02/13 -- Ukraine war: Russian drones strike Odesa; The lying is out of control. People need to go to prison.
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Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 13, 2026, 6:00:51 AMFeb 13
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 02/13/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine war: Russian drones strike Odesa
2) Fake US heimatschutz “shutdown” all but certain as lawmakers leave Washington with no deal
3) Federal court blocks Hegseth’s “illegal orders” stunt vs. Kelly
4) Activists: Deaths in Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests reach at least 7,000
5) Congress erupts over Trump regime spying on Epstein file searches
6) Feds to end Minnesota occupation; Walz wants damages paid
7) US colleges received more than $5 billion in foreign gifts, contracts in 2025
8) Studies test whether gene-editing can fix high cholesterol
9) CIA releases new video aiming to recruit Chinese military officers
10) France: Police detain nine in suspected massive Louvre ticket fraud scheme
11) EPA eliminates greenhouse emission standards for vehicles
12) South Africa: Regime will deploy troops to fight illegal mining, gang violence
13) Cuba: Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock, as US blockade sparks energy crisis
14) Judge orders return of Venezuelans formerly detained in El Salvador if they choose to come back
15) VA: Supreme Court rules US Marine’s adoption of Afghan war orphan will stand
16) Ukrainian star disqualified from Winter Olympics over helmet honoring war dead
17) North Korea: Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul
18) Judge halts transfer of former federal death row inmates to “supermax” prison
19) Bangladesh votes in first election since 2024 Gen Z uprising that ousted Hasina
20) Lawyers of Chicago Woman Shot by Federal Agents Say Documents Show How DHS Lies About Investigations
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The lying is out of control. People need to go to prison.
22) The Biggest Bait-and-Switch War of the Century
23) Deadlocks and Credibility
24) Property Rights and the Arctic Contest
25) Provoking a war with Iran could be a deadly miscalculation for Trump
26) Postscript to Coase
27) The “Good Deal” Lie
28) Do Construction Workers Have Fourth Amendment Rights? A Federal Court Will Decide.
29) MAGA Outgrows Isolationism, Yet America First Means America Alone
30) What Zimbabwe Can Learn From Chile: A Tale of Two Data Series
31) For Epstein Victims and Members of Congress, Time to Put Up or Shut Up
32) Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
33) The SAVE Act and the Election Power Grab
34) The EU’s Wine Package
35) How People Keep the World Economy Running
36) The Postliberal Mind Virus
37) Radical ideology replaces competence at the NYC Health Department
38) 1953 Redux — Neocons Want To Saddle Iran With the Son of the Persian Stalin
39) What’s the Right-Wing Beef with Cuban Socialism?
40) Middle Powers are setting the table so they won’t be “on the menu”
41) Don Lemon’s Travail [sic] a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism
42) Iran replaced my mother’s voice with silence
43) The Promise and Perils of Korean Reunification
44) The dangerous unintended consequences of a domestic violence registry
45) Trump debunking Al Gore’s climate fears has made the world a better place
46) Trump administration’s Venezuela approach gets murkier
47) Czechoslovakia’s Lesson for America: Lawyers are Key to Peacefully Defeating Authoritarianism — Help Them
48) The Feds Won’t Certify Safe Vaccines Anymore. The Private Sector Is Stepping Up To Do It.
49) Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
50) Homeownership “Wealth” Is a Fallacy
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Rising, 02/12/26
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/12/26
53) Radio Atlantic, 02/12/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/12/26
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/12/26
56) The Fifth Column, episode 544
57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/12/26
58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 422
59) Advisory Opinion, 02/12/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/12/26
61) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 372
62) Bulwark Takes, 02/11/26
63) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/11/26
64) Reason Interview: Thomas Massie
65) Dangerous History Podcast, episode 284
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine war: Russian drones strike Odesa
Source: Reuters
“Three Ukrainian brothers, including an eight-year-old, were killed near the eastern front line and a Russian drone attack killed one person and injured six others at one of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports near Odesa, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. … The ports are Ukraine’s key maritime export arteries, crucial for its foreign trade and the survival of its wartime economy. Moscow has stepped up its attacks on both them and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and Kyiv has targeted Russian oil facilities, as U.S.-led efforts to end the war stall. … The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority did not name the port, saying only that it was one of the three around Odesa and continued to operate despite damage to infrastructure.” (02/13/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-killed-six-hurt-russian-air-attack-port-ukraines-odesa-region-deputy-pm-says-2026-02-13/
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2) Fake US heimatschutz “shutdown” all but certain as lawmakers leave Washington with no deal
Source: AOL
“The Department of Homeland Security is all but certain to run out of funding at the end of the day Friday as lawmakers left Capitol Hill Thursday with no deal in sight. Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block a DHS spending bill that was negotiated before the [murder] of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, saying it did not address their demands for reform at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An effort by Republican Sen. Katie Britt to extend funding for DHS for two weeks to allow time for further negotiations also failed. The Senate has no further votes scheduled for this week and many senators were boarding planes to Germany for the Munich Security Conference. House members also left town. … ICE, however, will largely continue operating because of the $75 billion already approved by Congress in President Donald Trump’s so-called “one big beautiful bill” that was passed last summer.” [editor’s note: Unfortunately, most of DHS will “continue operating” for all practical purposes – TLK] (02/12/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/dhs-shutdown-certain-lawmakers-leave-000113002.html?guccounter=1
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3) Federal court blocks Hegseth’s “illegal orders” stunt vs. Kelly
Source: Politico
“A federal judge has sided with Sen. Mark Kelly to stop Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from punishing the former Navy captain for advising troops not to follow illegal orders. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in a Thursday ruling, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon’s effort to demote the Arizona Democrat’s rank and reduce his retirement pay. ‘This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,’ Leon wrote. ‘To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!’ The decision is the second legal setback this week for the Trump administration’s campaign to punish Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers, who released a video last fall telling military personnel they [must not obey] illegal orders.” (02/12/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/12/court-hegseth-kelly-senator-00778449
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4) Activists: Deaths in Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests reach at least 7,000
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,002 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists said Thursday. The rise in the number of dead from the demonstrations adds to the overall tensions facing Iran both inside the country and abroad as it tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program. A second round of talks remains up in the air as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case directly with U.S. President Donald Trump to intensify his demands on Tehran in the negotiations.” (02/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/12/iran-crackdown-death-toll/
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5) Congress erupts over Trump regime spying on Epstein file searches
Source: Axios
“The Justice Department is coming under intense scrutiny from members of Congress in both parties for allegedly cataloguing the search history of lawmakers who have gone to review the unredacted Epstein files. … Bondi was photographed at a testy House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday with notes that showed a ‘search history’ for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) referencing specific Epstein files. Jayapal was one of several Judiciary Committee members who went this week to go through the unredacted files, which have been made available to lawmakers on terminals at the DOJ’s headquarters. … Democrats told Axios on Thursday that they are eyeing a wide array of responses. ‘I think we are within our right to pursue legal action,’ Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) told Axios. An official for one outside advocacy group confirmed they are ‘definitely exploring’ legal recourse in coordination with members.” (02/12/26)
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/12/pam-bondi-trump-spying-congress-doj-epstein
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6) Feds to end Minnesota occupation; Walz wants damages paid
Source: KMSP 9 News
“Gov. Tim Walz says he’s cautiously optimistic about the Trump administration announcing an end to the ICE [gang occupation of] Minnesota but is demanding the federal government take accountability for what happened during the surge, including ‘the incredible and immense costs.’ President Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, announced Thursday morning that the surge would end. [Gang members] have already started leaving the state, but the drawdown will continue through next week. Homan cited several factors in ending the drawdown but primarily continued cooperation with local authorities. … Walz says the first thing he is focused on is economic recovery from the [occupation]. The topic of Thursday’s press conference was originally a budget proposal to help businesses impacted by the ICE [rioting]. Along with that proposal, Gov. Walz is pushing federal leaders to pay for ‘what they broke.'” (02/12/26)
https://www.fox9.com/news/end-ice-surge-gov-walz-says-feds-need-pay-what-broke-here
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7) US colleges received more than $5 billion in foreign gifts, contracts in 2025
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“U.S. colleges received more than 5 billion dollars in reportable foreign gifts and contracts in 2025, according to a new website from the U.S. Education Department. The release is part of a push by the Trump administration to make foreign influence in colleges and universities more transparent. Among the biggest recipients, the data show, are Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Qatar was the largest foreign source of funds to schools, making up more than 20% — or about 1.1 billion. Other sources include the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland and Japan.” (02/12/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/12/nx-s1-5711359/us-colleges-5-billion-in-foreign-gifts
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8) Studies test whether gene-editing can fix high cholesterol
Source: SFGate
“Scientists are testing an entirely new way to fight heart disease: a gene-editing treatment that might offer a one-time fix for high cholesterol. It’s very early stage research, tried in only a few dozen people so far. But gene-editing approaches being developed by two companies show hints that switching off certain genes could dramatically lower artery-clogging cholesterol, raising hopes of one day being able to prevent heart attacks without having to take pills. ‘People want a fix, not a bandage,’ said Dr. Luke Laffin, a preventive cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. After co-authoring a promising study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, he said he was flooded with queries about how to participate in the next clinical trial.” (02/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/studies-test-whether-gene-editing-can-fix-high-21347685.php
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9) CIA releases new video aiming to recruit Chinese military officers
Source: CBS News
“The CIA has released a new Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese military officers, portraying a fictional, mid-level People’s Liberation Army officer grappling with corrupt leadership and ultimately choosing to contact the American intelligence agency. The video is the latest installment in a public-facing recruitment campaign targeting China, which CIA Director John Ratcliffe has described as the agency’s top intelligence priority amid what he has called a ‘generational competition’ with Beijing. In the short film, the central character watches as qualified officers are removed and replaced by political loyalists lacking military credentials. Troubled by what he sees as corruption, and concerned about the impact on his young family, the officer decides to reach out to the CIA.” (02/12/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-video-recruit-chinese-military-officers/
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10) France: Police detain nine in suspected massive Louvre ticket fraud scheme
Source: SFGate
“The Paris prosecutors office on Thursday said that nine people were being detained as part of an investigation into a suspected decade-long, 10 million euro ($11.8 million) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum. The arrests took place on Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened after the Louvre filed a complaint in December 2024, the prosecutors’ office said. The loss for the museum over the past decade is estimated to exceed 10 million euros ($11.8 million), it said. Those detained include two Louvre employees, several tour guides and one person suspected of being the mastermind, according to the prosecutors’ office. The museum alerted investigators about the frequent presence of two Chinese tour guides suspected of bringing groups of Chinese tourists into the museum by fraudulently reusing the same tickets multiple times for different visitors. Other guides were later suspected of similar practices.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/police-in-france-detain-9-people-in-suspected-21350204.php
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11) EPA eliminates greenhouse emission standards for vehicles
Source: United Press International
“The Trump administration announced an end to greenhouse gas emission standards for all vehicles made in model year 2012 or later Thursday. The administration revoked the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and all other emission standards related to greenhouse gases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release that the move will save taxpayers $1.3 trillion. … The Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding set the legal basis for regulating pollution tied to climate change as part of the Clean Air Act, the primary federal air quality law enacted in 1963.” (02/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/12/trump-epa-end-greenhouse-emission-standards-zeldin/2351770925510/
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12) South Africa: Regime will deploy troops to fight illegal mining, gang violence
Source: ABC News
“South Africa’s president said Thursday that the country would send its troops into communities to help police fight the scourge of illegal mining and gang violence in its two provinces with the two biggest cities. According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, ‘organized crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy,’ endangering both economic stability and public safety, particularly in Gauteng and the Western Cape. … Authorities in South Africa have long struggled to prevent gangs of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich nation to search for remaining reserves.” (02/12/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/south-africa-deploy-troops-fight-illegal-mining-gang-130113180
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13) Cuba: Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock, as US blockade sparks energy crisis
Source: SFGate
“Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid docked in Cuba on Thursday as a U.S. blockade deepens the island’s energy crisis. The ships arrived two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country selling or providing oil to Cuba, prompting the island to ration energy in recent days. The Mexican government said that one ship carried some 536 tons of food including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, canned tuna, and vegetable oil, as well as personal hygiene items. The second ship carried just over 277 tons of powdered milk. Yohandri Espinosa, a 34-year-old engineer, observed the ships arrive with his daughter and took pictures. ‘This is incredibly important aid for the Cuban people at this moment,’ he said. ‘We are living through difficult times of great need and uncertainty, and we don’t know how long we will be like this.'” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/2-mexican-navy-ships-laden-with-humanitarian-aid-21349400.php
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14) Judge orders return of Venezuelans formerly detained in El Salvador if they choose to come back
Source: NBC News
“A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to start allowing Venezuelans sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador to return to the United States for their immigration proceedings if they choose to. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in an order that it was requiring the administration to allow entry to any of the more than 130 Venezuelan men who were held for four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. ‘It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the Government simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them,’ he wrote.” (02/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-orders-return-venezuelans-formerly-detained-el-salvador-choose-c-rcna258755
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15) VA: Supreme Court rules US Marine’s adoption of Afghan war orphan will stand
Source: SFGate
“The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home in defiance of a U.S. government decision to reunite her with her Afghan family. The decision likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle over the girl’s fate. In 2020, a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, granted Joshua and Stephanie Mast an adoption of the child, who was then 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan living with a family the Afghan government decided were her relatives. Four justices on the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday signed onto an opinion reversing two lower courts’ rulings that found the adoption was so flawed it was void from the moment it was issued. The justices wrote that a Virginia law that cements adoption orders after six months bars the child’s Afghan relatives from challenging the court, no matter how flawed its orders and even if the adoption was obtained by fraud.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/virginia-supreme-court-rules-us-marine-s-adoption-21350234.php
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16) Ukrainian star disqualified from Winter Olympics over helmet honoring war dead
Source: NBC News
“A Ukrainian athlete has been disqualified from the Winter Olympics over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country’s war with Russia. The International Olympic Committee said in a statement early Thursday that skeleton racer Vladylsav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian flag bearer, was ‘not allowed to participate at Milano Cortina 2026 after refusing to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines.’ The decision was announced shortly before Heraskevych was due to compete in the men’s skeleton competition, in which he was considered a legitimate medal contender. ‘This is price of our dignity,’ he said in a post on X. Heraskevych indicated he would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Kyiv labeled his disqualification a ‘moment of shame’ for the IOC.” (02/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/ukraine-vladyslav-heraskevych-disqualified-winter-olympics-helmet-war-rcna258696
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17) North Korea: Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter as his heir, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday. Kim Ju Ae — who is believed to be 13 — has in recent months been pictured beside her father in high-profile events like a visit to Beijing in September, her first known trip abroad. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it took ‘a range of circumstances’ into account including her ‘increasingly prominent public presence at official events’ in making this assessment. The NIS also said it would keep close tabs on whether she will attend the North’s party congress later this month — its largest political event that is held once every five years. The party Congress is where Pyongyang is expected to give more details about priorities like foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.” (02/12/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0e1g7kwglo
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18) Judge halts transfer of former federal death row inmates to “supermax” prison
Source: Politico
“A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 former death row inmates to a notorious maximum-security prison in Colorado, concluding that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had dictated the decision before the men had a chance to contest it. ‘The Constitution requires that whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property interest that the Due Process Clause protects — whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen — the process it provides cannot be a sham,’ U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly wrote in a 35-page opinion requiring the men to remain in their current prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Kelly, a Trump appointee, emphasized that he was not ordering the release of any of the convicts, who were convicted of ‘some of the most horrific crimes imaginable.'” (02/11/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/11/trump-bondi-supermax-prison-00777782
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19) Bangladesh votes in first election since 2024 Gen Z uprising that ousted Hasina
Source: SFGate
“Bangladesh on Thursday held its first election since 2024 mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government with balloting being largely peaceful in a vote seen as a test of the country’s democracy after years of political turmoil. A projection showed that an alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, took the lead with 127 seats, while its main challenger, an 11-party alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, garnered 32 seats and three seats by others, according to Dhaka-based Jamuna TV. Official results were expected on Friday.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/polls-open-for-bangladesh-s-first-election-21348460.php
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20) Lawyers of Chicago Woman Shot by Federal Agents Say Documents Show How DHS Lies About Investigations
Source: US News & World Report
“Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during an immigration crackdown last year, according to evidence released Wednesday by attorneys who accused the Trump administration of mishandling the investigation and spreading lies about the shooting. Marimar Martinez, a teaching assistant and U.S. citizen, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in October while in her vehicle. She was charged with a felony after Homeland Security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. But the case was dismissed after videos emerged showing an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s vehicle. Her attorneys pushed to make evidence in the now-dissolved criminal case public, saying they were especially motivated after a federal agent [murdered] Minneapolis woman Renee Good under similar circumstances.” (02/11/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2026-02-11/lawyers-of-chicago-woman-shot-by-federal-agents-say-documents-show-how-dhs-lies-about-investigations
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The lying is out of control. People need to go to prison.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Will Bunch
“Let’s not pretend to be so naive to act like official deceit began on the June 2015 day that Donald Trump descended on that Trump Tower escalator. It was the late 1960s — the era of Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam ‘credibility gap’ — when the investigative journalist I.F. Stone famously wrote, ‘All governments lie.’ I became an opinion journalist because of my disgust over George W. Bush’s lies that drove the Iraq War. That said, the outrageous, Soviet-caliber falsehoods of the Trump regime feel much worse. These are not ‘plausible denial’ fairy tales to push an unpopular policy or cover up some dirty deeds, like Watergate, but a vast empire of Big Lies — easily disprovable, about everything from election results to economic statistics — with a much more ambitious goal of undermining the very notion of objective reality.” (02/12/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/government-lying-ice-shootings-lutnick-20260212.html
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22) The Biggest Bait-and-Switch War of the Century
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“A few presidencies ago, Washington politicians used boundless political and intellectual chicanery to drag America into a ruinous war. Thousands of Americans died and scores of thousands of Iraqis perished due to the official myth of Saddam Hussein as the twentieth hijacker. Last November, Axios published new damning information on the role of Saudi government officials in bankrolling the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Private lawsuits against the Saudi regime ‘unearthed evidence showing one Saudi official — who acknowledges aiding two men who became hijackers — made a drawing of a plane and a mathematical formula that allegedly could have been used to fly into the World Trade Center.’ That was only the latest stunning revelation in a coverup that will celebrate its twenty-fifth birthday this year.” (02/12/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-biggest-bait-and-switch-war-of-the-century
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23) Deadlocks and Credibility
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“The idea of credibility probably looms even larger in foreign policy than in economics. Everyone knows that you can’t trust other countries’ promises of good intentions, right? The reason, supposedly, is that national leaders are tirelessly scheming to advance their national interests — and will happily lie, cheat, and betray rival countries to do so. This, in turn, sustains the international deadlocks that dominate headlines decade after decade.” (02/12/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/deadlocks-and-credibility
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24) Property Rights and the Arctic Contest
Source: EconLog
by Maurizio Bovi
“In recent years, the Arctic has returned to the center of public attention: the renewed interest in Greenland, the progressive opening of maritime routes due to ice melt, and the claims over areas like the Svalbard archipelago are clear signals that Arctic policy will remain in the public eye. … These profound developments in the Arctic, evident in the renewed scramble for resources and strategic positioning, are naturally subject to a plurality of interpretations. Analysts might foreground military superpower competition, climate security, international legal disputes, or economic opportunity. I propose applying a theoretical lens often overlooked in public debate: Harold Demsetz’s theory of property rights.” (02/12/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/boviarctic
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25) Provoking a war with Iran could be a deadly miscalculation for Trump
Source: The Hill
by Rosemary Kelanic
“Once again, President Trump is steering the U.S. toward a perilous and unnecessary confrontation with Iran. In January, Trump threatened to topple the Iranian regime for violently crushing protests. Now, as U.S. forces amass in the Middle East, his rationale for pressuring Iran has shifted. Trump is demanding new concessions from the regime, including caps on Iran’s missile program and the total removal of enriched uranium from the country. He is also threatening consequences ‘far worse’ than last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer. The president’s ultimate goals in the region remain unclear, as are the military measures he might adopt, which could include airstrikes, a naval blockade, or even regime change. The risks of escalation are grave, with each side poised to misjudge the other’s determination.” (02/12/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5734208-trump-iran-conflict-escalation/
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26) Postscript to Coase
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“In my earlier post I observed that the organizational costs of hierarchical coordination become larger as the size of the firm, the number of people being coordinated, increased. It occurred to me when I was writing it that there was also a pattern to the transaction costs of market coordination, that they decreased as the size of the market, the number of alternative sellers or buyers of the good being produced, increases. I did not have my thoughts on that subject well enough worked out at that point to include them in the post, hence this postscript.” (02/12/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/postscript-to-coase
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27) The “Good Deal” Lie
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Every aggressor would prefer that the other side yields everything without a fight, so it doesn’t mean anything when the president says that a deal is his ‘preference.’ No doubt he would also prefer that Denmark hands over Greenland without any resistance. Trump’s preference, as always, is for the domination and the humiliation of other nations. That is why his ‘good deal’ is a laundry list of things Iran will never accept. It is no accident that his diplomatic track record is extremely poor. Other governments have no interest in accepting Trump’s demands for their surrender. The president’s insistence on a ‘good deal’ is bad news for the U.S. and Iran.” (02/12/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-good-deal-lie
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28) Do Construction Workers Have Fourth Amendment Rights? A Federal Court Will Decide.
Source: Reason
by Agustina Vergara Cid
“Immigration agents have intensified raids on construction sites across the country as the Trump administration pursues mass deportations. The raids often involve federal agents entering worksites without warrants, chasing workers, and detaining them (including U.S. citizens) for identity and immigration status checks. Now, the federal government is defending some of those tactics in court and asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging them. In one such defense, the Trump administration basically argued that Fourth Amendment rights do not apply here: An attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that federal agents don’t need warrants to enter construction sites, in a motion filed on January 29 in the Southern District of Alabama.” (02/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/02/12/do-construction-workers-have-fourth-amendment-rights-a-federal-court-will-decide/
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29) MAGA Outgrows Isolationism, Yet America First Means America Alone
Source: TomDispatch
by John Feffer
“A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new U.N. doctrine of ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). The president hoped to avert a massacre by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi rather than, as usual, coming in afterwards …. It’s impossible to know if the U.S.-led action did indeed prevent massive war crimes. However, the disastrous aftermath of that Libyan campaign — the summary execution of Qaddafi and a civil war that would kill tens of thousands — was yet more evidence that Washington’s attempts to police the world are quixotic at best.” (02/12/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/maga-outgrows-isolationism/
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30) What Zimbabwe Can Learn From Chile: A Tale of Two Data Series
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul McDonnold
“Economic freedom, like freedom in general, is inherently fragile. National institutions and attitudes can shift the ground quickly.” (02/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-zimbabwe-can-learn-from-chile-a-tale-of-two-data-series/
-----
31) For Epstein Victims and Members of Congress, Time to Put Up or Shut Up
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I don’t want to be that guy who throws the red challenge flag on the victims of child sex trafficking at the hands of Democrat Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator and fellow Democrat Ghislaine Maxwell, but someone has to. Someone has to because the ‘justice’ these women are demanding, or are claiming to demand, is fully and completely within their grasp, and their grasp alone. Yet, they don’t seem willing to take it. Sooner or later, they have to put up, or shut up, don’t they? There comes a point at which you either put your money where your mouth is or you stop talking trash. People who talk about how tough they are, or how good they are at something, often get really quiet when challenged to a fight or a game.” (02/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/12/for-epstein-victims-and-members-of-congress-its-time-to-put-up-or-shut-up-n2671177
-----
32) Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Source: The Nation
by Andrea J Ritchie
“As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them — including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago — has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence. Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put ‘guardrails’ on ICE.” (02/12/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ice-abolition-police-reform/
-----
33) The SAVE Act and the Election Power Grab
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“For months, we have warned of a drive by President Donald Trump and his administration to undermine the 2026 election. It is unprecedented, outlandish. Now Trump himself is blaring his intent, and over the past week the public issue has exploded. The fight for a free and fair vote is taking shape, especially after House Republicans on Wednesday night passed the euphemistically named SAVE Act. Make no mistake: The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb. Effectively, the bill would require Americans to produce a passport or birth certificate to register and thus to vote. Brennan Center research shows that 21 million people lack ready access to these documents. Half of all Americans don’t have a passport, for example.” (02/12/25)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/save-act-and-election-power-grab
-----
34) The EU’s Wine Package
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“After decades of subsidizing expansion, Brussels is now paying to destroy vineyards, without fixing the distortions it created. The European Union is paying to uproot vineyards. The new Wine Package, proposed in March 2025 with a provisional agreement reached in December 2025, proposes among several measures, the possibility of using EU funds for the voluntary destruction of productive vines, which represents the most visible sign of a market distortion created by decades of intervention from Brussels. Successive policies supporting the wine sector progressively disconnected production from market signals. The result was a growing imbalance, marked by persistent surpluses and, later, by subsidies aimed at vineyard removal itself.” 902/12/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-eus-wine-package/
-----
35) How People Keep the World Economy Running
Source: Cobden Centre
by Elias Sanchez
“Despite rising public debt, intensifying fiscal extraction, recurrent economic shocks, and heightened trade and policy uncertainty, the global economy has exhibited a striking degree of resilience. This resilience, however, goes beyond mere survival. It reflects a shift from robustness to what can be described as ‘antifragility,’ where systems not only withstand shocks but gain from them. This dynamic adaptation is evidenced not just in headline GDP figures consistently surpassing pessimistic forecasts, but more profoundly in the way markets adapt and evolve in response to these challenges, becoming stronger rather than merely enduring.” (02/12/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/02/how-people-keep-the-world-economy-running/
-----
36) The Postliberal Mind Virus
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Lucchese
“For several months now, controversy has swirled over Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and his strange defense of Tucker Carlson against charges of antisemitism. A wave of staffers have resigned from Heritage in protest, as well as a number of high-profile trustees. More interesting than the daily drama of open letters and leaked team meetings, though, is the way the controversy has become a proxy fight for the battle to define the future of the conservative movement. Many of Roberts’s most passionate and vocal supporters come from the so-called ‘postliberal’ camp. … These new ideologues of the right seem far less interested in preserving the particular arrangements and commitments of the American Republic (and the philosophical truths they incarnate) than in promoting some abstract sense of, to use Howting’s term, ‘Western identity.'” (02/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-postliberal-mind-virus/
-----
37) Radical ideology replaces competence at the NYC Health Department
Source: Fox News
by Steve Forbes
“New York City is facing serious public health challenges. Drug overdoses are surging. Mental illness is rampant. Emergency rooms are under strain. Life expectancy in parts of the city has declined. So what are some employees at the New York City Department of Health reportedly studying? The effects of ‘global oppression’ on health. This is not a joke. It is a disturbing example of how ideology has displaced competence in city government — and how taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill. A public health department has a straightforward mission: protect people from disease, respond to health emergencies and ensure basic safety standards. It exists to prevent outbreaks, combat addiction, improve maternal health and keep food and water safe. It is not a political theory workshop.” (02/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/steve-forbes-radical-ideology-replaces-competence-nyc-health-department
-----
38) 1953 Redux — Neocons Want To Saddle Iran With the Son of the Persian Stalin
Source: Antiwar.com
by Charles Goyette
“It’s getting a little old at this point, but as the Deep State log rolls for another U.S. attack on Iran, it is promoting a new Iranian national savior, one with a familiar name. Here’s a graphic seen on X, much like others showing up on social media, championing Reza Pahlavi as ‘the legitimate national leader of Iran.’ Because Pahlavi calls for more U.S. intervention in Iran including airstrikes, his champions are a midnight choir of failed voices from prior regime change calamities: Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey. He is featured frequently in the warmongering of the Empire’s lapdog press, in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News. Pahlavi’s only claim to legitimacy is that he is the son of the late-Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was driven from Iran in the 1979 revolution.” (02/12/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/charles-goyette/2026/02/11/1953-redux-neocons-want-to-saddle-iran-with-the-son-of-the-persian-stalin/
-----
39) What’s the Right-Wing Beef with Cuban Socialism?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Right-wing American statists are celebrating with great glee the U.S. government’s economic strangulation of the Cuban people through its embargo and oil siege because right-wingers say they’re opposed to socialism, which has long been the economic system of Cuba’s communist regime. What these right-wing statists and interventionists fail to recognize, however, is that they, like most Americans, fully embrace the socialist principles that undergird Cuba’s socialist economic system. They fail to recognize that communist Cuba has simply carried the socialist principles that underlie American socialism to their logical conclusions.” (02/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/02/12/whats-the-right-wing-beef-with-cuban-socialism/
-----
40) Middle Powers are setting the table so they won’t be “on the menu”
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Laura Mahrenbach, Narayanappa Janardhan, Gedaliah Afterman, & Maximilian Mayer
“The global order was already fragmenting before Donald Trump returned to the White House. But the upended ‘rules’ of global economic and foreign policies have now reached a point of no return. What has changed is not direction, but speed. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks in Davos last month — ‘Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu’ — captured the consequences of not acting quickly. And Carney is not alone in those fears. Leaders around the world are increasingly moving from rhetorical warnings about the systemic risks of superpower dynamics to actively experimenting with new ways of navigating what Carney called ‘a rupture in the world order.'” (02/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/middle-powers-trade/
-----
41) Don Lemon’s Travail [sic] a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism
Source: Common Dreams
by Stephen R Weissman
“Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is under federal indictment for participating in a Minnesota protest group’s obstruction of a church service. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. News of his prosecution took me back more than five decades to when I was a young university professor in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). At that time, President Mobutu Sese Seko’s government threatened to arrest me for my alleged involvement in student disruptions. In both cases, increasingly authoritarian governments decided to clamp down on independent observers (journalists or others) who sympathized with community activists. To do so, they distorted what actually happened to serve their political interests. Yet, I suspect that the last person President Donald Trump wants to be compared to is a corrupt, fallen, disgraced African dictator.” [editor’s note: He performed as a part of the story, not as a real journalist, and should pay the penalty for violating the rights of the pastor and parishioner, End of story – SAT] [additional editor’s note: I’d chide SAT every time he was wrong, but nobody wants two editors’ notes EVERY time – TLK] (02/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-lemon-authoritarianism
-----
42) Iran replaced my mother’s voice with silence
Source: Expression
by Dr. Faraz Harsini
My mom used to call me every Sunday between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. In 13 years, she has never missed a call. Like most moms, if I don’t respond, she immediately assumes I’m dead. Two weeks ago, her calls stopped coming. The Islamic Republic of Iran has cut all internal and external communications during the ongoing protests. They even jammed Starlink. It’s been radio silence. Not a word, in or out. And in that silence, they’ve been killing people. At least 16,000 in just a few days. … my mom sold her jewelry, her prized Persian rug, even her house to make sure I went to a good school, got into a good university, and got out — to America. What has the Islamic Republic done to this mother (and millions of other families) that she’d rather never see her son again than have him trapped with her?” (02/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/iran-replaced-my-mothers-voice-with
-----
43) The Promise and Perils of Korean Reunification
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“The world’s most important divided nation, Korea, hosts one of the world’s most volatile international confrontations. Renewed conflict there could be as intense as the ongoing Russian–Ukrainian war, potentially drawing in the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. Healing the division that led to the Korean War would be the most obvious way to preempt a military rerun—this time with nuclear weapons. Germany’s experience demonstrates the great benefits of reversing artificial national divisions resulting from, and threatening to restart, conflict. Indeed, German reunification was the single event that most dramatically illustrated the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the possibility of Korean reunification is looking ever more like an impossible dream.” (02/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-promise-and-perils-of-korean-reunification/
-----
44) The dangerous unintended consequences of a domestic violence registry
Source: Orange County Register
by Jane Stoever
“This legislative session in California, there is considerable discussion about a state domestic violence registry, a publicly accessible, searchable list of those who have been convicted of domestic violence. While obviously well-intentioned, a registry of this kind would list many wrongfully charged and convicted abuse survivors. Such a registry would also likely decrease domestic violence reporting and keep survivors in abusive situations.” (02/11/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/11/the-dangerous-unintended-consequences-of-a-domestic-violence-registry/
-----
45) Trump debunking Al Gore’s climate fears has made the world a better place
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“Ding dong, the climate hoax is dead. Twenty years after Al Gore’s apocalyptic movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ the Trump administration has put the final nail in the coffin of the lie that scared a generation into believing the planet was about to explode in flames if they kept using fossil fuels. In what the White House calls ‘the largest deregulatory action in American history,’ the EPA on Thursday will repeal an Obama-era proclamation that has mandated greenhouse-gas regulations for 17 years. The 2009 ‘endangerment finding’ has been the primary climate handbrake on American industry, forming the legal justification for increasingly punitive greenhouse-gas regulations. Rescinding it ‘would save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week, with the EPA projecting an average saving of $2,400 per vehicle and further savings on farm machinery, soon to be freed from the complex extra circuitry required to restrict emissions.” (02/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/11/opinion/trump-administration-debunking-al-gores-climate-fears-made-the-world-a-better-place/
-----
46) Trump administration’s Venezuela approach gets murkier
Source: Semafor
by Eleanor Mueller & Shelby Talcott
“Nearly six weeks after the Trump administration ousted Venezuela’s leader with plans to effectively run the country, its manner of doing so is increasingly opaque. The first US sale of Venezuelan oil took place 11 days after President Donald Trump’s declaration that the US would rely on Caracas’ oil revenues to control its future. But one month after Semafor reported that proceeds from an initial $500 million sale were held in a Qatari account, there is no sign of a second successful sale. There’s also no clarity on when future proceeds will shift to a US-based Treasury Department account from the Qatari account, which was used to help shield the oil proceeds from Venezuela’s creditors.” (02/11/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/11/2026/trump-administrations-approach-in-venezuela-gets-murkier
-----
47) Czechoslovakia’s Lesson for America: Lawyers are Key to Peacefully Defeating Authoritarianism — Help Them
Source: The UnPopulist
by Irina D Manta
“Martina Navratilova is ‘pissed off as hell.’ She fled totalitarian Czechoslovakia for the United States only to watch too many Americans now give up on freedom without a fight. She is speaking up as part of an ad campaign for an organization that shares the stories of those harmed by Donald Trump. My family and I fled Romania for the West. The contrast between our two countries, during the twilight of communism and in its aftermath, offers a stark lesson for Americans confronting threats to democratic norms today.” (02/11/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/czechoslovakias-lesson-for-america
-----
48) The Feds Won’t Certify Safe Vaccines Anymore. The Private Sector Is Stepping Up To Do It.
Source: Reason
by Ronald Bailey
“In January, the CDC cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 16 to 10 by essentially adopting Denmark’s schedule. This change was not based on any evidence that the six targeted vaccines were unsafe or ineffective. Furthermore, Denmark’s reduced schedule is an outlier when compared to those of other developed countries. In response to the CDC’s cuts, American Academy of Pediatrics President (AAP) Andrew Racine stated, ‘Today’s announcement by federal health officials to arbitrarily stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary.’ The AAP reaffirmed and recommended the original evidence-based immunization schedule. Now, the American Medical Association (AMA) is teaming up with the Vaccine Integrity Project at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota to privately evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccines targeting three viral illnesses for the upcoming 2026–2027 respiratory virus season.” (02/11/26)
https://reason.com/2026/02/11/the-feds-wont-certify-safe-vaccines-anymore-the-private-sector-is-stepping-up-to-do-it/
-----
49) Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
Source: The American Prospect
by Nathan Thompson
“After President Trump’s shocking, illegal attack on Caracas and seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early-morning hours of January 3, celebratory Latin America hawks didn’t wait long to turn their attention to Cuba. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, famously of Cuban descent and the nation’s Cuba hawk-in-chief, stood at the White House’s impromptu Mar-a-Lago dais and said: ‘If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ Trump himself approvingly shared a Truth Social post proposing Rubio as Cuba’s next president, made various proclamations that Cuba’s socialist government is set to collapse, and most significantly, announced a national emergency over the island of nine million’s ‘unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,’ threatening tariffs on any country that provides oil to Cuba—a measure targeted squarely at Mexico, which has become Cuba’s largest supplier.” (02/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/12/marco-rubio-trump-cuba-venezuela/
-----
50) Homeownership “Wealth” Is a Fallacy
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Artis Shepherd
“It seems the housing market is destined to be the target of yet another administration’s clumsy tinkering. In another quiet-part-out-loud incident at the White House recently, the president was asked whether he would declare a national emergency in order to act on housing affordability. Trump responded that he doesn’t want house prices to go down because home valuations are such a large part of the ‘net worth’ of homeowners, especially those in ‘their later years.’ The exchange is worth watching. Note the collectivist premises underlying both the reporter’s question and the president’s answer.” (02/11/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/homeownership-wealth-fallacy
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Rising, 02/12/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) demanding answers from Attorney General Pam Bondi and others about Epstein files.” (02/12/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5729365-rising-february-12-2026/
-----
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/12/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“China’s Punishment of Jimmy Lai.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaR6JjdThm0
-----
53) Radio Atlantic, 02/12/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Iran Wants Him Arrested. He’s Going Back Anyway.” (02/12/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/02/jafar-panahi-iran-oscars/685963
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Bondi’s Breakdown: Epstein Hearing Descends Into Chaos!” (02/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1yoKMPoozjwxQ
-----
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/12/26
Source: Underthrow
“How Currency Debasement End Empires w/ Max Borders.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAOt50OIQg
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56) The Fifth Column, episode 544
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Great American Mustache Ride (w/ John Bolton).” (02/12/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-global-mustache-ride-w-john-bolton
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57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/12/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Threat to Rig 2026 Grows with Damning Report on FBI Georgia Raid.” (02/12/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/206502/trump-threat-rig-2026-grows-damning-report-fbi-georgia-raid
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58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 422
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Cara Schulz on immigration enforcement in Minnesota.” (02/12/26)
https://rumble.com/v75n7us-ff-422-cara-schulz-on-immigration-enforcement-in-minnesota.html
-----
59) Advisory Opinion, 02/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Naw Dawg to the DOJ.” (02/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/naw-dawg-to-the-doj/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump: ‘Nothing Definitive’ in Netanyahu Talks, US Pulls Troops Out of Al Tanf in Syria, and More.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAmNW3NB67Q
-----
61) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 372
Source: Free the People
“Deep State Operatives Won the Super Bowl | Guest: Abigail Hall.” (02/11/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0hYXAg7Sps
-----
62) Bulwark Takes, 02/11/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Tim and JVL go through various moments from Pam Bondi’s hearing in the Congressional Oversight Committee, in which she evades, lies, and covers for Donald Trump.” (02/11/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_94nfrrC8
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63) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/11/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“ICE, Homeland Security, and the Long, Post-9/11 March to Police State USA w/ Jordan Liz.” (02/11/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/jliz2-11-26/
-----
64) Reason Interview: Thomas Massie
Source: Reason
“Rep. Thomas Massie explains why he is risking his political career over the Epstein files, details what he saw in the unredacted documents, and argues that the scandal reveals a bipartisan failure of accountability stretching across multiple administrations.” (02/11/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/02/11/thomas-massie-epstein-conspiracy-is-bigger-than-watergate/
-----
65) Dangerous History Podcast, episode 284
Source: Libertarian Institute
“We Are Ruled By Psychopaths, Part 2.” (02/11/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/dangerous-history-podcast/dhp-ep-0284-we-are-ruled-by-psychopaths-part-2/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Ukraine war: Russian drones strike Odesa
2) Fake US heimatschutz “shutdown” all but certain as lawmakers leave Washington with no deal
3) Federal court blocks Hegseth’s “illegal orders” stunt vs. Kelly
4) Activists: Deaths in Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests reach at least 7,000
5) Congress erupts over Trump regime spying on Epstein file searches
6) Feds to end Minnesota occupation; Walz wants damages paid
7) US colleges received more than $5 billion in foreign gifts, contracts in 2025
8) Studies test whether gene-editing can fix high cholesterol
9) CIA releases new video aiming to recruit Chinese military officers
10) France: Police detain nine in suspected massive Louvre ticket fraud scheme
11) EPA eliminates greenhouse emission standards for vehicles
12) South Africa: Regime will deploy troops to fight illegal mining, gang violence
13) Cuba: Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock, as US blockade sparks energy crisis
14) Judge orders return of Venezuelans formerly detained in El Salvador if they choose to come back
15) VA: Supreme Court rules US Marine’s adoption of Afghan war orphan will stand
16) Ukrainian star disqualified from Winter Olympics over helmet honoring war dead
17) North Korea: Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul
18) Judge halts transfer of former federal death row inmates to “supermax” prison
19) Bangladesh votes in first election since 2024 Gen Z uprising that ousted Hasina
20) Lawyers of Chicago Woman Shot by Federal Agents Say Documents Show How DHS Lies About Investigations
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The lying is out of control. People need to go to prison.
22) The Biggest Bait-and-Switch War of the Century
23) Deadlocks and Credibility
24) Property Rights and the Arctic Contest
25) Provoking a war with Iran could be a deadly miscalculation for Trump
26) Postscript to Coase
27) The “Good Deal” Lie
28) Do Construction Workers Have Fourth Amendment Rights? A Federal Court Will Decide.
29) MAGA Outgrows Isolationism, Yet America First Means America Alone
30) What Zimbabwe Can Learn From Chile: A Tale of Two Data Series
31) For Epstein Victims and Members of Congress, Time to Put Up or Shut Up
32) Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
33) The SAVE Act and the Election Power Grab
34) The EU’s Wine Package
35) How People Keep the World Economy Running
36) The Postliberal Mind Virus
37) Radical ideology replaces competence at the NYC Health Department
38) 1953 Redux — Neocons Want To Saddle Iran With the Son of the Persian Stalin
39) What’s the Right-Wing Beef with Cuban Socialism?
40) Middle Powers are setting the table so they won’t be “on the menu”
41) Don Lemon’s Travail [sic] a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism
42) Iran replaced my mother’s voice with silence
43) The Promise and Perils of Korean Reunification
44) The dangerous unintended consequences of a domestic violence registry
45) Trump debunking Al Gore’s climate fears has made the world a better place
46) Trump administration’s Venezuela approach gets murkier
47) Czechoslovakia’s Lesson for America: Lawyers are Key to Peacefully Defeating Authoritarianism — Help Them
48) The Feds Won’t Certify Safe Vaccines Anymore. The Private Sector Is Stepping Up To Do It.
49) Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
50) Homeownership “Wealth” Is a Fallacy
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Rising, 02/12/26
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/12/26
53) Radio Atlantic, 02/12/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/12/26
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/12/26
56) The Fifth Column, episode 544
57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/12/26
58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 422
59) Advisory Opinion, 02/12/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/12/26
61) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 372
62) Bulwark Takes, 02/11/26
63) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/11/26
64) Reason Interview: Thomas Massie
65) Dangerous History Podcast, episode 284
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Ukraine war: Russian drones strike Odesa
Source: Reuters
“Three Ukrainian brothers, including an eight-year-old, were killed near the eastern front line and a Russian drone attack killed one person and injured six others at one of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports near Odesa, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. … The ports are Ukraine’s key maritime export arteries, crucial for its foreign trade and the survival of its wartime economy. Moscow has stepped up its attacks on both them and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and Kyiv has targeted Russian oil facilities, as U.S.-led efforts to end the war stall. … The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority did not name the port, saying only that it was one of the three around Odesa and continued to operate despite damage to infrastructure.” (02/13/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-killed-six-hurt-russian-air-attack-port-ukraines-odesa-region-deputy-pm-says-2026-02-13/
-----
2) Fake US heimatschutz “shutdown” all but certain as lawmakers leave Washington with no deal
Source: AOL
“The Department of Homeland Security is all but certain to run out of funding at the end of the day Friday as lawmakers left Capitol Hill Thursday with no deal in sight. Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block a DHS spending bill that was negotiated before the [murder] of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, saying it did not address their demands for reform at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An effort by Republican Sen. Katie Britt to extend funding for DHS for two weeks to allow time for further negotiations also failed. The Senate has no further votes scheduled for this week and many senators were boarding planes to Germany for the Munich Security Conference. House members also left town. … ICE, however, will largely continue operating because of the $75 billion already approved by Congress in President Donald Trump’s so-called “one big beautiful bill” that was passed last summer.” [editor’s note: Unfortunately, most of DHS will “continue operating” for all practical purposes – TLK] (02/12/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/dhs-shutdown-certain-lawmakers-leave-000113002.html?guccounter=1
-----
3) Federal court blocks Hegseth’s “illegal orders” stunt vs. Kelly
Source: Politico
“A federal judge has sided with Sen. Mark Kelly to stop Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from punishing the former Navy captain for advising troops not to follow illegal orders. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in a Thursday ruling, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon’s effort to demote the Arizona Democrat’s rank and reduce his retirement pay. ‘This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,’ Leon wrote. ‘To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!’ The decision is the second legal setback this week for the Trump administration’s campaign to punish Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers, who released a video last fall telling military personnel they [must not obey] illegal orders.” (02/12/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/12/court-hegseth-kelly-senator-00778449
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4) Activists: Deaths in Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests reach at least 7,000
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,002 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists said Thursday. The rise in the number of dead from the demonstrations adds to the overall tensions facing Iran both inside the country and abroad as it tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program. A second round of talks remains up in the air as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case directly with U.S. President Donald Trump to intensify his demands on Tehran in the negotiations.” (02/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/12/iran-crackdown-death-toll/
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5) Congress erupts over Trump regime spying on Epstein file searches
Source: Axios
“The Justice Department is coming under intense scrutiny from members of Congress in both parties for allegedly cataloguing the search history of lawmakers who have gone to review the unredacted Epstein files. … Bondi was photographed at a testy House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday with notes that showed a ‘search history’ for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) referencing specific Epstein files. Jayapal was one of several Judiciary Committee members who went this week to go through the unredacted files, which have been made available to lawmakers on terminals at the DOJ’s headquarters. … Democrats told Axios on Thursday that they are eyeing a wide array of responses. ‘I think we are within our right to pursue legal action,’ Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) told Axios. An official for one outside advocacy group confirmed they are ‘definitely exploring’ legal recourse in coordination with members.” (02/12/26)
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/12/pam-bondi-trump-spying-congress-doj-epstein
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6) Feds to end Minnesota occupation; Walz wants damages paid
Source: KMSP 9 News
“Gov. Tim Walz says he’s cautiously optimistic about the Trump administration announcing an end to the ICE [gang occupation of] Minnesota but is demanding the federal government take accountability for what happened during the surge, including ‘the incredible and immense costs.’ President Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, announced Thursday morning that the surge would end. [Gang members] have already started leaving the state, but the drawdown will continue through next week. Homan cited several factors in ending the drawdown but primarily continued cooperation with local authorities. … Walz says the first thing he is focused on is economic recovery from the [occupation]. The topic of Thursday’s press conference was originally a budget proposal to help businesses impacted by the ICE [rioting]. Along with that proposal, Gov. Walz is pushing federal leaders to pay for ‘what they broke.'” (02/12/26)
https://www.fox9.com/news/end-ice-surge-gov-walz-says-feds-need-pay-what-broke-here
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7) US colleges received more than $5 billion in foreign gifts, contracts in 2025
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“U.S. colleges received more than 5 billion dollars in reportable foreign gifts and contracts in 2025, according to a new website from the U.S. Education Department. The release is part of a push by the Trump administration to make foreign influence in colleges and universities more transparent. Among the biggest recipients, the data show, are Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Qatar was the largest foreign source of funds to schools, making up more than 20% — or about 1.1 billion. Other sources include the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland and Japan.” (02/12/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/12/nx-s1-5711359/us-colleges-5-billion-in-foreign-gifts
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8) Studies test whether gene-editing can fix high cholesterol
Source: SFGate
“Scientists are testing an entirely new way to fight heart disease: a gene-editing treatment that might offer a one-time fix for high cholesterol. It’s very early stage research, tried in only a few dozen people so far. But gene-editing approaches being developed by two companies show hints that switching off certain genes could dramatically lower artery-clogging cholesterol, raising hopes of one day being able to prevent heart attacks without having to take pills. ‘People want a fix, not a bandage,’ said Dr. Luke Laffin, a preventive cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. After co-authoring a promising study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, he said he was flooded with queries about how to participate in the next clinical trial.” (02/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/studies-test-whether-gene-editing-can-fix-high-21347685.php
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9) CIA releases new video aiming to recruit Chinese military officers
Source: CBS News
“The CIA has released a new Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese military officers, portraying a fictional, mid-level People’s Liberation Army officer grappling with corrupt leadership and ultimately choosing to contact the American intelligence agency. The video is the latest installment in a public-facing recruitment campaign targeting China, which CIA Director John Ratcliffe has described as the agency’s top intelligence priority amid what he has called a ‘generational competition’ with Beijing. In the short film, the central character watches as qualified officers are removed and replaced by political loyalists lacking military credentials. Troubled by what he sees as corruption, and concerned about the impact on his young family, the officer decides to reach out to the CIA.” (02/12/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-video-recruit-chinese-military-officers/
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10) France: Police detain nine in suspected massive Louvre ticket fraud scheme
Source: SFGate
“The Paris prosecutors office on Thursday said that nine people were being detained as part of an investigation into a suspected decade-long, 10 million euro ($11.8 million) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum. The arrests took place on Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened after the Louvre filed a complaint in December 2024, the prosecutors’ office said. The loss for the museum over the past decade is estimated to exceed 10 million euros ($11.8 million), it said. Those detained include two Louvre employees, several tour guides and one person suspected of being the mastermind, according to the prosecutors’ office. The museum alerted investigators about the frequent presence of two Chinese tour guides suspected of bringing groups of Chinese tourists into the museum by fraudulently reusing the same tickets multiple times for different visitors. Other guides were later suspected of similar practices.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/police-in-france-detain-9-people-in-suspected-21350204.php
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11) EPA eliminates greenhouse emission standards for vehicles
Source: United Press International
“The Trump administration announced an end to greenhouse gas emission standards for all vehicles made in model year 2012 or later Thursday. The administration revoked the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and all other emission standards related to greenhouse gases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release that the move will save taxpayers $1.3 trillion. … The Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding set the legal basis for regulating pollution tied to climate change as part of the Clean Air Act, the primary federal air quality law enacted in 1963.” (02/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/12/trump-epa-end-greenhouse-emission-standards-zeldin/2351770925510/
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12) South Africa: Regime will deploy troops to fight illegal mining, gang violence
Source: ABC News
“South Africa’s president said Thursday that the country would send its troops into communities to help police fight the scourge of illegal mining and gang violence in its two provinces with the two biggest cities. According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, ‘organized crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy,’ endangering both economic stability and public safety, particularly in Gauteng and the Western Cape. … Authorities in South Africa have long struggled to prevent gangs of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich nation to search for remaining reserves.” (02/12/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/south-africa-deploy-troops-fight-illegal-mining-gang-130113180
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13) Cuba: Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock, as US blockade sparks energy crisis
Source: SFGate
“Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid docked in Cuba on Thursday as a U.S. blockade deepens the island’s energy crisis. The ships arrived two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country selling or providing oil to Cuba, prompting the island to ration energy in recent days. The Mexican government said that one ship carried some 536 tons of food including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, canned tuna, and vegetable oil, as well as personal hygiene items. The second ship carried just over 277 tons of powdered milk. Yohandri Espinosa, a 34-year-old engineer, observed the ships arrive with his daughter and took pictures. ‘This is incredibly important aid for the Cuban people at this moment,’ he said. ‘We are living through difficult times of great need and uncertainty, and we don’t know how long we will be like this.'” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/2-mexican-navy-ships-laden-with-humanitarian-aid-21349400.php
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14) Judge orders return of Venezuelans formerly detained in El Salvador if they choose to come back
Source: NBC News
“A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to start allowing Venezuelans sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador to return to the United States for their immigration proceedings if they choose to. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in an order that it was requiring the administration to allow entry to any of the more than 130 Venezuelan men who were held for four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. ‘It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the Government simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them,’ he wrote.” (02/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-orders-return-venezuelans-formerly-detained-el-salvador-choose-c-rcna258755
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15) VA: Supreme Court rules US Marine’s adoption of Afghan war orphan will stand
Source: SFGate
“The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home in defiance of a U.S. government decision to reunite her with her Afghan family. The decision likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle over the girl’s fate. In 2020, a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, granted Joshua and Stephanie Mast an adoption of the child, who was then 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan living with a family the Afghan government decided were her relatives. Four justices on the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday signed onto an opinion reversing two lower courts’ rulings that found the adoption was so flawed it was void from the moment it was issued. The justices wrote that a Virginia law that cements adoption orders after six months bars the child’s Afghan relatives from challenging the court, no matter how flawed its orders and even if the adoption was obtained by fraud.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/virginia-supreme-court-rules-us-marine-s-adoption-21350234.php
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16) Ukrainian star disqualified from Winter Olympics over helmet honoring war dead
Source: NBC News
“A Ukrainian athlete has been disqualified from the Winter Olympics over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country’s war with Russia. The International Olympic Committee said in a statement early Thursday that skeleton racer Vladylsav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian flag bearer, was ‘not allowed to participate at Milano Cortina 2026 after refusing to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines.’ The decision was announced shortly before Heraskevych was due to compete in the men’s skeleton competition, in which he was considered a legitimate medal contender. ‘This is price of our dignity,’ he said in a post on X. Heraskevych indicated he would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Kyiv labeled his disqualification a ‘moment of shame’ for the IOC.” (02/12/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/ukraine-vladyslav-heraskevych-disqualified-winter-olympics-helmet-war-rcna258696
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17) North Korea: Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter as his heir, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday. Kim Ju Ae — who is believed to be 13 — has in recent months been pictured beside her father in high-profile events like a visit to Beijing in September, her first known trip abroad. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it took ‘a range of circumstances’ into account including her ‘increasingly prominent public presence at official events’ in making this assessment. The NIS also said it would keep close tabs on whether she will attend the North’s party congress later this month — its largest political event that is held once every five years. The party Congress is where Pyongyang is expected to give more details about priorities like foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.” (02/12/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0e1g7kwglo
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18) Judge halts transfer of former federal death row inmates to “supermax” prison
Source: Politico
“A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 former death row inmates to a notorious maximum-security prison in Colorado, concluding that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had dictated the decision before the men had a chance to contest it. ‘The Constitution requires that whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property interest that the Due Process Clause protects — whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen — the process it provides cannot be a sham,’ U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly wrote in a 35-page opinion requiring the men to remain in their current prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Kelly, a Trump appointee, emphasized that he was not ordering the release of any of the convicts, who were convicted of ‘some of the most horrific crimes imaginable.'” (02/11/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/11/trump-bondi-supermax-prison-00777782
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19) Bangladesh votes in first election since 2024 Gen Z uprising that ousted Hasina
Source: SFGate
“Bangladesh on Thursday held its first election since 2024 mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government with balloting being largely peaceful in a vote seen as a test of the country’s democracy after years of political turmoil. A projection showed that an alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, took the lead with 127 seats, while its main challenger, an 11-party alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, garnered 32 seats and three seats by others, according to Dhaka-based Jamuna TV. Official results were expected on Friday.” (02/12/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/polls-open-for-bangladesh-s-first-election-21348460.php
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20) Lawyers of Chicago Woman Shot by Federal Agents Say Documents Show How DHS Lies About Investigations
Source: US News & World Report
“Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during an immigration crackdown last year, according to evidence released Wednesday by attorneys who accused the Trump administration of mishandling the investigation and spreading lies about the shooting. Marimar Martinez, a teaching assistant and U.S. citizen, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in October while in her vehicle. She was charged with a felony after Homeland Security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. But the case was dismissed after videos emerged showing an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s vehicle. Her attorneys pushed to make evidence in the now-dissolved criminal case public, saying they were especially motivated after a federal agent [murdered] Minneapolis woman Renee Good under similar circumstances.” (02/11/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2026-02-11/lawyers-of-chicago-woman-shot-by-federal-agents-say-documents-show-how-dhs-lies-about-investigations
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The lying is out of control. People need to go to prison.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Will Bunch
“Let’s not pretend to be so naive to act like official deceit began on the June 2015 day that Donald Trump descended on that Trump Tower escalator. It was the late 1960s — the era of Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam ‘credibility gap’ — when the investigative journalist I.F. Stone famously wrote, ‘All governments lie.’ I became an opinion journalist because of my disgust over George W. Bush’s lies that drove the Iraq War. That said, the outrageous, Soviet-caliber falsehoods of the Trump regime feel much worse. These are not ‘plausible denial’ fairy tales to push an unpopular policy or cover up some dirty deeds, like Watergate, but a vast empire of Big Lies — easily disprovable, about everything from election results to economic statistics — with a much more ambitious goal of undermining the very notion of objective reality.” (02/12/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/government-lying-ice-shootings-lutnick-20260212.html
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22) The Biggest Bait-and-Switch War of the Century
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“A few presidencies ago, Washington politicians used boundless political and intellectual chicanery to drag America into a ruinous war. Thousands of Americans died and scores of thousands of Iraqis perished due to the official myth of Saddam Hussein as the twentieth hijacker. Last November, Axios published new damning information on the role of Saudi government officials in bankrolling the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Private lawsuits against the Saudi regime ‘unearthed evidence showing one Saudi official — who acknowledges aiding two men who became hijackers — made a drawing of a plane and a mathematical formula that allegedly could have been used to fly into the World Trade Center.’ That was only the latest stunning revelation in a coverup that will celebrate its twenty-fifth birthday this year.” (02/12/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-biggest-bait-and-switch-war-of-the-century
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23) Deadlocks and Credibility
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“The idea of credibility probably looms even larger in foreign policy than in economics. Everyone knows that you can’t trust other countries’ promises of good intentions, right? The reason, supposedly, is that national leaders are tirelessly scheming to advance their national interests — and will happily lie, cheat, and betray rival countries to do so. This, in turn, sustains the international deadlocks that dominate headlines decade after decade.” (02/12/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/deadlocks-and-credibility
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24) Property Rights and the Arctic Contest
Source: EconLog
by Maurizio Bovi
“In recent years, the Arctic has returned to the center of public attention: the renewed interest in Greenland, the progressive opening of maritime routes due to ice melt, and the claims over areas like the Svalbard archipelago are clear signals that Arctic policy will remain in the public eye. … These profound developments in the Arctic, evident in the renewed scramble for resources and strategic positioning, are naturally subject to a plurality of interpretations. Analysts might foreground military superpower competition, climate security, international legal disputes, or economic opportunity. I propose applying a theoretical lens often overlooked in public debate: Harold Demsetz’s theory of property rights.” (02/12/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/boviarctic
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25) Provoking a war with Iran could be a deadly miscalculation for Trump
Source: The Hill
by Rosemary Kelanic
“Once again, President Trump is steering the U.S. toward a perilous and unnecessary confrontation with Iran. In January, Trump threatened to topple the Iranian regime for violently crushing protests. Now, as U.S. forces amass in the Middle East, his rationale for pressuring Iran has shifted. Trump is demanding new concessions from the regime, including caps on Iran’s missile program and the total removal of enriched uranium from the country. He is also threatening consequences ‘far worse’ than last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer. The president’s ultimate goals in the region remain unclear, as are the military measures he might adopt, which could include airstrikes, a naval blockade, or even regime change. The risks of escalation are grave, with each side poised to misjudge the other’s determination.” (02/12/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5734208-trump-iran-conflict-escalation/
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26) Postscript to Coase
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“In my earlier post I observed that the organizational costs of hierarchical coordination become larger as the size of the firm, the number of people being coordinated, increased. It occurred to me when I was writing it that there was also a pattern to the transaction costs of market coordination, that they decreased as the size of the market, the number of alternative sellers or buyers of the good being produced, increases. I did not have my thoughts on that subject well enough worked out at that point to include them in the post, hence this postscript.” (02/12/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/postscript-to-coase
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27) The “Good Deal” Lie
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Every aggressor would prefer that the other side yields everything without a fight, so it doesn’t mean anything when the president says that a deal is his ‘preference.’ No doubt he would also prefer that Denmark hands over Greenland without any resistance. Trump’s preference, as always, is for the domination and the humiliation of other nations. That is why his ‘good deal’ is a laundry list of things Iran will never accept. It is no accident that his diplomatic track record is extremely poor. Other governments have no interest in accepting Trump’s demands for their surrender. The president’s insistence on a ‘good deal’ is bad news for the U.S. and Iran.” (02/12/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-good-deal-lie
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28) Do Construction Workers Have Fourth Amendment Rights? A Federal Court Will Decide.
Source: Reason
by Agustina Vergara Cid
“Immigration agents have intensified raids on construction sites across the country as the Trump administration pursues mass deportations. The raids often involve federal agents entering worksites without warrants, chasing workers, and detaining them (including U.S. citizens) for identity and immigration status checks. Now, the federal government is defending some of those tactics in court and asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging them. In one such defense, the Trump administration basically argued that Fourth Amendment rights do not apply here: An attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that federal agents don’t need warrants to enter construction sites, in a motion filed on January 29 in the Southern District of Alabama.” (02/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/02/12/do-construction-workers-have-fourth-amendment-rights-a-federal-court-will-decide/
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29) MAGA Outgrows Isolationism, Yet America First Means America Alone
Source: TomDispatch
by John Feffer
“A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new U.N. doctrine of ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). The president hoped to avert a massacre by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi rather than, as usual, coming in afterwards …. It’s impossible to know if the U.S.-led action did indeed prevent massive war crimes. However, the disastrous aftermath of that Libyan campaign — the summary execution of Qaddafi and a civil war that would kill tens of thousands — was yet more evidence that Washington’s attempts to police the world are quixotic at best.” (02/12/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/maga-outgrows-isolationism/
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30) What Zimbabwe Can Learn From Chile: A Tale of Two Data Series
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul McDonnold
“Economic freedom, like freedom in general, is inherently fragile. National institutions and attitudes can shift the ground quickly.” (02/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-zimbabwe-can-learn-from-chile-a-tale-of-two-data-series/
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31) For Epstein Victims and Members of Congress, Time to Put Up or Shut Up
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I don’t want to be that guy who throws the red challenge flag on the victims of child sex trafficking at the hands of Democrat Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator and fellow Democrat Ghislaine Maxwell, but someone has to. Someone has to because the ‘justice’ these women are demanding, or are claiming to demand, is fully and completely within their grasp, and their grasp alone. Yet, they don’t seem willing to take it. Sooner or later, they have to put up, or shut up, don’t they? There comes a point at which you either put your money where your mouth is or you stop talking trash. People who talk about how tough they are, or how good they are at something, often get really quiet when challenged to a fight or a game.” (02/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/12/for-epstein-victims-and-members-of-congress-its-time-to-put-up-or-shut-up-n2671177
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32) Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Source: The Nation
by Andrea J Ritchie
“As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them — including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago — has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence. Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put ‘guardrails’ on ICE.” (02/12/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ice-abolition-police-reform/
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33) The SAVE Act and the Election Power Grab
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“For months, we have warned of a drive by President Donald Trump and his administration to undermine the 2026 election. It is unprecedented, outlandish. Now Trump himself is blaring his intent, and over the past week the public issue has exploded. The fight for a free and fair vote is taking shape, especially after House Republicans on Wednesday night passed the euphemistically named SAVE Act. Make no mistake: The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb. Effectively, the bill would require Americans to produce a passport or birth certificate to register and thus to vote. Brennan Center research shows that 21 million people lack ready access to these documents. Half of all Americans don’t have a passport, for example.” (02/12/25)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/save-act-and-election-power-grab
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34) The EU’s Wine Package
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“After decades of subsidizing expansion, Brussels is now paying to destroy vineyards, without fixing the distortions it created. The European Union is paying to uproot vineyards. The new Wine Package, proposed in March 2025 with a provisional agreement reached in December 2025, proposes among several measures, the possibility of using EU funds for the voluntary destruction of productive vines, which represents the most visible sign of a market distortion created by decades of intervention from Brussels. Successive policies supporting the wine sector progressively disconnected production from market signals. The result was a growing imbalance, marked by persistent surpluses and, later, by subsidies aimed at vineyard removal itself.” 902/12/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-eus-wine-package/
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35) How People Keep the World Economy Running
Source: Cobden Centre
by Elias Sanchez
“Despite rising public debt, intensifying fiscal extraction, recurrent economic shocks, and heightened trade and policy uncertainty, the global economy has exhibited a striking degree of resilience. This resilience, however, goes beyond mere survival. It reflects a shift from robustness to what can be described as ‘antifragility,’ where systems not only withstand shocks but gain from them. This dynamic adaptation is evidenced not just in headline GDP figures consistently surpassing pessimistic forecasts, but more profoundly in the way markets adapt and evolve in response to these challenges, becoming stronger rather than merely enduring.” (02/12/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/02/how-people-keep-the-world-economy-running/
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36) The Postliberal Mind Virus
Source: Law & Liberty
by Michael Lucchese
“For several months now, controversy has swirled over Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and his strange defense of Tucker Carlson against charges of antisemitism. A wave of staffers have resigned from Heritage in protest, as well as a number of high-profile trustees. More interesting than the daily drama of open letters and leaked team meetings, though, is the way the controversy has become a proxy fight for the battle to define the future of the conservative movement. Many of Roberts’s most passionate and vocal supporters come from the so-called ‘postliberal’ camp. … These new ideologues of the right seem far less interested in preserving the particular arrangements and commitments of the American Republic (and the philosophical truths they incarnate) than in promoting some abstract sense of, to use Howting’s term, ‘Western identity.'” (02/12/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-postliberal-mind-virus/
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37) Radical ideology replaces competence at the NYC Health Department
Source: Fox News
by Steve Forbes
“New York City is facing serious public health challenges. Drug overdoses are surging. Mental illness is rampant. Emergency rooms are under strain. Life expectancy in parts of the city has declined. So what are some employees at the New York City Department of Health reportedly studying? The effects of ‘global oppression’ on health. This is not a joke. It is a disturbing example of how ideology has displaced competence in city government — and how taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill. A public health department has a straightforward mission: protect people from disease, respond to health emergencies and ensure basic safety standards. It exists to prevent outbreaks, combat addiction, improve maternal health and keep food and water safe. It is not a political theory workshop.” (02/12/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/steve-forbes-radical-ideology-replaces-competence-nyc-health-department
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38) 1953 Redux — Neocons Want To Saddle Iran With the Son of the Persian Stalin
Source: Antiwar.com
by Charles Goyette
“It’s getting a little old at this point, but as the Deep State log rolls for another U.S. attack on Iran, it is promoting a new Iranian national savior, one with a familiar name. Here’s a graphic seen on X, much like others showing up on social media, championing Reza Pahlavi as ‘the legitimate national leader of Iran.’ Because Pahlavi calls for more U.S. intervention in Iran including airstrikes, his champions are a midnight choir of failed voices from prior regime change calamities: Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey. He is featured frequently in the warmongering of the Empire’s lapdog press, in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News. Pahlavi’s only claim to legitimacy is that he is the son of the late-Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was driven from Iran in the 1979 revolution.” (02/12/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/charles-goyette/2026/02/11/1953-redux-neocons-want-to-saddle-iran-with-the-son-of-the-persian-stalin/
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39) What’s the Right-Wing Beef with Cuban Socialism?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Right-wing American statists are celebrating with great glee the U.S. government’s economic strangulation of the Cuban people through its embargo and oil siege because right-wingers say they’re opposed to socialism, which has long been the economic system of Cuba’s communist regime. What these right-wing statists and interventionists fail to recognize, however, is that they, like most Americans, fully embrace the socialist principles that undergird Cuba’s socialist economic system. They fail to recognize that communist Cuba has simply carried the socialist principles that underlie American socialism to their logical conclusions.” (02/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/02/12/whats-the-right-wing-beef-with-cuban-socialism/
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40) Middle Powers are setting the table so they won’t be “on the menu”
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Laura Mahrenbach, Narayanappa Janardhan, Gedaliah Afterman, & Maximilian Mayer
“The global order was already fragmenting before Donald Trump returned to the White House. But the upended ‘rules’ of global economic and foreign policies have now reached a point of no return. What has changed is not direction, but speed. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks in Davos last month — ‘Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu’ — captured the consequences of not acting quickly. And Carney is not alone in those fears. Leaders around the world are increasingly moving from rhetorical warnings about the systemic risks of superpower dynamics to actively experimenting with new ways of navigating what Carney called ‘a rupture in the world order.'” (02/12/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/middle-powers-trade/
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41) Don Lemon’s Travail [sic] a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism
Source: Common Dreams
by Stephen R Weissman
“Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is under federal indictment for participating in a Minnesota protest group’s obstruction of a church service. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. News of his prosecution took me back more than five decades to when I was a young university professor in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). At that time, President Mobutu Sese Seko’s government threatened to arrest me for my alleged involvement in student disruptions. In both cases, increasingly authoritarian governments decided to clamp down on independent observers (journalists or others) who sympathized with community activists. To do so, they distorted what actually happened to serve their political interests. Yet, I suspect that the last person President Donald Trump wants to be compared to is a corrupt, fallen, disgraced African dictator.” [editor’s note: He performed as a part of the story, not as a real journalist, and should pay the penalty for violating the rights of the pastor and parishioner, End of story – SAT] [additional editor’s note: I’d chide SAT every time he was wrong, but nobody wants two editors’ notes EVERY time – TLK] (02/12/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-lemon-authoritarianism
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42) Iran replaced my mother’s voice with silence
Source: Expression
by Dr. Faraz Harsini
My mom used to call me every Sunday between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. In 13 years, she has never missed a call. Like most moms, if I don’t respond, she immediately assumes I’m dead. Two weeks ago, her calls stopped coming. The Islamic Republic of Iran has cut all internal and external communications during the ongoing protests. They even jammed Starlink. It’s been radio silence. Not a word, in or out. And in that silence, they’ve been killing people. At least 16,000 in just a few days. … my mom sold her jewelry, her prized Persian rug, even her house to make sure I went to a good school, got into a good university, and got out — to America. What has the Islamic Republic done to this mother (and millions of other families) that she’d rather never see her son again than have him trapped with her?” (02/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/iran-replaced-my-mothers-voice-with
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43) The Promise and Perils of Korean Reunification
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“The world’s most important divided nation, Korea, hosts one of the world’s most volatile international confrontations. Renewed conflict there could be as intense as the ongoing Russian–Ukrainian war, potentially drawing in the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. Healing the division that led to the Korean War would be the most obvious way to preempt a military rerun—this time with nuclear weapons. Germany’s experience demonstrates the great benefits of reversing artificial national divisions resulting from, and threatening to restart, conflict. Indeed, German reunification was the single event that most dramatically illustrated the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the possibility of Korean reunification is looking ever more like an impossible dream.” (02/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-promise-and-perils-of-korean-reunification/
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44) The dangerous unintended consequences of a domestic violence registry
Source: Orange County Register
by Jane Stoever
“This legislative session in California, there is considerable discussion about a state domestic violence registry, a publicly accessible, searchable list of those who have been convicted of domestic violence. While obviously well-intentioned, a registry of this kind would list many wrongfully charged and convicted abuse survivors. Such a registry would also likely decrease domestic violence reporting and keep survivors in abusive situations.” (02/11/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/11/the-dangerous-unintended-consequences-of-a-domestic-violence-registry/
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45) Trump debunking Al Gore’s climate fears has made the world a better place
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“Ding dong, the climate hoax is dead. Twenty years after Al Gore’s apocalyptic movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ the Trump administration has put the final nail in the coffin of the lie that scared a generation into believing the planet was about to explode in flames if they kept using fossil fuels. In what the White House calls ‘the largest deregulatory action in American history,’ the EPA on Thursday will repeal an Obama-era proclamation that has mandated greenhouse-gas regulations for 17 years. The 2009 ‘endangerment finding’ has been the primary climate handbrake on American industry, forming the legal justification for increasingly punitive greenhouse-gas regulations. Rescinding it ‘would save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week, with the EPA projecting an average saving of $2,400 per vehicle and further savings on farm machinery, soon to be freed from the complex extra circuitry required to restrict emissions.” (02/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/11/opinion/trump-administration-debunking-al-gores-climate-fears-made-the-world-a-better-place/
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46) Trump administration’s Venezuela approach gets murkier
Source: Semafor
by Eleanor Mueller & Shelby Talcott
“Nearly six weeks after the Trump administration ousted Venezuela’s leader with plans to effectively run the country, its manner of doing so is increasingly opaque. The first US sale of Venezuelan oil took place 11 days after President Donald Trump’s declaration that the US would rely on Caracas’ oil revenues to control its future. But one month after Semafor reported that proceeds from an initial $500 million sale were held in a Qatari account, there is no sign of a second successful sale. There’s also no clarity on when future proceeds will shift to a US-based Treasury Department account from the Qatari account, which was used to help shield the oil proceeds from Venezuela’s creditors.” (02/11/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/11/2026/trump-administrations-approach-in-venezuela-gets-murkier
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47) Czechoslovakia’s Lesson for America: Lawyers are Key to Peacefully Defeating Authoritarianism — Help Them
Source: The UnPopulist
by Irina D Manta
“Martina Navratilova is ‘pissed off as hell.’ She fled totalitarian Czechoslovakia for the United States only to watch too many Americans now give up on freedom without a fight. She is speaking up as part of an ad campaign for an organization that shares the stories of those harmed by Donald Trump. My family and I fled Romania for the West. The contrast between our two countries, during the twilight of communism and in its aftermath, offers a stark lesson for Americans confronting threats to democratic norms today.” (02/11/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/czechoslovakias-lesson-for-america
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48) The Feds Won’t Certify Safe Vaccines Anymore. The Private Sector Is Stepping Up To Do It.
Source: Reason
by Ronald Bailey
“In January, the CDC cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 16 to 10 by essentially adopting Denmark’s schedule. This change was not based on any evidence that the six targeted vaccines were unsafe or ineffective. Furthermore, Denmark’s reduced schedule is an outlier when compared to those of other developed countries. In response to the CDC’s cuts, American Academy of Pediatrics President (AAP) Andrew Racine stated, ‘Today’s announcement by federal health officials to arbitrarily stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary.’ The AAP reaffirmed and recommended the original evidence-based immunization schedule. Now, the American Medical Association (AMA) is teaming up with the Vaccine Integrity Project at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota to privately evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccines targeting three viral illnesses for the upcoming 2026–2027 respiratory virus season.” (02/11/26)
https://reason.com/2026/02/11/the-feds-wont-certify-safe-vaccines-anymore-the-private-sector-is-stepping-up-to-do-it/
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49) Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
Source: The American Prospect
by Nathan Thompson
“After President Trump’s shocking, illegal attack on Caracas and seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early-morning hours of January 3, celebratory Latin America hawks didn’t wait long to turn their attention to Cuba. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, famously of Cuban descent and the nation’s Cuba hawk-in-chief, stood at the White House’s impromptu Mar-a-Lago dais and said: ‘If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ Trump himself approvingly shared a Truth Social post proposing Rubio as Cuba’s next president, made various proclamations that Cuba’s socialist government is set to collapse, and most significantly, announced a national emergency over the island of nine million’s ‘unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,’ threatening tariffs on any country that provides oil to Cuba—a measure targeted squarely at Mexico, which has become Cuba’s largest supplier.” (02/12/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/12/marco-rubio-trump-cuba-venezuela/
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50) Homeownership “Wealth” Is a Fallacy
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Artis Shepherd
“It seems the housing market is destined to be the target of yet another administration’s clumsy tinkering. In another quiet-part-out-loud incident at the White House recently, the president was asked whether he would declare a national emergency in order to act on housing affordability. Trump responded that he doesn’t want house prices to go down because home valuations are such a large part of the ‘net worth’ of homeowners, especially those in ‘their later years.’ The exchange is worth watching. Note the collectivist premises underlying both the reporter’s question and the president’s answer.” (02/11/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/homeownership-wealth-fallacy
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Rising, 02/12/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) demanding answers from Attorney General Pam Bondi and others about Epstein files.” (02/12/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5729365-rising-february-12-2026/
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52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/12/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“China’s Punishment of Jimmy Lai.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaR6JjdThm0
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53) Radio Atlantic, 02/12/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Iran Wants Him Arrested. He’s Going Back Anyway.” (02/12/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/02/jafar-panahi-iran-oscars/685963
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/12/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Bondi’s Breakdown: Epstein Hearing Descends Into Chaos!” (02/12/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1yoKMPoozjwxQ
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55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/12/26
Source: Underthrow
“How Currency Debasement End Empires w/ Max Borders.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAOt50OIQg
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56) The Fifth Column, episode 544
Source: The Fifth Column
“The Great American Mustache Ride (w/ John Bolton).” (02/12/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-global-mustache-ride-w-john-bolton
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57) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/12/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Threat to Rig 2026 Grows with Damning Report on FBI Georgia Raid.” (02/12/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/206502/trump-threat-rig-2026-grows-damning-report-fbi-georgia-raid
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58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 422
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Cara Schulz on immigration enforcement in Minnesota.” (02/12/26)
https://rumble.com/v75n7us-ff-422-cara-schulz-on-immigration-enforcement-in-minnesota.html
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59) Advisory Opinion, 02/12/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Naw Dawg to the DOJ.” (02/12/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/naw-dawg-to-the-doj/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump: ‘Nothing Definitive’ in Netanyahu Talks, US Pulls Troops Out of Al Tanf in Syria, and More.” (02/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAmNW3NB67Q
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61) Kibbe on Liberty, episode 372
Source: Free the People
“Deep State Operatives Won the Super Bowl | Guest: Abigail Hall.” (02/11/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0hYXAg7Sps
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62) Bulwark Takes, 02/11/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Tim and JVL go through various moments from Pam Bondi’s hearing in the Congressional Oversight Committee, in which she evades, lies, and covers for Donald Trump.” (02/11/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_94nfrrC8
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63) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/11/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“ICE, Homeland Security, and the Long, Post-9/11 March to Police State USA w/ Jordan Liz.” (02/11/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/jliz2-11-26/
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64) Reason Interview: Thomas Massie
Source: Reason
“Rep. Thomas Massie explains why he is risking his political career over the Epstein files, details what he saw in the unredacted documents, and argues that the scandal reveals a bipartisan failure of accountability stretching across multiple administrations.” (02/11/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/02/11/thomas-massie-epstein-conspiracy-is-bigger-than-watergate/
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65) Dangerous History Podcast, episode 284
Source: Libertarian Institute
“We Are Ruled By Psychopaths, Part 2.” (02/11/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/dangerous-history-podcast/dhp-ep-0284-we-are-ruled-by-psychopaths-part-2/
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