does-not-go-far-enough/
-----
40) Bob Dylan’s Argument With God
Source: The New Republic
by Alex Shephard
“Ron Rosenbaum’s latest book, Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed, is not a biography. It is instead a ‘kind of biography’ — which is a distinction with a difference. It is, in keeping with Rosenbaum’s long record of fine-tuned literary analysis mixed with historical and, yes, biographical detail, a study of Dylan’s songwriting and a reckoning with his moral, philosophical, and religious imagery and fixations. ‘Dylan has remade American speech, American thought, American attitude,’ Rosenbaum writes. Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed is an examination of how he remade those things, with a particular emphasis on ‘theodicy’ and what Rosenbaum calls Dylan’s ‘argument with god.’ Steering clear of the usual cloud of hagiography that hovers above most writing about Dylan, it’s a book that instead focuses on what makes him unique. ” (05/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210326/bob-dylan-argument-god
-----
41) Redistricting Wars Prove History Doesn’t Move in Just One Direction
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“The late 19th century was a dismal time in American politics. Corruption ran rampant. Congress was governed by staunch partisan loyalties and nail-biting majorities. And redistricting, instead of being confined to after the census every 10 years, was a tool of manipulation and partisan hardball. ‘From 1872 to 1896,’ a political scientist reports, ‘at least one state redrew its congressional districts each year.’ Of course, that era was marred by another phenomenon — one too familiar to us today. It saw a swift rollback in voting rights and representation for the newly freed Black population of the South. In 1875, after the Civil War and the adoption of the 15th Amendment, seven Black men served in the House, and one sat as a senator. Terrorism, political cowardice, and racial backlash ended Reconstruction. By 1902, Congress was once again all white.” (05/13/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-sets-gerrymandering-frenzy
-----
42) Is Housing Less Affordable Than Ever? Sort Of
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Home prices and financing costs are still high, but several indicators suggest the market has moved past peak distortion.” (05/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/is-housing-less-affordable-than-ever-sort-of/
-----
43) Sean Duffy’s family vacation was funded by companies he regulates
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“It’s not exactly a mystery why Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s secretary of Transportation, seems so befuddled and embittered about the backlash that followed his May 8 reveal that American corporations funded a five-part reality television series about a “Great American Road Trip” for his family. … Television shows have sponsors. And the Duffy family road trip has some of the biggest corporations paying the bills. And some of them are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Trump’s administration has always seemed at least as interested, if not more interested, in content generation than in governing. Why do boring public servants work when you can be an influencer on television and social media? But the look-at-me crowd gets pretty huffy when they receive actual scrutiny.” (05/13/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/13/sean-duffy-great-american-road-trip-gas-prices-economy/90044120007/
-----
44) The Privacy Protection Act protects watchdogs. What if it’s ignored?
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“The PPA limits the use of search warrants against those who intend to disseminate information to the public, which means it’s not specific to journalists in application. The PPA’s protections apply to any person intending to publish their ‘work product’ or ‘documentary’ materials (more on that later) in ‘a newspaper, book, broadcast or other similar form of public communication,’ which covers journalists but isn’t limited to the press. These protections are valuable to communicators who are independent and who don’t operate within the mainstream media, such as citizen journalists or documentarians. … the PPA’s protections require the federal government to adhere to its limits. The Natanson case is a recent example of what happens when assistant United States attorneys fail to do just that.” (05/12/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/privacy-protection-act-protects-watchdogs-what-if-its-ignored
-----
45) The Hantavirus Cruise: A Ship of Fools
Source: Town Hall
by Betsy McCaughey
“On April 1, 114 guests and 61 crew members, unaware of the presence of a killer virus among them, boarded the MV Hondius. That ship has earned the moniker ‘Ship of Fools.’ Because of the top brass’s reckless disregard of infection control principles, the ship’s passengers and thousands of people around the world have been exposed to the rare Andes strain of the hantavirus, a disease found in rat urine and feces, and which has a 40% mortality rate. Among the passengers who boarded that day was a 70-year-old birdwatcher who had spent his final days ashore traipsing through an Argentinian dump covered with rat feces and looking for rare birds. He was looking for species, not feces, but it’s the feces that did him in.” (05/13/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2026/05/13/the-hantavirus-cruise-a-ship-of-fools-n2675990
-----
46) 2 hearings, 0 justification for a $1.5 trillion military budget
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ben Freeman
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine testified before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Tuesday ostensibly to justify the President’s request for an historic $1.5 trillion budget. Unfortunately, they offered no strategic justification for this nearly $500 billion increase in military spending and, instead, raised even more questions about the Pentagon budget and the cost of the war in Iran. What was most surprising about the hearings was perhaps what was missing: a real enemy. Historically, increases in Pentagon spending have been justified by a monster abroad we’re told we must destroy. … While the usual suspects — China, Russia, and Iran — were all mentioned in the hearings today, neither Hegseth nor Caine made the case that they were enough to justify the enormous increase in military spending they are asking Congress for.” (05/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/hegseth-testifies-congress/
-----
47) License Plate Reader Baton Passing
Source: Independent Institute
by Jonathan Hofer
“As many are likely already aware, automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are high-speed cameras that can identify vehicles as they pass and record their time and location. Over the last decade, the technology has rapidly expanded across American roads and is found in nearly every major city. In a recent posting, I offered a rough estimate of how many ALPRs are deployed in California, suggesting the number is plausibly in the 9.3k–14.9k range, well above the 5k documented in the best records of the technology. However, there has been considerably less attention paid to whether or not the number of ALPRs changes the constitutional calculus. I argue that it does, and that it may render some elements of ALPRs unconstitutional.” (05/12/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/12/license-plate-reader-baton-passing/
-----
48) Homeschooling under fire
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Recently several dozen articles defending homeschooling have crossed our desktop here at The Price of Liberty. Unfortunately, they are vastly outnumbered by articles and comments attacking homeschooling. And at the same time, we are seeing more and more State governments and local school districts and boards working very hard (for the bureaucrats and politicians, at least) to come up with more ways to regulate and restrict homeschooling and ‘ensure’ that parents and their families and friends are ‘properly educating’ their children.” (05/12/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/12/homeschooling-under-fire/
-----
49) ICE Is Counting on Our Silence
Source: Common Dreams
by Jamie Beran & Rabbi Jill Jacobs
“When thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents invaded Minneapolis this past January, Twin Cities residents, and people across the country, jumped into action, trailing these agents, organizing major protests, and dropping off food and supplies to those understandably afraid to leave their homes. Both of our organizations, too, took action. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action leadership traveled to join a clergy day of protest alongside close partners in Minneapolis, and T’ruah sent some 50 rabbis to support dozens of their colleagues who live and work there. Lay people and clergy alike similarly stepped up in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and other cities targeted by major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Minnesotans successfully diminished the massive ICE takeover of their city. This is a testament to the power of citizen organizing and action.” (05/13/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ice-wants-silence
-----
50) Capitalists of the World Aren’t Uniting Against Workers
Source: Cato Institute
by Scott Lincicome
“Behold a right-left mind-meld on the economy. For decades, the thinking goes, corporations have captured a larger share of national income at workers’ expense. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑Massachusetts) says this is because ‘American workers don’t have enough power.’ On the populist right, meanwhile, this lamentable trend has happened as companies have ‘fattened profit margins by outsourcing their workforces.’ It’s a tidy narrative but mostly wrong.” (05/12/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/capitalists-world-arent-uniting-against-workers
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Political Orphanage, 05/13/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Fighting Crime Like an Economist.” (05/13/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/fighting-crime-like-an-economist
-----
52) Reasonably Optimistic, 05/13/26
Source: Washington Post
“What prediction markets tell us about the future.” (05/13/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/what-prediction-markets-tell-us-about-the-future/
-----
53) Rising, 05/13/26
Source: The Hill
“Glenn Greenwald slams AOC as ‘unprincipled, craven, partisan apparatchik.'” (05/13/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5869848-rising-may-13-2026/
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/13/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Tucker Carlson A ‘Domestic Terrorist?'” (05/16/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1DxleEPkBeMKL
-----
55) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/13/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Jake Werner, Quincy Institute ‘Trump-Xi Summit.'” (05/13/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-05-14_zfw005132026.mp3
-----
56) The Cost of Bureaucracy
Source: Cobden Centre
Speech in Brussels by Max Rangeley. (05/13/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/speech-in-brussels-on-the-cost-of-bureaucracy/
-----
57) Reason Interview: John Fetterman
Source: Reason
“Sen. John Fetterman discusses the state of the Democratic Party, immigration, foreign policy, and the dangers of political extremism.” (05/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/13/john-fetterman-im-a-very-pro-capitalist-democrat/
-----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US May Rename Iran War ‘Operation Sledgehammer’, IDF Expands Offensive in Lebanon, and More.” (05/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCsxSuRaUCY
-----
59) Trump Watch, 05/12/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The U.S. Malignancy in Venezuela.” (05/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv6PqswaQ7I
-----
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“US Has Lost In Iran. Now Comes The Pain.” (05/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1XxygmAXroYGM
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ship reported seized off UAE coast, heading toward Iran
2) Ukraine: Rescuers search rubble of Kyiv flats after massive Russian strikes kill two
3) Philippines: ICC suspect flees Senate
4) Senate confirms Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, ending standoff over Powell probe
5) NH: Libertarian Party Saboteur Charged After Alleged Fender Bender Meltdown
6) France: More than 1,700 people banned from leaving British cruise ship over likely stomach flu outbreak
7) Russia: City regime issues censorship order on photos/videos of drone strike effects
8) Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas’s disarmament
9) Shrinking Milka chocolate bar tricked consumers, says German court
10) TX: Home invasion ends in fatal shooting
11) LA: State senate advances plan to eliminate majority-black US House district
12) Tunisia: Court upholds sentence against journalist political prisoners
13) SC: Supreme Court unanimously overturns Murdaugh double murder conviction
14) US appeals court pauses sexual predator’s $83 million defamation payment to victim
15) Iran: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi needs months of care after collapse in prison
16) Trump picks new ICE gang shot-caller
17) Epstein abused me while under house arrest, survivor tells US lawmakers
18) Israel: Haredi factions push to dissolve Knesset, increasing likelihood of slightly earlier elections
19) Meta launches WhatsApp “incognito” mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats
20) Trump’s re-gerrymandering push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
22) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: How Qualified Immunity Gave Us Lawless Law Enforcement
23) No good reason to reject liberty
24) The Trump Hustle: Distraction, Deception and the Heist of the American Economy
25) Foreign Policy Payback: Russia Backs Iran Against United States
26) Trump May Wish to Reconsider Supporting Term Limits
27) The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
28) Hantavirus, the WHO, and the Conflicts in Weighing Mortality
29) Africa refashions relations with the West
30) Ben Sasse’s Warning: Reclaim Your Attention Before It’s Too Late
31) America needs drone defense plan before disaster strikes
32) America can’t afford year-round E15 fuel — Congress must reject it
33) Either You Believe Israel Is Evil Or You Believe It’s All An Elaborate Conspiracy
34) In Cuba, Socialism Has Morphed Into A Racket
35) Progressives and Conservatives Are Wrong About Taxing the Rich
36) The Trump Administration Is a Powerful but Unreliable Ally of Second Amendment Advocates
37) Hochul’s funny money only enables Mamdani’s even-funnier “fiscal plan” for NYC
38) The Malignant Hypocrisy of Conservatives Is on Full Display in Venezuela
39) Why J Street Does Not Go Far Enough
40) Bob Dylan’s Argument With God
41) Redistricting Wars Prove History Doesn’t Move in Just One Direction
42) Is Housing Less Affordable Than Ever? Sort Of
43) Sean Duffy’s family vacation was funded by companies he regulates
44) The Privacy Protection Act protects watchdogs. What if it’s ignored?
45) The Hantavirus Cruise: A Ship of Fools
46) 2 hearings, 0 justification for a $1.5 trillion military budget
47) License Plate Reader Baton Passing
48) Homeschooling under fire
49) ICE Is Counting on Our Silence
50) Capitalists of the World Aren’t Uniting Against Workers
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Political Orphanage, 05/13/26
52) Reasonably Optimistic, 05/13/26
53) Rising, 05/13/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/13/26
55) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/13/26
56) The Cost of Bureaucracy
57) Reason Interview: John Fetterman
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/12/26
59) Trump Watch, 05/12/26
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ship reported seized off UAE coast, heading toward Iran
Source: Associated Press
“A ship anchored off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates has been seized and is heading toward Iranian territorial waters, the British military said Thursday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the vessel was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70 kilometers, 44 miles) northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz. … UKMTO did not name the ship and said it is investigating. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the seizure.” (05/14/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-war-oil-hormuz-may-14-2026-efb53c39ee6334733e1cb22ca4a6c279
-----
2) Ukraine: Rescuers search rubble of Kyiv flats after massive Russian strikes kill two
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Two people have been killed and children are among dozens wounded after Russia launched a massive wave of strikes against Ukraine overnight, officials have said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was an ‘especially difficult night for Kyiv,’ where rescuers are searching through the rubble of a residential building after a combined missile and drone attack on the capital. At least 40 people have been injured, including two children, the city’s mayor said. Some 31 of those are being treated in hospital. It marks the third day in a row Ukraine has reported deaths, as Moscow ramps up its assault after a three-day ceasefire expired on Monday.” (05/14/26)
https://archive.is/JbkXg
-----
3) Philippines: ICC suspect flees Senate
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Philippine Senate President says that a politician wanted by the International Court (ICC) was no longer in the Senate building where he had been taking refuge, fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody ‘war on drugs,’ has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. ‘The sergeant-at-arms has confirmed that he is no longer in the building,’ Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Thursday. The announcement comes a day after gunfire rang out at the Senate, where dela Rosa had been holed up. Confusion and chaos filled the legislature as people inside scrambled for cover on Wednesday, hours after dela Rosa, had appealed to his supporters on social media to mobilise and said law enforcement agents were planning on arresting him.” (05/14/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/14/philippine-politician-wanted-by-icc-flees-senate
-----
4) Senate confirms Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, ending standoff over Powell probe
Source: ABC News
“The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh, clearing the way for Warsh to replace central bank head Jerome Powell when his term ends later this week. The Senate confirmed Warsh by a vote of 54 to 45. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh. The vote comes weeks after the Department of Justice moved to drop its criminal probe into Powell. Before that, Warsh had faced a bipartisan stonewall in the Senate Banking Committee over the investigation. The probe into Powell focused on alleged false testimony to Congress about an office renovation. Powell, whose term ends on Friday, called the investigation a politically motivated effort to influence interest-rate policy.” (05/13/26)
https://abcnews.com/Business/senate-confirms-fed-chair-nominee-kevin-warsh-ending/story?id=132875814
-----
5) NH: Libertarian Party Saboteur Charged After Alleged Fender Bender Meltdown
Source: Independent Political Report
“As prominent New Hampshire Libertarian Jeremy Kauffman mounts an effort to dissolve the national Libertarian Party, he’s also dealing with a legal drama for his alleged racist behavior in a grocery store parking lot. Kauffman, 41, is scheduled for trial in July on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration stemming from an April 4 incident in which he allegedly tried to fight several people while hurling racist insults, according to Manchester Police reports. Police were called to the Elm Street Market Basket parking lot around 2 p.m. on April 4 to deal with reports that a man hit another car in the parking lot with his car, fought with several people, and then went inside the store and continued yelling.” (05/13/26)
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2026/05/nh-libertarian-leader-charged-after-alleged-racist-incident/
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6) France: More than 1,700 people banned from leaving British cruise ship over likely stomach flu outbreak
Source: Sky News [UK]
“More than 1,700 passengers and crew members have been ordered not to leave their cruise ship while French health officials carry out tests after a likely stomach flu outbreak onboard. The cruise liner Ambition, which set sail from Belfast on 8 May, on a 14-night tour of western France and Spain, has seen dozens of cases of suspected gastroenteritis among those onboard. The vessel called at Liverpool on Saturday and cases of gastroenteritis were said to have risen after passengers boarded at that stop. There is no reason to link what looks like a stomach flu outbreak on the ship with the hantavirus cluster on the luxury MV Hondius ship, the regional health authority said.” (05/13/26)
https://news.sky.com/story/over-1-000-passengers-banned-from-leaving-british-cruise-ship-docked-in-france-over-likely-stomach-flu-outbreak-13543587
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7) Russia: City regime issues censorship order on photos/videos of drone strike effects
Source: US News & World Report
“Moscow authorities have imposed restrictions on the publication of photos and videos showing the aftermath of ‘terrorist attacks,’ including drone strikes, the office of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Wednesday. An order appearing on the mayor’s official website, referring to the city’s ‘Anti-terrorist Commission’ said the directive was aimed at ‘preventing the dissemination of unreliable information.’ It prevents media, as well as individuals and emergency services, from publishing any pictures or videos of ‘terrorist acts, including drone attacks’ until they appear on websites of the Defence Ministry or city government. … Other parts of Russia have already imposed similar bans.” (05/13/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-13/moscow-authorities-restrict-publication-of-photos-and-videos-of-aftermath-of-drone-strikes
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8) Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas’s disarmament
Source: SFGate
“Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday the truce hinged on Hamas’ disarmament, a sticking point that has stalled progress on other fronts, including rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave. The high representative for U.S. President Donald Trump’s International Board of Peace in Gaza, Mladenov, said months without progress implementing the deal benefited neither Israel nor Palestinians. He said the phased deal was paralyzed over Hamas not yet disarming, calling it ‘not negotiable.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/envoy-tasked-with-overseeing-post-war-gaza-visits-22256726.php
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9) Shrinking Milka chocolate bar tricked consumers, says German court
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“In a landmark German case targeting chocolate ‘shrinkflation’, a court has found that the manufacturer of Milka’s classic Alpine Milk bar cheated consumers and broke competition law. Cutting back on the amount of chocolate while having the same kind of wrapper meant that customers were being misled, Bremen regional court ruled. The three-week court case was brought by Hamburg’s consumer protection office (VZHH), which accused manufacturer Mondelēz of deceiving consumers by cutting the weight of the ‘Alpenmilch’ bar from 100g to 90g. Reacting to the ruling Mondelēz told the BBC it was ‘taking the decision of the court seriously’ and would ‘look at it in detail now’. ” (05/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmp428zylko
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10) TX: Home invasion ends in fatal shooting
Source: Yahoo! News
“A home invasion in Hopkins County ended in gunfire Tuesday when a homeowner fatally shot an alleged intruder, local authorities said. … investigators reviewed footage from a Ring doorbell camera that showed an individual, identified as Buck Clary, striking the glass front door of the residence while yelling. The footage reportedly showed Clary breaking a ‘portion of the glass and reaching inside the home,’ the sheriff’s office said. The homeowner then discharged a firearm through the door, striking Clary.” (05/13/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/home-invasion-ends-fatal-shooting-160205157.html
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11) LA: State senate advances plan to eliminate majority-black US House district
Source: SFGate
“Republican senators in Louisiana advanced a plan Wednesday to eliminate one of two majority-[b]lack, Democratic-held congressional seats following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s U.S. House map as an illegal racial gerrymander. The early morning Senate committee vote came after hours of impassioned testimony from [b]lack residents and Democrats opposed to the move. Republicans opted not to pursue a more aggressive approach, which could have targeted both Democratic seats for elimination. … The redistricting efforts to undo minority districts are the latest variation in a 10-month-long national redistricting battle that already has involved about one-third of the states.” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/louisiana-advances-plan-to-eliminate-22256775.php
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12) Tunisia: Court upholds sentence against journalist political prisoners
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“A Tunisian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the three-and-a-half-year prison sentences of two prominent journalists jailed for alleged financial crimes, according to their lawyer. The journalists, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, were sentenced in January for money laundering and tax evasion — accusations they denied. … Since President Kais Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, rights groups have denounced a regression in freedoms in Tunisia. Dozens of Saied’s critics are currently behind bars. The case against Zeghidi and Bsaies has been condemned by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as ‘judicial harassment.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/tunisia-upholds-sentence-against-jailed-journalists
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13) SC: Supreme Court unanimously overturns Murdaugh double murder conviction
Source: Fox News
“The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted in March 2023 of double homicide of his wife and son. The court ordered a new trial, saying that Mary Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill, who served as the court clerk in Colleton County, exercised ‘improper external influences’ during Murdaugh’s first trial. Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian said in a statement that Murdaugh will remain in custody. The state supreme court voted unanimously on the decision. ‘Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial,’ their ruling said.” (05/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/alex-murdaughs-double-murder-conviction-unanimously-overturned-south-carolina-supreme-court
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14) US appeals court pauses sexual predator’s $83 million defamation payment to victim
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump will not have to pay the $83.3m defamation award to writer E Jean Carroll until the US supreme court either reviews the case or rejects an appeal. The second US circuit court of appeals in New York issued the order on Monday …. But the court also required that Trump increase the bond by $7.46m, to account for interest that would accrue on Carroll’s award during any further legal proceedings before the nation’s highest court. … In January 2024, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3m for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of raping her inside the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. It came a year after a separate jury awarded Carroll $5m in damages after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.” (05/13/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/appeals-court-delays-trump-payment-e-jean-carroll-case
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15) Iran: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi needs months of care after collapse in prison
Source: SFGate
“Doctors who examined Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi more than a week after she collapsed at a prison in Iran say she needs months of treatment, her foundation said Wednesday. An angiography procedure showed two of her main arteries have significant blockage and that her vascular disease has significantly deteriorated since she last had the procedure in 2024, the foundation said in a statement. Mohammadi, 53, was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran on May 1 after she fell unconscious. She was released on bail nearly 10 days later and transferred to a hospital in Tehran where her specialists examined her. The attending physician said her blood pressure continues to fluctuate, in part due to damage to part of the brain that is responsible for such regulations. The doctors recommended an eight-month treatment course in an environment ‘free from external stressors, where she can receive permanent care and long-term treatment.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/nobel-laureate-narges-mohammadi-needs-months-of-22256961.php
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16) Trump picks new ICE gang shot-caller
Source: The Hill
“A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to The Hill’s broadcast partner NewsNation that President Trump will select Dave Venturella to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an acting capacity after the departure of Todd Lyons, who is currently serving as the acting ICE chief. Lyons is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector on May 31, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in a post on social platform X last month. … The Senate has not confirmed a director for ICE since 2017, resulting in almost ten years of the agency having a leader in an acting capacity.” (05/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5875195-trump-picks-new-acting-ice-director
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17) Epstein abused me while under house arrest, survivor tells US lawmakers
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has told how the late sex offender sexually abused her while he was under house arrest for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Roza, who was recruited from Uzbekistan as a teenager by Epstein’s associate and modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, spoke publicly for the first time alongside a number of victims in a field hearing that was organised by House Democrats. She told the session that she was introduced to Epstein by Brunel in July 2009, was offered work by Epstein ‘to help me with my financial troubles,’ and he later subjected her to rape over a period of three years. Democratic lawmaker Robert Garcia said the unofficial hearing was held in West Palm Beach, Florida, because it was ‘where Epstein’s crimes first came to light.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clypr378l2wo
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18) Israel: Haredi factions push to dissolve Knesset, increasing likelihood of slightly earlier elections
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“The seven-strong ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party said Tuesday that it would seek to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections, because of the coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining the decades-old exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from military service. Multiple opposition MKs promptly submitted bills for the dissolution of parliament, with the Yesh Atid party seeking to begin the process on Wednesday. Nonetheless, it was not immediately clear when and whether such a vote would be held, whether it would pass, and, if so, when elections might be held. In any case, general elections must be held no later than October 27, 2026. … UTJ, a core member when Netanyahu assembled his coalition after the 2022 elections, formally pulled out of the government and the coalition last year in the protracted dispute over the legislation.” (05/13/26)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-factions-back-dissolving-knesset-increasing-chance-for-early-elections/
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19) Meta launches WhatsApp “incognito” mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats
Source: SFGate
“Meta Platforms said Wednesday it’s rolling out an ‘incognito’ mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns about sensitive information that users share in chats. The social media company said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant that’s been available on WhatsApp for a few years. Messages will be processed ‘in a secure environment’ that even Meta can’t access, won’t be saved by default and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said. Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns because the large language models that underpin these systems are trained on vast troves of data, sometimes including personal information provided by users themselves in their conversations with AI chatbots.” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/meta-launches-whatsapp-incognito-mode-to-22256790.php
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20) Trump’s re-gerrymandering push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court
Source: Associated Press
“President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the nation’s U.S. House districts received mixed results Tuesday as South Carolina senators defied his desires but Missouri’s top court upheld a new map that could help Republicans win an additional seat in the November midterm elections. … Trump urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an attempt to help Republicans win another seat. A House committee endorsed a map Tuesday that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held seat, and the chamber voted previously to let lawmakers return after their regular work ends Thursday to further consider redistricting. But the Senate had to give permission too. The 29-17 vote failed, coming just two votes short of the two-thirds needed, as five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition.” (05/12/26)
https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-congress-voting-rights-trump-1ed6f8c68884b372efca79fbb50e343a
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Bilbro
“Whenever a new technology comes down the pike, some people identify themselves as agents who can benefit from it, and others see themselves as victims who will be harmed by it. Agents get excited about how AI will enable them to get work done more easily and quickly. They can generate code, whip out targeted ad campaigns, analyze data, cheat on quizzes, respond to customer inquiries, or eliminate military targets. Victims fear that AI will empower the systems that already constrain or oppress them. They will suffer from software bugs or security vulnerabilities, be inundated with AI slop, get surveilled by governments and corporations, have their relationships infected by mistrust, get lost in labyrinthine bureaucracies, or be eliminated (perhaps erroneously) by an autonomous drone. This distinction helps make sense of the wildly varying responses to AI technologies: Agents generate utopian hype narratives while victims succumb to doomer fears.” (05/13/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/the-decline-and-fall-of-human-agency/
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22) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: How Qualified Immunity Gave Us Lawless Law Enforcement
Source: Liberalism.org
by Radley Balko
“At the state and local level, police officers (and government employees in general) are protected from lawsuits by a policy called qualified immunity. The policy isn’t in the Constitution, nor was it ever enacted by Congress. It’s a legal fiction that the U.S. Supreme Court invented from whole cloth. In fact, qualified immunity’s very existence cuts against the clear intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. … We commonly hear that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ — you can’t defend yourself from criminal charges by claiming that you didn’t know that what you did was illegal. Qualified immunity not only provides an excuse for law enforcement officers when they violate someone’s constitutional rights, it’s an incentive for police agencies to keep their officers ignorant of how courts expect officers to treat members of the public.” (04/13/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/federal-courts-local-wrongs-how-qualified-immunity-gave-us-lawless-law-enforcement
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23) No good reason to reject liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“People find many reasons to reject liberty. Fear. Envy. Ignorance. Tradition. In fact, there are probably as many reasons to reject liberty as there are people on this planet. Those whose careers depend on violating liberty will use any excuse they are handed. If they use envy, they can impose socialism and raise taxes on the rich. They can make people believe they have a ‘right’ to things that others must work to provide them. It can never be your right to enslave others! Using ignorance, political criminals lie and hope that too few notice to do anything about it. It’s how we get things like ‘assault weapon’ rules, carbon credits, and the war on (some) drugs. They also combine ignorance with envy, so those cheated in the brain department will demand to be coddled to dumb down society so that no one feels stupid.” (05/13/26)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/05/13/voices/opinion-no-good-reason-to-reject-liberty/233414.html
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24) The Trump Hustle: Distraction, Deception and the Heist of the American Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by John Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“Call it what it is: a heist. The corruption, cronyism, and self-dealing that now define the American government—under Donald Trump in particular—amount to a slow-motion stick-up carried out in broad daylight. But here’s the trick: it’s a heist hidden behind spectacle. The Trump administration is flooding the stage with noise so ‘we the people’ don’t notice what’s happening behind the curtain. We’re being manipulated into watching the wrong thing. The distractions are part of the plan to rob us blind. You don’t have to look far to see how the con works. Nowhere is the hustle more obvious than in how the presidency itself is being used.” (05/13/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/13/the-trump-hustle-distraction-deception-and-the-heist-of-the-american-economy/
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25) Foreign Policy Payback: Russia Backs Iran Against United States
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The previous proxy wars over the decades have had one important feature in common. The two great power rivals have successfully exploited ill-advised military ventures that the other country pursued. Taking advantage of such folly enabled the opponent to score relatively rewarding victories with minimal risk and effort. The Soviet Union took advantage of the foolish decision by multiple U.S. administrations to intervene in Vietnam’s civil war. … In the late 1970s, the Kremlin helped topple Afghanistan’s royalist government and install a communist successor. That ill-advised power play gave Washington an opportunity to achieve revenge for Moscow’s geopolitical success in Southeast Asia. … It’s still too early to be certain about the ultimate results of the ongoing proxy wars in Ukraine and Iran. There are opportunities for geopolitical triumphs on either side, but the potential for spectacular failures also exists.” (05/13/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/foreign-policy-payback-russia-backs-iran-against-united-states/
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26) Trump May Wish to Reconsider Supporting Term Limits
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring
“Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this. Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good.” (05/13/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/13/trump-may-wish-to-reconsider-supporting-term-limits/
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27) The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Rindala Alajaji
“As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California State Assembly to the Massachusetts and Minnesota legislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a ‘public health epidemic,’ or a ‘mental health crisis,’ even though we have yet to see any of the settled science that those labels usually invoke. As a digital rights organization dedicated to the civil liberties of all users, EFF’s expertise lies in reminding lawmakers that young people enjoy largely the same free speech and privacy rights as adults.” (05/14/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/science-not-settled-how-weak-evidence-fueling-national-push-ban-social-media-youth
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28) Hantavirus, the WHO, and the Conflicts in Weighing Mortality
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Bell
“Yesterday, almost 2,000 people, mostly young children, died of malaria because they could not access effective and relatively cheap treatment quickly enough. About 4,000 people died of tuberculosis (TB), including many young adults leaving orphans. This happens every day. Progress in reducing these numbers is stalling, as partly due to the continuing economic damage from the Covid-19 response. … The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus cases occur every year, spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The current media coverage and WHO news conferences therefore concern about one-thousandth of the cases expected this year. The United States averages about 30 – they simply have not been newsworthy. … So, among the 170,000 average deaths in the world each day, and thousands from the WHO’s traditional focus diseases, why the excitement over Hantavirus?” (05/13/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/hantavirus-the-who-and-the-conflicts-in-weighing-mortality/
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29) Africa refashions relations with the West
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“This week’s Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, Kenya, signals both continuity and change – or, to put it differently, continuing change in perceptions of the continent’s opportunities and abilities to decisively shape its future. Co-hosted by Kenya and France, the May 11-12 event has drawn some 30 heads of state and 7,000 government and business representatives to the East African capital city. Discussions are focused on investment (in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and infrastructure) and on ways to reform international trade and finance systems to address indebtedness and unlock capital flows.” (05/12/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0512/Africa-refashions-relations-with-the-West
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30) Ben Sasse’s Warning: Reclaim Your Attention Before It’s Too Late
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“The ability to direct one’s attention is an increasingly scarce and valuable practice — and a prerequisite for meaningful freedom.” (05/13/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/ben-sasses-warning-reclaim-your-attention
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31) America needs drone defense plan before disaster strikes
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jason Chaffetz
“In the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones. As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025. Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed.” (05/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-america-needs-drone-defense-plan-disaster-strikes
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32) America can’t afford year-round E15 fuel — Congress must reject it
Source: The Hill
by David Widawsky
“As Congress debates proposals to allow the year-round sale of E15 gasoline — fuel blended with 15 percent corn ethanol rather than the common 10 percent blend — lawmakers are being told this is a simple win for consumers, farmers and energy security. Unfortunately, evidence shows that is not the case. In reality, ‘year-round E15’ legislation would deepen an environmentally damaging and economically inefficient policy while increasing costs for American families already struggling with inflation. And let’s be real, the proposal is not about energy independence. It is a back-door way to expand the domestic market for U.S. corn at consumers’ expense, after U.S. corn farmers and exports were shocked by the cancellation of more than 1 million tons of U.S. food aid (mostly corn) to countries with poor and undernourished children.” [editor’s note: Allow? Absolutely. Subsidize? Absolutely not. End all ethanol subsidies and let the idea succeed or fail on its own – TLK] (05/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5873925-year-round-e15-gasoline-debate/
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33) Either You Believe Israel Is Evil Or You Believe It’s All An Elaborate Conspiracy
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Basically you have two choices: either you believe Israel is a genocidal state that is morally comparable to Nazi Germany, or you believe there’s a giant global conspiracy of mainstream western institutions and media outlets dedicated to making Israel look bad. Believing the second option is the only way to get around believing the first. That’s the only way to believe mainstream outlets like The New York Times are committing antisemitic blood libel with their reporting on the systemic sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. It’s the only way to dismiss the fact that every relevant human rights group on earth says Israel is guilty of genocide, while zero comparable human rights groups say it isn’t. You necessarily need to espouse a wild conspiracy theory. You need to believe the conspiracy goes all the way to the top, with its tentacles in mainstream institutions all across the globe.” (05/13/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/14/either-you-believe-israel-is-evil-or-you-believe-its-all-an-elaborate-conspiracy-and-other-notes/
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34) In Cuba, Socialism Has Morphed Into A Racket
Source: Persuasion
by James Bloodworth
“For decades, Cuba has presented itself—both to its citizens and to the world—as a socialist alternative to the inequalities of global capitalism. That story still has its defenders abroad. But spend any time on the island today and it becomes clear that something else has taken its place: not socialism in any meaningful sense, but a post-ideological system run by a military-commercial elite that continues to speak the language of revolution long after the revolution itself has faded. Socialism has already fallen in Havana, even if some of the country’s intransigent foreign admirers remain staunchly ignorant of the fact. That the implacable state continues to wave a red flag is neither here nor there.” (05/13/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/socialism-has-already-fallen-in-cuba
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35) Progressives and Conservatives Are Wrong About Taxing the Rich
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“[B]oth progressives and conservatives show a complete unwillingness or inability to distinguish between those who got rich by genuinely creating value that left society as a whole better off and those who are getting rich by expropriating wealth through force. Establishment conservatives will often agree that some businessmen and companies engage in rent-seeking or work with government regulators to protect themselves from competition. But they’ll usually write that behavior off as an isolated issue that in no way defines the economic status quo in the US. But it’s a major factor. The government has been intervening heavily in the economy on behalf of well-connected companies for at least the last century.” (05/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/progressives-and-conservatives-are-wrong-about-taxing-rich
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36) The Trump Administration Is a Powerful but Unreliable Ally of Second Amendment Advocates
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“After the Supreme Court clarified the constitutional test for gun control laws in 2022, many longstanding restrictions on the right to arms looked newly vulnerable. Second Amendment groups jumped at the opportunity, filing one lawsuit after another in cases that frequently pitted them against the Biden administration. Those groups now have a powerful ally in the Trump administration, which has filed several lawsuits aimed at vindicating Americans’ gun rights, including two filed last week in Colorado. But even as the Justice Department advertises its commitment to defending the Second Amendment, its position in other gun cases belies that stance.” (05/13/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/13/the-trump-administration-is-a-powerful-but-unreliable-ally-of-second-amendment-advocates/
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37) Hochul’s funny money only enables Mamdani’s even-funnier “fiscal plan” for NYC
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Mayor Zohran Mamdani boasted Tuesday that he plugged the city’s multibillion-dollar budget gap for the coming fiscal year — but it’s only ‘balanced’ with gimmicks that guarantee oceans more red ink in the years ahead. With a late assist from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s own flim-flammery, the new, $124.7 billion Mamdani spending plan relies on one-time cash infusions, postponed payments and dubious calculations of future tax windfalls and theoretical savings. The day began with Hochul boldly announcing yet another of her trademark cave-ins: After weeks of insisting she’d given the mayor as much help as she could, the gov magically found another $4 billion for him just hours before he presented his plan. Yet half the windfall comes down to new debt, much of the rest is pretty vaporous — and all of it amounts to just telling the spending addict he can keep on shooting up.” (05/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/opinion/hochuls-funny-money-only-enables-mamdanis-even-funnier-fiscal-plan-for-nyc/
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38) The Malignant Hypocrisy of Conservatives Is on Full Display in Venezuela
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“For decades, conservatives have condemned the socialist-communist regime in Venezuela. They have called it evil, immoral, deadly, and destructive. In fact, conservatives even came to describe the Venezuelan regime as a ‘narco-terrorist’ regime. Why, they have even supported unsuccessful regime-change efforts within the country. … What’s the situation today? It’s hard to believe. The U.S. government, led by President Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA, is actively partnering with the very socialist-communist, narco-terrorist regime that conservatives have long criticized and condemned.” (05/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/05/13/the-malignant-hypocrisy-of-conservatives-is-on-full-display-in-venezuela/
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39) Why J Street Does Not Go Far Enough
Source: Antiwar.com
by Harrison Berger
“An illegal auction of stolen Palestinian land at an elite Upper East Side synagogue, and the swift condemnations from groups like J Street launched against New Yorkers who attempted to protest it, reveal the Zionist rot at the heart of the American Jewish elite establishment that is bastardizing and corrupting the religion from within, and why liberal Zionist groups present only an impotent challenge to it. … J Street’s response to those protests – condemning both the protesters and the land sales in equal measure – is indicative of the balancing act the organization has attempted to manage, one that is unstable and contradictory, with its guiding (or rather, mis-guiding) principle that Zionism can ultimately be reformed …. and that the American Jewish elite institutions which have funded settlement expansion, armed soldiers to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and laundered Israel’s atrocity propaganda bears no meaningful responsibility for what Israel does.” (05/13/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/harrison_berger/2026/05/12/why-j-street-does-not-go-far-enough/
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40) Bob Dylan’s Argument With God
Source: The New Republic
by Alex Shephard
“Ron Rosenbaum’s latest book, Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed, is not a biography. It is instead a ‘kind of biography’ — which is a distinction with a difference. It is, in keeping with Rosenbaum’s long record of fine-tuned literary analysis mixed with historical and, yes, biographical detail, a study of Dylan’s songwriting and a reckoning with his moral, philosophical, and religious imagery and fixations. ‘Dylan has remade American speech, American thought, American attitude,’ Rosenbaum writes. Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed is an examination of how he remade those things, with a particular emphasis on ‘theodicy’ and what Rosenbaum calls Dylan’s ‘argument with god.’ Steering clear of the usual cloud of hagiography that hovers above most writing about Dylan, it’s a book that instead focuses on what makes him unique. ” (05/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210326/bob-dylan-argument-god
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41) Redistricting Wars Prove History Doesn’t Move in Just One Direction
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“The late 19th century was a dismal time in American politics. Corruption ran rampant. Congress was governed by staunch partisan loyalties and nail-biting majorities. And redistricting, instead of being confined to after the census every 10 years, was a tool of manipulation and partisan hardball. ‘From 1872 to 1896,’ a political scientist reports, ‘at least one state redrew its congressional districts each year.’ Of course, that era was marred by another phenomenon — one too familiar to us today. It saw a swift rollback in voting rights and representation for the newly freed Black population of the South. In 1875, after the Civil War and the adoption of the 15th Amendment, seven Black men served in the House, and one sat as a senator. Terrorism, political cowardice, and racial backlash ended Reconstruction. By 1902, Congress was once again all white.” (05/13/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-sets-gerrymandering-frenzy
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42) Is Housing Less Affordable Than Ever? Sort Of
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Home prices and financing costs are still high, but several indicators suggest the market has moved past peak distortion.” (05/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/is-housing-less-affordable-than-ever-sort-of/
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43) Sean Duffy’s family vacation was funded by companies he regulates
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“It’s not exactly a mystery why Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s secretary of Transportation, seems so befuddled and embittered about the backlash that followed his May 8 reveal that American corporations funded a five-part reality television series about a “Great American Road Trip” for his family. … Television shows have sponsors. And the Duffy family road trip has some of the biggest corporations paying the bills. And some of them are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Trump’s administration has always seemed at least as interested, if not more interested, in content generation than in governing. Why do boring public servants work when you can be an influencer on television and social media? But the look-at-me crowd gets pretty huffy when they receive actual scrutiny.” (05/13/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/13/sean-duffy-great-american-road-trip-gas-prices-economy/90044120007/
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44) The Privacy Protection Act protects watchdogs. What if it’s ignored?
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“The PPA limits the use of search warrants against those who intend to disseminate information to the public, which means it’s not specific to journalists in application. The PPA’s protections apply to any person intending to publish their ‘work product’ or ‘documentary’ materials (more on that later) in ‘a newspaper, book, broadcast or other similar form of public communication,’ which covers journalists but isn’t limited to the press. These protections are valuable to communicators who are independent and who don’t operate within the mainstream media, such as citizen journalists or documentarians. … the PPA’s protections require the federal government to adhere to its limits. The Natanson case is a recent example of what happens when assistant United States attorneys fail to do just that.” (05/12/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/privacy-protection-act-protects-watchdogs-what-if-its-ignored
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45) The Hantavirus Cruise: A Ship of Fools
Source: Town Hall
by Betsy McCaughey
“On April 1, 114 guests and 61 crew members, unaware of the presence of a killer virus among them, boarded the MV Hondius. That ship has earned the moniker ‘Ship of Fools.’ Because of the top brass’s reckless disregard of infection control principles, the ship’s passengers and thousands of people around the world have been exposed to the rare Andes strain of the hantavirus, a disease found in rat urine and feces, and which has a 40% mortality rate. Among the passengers who boarded that day was a 70-year-old birdwatcher who had spent his final days ashore traipsing through an Argentinian dump covered with rat feces and looking for rare birds. He was looking for species, not feces, but it’s the feces that did him in.” (05/13/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2026/05/13/the-hantavirus-cruise-a-ship-of-fools-n2675990
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46) 2 hearings, 0 justification for a $1.5 trillion military budget
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ben Freeman
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine testified before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Tuesday ostensibly to justify the President’s request for an historic $1.5 trillion budget. Unfortunately, they offered no strategic justification for this nearly $500 billion increase in military spending and, instead, raised even more questions about the Pentagon budget and the cost of the war in Iran. What was most surprising about the hearings was perhaps what was missing: a real enemy. Historically, increases in Pentagon spending have been justified by a monster abroad we’re told we must destroy. … While the usual suspects — China, Russia, and Iran — were all mentioned in the hearings today, neither Hegseth nor Caine made the case that they were enough to justify the enormous increase in military spending they are asking Congress for.” (05/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/hegseth-testifies-congress/
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47) License Plate Reader Baton Passing
Source: Independent Institute
by Jonathan Hofer
“As many are likely already aware, automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are high-speed cameras that can identify vehicles as they pass and record their time and location. Over the last decade, the technology has rapidly expanded across American roads and is found in nearly every major city. In a recent posting, I offered a rough estimate of how many ALPRs are deployed in California, suggesting the number is plausibly in the 9.3k–14.9k range, well above the 5k documented in the best records of the technology. However, there has been considerably less attention paid to whether or not the number of ALPRs changes the constitutional calculus. I argue that it does, and that it may render some elements of ALPRs unconstitutional.” (05/12/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/12/license-plate-reader-baton-passing/
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48) Homeschooling under fire
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Recently several dozen articles defending homeschooling have crossed our desktop here at The Price of Liberty. Unfortunately, they are vastly outnumbered by articles and comments attacking homeschooling. And at the same time, we are seeing more and more State governments and local school districts and boards working very hard (for the bureaucrats and politicians, at least) to come up with more ways to regulate and restrict homeschooling and ‘ensure’ that parents and their families and friends are ‘properly educating’ their children.” (05/12/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/12/homeschooling-under-fire/
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49) ICE Is Counting on Our Silence
Source: Common Dreams
by Jamie Beran & Rabbi Jill Jacobs
“When thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents invaded Minneapolis this past January, Twin Cities residents, and people across the country, jumped into action, trailing these agents, organizing major protests, and dropping off food and supplies to those understandably afraid to leave their homes. Both of our organizations, too, took action. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action leadership traveled to join a clergy day of protest alongside close partners in Minneapolis, and T’ruah sent some 50 rabbis to support dozens of their colleagues who live and work there. Lay people and clergy alike similarly stepped up in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and other cities targeted by major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Minnesotans successfully diminished the massive ICE takeover of their city. This is a testament to the power of citizen organizing and action.” (05/13/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ice-wants-silence
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50) Capitalists of the World Aren’t Uniting Against Workers
Source: Cato Institute
by Scott Lincicome
“Behold a right-left mind-meld on the economy. For decades, the thinking goes, corporations have captured a larger share of national income at workers’ expense. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑Massachusetts) says this is because ‘American workers don’t have enough power.’ On the populist right, meanwhile, this lamentable trend has happened as companies have ‘fattened profit margins by outsourcing their workforces.’ It’s a tidy narrative but mostly wrong.” (05/12/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/capitalists-world-arent-uniting-against-workers
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Political Orphanage, 05/13/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Fighting Crime Like an Economist.” (05/13/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/fighting-crime-like-an-economist
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52) Reasonably Optimistic, 05/13/26
Source: Washington Post
“What prediction markets tell us about the future.” (05/13/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/what-prediction-markets-tell-us-about-the-future/
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53) Rising, 05/13/26
Source: The Hill
“Glenn Greenwald slams AOC as ‘unprincipled, craven, partisan apparatchik.'” (05/13/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5869848-rising-may-13-2026/
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/13/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Tucker Carlson A ‘Domestic Terrorist?'” (05/16/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1DxleEPkBeMKL
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55) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/13/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Jake Werner, Quincy Institute ‘Trump-Xi Summit.'” (05/13/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-05-14_zfw005132026.mp3
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56) The Cost of Bureaucracy
Source: Cobden Centre
Speech in Brussels by Max Rangeley. (05/13/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/speech-in-brussels-on-the-cost-of-bureaucracy/
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57) Reason Interview: John Fetterman
Source: Reason
“Sen. John Fetterman discusses the state of the Democratic Party, immigration, foreign policy, and the dangers of political extremism.” (05/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/13/john-fetterman-im-a-very-pro-capitalist-democrat/
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58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US May Rename Iran War ‘Operation Sledgehammer’, IDF Expands Offensive in Lebanon, and More.” (05/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCsxSuRaUCY
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59) Trump Watch, 05/12/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The U.S. Malignancy in Venezuela.” (05/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv6PqswaQ7I
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60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“US Has Lost In Iran. Now Comes The Pain.” (05/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1XxygmAXroYGM
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