02/02 -- Ukraine: Twelve miners killed in Russian drone strike; The revenge of the periphery
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Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 2, 2026, 6:20:06 AM (9 days ago) Feb 2
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 02/02/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Twelve miners killed in Russian drone strike
2) Latest Epstein file dump names Trump, Musk, Gates, et al.
3) Palestine: Rafah crossing partially reopens; Israeli regime pretends it gets to decide who practices medicine in Gaza
4) Bitcoin drops to $78k as Strategy-fueled rally runs out of buyers, traders say
5) Iran: Regime thugs abduct Oscar-nominated screenwriter
6) Canada: Conservatives keep Pierre Poilievre as leader despite election loss
7) DOJ misconduct complaint against DC federal judge dismissed
8) Pakistan: Nearly 200 killed in Balochistan fighting
9) Iran: Khamenei warns any US attack would spark “regional war”
10) TX: Democrats flip state Senate seat in shock upset
11) CA: Thousands rally against ICE gang in San Francisco’s Dolores Park
12) Iran: Blast in Port City Kills One, Wounds 14 Before Strait of Hormuz Naval Drill Watched by US
13) Escaped kangaroo blocks Virginia highway after being chased by hunting dogs, officials say
14) Judge rejects bid to end Trump regime’s Minnesota occupation
15) Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe
16) Venezuela: Rodriguez announces prisoner amnest
17) Slovakia: PM’s national security adviser resigns over Epstein links
18) Trump announces Kevin Warsh as Fed chair nominee
19) NASA begins practice countdown for first moonshot with astronauts in over 50 years
20) Uganda: Army chief accuses US Embassy officials of aiding hiding opposition figure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The revenge of the periphery
22) When Life Hands Trump the Epstein Files, Trump Makes Lemon Aid
23) Treating Peaceful American Civilians as Enemy Combatants
24) Minnesota could finally teach Trump the limits of theatrics
25) Militarized policing at the root of the Minneapolis mayhem
26) There Can Be No More Doubt. Trump Wants to Kill Free Speech
27) Righteousness At The Expense Of Others … Isn’t
28) The Minneapolis Shootings Underline the Advantages of Body Cameras, Which DHS Has Been Slow To Adopt
29) The audacity of Trump’s choice as Fed chief
30) Facing mass protests, Iran relies on familiar tools of state violence and internet blackouts
31) When Life Gives You Don Lemons…
32) The humans are chasing conspiracies. What will the bots think?
33) Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They’re Making Everything Awful
34) Trump’s Tariff War Is Crushing American Alcohol Makers
35) Should the United States Purchase Greenland?
36) The Next Population Explosion
37) Don Lemon’s “other unforgivable crime” was against his old profession
38) Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
39) Fraud as Policy: The Incentives of the Modern Welfare State
40) The Right to Move
41) As Trump Attacks the Republic, the Cowardly Democratic Party Still Won’t Fight to Win
42) Fear of Immigration Raids Undermines Minnesota’s Health Care System
43) Why Zero-Sum Thinking Creates a Negative-Sum World
44) Can The iPhone Save Our Democracy?
45) These are criminals, not protesters
46) Rent Money Isn’t Wasted — It Buys Protection from Big Risk
47) When It Comes to Killing Protesters, Trump Sounds Like Iran
48) Canada is not interested in White House boot licking. So what?
49) Impeach President Miller
50) Will Ted Cruz Go Anti-Trump in 2028?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 327
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/31/26
53) Nonzero, 01/30/26
54) Free Talk Live, 01/31/26
55) Serious Trouble, 01/31/26
56) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/30/26
57) Rising, 01/30/26
58) Jim Bovard on The David Knight Show, 01/30/26
59) The Bulwark Podcast, 01/30/26
60) Soho Forum Debate: Will AI Benefit Everyone?
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Twelve miners killed in Russian drone strike
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Twelve miners have been killed by a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, the country’s largest private energy firm has said. DTEK said a bus carrying workers after a shift in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region had been targeted in Sunday’s attack. At least 15 people were injured, state emergency services said. Earlier, at least two others were killed and nine injured in separate Russian attacks overnight and on Sunday, including six people who were hurt when a drone hit a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia. The strikes come while Russia had agreed not to target population centres and energy infrastructure for the duration of a cold snap.” (02/02/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdre7g2je63o
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2) Latest Epstein file dump names Trump, Musk, Gates, et al.
Source: New York Times
“The Department of Justice on Friday released the largest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files to date, a giant tranche including three million more pages of documents and thousands of videos and images. The documents shed new light on the disgraced financier’s relationships with several prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. … The files appeared to contain at least 4,500 documents that mentioned [Donald] Trump. One was a summary that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation assembled last summer of more than a dozen tips from the public involving Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein, according to emails released by the Department of Justice on Friday. It is unclear why the investigators put together the summary, which includes accusations of sexual abuse by Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump. The emails did not include any corroborating evidence, and The New York Times is not describing the details of the unverified claims.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/Aq3W0
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3) Palestine: Rafah crossing partially reopens; Israeli regime pretends it gets to decide who practices medicine in Gaza
Source: Politico
“Israel reopened the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt on Sunday in a limited capacity after two years, allowing only foot traffic, as violence continued across the Gaza Strip. The move comes amid fresh bloodshed in the enclave, with Gaza’s civil defense agency reporting dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday. … Israel announced separately on Sunday that it was terminating the operations of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, accusing the group of failing to submit lists of its Palestinian staff — a requirement Israeli authorities say applies to all aid organizations in the territory.” (02/01/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/rafah-crossing-partially-reopens-amid-continued-violence-across-gaza/
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4) Bitcoin drops to $78k as Strategy-fueled rally runs out of buyers, traders say
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin tumbled more than 10% on Saturday to about $75,700, extending a slide that has erased over 30% of its value since April 2025 and dragging major tokens like ether and Solana sharply lower. Roughly $111 billion in crypto market value and about $1.6 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in 24 hours amid thinning liquidity, muted buying interest and a halt in new capital flowing into bitcoin. Analysts say long-term holders are taking profits after last year’s ETF-fueled rally, and they expect a drawn-out period of sideways trading rather than a swift rebound, even as a deep 70% crash appears unlikely without selling by Strategy.” (02/01/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/02/01/bitcoin-drops-to-usd78-000-as-microstrategy-fueled-rally-runs-out-of-buyers-traders-say
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5) Iran: Regime thugs abduct Oscar-nominated screenwriter
Source: Deadline
“Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated It Was Just an Accident co-writer, has been arrested in Iran for speaking out against the Islamic Republic’s regime. On Saturday, Mahmoudian was arrested in Tehran along with Vida Rabbani and Abdullah Momeni for signing a statement condemning the actions of Ali Khameni, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. There is currently no information about the charges against them. The 17 signatories included It Was Just an Accident co-writer and director Jafar Panahi, who spoke out against Mahmoudian’s arrest in a statement.” (02/01/26)
https://deadline.com/2026/02/it-was-just-an-accident-mehdi-mahmoudian-arrested-iran-1236704922/
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6) Canada: Conservatives keep Pierre Poilievre as leader despite election loss
Source: NBC News
“Members of Canada’s Conservative opposition party voted to keep Pierre Poilievre as their leader despite his election loss last year and recent defections. Poilievre received 87.4% support in a leadership review vote announced early Saturday at the party’s convention in Calgary, Alberta. Poilievre lost the last election to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.” (01/31/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/canada/conservatives-keep-pierre-poilievre-leader-election-loss-rcna256834
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7) DOJ misconduct complaint against DC federal judge dismissed
Source: Washington Post
“A judicial misconduct complaint against Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C. has been dismissed because the Justice Department failed to show that he exhibited bias against the Trump administration. The allegations against Boasberg, a former prosecutor nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, were widely recirculated by conservative media. But when a federal appeals court requested evidence to back them up, administration officials failed to provide it, Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said in a decision dismissing the misconduct complaint. The decision, dated Dec. 19, was made public Saturday. … Trump has called for Boasberg to be removed from office. An impeachment resolution was introduced in the House last year and has support from 23 Republicans.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/a1M8N
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8) Pakistan: Nearly 200 killed in Balochistan fighting
Source: Reuters
“Pakistan’s security forces killed 145 militants over 40 hours after coordinated attacks across Balochistan, the chief minister of the southwestern province said on Sunday, as the authorities battle one of the deadliest flare-ups in years. The attacks underscore the persistence of insurgents in the resource-rich province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where separatist militant groups have stepped up assaults on security forces, civilians and infrastructure. … He also said 17 law enforcement personnel and 31 civilians were killed in the attacks. Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, has faced a decades-long insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatists seeking greater autonomy and a larger share of its natural resources.” (02/01/26)
https://archive.is/oEivG
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9) Iran: Khamenei warns any US attack would spark “regional war”
Source: SFGate
“Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark ‘a ]regional war’ in the Mideast, further scalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic. The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved. But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as ‘a coup,’ hardening the government’s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/iran-says-it-considers-eu-militaries-to-be-21327231.php
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10) TX: Democrats flip state Senate seat in shock upset
Source: The Hill
“Democrats scored a stunning upset on Saturday in a special election runoff for Texas Senate, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ, giving the party a major boost ahead of the November midterms. Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss to fill the vacant state Senate District 9. The district favored President Trump — who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday — by 17 points in 2024. The race went to a runoff after none of the candidates were able to clinch a majority in the November election. … ‘When a grassroots union organizer like Taylor Rehmet overperforms by almost 20 points and forces a runoff, it couldn’t be any clearer that voters are tired of Republican bullshit,’ Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in a statement after the November race.” (02/01/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas
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11) CA: Thousands rally against ICE gang in San Francisco’s Dolores Park
Source: SFGate
“Students poured into Dolores Park on Friday afternoon, sporting baggy pants, backpacks and protest signs as they joined thousands of workers and organizers for a national day of action demanding Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents be removed from communities nationwide. A drum circle pulsed through the crowd — with maracas shaking and a cowbell clanging — as teens waved signs bearing cheeky slogans like, ‘We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ ‘End the ICE age’ and ‘Sex is good but have you ever tried fucking the system?’ Cars passing the park honked in support while chants of ‘Minnesota to the Bay ICE ICE go away’ rippled across the hillside, driven by impassioned local labor and student organizers from a makeshift stage near the base of the park.” (01/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-dolores-park-ice-rally-21325277.php
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12) Iran: Blast in Port City Kills One, Wounds 14 Before Strait of Hormuz Naval Drill Watched by US
Source: US News & World Report
“An explosion tore through an apartment building Saturday in Iran ‘s port city of Bandar Abbas, killing a 4-year-old girl as local media footage purportedly showed a security force member being carried out by rescuers. The blast happened a day before a planned naval drill by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Already, the U.S. military had warned Iran not to threaten its warships or commercial traffic in the strait, on which Bandar Abbas sits. State television quoted a local fire official as blaming the blast on a gas leak. Another explosion blamed on a gas explosion Saturday in the southwestern city of Ahvaz killed five people, state media reported.” (01/31/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-31/blast-in-iran-port-city-kills-1-wounds-14-before-strait-of-hormuz-naval-drill-watched-by-us
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13) Escaped kangaroo blocks Virginia highway after being chased by hunting dogs, officials say
Source: Fox News
“Local law enforcement sprang into action Saturday morning after a kangaroo was spotted on a major highway in central Virginia. The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the intersection of Thomas Nelson Highway and Oak Ridge Road near the unincorporated community of Arrington after receiving a report of a kangaroo blocking traffic. … Officers safely steered the kangaroo off the roadway and onto nearby private property before tracking down the animal’s owner, according to authorities. ‘When the owner arrived, he shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart to subdue the animal,’ Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey told Fox News Digital.” (02/01/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/escaped-kangaroo-blocks-virginia-highway-being-chased-hunting-dogs-officials-say
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14) Judge rejects bid to end Trump regime’s Minnesota occupation
Source: Politico
“A federal judge has rejected a bid by state and local officials in Minnesota to end Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s massive deployment of thousands of federal agents to aggressively enforce immigration laws. In a ruling Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez found strong evidence that the ongoing federal operation ‘has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans.’ … But the Biden-appointed judge said state officials’ arguments that the state was being punished or unfairly treated by the federal government were insufficient to justify blocking the surge altogether.” (01/31/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/31/judge-rejects-bid-to-end-trump-administrations-immigration-enforcement-surge-in-minnesota-00758835
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15) Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe
Source: SFGate
“Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down by the ongoing operation. Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe, with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can. … For decades, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/mass-evictions-in-lagos-displace-thousands-21327252.php
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16) Venezuela: Rodriguez announces prisoner amnest
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, her latest major reform since the US military abducted the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife earlier this month. ‘We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day,’ Rodriguez said on Friday. Speaking at a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military officials and other government leaders, the acting president said the National Assembly would take up the amnesty bill with urgency. … Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of El Helicoide, a notorious secret service prison in Caracas, where torture and other human rights abuses have been documented by independent organisations. El Helicoide, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods.” (01/31/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/31/venezuelas-acting-president-delcy-rodriguez-announces-prisoner-amnesty
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17) Slovakia: PM’s national security adviser resigns over Epstein links
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister has resigned after documents released by the US showed he exchanged messages about girls and diplomacy with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Robert Fico announced he had accepted Miroslav Lajčák’s departure in a video message on Saturday, describing the adviser as ‘an incredible source of experience in diplomacy and foreign policy’. The resignation comes a day after three million files relating to the influential financier were released by the US Department of Justice. While the files do not show any wrongdoing on the part of those featured, including Lajčák, they have raised renewed questions for those who associated with Epstein.” (01/31/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvgljj1dygo
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18) Trump announces Kevin Warsh as Fed chair nominee
Source: The Hill
“President Trump early Friday nominated former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh to be the central bank’s next chair. … Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley banker and economic adviser to former President George W. Bush, had long been considered one of the front-runners for the president’s nomination. He served on the Fed board from 2006-11, becoming the youngest governor in the bank’s history, and served as its liaison to Wall Street during the 2007-08 financial crisis.” (01/30/26)
https://thehill.com/business/5714276-trump-nominates-warsh-fed-chairman/
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19) NASA begins practice countdown for first moonshot with astronauts in over 50 years
Source: SFGate
“NASA began a two-day practice countdown Saturday leading up to the fueling of its new moon rocket, a crucial test that will determine when four astronauts blast off on a lunar flyby. Already in quarantine to avoid germs, Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will be the first people to launch to the moon since 1972. They will monitor the dress rehearsal from their Houston base before flying to Kennedy Space Center once the rocket is cleared for flight. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket moved out to the pad two weeks ago. If Monday’s fueling test goes well, NASA could try to launch within a week. Teams will fill the rocket’s tank with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel, stopping a half-minute short of when the engines would light. A bitter cold spell delayed the fueling demo, and the launch, by two days. Feb. 8 is now the earliest the rocket could blast off.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/nasa-begins-a-practice-countdown-for-its-first-21326776.php
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20) Uganda: Army chief accuses US Embassy officials of aiding hiding opposition figure
Source: ABC News
“Uganda’s army chief accused U.S. Embassy officials of helping opposition leader Bobi Wine as he went into hiding, in an escalation of political tensions that have alarmed Ugandans days after a disputed presidential election. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Yoweri Museveni’s son and presumptive heir, wrote on X that ‘unimaginative bureaucrats at the Embassy’ for years have ‘undermined security ties between Uganda and Washington. Citing intelligence in X posts that he has since deleted, Kainerugaba said on Friday that Wine ‘kidnapped himself and is missing’ while ‘in coordination with the current administration at the U.S. Embassy in our country.’ The U.S. Embassy didn’t comment.” (01/30/26)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ugandas-army-chief-accuses-us-embassy-officials-aiding-129695220
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The revenge of the periphery
Source: spiked
by Joel Kotkin
“The 20th century was an era of consolidation and centralisation. Power shifted away from localities, communities and families, moving ever higher up the political food chain. In the ultimate shift, power flowed towards transnational bureaucracies – most notably in Europe, in the form of the EU. Today, we may be seeing the emergence of a counter-trend: one that seeks to return control to local bodies, closer to where people actually live. The internet and social-media platforms, though destructive in many ways, have also empowered local communities, who now enjoy access to much the same information as those in Brussels or Washington, or in the corporate towers.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/vEJQW
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22) When Life Hands Trump the Epstein Files, Trump Makes Lemon Aid
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“On January 29, secret federal police (‘Homeland Security Investigations’) arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering, and activists Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy for planning and organizing, a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota church. Arresting two journalists for covering an event most Americans correctly condemned — if you want to hold a protest during a religious service, hold it somewhere other than in the church — is a great way to create a ‘chilling effect’ on journalism … and distract the public’s attention from other events.” (01/31/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20295
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23) Treating Peaceful American Civilians as Enemy Combatants
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The recent killing of Alex Pretti by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in Minneapolis has generated a new wave of fury on the part of Americans upset about the mounting abuses that federal law enforcement personnel are committing. The alarm is fully warranted. ICE, the FBI, and other government entities increasingly both look and behave like ruthless military combat units. Unfortunately, too many people who are alarmed about the recent incidents seem to believe that the problem originated with Donald Trump’s presidency and that removing him from that post would end the ominous threat to civil liberties. That belief is delusional.” (01/30/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/01/29/treating-peaceful-american-civilians-as-enemy-combatants/
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24) Minnesota could finally teach Trump the limits of theatrics
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“[Gregory] Bovino, a longtime law enforcement official with a penchant for theatrics, answers to a boss who shares that weakness: Kristi L. Noem, the secretary of homeland security, whose self-dramatizing gestures frequently backfire. This appeals to our reality-star-in-chief for obvious reasons, but at least Trump has some political cunning and a keen sense of what audiences like. Noem, by contrast, believed she could somehow appeal to the American public by reminiscing about shooting her own dog. Instead it may well have knocked her off Trump’s vice president shortlist. Putting theater kids in charge of a sensitive law enforcement operation was a mistake. That error was compounded by who was sent to carry out their orders.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/nnmFf
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25) Militarized policing at the root of the Minneapolis mayhem
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“When I wrote regularly about police use-of-force issues for this newspaper, I encountered two types of officers: those admirable ones who de-escalated situations and those who escalated them. Thanks to a lack of hiring standards, purposeful federal policy, poor training and a lack of accountability or punishment for bad behavior, ICE is going all in on the second approach. This bodes ill for the safety and liberty of all Americans. The administration no doubt is doing this because it believes most Americans will instinctively back law and order. Notice all those blue-striped flags and bumper stickers.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/qVPJM
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26) There Can Be No More Doubt. Trump Wants to Kill Free Speech
Source: The Daily Beast
by David Rothkopf
“Donald Trump is seeking to execute the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the same way that his thugs gunned down Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for doing their jobs as journalists and covering a public protest at a church in Minneapolis is a violent assault on freedom of the press in the United States of America, one of the most egregious we have ever seen from a U.S. government.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/MdW1B
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27) Righteousness At The Expense Of Others … Isn’t
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Righteous acts are ones that you undertake, of your own will, at your own expense, and at your own risk. All else are cheap substitutes. You’re never going to strengthen and confirm your own soul by pretending that some mega-hierarchy will be an effective conduit for righteous deeds, and authorizing them to do those deeds with money they take away from others. Whatever good feelings you gain from that will be surface stuff only; they won’t upgrade you, and in the end they become little more than theater.” (01/30/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/righteousness-at-the-expense-of-others
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28) The Minneapolis Shootings Underline the Advantages of Body Cameras, Which DHS Has Been Slow To Adopt
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“A pending appropriations bill could increase transparency and accountability by requiring DHS personnel to record encounters with the public.” (01/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/30/the-minneapolis-shootings-underline-the-advantages-of-body-cameras-which-dhs-has-been-slow-to-adopt/
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29) The audacity of Trump’s choice as Fed chief
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The U.S. Senate will soon grill Kevin Warsh as President Donald Trump’s nominee to head up the nation’s central bank starting in May. The position is one of the most powerful in Washington. The Federal Reserve, with its mandate from Congress to ensure stable prices and full employment, helps steer both the American and world economy, mainly by setting interest rates. Given that the Senate easily approved the former Wall Street lawyer two decades ago to sit on the bank’s board – as the Fed’s youngest-ever governor – it might not probe him hard on one of his most intriguing yet disputed ideas. Yet, it should. Mr. Warsh, a graduate of Stanford and Harvard, maintains that the American people – in their curiosity, ingenuity, freedom, equality, and collaboration – are as important as the Fed in keeping inflation low.” (01/30/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0130/The-audacity-of-Trump-s-choice-as-Fed-chief
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30) Facing mass protests, Iran relies on familiar tools of state violence and internet blackouts
Source: Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin & Zoe Armbruster
“A familiar pattern of state repression has unfolded as mass protests spread in Iran. Authorities escalated their response through lethal force, mass arrests, communication blackouts, and the threat of executions. Demonstrations that began in late December over inflation and a collapsing currency quickly evolved into nationwide protests challenging the rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei more broadly. Death tolls are as of yet unclear, with different sources reporting numbers so far in the range from 6,000 to 12,000 to 30,000, and the exact number will likely be difficult to discern given widespread censorship. Security forces have also conducted thousands of arrests across all provinces. As unrest intensified, Iran imposed a near-total internet shutdown, cutting off roughly 90% of connectivity while preserving selective access for government officials and state-linked platforms.” (01/30/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/facing-mass-protests-iran-relies
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31) When Life Gives You Don Lemons …
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Honestly, if you’d told me a couple of weeks ago literally anything about failed CNN personality Don Lemon, it would have taken me a minute to remember who he was. If I really think about it, there’s a good chance I would have had to think about it for a second or two even back when he had a show on CNN, but now that he’s gone the only thing I think of is how he had a job with Twitter for one show, an interview with Elon Musk, and was so stupid that he got fired immediately after it. Until he helped raid that church in Minneapolis, that was going to be how I remembered him…If I remembered him at all. Now it’s like the j*****s who facilitated left-wing nutjobs screaming at families trying to worship God, then claimed they were white supremacists anyway.” (02/01/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/01/when-life-gives-you-don-lemons-n2670462
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32) The humans are chasing conspiracies. What will the bots think?
Source: Semafor
by Ben Smith
“The strongest case for the Epstein obsession is that it’s a kind of a metaphor — that his circle reveals the inwardness and corruption of American elites. I imagine Epstein would love this. As a convincing New York Times investigation showed, the sex criminal was a Gatsby-esque con man, feeding his fame and fortune with an astute trade in money, status, and information. At some point, the public might want to accept that we’re the final victims of his con, elevating his status beyond his wildest imaginings. Or maybe the bots, trained on the humans of Reddit and other social media platforms, will prove me wrong and unearth the real Epstein conspiracy.” (01/31/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/31/2026/the-humans-are-chasing-conspiracies-what-will-the-bots-think
-----
33) Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They’re Making Everything Awful
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I don’t know what to say today. We are ruled by abusive monsters. The US is preparing for war with Iran. They’re going in for the kill shot on Cuba. The latest batch of Epstein emails looks horrifying. The US is full of protests because ICE keeps killing people. Israel is still massacring civilians in Gaza as Australia prepares to host its president for an extended visit. Reuters has confirmed that Biden officials actively obstructed the circulation of internal USAID reports that Gaza was being turned into a nightmarish hellscape in early 2024. There’s so much cruelty. So much abuse. You’d think all this evidence that we are ruled by deranged psychopaths would unite us against them, but it doesn’t. The population is more angrily, bitterly divided against itself than ever.” (02/01/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/01/our-rulers-are-psychopaths-and-theyre-making-everything-awful/
-----
34) Trump’s Tariff War Is Crushing American Alcohol Makers
Source: Reason
by C Jarrett Dieterle
“In recent weeks, new data has emerged from Canada showing the near-catastrophic consequences to American alcohol manufacturers from President Donald Trump’s tariff wars. Yet despite clear signs that his tariff policies are backfiring, the president keeps doubling down.” (01/31/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/31/trumps-tariff-war-is-crushing-american-alcohol-makers/
-----
35) Should the United States Purchase Greenland?
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer
“Land expansionism helped make America great. A look into the pros and cons of President Trump’s attempt at Greenland.” (01/30/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/30/should-the-united-states-purchase-greenland/
-----
36) The Next Population Explosion
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The world’s richest man predicted that humanoid robots will soon become pervasive: ‘there will be more robots than people.’ I’m not much of a science fiction reader — does Nineteen Eighty-Four count? — but from movies and friends’ book suggestions, it sure seems that sci-fi writers have not predicted universally cheerful outcomes from Elon’s prophesied robot population explosion.” (01/30/16)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/30/the-next-population-explosion/
-----
37) Don Lemon’s “other unforgivable crime” was against his old profession
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“Whether Don Lemon broke federal law in his role in an attack on a Minnesota church will be up to a jury, but we can already say he deserves the max for his crime against journalism. At issue, both in the criminal case and the one in the court of journalistic ethics: Was the former CNN anchor present at the disruption of the church service in St. Paul to document the event or was he participating in it? It was quite clearly the latter. In the moments prior to the harebrained ‘protest’ in the house of worship that left children in tears, Lemon can be seen outside, on video he took himself, telling his viewers the ‘operation is a secret,’ adding, ‘I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but you’re going to watch it live.'” [editor’s note: Is a journalist embedded with a military unit betraying his profession if he doesn’t broadcast classified attack plans in advance? – TLK} (01/31/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-don-lemons-other-unforgivable-crime-against-his-old-profession
-----
38) Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
Source: The UnPopulist
by Anya A Bidwell
“A foundational element of our legal system is that our courts recognize, as Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Marbury v. Madison, that ‘where there is a legal right, there is also a legal remedy … whenever that right is invaded.’ This legal principle was supposed to ensure, among other things, that individuals could fight back, receive compensation, and discourage government abuses whenever a government agent or agency had violated their rights. As profound as Marshall’s words sound on paper, today they ring hollow for victims of constitutional abuses and other wrongdoing by employees of the federal government.” (01/30/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/americans-need-legal-remedies-restored
-----
39) Fraud as Policy: The Incentives of the Modern Welfare State
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Frise
“The scale of fraud uncovered in recent years has exposed how government transfer programs function, even as meaningful public or legislative reckoning remains largely absent. What began as a series of pandemic-related scandals has revealed something broader and more troubling: large-scale fraud is not an anomaly within the modern welfare state. The federal government, taxpayers, lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on data from 2018 to 2022. It is a predictable outcome of systems that distribute vast sums of money without market discipline, rely on third-party payment structures, and diffuse responsibility across layers of bureaucracy.” (01/30/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/fraud-policy-incentives-modern-welfare-state
-----
40) The Right to Move
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people’s rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn’t much matter. The default position is that each individual may rightfully move to somewhere else permanently or temporarily. Inside the United States, nobody questions this. People freely move from state to state, etc., sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. They need no one’s permission. Why should things be different when we talk about countries rather than smaller jurisdictions and when the individuals who do the moving are not recognized as citizens of the destination country?” (01/30/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-right-to-move.html
-----
41) As Trump Attacks the Republic, the Cowardly Democratic Party Still Won’t Fight to Win
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“‘How’s the Democratic Party’s ground game in Pennsylvania?’ I asked a friend several weeks before the 2024 presidential election. He replied optimistically that there were far more door knockers this year than in 2022. It turned out these door knockers were just urging a vote for the Democrats without putting forth a compelling agenda attached to candidate commitments on issues that mean something to people where they live, work, and raise their families. There was no Democratic Party ‘Compact for the American People’. Then-President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania, which went Republican, many times, with his most memorable message being that he grew up in Scranton. Once again, the vacuous, feeble Democratic Party is relying on the Republicans and the cruel, lawless dictator Donald Trump to beat themselves to gain control of the Senate and the House.” (01/31/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems-won-t-fight-to-win
-----
42) Fear of Immigration Raids Undermines Minnesota’s Health Care System
Source: Cato Institute
by Jeffrey A Singer & David J Bier
“Patients and workers are avoiding health care facilities as immigration crackdown continues to roil the state.” (01/30/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/fear-immigration-raids-undermines-minnesotas-health-care-system
-----
43) Why Zero-Sum Thinking Creates a Negative-Sum World
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Tom G Palmer
“Governments around the world have recently begun imposing massive sales taxes on their citizens and claiming that in doing so they are ‘protecting’ them. The additional taxes their citizens must pay are called ‘tariffs.’ At the end of the Second World War, there began a long trend toward removing extra taxes on trade, which helped to create waves of unprecedented prosperity. Lifespans and living standards rose across the globe. How easily we now take for granted what only a few generations ago seemed miraculous; how easily we fail to remember what made those seeming miracles possible: free enterprise, freedom to innovate, and freedom to trade. All of those are under serious attack around the world today.” (01/30/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-zero-sum-thinking-creates-a-negative-sum-world/
-----
44) Can The iPhone Save Our Democracy?
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“A video leaked this week of Greg Bovino, the former Minneapolis ICE honcho, that did the media rounds in the last 24 hours. He’s giving directions to his troops when he was in Los Angeles. It contained what you might expect: ‘This is our fucking city! … Arrest as many people who touch you as you want. Those are the general orders, all the way to the very top! It’s all about us now. It ain’t about them.’ Then this: ‘Professional, legal, ethical, moral.’ We’re on camera. But other than that, it’s what we do.’ … The iPhone seems to be the only serious threat to ICE’s violence.” (01/30/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/can-the-iphone-save-our-democracy-bac
-----
45) These are criminals, not protesters
Source: New York Post
by Jon Fleischman
“This weekend, what began as a protest in Los Angeles turned into violence. Not debate. Not a peaceful assembly. Violence. As you watch the scenes unfold on television, it feels like something that should be happening in Iran or Afghanistan — not in Los Angeles. Downtown mobs clashed with federal officers outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. Protesters were seen throwing water bottles, bottles, rocks, debris and other objects at federal and assisting law enforcement officers. A dumpster was moved into the street and set on fire outside the federal facility. The image was unmistakable: street chaos aimed directly at the seat of federal authority in the center of America’s second-largest city. This is happening yesterday and today — not in some unstable foreign capital. It is happening in Los Angeles, on streets where families work, live and commute.” (01/31/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/31/opinion/criminals-not-protesters/
-----
46) Rent Money Isn’t Wasted — It Buys Protection from Big Risk
Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book
“Rent is a premium to avoid risk and preserve mobility. Landlords don’t just collect checks: they absorb the financial volatility of homeownership.” (01/30/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rent-money-isnt-wasted-it-buys-protection-from-big-risk/
-----
47) When It Comes to Killing Protesters, Trump Sounds Like Iran
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan
“Donald Trump has a public relations problem: The agents he unleashed to round up illegal immigrants have been attacking and killing American citizens. The backlash is so bad that Trump had to sideline Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol’s former ‘commander-at-large.’ Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, might be next. Clearly, the administration needs new faces to defend its thuggery. Perhaps it should consider the rich talent pool available in a country with a like-minded government: Iran.” (01/30/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/protesters-iran-minnesota-good-pretti-trump
-----
48) Canada is not interested in White House boot licking. So what?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Zachary Paikin
“The president doesn’t appear to understand how much leverage our good neighbors to the north have.” (01/30/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-carney-canada/
-----
49) Impeach President Miller
Source: The American Prospect
by Maureen Tkacik
“Stephen Miller’s ascent to the shadow presidency began like so much other poison in the very immediate aftermath of 10/7, with a post nine days after the terror attacks from the official X account of the Trump campaign introducing a long list of bullet points under the title ‘Trump Plan to Keep Jihadists and Their Sympathizers Out of America.’ The campaign promised it would immediately revoke student visas from campus protesters born outside the country, ‘proactively send ICE to pro-jihadist demonstrations’ to arrest them, ‘aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies,’ use a then-obscure law called the Alien Enemies Act to jump-start said deportations, and ‘implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States’ that would automatically disqualify anyone suspected of harboring ‘sympathy for jihadists, Hamas or Hamas ideology.'” (01/31/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/31/impeach-president-miller/
-----
50) Will Ted Cruz Go Anti-Trump in 2028?
Source: The American Conservative
by Scott Greer
“President Donald Trump suggested this week that he may put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court. It was not meant as a compliment, as he explained how it would be easy to get the Texas senator confirmed. ‘The Democrats will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out and the Republicans will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out, too,’ Trump said at a press conference attended by Cruz and many other GOP lawmakers. The remark was probably meant to needle Cruz. Axios reported over the weekend that the senator attacked the president and vice president in comments to donors. Cruz is building himself up for another presidential run that will pit him against J.D. Vance.” (01/30/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/will-ted-cruz-go-anti-trump-in-2028/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 327
Source: Unattended Baggage
"And the Crab said, 'Let there be RAM.'" (02/01/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-327-and-the-crab-said-let
-----
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/31/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s talk about SCOTUS decision Case v. Montana.” (01/31/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPCfx-9Mek0
-----
53) Nonzero, 01/30/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The Grand Unified Theory of MAGA | Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov.” (01/30/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69272
-----
54) Free Talk Live, 01/31/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Are the AIs plotting against us? :: Is YouTube already controlled by AI? :: Being nice to AI so it’s nice to us :: Peter Thiel anagram is The Reptile :: Guy took all his texts with dead fiancé and put it into AI to pretend AI was her :: Postmodernism and subjective vs objective reality :: Hillary Clinton so disliked that she has to limit comments on her social media :: Bureaucrats admit to making regulations too hard to follow so they can go after you :: Cops are not above just killing you if you don’t comply :: Each side thinks they’re the counter culture of the other :: Divide and conquer over and over again :: Journalists running cover for Epstein :: Residents leaving New Mexico :: Venezuelan soldiers say the US hit them with energy weapons that made their eyes and ears bleed :: TSA fining people $50 :: 2026-01-31 :: Bonnie, Riley, Angelo.” (01/31/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-31
-----
55) Serious Trouble, 01/31/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“The Feds got an arrest warrant for Don Lemon after all; judges protest the backlog of habeas cases that ensued from the ban on nationwide injunctions; Jeffrey Toobin is likely to have to testify.” (01/31/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/lemon-law
-----
56) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/30/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Discussion: Case for Christian Nationalism: Coercive Christian Collectivism (for your own good).” (01/30/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLF0ryKjeqQ
-----
57) Rising, 01/30/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger delivers lens on the FBI search of an election office in Georgia’s Fulton County outside Atlanta pursuing President Trump’s 2020 vote fraud claims.” (01/30/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5710968-rising-january-30-2026/
-----
58) Jim Bovard on The David Knight Show, 01/30/26
Source: The David Knight Show
“Minnesota ICE Killings And The Echos Of Ruby Ridge.” (01/30/26)
https://x.com/libertytarian/status/2017327523768500337
-----
59) The Bulwark Podcast, 01/30/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Republicans Own What Happens Next (w/ Michael Steele).” (01/30/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEUMYTdePc
-----
60) Soho Forum Debate: Will AI Benefit Everyone?
Source: Reason
“Technology authors Perry Metzger and Brian Merchant debate the resolution, ‘Artificial Intelligence will provide enormous net benefits to nearly every member of society.'” (01/30/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/30/will-ai-benefit-everyone/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine: Twelve miners killed in Russian drone strike
2) Latest Epstein file dump names Trump, Musk, Gates, et al.
3) Palestine: Rafah crossing partially reopens; Israeli regime pretends it gets to decide who practices medicine in Gaza
4) Bitcoin drops to $78k as Strategy-fueled rally runs out of buyers, traders say
5) Iran: Regime thugs abduct Oscar-nominated screenwriter
6) Canada: Conservatives keep Pierre Poilievre as leader despite election loss
7) DOJ misconduct complaint against DC federal judge dismissed
8) Pakistan: Nearly 200 killed in Balochistan fighting
9) Iran: Khamenei warns any US attack would spark “regional war”
10) TX: Democrats flip state Senate seat in shock upset
11) CA: Thousands rally against ICE gang in San Francisco’s Dolores Park
12) Iran: Blast in Port City Kills One, Wounds 14 Before Strait of Hormuz Naval Drill Watched by US
13) Escaped kangaroo blocks Virginia highway after being chased by hunting dogs, officials say
14) Judge rejects bid to end Trump regime’s Minnesota occupation
15) Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe
16) Venezuela: Rodriguez announces prisoner amnest
17) Slovakia: PM’s national security adviser resigns over Epstein links
18) Trump announces Kevin Warsh as Fed chair nominee
19) NASA begins practice countdown for first moonshot with astronauts in over 50 years
20) Uganda: Army chief accuses US Embassy officials of aiding hiding opposition figure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The revenge of the periphery
22) When Life Hands Trump the Epstein Files, Trump Makes Lemon Aid
23) Treating Peaceful American Civilians as Enemy Combatants
24) Minnesota could finally teach Trump the limits of theatrics
25) Militarized policing at the root of the Minneapolis mayhem
26) There Can Be No More Doubt. Trump Wants to Kill Free Speech
27) Righteousness At The Expense Of Others … Isn’t
28) The Minneapolis Shootings Underline the Advantages of Body Cameras, Which DHS Has Been Slow To Adopt
29) The audacity of Trump’s choice as Fed chief
30) Facing mass protests, Iran relies on familiar tools of state violence and internet blackouts
31) When Life Gives You Don Lemons…
32) The humans are chasing conspiracies. What will the bots think?
33) Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They’re Making Everything Awful
34) Trump’s Tariff War Is Crushing American Alcohol Makers
35) Should the United States Purchase Greenland?
36) The Next Population Explosion
37) Don Lemon’s “other unforgivable crime” was against his old profession
38) Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
39) Fraud as Policy: The Incentives of the Modern Welfare State
40) The Right to Move
41) As Trump Attacks the Republic, the Cowardly Democratic Party Still Won’t Fight to Win
42) Fear of Immigration Raids Undermines Minnesota’s Health Care System
43) Why Zero-Sum Thinking Creates a Negative-Sum World
44) Can The iPhone Save Our Democracy?
45) These are criminals, not protesters
46) Rent Money Isn’t Wasted — It Buys Protection from Big Risk
47) When It Comes to Killing Protesters, Trump Sounds Like Iran
48) Canada is not interested in White House boot licking. So what?
49) Impeach President Miller
50) Will Ted Cruz Go Anti-Trump in 2028?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 327
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/31/26
53) Nonzero, 01/30/26
54) Free Talk Live, 01/31/26
55) Serious Trouble, 01/31/26
56) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/30/26
57) Rising, 01/30/26
58) Jim Bovard on The David Knight Show, 01/30/26
59) The Bulwark Podcast, 01/30/26
60) Soho Forum Debate: Will AI Benefit Everyone?
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine: Twelve miners killed in Russian drone strike
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Twelve miners have been killed by a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, the country’s largest private energy firm has said. DTEK said a bus carrying workers after a shift in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region had been targeted in Sunday’s attack. At least 15 people were injured, state emergency services said. Earlier, at least two others were killed and nine injured in separate Russian attacks overnight and on Sunday, including six people who were hurt when a drone hit a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia. The strikes come while Russia had agreed not to target population centres and energy infrastructure for the duration of a cold snap.” (02/02/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdre7g2je63o
-----
2) Latest Epstein file dump names Trump, Musk, Gates, et al.
Source: New York Times
“The Department of Justice on Friday released the largest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files to date, a giant tranche including three million more pages of documents and thousands of videos and images. The documents shed new light on the disgraced financier’s relationships with several prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. … The files appeared to contain at least 4,500 documents that mentioned [Donald] Trump. One was a summary that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation assembled last summer of more than a dozen tips from the public involving Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein, according to emails released by the Department of Justice on Friday. It is unclear why the investigators put together the summary, which includes accusations of sexual abuse by Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump. The emails did not include any corroborating evidence, and The New York Times is not describing the details of the unverified claims.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/Aq3W0
-----
3) Palestine: Rafah crossing partially reopens; Israeli regime pretends it gets to decide who practices medicine in Gaza
Source: Politico
“Israel reopened the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt on Sunday in a limited capacity after two years, allowing only foot traffic, as violence continued across the Gaza Strip. The move comes amid fresh bloodshed in the enclave, with Gaza’s civil defense agency reporting dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday. … Israel announced separately on Sunday that it was terminating the operations of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, accusing the group of failing to submit lists of its Palestinian staff — a requirement Israeli authorities say applies to all aid organizations in the territory.” (02/01/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/rafah-crossing-partially-reopens-amid-continued-violence-across-gaza/
-----
4) Bitcoin drops to $78k as Strategy-fueled rally runs out of buyers, traders say
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin tumbled more than 10% on Saturday to about $75,700, extending a slide that has erased over 30% of its value since April 2025 and dragging major tokens like ether and Solana sharply lower. Roughly $111 billion in crypto market value and about $1.6 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in 24 hours amid thinning liquidity, muted buying interest and a halt in new capital flowing into bitcoin. Analysts say long-term holders are taking profits after last year’s ETF-fueled rally, and they expect a drawn-out period of sideways trading rather than a swift rebound, even as a deep 70% crash appears unlikely without selling by Strategy.” (02/01/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/02/01/bitcoin-drops-to-usd78-000-as-microstrategy-fueled-rally-runs-out-of-buyers-traders-say
-----
5) Iran: Regime thugs abduct Oscar-nominated screenwriter
Source: Deadline
“Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated It Was Just an Accident co-writer, has been arrested in Iran for speaking out against the Islamic Republic’s regime. On Saturday, Mahmoudian was arrested in Tehran along with Vida Rabbani and Abdullah Momeni for signing a statement condemning the actions of Ali Khameni, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. There is currently no information about the charges against them. The 17 signatories included It Was Just an Accident co-writer and director Jafar Panahi, who spoke out against Mahmoudian’s arrest in a statement.” (02/01/26)
https://deadline.com/2026/02/it-was-just-an-accident-mehdi-mahmoudian-arrested-iran-1236704922/
-----
6) Canada: Conservatives keep Pierre Poilievre as leader despite election loss
Source: NBC News
“Members of Canada’s Conservative opposition party voted to keep Pierre Poilievre as their leader despite his election loss last year and recent defections. Poilievre received 87.4% support in a leadership review vote announced early Saturday at the party’s convention in Calgary, Alberta. Poilievre lost the last election to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.” (01/31/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/canada/conservatives-keep-pierre-poilievre-leader-election-loss-rcna256834
-----
7) DOJ misconduct complaint against DC federal judge dismissed
Source: Washington Post
“A judicial misconduct complaint against Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C. has been dismissed because the Justice Department failed to show that he exhibited bias against the Trump administration. The allegations against Boasberg, a former prosecutor nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, were widely recirculated by conservative media. But when a federal appeals court requested evidence to back them up, administration officials failed to provide it, Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said in a decision dismissing the misconduct complaint. The decision, dated Dec. 19, was made public Saturday. … Trump has called for Boasberg to be removed from office. An impeachment resolution was introduced in the House last year and has support from 23 Republicans.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/a1M8N
-----
8) Pakistan: Nearly 200 killed in Balochistan fighting
Source: Reuters
“Pakistan’s security forces killed 145 militants over 40 hours after coordinated attacks across Balochistan, the chief minister of the southwestern province said on Sunday, as the authorities battle one of the deadliest flare-ups in years. The attacks underscore the persistence of insurgents in the resource-rich province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where separatist militant groups have stepped up assaults on security forces, civilians and infrastructure. … He also said 17 law enforcement personnel and 31 civilians were killed in the attacks. Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, has faced a decades-long insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatists seeking greater autonomy and a larger share of its natural resources.” (02/01/26)
https://archive.is/oEivG
-----
9) Iran: Khamenei warns any US attack would spark “regional war”
Source: SFGate
“Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark ‘a ]regional war’ in the Mideast, further scalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic. The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved. But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as ‘a coup,’ hardening the government’s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/iran-says-it-considers-eu-militaries-to-be-21327231.php
-----
10) TX: Democrats flip state Senate seat in shock upset
Source: The Hill
“Democrats scored a stunning upset on Saturday in a special election runoff for Texas Senate, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ, giving the party a major boost ahead of the November midterms. Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss to fill the vacant state Senate District 9. The district favored President Trump — who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday — by 17 points in 2024. The race went to a runoff after none of the candidates were able to clinch a majority in the November election. … ‘When a grassroots union organizer like Taylor Rehmet overperforms by almost 20 points and forces a runoff, it couldn’t be any clearer that voters are tired of Republican bullshit,’ Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in a statement after the November race.” (02/01/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas
-----
11) CA: Thousands rally against ICE gang in San Francisco’s Dolores Park
Source: SFGate
“Students poured into Dolores Park on Friday afternoon, sporting baggy pants, backpacks and protest signs as they joined thousands of workers and organizers for a national day of action demanding Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents be removed from communities nationwide. A drum circle pulsed through the crowd — with maracas shaking and a cowbell clanging — as teens waved signs bearing cheeky slogans like, ‘We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ ‘End the ICE age’ and ‘Sex is good but have you ever tried fucking the system?’ Cars passing the park honked in support while chants of ‘Minnesota to the Bay ICE ICE go away’ rippled across the hillside, driven by impassioned local labor and student organizers from a makeshift stage near the base of the park.” (01/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-dolores-park-ice-rally-21325277.php
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12) Iran: Blast in Port City Kills One, Wounds 14 Before Strait of Hormuz Naval Drill Watched by US
Source: US News & World Report
“An explosion tore through an apartment building Saturday in Iran ‘s port city of Bandar Abbas, killing a 4-year-old girl as local media footage purportedly showed a security force member being carried out by rescuers. The blast happened a day before a planned naval drill by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Already, the U.S. military had warned Iran not to threaten its warships or commercial traffic in the strait, on which Bandar Abbas sits. State television quoted a local fire official as blaming the blast on a gas leak. Another explosion blamed on a gas explosion Saturday in the southwestern city of Ahvaz killed five people, state media reported.” (01/31/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-01-31/blast-in-iran-port-city-kills-1-wounds-14-before-strait-of-hormuz-naval-drill-watched-by-us
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13) Escaped kangaroo blocks Virginia highway after being chased by hunting dogs, officials say
Source: Fox News
“Local law enforcement sprang into action Saturday morning after a kangaroo was spotted on a major highway in central Virginia. The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the intersection of Thomas Nelson Highway and Oak Ridge Road near the unincorporated community of Arrington after receiving a report of a kangaroo blocking traffic. … Officers safely steered the kangaroo off the roadway and onto nearby private property before tracking down the animal’s owner, according to authorities. ‘When the owner arrived, he shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart to subdue the animal,’ Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey told Fox News Digital.” (02/01/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/escaped-kangaroo-blocks-virginia-highway-being-chased-hunting-dogs-officials-say
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14) Judge rejects bid to end Trump regime’s Minnesota occupation
Source: Politico
“A federal judge has rejected a bid by state and local officials in Minnesota to end Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s massive deployment of thousands of federal agents to aggressively enforce immigration laws. In a ruling Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez found strong evidence that the ongoing federal operation ‘has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans.’ … But the Biden-appointed judge said state officials’ arguments that the state was being punished or unfairly treated by the federal government were insufficient to justify blocking the surge altogether.” (01/31/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/31/judge-rejects-bid-to-end-trump-administrations-immigration-enforcement-surge-in-minnesota-00758835
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15) Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe
Source: SFGate
“Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down by the ongoing operation. Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe, with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can. … For decades, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/mass-evictions-in-lagos-displace-thousands-21327252.php
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16) Venezuela: Rodriguez announces prisoner amnest
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, her latest major reform since the US military abducted the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife earlier this month. ‘We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day,’ Rodriguez said on Friday. Speaking at a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military officials and other government leaders, the acting president said the National Assembly would take up the amnesty bill with urgency. … Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of El Helicoide, a notorious secret service prison in Caracas, where torture and other human rights abuses have been documented by independent organisations. El Helicoide, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods.” (01/31/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/31/venezuelas-acting-president-delcy-rodriguez-announces-prisoner-amnesty
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17) Slovakia: PM’s national security adviser resigns over Epstein links
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister has resigned after documents released by the US showed he exchanged messages about girls and diplomacy with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Robert Fico announced he had accepted Miroslav Lajčák’s departure in a video message on Saturday, describing the adviser as ‘an incredible source of experience in diplomacy and foreign policy’. The resignation comes a day after three million files relating to the influential financier were released by the US Department of Justice. While the files do not show any wrongdoing on the part of those featured, including Lajčák, they have raised renewed questions for those who associated with Epstein.” (01/31/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvgljj1dygo
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18) Trump announces Kevin Warsh as Fed chair nominee
Source: The Hill
“President Trump early Friday nominated former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh to be the central bank’s next chair. … Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley banker and economic adviser to former President George W. Bush, had long been considered one of the front-runners for the president’s nomination. He served on the Fed board from 2006-11, becoming the youngest governor in the bank’s history, and served as its liaison to Wall Street during the 2007-08 financial crisis.” (01/30/26)
https://thehill.com/business/5714276-trump-nominates-warsh-fed-chairman/
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19) NASA begins practice countdown for first moonshot with astronauts in over 50 years
Source: SFGate
“NASA began a two-day practice countdown Saturday leading up to the fueling of its new moon rocket, a crucial test that will determine when four astronauts blast off on a lunar flyby. Already in quarantine to avoid germs, Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will be the first people to launch to the moon since 1972. They will monitor the dress rehearsal from their Houston base before flying to Kennedy Space Center once the rocket is cleared for flight. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket moved out to the pad two weeks ago. If Monday’s fueling test goes well, NASA could try to launch within a week. Teams will fill the rocket’s tank with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel, stopping a half-minute short of when the engines would light. A bitter cold spell delayed the fueling demo, and the launch, by two days. Feb. 8 is now the earliest the rocket could blast off.” (02/01/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/nasa-begins-a-practice-countdown-for-its-first-21326776.php
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20) Uganda: Army chief accuses US Embassy officials of aiding hiding opposition figure
Source: ABC News
“Uganda’s army chief accused U.S. Embassy officials of helping opposition leader Bobi Wine as he went into hiding, in an escalation of political tensions that have alarmed Ugandans days after a disputed presidential election. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Yoweri Museveni’s son and presumptive heir, wrote on X that ‘unimaginative bureaucrats at the Embassy’ for years have ‘undermined security ties between Uganda and Washington. Citing intelligence in X posts that he has since deleted, Kainerugaba said on Friday that Wine ‘kidnapped himself and is missing’ while ‘in coordination with the current administration at the U.S. Embassy in our country.’ The U.S. Embassy didn’t comment.” (01/30/26)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ugandas-army-chief-accuses-us-embassy-officials-aiding-129695220
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The revenge of the periphery
Source: spiked
by Joel Kotkin
“The 20th century was an era of consolidation and centralisation. Power shifted away from localities, communities and families, moving ever higher up the political food chain. In the ultimate shift, power flowed towards transnational bureaucracies – most notably in Europe, in the form of the EU. Today, we may be seeing the emergence of a counter-trend: one that seeks to return control to local bodies, closer to where people actually live. The internet and social-media platforms, though destructive in many ways, have also empowered local communities, who now enjoy access to much the same information as those in Brussels or Washington, or in the corporate towers.” (01/31/26)
https://archive.is/vEJQW
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22) When Life Hands Trump the Epstein Files, Trump Makes Lemon Aid
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“On January 29, secret federal police (‘Homeland Security Investigations’) arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering, and activists Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy for planning and organizing, a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota church. Arresting two journalists for covering an event most Americans correctly condemned — if you want to hold a protest during a religious service, hold it somewhere other than in the church — is a great way to create a ‘chilling effect’ on journalism … and distract the public’s attention from other events.” (01/31/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20295
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23) Treating Peaceful American Civilians as Enemy Combatants
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The recent killing of Alex Pretti by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in Minneapolis has generated a new wave of fury on the part of Americans upset about the mounting abuses that federal law enforcement personnel are committing. The alarm is fully warranted. ICE, the FBI, and other government entities increasingly both look and behave like ruthless military combat units. Unfortunately, too many people who are alarmed about the recent incidents seem to believe that the problem originated with Donald Trump’s presidency and that removing him from that post would end the ominous threat to civil liberties. That belief is delusional.” (01/30/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/01/29/treating-peaceful-american-civilians-as-enemy-combatants/
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24) Minnesota could finally teach Trump the limits of theatrics
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“[Gregory] Bovino, a longtime law enforcement official with a penchant for theatrics, answers to a boss who shares that weakness: Kristi L. Noem, the secretary of homeland security, whose self-dramatizing gestures frequently backfire. This appeals to our reality-star-in-chief for obvious reasons, but at least Trump has some political cunning and a keen sense of what audiences like. Noem, by contrast, believed she could somehow appeal to the American public by reminiscing about shooting her own dog. Instead it may well have knocked her off Trump’s vice president shortlist. Putting theater kids in charge of a sensitive law enforcement operation was a mistake. That error was compounded by who was sent to carry out their orders.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/nnmFf
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25) Militarized policing at the root of the Minneapolis mayhem
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“When I wrote regularly about police use-of-force issues for this newspaper, I encountered two types of officers: those admirable ones who de-escalated situations and those who escalated them. Thanks to a lack of hiring standards, purposeful federal policy, poor training and a lack of accountability or punishment for bad behavior, ICE is going all in on the second approach. This bodes ill for the safety and liberty of all Americans. The administration no doubt is doing this because it believes most Americans will instinctively back law and order. Notice all those blue-striped flags and bumper stickers.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/qVPJM
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26) There Can Be No More Doubt. Trump Wants to Kill Free Speech
Source: The Daily Beast
by David Rothkopf
“Donald Trump is seeking to execute the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the same way that his thugs gunned down Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for doing their jobs as journalists and covering a public protest at a church in Minneapolis is a violent assault on freedom of the press in the United States of America, one of the most egregious we have ever seen from a U.S. government.” (01/30/26)
https://archive.is/MdW1B
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27) Righteousness At The Expense Of Others … Isn’t
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg
“Righteous acts are ones that you undertake, of your own will, at your own expense, and at your own risk. All else are cheap substitutes. You’re never going to strengthen and confirm your own soul by pretending that some mega-hierarchy will be an effective conduit for righteous deeds, and authorizing them to do those deeds with money they take away from others. Whatever good feelings you gain from that will be surface stuff only; they won’t upgrade you, and in the end they become little more than theater.” (01/30/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/righteousness-at-the-expense-of-others
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28) The Minneapolis Shootings Underline the Advantages of Body Cameras, Which DHS Has Been Slow To Adopt
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“A pending appropriations bill could increase transparency and accountability by requiring DHS personnel to record encounters with the public.” (01/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/30/the-minneapolis-shootings-underline-the-advantages-of-body-cameras-which-dhs-has-been-slow-to-adopt/
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29) The audacity of Trump’s choice as Fed chief
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The U.S. Senate will soon grill Kevin Warsh as President Donald Trump’s nominee to head up the nation’s central bank starting in May. The position is one of the most powerful in Washington. The Federal Reserve, with its mandate from Congress to ensure stable prices and full employment, helps steer both the American and world economy, mainly by setting interest rates. Given that the Senate easily approved the former Wall Street lawyer two decades ago to sit on the bank’s board – as the Fed’s youngest-ever governor – it might not probe him hard on one of his most intriguing yet disputed ideas. Yet, it should. Mr. Warsh, a graduate of Stanford and Harvard, maintains that the American people – in their curiosity, ingenuity, freedom, equality, and collaboration – are as important as the Fed in keeping inflation low.” (01/30/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0130/The-audacity-of-Trump-s-choice-as-Fed-chief
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30) Facing mass protests, Iran relies on familiar tools of state violence and internet blackouts
Source: Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin & Zoe Armbruster
“A familiar pattern of state repression has unfolded as mass protests spread in Iran. Authorities escalated their response through lethal force, mass arrests, communication blackouts, and the threat of executions. Demonstrations that began in late December over inflation and a collapsing currency quickly evolved into nationwide protests challenging the rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei more broadly. Death tolls are as of yet unclear, with different sources reporting numbers so far in the range from 6,000 to 12,000 to 30,000, and the exact number will likely be difficult to discern given widespread censorship. Security forces have also conducted thousands of arrests across all provinces. As unrest intensified, Iran imposed a near-total internet shutdown, cutting off roughly 90% of connectivity while preserving selective access for government officials and state-linked platforms.” (01/30/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/facing-mass-protests-iran-relies
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31) When Life Gives You Don Lemons …
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Honestly, if you’d told me a couple of weeks ago literally anything about failed CNN personality Don Lemon, it would have taken me a minute to remember who he was. If I really think about it, there’s a good chance I would have had to think about it for a second or two even back when he had a show on CNN, but now that he’s gone the only thing I think of is how he had a job with Twitter for one show, an interview with Elon Musk, and was so stupid that he got fired immediately after it. Until he helped raid that church in Minneapolis, that was going to be how I remembered him…If I remembered him at all. Now it’s like the j*****s who facilitated left-wing nutjobs screaming at families trying to worship God, then claimed they were white supremacists anyway.” (02/01/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/01/when-life-gives-you-don-lemons-n2670462
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32) The humans are chasing conspiracies. What will the bots think?
Source: Semafor
by Ben Smith
“The strongest case for the Epstein obsession is that it’s a kind of a metaphor — that his circle reveals the inwardness and corruption of American elites. I imagine Epstein would love this. As a convincing New York Times investigation showed, the sex criminal was a Gatsby-esque con man, feeding his fame and fortune with an astute trade in money, status, and information. At some point, the public might want to accept that we’re the final victims of his con, elevating his status beyond his wildest imaginings. Or maybe the bots, trained on the humans of Reddit and other social media platforms, will prove me wrong and unearth the real Epstein conspiracy.” (01/31/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/31/2026/the-humans-are-chasing-conspiracies-what-will-the-bots-think
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33) Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They’re Making Everything Awful
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I don’t know what to say today. We are ruled by abusive monsters. The US is preparing for war with Iran. They’re going in for the kill shot on Cuba. The latest batch of Epstein emails looks horrifying. The US is full of protests because ICE keeps killing people. Israel is still massacring civilians in Gaza as Australia prepares to host its president for an extended visit. Reuters has confirmed that Biden officials actively obstructed the circulation of internal USAID reports that Gaza was being turned into a nightmarish hellscape in early 2024. There’s so much cruelty. So much abuse. You’d think all this evidence that we are ruled by deranged psychopaths would unite us against them, but it doesn’t. The population is more angrily, bitterly divided against itself than ever.” (02/01/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/01/our-rulers-are-psychopaths-and-theyre-making-everything-awful/
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34) Trump’s Tariff War Is Crushing American Alcohol Makers
Source: Reason
by C Jarrett Dieterle
“In recent weeks, new data has emerged from Canada showing the near-catastrophic consequences to American alcohol manufacturers from President Donald Trump’s tariff wars. Yet despite clear signs that his tariff policies are backfiring, the president keeps doubling down.” (01/31/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/31/trumps-tariff-war-is-crushing-american-alcohol-makers/
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35) Should the United States Purchase Greenland?
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer
“Land expansionism helped make America great. A look into the pros and cons of President Trump’s attempt at Greenland.” (01/30/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/30/should-the-united-states-purchase-greenland/
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36) The Next Population Explosion
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The world’s richest man predicted that humanoid robots will soon become pervasive: ‘there will be more robots than people.’ I’m not much of a science fiction reader — does Nineteen Eighty-Four count? — but from movies and friends’ book suggestions, it sure seems that sci-fi writers have not predicted universally cheerful outcomes from Elon’s prophesied robot population explosion.” (01/30/16)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/30/the-next-population-explosion/
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37) Don Lemon’s “other unforgivable crime” was against his old profession
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“Whether Don Lemon broke federal law in his role in an attack on a Minnesota church will be up to a jury, but we can already say he deserves the max for his crime against journalism. At issue, both in the criminal case and the one in the court of journalistic ethics: Was the former CNN anchor present at the disruption of the church service in St. Paul to document the event or was he participating in it? It was quite clearly the latter. In the moments prior to the harebrained ‘protest’ in the house of worship that left children in tears, Lemon can be seen outside, on video he took himself, telling his viewers the ‘operation is a secret,’ adding, ‘I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but you’re going to watch it live.'” [editor’s note: Is a journalist embedded with a military unit betraying his profession if he doesn’t broadcast classified attack plans in advance? – TLK} (01/31/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-don-lemons-other-unforgivable-crime-against-his-old-profession
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38) Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
Source: The UnPopulist
by Anya A Bidwell
“A foundational element of our legal system is that our courts recognize, as Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Marbury v. Madison, that ‘where there is a legal right, there is also a legal remedy … whenever that right is invaded.’ This legal principle was supposed to ensure, among other things, that individuals could fight back, receive compensation, and discourage government abuses whenever a government agent or agency had violated their rights. As profound as Marshall’s words sound on paper, today they ring hollow for victims of constitutional abuses and other wrongdoing by employees of the federal government.” (01/30/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/americans-need-legal-remedies-restored
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39) Fraud as Policy: The Incentives of the Modern Welfare State
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Frise
“The scale of fraud uncovered in recent years has exposed how government transfer programs function, even as meaningful public or legislative reckoning remains largely absent. What began as a series of pandemic-related scandals has revealed something broader and more troubling: large-scale fraud is not an anomaly within the modern welfare state. The federal government, taxpayers, lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on data from 2018 to 2022. It is a predictable outcome of systems that distribute vast sums of money without market discipline, rely on third-party payment structures, and diffuse responsibility across layers of bureaucracy.” (01/30/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/fraud-policy-incentives-modern-welfare-state
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40) The Right to Move
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people’s rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn’t much matter. The default position is that each individual may rightfully move to somewhere else permanently or temporarily. Inside the United States, nobody questions this. People freely move from state to state, etc., sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. They need no one’s permission. Why should things be different when we talk about countries rather than smaller jurisdictions and when the individuals who do the moving are not recognized as citizens of the destination country?” (01/30/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-right-to-move.html
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41) As Trump Attacks the Republic, the Cowardly Democratic Party Still Won’t Fight to Win
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“‘How’s the Democratic Party’s ground game in Pennsylvania?’ I asked a friend several weeks before the 2024 presidential election. He replied optimistically that there were far more door knockers this year than in 2022. It turned out these door knockers were just urging a vote for the Democrats without putting forth a compelling agenda attached to candidate commitments on issues that mean something to people where they live, work, and raise their families. There was no Democratic Party ‘Compact for the American People’. Then-President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania, which went Republican, many times, with his most memorable message being that he grew up in Scranton. Once again, the vacuous, feeble Democratic Party is relying on the Republicans and the cruel, lawless dictator Donald Trump to beat themselves to gain control of the Senate and the House.” (01/31/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems-won-t-fight-to-win
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42) Fear of Immigration Raids Undermines Minnesota’s Health Care System
Source: Cato Institute
by Jeffrey A Singer & David J Bier
“Patients and workers are avoiding health care facilities as immigration crackdown continues to roil the state.” (01/30/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/fear-immigration-raids-undermines-minnesotas-health-care-system
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43) Why Zero-Sum Thinking Creates a Negative-Sum World
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Tom G Palmer
“Governments around the world have recently begun imposing massive sales taxes on their citizens and claiming that in doing so they are ‘protecting’ them. The additional taxes their citizens must pay are called ‘tariffs.’ At the end of the Second World War, there began a long trend toward removing extra taxes on trade, which helped to create waves of unprecedented prosperity. Lifespans and living standards rose across the globe. How easily we now take for granted what only a few generations ago seemed miraculous; how easily we fail to remember what made those seeming miracles possible: free enterprise, freedom to innovate, and freedom to trade. All of those are under serious attack around the world today.” (01/30/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-zero-sum-thinking-creates-a-negative-sum-world/
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44) Can The iPhone Save Our Democracy?
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“A video leaked this week of Greg Bovino, the former Minneapolis ICE honcho, that did the media rounds in the last 24 hours. He’s giving directions to his troops when he was in Los Angeles. It contained what you might expect: ‘This is our fucking city! … Arrest as many people who touch you as you want. Those are the general orders, all the way to the very top! It’s all about us now. It ain’t about them.’ Then this: ‘Professional, legal, ethical, moral.’ We’re on camera. But other than that, it’s what we do.’ … The iPhone seems to be the only serious threat to ICE’s violence.” (01/30/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/can-the-iphone-save-our-democracy-bac
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45) These are criminals, not protesters
Source: New York Post
by Jon Fleischman
“This weekend, what began as a protest in Los Angeles turned into violence. Not debate. Not a peaceful assembly. Violence. As you watch the scenes unfold on television, it feels like something that should be happening in Iran or Afghanistan — not in Los Angeles. Downtown mobs clashed with federal officers outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. Protesters were seen throwing water bottles, bottles, rocks, debris and other objects at federal and assisting law enforcement officers. A dumpster was moved into the street and set on fire outside the federal facility. The image was unmistakable: street chaos aimed directly at the seat of federal authority in the center of America’s second-largest city. This is happening yesterday and today — not in some unstable foreign capital. It is happening in Los Angeles, on streets where families work, live and commute.” (01/31/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/01/31/opinion/criminals-not-protesters/
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46) Rent Money Isn’t Wasted — It Buys Protection from Big Risk
Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book
“Rent is a premium to avoid risk and preserve mobility. Landlords don’t just collect checks: they absorb the financial volatility of homeownership.” (01/30/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rent-money-isnt-wasted-it-buys-protection-from-big-risk/
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47) When It Comes to Killing Protesters, Trump Sounds Like Iran
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan
“Donald Trump has a public relations problem: The agents he unleashed to round up illegal immigrants have been attacking and killing American citizens. The backlash is so bad that Trump had to sideline Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol’s former ‘commander-at-large.’ Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, might be next. Clearly, the administration needs new faces to defend its thuggery. Perhaps it should consider the rich talent pool available in a country with a like-minded government: Iran.” (01/30/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/protesters-iran-minnesota-good-pretti-trump
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48) Canada is not interested in White House boot licking. So what?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Zachary Paikin
“The president doesn’t appear to understand how much leverage our good neighbors to the north have.” (01/30/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-carney-canada/
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49) Impeach President Miller
Source: The American Prospect
by Maureen Tkacik
“Stephen Miller’s ascent to the shadow presidency began like so much other poison in the very immediate aftermath of 10/7, with a post nine days after the terror attacks from the official X account of the Trump campaign introducing a long list of bullet points under the title ‘Trump Plan to Keep Jihadists and Their Sympathizers Out of America.’ The campaign promised it would immediately revoke student visas from campus protesters born outside the country, ‘proactively send ICE to pro-jihadist demonstrations’ to arrest them, ‘aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies,’ use a then-obscure law called the Alien Enemies Act to jump-start said deportations, and ‘implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States’ that would automatically disqualify anyone suspected of harboring ‘sympathy for jihadists, Hamas or Hamas ideology.'” (01/31/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/31/impeach-president-miller/
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50) Will Ted Cruz Go Anti-Trump in 2028?
Source: The American Conservative
by Scott Greer
“President Donald Trump suggested this week that he may put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court. It was not meant as a compliment, as he explained how it would be easy to get the Texas senator confirmed. ‘The Democrats will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out and the Republicans will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out, too,’ Trump said at a press conference attended by Cruz and many other GOP lawmakers. The remark was probably meant to needle Cruz. Axios reported over the weekend that the senator attacked the president and vice president in comments to donors. Cruz is building himself up for another presidential run that will pit him against J.D. Vance.” (01/30/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/will-ted-cruz-go-anti-trump-in-2028/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 327
Source: Unattended Baggage
"And the Crab said, 'Let there be RAM.'" (02/01/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-327-and-the-crab-said-let
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52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/31/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s talk about SCOTUS decision Case v. Montana.” (01/31/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPCfx-9Mek0
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53) Nonzero, 01/30/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The Grand Unified Theory of MAGA | Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov.” (01/30/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69272
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54) Free Talk Live, 01/31/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Are the AIs plotting against us? :: Is YouTube already controlled by AI? :: Being nice to AI so it’s nice to us :: Peter Thiel anagram is The Reptile :: Guy took all his texts with dead fiancé and put it into AI to pretend AI was her :: Postmodernism and subjective vs objective reality :: Hillary Clinton so disliked that she has to limit comments on her social media :: Bureaucrats admit to making regulations too hard to follow so they can go after you :: Cops are not above just killing you if you don’t comply :: Each side thinks they’re the counter culture of the other :: Divide and conquer over and over again :: Journalists running cover for Epstein :: Residents leaving New Mexico :: Venezuelan soldiers say the US hit them with energy weapons that made their eyes and ears bleed :: TSA fining people $50 :: 2026-01-31 :: Bonnie, Riley, Angelo.” (01/31/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-01-31
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55) Serious Trouble, 01/31/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“The Feds got an arrest warrant for Don Lemon after all; judges protest the backlog of habeas cases that ensued from the ban on nationwide injunctions; Jeffrey Toobin is likely to have to testify.” (01/31/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/lemon-law
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56) Pink Flame of Liberty, 01/30/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Discussion: Case for Christian Nationalism: Coercive Christian Collectivism (for your own good).” (01/30/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLF0ryKjeqQ
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57) Rising, 01/30/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger delivers lens on the FBI search of an election office in Georgia’s Fulton County outside Atlanta pursuing President Trump’s 2020 vote fraud claims.” (01/30/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5710968-rising-january-30-2026/
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58) Jim Bovard on The David Knight Show, 01/30/26
Source: The David Knight Show
“Minnesota ICE Killings And The Echos Of Ruby Ridge.” (01/30/26)
https://x.com/libertytarian/status/2017327523768500337
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59) The Bulwark Podcast, 01/30/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Republicans Own What Happens Next (w/ Michael Steele).” (01/30/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEUMYTdePc
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60) Soho Forum Debate: Will AI Benefit Everyone?
Source: Reason
“Technology authors Perry Metzger and Brian Merchant debate the resolution, ‘Artificial Intelligence will provide enormous net benefits to nearly every member of society.'” (01/30/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/30/will-ai-benefit-everyone/
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