05/06 -- TACO Tuesday: Trump orders pause to "Project Freedom"; Congress Gave Away Its Authority To Declare War and Enabled Trump's Iran War
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Thomas L. Knapp
May 6, 2026, 6:15:38 AMMay 6
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 05/06/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) TACO Tuesday: Trump orders pause to “Project Freedom”
2) Ukraine: At least 27 dead in Russian strikes
3) IN: GOP primary challengers beat state senators who blocked Trump’s re-gerrymander demands
4) Romania: Pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote
5) FL: Secret Service officer arrested for dramatizing job description in inappropriate place
6) Portugal: Regime Detains 15 Cops as Lisbon Police Torture Probe Widens
7) Israel: Court extends caging of activists abduced by pirates
8) NY: Radical students harass Cornell president after Israel debate clash
9) Microsoft, Google, xAI give US regime access to AI models for security testing
10) France: Political row over calls for overhaul and €1bn cuts at public broadcaster
11) Sudan: Regime accuses Ethiopia and UAE of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador
12) TN: Republicans consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis
13) Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit ahead of trial
14) House Democrats Urge US State Department to End Silence About Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
15) Thailand: Regime scraps 2001 maritime territory deal with Cambodia after years of deadlock
16) Australia: Central bank hikes rates again and warns inflation will stay higher for longer
17) Patel: Russiagate-linked FBI “burn bag” room was missing from bureau blueprints
18) US regime publicly confesses to two more Caribbean murders
19) Macron: US & EU “wasting time” on tariff threats, as Trump fumes over Germany
20) PA: Woman shot and killed by resident during alleged North Philadelphia break-in
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Congress Gave Away Its Authority To Declare War and Enabled Trump’s Iran War
22) US Debt Crosses 100% of GDP for First Time Since 1946 — And This Time Is Different
23) AI Regulation: More of the Risk, Less of the Benefit
24) Against a New Cold War
25) Trump’s Crusade Against the Holy See
26) California voters fed up with Democrats may turn to Steve Hilton for change
27) Mexico seeks to clean house, its way
28) In Russia, Victory Day Is Starting to Feel Like Defeat
29) The Empire Can No Longer Hide Its Ugly Nature
30) The Enemy of My Enemy Is a Really Big Dragon
31) Iranian-Americans (aside from a few gun-running social media mavens) want regime gone
32) Demographics, not the Supreme Court, are killing racial gerrymandering
33) The Fertility Panic Is a Racist, Sexist Tool to Push More Austerity
34) Synformation: Epistemic Capture Meets AI
35) Proposed Accountability Rule for United States Colleges and Universities
36) Between Iran and a Hard Place
37) Time for Jerome Powell to Go Home
38) A great deal of ruin
39) America’s hate-hate affair with Iran: A collision course for the ages
40) Can a Revolution Be Lawful?
41) Trump Continues to Falsely Claim He Eliminated Taxes on Social Security
42) What do anti-abortion activists actually want? Confusion.
43) Imperial Lies and the War in Iran
44) Government Kills the Spirit
45) The Global Ripples from the Iran War
46) What Is Consciousness For?
47) Drug Delivery Systems
48) The Battle of Ideas Paves the Way for Radicals and Revolutionaries
49) Spirit Airlines, First Corporate Casualty of the Iran War
50) Super Under-Blown
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 05/05/26
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/05/26
53) Daniel Davis on The Scott Horton Show
54) Capital Record, episode 297
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 05/05/26
56) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 05/05/26
57) JFK Facts, 05/04/26
58) Reason Interview: Neil Gorsuch
59) Mamdani’s 100-Plus Days: Abundance Liberal or Democratic Socialist? A Discussion
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/04/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) TACO Tuesday: Trump orders pause to “Project Freedom”
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Donald Trump announced he is pausing ‘Project Freedom,’ the US effort to guide stranded vessels out of the strait of Hormuz, so he can finalise a deal with Iran, but added that his blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place. Trump’s abrupt change of plan was declared in a social media post, saying he was pausing the effort for ‘a short period’ to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran to end the war. … Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, signalled Iran has yet to fully respond to the US attempt to reopen the waterway. … Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, said in a statement that its risk assessment ‘remains unchanged’ and that transits through the strait ‘are for the moment not possible for our ships.'” (05/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/06/trump-project-freedom-strait-of-hormuz-ships-iran-ceasefire
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2) Ukraine: At least 27 dead in Russian strikes
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russian drone and missile attacks have killed at least 27 people in Ukraine, officials said, days before a two-day unilateral ceasefire by Moscow was due to take effect. Ukrainian officials said Russian glide bombs killed at least 12 people in southeastern Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, hitting a car repair shop and residential buildings …. Further northeast, six people were killed, and 12 others were wounded in the city of Kramatorsk, the last hub under Ukraine’s control in the embattled Donetsk region. Four more people were killed in the city of Dnipro. Russian strikes also hit Ukrainian state-run gas facilities in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions overnight, killing three employees and two rescue workers, according to Serhiy Koretskyi, the CEO of Naftogaz.” (05/06/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/5/russian-attack-kills-five-at-ukraines-naftogaz-gas-facility
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3) IN: GOP primary challengers beat state senators who blocked Trump’s re-gerrymander demands
Source: WFYI News [US state media]
“Indiana Senate Republicans who opposed congressional redistricting were largely defeated during Tuesday’s primary election, with only one race so far called for an incumbent after President Donald Trump’s call to oust them. The results come after months of political threats, and an estimated $9 million in spending to back primary challengers against the incumbents. … In November, Trump vowed that any Republican who voted against redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries, ‘potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED.’ In spite of Trump’s threats, Indiana Senate Republicans rebuffed him, siding with Senate Democrats to kill the redistricting bill 31-19.” (05/05/26)
https://www.wfyi.org/statewide/2026-05-05/trump-backed-challengers-defeat-indiana-senators-who-blocked-redistricting-push
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4) Romania: Pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote
Source: SFGate
“Romania’s pro-European coalition collapsed Tuesday after lawmakers voted against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, less than a year after he was sworn in, triggering fresh turmoil in the European country. The no-confidence vote was a blow to Bolojan, who came to power with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-communist history. The leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, jointly submitted the motion to Parliament on April 28. PSD withdrew from the coalition last month. On Tuesday, 281 lawmakers voted in favor and four voted against. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners, Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, abstained.” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/romania-s-prime-minister-fights-for-survival-as-22242093.php
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5) FL: Secret Service officer arrested for dramatizing job description in inappropriate place
Source: NBC News
“An off-duty Secret Service officer was arrested in Miami-Dade County, Florida, at around midnight Monday and charged with indecent exposure after allegedly masturbating in a hotel hallway, according to a police affidavit. The officer, identified in the arrest record as John Spillman, 33, was placed on administrative leave, Richard Macauley, the chief of the Secret Service’s uniformed division, said in a statement obtained by NBC station WTVJ. … According to the arrest affidavit, law enforcement officers responded to the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport and Convention Center and allegedly found Spillman naked and masturbating at the end of a hallway. A guest on the same floor told the officers that the suspect had followed her from the hotel lobby ‘and they immediately entered their room because she was in fear for their lives,’ the affidavit said. Hotel security also alleged they saw the suspect masturbating, it said.” (05/05/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/secret-service-officer-arrested-alleged-indecent-exposure-miami-hotel-rcna343617
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6) Portugal: Regime Detains 15 Cops as Lisbon Police Torture Probe Widens
Source: US News & World Report
“Portuguese law enforcement officials investigating cases of alleged torture at two central Lisbon precincts detained 15 police officers on Tuesday, raising the total number of those charged or arrested to 25, police and prosecutors said. In January, prosecutors charged two officers with torturing vagrants and migrants and then sharing images of their acts in an online chat with dozens of other officers, triggering a broader inquiry. The two are awaiting trial, accused of torture, acts of cruelty and abuse of power, according to the indictment. One also faces charges of rape, robbery and forgery. Another seven people were detained in March. Police confirmed Tuesday’s detentions that also included one civilian but would not say whether those held were suspected of carrying out torture themselves or of failing to report abuse they had witnessed in person or in shared videos.” (05/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-05/portugal-detains-15-officers-as-lisbon-police-torture-probe-widens
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7) Israel: Court extends caging of activists abduced by pirates
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the [caging] of two foreign activists [abducted] from a Gaza-bound flotilla by six days, a lawyer representing them said. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila appeared before a court in the southern city of Ashkelon for their second hearing, after being brought to Israel for questioning last week. … The two, held in a prison in Ashkelon, were among dozens of activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece early on Thursday. The other [abducted] activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.” (05/05/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260505-israeli-court-extends-detention-of-two-gaza-flotilla-activists-amid-abuse-claims
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8) NY: Radical students harass Cornell president after Israel debate clash
Source: New York Post
“Cornell University’s president has blasted a group of radical students for hurling abuse and holding him hostage in his own car following an Israel-Palestine debate series at the Ivy League school. The group of rabble-rousers filmed themselves swarming Michael Kotlikoff and trailing him to his vehicle as he was trying to leave the event at the Ithaca, New York, campus last Thursday. Kotlikoff accused the group — who he said have become notorious for spewing verbal and online abuse toward Cornell staffers in the past – of surrounding his car, banging on the windows and blocking him from leaving. The school prez spoke out after the students posted footage on social media of Kotlikoff apparently backing into the group amid the parking lot chaos.” (05/05/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/05/us-news/cornell-president-michael-kotlikoff-accused-of-injuring-2-students-in-parking-lot-clash-after-israel-debate/
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9) Microsoft, Google, xAI give US regime access to AI models for security testing
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Tech giants Microsoft, Google and xAI say they will allow the United States federal government access to their new artificial intelligence models for national security testing. The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at the Department of Commerce announced the agreement on Tuesday amid increasing concerns about the capabilities that Anthropic’s newly unveiled Mythos model could give hackers. Under the new agreement, the US government will be allowed to evaluate the models before deployment and conduct research to assess their capabilities and security risks.” (05/05/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/5/microsoft-google-xai-give-us-access-to-ai-models-for-security-testing
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10) France: Political row over calls for overhaul and €1bn cuts at public broadcaster
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“France’s public sector broadcasters have been lambasted by a parliamentary committee of enquiry, which recommends closing several channels and cutting their budget by a total of €1bn (£863m). The committee, which held six months of at times acrimonious hearings, levelled charges of left-wing bias at state-owned France Télévisions and Radio France, as well as gross financial waste. But the findings were immediately dismissed as politically-motivated and impractical by industry insiders, who said that the committee’s rapporteur, Charles Alloncle, has a far-right agenda to prepare state TV and radio for privatisation. Criticism has also come from the prime minister and the head of the committee. Alloncle, 32, is an MP for the small Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party, an ally of Marine Le Pen’s populist-right National Rally (RN).” (05/05/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c052l130d6jo
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11) Sudan: Regime accuses Ethiopia and UAE of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“The Sudanese government has accused Ethiopia of being behind recent drone attacks on sites including Khartoum airport and recalled its ambassador on Tuesday. A military spokesperson in Sudan said the government has evidence that four drone strikes that have happened since 1 March came from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport. It also accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying the drones. The Sudanese military has been at war with a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, when the RSF stormed the capital. The battles have now shifted towards more drone warfare concentrating in the Kordofan and Blue Nile states.” (05/05/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/sudan-military-accuses-ethiopia-and-uae-drone-attacks
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12) TN: Republicans consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis
Source: SFGate
“As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity afforded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map. The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second [b]lack-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act.” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/tennessee-republicans-will-consider-redrawing-us-22241831.php
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13) Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit ahead of trial
Source: United Press International
“Actress and producer Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her It Ends with Us director and co-star, have settled their lawsuit two weeks ahead of a scheduled federal jury trial. The settlement ends an 18-month legal battle that saw Lively accuse Baldoni of sexual harassment on the 2024 film’s set, then hiring a publicity team to tarnish her reputation online when she complained about it. Baldoni counter-sued Lively for defamation, but that lawsuit was quickly dismissed. The terms of their settlement were not disclosed.” (05/05/26)
https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2026/05/05/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-settle-lawsuit/6601777982526/
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14) House Democrats Urge US State Department to End Silence About Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
Source: Common Dreams
“More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives are urging the Trump administration to break its official silence on Israel’s nuclear weapons program, whose existence is almost universally acknowledged even as its origins and status remain shrouded in secrecy. In a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, the group of House Democrats led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas wrote that ‘Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios,’ particularly as it wages war on Iran in partnership with the Israeli government.” (05/05/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-nuclear-weapons-program
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15) Thailand: Regime scraps 2001 maritime territory deal with Cambodia after years of deadlock
Source: ABC News
“Thailand’s government on Tuesday terminated a 2001 Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia that was meant to provide a bilateral framework for resolving overlapping maritime territorial claims. Cambodia said it regretted the Thai Cabinet’s decision but would continue trying to resolve the issue. The two governments signed the agreement to peacefully pursue maritime boundary delimitation and provide a framework for jointly managing marine resources in accordance with international law. But they failed to make any progress after five rounds of talks over the past two decades.” (05/05/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/thailand-scraps-2001-maritime-territory-deal-cambodia-after-132665662
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16) Australia: Central bank hikes rates again and warns inflation will stay higher for longer
Source: CNBC
“Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised its policy rate to 4.35%, matching its December 2024 peak, as inflation remains elevated. The move by the Reserve Bank of Australia was in line with expectations in a Reuters poll of economists and marked its third consecutive rate increase. Eight members of the board voted for the hike, while one voted to hold rates at 4.1%. In its statement, the RBA said inflation had picked up materially in the second half of 2025, with conflict in the Middle East pushing up fuel and commodity prices.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/australia-central-bank-rate-hike-inflation-rba.html
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17) Patel: Russiagate-linked FBI “burn bag” room was missing from bureau blueprints
Source: Fox News
“FBI Director Kash Patel said he found the agency’s ‘burn bag’ room full of sensitive documents tied to the ‘Russiagate’ investigation, but nobody was able to get inside at first — in fact, the room wasn’t on the building map at all. Patel appeared on Tuesday’s episode of ‘Hang Out with Sean Hannity’ and referenced a previous discussion on the podcast in which former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino talked about the same room. More than one ‘burn bag’, which is ‘a large paper bag that you use to destroy and literally shred and burn classified information’, was found inside this secret room ‘locked away in FBI headquarters,’ Patel said. ‘They weren’t burned, but the room was also off the map. It wasn’t on our blueprint, and nobody had access to it.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/kash-patel-says-russiagate-linked-fbi-burn-bag-room-missing-from-bureau-blueprints
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18) US regime publicly confesses to two more Caribbean murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, [murdering] two people Monday. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and [murdered] at least 188 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/latest-u-s-strike-on-alleged-drug-boat-kills-2-in-caribbean-military-says/
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19) Macron: US & EU “wasting time” on tariff threats, as Trump fumes over Germany
Source: SFGate
“Europe and the United States have more important things to do than waste time on tariff threats, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced higher duties on European vehicles. Trump said on Friday that he would increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union this week to 25%, a move that could further harm the global economy as it reels from war in the Middle East. ‘Especially in the geopolitical period we are experiencing, allies like the United States of America and the European Union have much better things to do than to stir up threats of destabilization,’ Macron told reporters in Armenia. ‘For our businesses, our households, our populations, we should rather send a message of stability and confidence.’ He added that he hoped ‘reason will prevail soon.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/macron-says-us-and-eu-are-wasting-time-on-tariff-22242464.php
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20) PA: Woman shot and killed by resident during alleged North Philadelphia break-in
Source: ABC 6 Action News
“A woman was shot and killed after allegedly breaking into a home in North Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, according to police. Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace said preliminary information indicates the woman entered the home through a back window on the 2300 block of North Cleveland Street. Residents inside told her to leave, but she did not comply and was shot multiple times, police said. ‘It appears that this is a case of a person defending oneself inside their own home,’ Inspector Pace said.” (05/04/26)
https://6abc.com/post/woman-shot-killed-resident-during-alleged-break-north-philadelphia/19031577/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Congress Gave Away Its Authority To Declare War and Enabled Trump’s Iran War
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan
“Congress hasn’t voted to declare war since 1942, yet the legislative branch constantly refuses to rein in presidents.” (05/05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/05/congress-and-the-executive-enabled-illegal-war-in-iran/
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22) US Debt Crosses 100% of GDP for First Time Since 1946 — And This Time Is Different
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia
“US public debt has reached 100 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) for the first time since the aftermath of World War II. Just because we have been here before, and we managed, doesn’t mean we will do so again. This time is different in important ways that are underappreciated by both policymakers and the public. In 1946, the United States emerged from a global war with high debt, but also with a young population, strong growth prospects, and a political commitment to fiscal restraint. Today, America faces the opposite: an aging population, structurally rising entitlement spending, and persistent deficits with no credible plan to rein them in.” (05/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/us-debt-crosses-100-of-gdp-for-first-time-since-1946-and-this-time-its-different/
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23) AI Regulation: More of the Risk, Less of the Benefit
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“‘Whatever can happen,’ Augustes De Morgan wrote in 1866, ‘will happen if we make trials enough.’ To which I must add, if ‘we’ don’t make trials enough, someone else will. AI will inevitably be pushed to whatever, if any, limit it has. If American researchers can’t legally do it, Chinese researchers will do it. If Chinese researchers can’t legally do it, Swiss researchers will do it. If every government on the planet imposes pesky regulations on doing it, people who don’t care about pesky government regulations will do it. … Those of us who are allowed to avail ourselves of the most advanced AI possible will disproportionately reap whatever rewards it produces. Those of us for whom maximal AI is forbidden fruit will be more vulnerable to AI’s dark sides.” (05/05/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20565
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24) Against a New Cold War
Source: Liberal Currents
by Craig Johnson
“Contrary to what your high school textbook and film franchises like ‘Rambo’ and ‘Red Dawn’ taught you, the Cold War was not primarily a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. That’s what the US teaches because it frames the war as something the US won — the Soviets are gone, after all — and because it relegates most of the actual violence of the war to the status of sideshow or backdrop to the “real” story of the war, the superpower rivalry. This version of the Cold War is real and lethal, but limited to proxy wars conducted in places white people don’t live, with the occasional spy thriller thrown in to mix things up. … Rather than a hypothetical conflict that occasionally got heated, The Cold War was a series of extremely violent and very real wars in which millions of people all over the world died.” (05/05/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/against-a-new-cold-war/
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25) Trump’s Crusade Against the Holy See
Source: Exiled Policy
by Nick Gambill
“Leo XIV, in the role of Pontiff, does not act as a political figure. The Pope has no elections to run. His job is to safeguard doctrine, maintain the unity of the Church, and serve as a spiritual authority. This makes the President’s attack against the Pope unusually preposterous.” (05/05/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/trumps-crusade-against-the-holy-see
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26) California voters fed up with Democrats may turn to Steve Hilton for change
Source: Fox News Forum
by Liz Peek
“In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump famously asked Black voters ‘What do you have to lose?’ Trump challenged African American voters to rethink their long-standing allegiance to the Democrat Party, which, he rightly claimed, took them for granted and had failed to deliver on the most pressing demands of African American families, including providing their kids with a good education. Steve Hilton, a Republican and former Fox News host, running to become governor of deep blue California, should be posing that same question to Golden State voters. California is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, entirely because of decisions made by Democrats who have controlled the state with a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature since 2018 and also occupied the governor’s mansion since 2011.” [editor’s note: It was one of the most expensive states to live in LONG before 2011 – TLK] (05/05/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-california-voters-fed-democrats-may-turn-steve-hilton-change
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27) Mexico seeks to clean house, its way
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“As reported in the Monitor last week, the recent U.S. indictment of 10 Mexican officials poses a key test for President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo: how best to balance pressures from its neighbor and largest trading partner with the domestic imperative to defend sovereignty – while also tackling cartel crime and serving justice for ordinary Mexicans? More broadly, this development also tests both countries’ determination to collaboratively pursue legitimate shared interests in a way that stabilizes rather than further disrupts already-shaky economic, political, and security relations. Last Thursday, President Sheinbaum said the U.S. request for extradition of the 10 officials did not provide enough evidence for arrests. Instead, she said, Mexican prosecutors would investigate the cases to determine evidence of criminality. Her declaration came in the wake of increasing unease after a roadway incident in late April pointed to CIA involvement inside Mexico.” (05/04/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0504/Mexico-seeks-to-clean-house-its-way
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28) In Russia, Victory Day Is Starting to Feel Like Defeat
Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young
“Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square, which for decades has served as a symbol of Russian military power, will be drastically scaled back. Tanks and other military hardware will not be rolling across Red Square; there will be only a column of soldiers and military academy students marching on foot. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made no secret of the fact that the reason for this decision was the ‘terrorist threat’ from Ukraine — that is, the fear of drone strikes. … Elena Malakhovskaya, a host on the Khodorkovsky Live webcast, summed up the situation another way: ‘In the fifth year of the war, it’s Zelensky who decides whether Putin can appear at the parade on Red Square.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/in-russia-victory-day-is-starting-to-feel-like-defeat-ukraine-war-drone-parade-putin
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29) The Empire Can No Longer Hide Its Ugly Nature
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“As the US ramps up its aggressions against Iran and Cuba under the supervision of psychopathic empire managers like Rubio, more and more eyes are opening to the depraved nature of the imperial power structure. It used to be challenging to help westerners recognize the truth that we are ruled by monsters and everything we learned in school about our nation and our world is a lie. Now it’s just becoming the mainstream normie understanding as people see more and more evidence of the empire’s savagery all around them. There’s only so many atrocities you can witness on your social media feed before reality begins to dawn and free your mind from the propaganda-induced trance it was groomed into. The empire couldn’t hide its ugly face forever.” (05/05/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/05/new-issue-of-johnstone-the-empire-can-no-longer-hide-its-ugly-nature/
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30) The Enemy of My Enemy Is a Really Big Dragon
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
“I read some really great political theory this week. And unlike Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Politics, this book had a dragon. Joe Hill’s most recent novel, King Sorrow, takes its main characters and its readers on a scary and suspenseful exploration of the dubious wisdom of the claim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ That old political saw gets hauled out from the back corner of the basement whenever it seems expedient to make a morally dubious alliance with a stronger power. Hill’s novel, a deliciously gory and smart bit of horror in its own right, exposes the ethical void at the center of such alliances.” (05/05/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-a-really-big-dragon
-----
31) Iranian-Americans (aside from a few gun-running social media mavens) want regime gone
Source: New York Post
by Joel Kotkin
“The Trump administration has been cracking down on a handful of Iranian residents who have ties to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and have even allegedly been involved in gun-running while living lavish lifestyles in LA. That may leave the impression that this community might not support attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, California’s Persian community is overwhelmingly opposed to the regime. A survey done recently by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans found that barely 3% of Iranian-Americans favor the current regime, while an additional 8% would welcome a reformed Islamic Republic.” (05/04/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/opinion/iranian-americans-want-irgc-gone/
-----
32) Demographics, not the Supreme Court, are killing racial gerrymandering
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“There’s been no shortage of expressed outrage from the left in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly limits states’ efforts at racial gerrymandering. A Salon headline captures the progressive indignation: ‘Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act in ‘Jim Crow 2.0 ruling.’’ The left can never be accused of understatement. But the change needed to happen because U.S. demographics are making racial gerrymandering increasingly difficult. And that’s a good thing.” (05/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5862711-voting-rights-act-challenges/
-----
33) The Fertility Panic Is a Racist, Sexist Tool to Push More Austerity
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
by Julie Hollar
“If you haven’t heard the argument that civilization is about to collapse because women aren’t having enough babies, you haven’t been consuming much media. ‘The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard — It’s Worse,’ announced The Atlantic (6/30/25). Business Insider (8/21/25) ran a piece titled ‘America’s Great People Shortage,’ which opened, ‘America is about to tumble off the edge of a massive demographic cliff.’ And NPR’s Brian Mann warned on PBS (4/10/26) that, as a result of the birth rate decline, ‘many people say’ that the US soon ‘will be unrecognizable.’ It’s repeatedly in the news in part because it’s a priority of the ‘pronatalist’ right, which has prominent backers in the Trump administration.” (05/05/26)
https://fair.org/home/the-regressive-ideologies-behind-the-baby-bust-panic/
-----
34) Synformation: Epistemic Capture Meets AI
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Robert Malone
“In my role as Co-chairperson and member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, I have been participating in a training course regarding the GRADE methodology for public health decision-making. The acronym stands for Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation, and this methodology is intended to provide a structured, transparent framework to evaluate the quality (certainty) of evidence and the strength of recommendations derived from that evidence. … The GRADE approach assumes that, in the case of peer-reviewed clinical and epidemiological data (otherwise referred to as ‘evidence-based medicine’), individual studies will reflect various forms of bias (structural, intentional, or unintended), but when systematically analyzed as a collection of information, these biases will either cancel each other out or (if bias is detected) can be statistically compensated for. What could possibly go wrong? Clearly, something did.” (05/05/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/synformation-epistemic-capture-meets-ai/
-----
35) Proposed Accountability Rule for United States Colleges and Universities
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Patrick Johann
“Earlier this month, the United States Department of Education proposed a regulatory framework to hold postsecondary educational institutions accountable for their students’ labor market and earnings outcomes. Under the proposed rule, students risk losing eligibility for federal loans and, in some cases, Pell Grants, if they are enrolled in undergraduate programs whose graduates’ earnings fail to exceed those of a typical high school graduate. Graduate programs face similar consequences should their graduates earn less than the average bachelor’s degree holder. Though the benchmarks are modest, in the sense that most college programs will meet these criteria, some will not. And the consequences for college programs are severe, as most universities rely heavily on federally subsidized tuition dollars.” (05/05/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/proposed-accountability-rule-for-united-states-colleges-and-universities/
-----
36) Between Iran and a Hard Place
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The Gulf states have tried very hard to stay out of the war on Iran. But they are home to one of the largest American forward military deployments in the world, a network of 13 U.S. bases and 40,000 U.S. troops that has made the war possible. Kuwait hosts more U.S. bases than any other country in the region. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Qatar hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the region and a headquarters for U.S. Central Command. In the UAE is Al Dhafra Air Base, from which Washington coordinates intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Saudi Arabia is home to the Prince Sultan Air Base.” (05/05/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/between-iran-and-a-hard-place/
-----
37) Time for Jerome Powell to Go Home
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The man just won’t leave the stage. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced last week that he’s going to remain on the Federal Reserve Board until 2028, even as he, by law, surrenders his chairmanship. The announcement came even after President Donald Trump agreed to drop his unwise lawsuit against Powell for funding a $2 billion new Taj Mahal building down the street from the White House. Powell will be the first Fed chair to stay on the Fed’s Board of Directors in 50 years. This isn’t the way it’s done. It’s bad form. Only once did he come within spitting distance of his inflation target. February 2021 was the only month in his whole tenure when inflation hit the range of 1.8 percent to 2.2 percent. He’s retiring with a batting average of .011.” (05/05/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2026/05/05/time-for-jerome-powell-to-go-home-n2675537
-----
38) A great deal of ruin
Source: Cobden Centre
by Tim Price
“The crowning irony of our times is that after the 20th Century revealed the essential futility and moral and economic bankruptcy of totalitarian socialism, most western governments have cheerfully embraced it.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/a-great-deal-of-ruin/
-----
39) America’s hate-hate affair with Iran: A collision course for the ages
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“Two months after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, a tense standoff prevails. There is no active warfare, but no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough either. The war is a culmination of a 47-year trajectory which set the U.S. and Iran on this collision course. Mutual hostility was the norm since 1979, and even rare openings, such as the cooperation in a post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002, or a landmark nuclear pact in 2015, failed to change that path to a more functional relationship.” (05/05/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-us-relations-history/
-----
40) Can a Revolution Be Lawful?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Lucchese
“Strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as a positive legal right to revolution — certainly not for citizens of the United States. Though there have been various insurrections against federal authority throughout our history, only one came close to succeeding: the Southern Rebellion of 1861–65. Even as states were seceding to join the revolutionary Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln insisted that their actions were constitutionally null and void. … But while revolution may never be strictly legal, as Lincoln acknowledged, it may be necessary in order to preserve liberty and even what we might call the ‘natural law.'” [editor’s note: The southern secession was unambiguously “legal” by both omission (the Articles of Confederation declared themselves perpetual, the Constitution didn’t) and inclusion (under the 10th Amendment the power to dissolve the “union” clearly remains with the states – TLK] (05/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/can-a-revolution-be-lawful/
-----
41) Trump Continues to Falsely Claim He Eliminated Taxes on Social Security
Source: Common Dreams
by Martin Burns & Mary Liz Burns
“At a campaign-like rally at The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando, Florida, President Donald Trump continued his campaign of deception about his record on Social Security. As he has many times in the last several months, Trump falsely claimed that his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ eliminated taxes. This time however Trump took his campaign of deception to a higher level. The background for Trump included the words ‘Golden Age for Your Golden Years’ and ‘No Tax on Social Security’. Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media simply ignore Trump’s continued falsehoods on Social Security. Let’s look at the facts. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ did not eliminate taxes on Social Security. Indeed, the legislative process, ‘reconciliation,’ which the Republicans used to pass the legislation, prohibits these types of changes in Social Security.” (05/05/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-lies-social-security-tax
-----
42) What do anti-abortion activists actually want? Confusion.
Source: USA Today
by Sara Pequeño
“Abortion access has once again been called into question, jeopardizing the health of millions of American women in the process and creating chaos. This is the reality of what the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization did to our ability to access health care. On May 1, a federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily halted the prescription of the abortifacient mifepristone via telehealth, effectively kneecapping abortion services nationwide. Then, on May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated mail-order abortion services for a week while the justices considered the issue. This kind of confusion has been part of the goal all along.” (05/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/05/supreme-court-mifepristone-ruling-temporary-abortion-pill/89927414007/
-----
43) Imperial Lies and the War in Iran
Source: Antiwar.com
by Nolan Denaro
“Mass deception is a cornerstone of the state’s ability to maintain total control. One of the main methods used by government to convince the population of their legitimacy is the tool of propaganda. This is nothing new, and states throughout the world have engaged in this practice for all of human history. What is new, however, is the mass awakening that is occurring in this moment of imperial decay.” (05/05/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/nolan_denaro/2026/05/04/imperial-lies-and-the-war-in-iran/
-----
44) Government Kills the Spirit
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Spirit has been struggling for years. In 2022, the airline sought to get on better financial footing by merging with fellow discount airline JetBlue. The merger may have allowed for more effective competition with the dominant carriers. However, the Justice Department successfully opposed the merger in court on the grounds it would lead to more concentration in the discount airlines market. This is one of many examples of how an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement can harm businesses and consumers.” (05/04/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/government-kills-the-spirit
-----
45) The Global Ripples from the Iran War
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“No one ever quite knows the nature of the aftermath of any war in the Middle East. The current effort to disarm and neuter the Iranian theocracy is no exception. But contrary to European and American left-wing consensus, the ripples of the Iran war are already remaking the postwar world as we knew it, and in ways that are all bad. For more than half a century, OPEC has terrorized the industrial world with threats of oil shortages and sky-high prices, with members often agreeing to cut back to 70–80 percent of their capacities. But recently, the hard-pressed United Arab Emirates announced — at a time of high oil prices — that it was leaving the cartel and freelancing.” (05/05/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/05/the-global-ripples-from-the-iran-war/
-----
46) What Is Consciousness For?
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman
“Richard Dawkins has come in for a lot of deserved mockery for declaring that Anthropic’s LLM Claude is conscious after futzing about with it for three days (and incidentally renaming it ‘Claudia’). But in fact, he didn’t quite declare that it was conscious. What he said was that he couldn’t see how to prove that it wasn’t conscious. ‘Claudia’ appeared to think creatively in a complex manner and to engage in introspection. If that wasn’t evidence of consciousness, he wondered, then what would be evidence? Moreover, he asked, if we assume that ‘Claudia’ is not conscious, then its behavior appears to be proof that you don’t need to be conscious to think creatively in a complex manner and to engage in introspection. If that is the case, then why are we conscious? What is consciousness for?” (05/04/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/what-is-consciousness-for
-----
47) Drug Delivery Systems
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Both the FDA and CDC pages make a point of the fact that vaping is not safe while conceding that it is less bad than smoking. That, plus the absence of numbers, made me suspect that they might be exaggerating how dangerous vaping is. If vaping is only a tenth as dangerous as smoking, if the benefit from getting one smoker to switch to vaping is as large as the benefit from persuading nine vapers to quit entirely, putting the emphasis on how unsafe vaping is instead of on how much safer it is than smoking might be counterproductive.” (05/04/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/drug-delivery-systems
-----
48) The Battle of Ideas Paves the Way for Radicals and Revolutionaries
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“The phrase ‘political opportunity’ was developed decades ago to describe the phenomenon that successful revolutionaries, reformers, and activists have long understood: that significant changes in political institutions come out of a mixture of ideology and historical conditions. Political events are not determined only by the battle of ideas, but also by ideological and political movements being present in the right place at the right time. It’s not enough for an ideology to have a ‘good argument.'” (05/04/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/battle-ideas-paves-way-radicals-and-revolutionaries
-----
49) Spirit Airlines, First Corporate Casualty of the Iran War
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“For a war that was formally ‘ended’ by the president, there is still sure a lot of shooting going on. Specifically, the United Arab Emirates claimed that it intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks on Monday, though at least one strike hit the Fujairah oil hub, which had been flowing through a pipeline to the southeast of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military says it’s aiding stranded tankers through the strait, though satellite imagery doesn’t show those movements. A South Korean vessel in the strait does appear to have been struck, and other reports indicate that two U.S.-flagged merchant ships made it out. I don’t think a lot of shipowners will risk the journey given the events in the region. Only an actual resolution to the crisis will alleviate the stress on the global economy, and that’s not coming anytime soon, for reasons we here at Aftermath have expressed.” (05/05/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/05/05/aftermath-spirit-airlines-first-corporate-casualty-of-iran-war/
-----
50) Super Under-Blown
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Just 60 years ago, we were talking the end of ideology. Thirty years ago, we were talking about the end of socialism — and of history itself! — as capitalist democracies seemed triumphant after the fall of the USSR. But here it’s A.D. 2026 and we have socialist mayors in New York and Seattle and … we don’t need to argue about definitions. They call themselves socialist.” (05/04/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/04/super-under-blown/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 05/05/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Iranian Tar Baby.” (05/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhdVguLSy68
-----
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Hegseth Claims We’re In A Different War With Iran.” (05/05/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YxNrZploLzxw
-----
53) Daniel Davis on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Daniel Davis on What’s Been Happening in Ukraine.” (05/05/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/4-30-26-daniel-davis-on-whats-been-happening-in-ukraine/
-----
54) Capital Record, episode 297
Source: National Review
“Two Bankruptcies for the Price of One?” (05/05/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/two-bankruptcies-for-the-price-of-one/
-----
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 05/05/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“The Lies People Tell.” (05/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-lies-people-tell/
-----
56) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 05/05/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski : Iran: The Next Forever War?” (05/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/the-kyle-anzalone-show-with-lt-col-karen-kwiatkowski-iran-the-next-forever-war/
-----
57) JFK Facts, 05/04/26
Source: JFK Facts
“THE CIA AND OSWALD in NEW ORLEANS: Larry Hancock and David Boylan on the Newest JFK files.” (05/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WmtSlgSYI
-----
58) Reason Interview: Neil Gorsuch
Source: Reason
“The Supreme Court justice discusses the Declaration of Independence, how unchecked power threatens liberty, and what the Founders can teach future generations.” (05/04/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/04/justice-neil-gorsuch-aspirations-for-power-need-to-be-checked/
-----
59) Mamdani’s 100-Plus Days: Abundance Liberal or Democratic Socialist? A Discussion
Source: The UnPopulist
“The UnPopulist Live featuring Berny Belvedere, Jeremiah Johnson, and Tibita Kaneen.” (05/04/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/mamdanis-100-plus-days-abundance
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/04/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US and Iran Trade Fire in Strait of Hormuz, Israel May Resume Full-Scale Gaza Bombardment, and More.” (05/04/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3A_9Duf08w
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Today's Freedom News:
1) TACO Tuesday: Trump orders pause to “Project Freedom”
2) Ukraine: At least 27 dead in Russian strikes
3) IN: GOP primary challengers beat state senators who blocked Trump’s re-gerrymander demands
4) Romania: Pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote
5) FL: Secret Service officer arrested for dramatizing job description in inappropriate place
6) Portugal: Regime Detains 15 Cops as Lisbon Police Torture Probe Widens
7) Israel: Court extends caging of activists abduced by pirates
8) NY: Radical students harass Cornell president after Israel debate clash
9) Microsoft, Google, xAI give US regime access to AI models for security testing
10) France: Political row over calls for overhaul and €1bn cuts at public broadcaster
11) Sudan: Regime accuses Ethiopia and UAE of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador
12) TN: Republicans consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis
13) Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit ahead of trial
14) House Democrats Urge US State Department to End Silence About Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
15) Thailand: Regime scraps 2001 maritime territory deal with Cambodia after years of deadlock
16) Australia: Central bank hikes rates again and warns inflation will stay higher for longer
17) Patel: Russiagate-linked FBI “burn bag” room was missing from bureau blueprints
18) US regime publicly confesses to two more Caribbean murders
19) Macron: US & EU “wasting time” on tariff threats, as Trump fumes over Germany
20) PA: Woman shot and killed by resident during alleged North Philadelphia break-in
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Congress Gave Away Its Authority To Declare War and Enabled Trump’s Iran War
22) US Debt Crosses 100% of GDP for First Time Since 1946 — And This Time Is Different
23) AI Regulation: More of the Risk, Less of the Benefit
24) Against a New Cold War
25) Trump’s Crusade Against the Holy See
26) California voters fed up with Democrats may turn to Steve Hilton for change
27) Mexico seeks to clean house, its way
28) In Russia, Victory Day Is Starting to Feel Like Defeat
29) The Empire Can No Longer Hide Its Ugly Nature
30) The Enemy of My Enemy Is a Really Big Dragon
31) Iranian-Americans (aside from a few gun-running social media mavens) want regime gone
32) Demographics, not the Supreme Court, are killing racial gerrymandering
33) The Fertility Panic Is a Racist, Sexist Tool to Push More Austerity
34) Synformation: Epistemic Capture Meets AI
35) Proposed Accountability Rule for United States Colleges and Universities
36) Between Iran and a Hard Place
37) Time for Jerome Powell to Go Home
38) A great deal of ruin
39) America’s hate-hate affair with Iran: A collision course for the ages
40) Can a Revolution Be Lawful?
41) Trump Continues to Falsely Claim He Eliminated Taxes on Social Security
42) What do anti-abortion activists actually want? Confusion.
43) Imperial Lies and the War in Iran
44) Government Kills the Spirit
45) The Global Ripples from the Iran War
46) What Is Consciousness For?
47) Drug Delivery Systems
48) The Battle of Ideas Paves the Way for Radicals and Revolutionaries
49) Spirit Airlines, First Corporate Casualty of the Iran War
50) Super Under-Blown
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 05/05/26
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/05/26
53) Daniel Davis on The Scott Horton Show
54) Capital Record, episode 297
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 05/05/26
56) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 05/05/26
57) JFK Facts, 05/04/26
58) Reason Interview: Neil Gorsuch
59) Mamdani’s 100-Plus Days: Abundance Liberal or Democratic Socialist? A Discussion
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/04/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) TACO Tuesday: Trump orders pause to “Project Freedom”
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Donald Trump announced he is pausing ‘Project Freedom,’ the US effort to guide stranded vessels out of the strait of Hormuz, so he can finalise a deal with Iran, but added that his blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place. Trump’s abrupt change of plan was declared in a social media post, saying he was pausing the effort for ‘a short period’ to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran to end the war. … Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, signalled Iran has yet to fully respond to the US attempt to reopen the waterway. … Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, said in a statement that its risk assessment ‘remains unchanged’ and that transits through the strait ‘are for the moment not possible for our ships.'” (05/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/06/trump-project-freedom-strait-of-hormuz-ships-iran-ceasefire
-----
2) Ukraine: At least 27 dead in Russian strikes
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russian drone and missile attacks have killed at least 27 people in Ukraine, officials said, days before a two-day unilateral ceasefire by Moscow was due to take effect. Ukrainian officials said Russian glide bombs killed at least 12 people in southeastern Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, hitting a car repair shop and residential buildings …. Further northeast, six people were killed, and 12 others were wounded in the city of Kramatorsk, the last hub under Ukraine’s control in the embattled Donetsk region. Four more people were killed in the city of Dnipro. Russian strikes also hit Ukrainian state-run gas facilities in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions overnight, killing three employees and two rescue workers, according to Serhiy Koretskyi, the CEO of Naftogaz.” (05/06/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/5/russian-attack-kills-five-at-ukraines-naftogaz-gas-facility
-----
3) IN: GOP primary challengers beat state senators who blocked Trump’s re-gerrymander demands
Source: WFYI News [US state media]
“Indiana Senate Republicans who opposed congressional redistricting were largely defeated during Tuesday’s primary election, with only one race so far called for an incumbent after President Donald Trump’s call to oust them. The results come after months of political threats, and an estimated $9 million in spending to back primary challengers against the incumbents. … In November, Trump vowed that any Republican who voted against redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries, ‘potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED.’ In spite of Trump’s threats, Indiana Senate Republicans rebuffed him, siding with Senate Democrats to kill the redistricting bill 31-19.” (05/05/26)
https://www.wfyi.org/statewide/2026-05-05/trump-backed-challengers-defeat-indiana-senators-who-blocked-redistricting-push
-----
4) Romania: Pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote
Source: SFGate
“Romania’s pro-European coalition collapsed Tuesday after lawmakers voted against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, less than a year after he was sworn in, triggering fresh turmoil in the European country. The no-confidence vote was a blow to Bolojan, who came to power with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-communist history. The leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, jointly submitted the motion to Parliament on April 28. PSD withdrew from the coalition last month. On Tuesday, 281 lawmakers voted in favor and four voted against. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners, Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, abstained.” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/romania-s-prime-minister-fights-for-survival-as-22242093.php
-----
5) FL: Secret Service officer arrested for dramatizing job description in inappropriate place
Source: NBC News
“An off-duty Secret Service officer was arrested in Miami-Dade County, Florida, at around midnight Monday and charged with indecent exposure after allegedly masturbating in a hotel hallway, according to a police affidavit. The officer, identified in the arrest record as John Spillman, 33, was placed on administrative leave, Richard Macauley, the chief of the Secret Service’s uniformed division, said in a statement obtained by NBC station WTVJ. … According to the arrest affidavit, law enforcement officers responded to the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport and Convention Center and allegedly found Spillman naked and masturbating at the end of a hallway. A guest on the same floor told the officers that the suspect had followed her from the hotel lobby ‘and they immediately entered their room because she was in fear for their lives,’ the affidavit said. Hotel security also alleged they saw the suspect masturbating, it said.” (05/05/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/secret-service-officer-arrested-alleged-indecent-exposure-miami-hotel-rcna343617
-----
6) Portugal: Regime Detains 15 Cops as Lisbon Police Torture Probe Widens
Source: US News & World Report
“Portuguese law enforcement officials investigating cases of alleged torture at two central Lisbon precincts detained 15 police officers on Tuesday, raising the total number of those charged or arrested to 25, police and prosecutors said. In January, prosecutors charged two officers with torturing vagrants and migrants and then sharing images of their acts in an online chat with dozens of other officers, triggering a broader inquiry. The two are awaiting trial, accused of torture, acts of cruelty and abuse of power, according to the indictment. One also faces charges of rape, robbery and forgery. Another seven people were detained in March. Police confirmed Tuesday’s detentions that also included one civilian but would not say whether those held were suspected of carrying out torture themselves or of failing to report abuse they had witnessed in person or in shared videos.” (05/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-05/portugal-detains-15-officers-as-lisbon-police-torture-probe-widens
-----
7) Israel: Court extends caging of activists abduced by pirates
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the [caging] of two foreign activists [abducted] from a Gaza-bound flotilla by six days, a lawyer representing them said. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila appeared before a court in the southern city of Ashkelon for their second hearing, after being brought to Israel for questioning last week. … The two, held in a prison in Ashkelon, were among dozens of activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece early on Thursday. The other [abducted] activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.” (05/05/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260505-israeli-court-extends-detention-of-two-gaza-flotilla-activists-amid-abuse-claims
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8) NY: Radical students harass Cornell president after Israel debate clash
Source: New York Post
“Cornell University’s president has blasted a group of radical students for hurling abuse and holding him hostage in his own car following an Israel-Palestine debate series at the Ivy League school. The group of rabble-rousers filmed themselves swarming Michael Kotlikoff and trailing him to his vehicle as he was trying to leave the event at the Ithaca, New York, campus last Thursday. Kotlikoff accused the group — who he said have become notorious for spewing verbal and online abuse toward Cornell staffers in the past – of surrounding his car, banging on the windows and blocking him from leaving. The school prez spoke out after the students posted footage on social media of Kotlikoff apparently backing into the group amid the parking lot chaos.” (05/05/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/05/us-news/cornell-president-michael-kotlikoff-accused-of-injuring-2-students-in-parking-lot-clash-after-israel-debate/
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9) Microsoft, Google, xAI give US regime access to AI models for security testing
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Tech giants Microsoft, Google and xAI say they will allow the United States federal government access to their new artificial intelligence models for national security testing. The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at the Department of Commerce announced the agreement on Tuesday amid increasing concerns about the capabilities that Anthropic’s newly unveiled Mythos model could give hackers. Under the new agreement, the US government will be allowed to evaluate the models before deployment and conduct research to assess their capabilities and security risks.” (05/05/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/5/microsoft-google-xai-give-us-access-to-ai-models-for-security-testing
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10) France: Political row over calls for overhaul and €1bn cuts at public broadcaster
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“France’s public sector broadcasters have been lambasted by a parliamentary committee of enquiry, which recommends closing several channels and cutting their budget by a total of €1bn (£863m). The committee, which held six months of at times acrimonious hearings, levelled charges of left-wing bias at state-owned France Télévisions and Radio France, as well as gross financial waste. But the findings were immediately dismissed as politically-motivated and impractical by industry insiders, who said that the committee’s rapporteur, Charles Alloncle, has a far-right agenda to prepare state TV and radio for privatisation. Criticism has also come from the prime minister and the head of the committee. Alloncle, 32, is an MP for the small Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party, an ally of Marine Le Pen’s populist-right National Rally (RN).” (05/05/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c052l130d6jo
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11) Sudan: Regime accuses Ethiopia and UAE of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“The Sudanese government has accused Ethiopia of being behind recent drone attacks on sites including Khartoum airport and recalled its ambassador on Tuesday. A military spokesperson in Sudan said the government has evidence that four drone strikes that have happened since 1 March came from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport. It also accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying the drones. The Sudanese military has been at war with a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, when the RSF stormed the capital. The battles have now shifted towards more drone warfare concentrating in the Kordofan and Blue Nile states.” (05/05/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/sudan-military-accuses-ethiopia-and-uae-drone-attacks
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12) TN: Republicans consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis
Source: SFGate
“As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity afforded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map. The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second [b]lack-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act.” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/tennessee-republicans-will-consider-redrawing-us-22241831.php
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13) Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit ahead of trial
Source: United Press International
“Actress and producer Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her It Ends with Us director and co-star, have settled their lawsuit two weeks ahead of a scheduled federal jury trial. The settlement ends an 18-month legal battle that saw Lively accuse Baldoni of sexual harassment on the 2024 film’s set, then hiring a publicity team to tarnish her reputation online when she complained about it. Baldoni counter-sued Lively for defamation, but that lawsuit was quickly dismissed. The terms of their settlement were not disclosed.” (05/05/26)
https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2026/05/05/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-settle-lawsuit/6601777982526/
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14) House Democrats Urge US State Department to End Silence About Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
Source: Common Dreams
“More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives are urging the Trump administration to break its official silence on Israel’s nuclear weapons program, whose existence is almost universally acknowledged even as its origins and status remain shrouded in secrecy. In a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, the group of House Democrats led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas wrote that ‘Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios,’ particularly as it wages war on Iran in partnership with the Israeli government.” (05/05/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-nuclear-weapons-program
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15) Thailand: Regime scraps 2001 maritime territory deal with Cambodia after years of deadlock
Source: ABC News
“Thailand’s government on Tuesday terminated a 2001 Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia that was meant to provide a bilateral framework for resolving overlapping maritime territorial claims. Cambodia said it regretted the Thai Cabinet’s decision but would continue trying to resolve the issue. The two governments signed the agreement to peacefully pursue maritime boundary delimitation and provide a framework for jointly managing marine resources in accordance with international law. But they failed to make any progress after five rounds of talks over the past two decades.” (05/05/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/thailand-scraps-2001-maritime-territory-deal-cambodia-after-132665662
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16) Australia: Central bank hikes rates again and warns inflation will stay higher for longer
Source: CNBC
“Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised its policy rate to 4.35%, matching its December 2024 peak, as inflation remains elevated. The move by the Reserve Bank of Australia was in line with expectations in a Reuters poll of economists and marked its third consecutive rate increase. Eight members of the board voted for the hike, while one voted to hold rates at 4.1%. In its statement, the RBA said inflation had picked up materially in the second half of 2025, with conflict in the Middle East pushing up fuel and commodity prices.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/australia-central-bank-rate-hike-inflation-rba.html
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17) Patel: Russiagate-linked FBI “burn bag” room was missing from bureau blueprints
Source: Fox News
“FBI Director Kash Patel said he found the agency’s ‘burn bag’ room full of sensitive documents tied to the ‘Russiagate’ investigation, but nobody was able to get inside at first — in fact, the room wasn’t on the building map at all. Patel appeared on Tuesday’s episode of ‘Hang Out with Sean Hannity’ and referenced a previous discussion on the podcast in which former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino talked about the same room. More than one ‘burn bag’, which is ‘a large paper bag that you use to destroy and literally shred and burn classified information’, was found inside this secret room ‘locked away in FBI headquarters,’ Patel said. ‘They weren’t burned, but the room was also off the map. It wasn’t on our blueprint, and nobody had access to it.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/kash-patel-says-russiagate-linked-fbi-burn-bag-room-missing-from-bureau-blueprints
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18) US regime publicly confesses to two more Caribbean murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, [murdering] two people Monday. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and [murdered] at least 188 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/latest-u-s-strike-on-alleged-drug-boat-kills-2-in-caribbean-military-says/
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19) Macron: US & EU “wasting time” on tariff threats, as Trump fumes over Germany
Source: SFGate
“Europe and the United States have more important things to do than waste time on tariff threats, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced higher duties on European vehicles. Trump said on Friday that he would increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union this week to 25%, a move that could further harm the global economy as it reels from war in the Middle East. ‘Especially in the geopolitical period we are experiencing, allies like the United States of America and the European Union have much better things to do than to stir up threats of destabilization,’ Macron told reporters in Armenia. ‘For our businesses, our households, our populations, we should rather send a message of stability and confidence.’ He added that he hoped ‘reason will prevail soon.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/macron-says-us-and-eu-are-wasting-time-on-tariff-22242464.php
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20) PA: Woman shot and killed by resident during alleged North Philadelphia break-in
Source: ABC 6 Action News
“A woman was shot and killed after allegedly breaking into a home in North Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, according to police. Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace said preliminary information indicates the woman entered the home through a back window on the 2300 block of North Cleveland Street. Residents inside told her to leave, but she did not comply and was shot multiple times, police said. ‘It appears that this is a case of a person defending oneself inside their own home,’ Inspector Pace said.” (05/04/26)
https://6abc.com/post/woman-shot-killed-resident-during-alleged-break-north-philadelphia/19031577/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Congress Gave Away Its Authority To Declare War and Enabled Trump’s Iran War
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan
“Congress hasn’t voted to declare war since 1942, yet the legislative branch constantly refuses to rein in presidents.” (05/05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/05/congress-and-the-executive-enabled-illegal-war-in-iran/
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22) US Debt Crosses 100% of GDP for First Time Since 1946 — And This Time Is Different
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia
“US public debt has reached 100 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) for the first time since the aftermath of World War II. Just because we have been here before, and we managed, doesn’t mean we will do so again. This time is different in important ways that are underappreciated by both policymakers and the public. In 1946, the United States emerged from a global war with high debt, but also with a young population, strong growth prospects, and a political commitment to fiscal restraint. Today, America faces the opposite: an aging population, structurally rising entitlement spending, and persistent deficits with no credible plan to rein them in.” (05/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/us-debt-crosses-100-of-gdp-for-first-time-since-1946-and-this-time-its-different/
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23) AI Regulation: More of the Risk, Less of the Benefit
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“‘Whatever can happen,’ Augustes De Morgan wrote in 1866, ‘will happen if we make trials enough.’ To which I must add, if ‘we’ don’t make trials enough, someone else will. AI will inevitably be pushed to whatever, if any, limit it has. If American researchers can’t legally do it, Chinese researchers will do it. If Chinese researchers can’t legally do it, Swiss researchers will do it. If every government on the planet imposes pesky regulations on doing it, people who don’t care about pesky government regulations will do it. … Those of us who are allowed to avail ourselves of the most advanced AI possible will disproportionately reap whatever rewards it produces. Those of us for whom maximal AI is forbidden fruit will be more vulnerable to AI’s dark sides.” (05/05/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20565
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24) Against a New Cold War
Source: Liberal Currents
by Craig Johnson
“Contrary to what your high school textbook and film franchises like ‘Rambo’ and ‘Red Dawn’ taught you, the Cold War was not primarily a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. That’s what the US teaches because it frames the war as something the US won — the Soviets are gone, after all — and because it relegates most of the actual violence of the war to the status of sideshow or backdrop to the “real” story of the war, the superpower rivalry. This version of the Cold War is real and lethal, but limited to proxy wars conducted in places white people don’t live, with the occasional spy thriller thrown in to mix things up. … Rather than a hypothetical conflict that occasionally got heated, The Cold War was a series of extremely violent and very real wars in which millions of people all over the world died.” (05/05/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/against-a-new-cold-war/
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25) Trump’s Crusade Against the Holy See
Source: Exiled Policy
by Nick Gambill
“Leo XIV, in the role of Pontiff, does not act as a political figure. The Pope has no elections to run. His job is to safeguard doctrine, maintain the unity of the Church, and serve as a spiritual authority. This makes the President’s attack against the Pope unusually preposterous.” (05/05/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/trumps-crusade-against-the-holy-see
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26) California voters fed up with Democrats may turn to Steve Hilton for change
Source: Fox News Forum
by Liz Peek
“In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump famously asked Black voters ‘What do you have to lose?’ Trump challenged African American voters to rethink their long-standing allegiance to the Democrat Party, which, he rightly claimed, took them for granted and had failed to deliver on the most pressing demands of African American families, including providing their kids with a good education. Steve Hilton, a Republican and former Fox News host, running to become governor of deep blue California, should be posing that same question to Golden State voters. California is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, entirely because of decisions made by Democrats who have controlled the state with a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature since 2018 and also occupied the governor’s mansion since 2011.” [editor’s note: It was one of the most expensive states to live in LONG before 2011 – TLK] (05/05/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-california-voters-fed-democrats-may-turn-steve-hilton-change
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27) Mexico seeks to clean house, its way
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“As reported in the Monitor last week, the recent U.S. indictment of 10 Mexican officials poses a key test for President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo: how best to balance pressures from its neighbor and largest trading partner with the domestic imperative to defend sovereignty – while also tackling cartel crime and serving justice for ordinary Mexicans? More broadly, this development also tests both countries’ determination to collaboratively pursue legitimate shared interests in a way that stabilizes rather than further disrupts already-shaky economic, political, and security relations. Last Thursday, President Sheinbaum said the U.S. request for extradition of the 10 officials did not provide enough evidence for arrests. Instead, she said, Mexican prosecutors would investigate the cases to determine evidence of criminality. Her declaration came in the wake of increasing unease after a roadway incident in late April pointed to CIA involvement inside Mexico.” (05/04/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0504/Mexico-seeks-to-clean-house-its-way
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28) In Russia, Victory Day Is Starting to Feel Like Defeat
Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young
“Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square, which for decades has served as a symbol of Russian military power, will be drastically scaled back. Tanks and other military hardware will not be rolling across Red Square; there will be only a column of soldiers and military academy students marching on foot. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made no secret of the fact that the reason for this decision was the ‘terrorist threat’ from Ukraine — that is, the fear of drone strikes. … Elena Malakhovskaya, a host on the Khodorkovsky Live webcast, summed up the situation another way: ‘In the fifth year of the war, it’s Zelensky who decides whether Putin can appear at the parade on Red Square.'” (05/05/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/in-russia-victory-day-is-starting-to-feel-like-defeat-ukraine-war-drone-parade-putin
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29) The Empire Can No Longer Hide Its Ugly Nature
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“As the US ramps up its aggressions against Iran and Cuba under the supervision of psychopathic empire managers like Rubio, more and more eyes are opening to the depraved nature of the imperial power structure. It used to be challenging to help westerners recognize the truth that we are ruled by monsters and everything we learned in school about our nation and our world is a lie. Now it’s just becoming the mainstream normie understanding as people see more and more evidence of the empire’s savagery all around them. There’s only so many atrocities you can witness on your social media feed before reality begins to dawn and free your mind from the propaganda-induced trance it was groomed into. The empire couldn’t hide its ugly face forever.” (05/05/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/05/new-issue-of-johnstone-the-empire-can-no-longer-hide-its-ugly-nature/
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30) The Enemy of My Enemy Is a Really Big Dragon
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
“I read some really great political theory this week. And unlike Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Politics, this book had a dragon. Joe Hill’s most recent novel, King Sorrow, takes its main characters and its readers on a scary and suspenseful exploration of the dubious wisdom of the claim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ That old political saw gets hauled out from the back corner of the basement whenever it seems expedient to make a morally dubious alliance with a stronger power. Hill’s novel, a deliciously gory and smart bit of horror in its own right, exposes the ethical void at the center of such alliances.” (05/05/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-a-really-big-dragon
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31) Iranian-Americans (aside from a few gun-running social media mavens) want regime gone
Source: New York Post
by Joel Kotkin
“The Trump administration has been cracking down on a handful of Iranian residents who have ties to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and have even allegedly been involved in gun-running while living lavish lifestyles in LA. That may leave the impression that this community might not support attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, California’s Persian community is overwhelmingly opposed to the regime. A survey done recently by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans found that barely 3% of Iranian-Americans favor the current regime, while an additional 8% would welcome a reformed Islamic Republic.” (05/04/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/opinion/iranian-americans-want-irgc-gone/
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32) Demographics, not the Supreme Court, are killing racial gerrymandering
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“There’s been no shortage of expressed outrage from the left in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly limits states’ efforts at racial gerrymandering. A Salon headline captures the progressive indignation: ‘Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act in ‘Jim Crow 2.0 ruling.’’ The left can never be accused of understatement. But the change needed to happen because U.S. demographics are making racial gerrymandering increasingly difficult. And that’s a good thing.” (05/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5862711-voting-rights-act-challenges/
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33) The Fertility Panic Is a Racist, Sexist Tool to Push More Austerity
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
by Julie Hollar
“If you haven’t heard the argument that civilization is about to collapse because women aren’t having enough babies, you haven’t been consuming much media. ‘The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard — It’s Worse,’ announced The Atlantic (6/30/25). Business Insider (8/21/25) ran a piece titled ‘America’s Great People Shortage,’ which opened, ‘America is about to tumble off the edge of a massive demographic cliff.’ And NPR’s Brian Mann warned on PBS (4/10/26) that, as a result of the birth rate decline, ‘many people say’ that the US soon ‘will be unrecognizable.’ It’s repeatedly in the news in part because it’s a priority of the ‘pronatalist’ right, which has prominent backers in the Trump administration.” (05/05/26)
https://fair.org/home/the-regressive-ideologies-behind-the-baby-bust-panic/
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34) Synformation: Epistemic Capture Meets AI
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Robert Malone
“In my role as Co-chairperson and member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, I have been participating in a training course regarding the GRADE methodology for public health decision-making. The acronym stands for Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation, and this methodology is intended to provide a structured, transparent framework to evaluate the quality (certainty) of evidence and the strength of recommendations derived from that evidence. … The GRADE approach assumes that, in the case of peer-reviewed clinical and epidemiological data (otherwise referred to as ‘evidence-based medicine’), individual studies will reflect various forms of bias (structural, intentional, or unintended), but when systematically analyzed as a collection of information, these biases will either cancel each other out or (if bias is detected) can be statistically compensated for. What could possibly go wrong? Clearly, something did.” (05/05/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/synformation-epistemic-capture-meets-ai/
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35) Proposed Accountability Rule for United States Colleges and Universities
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Patrick Johann
“Earlier this month, the United States Department of Education proposed a regulatory framework to hold postsecondary educational institutions accountable for their students’ labor market and earnings outcomes. Under the proposed rule, students risk losing eligibility for federal loans and, in some cases, Pell Grants, if they are enrolled in undergraduate programs whose graduates’ earnings fail to exceed those of a typical high school graduate. Graduate programs face similar consequences should their graduates earn less than the average bachelor’s degree holder. Though the benchmarks are modest, in the sense that most college programs will meet these criteria, some will not. And the consequences for college programs are severe, as most universities rely heavily on federally subsidized tuition dollars.” (05/05/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/proposed-accountability-rule-for-united-states-colleges-and-universities/
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36) Between Iran and a Hard Place
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The Gulf states have tried very hard to stay out of the war on Iran. But they are home to one of the largest American forward military deployments in the world, a network of 13 U.S. bases and 40,000 U.S. troops that has made the war possible. Kuwait hosts more U.S. bases than any other country in the region. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Qatar hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the region and a headquarters for U.S. Central Command. In the UAE is Al Dhafra Air Base, from which Washington coordinates intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Saudi Arabia is home to the Prince Sultan Air Base.” (05/05/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/between-iran-and-a-hard-place/
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37) Time for Jerome Powell to Go Home
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The man just won’t leave the stage. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced last week that he’s going to remain on the Federal Reserve Board until 2028, even as he, by law, surrenders his chairmanship. The announcement came even after President Donald Trump agreed to drop his unwise lawsuit against Powell for funding a $2 billion new Taj Mahal building down the street from the White House. Powell will be the first Fed chair to stay on the Fed’s Board of Directors in 50 years. This isn’t the way it’s done. It’s bad form. Only once did he come within spitting distance of his inflation target. February 2021 was the only month in his whole tenure when inflation hit the range of 1.8 percent to 2.2 percent. He’s retiring with a batting average of .011.” (05/05/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2026/05/05/time-for-jerome-powell-to-go-home-n2675537
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38) A great deal of ruin
Source: Cobden Centre
by Tim Price
“The crowning irony of our times is that after the 20th Century revealed the essential futility and moral and economic bankruptcy of totalitarian socialism, most western governments have cheerfully embraced it.” (05/05/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/a-great-deal-of-ruin/
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39) America’s hate-hate affair with Iran: A collision course for the ages
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“Two months after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, a tense standoff prevails. There is no active warfare, but no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough either. The war is a culmination of a 47-year trajectory which set the U.S. and Iran on this collision course. Mutual hostility was the norm since 1979, and even rare openings, such as the cooperation in a post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002, or a landmark nuclear pact in 2015, failed to change that path to a more functional relationship.” (05/05/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-us-relations-history/
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40) Can a Revolution Be Lawful?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Lucchese
“Strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as a positive legal right to revolution — certainly not for citizens of the United States. Though there have been various insurrections against federal authority throughout our history, only one came close to succeeding: the Southern Rebellion of 1861–65. Even as states were seceding to join the revolutionary Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln insisted that their actions were constitutionally null and void. … But while revolution may never be strictly legal, as Lincoln acknowledged, it may be necessary in order to preserve liberty and even what we might call the ‘natural law.'” [editor’s note: The southern secession was unambiguously “legal” by both omission (the Articles of Confederation declared themselves perpetual, the Constitution didn’t) and inclusion (under the 10th Amendment the power to dissolve the “union” clearly remains with the states – TLK] (05/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/can-a-revolution-be-lawful/
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41) Trump Continues to Falsely Claim He Eliminated Taxes on Social Security
Source: Common Dreams
by Martin Burns & Mary Liz Burns
“At a campaign-like rally at The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando, Florida, President Donald Trump continued his campaign of deception about his record on Social Security. As he has many times in the last several months, Trump falsely claimed that his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ eliminated taxes. This time however Trump took his campaign of deception to a higher level. The background for Trump included the words ‘Golden Age for Your Golden Years’ and ‘No Tax on Social Security’. Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media simply ignore Trump’s continued falsehoods on Social Security. Let’s look at the facts. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ did not eliminate taxes on Social Security. Indeed, the legislative process, ‘reconciliation,’ which the Republicans used to pass the legislation, prohibits these types of changes in Social Security.” (05/05/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-lies-social-security-tax
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42) What do anti-abortion activists actually want? Confusion.
Source: USA Today
by Sara Pequeño
“Abortion access has once again been called into question, jeopardizing the health of millions of American women in the process and creating chaos. This is the reality of what the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization did to our ability to access health care. On May 1, a federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily halted the prescription of the abortifacient mifepristone via telehealth, effectively kneecapping abortion services nationwide. Then, on May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated mail-order abortion services for a week while the justices considered the issue. This kind of confusion has been part of the goal all along.” (05/05/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/05/supreme-court-mifepristone-ruling-temporary-abortion-pill/89927414007/
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43) Imperial Lies and the War in Iran
Source: Antiwar.com
by Nolan Denaro
“Mass deception is a cornerstone of the state’s ability to maintain total control. One of the main methods used by government to convince the population of their legitimacy is the tool of propaganda. This is nothing new, and states throughout the world have engaged in this practice for all of human history. What is new, however, is the mass awakening that is occurring in this moment of imperial decay.” (05/05/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/nolan_denaro/2026/05/04/imperial-lies-and-the-war-in-iran/
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44) Government Kills the Spirit
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Spirit has been struggling for years. In 2022, the airline sought to get on better financial footing by merging with fellow discount airline JetBlue. The merger may have allowed for more effective competition with the dominant carriers. However, the Justice Department successfully opposed the merger in court on the grounds it would lead to more concentration in the discount airlines market. This is one of many examples of how an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement can harm businesses and consumers.” (05/04/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/government-kills-the-spirit
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45) The Global Ripples from the Iran War
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“No one ever quite knows the nature of the aftermath of any war in the Middle East. The current effort to disarm and neuter the Iranian theocracy is no exception. But contrary to European and American left-wing consensus, the ripples of the Iran war are already remaking the postwar world as we knew it, and in ways that are all bad. For more than half a century, OPEC has terrorized the industrial world with threats of oil shortages and sky-high prices, with members often agreeing to cut back to 70–80 percent of their capacities. But recently, the hard-pressed United Arab Emirates announced — at a time of high oil prices — that it was leaving the cartel and freelancing.” (05/05/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/05/the-global-ripples-from-the-iran-war/
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46) What Is Consciousness For?
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman
“Richard Dawkins has come in for a lot of deserved mockery for declaring that Anthropic’s LLM Claude is conscious after futzing about with it for three days (and incidentally renaming it ‘Claudia’). But in fact, he didn’t quite declare that it was conscious. What he said was that he couldn’t see how to prove that it wasn’t conscious. ‘Claudia’ appeared to think creatively in a complex manner and to engage in introspection. If that wasn’t evidence of consciousness, he wondered, then what would be evidence? Moreover, he asked, if we assume that ‘Claudia’ is not conscious, then its behavior appears to be proof that you don’t need to be conscious to think creatively in a complex manner and to engage in introspection. If that is the case, then why are we conscious? What is consciousness for?” (05/04/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/what-is-consciousness-for
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47) Drug Delivery Systems
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Both the FDA and CDC pages make a point of the fact that vaping is not safe while conceding that it is less bad than smoking. That, plus the absence of numbers, made me suspect that they might be exaggerating how dangerous vaping is. If vaping is only a tenth as dangerous as smoking, if the benefit from getting one smoker to switch to vaping is as large as the benefit from persuading nine vapers to quit entirely, putting the emphasis on how unsafe vaping is instead of on how much safer it is than smoking might be counterproductive.” (05/04/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/drug-delivery-systems
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48) The Battle of Ideas Paves the Way for Radicals and Revolutionaries
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“The phrase ‘political opportunity’ was developed decades ago to describe the phenomenon that successful revolutionaries, reformers, and activists have long understood: that significant changes in political institutions come out of a mixture of ideology and historical conditions. Political events are not determined only by the battle of ideas, but also by ideological and political movements being present in the right place at the right time. It’s not enough for an ideology to have a ‘good argument.'” (05/04/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/battle-ideas-paves-way-radicals-and-revolutionaries
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49) Spirit Airlines, First Corporate Casualty of the Iran War
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“For a war that was formally ‘ended’ by the president, there is still sure a lot of shooting going on. Specifically, the United Arab Emirates claimed that it intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks on Monday, though at least one strike hit the Fujairah oil hub, which had been flowing through a pipeline to the southeast of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military says it’s aiding stranded tankers through the strait, though satellite imagery doesn’t show those movements. A South Korean vessel in the strait does appear to have been struck, and other reports indicate that two U.S.-flagged merchant ships made it out. I don’t think a lot of shipowners will risk the journey given the events in the region. Only an actual resolution to the crisis will alleviate the stress on the global economy, and that’s not coming anytime soon, for reasons we here at Aftermath have expressed.” (05/05/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/05/05/aftermath-spirit-airlines-first-corporate-casualty-of-iran-war/
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50) Super Under-Blown
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Just 60 years ago, we were talking the end of ideology. Thirty years ago, we were talking about the end of socialism — and of history itself! — as capitalist democracies seemed triumphant after the fall of the USSR. But here it’s A.D. 2026 and we have socialist mayors in New York and Seattle and … we don’t need to argue about definitions. They call themselves socialist.” (05/04/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/04/super-under-blown/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 05/05/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Iranian Tar Baby.” (05/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhdVguLSy68
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52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Hegseth Claims We’re In A Different War With Iran.” (05/05/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YxNrZploLzxw
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53) Daniel Davis on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Daniel Davis on What’s Been Happening in Ukraine.” (05/05/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/4-30-26-daniel-davis-on-whats-been-happening-in-ukraine/
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54) Capital Record, episode 297
Source: National Review
“Two Bankruptcies for the Price of One?” (05/05/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/two-bankruptcies-for-the-price-of-one/
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55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 05/05/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“The Lies People Tell.” (05/05/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-lies-people-tell/
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56) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 05/05/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski : Iran: The Next Forever War?” (05/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/the-kyle-anzalone-show-with-lt-col-karen-kwiatkowski-iran-the-next-forever-war/
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57) JFK Facts, 05/04/26
Source: JFK Facts
“THE CIA AND OSWALD in NEW ORLEANS: Larry Hancock and David Boylan on the Newest JFK files.” (05/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WmtSlgSYI
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58) Reason Interview: Neil Gorsuch
Source: Reason
“The Supreme Court justice discusses the Declaration of Independence, how unchecked power threatens liberty, and what the Founders can teach future generations.” (05/04/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/04/justice-neil-gorsuch-aspirations-for-power-need-to-be-checked/
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59) Mamdani’s 100-Plus Days: Abundance Liberal or Democratic Socialist? A Discussion
Source: The UnPopulist
“The UnPopulist Live featuring Berny Belvedere, Jeremiah Johnson, and Tibita Kaneen.” (05/04/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/mamdanis-100-plus-days-abundance
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/04/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US and Iran Trade Fire in Strait of Hormuz, Israel May Resume Full-Scale Gaza Bombardment, and More.” (05/04/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3A_9Duf08w
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