02/18 -- Feds investigating Cuomo's cover-up of nursing home COVID holocaust; Politics Is Seeping Into Our Daily Life and Ruining Everything
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Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 18, 2021, 8:18:14 AM2/18/21
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 02/18/21
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Presented by the Liberty International
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Feds investigating Cuomo's cover-up of nursing home COVID holocaust
2) EU regime court court demands Russian regime release Alexey Navalny immediately
3) One-Third of US Troops Have Declined Covid Vaccine, Pentagon Says
4) Catalonia: Protests after police abduct rapper to impose political imprisonment
5) File under shocked -- shocked! Killer government employees sanitized accounts of government killings!
6) Biden distances from Psaki comments on schools being open one day a week
7) IA: Watchdog files lawsuit against group backing Ernst
8) US regime seizes more than 10 million fake 3M masks
9) White House says regime would support a study of slavery reparations
10) Report: Dutch Jews died in "secret Nazi gas chamber" in 1941
11) State media: Prisoner exchange between Israeli, Syrian regimes underway
12) NATO chief urges joint spending as budget debate rolls on
13) Walmart investors eye push into advertising, healthcare following pandemic boom
14) Liberal [sic] WaPo knocks CNN over Cuomo brothers' interviews
15) Rwanda: Rusesabagina Trial Begins Amid Wrangles Over Jurisdiction
16) US regime charges three North Koreans in $1.3 billion hacking spree
17) Talk show host Larry King's widow contests handwritten will
18) Japan: Ruling party invites more women to meetings, as long as they don't talk
19) US regime rushes virus gene-mapping as mutations spread
20) Rush Limbaugh, 1951-2021
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Politics Is Seeping Into Our Daily Life and Ruining Everything
22) The tyranny of vaccine passports
23) Millennials and Gen Z Have Serious Concerns about Social Security. Should They?
24) Why Nancy Pelosi's 9/11 Commission For Capitol Riot Is A Terrible Idea
25) Populism, Left or Right?
26) Market Interaction, Anonymity, and Social Trust
27) Empire Attacks BDS For Same Reason Nixon Started Drug War
28) The Anti-Terrorism Screws Tighten on the American People
29) Exit, federation, and scale
30) Exploring Deeply the Economics of Price Controls
31) COVID remote learning: Why aren't school districts giving taxpayers their money back?
32) Joe Biden's Favorite Lie
33) Suspect Science Threatens US Farming, Again
34) The world's answer to pandemic nationalism
35) Understanding the Texas Blackouts
36) Politicians responsible for much loss
37) Why Politicians and Doctors Keep Ignoring Medical Research on Vitamin D & Covid
38) End in Ice?
39) The Banned Books of the Cold War-Era Soviet Union
40) The Facebook "Oversight" Board
41) Will Cuomo Have to Give Back His Emmy?
42) US imperialism goes green
43) Why "Hostage Diplomacy" Works
44) Saudi Arabia Sets Global Standard for Tyranny, but Asks: Why Is Washington Picking on the Kingdom?
45) Indivisible Deserves More Credit
46) The despicable state of "higher education" in 2021
47) F.A. Hayek on the discovery, use, and transmission of knowledge
48) New Proposal Would Make You Part of the National Surveillance State
49) Don't stop with Saudis -- Biden must cut off weapons to UAE, too
50) Biden's "Commonsense" Gun Controls Make Little Sense
51) Are the Woke a False Flag Operation of White Supremacists?
52) Mill's (invincible) Trident: An argument every fan (or opponent) of free speech must know
53) Getting to Zero: Carbon Pricing and its Green Critics
54) Desperate Times Call for Mutual Aid
55) Anatomy of the Nursing Home Death Warrants
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
56) The Power of Storytelling: Connecting Policy with People
57) Free Talk Live, 02/17/21
58) The Vital Center, episode 1
59) Jim Bovard on the Dan Proft Show
60) The Tatiana Show, episode 295
61) FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, 02/16/21
62) The Tom Wood Show, episode 1837
63) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/17/21
64) Commentary Podcast, 02/16/21
65) Punk Rock Libertarians Podcast, episode 338
66) Free Man Beyond The Wall, episode 539
67) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 72
68) Now Hear This, 02/17/21
69) Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill, 02/17/21
70) Electric Libertyland, episode 216
71) Cyberlaw Podcast, episode 349
72) Bloggingheads.tv, 02/16/21
73) What Then Must We Do? episode 55
74) AnarchoChristian, episode 67
75) Reason Roundtable, 02/16/21
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Feds investigating Cuomo's cover-up of nursing home COVID holocaust
Source: NBC News
"The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and the FBI have begun a preliminary investigation into the way New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration handled data about Covid-19 nursing home deaths. After early praise for his leadership when his state became the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, the governor is now dealing with accusations of underreporting nursing home deaths. In recent weeks, the administration revealed that 15,000 long-term care residents have died, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed. ... Democratic and Republican lawmakers in New York are now reported to be reconsidering their decision to grant Cuomo emergency powers to contend with the Covid-19 crisis." [editor's note: This story doesn't mention that before reporting false numbers, Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients and threatened to prosecute them if they didn't, directly leading to the high death numbers he then tried to cover up – TLK] (02/17/21)
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2) EU regime court court demands Russian regime release Alexey Navalny immediately
Source: CBS News
"Europe's top human rights court has ordered Russia to release jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny .... The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that was posted on Navalny's website on Wednesday demands that Russia set him free immediately and warns that failing to do so would mark a breach of the European human rights convention. ... The Russian Justice Ministry warned in a statement carried by the Tass news agency that the ECHR's demand referencing the rule would represent a 'crude interference into the judicial system' of Russia and 'cross the red line.' It emphasized that 'the ECHR can't substitute a national court or cancel its verdict.' In the past, Moscow has abided by the ECHR's rulings awarding compensations to Russian citizens who have contested verdicts in Russian courts, but it never faced a demand by the European court to set a convict free." (02/17/21)
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3) One-Third of US Troops Have Declined Covid Vaccine, Pentagon Says
Source: Bloomberg
"About one-third of U.S. troops who have been offered a Covid-19 vaccine have declined the inoculation, initial Pentagon data show. The choice still allows personnel to deploy. Pentagon officials told a House panel Wednesday that vaccination is still voluntary for service members because the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. so far are approved by the Food and Drug Administration on an emergency-use basis. That would change with full approval by the FDA as many other vaccinations are mandatory for troops." (02/17/21)
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4) Catalonia: Protests after police abduct rapper to impose political imprisonment
Source: CNN
"Protesters took to the streets in Barcelona and Girona, in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, on Tuesday night following the dramatic arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel earlier in the day. Hasel and his supporters had barricaded themselves inside Lledia University, in the northeastern provincial capital of Lleida, near Barcelona, since Monday after his deadline to hand himself in following conviction in a free speech case expired. On Tuesday, Catalan riot police stormed the university and arrested Hasel. ... [his] conviction was for supporting terrorism, and also for libel and slander against the Spanish monarchy, through his social media messages .... He was sentenced to nine months in jail. The 70-page Supreme Court sentence said that the rapper published tweets from 2014 to 2016 'that denigrated various institutions while also dedicating phrases glorifying certain people convicted of terrorism.'" [editor's note: Catalonia seceded from Spain in 2017, but is still militarily occupied by that regime – TLK] (02/17/21)
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5) File under shocked -- shocked! Killer government employees sanitized accounts of government killings!
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys 'beds' and final breaths 'snores.' But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media witnesses of how prisoners' stomachs rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect inside the U.S. penitentiary death chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana. The AP witnessed every execution. The sworn accounts by executioners, which government filings cited as evidence the lethal injections were going smoothly, raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president." (02/17/21)
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6) Biden distances from Psaki comments on schools being open one day a week
Source: Fox News
"President Biden on Tuesday night distanced himself from previous comments by White House press secretary Jen Psaki that the administration's goal for its first 100 days was to have more than 50% of schools open at least one day per week. That goal was criticized as unambitious as it had essentially already been met by school districts partially opening on their own before Biden's time in office. There was also speculation that the White House was trying to avoid upsetting teachers['] unions, which are a major force in the Democratic Party and have in many cases strongly opposed school reopening efforts. But Biden at a CNN town hall Tuesday night said that Psaki was not correct in saying that having half of schools open one day per week -- essentially getting schools 10% open overall -- is the White House's goal for the end of its first 100 days." (02/17/21)
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7) IA: Watchdog files lawsuit against group backing Ernst
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"An election watchdog group has filed a federal lawsuit that claims an Iowa-based nonprofit organization violated election laws by failing to register as a political committee that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Republican Sen. Joni Ernst's reelection. Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group, filed the lawsuit Friday in Washington. It had filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in December 2019 after The Associated Press reported Ernst's work with Iowa Values to raise money and build an electoral 'firewall' potentially violated campaign finance and tax law. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare that Iowa Values became a political committee as of June 2019 and order the group to register, file documents and provide information on fundraising and expenditures." (02/17/21)
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8) US regime seizes more than 10 million fake 3M masks
Source: ABC News
"Federal agents have seized more than 10 million fake 3M brand N95 masks in recent weeks, the result of an ongoing investigation into counterfeits sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies. The most recent seizures occurred Wednesday when Homeland Security agents intercepted hundreds of thousands of counterfeit 3M masks in an East Coast warehouse that were set to be distributed, officials said. Investigators also notified about 6,000 potential victims in at least 12 states including hospitals, medical facilities and others who may have unknowingly purchased knockoffs, urging them to stop using the medical-grade masks. Officials encouraged medical workers and companies to go to 3Ms website for tips on how to spot fakes. ... The phony masks are not tested to see whether they meet strict N95 standards and could put frontline medical workers at risk if they are used while treating patients with COVID-19." (02/17/21)
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9) White House says regime would support a study of slavery reparations
Source: Reuters
"White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday the Biden administration would support a study on whether descendants of enslaved people in the United States should receive reparations. Reparations have been used around the world to compensate victims of war, rape, terror and a host of other historical injustices. But the United States has never made much headway in its discussions of whether or how to compensate African Americans for more than 200 years of slavery and help make up for racial inequality." (02/17/21)
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10) Report: Dutch Jews died in "secret Nazi gas chamber" in 1941
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"Over 100 Dutchmen were sent to their deaths at a secret Nazi gas chamber in 1941, a year before Nazis began mass deportations of Jews to gas chambers. The men were seized in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in February 1941, in the first Nazi raids on Jews in Western Europe, and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Historian Wally de Lang says 108 were murdered at the nearby Hartheim Castle. They were given fictitious causes of death, she explains. Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and over the next five years more than three-quarters of the Jewish population were murdered, with deportations to the extermination camp at Auschwitz beginning in July 1942. The large-scale round-up, or razzia, of Jews began on 22 and 23 February 1941 in revenge for the killing of a Dutch Nazi collaborator during a clash." (02/17/21)
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11) State media: Prisoner exchange between Israeli, Syrian regimes underway
Source: Al Jazeer [Qatar state media]
"A prisoner swap between Syria and Israel, mediated by Russia, is under way. Damascus is securing the release of two Syrians held in Israel in exchange for releasing an Israeli woman who entered Syria by mistake, Syria's official news agency SANA reported on Wednesday. The report did not provide details on when the Syrians were taken prisoners in Israel or when the Israeli woman entered Syria. Nihal al-Makt, one of the Syrians, comes from a family with several members former prisoners in Israeli prisons. SANA reported that the two Syrians are natives of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights." (02/17/21)
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12) NATO chief urges joint spending as budget debate rolls on
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"Donald Trump is no longer around as president to berate U.S. allies in Europe and Canada for failing to spend enough on their defense budgets. But the debate about military spending appears likely to continue to rage in NATO, even under President Joe Biden. In an effort to improve 'burden sharing' -- the way the 30 member countries contribute cash, military hardware and troops to operations run by the world's biggest security organization -- Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg proposed Wednesday that the allies jointly fund more of NATO's work. The plan would mean using a NATO budget to pay for battlegroups of troops on standby in member countries bordering Russia, aerial policing operations, the deployment of warships on permanent maritime duties or military exercises. It would not be used for active military operations outside NATO territory." (02/17/21)
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13) Walmart investors eye push into advertising, healthcare following pandemic boom
Source: Yahoo! News
"Walmart Inc's investors and analysts are likely to look past the retail giant's slowest same-store sales growth since the start of the coronavirus crisis, when it reports quarterly results on Thursday and instead focus on the company's ambitions to diversify beyond retail. Walmart's online sales nearly doubled and comparable sales growth touched high single digits each quarter in 2020 as Americans bought groceries and other essentials during the coronavirus pandemic. During that time, the retailer also heavily invested in advertising and health services." (02/17/21)
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14) Liberal [sic] WaPo knocks CNN over Cuomo brothers' interviews
Source: Fox News
"CNN admitted to the Washington Post Tuesday that it made an 'exception' to its rule against primetime host Chris Cuomo interviewing his older brother Andrew, the governor of New York, due to the 'extraordinary' early months of the coronavirus pandemic. 'The early months of the pandemic crisis were an extraordinary time,' a network spokesperson told media columnnist Erik Wemple. 'We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest.' ... Wemple, who focuses on cable news, criticized the statement as an 'expression of the problem itself.' 'You can't nullify a rule when your star anchor's brother is flying high, only to invoke it during times of scandal. You just can't,' Wemple wrote." (02/17/21)
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15) Rwanda: Rusesabagina Trial Begins Amid Wrangles Over Jurisdiction
Source: US News & World Report
"Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier depicted as a hero in a Hollywood film about Rwanda's 1994 genocide, was charged with terrorism-related offences in a Kigali court on Wednesday at the start of a trial that has drawn international scrutiny. His family say Rusesabagina, a critic of President Paul Kagame, is in poor health and his trial is a sham. Rwanda's government says he has fomented violence and directed deadly attacks on its territory from exile. ... During pre-trial hearings, Rusesabagina said he had been abducted while on a visit to Dubai last year and forcibly returned to Rwanda. Rwandan officials have suggested he was tricked into boarding the plane. Rusesabagina's lawyer, Gatera Gashabana, said the court lacked jurisdiction to try Rusesabagina since he was no longer a Rwandan citizen after acquiring Belgian citizenship. Judge Antoine Muhima said he would rule on the court's jurisdiction on Feb. 26." (02/17/21)
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16) US regime charges three North Koreans in $1.3 billion hacking spree
Source: Reuters
"The United States has charged three North Korean computer programmers with a massive hacking spree aimed at stealing more than $1.3 billion in money and cryptocurrency, affecting companies from banks to Hollywood movie studios, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday. The indictment alleges that Jon Chang Hyok, 31, Kim Il, 27, and Park Jin Hyok, 36, stole money while working for North Korea's military intelligence services. Park had previously been charged in a complaint unsealed in 2018. The Justice Department said the hackers were responsible for a wide range of criminal activity and high-profile intrusions, including a retaliatory 2014 attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment for producing 'The Interview' movie, which depicted the assassination of North Korea's leader." (02/17/21)
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17) Talk show host Larry King's widow contests handwritten will
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
"The widow of US TV host Larry King has gone to court to contest a handwritten will that purportedly leaves the late star's $2m estate to his children. Shawn Southwick King, whom King was divorcing at the time of his death, claims he was 'of questionable mental capacity' when the will was signed. According to the 2019 document, King wanted '100% of my funds to be divided equally' between [sic] his five children. Two of his children died in 2020, while King himself died in January aged 87. The veteran broadcaster hosted his popular CNN talk show for 25 years and conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews over his six-decade career. ... Southwick King, whom King married in 1997 and had two children with, alleges her stepson Larry King Jr exerted undue influence over his father towards the end of his life." (02/17/21)
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18) Japan: Ruling party invites more women to meetings, as long as they don't talk
Source: Metro
"Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, long seen as a homogeneous redoubt of elderly men, now wants more women at its key meetings -- provided they don't do the talking. The party, in power for most of the time since 1955, has proposed allowing five female lawmakers to join its board meetings as observers in a response to criticism that its board is dominated by men. ... Those female observers would not be able to speak during the meetings, but could submit opinions separately to the secretariat office, the Nikkei newspaper reported." (02/17/21)
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19) US regime rushes virus gene-mapping as mutations spread
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
"The U.S. is scrambling to expand DNA mapping of coronavirus samples taken from patients to identify potentially deadlier mutations that are starting to spread around the country. On Wednesday, the White House announced a scaled up push by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and by a U.S. Army biodefense institute. But the more significant action is on Capitol Hill, where a House bill headed for floor debate would provide $1.75 billion for genomic sequencing. 'I don't think this is going to be a light switch; I think its going to be a dial,' CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters, as she described the effort. The U.S. now maps only the genetic makeup of a minuscule fraction of positive virus samples, a situation some experts liken to flying blind." (02/17/21)
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20) Rush Limbaugh, 1951-2021
Source: Variety
"Rush Limbaugh, the conservative firebrand radio host who was a pillar of right-wing media in the U.S. for more than 30 years, died on Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 70. Limbaugh's wife, Kathryn, announced the news on his radio show. ... Limbaugh wielded enormous influence in politics. He was beloved by conservatives and reviled by liberals. He contributed to the coarsening of public discourse by referring to prominent women as 'femi-Nazis' and by belittling those who disagreed with him. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Limbaugh repeatedly referred to Barack Obama as the 'affirmative action candidate.' Limbaugh was one of the most popular personalities on radio and one of the most well paid. In 2008, he sighed an eight-year deal with Premiere Networks valued at $400 million. His audience at his peak was estimated at about 25 million a week." (02/17/21)
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Politics Is Seeping Into Our Daily Life and Ruining Everything
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
"Is there anything that politics can't ruin? The answer, it appears, is a resounding 'no' as partisan conflict creeps into all areas of American life. Our political affiliations, researchers say, obstruct friendships, influence our purchases, affect the positions we take on seemingly apolitical matters, and limit our job choices. As a result, many people are poorer, lonelier, and less healthy than they would otherwise be. ... People's partisan identities influence the range of people with whom they are willing to have relationships, the brands they purchase, and the jobs they take. In an era of public health concerns, people often choose positions on matters such as vaccines or mask-wearing not based on a rational assessment of the issues, but on a plug-and-play adoption of their tribe's stances. This sort of politicized decision-making can stand in the way of rational choices and healthy connections." (02/17/21)
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22) The tyranny of vaccine passports
Source: spiked
by Fraser Myers
"In some ways, the vaccine-passport debate is an extension of the post-vaccine lockdown debate. Even as the risks posed by Covid begin to fade from view, thanks to the vaccines, the authoritarian impulse to cajole and control society remains strong. New mutant strains of the precautionary principle keep emerging to put off the return of our pre-Covid freedoms. If implemented, vaccine passports will be here to stay. Any new intervention that is proposed a year after the coronavirus reached our shores is not going to be wound down when the Covid crisis is over. Once in place, the vaccine passport will no doubt metastasise to accommodate new forms of coercion and surveillance. It will be repurposed for new threats, real and imagined." (02/17/21)
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23) Millennials and Gen Z Have Serious Concerns about Social Security. Should They?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Chloe Anagnos
"Not all millennials and Gen Zers trust the government blindly. Many, a Northwestern Mutual study shows, are actually unsure whether they will ever see a cent from Social Security when they retire. Considering many have seen the little savings they had dry up following the pandemic-related lockdowns, some now wonder if they can catch up before it's too late. ... With Social Security expecting to be officially insolvent by 2034, it's promising to see young adults finally catching on to the fact that the government is incapable of providing a reliable savings program. However, there are still many Americans who fail to approach Social Security with the skepticism it deserves. While that is due in part to politicians and their never-ending promises, it is also due to the financial condition (and structure) of the Social Security program." (02/17/21)
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24) Why Nancy Pelosi's 9/11 Commission For Capitol Riot Is A Terrible Idea
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
"Many members of Congress remain outraged at the Trump protestors who charged into the Capitol on January 6. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently declared, 'We must get to the truth of how this happened ... Our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission to investigate and report on the facts and causes.' But another pious fraud from the political establishment is the last thing that America needs right now. The 9/11 Commission should be a warning that Washington dignitaries are the last people we should trust to expose the truth." (02/17/21)
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25) Populism, Left or Right?
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
"With President Trump's term now history, a discussion rages about the danger that right-wing populism poses to liberal democracy. Since radical leftists are much more vocal and organized in the denunciation of Trump and other right-wing populists than are, say, conservatives or classical liberals, a narrative has emerged in Europe, Latin America and the United States itself according to which populism is now a threat essentially coming from the right. The consequence of this narrative is that left-wing populism or more extreme forms of left-wing illiberalism are gaining a new legitimacy." (02/17/21)
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26) Market Interaction, Anonymity, and Social Trust
Source: Cato Unbound
by Steven Horwitz
"The political polarization that Kevin [Vallier] discusses has been made worse by a concurrent geographic and social polarization that reduces the meaningful contact people have with those who do not share their politics. Team Red and Team Blue are not just abstract markers. Like sports teams, they are increasingly connected to geographically more isolated networks. One need only think about the data that correlate the presence of a Whole Foods with voting Democratic and a Cracker Barrel with voting Republican. Or the survey result that more Americans would object to their kids marrying someone from the other political party than to someone of a different race or ethnicity. There is also an economic version of this problem." (02/17/21)
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27) Empire Attacks BDS For Same Reason Nixon Started Drug War
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Arkansas'[s] anti-BDS law violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, because it plainly does. 'The Arkansas Times has successfully challenged a law that prohibits the state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel,' Mondoweiss reports. 'The Little Rock-based weekly filed the lawsuit in 2018 and was represented by the ACLU. The paper takes no official position on BDS, but it launched the legal challenge after the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College refused to sign an advertising contract with The Arkansas Times, unless it signed the pledge. A U.S. district court judge dismissed the case in 2019, but last week the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found the law unconstitutional in a 2-1 decision.'" (02/17/21)
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28) The Anti-Terrorism Screws Tighten on the American People
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
"When I first heard the term Department of Homeland Security back in 2001, I immediately thought about Nazi Germany. Indeed, doesn't every totalitarian regime have a Department of Homeland Security? One thing is for sure: Americans didn't have a Department of Homeland Security when the country was established. And it didn't have one for the next 200 years. In fact, the concept is so creepy and so anti-freedom that there is no doubt that if the Constitution had authorized a Department of Homeland Security, our American ancestors would never have approved the Constitution in the first place. Another thing is for sure: The Constitution has never been amended to authorize a Department of Homeland Security. So how is it that the American people are saddled with this totalitarian-like agency today?" (02/17/21)
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29) Exit, federation, and scale
Source: Notes On Liberty
by Brandon Christensen
There's two points I need to do a better job of clarifying when I advocate for world government from a libertarian point of view: 1. I don't think federating the entire world is a good idea. I think the piecemeal federation of political units is what libertarians ought to aim for. (I think the US interstate order is the best avenue for achieving this aim.) A healthy 'world federation' would govern (say) 85% of the world's population. This brings me to my second point I need to clarify. 2. The importance of exit needs to be addressed and institutionalized in a proper federal order. This is difficult to do, but not impossible. My argument is to make exit difficult, but not too difficult. The difficulty of exit should be somewhere on the scale between a constitutional amendment (too difficult) in the US order and Brexit (too easy) in the Westphalian order." (02/17/21)
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30) Exploring Deeply the Economics of Price Controls
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Donald J Boudreaux
"When buyers and sellers are prohibited from exchanging at monetary prices above maximum ones set by government, shortages arise. The reason is that buyers want to buy more units at the artificially set low prices than they would want to buy at higher prices, while sellers are less willing to sell at these lower prices. With the quantity offered for sale thus being less than is the quantity that's demanded at the government-set maximum price, something has to determine which aspiring buyers will succeed in finding units to buy and which aspiring buyers will be among those who go home empty-handed. It's possible that this determination will be made by random chance. But that's unlikely." (02/17/21)
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31) COVID remote learning: Why aren't school districts giving taxpayers their money back?
Source: Fox News Forum
by Stephen Moore
"In Naperville, Illinois, the school board announced it would distribute $10 million back to taxpayers this year. Yes, a tax refund. In a news release, Superintendent Dan Bridges told residents that he 'understands the great burden many of our families have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes that this reimbursement lessens that burden.' The typical family will receive a refund of $200 to $500. Good for Naperville. The 10-month pandemic shutdown generated a savings of roughly $20 million, or about 6.5% out of a $300 million school budget. The Naperville Sun reported that the district's expenses for everything from transportation, utilities, staffing needs and so on have been much lower while the doors have been shut." (02/17/21)
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32) Joe Biden's Favorite Lie
Source: Commentary
by Noah Rothman
"President Joe Biden will be the first to remind you that he has had a long career in politics. He did so once again last night during a televised town hall in Milwaukee broadcast on CNN. But despite that experience, Biden claimed, something entirely unforeseen has occurred: For 'the first time in my career,' the president said, 'there is a consensus among economists left, right, and center,' that, 'in order to grow the economy a year, two, three, and four down the line, we can't spend too much.' There is no dissent. At least, there is no 'serious' dissent. This sleight of hand manages to transform the word 'consensus' into something more closely resembling 'shut up.'" (02/17/21)
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33) Suspect Science Threatens US Farming, Again
Source: Heartland Institute
by Paul Driessen
"Modern American agriculture has wrought miracles over the past 70 years. Conventional farm production per acre and overall nearly tripled, corn (maize) production increased 500% from 20% less land -- and farmers used less water, less fuel, less fertilizer, and fewer pesticides and other chemicals for every bushel of food they harvested. They did all this using hybrid and genetically engineered seeds, tractors guided by GPS, equipment that can space seeds precisely to the inch and apply chemicals in amounts suited to soil characteristics that can change every few feet, and numerous other high-tech advances. ... It's thus surprising and troubling that environmentalist groups continue to attack the foundations of that success -- especially GMO seeds and safe, effective, repeatedly tested, constantly monitored chemicals like glyphosate (Roundup) and neonicotinoid pesticides." (02/17/21)
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34) The world's answer to pandemic nationalism
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
"One global achievement during the pandemic is that major countries put aside their differences and agreed on a person to lead the World Trade Organization. And not just any person, but the first woman and the first African to be director-general of this guardian institution of open trade. This consensus hints at what Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala herself calls the WTO's potential to be a 'force for good' in countering the coronavirus's economic effects and in lifting up the world's most marginalized people. The last thing the world needs, says the Harvard-educated economist, is a 'surge of nationalism' in response to the pandemic and a closing of borders and a disruption of global supply chains." (02/16/21)
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35) Understanding the Texas Blackouts
Source: National Review
by Kevin D Williamson
"The fundamental reason for Texas's blackouts is correlated grid risk: The kind of winter storm we currently are experiencing -- unusual but hardly unprecedented -- drives up demand for electricity while simultaneously driving down the available supply of the stuff. The system can withstand a spike in demand, and it can withstand a dip in supply, but it cannot withstand both at the same time. Hence the blackouts. ... Texas could have an infrastructure that is better prepared for this kind of thing, but the upgrades would be expensive. Nobody wanted to pay for them a week ago. Nobody will want to pay for them a week from now. But today, millions of Texans wish the money had been spent -- preferably by someone else, of course." (02/17/21)
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36) Politicians responsible for much loss
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
"It's so nice of New Mexico's political overlords to allow businesses to re-open a bit -- until they change their minds again. We should gather in the frozen fields and sing hymns to their glory. Wearing two or three masks each, obviously. If you don't praise the bully when he beats you slightly less, you're ungrateful. The past year has been educational. I have learned people will tolerate anything, on the flimsiest of excuses. They will allow politicians to destroy their businesses, cripple their social lives, dictate what they wear, and imprison them in their own homes without even a show trial, as long as there's a new cold virus for justification. Unbelievable. I can't even blame one political party over the other -- they are both guilty." (02/17/21)
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37) Why Politicians and Doctors Keep Ignoring Medical Research on Vitamin D & Covid
Source: Common Dreams
by Jonathan Cook
"It is probably not a good idea to write while in the grip of anger. But I am struggling to suppress my emotions about a wasted year, during which politicians and many doctors have ignored a growing body of evidence suggesting that Vitamin D can play a critically important role in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19. It is time to speak out forcefully now that a new, large-scale Spanish study demonstrates not a just a correlation but a causal relationship between high-dose Vitamin D treatment of hospitalised Covid patients and significantly improved outcomes for their health. The pre-print paper in the Lancet shows there was an 80 per cent reduction in admission to intensive care units among hospitalised patients who were treated with large doses of Vitamin D, and a 64 per cent reduction in death." (02/17/21)
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38) End in Ice?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"When I was young, some folks worried about a return to Ice Age conditions. The climate alarm, in the decades since, prophesies hotter conditions, not colder. So, with this cold snap hitting North America -- ice storms from Washington State to Texas and now heading east by northeast -- climate change has emerged in the back (or even front) of our minds. It's just not necessarily Fire we fret about. It's Ice. (Cue recitation of the great Robert Frost poem, now.)" (02/17/21)
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39) The Banned Books of the Cold War-Era Soviet Union
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kym Robinson
"The authoritarian nature of the Soviet Union has been buried by apologist revisionism and has been romanced in the upsurge of sexy depictions of the Cold War. It's a fondness for a past that never really existed. For its victims it was grim and chilling period of repression. The Stalinist era is one of dystopian horrors, genocide and gulags with centrally planned nightmares converging into a monstrous state headed by a dictator that was saved by the bloodiest war in human history. ... Contraband works made available by Samizdat nourished a liberal instinct and helped to subvert the tyranny of the State, along with rock n roll, blue jeans and the continued economic idiocy that was felt by the common person daily." (02/17/21)
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40) The Facebook "Oversight" Board
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by David Post
"This experiment raises some complicated issues about governance and decision-making, and I will try to be as concise as I can. I have two points to make. First, that it's a sham. The Board is not what it purports to be; it cannot and will not exercise anything that can remotely be described as 'oversight' over Facebook's content management system. And second, that even were it not a sham -- even if the Board were actually empowered to provide real oversight and direction to that system -- that doesn't strike me as any sort of improvement in the current state of affairs; there are many fundamental policy choices embedded in that system which affect the fortunes of a large proportion of the individuals, corporations, and governments on the planet, and I fail to see why a hand-picked Council of the Wise is the proper repository of the power to make those choices." (02/17/21)
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41) Will Cuomo Have to Give Back His Emmy?
Source: American Consequences
by Buck Sexton
"Governor Andrew Cuomo was hailed as the hero of the pandemic ... But now we know it was all a fraud. ... Cuomo was telling a story the Liberals [sic] wanted to hear. He even won an Emmy for his daily press conferences .... His arrogance and monumental stupidity condemned thousands of high-risk seniors to die unnecessarily from COVID-19 in nursing homes. Cuomo's record speaks for itself ... More than 15,000 seniors have died from the virus in nursing homes on his watch. Overall, New York has the second highest COVID fatality rate of any state in the country. And to make matters worse, Cuomo tried to cover up the nursing-home data." (02/17/21)
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42) US imperialism goes green
Source: spiked
by Philip Cunliffe
"In Washington, DC, the newly installed administration of President Joe Biden is looking for ways to restore the credibility of the US as a global leader following the inward turn of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump. The reputation of liberal globalism that was championed by President Barack Obama, under whom Biden had previously served as vice president, has since been badly tarnished. This is due, not least, to the legacy of ruinous wars across North Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Greater Middle East. ... The failure of earlier cycles of liberal intervention justified further intervention to rectify the problems caused by previous campaigns, thereby creating the doom loop of endless conflict. Given this disastrous legacy, the prospect of recycling liberal humanitarian globalism as green globalism offers the Biden administration some distinct opportunities for political gain." (02/17/21)
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43) Why "Hostage Diplomacy" Works
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
"From China to Iran to the United States, arbitrary detention is an immoral -- and often effective -- pressure tactic." (02/17/21)
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44) Saudi Arabia Sets Global Standard for Tyranny, but Asks: Why Is Washington Picking on the Kingdom?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Doug Bandow
"Why is everyone being so mean to Saudi Arabia? No doubt, the poor, beleaguered, misunderstood royals ask that question as they busy themselves squandering people's wealth, imprisoning critics, attacking impoverished neighbors, and spreading Islamic fundamentalism. Life can be so unfair. Indeed, it is a travesty that even the Saudis' supposed friends are critical. Only someone with a heart of stone could not have compassion for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman given the travails that he has personally suffered while solidifying his dictatorship, purchasing yachts and palaces, and slicing and dicing his detractors. So much harm to do, so little time. He is tragically unappreciated by the Biden administration. The horror!" (02/17/21)
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45) Indivisible Deserves More Credit
Source: The American Prospect
by Michael Podhorzer
"I was eager to read the assessment of Indivisible by [Theda] Skocpol and her co-author, Caroline Tervo. But, at this moment, when we desperately need to understand the causes of our civic lethargy and find remedies to the learned helplessness that characterizes the last several decades in America, I felt this piece missed the mark. First, when the authors ascribe Democratic down-ballot losses in 2020 to earlier resistance momentum not 'carry[ing] over,' they misunderstand the last two elections. The 2018 blue wave was fueled by unprecedented turnout on our side and relatively less enthusiasm on their side. Democratic losses in 2020 were the result of Republicans who had voted in 2016 but sat out 2018." [editor's note: But were they really? – SAT] (02/17/21)
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46) The despicable state of "higher education" in 2021
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
"From the smallest cowtown college to largest Mega-University, higher education is a parasite on society, the economy, and any possible benevolent type of government. While it is no doubt the case in Europe, Pacifica, and even our allies in East Asia, it is particularly bad here in the Fifty States. Please don't think that I am saying that education is worthless, or that a higher education is worthless. I am talking about the institutions that are supposed to be PROVIDING a higher education. Most -- indeed, virtually ALL of these institutions are 'worthy' of condemnation and more." (02/17/21)
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47) F.A. Hayek on the discovery, use, and transmission of knowledge
Source: Cobden Centre
by Thomas D Howes
"The problem of market coordination is more obvious if one considers Hayek's point that most of the economically relevant information, such as the relative importance of various economic ends in the minds of individuals, are known only to those same individuals, and very often, Hayek later implies, tacitly. The economic problem, according to Hayek, is thus how to use this knowledge. He believes this has been neglected by economists who model their methods on the natural sciences: a methodological criticism Hayek presents in various places." (02/17/21)
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48) New Proposal Would Make You Part of the National Surveillance State
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Jprivate
"Senator Joe Manchin wants to bring DHS's spy on your neighbors, 'If You See, Something Say Something' program to social media, blogs, websites, and much more. Manchin's bill, the 'See Something, Say Something Online Act' would essentially turn social media users into Federal spies by forcing them to report suspicious people to law enforcement. Just how bad is this bill? This bill would essentially force anyone on social media to report suspicious 'transmissions' to law enforcement." (02/17/21)
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49) Don't stop with Saudis -- Biden must cut off weapons to UAE, too
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by William Hartnung
"President Biden took the occasion of his first foreign policy speech on February 4 to make a pledge to end 'all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.' The administration has since indicated that it will put an indefinite pause on two bomb sales to Saudi Arabia that the Trump administration announced in late December. The administration's new policy should include a review of all U.S. sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the nations that are primarily responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. It is important that sales to the UAE receive the same scrutiny given to Saudi arms offers." (02/17/21)
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50) Biden's "Commonsense" Gun Controls Make Little Sense
Source: Town Hall
by Jacob Sullum
"This week, President Joe Biden marked the third anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by urging Congress to 'enact commonsense gun law reforms.' The implication was that the gun controls Biden favors would prevent crimes like the Parkland massacre. There is little reason to think that's true. The bills Biden is eager to sign would instead arbitrarily limit Second Amendment rights and threaten the viability of the industry that makes it possible to exercise them. Biden wants to prohibit the production and sale of 'assault weapons' and require that current owners either surrender their firearms to the government or follow the same tax and registration requirements that apply to machine guns. Yet, he concedes that the 1994 federal 'assault weapon' ban, which expired in 2004, had no impact on the lethality of legal firearms." (02/17/21)
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51) Are the Woke a False Flag Operation of White Supremacists?
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer
"It is hard for me to imagine anything that white surpremacists could do to permanently impoverish African-Americans than some of the things the woke are supporting. Case in point is this story from Oregon: 'The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages 'ethnomathematics' and argues, among other things, that [w]hite supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer.' ... Steve Martin used to have a comedy routine where he would say something like, 'wouldn't it be funny to teach your kids how to talk wrong. On their first day in Kindergarten class they would walk up to the teacher and exclaim, 'Mumbo dogface in the banana patch!" That had a certain dark humor to it but teaching kids to do math wrong in real life is simply insane." (02/16/21)
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52) Mill's (invincible) Trident: An argument every fan (or opponent) of free speech must know
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
by Greg Lukianoff
"Mill recognizes that there are only three possibilities in any given argument: 1. You are wrong, in which case freedom of speech is essential to allow people to correct you. 2. You are partially correct, in which case you need free speech and contrary viewpoints to help you get a more precise understanding of what the truth really is. 3. You are 100% correct, in the unlikely event that you are 100% correct, you still need people to argue with you, to try to contradict you, and to try to prove you wrong. Why? Because if you never have to defend your points of view, there is a very good chance you don't really understand them, and that you hold them the same way you would hold a prejudice or superstition." (02/16/21)
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53) Getting to Zero: Carbon Pricing and its Green Critics
Source: Niskanen Center
by Ed Dolan
"Carbon pricing is firmly entrenched as the go-to climate policy for economists, yet many with training in other sciences and social sciences remain skeptical. This commentary surveys four recent papers by writers who are fully committed to forceful climate action but who have little if any enthusiasm for carbon pricing. Together, the papers offer important insights into disagreements about the proper role of pricing and point the way to common ground." (02/16/21)
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54) Desperate Times Call for Mutual Aid
Source: In These Times
by Marianela D'Aprile
"The numbers bear repeating: More than 20 million people lost their jobs; 40 million people are at risk of eviction; 12 million people have lost their health insurance. And those are just the most basic figures regarding the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers across the country are attending school remotely, which can mean from a closet or the bathroom, the only places they have with any privacy. Meanwhile, their parents balance full-time parenting with full-time work -- if they're lucky enough to be working. ... People are hurting in innumerable, deep ways, and the suffering will continue despite the vaccines. They (we) need help." (02/17/21)
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55) Anatomy of the Nursing Home Death Warrants
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Jordan Schachtel
"New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is finally facing the heat for his botched and criminally negligent coronavirus response policies, yet no one seems to be asking why Cuomo and select governors made the fateful decisions that led to the excess deaths -- and the coverup campaigns -- of tens of thousands of senior citizens in New York and elsewhere across the United States. After being awarded an Emmy and writing a book on his supposedly heroic response to the pandemic, Cuomo is finally receiving the very necessary inquiries into his handling of the crisis. Cuomo is perhaps the most egregious example of abuse and neglect (given his refusal to use the Javits Center or a Navy hospital ship), he is far from the only governor who executed the 'nursing home death warrants.'" (02/16/21)
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
56) The Power of Storytelling: Connecting Policy with People
Source: Show-Me Institute
"Join us on Thursday, March 18 for a special virtual event with Lee Habeeb. Lee Habeeb is CEO and founder of American Private Radio and host of Our American Stories." [Zoom webinar -- registration required] (12pm Central, 02/18/21)
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57) Free Talk Live, 02/17/21
Source: Free Talk Live
"Politician PDAs :: Scott the Bigot :: Staged Love :: Muslims, Biden, and China :: Texas Freeze :: National Gun Control Bill :: Federal Lands :: HOSTS -- Ian, Aria, Bonnie." [Flash audio or MP3] (02/17/21)
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58) The Vital Center, episode 1
Source: Niskanen Center
"The Forces Behind the Radical Right." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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59) Jim Bovard on the Dan Proft Show
Source: JimBovard.com
"Powerline's John Hinderaker, who was guest-hosting on the Dan Proft show on Salem Radio Network, and I had a zesty chat yesterday spurred by my recent articles the folly of Congress claiming absolute power and the role of teacher unions in shafting children." [Flash audio] (02/17/21)
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60) The Tatiana Show, episode 295
Source: The Tatiana Show
"A Rebel Yell with Eric Hailar of Rebel With A Cause." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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61) FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, 02/16/21
Source: FiveThirtyEight
"Why Democrats Are Done With Iowa And New Hampshire." [various formats] (02/16/21)
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62) The Tom Wood Show, episode 1837
Source: The Tom Woods Show
"The Iraq Fiasco Revisited, with Scott Horton." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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63) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 02/17/21
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"Globalism Goes Bold: Bill Gates Wants Your Hamburger." [Flash video] (02/17/21)
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64) Commentary Podcast, 02/16/21
Source: Commentary
"Why Is Joe Biden Afraid of 'Normal?'" [various formats] (02/17/21)
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65) Punk Rock Libertarians Podcast, episode 338
Source: The Daily Liberator
"Based Otto." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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66) Free Man Beyond The Wall, episode 539
Source: Free Man Beyond The Wall
"Marxism Part 3 -- The Thought of Mao Zedong." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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67) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 72
Source: Libertarian Institute
"Hawks Press Biden to Escalate War in Iraq and Afghanistan." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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68) Now Hear This, 02/17/21
Source: We Are Libertarians
"Indiana Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director Chris Grey on Sports Betting." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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69) Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill, 02/17/21
Source: The Intercept
"The Democrats' Long War on Immigrants." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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70) Electric Libertyland, episode 216
Source: Lions of Liberty
"SuperJew Now Employs Gina Carano, and God Bless Dave Chappelle." [various formats] (02/17/21)
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71) Cyberlaw Podcast, episode 349
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
"Our interview this week is with Nicole Perlroth, the New York Times reporter and author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race." [various formats] (02/16/21)
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72) Bloggingheads.tv, 02/16/21
Source: Bloggingheads.tv
"Decoding Slate Star Codex | Robert Wright & Will Wilkinson." [Flash video] (02/16/21)
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73) What Then Must We Do? episode 55
Source: Bretigne Shaffer
"Kevin McKernan: Is the peer-review process fraudulent?" [various formats] (02/16/21)
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74) AnarchoChristian, episode 67
Source: AnarchoChristian
"Dystopian stories frequently grab our attention, forcing us to consider the future consequences of our actions today. But what do they mean to the Christian?" [various formats] (02/16/21)
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75) Reason Roundtable, 02/16/21
Source: Reason
"Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie shout about Trump's second acquittal, Biden's latest managerial pushes, and the CDC's flop of a school-reopening rollout." [various formats] (02/16/21)
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