05/21 -- US regime charges Cuba's Raúl Castro with murder over 1996 downing of two planes; Why Libertarianism Keeps Splintering
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Thomas L. Knapp
May 21, 2026, 6:14:58 AM (4 days ago) May 21
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 05/21/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US regime charges Cuba’s Raúl Castro with murder over 1996 downing of two planes
2) Russia: Ukrainian drones strike Syrzan oil refinery
3) Cops Who Guarded Capitol Sue to Block Trump’s $1.8 Billion “Slush Fund”
4) Iran: Regime claims it coordinated passage of 26 vessels out of Hormuz in 24 hours
5) Ex-DoJ prosecutor charged with sending sealed Jack Smith Trump report to personal email
6) France: Presidential contender Édouard Philippe targeted by embezzlement probe
7) Kennedy fires heads of regime task force that sets insurance coverage rules
8) Barney Frank, 1940-2026
9) Two humpback whales set records swimming between Australia and Brazil
10) Bolivia: Capital under siege as protests and blockades deepen crisis for president
11) South Korea: Samsung’s union puts off strike after reaching last-minute wage deal with management
12) Randstad CEO: College career path “over” as skilled trade get 30% pay bump
13) Deputy British ambassador to US abruptly leaves post
14) Philippines: Top court rejects bid to block arrest of senator wanted by ICC
15) Japan: US forces test fire mobile rocket system near Mount Fuji in rapid “shoot and scoot” drill
16) Jury acquits two business executives of bribing US Navy admiral for government contract
17) Norwegian journalist’s question to India’s Modi sparks online backlash
18) Discord now has end-to-end encryption on all calls
19) UK: Regime eases new sanctions on Russian oil as fuel prices surge over Iran war
20) IRS will not pursue Trump for back taxes under settlement agreement
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Why Libertarianism Keeps Splintering
22) Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different
23) Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms — and Do More Good
24) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: Growing Federal Power Means Less Accountability
25) Beware The Blob — its mission is creepy
26) Will Spencer Pratt Realign California?
27) The new era of asymmetric war exposes the limits of conventional warfare
28) Venti-Sized Subsidy
29) American Democracy Does Not Exist
30) The Department of Education Is Alive and Well
31) The Supreme Court Has Enabled Trump to Become Profiteer-in-Chief
32) When goods cross borders, sometimes armies do too
33) Occupation & Genocide Anywhere Are Threat to Democracy & Freedom Everywhere
34) The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again
35) We shut out independent voters at our own political risk
36) What Happens Next?
37) The Wonderful, Loving Left
38) Senators Propose To Head Off “Automatic” Draft Registration by Repealing Selective Service
39) A Rothbardian Case Against Bad Data Center Policy
40) Shaping the Humans Who Run the Machines
41) Elon Musk’s Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX
42) Don’t fall for it: Congress must reject the $1.5 trillion war budget
43) Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran
44) Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3 — The Deal with The Devil
45) Trump’s perilous moment of truth on Iran
46) Pet Love
47) Testing Smith’s Explanation for the End of Feudalism
48) How two Clemson professors fought a wave of censorship
49) Philippines: “It Is Like Martial Law Here”
50) Defending free speech?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Make It Make Sense, 05/20/26
52) Hard Lens Media, 05/20/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/20/26
54) The Political Orphanage, 05/20/26
55) The Fifth Column, episode 558
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/20/26
57) Reason Interview: Johan Norberg
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/19/26
59) Sal and Mark, episode 3
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/19/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US regime charges Cuba’s Raúl Castro with murder over 1996 downing of two planes
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The US has charged former Cuban leader Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals and other crimes over the downing of two planes between Cuba and Florida in 1996. The case unveiled on Wednesday – a revival of charges originally from 2003 – accuses Castro and five others in the shooting down of an aircraft belonging to Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue and killing four people, including three Americans. Castro, now 94, was the head of the country’s armed forces and faced international condemnation over the crash.” [editor’s note: There’s significant debate over whether the aircraft were in the Cuban regime’s claimed airspace, but no debate whatsoever about the fact that they weren’t in the US regime’s claimed airspace. Also, let’s talk about the recent US regime’s publicly confessed murders of boat crews, also outside areas of US jurisdiction – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/aqDQY
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2) Russia: Ukrainian drones strike Syrzan oil refinery
Source: Reuters
“Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Rosneft-owned Syzran oil refinery in Samara region overnight, Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. ‘Another Ukrainian long-range sanction against Russian oil refining – and we are continuing this line of action,’ Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. … Two people were killed in a drone attack on the town of Syzran in Samara region, the local governor said, without mentioning whether any infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said the attack caused a large fire at the refinery, whose annual processing capacity ranges from 7 to 8.9 million tons of crude oil.” (05/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/ukrainian-drones-strike-russias-syzran-oil-refinery-kyiv-says-2026-05-21/
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3) Cops Who Guarded Capitol Sue to Block Trump’s $1.8 Billion “Slush Fund”
Source: US News & World Report
“Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.’ In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged Trump has ‘created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.’ The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking payments from the fund, calling it ‘the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.’ Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-20/police-officers-who-guarded-capitol-sue-to-block-trumps-1-8-billion-slush-fund
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4) Iran: Regime claims it coordinated passage of 26 vessels out of Hormuz in 24 hours
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it coordinated the transit of 26 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, as talks between Washington and Tehran over the resumption of traffic through the narrow waterway remain stalled. ‘Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is being carried out with permission and in coordination with the IRGC Navy,’ the statement carried by Iran’s state-affiliated ISNA news agency said on Wednesday.” (05/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/iran-says-it-coordinated-crossing-of-26-vessels-out-of-strait-of-hormuz
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5) Ex-DoJ prosecutor charged with sending sealed Jack Smith Trump report to personal email
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A former Department of Justice prosecutor is facing felony charges after emailing herself a sealed Biden-era investigative report concerning Donald Trump and attempting to hide the documents as cake recipes, federal authorities said on Wednesday. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, who worked as a managing assistant US attorney in Florida, is facing two counts of theft [sic] of government money or property in addition to charges related to her alleged alteration of the documents [by renaming them to obscure the emailing], according to the indictment. … Meanwhile, advocacy groups have sought to unseal the report through court appeals. It’s unclear why Lineberger sent the report to herself. She faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted of the charges.” [editor’s note: All DOJ reports are “public property” and “sealing” them is the crime – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/20/doj-prosecutor-jack-smith-trump-report-email
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6) France: Presidential contender Édouard Philippe targeted by embezzlement probe
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“French investigators are probing allegations of embezzlement involving high-profile presidential candidate Édouard Philippe over the allocation of a digital hub contract in the northern port city of Le Havre where he is mayor, prosecutors have said. The 55-year-old centrist, an ex-prime minister seen as one of the strongest contenders in next year’s election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, denies the accusations. Polls suggest that Philippe, a centrist with his Horizons party, could successfully take on the far right and win the vote. His team said that he took note of the probe and would ‘answer the questions put to him by the judiciary as he has always done in a very serene manner.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260520-french-presidential-candidate-philippe-targeted-in-embezzlement-probe
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7) Kennedy fires heads of regime task force that sets insurance coverage rules
Source: Axios
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the co-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last week. The move could open the task force up to more political influence. It comes as the administration prepares to vet new applicants to the committee, a process in which the chairs would typically be involved. The expert panel recommends which health services insurers must cover at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act. Kennedy sent letters dated May 11 to John Wong, a professor and primary care clinician at Tufts University, and Esa Davis, a professor and primary care clinician at University of Maryland, stating that their appointments as chairs would conclude effective immediately. Wong’s term was slated to last until mid-March 2027, and Davis’s term until mid-March 2028.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/LBLt4
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8) Barney Frank, 1940-2026
Source: CBS News
“Barney Frank, an outspoken Democrat who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years, has died, the Associated Press reported, citing his former campaign manager and close friend. He was 86 years old. … he sought re-election in 1988 after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality, a rarity back then. His constituents affirmed their support in 1990 after a scandal involving his association with a male prostitute, which a House Ethics Committee investigation found included Frank fixing parking tickets and making misleading statements to prosecutors in criminal cases involving the prostitute. … Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011 and he co-sponsored the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform law passed following the 2008 housing crash. He decided not to seek reelection in 2012, citing signficiant redistricting.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/barney-frank-dies-obituary-massachusetts-congressman/
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9) Two humpback whales set records swimming between Australia and Brazil
Source: SFGate
“Scientists have spotted two humpback whales that made separate, record-breaking crossings between Australia and Brazil. The whales were identified by their distinctive tail markings at the two locations about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) apart. They traveled in opposite directions and journeyed farther than any humpback known so far. ‘It’s a very rare event, but it is a really wonderful demonstration of just how wide-ranging these animals are,’ said Phillip Clapham, former head of a NOAA whale research program who was not involved with the new findings. Humpback whales are known for roaming long distances across major oceans in predictable patterns, typically following migration routes learned from their mothers.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/two-humpback-whales-set-records-swimming-between-22267439.php
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10) Bolivia: Capital under siege as protests and blockades deepen crisis for president
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz faces a deepening crisis as widespread protests and blockades leave the political capital under siege less than six months after he took office. Two weeks of road closures – spearheaded by the Bolivian Workers’ Central, COB, peasant unions and miners – have emptied markets in La Paz and depleted vital hospital oxygen reserves. The government reported that at least three people died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centres. On Monday, supporters of Bolivia’s influential ex-president Evo Morales clashed with police in the capital city as they joined multiple sectors demanding the resignation of the president, who lacks both a legislative majority and a robust political party to anchor his administration.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/eyGDP
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11) South Korea: Samsung’s union puts off strike after reaching last-minute wage deal with management
Source: SFGate
“Samsung Electronics’ labor union said Wednesday it’ll hold off on launching a planned strike and put a tentative wage deal with management to a vote, alleviating immediate concerns about the operation of the world’s largest memory chip maker. The announcement was made after a last-minute government-mediated negotiation with management over how much bonus payouts must be provided to employees to reflect soaring profits fueled by the global boom in artificial intelligence. Union leader Choi Seung-ho told a televised briefing that the union agreed not to go ahead with an 18-day strike that he earlier said would start from Thursday. He said union members will vote on the tentative agreement from May 22-27.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/samsung-faces-major-strike-after-pay-talks-with-22267901.php
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12) Randstad CEO: College career path “over” as skilled trade get 30% pay bump
Source: CNBC
“The days of going to college to secure a lucrative career are over, as skilled trade workers have seen a 30% wage bump in the past few years, the CEO of the world’s largest recruitment firm told CNBC. Sander van’t Noordende, CEO of Dutch staffing giant Randstad, recommended the skilled trades career track to young people in an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box Europe’ on Wednesday. … Specialized skilled trade roles are now offering salaries that compete with traditional office jobs, with wage growth up 30% in the U.S. in the past four years, up 21% in the Netherlands, 18% in Germany, and 9% in the U.K, according to Randstad’s latest data shared with CNBC.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/ai-skills-randstad-college-trades-jobs-pay-bump.html
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13) Deputy British ambassador to US abruptly leaves post
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“James Roscoe, the deputy to Britain’s ambassador in Washington, has abruptly left his role. Foreign Office officials declined to give any explanation for why Roscoe had, as they put it, ‘left his post.’ Until his sudden departure, Roscoe held one of the most senior, high-profile roles in the British diplomatic service, as second-in-command at the British Embassy in Washington. He had also stood in for Lord Peter Mandelson for several months after he was sacked last year. Roscoe was one of those tipped to take over the role, which ultimately went to another official, Sir Christian Turner. He played a key role in President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK and in King Charles III’s recent visit to the US. The British Embassy declined to comment further about his departure. Roscoe could not be reached for comment.” (05/20/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0520j079n2o
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14) Philippines: Top court rejects bid to block arrest of senator wanted by ICC
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Philippine Supreme Court has refused to block the arrest of a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. Senator Ronald dela Rosa, whose whereabouts are unknown, is wanted by the court in The Hague for his role in the country’s ‘war on drugs’ during Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency. … The interim ruling on Wednesday clears the way for the potential arrest of the senator, the latest turn in a dramatic story that has gripped the Philippines since early last week. Dela Rosa emerged from six months of hiding last week and took refuge at the Senate for several days before fleeing in the early hours of Thursday after a shooting incident between government agents and Senate security personnel that sent senators rushing for cover in their offices.” (05/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/philippines-top-court-rejects-bid-to-block-arrest-of-senator-wanted-by-icc
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15) Japan: US forces test fire mobile rocket system near Mount Fuji in rapid “shoot and scoot” drill
Source: SFGate
“U.S. Marines test fired a dozen rockets from a mobile launcher on Wednesday at a range in the foothills of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, in an exercise to keep sharp on weapon that is a growingly important component of the American military’s arsenal. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is a launcher mounted on the back of a military truck that can be rapidly brought out from concealment, fire its rockets, then move quickly to a new location to avoid counter-battery fire. The so-called ‘shoot and scoot’ tactics are becoming increasingly important with the proliferation of drones over the battlefield, which make static positions more vulnerable. The system has been used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most recently U.S. Central Command said it was employed in the opening attack on Iran where it launched a new precision-guided rocket that could reach targets hundreds of miles away.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/us-test-fires-mobile-rocket-system-near-mount-22268176.php
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16) Jury acquits two business executives of bribing US Navy admiral for government contract
Source: Seattle Times
“A federal jury has acquitted two business executives of charges that they conspired to bribe a retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral, who is now serving a six-year prison sentence for his conviction on corruption charges. An earlier trial for Next Jump co-CEOs Yongchul ‘Charlie’ Kim and Meghan Messenger ended last year with a hung jury and a mistrial. Their retrial in Washington, D.C., ended Monday with a jury acquitting them of all charges, including conspiracy and bribery, court records show. Prosecutors accused Kim and Messenger of bribing retired Adm. Robert P. Burke for a military contract in exchange for a lucrative postretirement job.” (05/19/26)
https://archive.is/hpPHV
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17) Norwegian journalist’s question to India’s Modi sparks online backlash
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A Norwegian journalist’s question to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sparked a controversy in his country. Modi was on a two-day official visit to Oslo this week. As he walked away after a joint press appearance with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, journalist Helle Lyng called out to him, asking why he does not take questions, but got no response. Later in a press conference by Indian diplomats, Lyng asked, ‘Why should we trust you (India)? Can you try to stop the human rights violations that goes on in your country?’ India has rejected the allegations, highlighting its ‘commitment to justice and freedom.’ Lyng later told BBC Hindi that it was her ‘duty to ask’ the questions. Modi has not held a traditional solo press conference since taking office in 2014, and has rarely answered questions from journalists on his trips abroad.” (05/20/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2w9w9n80o
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18) Discord now has end-to-end encryption on all calls
Source: Engadget
“Your calls on Discord are now truly private. The social platform says it’s completed its years-long endeavor to apply end-to-end encryption in all voice and video calls. This security is applied to all calls outside of stage channels, with no need to opt into the added protection. Attitudes on end-to-end encryption have been shifting at some platforms. While many see E2EE as a critical way to keep personal conversations personal, there have been some moves away from this security option.” (05/19/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2177277/discord-now-has-end-to-end-encryption-on-all-calls/
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19) UK: Regime eases new sanctions on Russian oil as fuel prices surge over Iran war
Source: SFGate
“The U.K. government has delayed some new sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to shelter Britons from the cost-of-living squeeze triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Iran war. A trade license that came into effect Wednesday permits the import of Russian oil that has been refined into jet fuel and diesel in third countries such as India and Turkey. The U.K. announced in October that it would ban imports of those products. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, has sent fuel prices soaring around the world and sparked concerns about a shortage of jet fuel. Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the British government of ‘choosing to buy dirty Russian oil.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/ukraine-ally-britain-eases-sanctions-on-russian-22268090.php
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20) IRS will not pursue Trump for back taxes under settlement agreement
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not pursue President Donald Trump, his family or companies for back tax claims under an agreement announced on Tuesday by the Justice Department. Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and the Trump Organisation filed a lawsuit against the tax-collecting agency in January seeking $10 billion in damages following a leak of his tax returns. … Trump dropped the lawsuit against the IRS on Monday in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate political allies who believe that they were unfairly prosecuted under the Biden administration. … An addendum to the settlement agreement signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and released on Tuesday says the IRS is ‘forever barred’ from pursuing any tax claims against Trump, his family or his businesses that were pending as of the May 18 settlement date.” [editor’s note: Would have been nicer if the “forever barred” applied to EVERYONE – TLK] (05/19/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260519-irs-trump-back-taxes-settlement-agreement
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Why Libertarianism Keeps Splintering
Source: The Daily Economy
by Matt Zwolinski
“The term ‘libertarian’ first emerged in the 1850s as a self-description for a French anarcho-communist who thought private property and the state were two sides of the same coin. By 1913, Charles Sprading was using it to describe a tent that included Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Single-Taxers, Anarchists, and Women’s Rights advocates. By the mid-twentieth century, under the influence of Leonard Read and the Foundation for Economic Education, it had narrowed to mean support for free markets and limited government. By the 1970s, the Nozick-Rand-Rothbard synthesis had narrowed it further still — to a particular form of rationalist, rights-based, free-market absolutism. Then, in the 1990s and 2000s, the label fragmented again. Bleeding-heart libertarians, left-libertarians, paleolibertarians, neoreactionaries — all under the same tent, none in agreement about what the tent contains. The current crackup isn’t an aberration. It’s what libertarianism has always done.” (05/20/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-libertarianism-keeps-splintering/
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22) Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different
Source: The Atlantic
by Russell Berman
“For a long time, Representative Thomas Massie confidently defied an ironclad law of modern Republican politics — that to oppose President Trump was to start a ticking clock on your electoral career. ‘I’m not worried about losing,’ he told me last spring inside the Capitol, as he explained to a group of reporters the strength of his support within his Kentucky district. … last night Massie met the same fate as so many of Trump’s Republican critics: He lost his primary. … For months leading up to the primary, Massie had held up his race as an important test case for the Trump era: If he could criticize the president and win anyway, his victory would embolden other Republicans to speak out and vote against Trump when they felt compelled to, loosening his viselike grip on the party.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/ZliZw
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23) Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms — and Do More Good
Source: Reason
by Robby Soave
“Data center panic is fueled by concerns about electricity and water usage. Many Americans wrongly believe that data centers are driving up their electric bill, even though evidence suggests the exact opposite: Data centers may actually decrease electricity costs for their neighbors. Water use fears are even more unreasonable. Data centers don’t actually use all that much water. … California’s almond farms consume 4.2 billion gallons of waters per day, according to Reason‘s Christian Britschgi. Data centers consume just 46 million gallons per day. Those numbers will certainly rise over time, but compared to all the other things that use water — golf courses account for 1.4 billion gallons per day — it’s just a drop in the bucket.” (05/20/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/20/data-centers-use-less-water-than-almond-farms-and-do-more-good/
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24) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: Growing Federal Power Means Less Accountability
Source: Liberalism.org
by Radley Balko
“Qualified immunity, which we discussed in part one, is typically an issue only with state and local police. But that’s only because the protections afforded to federal police make them nearly untouchable. Those federal protections are getting more attention as state and federal police increasingly work together on issues like drug enforcement, gangs, and immigration. It used to be that federal agents were few, making their immunities less important. But as federal law enforcement has grown, the importance of these exceptional protections has grown along with it.” (05/20/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/federal-courts-local-wrongs-growing-federal-power-means-less-accountability
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25) Beware The Blob — its mission is creepy
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“The idea of ‘the general welfare’ was a cancer. It has metastasized to include anything the control freaks in government want power over. And, they want to be involved in absolutely everything; those few things they aren’t yet meddling with, they’ll point to and call ‘freedom.’ Until they also take that away. … As for those antiquated justifications for government? Now, government sends its military around the world, creating enemies out of thin air, ultimately threatening the safety of all Americans. They ignored Thomas Jefferson’s advice of trade with all nations; entangling alliances with none, and we’re paying the price. Here at home, you’re now more likely to have your life, liberty, or property violated by a government employee enforcing a rule or ‘law’ than by a freelance criminal.” (05/20/26)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/05/20/voices/opinion-beware-the-blob-its-mission-is-creepy/233484.html
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26) Will Spencer Pratt Realign California?
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring
“By every reasonable standard of governance, California’s elected politicians have made a mess of the Golden State. Reciting the litany of failures has become so common that it’s hardly worth the trouble. Chaotic, unsafe downtowns. Retail businesses giving up and relocating. Chronic government budget deficits, despite the nation’s highest taxes, set to go higher still. ‘Needle exchanges’ and ‘safe injection sites,’ funded by taxpayers. Kids encounter drug zombies on the way to school. Parents dodge psychopaths in grocery store parking lots. We’ve heard it all. We’ve seen it all. We’re desensitized. We just avoid certain parts of town the best we can and tell ourselves it can’t be helped. When we choose which candidates to support, we know nothing is going to change.” (05/20/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/20/will-spencer-pratt-realign-california/
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27) The new era of asymmetric war exposes the limits of conventional warfare
Source: The Hill
by Tom Mockaitis
“What do the conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Lebanon have in common? They each demonstrate how technology permits a weak state or even a non-state actor to hold a powerful adversary at bay. They are asymmetric wars, conflicts in which one side fights for its survival while the other has a limited objective. ‘Asymmetric warfare’ is a new term for an old phenomenon. The U.S. gained its independence in an asymmetric war. The small Continental Army and state militias never faced the might of the British Empire …. The U.S. faced a similar dilemma in Vietnam. … The lessons of history did not stop Russia from getting bogged down in Ukraine, the U.S. from attacking Iran or Israel from invading Lebanon. Now, however, technology has enhanced the ability of the weaker adversary to counter the stronger.” (05/20/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5883470-asymmetric-warfare-modern-conflicts/
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28) Venti-Sized Subsidy
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jason Edmonds
“Tennessee taxpayers are about to spend millions on a Starbucks order they didn’t ask for. In April, the world’s largest coffee chain announced it would be opening a Southeast corporate office in Music City. The state has done well in attracting businesses, both large and small, through a low-tax, business-friendly environment. Yet those bigger businesses sometimes get a free upgrade, courtesy of state taxpayers, and the Starbucks move is brewing up to be a burn for Tennesseans. Despite the coffee chain’s public and vocal decision to open an office in Tennessee, state leaders act as if Starbucks needs more convincing or as if its profits aren’t ‘grande’ enough to cover office space.” (05/20/26)
https://fee.org/articles/venti-sized-subsidy/
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29) American Democracy Does Not Exist
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Thomas Massie has lost his congressional seat against a primary opponent whose Israel lobby funding made the race the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history. Massie has been a rare Republican opponent of Israeli abuses on Capitol Hill. The spending on Massie’s ouster topped out at a staggering $32 million when all was said and done. The second- and third-most expensive House primary races were also heavily slanted by Israel lobby funding, with AIPAC pouring millions into toppling progressive Democrats Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Americans just watched the Israel lobby openly manipulate yet another election, and then in like two weeks they’re going to hear their government tell them they need to regime change another foreign country to bring ‘democracy’ to its people. Americans themselves do not have democracy.” (05/20/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/20/american-democracy-does-not-exist/
-----
30) The Department of Education Is Alive and Well
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“The Department of Education (ED) is moving out of its headquarters at the Lyndon B. Johnson Building in Washington, D.C., this summer. The Department of Energy (DOE) will be the new tenant. Turns out that because of personnel cuts at the Department of Education, the building is roughly 70 percent vacant. … But in spite of Trump’s executive order and the elimination of half of its workforce, the Department of Education is alive and well.” (05/20/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-department-of-education-is-alive-and-well/
-----
31) The Supreme Court Has Enabled Trump to Become Profiteer-in-Chief
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“On Monday, Donald Trump dropped his sham lawsuit against the federal government. In exchange, the Justice Department under his control will establish a $1.8 billion fund for ‘victims of lawfare,’ as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put it. This will be a slush fund for Trump’s allies, presumably January 6 insurrectionists and others already rewarded with a pardon. There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved ‘official acts.’ Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft, and you’re off the hook. Last week, the president filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics detailing the stock trades he made this year. It is a novelistic tale of profiteering, recognizable as insider trading in every way except, perhaps, under the law.” (05/20/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/epic-corruption-plain-sight
-----
32) When goods cross borders, sometimes armies do too
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“[T]he last 20-ish years have revealed to everyone (who paid attention and isn’t severely brain-damaged) that global trade does not, in fact, prevent armed conflict or interstate violence on its own. Now, it is a disincentive. It’s also helpful for a bunch of other reasons. But it alone clearly cannot keep leaders from starting wars. As far as I know, no one thing can universally and permanently stop wars. The best we can hope for is doing a bunch of smart things at the same time and hoping it all nets out to reducing the frequency and severity of armed conflicts.” (05/20/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/when-goods-cross-borders-sometimes
-----
33) Occupation & Genocide Anywhere Are Threat to Democracy & Freedom Everywhere
Source: Common Dreams
by Koketso Moeti
“Earlier this year a number of participants announced their withdrawal from Australia’s Adelaide Festival’s ‘Writer’s Week’ following the disinviting of Australian-Palestinian author, Randa Abdel-Fattah. The event was subsequently cancelled. This made me think of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese’s words, delivered in her Nelson Mandela Lecture: ‘The occupation of Palestine must be understood as part of a broader project of domination. This is not merely about the physical borders of historical Palestine. It is a systematic assertion of permanent supremacy that knows no border …’ Indeed, the impact of the ongoing genocide and occupation not only echo far beyond Palestine, because of our shared humanity, but also because of the impact it is having on freedoms across the globe. The censorship of Abdel-Fattah is yet another example of this, and it is not only happening in Australia.” (05/20/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/occupation-and-genocide-threat
-----
34) The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Carl Heneghan & Tom Jefferson
“There is a peculiar arithmetic that governs modern health reporting, one that has very little to do with actual risk. Hans Rosling captured it neatly during the 2009 swine flu episode, when he calculated a ‘news-to-death ratio’ of 8,176-to-1. In other words, for every death attributed to swine flu, there were over eight thousand news stories. Tuberculosis, by contrast, received less than 0.1 news stories per death over the same period. If that sounds absurd, it is, and yet very little has changed. Take the current hantavirus scare. A cruise ship, the MV Hondius, sits off Cape Verde. There are 7 cases in total (2 confirmed, 5 suspected) and 3 deaths …. In the past week alone, there have been at least 10 to 15 unique news stories, generating hundreds of articles.” (05/20/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-news-to-death-ratio-strikes-again/
-----
35) We shut out independent voters at our own political risk
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“There’s a growing trend of American voters breaking up with American political parties. A Gallup survey in January found that 45% of Americans identify as political independents. And now their voter registrations are starting to reflect that. But in Pennsylvania, voters must be registered as a Democrat or a Republican to cast ballots in a closed-party primary. That means that only registered Democrats in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District were the only Philadelphians who got to vote on May 19 for a new representative in the House.” [editor’s note: What? Only members of a particular party get to choose that party’s candidates? The horror! This guy wants “open primaries.” How about NO primaries, the parties choose their candidates, all parties and candidates get equal, open ballot access (by eliminating government control of ballot printing), “problem” solved – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/20/open-primary-election-vote-independent/90158448007/
-----
36) What Happens Next?
Source: Lisa Liberty
by Lisa Liberty
“For years, automation has primarily threatened physical labor. Factory workers worried about robots. Cashiers worried about self-checkout kiosks. But something has certainly changed with artificial intelligence. For the first time in modern history, the jobs most vulnerable to replacement are not manual labor jobs, but cognitive ones. The people at greatest risk are not welders or electricians, but office workers, analysts, coders, marketers, accountants, journalists, support staff, designers, and countless others whose jobs exist primarily on a screen. … While technology has always disrupted labor markets, this transition feels different because of its scale and speed. Previous industrial revolutions still required massive amounts of human labor to operate the new systems being created. AI, by contrast, will increasingly remove the need for human labor altogether in many sectors. That leaves us with some hard questions society still seems reluctant to seriously confront: What happens next?” (05/20/26)
https://lisaliberty.substack.com/p/what-happens-next
-----
37) The Wonderful, Loving Left
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“They try so hard to convince people how ‘wonderful’ and ‘loving’ they are. And, frankly, countless millions fall for it. You see, folks, it’s ‘loving’ to let a mother murder her unborn child. Or to let a child be mutilated for life. Or to keep people enslaved under government welfare with little hope of ever getting out of it. It’s a wonderful thing to let people sleep on the streets, or to turn criminals loose so they can prey on innocent citizens, or to open the borders of America so that countless people can illegally come to America, live off the hard-earned money of American taxpayers, or take American jobs, or kill and rape American citizens. These are all ‘wonderful,’ ‘loving’ things, aren’t they..” (05/20/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/05/20/the-wonderful-loving-left-n2676348
-----
38) Senators Propose To Head Off “Automatic” Draft Registration by Repealing Selective Service
Source: Antiwar.com
by Edward Hasbrouck
“The garbage-in, garbage-out process of automated and involuntary registration won’t produce a list that’s complete, accurate, or fit for the purpose of reliably and provably delivering induction orders. But it will allow war planners to continue to pretend that a draft is available as a fallback, so they don’t have to consider whether enough Americans will fight the wars they are planning, even if they prove bloodier than expected. And it will produce a list that’s vulnerable to misuse and weaponization. … The attempt at ‘automatic’ draft registration will inevitably be a fiasco. The only way to head it off is to end draft registration entirely. That won’t happen unless Congress feels public pressure — soon.” (05/20/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/edward_hasbrouck/2026/05/19/senators-propose-to-head-off-automatic-draft-registration-by-repealing-selective-service/
-----
39) A Rothbardian Case Against Bad Data Center Policy
Source: Law & Liberty
by Connor O’Keeffe
“A lot has already been written about the flaws and fallacies leading many to believe AI will trigger an employment apocalypse that will make everyone but a small sliver of the country much poorer. There are also reasons to actually expect positive political developments as AI begins to automate the exact kind of administrative, clerical, and bureaucratic work that has defined the so-called managerial class and made their positions necessary. And the environmental threat posed by data centers is often overblown by exaggerated projections based on earlier, less efficient forms of the technology that are now obsolete. Where the opposition to data centers does have some merit, however, is on the NIMBY front.” (05/20/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbardian-case-against-bad-data-center-policy
-----
40) Shaping the Humans Who Run the Machines
Source: Law & Liberty
by Brent Orrell
“The standard account is that AI works best with a ‘human in the loop.’ This phrase emerges from minds deeply shaped by technology: the tech is the main thing, and the human is an occasionally useful add-on, the quality controller and manager of the machine-produced conclusion. This formulation has the relationship backwards. The biggest problem with AI, as many have noted, is that it does not ‘get it.’ Its utility collapses around questions of continuity, and intellectual and social context. And ‘getting it,’ as we have known all along, is the most important aspect of life and work.” (05/20/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/shaping-the-humans-who-run-the-machines/
-----
41) Elon Musk’s Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“SpaceX is planning a monster initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to raise some $75 billion, at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, next month. It will be both his birthday and a moment when Venus and Jupiter will be in alignment. It would be the biggest IPO in history by far, utterly dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion figure back in 2019. Musk might sell those shares, too. One reason why, despite the ludicrous valuation, is that stock indices are changing their rules to allow SpaceX to join almost right away and with fewer conditions, thus forcing investors who follow a passive strategy, like index funds and many pension funds, to buy the company’s shares.” (05/20/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/05/20/elon-musk-spacex-stock-ipo/
-----
42) Don’t fall for it: Congress must reject the $1.5 trillion war budget
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by David Vine
“Trump has indicated his intention to continue fighting wars with his proposal to fund the largest military budget in U.S. history: $1,500,000,000,000 ($1.5 trillion). This would send two-thirds of next year’s federal discretionary budget to what he calls the ‘Department of War’ (which is actually more honest than the official name, the Department of Defense). $1.5 trillion would be around a 50% increase over this year’s military budget and on par in real terms with the largest military budgets during World War II. Congress and the public must reject Trump’s $1.5 trillion proposal as the joke it is. They must also resist his plans to make a ‘supplemental’ request for up to $200 billion more for the war in Iran, which is already as unpopular as U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Vietnam. Congress should be cutting the war budget by hundreds of billions of dollars rather than irresponsibly inflating it further.” (05/20/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-increases-military-budget/
-----
43) Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Daniel R DePetris
“By virtue of his own actions, Trump is now left with a series of policy options that range from least bad to terrible. None of them are ideal, and all of them carry some risk. For starters, Trump could resume the war. … Yet there are no guarantees that doubling down on military force will work. … What about continuing the status quo? While this contingency would be less costly than another round of bombing or a U.S. ground invasion, it’s unclear whether it would help or hurt negotiations toward a settlement. … Striking an agreement to end the war, return the strait to open traffic and restrict Iran’s nuclear program would be the most beneficial policy for the United States with the least amount of cost attached — not quite undoing the harm from Trump’s first-term decision to scrap the nuclear deal and his second-term decision to start a war.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/C1xAK
-----
44) Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3 — The Deal with The Devil
Source: Jake Porter’s Analysis & Investigations
by Jake Porter
“In late 2023, a quiet operation was launched to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The target wasn’t a Democrat, but the Libertarian Party (LP). What followed was a masterclass in political co-optation. Through backroom deals, a highly unusual joint fundraising committee with Robert Kennedy Jr., and blatant internal sabotage, leadership within the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) effectively turned the party of ‘Principle’ into a subsidiary of the Trump campaign.” (05/19/26)
https://jakeporter.substack.com/p/flirting-with-maga-money-part-3-the
-----
45) Trump’s perilous moment of truth on Iran
Source: New York Post
by staff
“President Trump is facing a moment of maximum peril in his handling of Iran — one that will shape his legacy, America’s stature and perhaps the course of history itself. We are entering the sixth week of a two-week cease-fire that was agreed to on the pre-condition that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened immediately. Yet it never opened, and Iran continues to attack our Arab allies — while it dithers and strings out talks. What gives? The prez’s big risk: Political pressure over the midterms and the buzzing of isolationists in Trump’s own camp might nudge him to take any deal that lets him declare victory, save face and bug out of Iran. This would be a catastrophic mistake, comparable almost to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938. It would burn his legacy on the bonfire of political expediency.” (05/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/19/opinion/trumps-moment-of-truth-in-iran-is-coming-and-taking-a-bad-deal-would-burn-his-legacy/
-----
46) Pet Love
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“May is National Pet Month in the United States. It is a celebration of the bond between pets and people — a testament to the immense joy that pets bring to our lives. Through the years, the deep connection that I experienced with our family pets was a source of support, companionship, visibility, and love.” (05/19/26)
https://chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com/p/pet-love
-----
47) Testing Smith’s Explanation for the End of Feudalism
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“[I]f Smith is correct, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places poorly suited to produce export goods, well suited to produce subsistence goods. For similar reasons, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places where transport costs were high — most obviously places far from good water transport, which in the Middle Ages was typically much less costly than overland transport. The theory is, at least in principle, a testable one.” (05/19/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/testing-smiths-explanation-for-the
-----
48) How two Clemson professors fought a wave of censorship
Source: Expression
by Graham Piro
“The shock hit Clemson before the facts had fully settled. Charlie Kirk was dead. Within minutes, the ghastly footage of his murder circulated online. For many, the initial response was horror. Others found the killing justified. Some even joked about it. At Clemson University, students gathered hours after the attack to mourn Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA. But the sadness was soon accompanied by an ominous chilling effect on speech as administrators began targeting any faculty or staff perceived to have justified or celebrated the shooting. … In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Clemson fired two professors for social media posts about Kirk’s death.” (05/19/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/how-two-clemson-professors-fought
-----
49) Philippines: “It Is Like Martial Law Here”
Source: In These Times
by Alessandra Bergamin
“Eight days into the new year, in the stifling aftermath of a state-sanctioned attack on the Philippine village of Abra de Ilog, the country’s armed forces shared a video of Filipina American Chantal Anicoche to its Facebook page. Filmed by the military’s 203rd Infantry Brigade in the province of Mindoro Occidental, the video shows Anicoche clambering out of a vine-covered pit, barefoot, sallow and drawn. Cowering, Anicoche is led to a clearing. She sits on the ground as a soldier asks, ‘Why are you here?’ A passionate activist from Maryland, 24-year-old Anicoche had moved to Abra de Ilog the month prior to learn from the Indigenous Mangyan-Iraya and peasant communities that are resisting extractive industries, militarization and state violence.” (05/19/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/martial-law-philippines-anicoche-environment
-----
50) Defending free speech?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We defend anyone’s right to speak (write, publish, record, etc.) freely on any subject. Whether right or wrong. But we defend our own God-given right to challenge, contest, disagree, and point out when what they say is wrong. Either when someone fails to tell the truth, or when they twist things around. Not just draw the wrong conclusions but claim that only they know the truth and can explain it properly. Free speech is not just a fundamental requirement for a republic, or even a ‘democracy’ but for society. As is the right to challenge when someone abuses that right. But the challenge must be appropriate to the offense. For example, teachers do not chop off a student’s hand (or even a finger!) for misspelling a word. Or writing down something that is obviously untrue.” (05/19/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/19/defending-free-speech/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Make It Make Sense, 05/20/26
Source: Washington Post
"What Thomas Massie's loss means for MAGA." (05/20/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/make-it-make-sense/what-thomas-massies-loss-means-for-maga/
-----
52) Hard Lens Media, 05/20/26
Source: Hard Lens Media
“TRUMP VS THOMAS MASSIE: Massive Primary Defeat Signals the Dawn of a New GOP Era.” (05/20/26)
https://rumble.com/v7a4ucm-trump-vs-thomas-massie-massive-primary-defeat-signals-the-dawn-of-a-new-gop.html
-----
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/20/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Did Massie Lose … Or Was He Pushed?” (05/20/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/did-massie-loseor-was-he-pushed
-----
54) The Political Orphanage, 05/20/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“The Great Baby Shortage.” (05/20/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-great-baby-shortage
-----
55) The Fifth Column, episode 558
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Youngest Guy in the Worst Room in America w/ Rep. Maxwell Frost.” (05/20/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-youngest-guy-in-the-worst-room
-----
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/20/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Screws Himself So Badly on Texas Race, GOPers Visibly Stunned.” (05/20/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210706/trump-screws-badly-tex-race-gopers-visibly-stunned
-----
57) Reason Interview: Johan Norberg
Source: Reason
“Why Populism Leads to Decline.” (05/20/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/20/why-populism-leads-to-decline/
-----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/19/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Senate Advances Iran War Powers Resolution, Third Day of US Airstrikes in Nigeria, and More.” (05/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJvWsuwl-Xk
-----
59) Sal and Mark, episode 3
Source: Free Talk Live
“A weekly deep-dive into crypto, privacy, and practical freedom. This episode features Stefan Kinsella on the stunning split between Hans-Hermann Hoppe and the Mises Institute; Tux from Cake Wallet on Lightning Network, Silent Payments, and the new Cupcake hardware wallet feature; plus discussions on the Hoppe-Milei controversy, tax resistance, Freedom Dollar vs. Tether, and why privacy coins are the future.” (05/19/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/samsep3
-----
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/19/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Real Cost Of The Iran War.” (05/19/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rxmqoMamvZxy
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US regime charges Cuba’s Raúl Castro with murder over 1996 downing of two planes
2) Russia: Ukrainian drones strike Syrzan oil refinery
3) Cops Who Guarded Capitol Sue to Block Trump’s $1.8 Billion “Slush Fund”
4) Iran: Regime claims it coordinated passage of 26 vessels out of Hormuz in 24 hours
5) Ex-DoJ prosecutor charged with sending sealed Jack Smith Trump report to personal email
6) France: Presidential contender Édouard Philippe targeted by embezzlement probe
7) Kennedy fires heads of regime task force that sets insurance coverage rules
8) Barney Frank, 1940-2026
9) Two humpback whales set records swimming between Australia and Brazil
10) Bolivia: Capital under siege as protests and blockades deepen crisis for president
11) South Korea: Samsung’s union puts off strike after reaching last-minute wage deal with management
12) Randstad CEO: College career path “over” as skilled trade get 30% pay bump
13) Deputy British ambassador to US abruptly leaves post
14) Philippines: Top court rejects bid to block arrest of senator wanted by ICC
15) Japan: US forces test fire mobile rocket system near Mount Fuji in rapid “shoot and scoot” drill
16) Jury acquits two business executives of bribing US Navy admiral for government contract
17) Norwegian journalist’s question to India’s Modi sparks online backlash
18) Discord now has end-to-end encryption on all calls
19) UK: Regime eases new sanctions on Russian oil as fuel prices surge over Iran war
20) IRS will not pursue Trump for back taxes under settlement agreement
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Why Libertarianism Keeps Splintering
22) Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different
23) Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms — and Do More Good
24) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: Growing Federal Power Means Less Accountability
25) Beware The Blob — its mission is creepy
26) Will Spencer Pratt Realign California?
27) The new era of asymmetric war exposes the limits of conventional warfare
28) Venti-Sized Subsidy
29) American Democracy Does Not Exist
30) The Department of Education Is Alive and Well
31) The Supreme Court Has Enabled Trump to Become Profiteer-in-Chief
32) When goods cross borders, sometimes armies do too
33) Occupation & Genocide Anywhere Are Threat to Democracy & Freedom Everywhere
34) The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again
35) We shut out independent voters at our own political risk
36) What Happens Next?
37) The Wonderful, Loving Left
38) Senators Propose To Head Off “Automatic” Draft Registration by Repealing Selective Service
39) A Rothbardian Case Against Bad Data Center Policy
40) Shaping the Humans Who Run the Machines
41) Elon Musk’s Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX
42) Don’t fall for it: Congress must reject the $1.5 trillion war budget
43) Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran
44) Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3 — The Deal with The Devil
45) Trump’s perilous moment of truth on Iran
46) Pet Love
47) Testing Smith’s Explanation for the End of Feudalism
48) How two Clemson professors fought a wave of censorship
49) Philippines: “It Is Like Martial Law Here”
50) Defending free speech?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Make It Make Sense, 05/20/26
52) Hard Lens Media, 05/20/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/20/26
54) The Political Orphanage, 05/20/26
55) The Fifth Column, episode 558
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/20/26
57) Reason Interview: Johan Norberg
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/19/26
59) Sal and Mark, episode 3
60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/19/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US regime charges Cuba’s Raúl Castro with murder over 1996 downing of two planes
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The US has charged former Cuban leader Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals and other crimes over the downing of two planes between Cuba and Florida in 1996. The case unveiled on Wednesday – a revival of charges originally from 2003 – accuses Castro and five others in the shooting down of an aircraft belonging to Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue and killing four people, including three Americans. Castro, now 94, was the head of the country’s armed forces and faced international condemnation over the crash.” [editor’s note: There’s significant debate over whether the aircraft were in the Cuban regime’s claimed airspace, but no debate whatsoever about the fact that they weren’t in the US regime’s claimed airspace. Also, let’s talk about the recent US regime’s publicly confessed murders of boat crews, also outside areas of US jurisdiction – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/aqDQY
-----
2) Russia: Ukrainian drones strike Syrzan oil refinery
Source: Reuters
“Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Rosneft-owned Syzran oil refinery in Samara region overnight, Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. ‘Another Ukrainian long-range sanction against Russian oil refining – and we are continuing this line of action,’ Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. … Two people were killed in a drone attack on the town of Syzran in Samara region, the local governor said, without mentioning whether any infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said the attack caused a large fire at the refinery, whose annual processing capacity ranges from 7 to 8.9 million tons of crude oil.” (05/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/ukrainian-drones-strike-russias-syzran-oil-refinery-kyiv-says-2026-05-21/
-----
3) Cops Who Guarded Capitol Sue to Block Trump’s $1.8 Billion “Slush Fund”
Source: US News & World Report
“Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.’ In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged Trump has ‘created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.’ The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking payments from the fund, calling it ‘the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.’ Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-20/police-officers-who-guarded-capitol-sue-to-block-trumps-1-8-billion-slush-fund
-----
4) Iran: Regime claims it coordinated passage of 26 vessels out of Hormuz in 24 hours
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it coordinated the transit of 26 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, as talks between Washington and Tehran over the resumption of traffic through the narrow waterway remain stalled. ‘Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is being carried out with permission and in coordination with the IRGC Navy,’ the statement carried by Iran’s state-affiliated ISNA news agency said on Wednesday.” (05/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/iran-says-it-coordinated-crossing-of-26-vessels-out-of-strait-of-hormuz
-----
5) Ex-DoJ prosecutor charged with sending sealed Jack Smith Trump report to personal email
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A former Department of Justice prosecutor is facing felony charges after emailing herself a sealed Biden-era investigative report concerning Donald Trump and attempting to hide the documents as cake recipes, federal authorities said on Wednesday. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, who worked as a managing assistant US attorney in Florida, is facing two counts of theft [sic] of government money or property in addition to charges related to her alleged alteration of the documents [by renaming them to obscure the emailing], according to the indictment. … Meanwhile, advocacy groups have sought to unseal the report through court appeals. It’s unclear why Lineberger sent the report to herself. She faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted of the charges.” [editor’s note: All DOJ reports are “public property” and “sealing” them is the crime – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/20/doj-prosecutor-jack-smith-trump-report-email
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6) France: Presidential contender Édouard Philippe targeted by embezzlement probe
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“French investigators are probing allegations of embezzlement involving high-profile presidential candidate Édouard Philippe over the allocation of a digital hub contract in the northern port city of Le Havre where he is mayor, prosecutors have said. The 55-year-old centrist, an ex-prime minister seen as one of the strongest contenders in next year’s election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, denies the accusations. Polls suggest that Philippe, a centrist with his Horizons party, could successfully take on the far right and win the vote. His team said that he took note of the probe and would ‘answer the questions put to him by the judiciary as he has always done in a very serene manner.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260520-french-presidential-candidate-philippe-targeted-in-embezzlement-probe
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7) Kennedy fires heads of regime task force that sets insurance coverage rules
Source: Axios
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the co-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last week. The move could open the task force up to more political influence. It comes as the administration prepares to vet new applicants to the committee, a process in which the chairs would typically be involved. The expert panel recommends which health services insurers must cover at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act. Kennedy sent letters dated May 11 to John Wong, a professor and primary care clinician at Tufts University, and Esa Davis, a professor and primary care clinician at University of Maryland, stating that their appointments as chairs would conclude effective immediately. Wong’s term was slated to last until mid-March 2027, and Davis’s term until mid-March 2028.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/LBLt4
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8) Barney Frank, 1940-2026
Source: CBS News
“Barney Frank, an outspoken Democrat who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years, has died, the Associated Press reported, citing his former campaign manager and close friend. He was 86 years old. … he sought re-election in 1988 after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality, a rarity back then. His constituents affirmed their support in 1990 after a scandal involving his association with a male prostitute, which a House Ethics Committee investigation found included Frank fixing parking tickets and making misleading statements to prosecutors in criminal cases involving the prostitute. … Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011 and he co-sponsored the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform law passed following the 2008 housing crash. He decided not to seek reelection in 2012, citing signficiant redistricting.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/barney-frank-dies-obituary-massachusetts-congressman/
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9) Two humpback whales set records swimming between Australia and Brazil
Source: SFGate
“Scientists have spotted two humpback whales that made separate, record-breaking crossings between Australia and Brazil. The whales were identified by their distinctive tail markings at the two locations about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) apart. They traveled in opposite directions and journeyed farther than any humpback known so far. ‘It’s a very rare event, but it is a really wonderful demonstration of just how wide-ranging these animals are,’ said Phillip Clapham, former head of a NOAA whale research program who was not involved with the new findings. Humpback whales are known for roaming long distances across major oceans in predictable patterns, typically following migration routes learned from their mothers.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/two-humpback-whales-set-records-swimming-between-22267439.php
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10) Bolivia: Capital under siege as protests and blockades deepen crisis for president
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz faces a deepening crisis as widespread protests and blockades leave the political capital under siege less than six months after he took office. Two weeks of road closures – spearheaded by the Bolivian Workers’ Central, COB, peasant unions and miners – have emptied markets in La Paz and depleted vital hospital oxygen reserves. The government reported that at least three people died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centres. On Monday, supporters of Bolivia’s influential ex-president Evo Morales clashed with police in the capital city as they joined multiple sectors demanding the resignation of the president, who lacks both a legislative majority and a robust political party to anchor his administration.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/eyGDP
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11) South Korea: Samsung’s union puts off strike after reaching last-minute wage deal with management
Source: SFGate
“Samsung Electronics’ labor union said Wednesday it’ll hold off on launching a planned strike and put a tentative wage deal with management to a vote, alleviating immediate concerns about the operation of the world’s largest memory chip maker. The announcement was made after a last-minute government-mediated negotiation with management over how much bonus payouts must be provided to employees to reflect soaring profits fueled by the global boom in artificial intelligence. Union leader Choi Seung-ho told a televised briefing that the union agreed not to go ahead with an 18-day strike that he earlier said would start from Thursday. He said union members will vote on the tentative agreement from May 22-27.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/samsung-faces-major-strike-after-pay-talks-with-22267901.php
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12) Randstad CEO: College career path “over” as skilled trade get 30% pay bump
Source: CNBC
“The days of going to college to secure a lucrative career are over, as skilled trade workers have seen a 30% wage bump in the past few years, the CEO of the world’s largest recruitment firm told CNBC. Sander van’t Noordende, CEO of Dutch staffing giant Randstad, recommended the skilled trades career track to young people in an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box Europe’ on Wednesday. … Specialized skilled trade roles are now offering salaries that compete with traditional office jobs, with wage growth up 30% in the U.S. in the past four years, up 21% in the Netherlands, 18% in Germany, and 9% in the U.K, according to Randstad’s latest data shared with CNBC.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/ai-skills-randstad-college-trades-jobs-pay-bump.html
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13) Deputy British ambassador to US abruptly leaves post
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“James Roscoe, the deputy to Britain’s ambassador in Washington, has abruptly left his role. Foreign Office officials declined to give any explanation for why Roscoe had, as they put it, ‘left his post.’ Until his sudden departure, Roscoe held one of the most senior, high-profile roles in the British diplomatic service, as second-in-command at the British Embassy in Washington. He had also stood in for Lord Peter Mandelson for several months after he was sacked last year. Roscoe was one of those tipped to take over the role, which ultimately went to another official, Sir Christian Turner. He played a key role in President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK and in King Charles III’s recent visit to the US. The British Embassy declined to comment further about his departure. Roscoe could not be reached for comment.” (05/20/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0520j079n2o
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14) Philippines: Top court rejects bid to block arrest of senator wanted by ICC
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Philippine Supreme Court has refused to block the arrest of a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. Senator Ronald dela Rosa, whose whereabouts are unknown, is wanted by the court in The Hague for his role in the country’s ‘war on drugs’ during Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency. … The interim ruling on Wednesday clears the way for the potential arrest of the senator, the latest turn in a dramatic story that has gripped the Philippines since early last week. Dela Rosa emerged from six months of hiding last week and took refuge at the Senate for several days before fleeing in the early hours of Thursday after a shooting incident between government agents and Senate security personnel that sent senators rushing for cover in their offices.” (05/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/philippines-top-court-rejects-bid-to-block-arrest-of-senator-wanted-by-icc
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15) Japan: US forces test fire mobile rocket system near Mount Fuji in rapid “shoot and scoot” drill
Source: SFGate
“U.S. Marines test fired a dozen rockets from a mobile launcher on Wednesday at a range in the foothills of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, in an exercise to keep sharp on weapon that is a growingly important component of the American military’s arsenal. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is a launcher mounted on the back of a military truck that can be rapidly brought out from concealment, fire its rockets, then move quickly to a new location to avoid counter-battery fire. The so-called ‘shoot and scoot’ tactics are becoming increasingly important with the proliferation of drones over the battlefield, which make static positions more vulnerable. The system has been used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most recently U.S. Central Command said it was employed in the opening attack on Iran where it launched a new precision-guided rocket that could reach targets hundreds of miles away.” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/us-test-fires-mobile-rocket-system-near-mount-22268176.php
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16) Jury acquits two business executives of bribing US Navy admiral for government contract
Source: Seattle Times
“A federal jury has acquitted two business executives of charges that they conspired to bribe a retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral, who is now serving a six-year prison sentence for his conviction on corruption charges. An earlier trial for Next Jump co-CEOs Yongchul ‘Charlie’ Kim and Meghan Messenger ended last year with a hung jury and a mistrial. Their retrial in Washington, D.C., ended Monday with a jury acquitting them of all charges, including conspiracy and bribery, court records show. Prosecutors accused Kim and Messenger of bribing retired Adm. Robert P. Burke for a military contract in exchange for a lucrative postretirement job.” (05/19/26)
https://archive.is/hpPHV
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17) Norwegian journalist’s question to India’s Modi sparks online backlash
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A Norwegian journalist’s question to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sparked a controversy in his country. Modi was on a two-day official visit to Oslo this week. As he walked away after a joint press appearance with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, journalist Helle Lyng called out to him, asking why he does not take questions, but got no response. Later in a press conference by Indian diplomats, Lyng asked, ‘Why should we trust you (India)? Can you try to stop the human rights violations that goes on in your country?’ India has rejected the allegations, highlighting its ‘commitment to justice and freedom.’ Lyng later told BBC Hindi that it was her ‘duty to ask’ the questions. Modi has not held a traditional solo press conference since taking office in 2014, and has rarely answered questions from journalists on his trips abroad.” (05/20/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2w9w9n80o
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18) Discord now has end-to-end encryption on all calls
Source: Engadget
“Your calls on Discord are now truly private. The social platform says it’s completed its years-long endeavor to apply end-to-end encryption in all voice and video calls. This security is applied to all calls outside of stage channels, with no need to opt into the added protection. Attitudes on end-to-end encryption have been shifting at some platforms. While many see E2EE as a critical way to keep personal conversations personal, there have been some moves away from this security option.” (05/19/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2177277/discord-now-has-end-to-end-encryption-on-all-calls/
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19) UK: Regime eases new sanctions on Russian oil as fuel prices surge over Iran war
Source: SFGate
“The U.K. government has delayed some new sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to shelter Britons from the cost-of-living squeeze triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Iran war. A trade license that came into effect Wednesday permits the import of Russian oil that has been refined into jet fuel and diesel in third countries such as India and Turkey. The U.K. announced in October that it would ban imports of those products. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, has sent fuel prices soaring around the world and sparked concerns about a shortage of jet fuel. Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the British government of ‘choosing to buy dirty Russian oil.'” (05/20/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/ukraine-ally-britain-eases-sanctions-on-russian-22268090.php
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20) IRS will not pursue Trump for back taxes under settlement agreement
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not pursue President Donald Trump, his family or companies for back tax claims under an agreement announced on Tuesday by the Justice Department. Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and the Trump Organisation filed a lawsuit against the tax-collecting agency in January seeking $10 billion in damages following a leak of his tax returns. … Trump dropped the lawsuit against the IRS on Monday in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate political allies who believe that they were unfairly prosecuted under the Biden administration. … An addendum to the settlement agreement signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and released on Tuesday says the IRS is ‘forever barred’ from pursuing any tax claims against Trump, his family or his businesses that were pending as of the May 18 settlement date.” [editor’s note: Would have been nicer if the “forever barred” applied to EVERYONE – TLK] (05/19/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260519-irs-trump-back-taxes-settlement-agreement
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Why Libertarianism Keeps Splintering
Source: The Daily Economy
by Matt Zwolinski
“The term ‘libertarian’ first emerged in the 1850s as a self-description for a French anarcho-communist who thought private property and the state were two sides of the same coin. By 1913, Charles Sprading was using it to describe a tent that included Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Single-Taxers, Anarchists, and Women’s Rights advocates. By the mid-twentieth century, under the influence of Leonard Read and the Foundation for Economic Education, it had narrowed to mean support for free markets and limited government. By the 1970s, the Nozick-Rand-Rothbard synthesis had narrowed it further still — to a particular form of rationalist, rights-based, free-market absolutism. Then, in the 1990s and 2000s, the label fragmented again. Bleeding-heart libertarians, left-libertarians, paleolibertarians, neoreactionaries — all under the same tent, none in agreement about what the tent contains. The current crackup isn’t an aberration. It’s what libertarianism has always done.” (05/20/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-libertarianism-keeps-splintering/
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22) Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different
Source: The Atlantic
by Russell Berman
“For a long time, Representative Thomas Massie confidently defied an ironclad law of modern Republican politics — that to oppose President Trump was to start a ticking clock on your electoral career. ‘I’m not worried about losing,’ he told me last spring inside the Capitol, as he explained to a group of reporters the strength of his support within his Kentucky district. … last night Massie met the same fate as so many of Trump’s Republican critics: He lost his primary. … For months leading up to the primary, Massie had held up his race as an important test case for the Trump era: If he could criticize the president and win anyway, his victory would embolden other Republicans to speak out and vote against Trump when they felt compelled to, loosening his viselike grip on the party.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/ZliZw
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23) Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms — and Do More Good
Source: Reason
by Robby Soave
“Data center panic is fueled by concerns about electricity and water usage. Many Americans wrongly believe that data centers are driving up their electric bill, even though evidence suggests the exact opposite: Data centers may actually decrease electricity costs for their neighbors. Water use fears are even more unreasonable. Data centers don’t actually use all that much water. … California’s almond farms consume 4.2 billion gallons of waters per day, according to Reason‘s Christian Britschgi. Data centers consume just 46 million gallons per day. Those numbers will certainly rise over time, but compared to all the other things that use water — golf courses account for 1.4 billion gallons per day — it’s just a drop in the bucket.” (05/20/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/20/data-centers-use-less-water-than-almond-farms-and-do-more-good/
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24) Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: Growing Federal Power Means Less Accountability
Source: Liberalism.org
by Radley Balko
“Qualified immunity, which we discussed in part one, is typically an issue only with state and local police. But that’s only because the protections afforded to federal police make them nearly untouchable. Those federal protections are getting more attention as state and federal police increasingly work together on issues like drug enforcement, gangs, and immigration. It used to be that federal agents were few, making their immunities less important. But as federal law enforcement has grown, the importance of these exceptional protections has grown along with it.” (05/20/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/federal-courts-local-wrongs-growing-federal-power-means-less-accountability
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25) Beware The Blob — its mission is creepy
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“The idea of ‘the general welfare’ was a cancer. It has metastasized to include anything the control freaks in government want power over. And, they want to be involved in absolutely everything; those few things they aren’t yet meddling with, they’ll point to and call ‘freedom.’ Until they also take that away. … As for those antiquated justifications for government? Now, government sends its military around the world, creating enemies out of thin air, ultimately threatening the safety of all Americans. They ignored Thomas Jefferson’s advice of trade with all nations; entangling alliances with none, and we’re paying the price. Here at home, you’re now more likely to have your life, liberty, or property violated by a government employee enforcing a rule or ‘law’ than by a freelance criminal.” (05/20/26)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/05/20/voices/opinion-beware-the-blob-its-mission-is-creepy/233484.html
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26) Will Spencer Pratt Realign California?
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring
“By every reasonable standard of governance, California’s elected politicians have made a mess of the Golden State. Reciting the litany of failures has become so common that it’s hardly worth the trouble. Chaotic, unsafe downtowns. Retail businesses giving up and relocating. Chronic government budget deficits, despite the nation’s highest taxes, set to go higher still. ‘Needle exchanges’ and ‘safe injection sites,’ funded by taxpayers. Kids encounter drug zombies on the way to school. Parents dodge psychopaths in grocery store parking lots. We’ve heard it all. We’ve seen it all. We’re desensitized. We just avoid certain parts of town the best we can and tell ourselves it can’t be helped. When we choose which candidates to support, we know nothing is going to change.” (05/20/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/20/will-spencer-pratt-realign-california/
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27) The new era of asymmetric war exposes the limits of conventional warfare
Source: The Hill
by Tom Mockaitis
“What do the conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Lebanon have in common? They each demonstrate how technology permits a weak state or even a non-state actor to hold a powerful adversary at bay. They are asymmetric wars, conflicts in which one side fights for its survival while the other has a limited objective. ‘Asymmetric warfare’ is a new term for an old phenomenon. The U.S. gained its independence in an asymmetric war. The small Continental Army and state militias never faced the might of the British Empire …. The U.S. faced a similar dilemma in Vietnam. … The lessons of history did not stop Russia from getting bogged down in Ukraine, the U.S. from attacking Iran or Israel from invading Lebanon. Now, however, technology has enhanced the ability of the weaker adversary to counter the stronger.” (05/20/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5883470-asymmetric-warfare-modern-conflicts/
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28) Venti-Sized Subsidy
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jason Edmonds
“Tennessee taxpayers are about to spend millions on a Starbucks order they didn’t ask for. In April, the world’s largest coffee chain announced it would be opening a Southeast corporate office in Music City. The state has done well in attracting businesses, both large and small, through a low-tax, business-friendly environment. Yet those bigger businesses sometimes get a free upgrade, courtesy of state taxpayers, and the Starbucks move is brewing up to be a burn for Tennesseans. Despite the coffee chain’s public and vocal decision to open an office in Tennessee, state leaders act as if Starbucks needs more convincing or as if its profits aren’t ‘grande’ enough to cover office space.” (05/20/26)
https://fee.org/articles/venti-sized-subsidy/
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29) American Democracy Does Not Exist
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Thomas Massie has lost his congressional seat against a primary opponent whose Israel lobby funding made the race the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history. Massie has been a rare Republican opponent of Israeli abuses on Capitol Hill. The spending on Massie’s ouster topped out at a staggering $32 million when all was said and done. The second- and third-most expensive House primary races were also heavily slanted by Israel lobby funding, with AIPAC pouring millions into toppling progressive Democrats Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Americans just watched the Israel lobby openly manipulate yet another election, and then in like two weeks they’re going to hear their government tell them they need to regime change another foreign country to bring ‘democracy’ to its people. Americans themselves do not have democracy.” (05/20/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/20/american-democracy-does-not-exist/
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30) The Department of Education Is Alive and Well
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“The Department of Education (ED) is moving out of its headquarters at the Lyndon B. Johnson Building in Washington, D.C., this summer. The Department of Energy (DOE) will be the new tenant. Turns out that because of personnel cuts at the Department of Education, the building is roughly 70 percent vacant. … But in spite of Trump’s executive order and the elimination of half of its workforce, the Department of Education is alive and well.” (05/20/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-department-of-education-is-alive-and-well/
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31) The Supreme Court Has Enabled Trump to Become Profiteer-in-Chief
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“On Monday, Donald Trump dropped his sham lawsuit against the federal government. In exchange, the Justice Department under his control will establish a $1.8 billion fund for ‘victims of lawfare,’ as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put it. This will be a slush fund for Trump’s allies, presumably January 6 insurrectionists and others already rewarded with a pardon. There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved ‘official acts.’ Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft, and you’re off the hook. Last week, the president filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics detailing the stock trades he made this year. It is a novelistic tale of profiteering, recognizable as insider trading in every way except, perhaps, under the law.” (05/20/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/epic-corruption-plain-sight
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32) When goods cross borders, sometimes armies do too
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“[T]he last 20-ish years have revealed to everyone (who paid attention and isn’t severely brain-damaged) that global trade does not, in fact, prevent armed conflict or interstate violence on its own. Now, it is a disincentive. It’s also helpful for a bunch of other reasons. But it alone clearly cannot keep leaders from starting wars. As far as I know, no one thing can universally and permanently stop wars. The best we can hope for is doing a bunch of smart things at the same time and hoping it all nets out to reducing the frequency and severity of armed conflicts.” (05/20/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/when-goods-cross-borders-sometimes
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33) Occupation & Genocide Anywhere Are Threat to Democracy & Freedom Everywhere
Source: Common Dreams
by Koketso Moeti
“Earlier this year a number of participants announced their withdrawal from Australia’s Adelaide Festival’s ‘Writer’s Week’ following the disinviting of Australian-Palestinian author, Randa Abdel-Fattah. The event was subsequently cancelled. This made me think of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese’s words, delivered in her Nelson Mandela Lecture: ‘The occupation of Palestine must be understood as part of a broader project of domination. This is not merely about the physical borders of historical Palestine. It is a systematic assertion of permanent supremacy that knows no border …’ Indeed, the impact of the ongoing genocide and occupation not only echo far beyond Palestine, because of our shared humanity, but also because of the impact it is having on freedoms across the globe. The censorship of Abdel-Fattah is yet another example of this, and it is not only happening in Australia.” (05/20/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/occupation-and-genocide-threat
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34) The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Carl Heneghan & Tom Jefferson
“There is a peculiar arithmetic that governs modern health reporting, one that has very little to do with actual risk. Hans Rosling captured it neatly during the 2009 swine flu episode, when he calculated a ‘news-to-death ratio’ of 8,176-to-1. In other words, for every death attributed to swine flu, there were over eight thousand news stories. Tuberculosis, by contrast, received less than 0.1 news stories per death over the same period. If that sounds absurd, it is, and yet very little has changed. Take the current hantavirus scare. A cruise ship, the MV Hondius, sits off Cape Verde. There are 7 cases in total (2 confirmed, 5 suspected) and 3 deaths …. In the past week alone, there have been at least 10 to 15 unique news stories, generating hundreds of articles.” (05/20/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-news-to-death-ratio-strikes-again/
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35) We shut out independent voters at our own political risk
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan
“There’s a growing trend of American voters breaking up with American political parties. A Gallup survey in January found that 45% of Americans identify as political independents. And now their voter registrations are starting to reflect that. But in Pennsylvania, voters must be registered as a Democrat or a Republican to cast ballots in a closed-party primary. That means that only registered Democrats in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District were the only Philadelphians who got to vote on May 19 for a new representative in the House.” [editor’s note: What? Only members of a particular party get to choose that party’s candidates? The horror! This guy wants “open primaries.” How about NO primaries, the parties choose their candidates, all parties and candidates get equal, open ballot access (by eliminating government control of ballot printing), “problem” solved – TLK] (05/20/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/20/open-primary-election-vote-independent/90158448007/
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36) What Happens Next?
Source: Lisa Liberty
by Lisa Liberty
“For years, automation has primarily threatened physical labor. Factory workers worried about robots. Cashiers worried about self-checkout kiosks. But something has certainly changed with artificial intelligence. For the first time in modern history, the jobs most vulnerable to replacement are not manual labor jobs, but cognitive ones. The people at greatest risk are not welders or electricians, but office workers, analysts, coders, marketers, accountants, journalists, support staff, designers, and countless others whose jobs exist primarily on a screen. … While technology has always disrupted labor markets, this transition feels different because of its scale and speed. Previous industrial revolutions still required massive amounts of human labor to operate the new systems being created. AI, by contrast, will increasingly remove the need for human labor altogether in many sectors. That leaves us with some hard questions society still seems reluctant to seriously confront: What happens next?” (05/20/26)
https://lisaliberty.substack.com/p/what-happens-next
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37) The Wonderful, Loving Left
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“They try so hard to convince people how ‘wonderful’ and ‘loving’ they are. And, frankly, countless millions fall for it. You see, folks, it’s ‘loving’ to let a mother murder her unborn child. Or to let a child be mutilated for life. Or to keep people enslaved under government welfare with little hope of ever getting out of it. It’s a wonderful thing to let people sleep on the streets, or to turn criminals loose so they can prey on innocent citizens, or to open the borders of America so that countless people can illegally come to America, live off the hard-earned money of American taxpayers, or take American jobs, or kill and rape American citizens. These are all ‘wonderful,’ ‘loving’ things, aren’t they..” (05/20/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/05/20/the-wonderful-loving-left-n2676348
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38) Senators Propose To Head Off “Automatic” Draft Registration by Repealing Selective Service
Source: Antiwar.com
by Edward Hasbrouck
“The garbage-in, garbage-out process of automated and involuntary registration won’t produce a list that’s complete, accurate, or fit for the purpose of reliably and provably delivering induction orders. But it will allow war planners to continue to pretend that a draft is available as a fallback, so they don’t have to consider whether enough Americans will fight the wars they are planning, even if they prove bloodier than expected. And it will produce a list that’s vulnerable to misuse and weaponization. … The attempt at ‘automatic’ draft registration will inevitably be a fiasco. The only way to head it off is to end draft registration entirely. That won’t happen unless Congress feels public pressure — soon.” (05/20/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/edward_hasbrouck/2026/05/19/senators-propose-to-head-off-automatic-draft-registration-by-repealing-selective-service/
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39) A Rothbardian Case Against Bad Data Center Policy
Source: Law & Liberty
by Connor O’Keeffe
“A lot has already been written about the flaws and fallacies leading many to believe AI will trigger an employment apocalypse that will make everyone but a small sliver of the country much poorer. There are also reasons to actually expect positive political developments as AI begins to automate the exact kind of administrative, clerical, and bureaucratic work that has defined the so-called managerial class and made their positions necessary. And the environmental threat posed by data centers is often overblown by exaggerated projections based on earlier, less efficient forms of the technology that are now obsolete. Where the opposition to data centers does have some merit, however, is on the NIMBY front.” (05/20/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbardian-case-against-bad-data-center-policy
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40) Shaping the Humans Who Run the Machines
Source: Law & Liberty
by Brent Orrell
“The standard account is that AI works best with a ‘human in the loop.’ This phrase emerges from minds deeply shaped by technology: the tech is the main thing, and the human is an occasionally useful add-on, the quality controller and manager of the machine-produced conclusion. This formulation has the relationship backwards. The biggest problem with AI, as many have noted, is that it does not ‘get it.’ Its utility collapses around questions of continuity, and intellectual and social context. And ‘getting it,’ as we have known all along, is the most important aspect of life and work.” (05/20/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/shaping-the-humans-who-run-the-machines/
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41) Elon Musk’s Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“SpaceX is planning a monster initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to raise some $75 billion, at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, next month. It will be both his birthday and a moment when Venus and Jupiter will be in alignment. It would be the biggest IPO in history by far, utterly dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion figure back in 2019. Musk might sell those shares, too. One reason why, despite the ludicrous valuation, is that stock indices are changing their rules to allow SpaceX to join almost right away and with fewer conditions, thus forcing investors who follow a passive strategy, like index funds and many pension funds, to buy the company’s shares.” (05/20/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/05/20/elon-musk-spacex-stock-ipo/
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42) Don’t fall for it: Congress must reject the $1.5 trillion war budget
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by David Vine
“Trump has indicated his intention to continue fighting wars with his proposal to fund the largest military budget in U.S. history: $1,500,000,000,000 ($1.5 trillion). This would send two-thirds of next year’s federal discretionary budget to what he calls the ‘Department of War’ (which is actually more honest than the official name, the Department of Defense). $1.5 trillion would be around a 50% increase over this year’s military budget and on par in real terms with the largest military budgets during World War II. Congress and the public must reject Trump’s $1.5 trillion proposal as the joke it is. They must also resist his plans to make a ‘supplemental’ request for up to $200 billion more for the war in Iran, which is already as unpopular as U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Vietnam. Congress should be cutting the war budget by hundreds of billions of dollars rather than irresponsibly inflating it further.” (05/20/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-increases-military-budget/
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43) Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Daniel R DePetris
“By virtue of his own actions, Trump is now left with a series of policy options that range from least bad to terrible. None of them are ideal, and all of them carry some risk. For starters, Trump could resume the war. … Yet there are no guarantees that doubling down on military force will work. … What about continuing the status quo? While this contingency would be less costly than another round of bombing or a U.S. ground invasion, it’s unclear whether it would help or hurt negotiations toward a settlement. … Striking an agreement to end the war, return the strait to open traffic and restrict Iran’s nuclear program would be the most beneficial policy for the United States with the least amount of cost attached — not quite undoing the harm from Trump’s first-term decision to scrap the nuclear deal and his second-term decision to start a war.” (05/20/26)
https://archive.is/C1xAK
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44) Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3 — The Deal with The Devil
Source: Jake Porter’s Analysis & Investigations
by Jake Porter
“In late 2023, a quiet operation was launched to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The target wasn’t a Democrat, but the Libertarian Party (LP). What followed was a masterclass in political co-optation. Through backroom deals, a highly unusual joint fundraising committee with Robert Kennedy Jr., and blatant internal sabotage, leadership within the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) effectively turned the party of ‘Principle’ into a subsidiary of the Trump campaign.” (05/19/26)
https://jakeporter.substack.com/p/flirting-with-maga-money-part-3-the
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45) Trump’s perilous moment of truth on Iran
Source: New York Post
by staff
“President Trump is facing a moment of maximum peril in his handling of Iran — one that will shape his legacy, America’s stature and perhaps the course of history itself. We are entering the sixth week of a two-week cease-fire that was agreed to on the pre-condition that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened immediately. Yet it never opened, and Iran continues to attack our Arab allies — while it dithers and strings out talks. What gives? The prez’s big risk: Political pressure over the midterms and the buzzing of isolationists in Trump’s own camp might nudge him to take any deal that lets him declare victory, save face and bug out of Iran. This would be a catastrophic mistake, comparable almost to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938. It would burn his legacy on the bonfire of political expediency.” (05/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/19/opinion/trumps-moment-of-truth-in-iran-is-coming-and-taking-a-bad-deal-would-burn-his-legacy/
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46) Pet Love
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“May is National Pet Month in the United States. It is a celebration of the bond between pets and people — a testament to the immense joy that pets bring to our lives. Through the years, the deep connection that I experienced with our family pets was a source of support, companionship, visibility, and love.” (05/19/26)
https://chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com/p/pet-love
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47) Testing Smith’s Explanation for the End of Feudalism
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“[I]f Smith is correct, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places poorly suited to produce export goods, well suited to produce subsistence goods. For similar reasons, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places where transport costs were high — most obviously places far from good water transport, which in the Middle Ages was typically much less costly than overland transport. The theory is, at least in principle, a testable one.” (05/19/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/testing-smiths-explanation-for-the
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48) How two Clemson professors fought a wave of censorship
Source: Expression
by Graham Piro
“The shock hit Clemson before the facts had fully settled. Charlie Kirk was dead. Within minutes, the ghastly footage of his murder circulated online. For many, the initial response was horror. Others found the killing justified. Some even joked about it. At Clemson University, students gathered hours after the attack to mourn Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA. But the sadness was soon accompanied by an ominous chilling effect on speech as administrators began targeting any faculty or staff perceived to have justified or celebrated the shooting. … In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Clemson fired two professors for social media posts about Kirk’s death.” (05/19/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/how-two-clemson-professors-fought
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49) Philippines: “It Is Like Martial Law Here”
Source: In These Times
by Alessandra Bergamin
“Eight days into the new year, in the stifling aftermath of a state-sanctioned attack on the Philippine village of Abra de Ilog, the country’s armed forces shared a video of Filipina American Chantal Anicoche to its Facebook page. Filmed by the military’s 203rd Infantry Brigade in the province of Mindoro Occidental, the video shows Anicoche clambering out of a vine-covered pit, barefoot, sallow and drawn. Cowering, Anicoche is led to a clearing. She sits on the ground as a soldier asks, ‘Why are you here?’ A passionate activist from Maryland, 24-year-old Anicoche had moved to Abra de Ilog the month prior to learn from the Indigenous Mangyan-Iraya and peasant communities that are resisting extractive industries, militarization and state violence.” (05/19/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/martial-law-philippines-anicoche-environment
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50) Defending free speech?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We defend anyone’s right to speak (write, publish, record, etc.) freely on any subject. Whether right or wrong. But we defend our own God-given right to challenge, contest, disagree, and point out when what they say is wrong. Either when someone fails to tell the truth, or when they twist things around. Not just draw the wrong conclusions but claim that only they know the truth and can explain it properly. Free speech is not just a fundamental requirement for a republic, or even a ‘democracy’ but for society. As is the right to challenge when someone abuses that right. But the challenge must be appropriate to the offense. For example, teachers do not chop off a student’s hand (or even a finger!) for misspelling a word. Or writing down something that is obviously untrue.” (05/19/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/19/defending-free-speech/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Make It Make Sense, 05/20/26
Source: Washington Post
"What Thomas Massie's loss means for MAGA." (05/20/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/make-it-make-sense/what-thomas-massies-loss-means-for-maga/
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52) Hard Lens Media, 05/20/26
Source: Hard Lens Media
“TRUMP VS THOMAS MASSIE: Massive Primary Defeat Signals the Dawn of a New GOP Era.” (05/20/26)
https://rumble.com/v7a4ucm-trump-vs-thomas-massie-massive-primary-defeat-signals-the-dawn-of-a-new-gop.html
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53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/20/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Did Massie Lose … Or Was He Pushed?” (05/20/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/did-massie-loseor-was-he-pushed
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54) The Political Orphanage, 05/20/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“The Great Baby Shortage.” (05/20/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-great-baby-shortage
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55) The Fifth Column, episode 558
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Youngest Guy in the Worst Room in America w/ Rep. Maxwell Frost.” (05/20/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-youngest-guy-in-the-worst-room
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56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/20/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Screws Himself So Badly on Texas Race, GOPers Visibly Stunned.” (05/20/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210706/trump-screws-badly-tex-race-gopers-visibly-stunned
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57) Reason Interview: Johan Norberg
Source: Reason
“Why Populism Leads to Decline.” (05/20/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/20/why-populism-leads-to-decline/
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58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/19/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Senate Advances Iran War Powers Resolution, Third Day of US Airstrikes in Nigeria, and More.” (05/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJvWsuwl-Xk
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59) Sal and Mark, episode 3
Source: Free Talk Live
“A weekly deep-dive into crypto, privacy, and practical freedom. This episode features Stefan Kinsella on the stunning split between Hans-Hermann Hoppe and the Mises Institute; Tux from Cake Wallet on Lightning Network, Silent Payments, and the new Cupcake hardware wallet feature; plus discussions on the Hoppe-Milei controversy, tax resistance, Freedom Dollar vs. Tether, and why privacy coins are the future.” (05/19/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/samsep3
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60) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/19/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Real Cost Of The Iran War.” (05/19/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rxmqoMamvZxy
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