06/03 -- Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election; Politics will never increase liberty
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 3, 2024, 6:32:06 AMJun 3
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 06/03/24
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election
2) Biden regime quietly lightens up a little bit on the immigration police state BS
3) Israel: Two ministers threaten to topple regime if it accepts Biden’s Gaza peace plan
4) Retired US Navy admiral charged in bribery scheme with tech CEOs for $500,000 salary
5) Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
6) Iceland: Voters elect businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir as president
7) OPEC+ extends deep oil production cuts into 2025
8) Middle East terror kingpin accepts invitation to address US Congress
9) Mass Parachute Jump Over Normandy Kicks Commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day
10) New blood test “can predict” breast cancer return
11) Iran: Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 election
12) Coinbase: US SEC is “bent on choking” the crypto industry
13) Sri Lanka: Monsoon floods kill seven people
14) South Africa: ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominance
15) Democrats wanted an agreement on using artificial intelligence; it went nowhere
16) NY: Couple finds safe stuffed with $100,000 cash while magnet fishing
17) Israeli justices press government on religious conscription waivers
18) Chinese probe lands on moon’s far side in first-ever sample retrieval mission
19) ME: Monster truck clips a power line at show, toppling utility poles in spectator area
20) FL: DeSantis suddenly changes his mind about convicted felons’ voting rights
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Politics will never increase liberty
22) David Boaz: Liberty’s North Star
23) Don’t Chip Off the Old Mr. Block
24) Libertarian Problems
25) Trump Says the Game Is Rigged. It Is — in His Favor
26) US Empire Not a Government That Runs Nonstop Wars, But a Nonstop War That Runs A Government
27) Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
28) Here’s how Congress can help stop backdoor government censorship
29) Who Will Win? International Law or Benjamin Netanyahu?
30) SWAT Goes to College
31) Medicare Advantage: Why Are We Paying for “Sham” Insurance?
32) Renters and Owners Live in Separate Economies
33) Failures of World Leaders Risk Collapse of International Order
34) Freedom Civilized
35) Is the Slippery Slope “Fallacy” Really a Fallacy?
36) The National Debt Is Becoming a Public Health Threat
37) Dems Deserve Everything Bad That Comes Their Way … And More
38) From Nixon to Biden: How the US Turned Banks into Spy Networks
39) The Jury, Not the Prosecutor, Decides Who’s Guilty
40) Fear and the Overton Window
41) Juries Rule
42) Tariffs Won’t Fix Our China Problems
43) Nikki Haley’s moral compass
44) The new polarization that explains our politics
45) Biden backs US allies fighting for their lives — as long as they don’t fight too hard
46) The World We Have Lost
47) Government Undermines Civilization
48) New Meta‐Study Details the Distortive Effects of Rent Control
49) Indonesia’s leap into good governance
50) “A Child Is Not the Mere Creature of the State”
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Free Talk Cast, episode 1
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 248
53) See How They Run, 06/01/24
54) Everyday Samurai, episode 60
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 605
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/31/24
57) Meme Wars, 05/31/24
58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2498
59) Advisory Opinions, 05/31/24
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/31/24
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election
Source: New York Times
“Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won her nation’s elections on Sunday in a landslide victory that brought a double milestone: She became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico. Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, prevailed in what the authorities called the largest election in Mexico’s history, with the highest number of voters taking part and the most seats up for grabs. … Ms. Sheinbaum, a leftist, campaigned on a vow to continue the legacy of Mexico’s current president and her mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which delighted their party’s base — and raised alarm among detractors.” (06/03/24)
https://archive.is/uHUuu
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2) Biden regime quietly lightens up a little bit on the immigration police state BS
Source: Fox News
“As the White House finalizes plans for a U.S.-Mexico clampdown that would shut off asylum requests and automatically deny entrance to migrants once a threshold is met, the Biden administration has continued to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to remain in the U.S. with what amounts to amnesty, according to a report. A report released last month by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan data gathering organization that tracks immigration cases and backlogs shows that since 2022, over 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants were closed by the U.S. government on the basis that those who filed did not have a criminal record or were not deemed a threat to the U.S. Once cases are terminated without a decision on the merits of their asylum claim, the migrants are removed from the legal system, and they are not required to check in with authorities.” [editor’s note: Well, it’s a small step toward sanity, anyway – TLK] (06/02/24)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-quietly-dismisses-over-350k-asylum-applications-from-immigrants-since-2022-trac
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3) Israel: Two ministers threaten to topple regime if it accepts Biden’s Gaza peace plan
Source: ABC 57 News
“Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to resign and bring down the governing coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he accepts a peace proposal laid out by US President Joe Biden. Biden unveiled on Friday what he said was a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the conflict in Gaza that would pair a release of hostages with a ‘full and complete ceasefire.’ … But the Israeli government’s two most prominent far-right members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, made it explicitly clear they reject an immediate ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also signaled he is not ready either, casting doubt over Biden’s proposal.” (06/02/24)
https://www.abc57.com/news/two-far-right-israeli-ministers-threaten-to-topple-the-government-if-it-accepts-biden-peace-plan
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4) Retired US Navy admiral charged in bribery scheme with tech CEOs for $500,000 salary
Source: CNBC
“A retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral, who was once the military branch’s second-highest-ranking officer, was arrested on Friday for a bribery scheme with two tech CEOs, the Department of Justice announced. From 2020 to 2022, Robert Burke, a 62-year-old resident of Coconut Creek, Fla., allegedly used his high-ranking status in the Navy to help Yongchul ‘Charlie’ Kim and Meghan Messenger, the co-CEOs of New York-based workplace tech platform Next Jump, win military contracts, according to the DOJ. … ‘Admiral Burke disputes these charges,’ Burke’s attorney Timothy Parlatore told CNBC on Saturday. ‘We will be demanding a trial where we expect that he will be found not guilty.'” (06/01/24)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/01/retired-us-navy-admiral-charged-in-bribery-scheme-with-tech-ceos.html
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5) Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
Source: 2 News Nevada
“Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people. Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers. Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.” (06/02/24)
https://www.2news.com/news/world/energy-shutdowns-hit-ukraine-after-russian-attacks-target-infrastructure/article_d643d233-05d1-5635-8cf6-c2f30e55ce6a.html
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6) Iceland: Voters elect businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir as president
Source: ABC News
“Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland’s presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country’s national broadcast service reported. Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday. Tomasdottir, 55, campaigned as someone who was above party politics and could help open discussions on fundamental issues such as the effect of social media on the mental health of young people, Iceland’s development as a tourist destination and the role of artificial intelligence. She will replace President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who did not seek re-election after two four-year terms.” (06/02/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iceland-elects-businesswoman-halla-tomasdottir-president-110751048
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7) OPEC+ extends deep oil production cuts into 2025
Source: Reuters
“OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to extend most of its deep oil output cuts for 2024 but to start phasing them out in 2025, as the group seeks to shore up the market amid tepid global demand growth, high interest rates and rising rival U.S. production. Oil prices trade near $80 per barrel, below what many OPEC+ members need to balance their budget. Worries over slow demand growth in top oil importer China have weighed on prices alongside rising oil stocks in developed economies. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, together known as OPEC+, have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.” (06/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-seen-prolonging-cuts-2024-into-2025-two-sources-say-2024-06-02/
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8) Middle East terror kingpin accepts invitation to address US Congress
Source: CNN
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation from US congressional leaders to address a joint meeting of Congress, his office said in a statement Saturday. … The top four US congressional leaders on Friday formally invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress. … The invitation comes after much speculation as additional military aid to Israel remains in question and Democrats are facing pressure from their left wing as the party remains divided over Israel’s handling of the war against Hamas.” (06/01/24)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-joint-address-congress/index.html
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9) Mass Parachute Jump Over Normandy Kicks Commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day
Source: US News & World Report
“Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny. All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying ‘merci’ but also goodbye. The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last.” (06/02/24)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-06-02/a-mass-parachute-jump-over-normandy-kicks-commemorations-for-the-80th-anniversary-of-d-day
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10) New blood test “can predict” breast cancer return
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“An ‘ultra-sensitive’ new blood test can predict if breast cancer will return years before the disease shows up on scans, researchers say. It picks up traces of a tumour’s DNA before a full relapse and was found to be 100% accurate at predicting which patients would see their cancer return. It is hoped that the test can allow treatment to start earlier and improve survival rates. The UK research has been branded ‘incredibly exciting’ by experts but is still in its early stages. Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease worldwide, with 2.26 million women diagnosed in 2020 and 685,000 deaths in the same year, according to Breast Cancer UK. A team of researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London conducted the trial on 78 patients with different types of early breast cancer.” (06/02/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjjjnxdv188o
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11) Iran: Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 election
Source: ABC News
“Iran’s hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president. The populist former leader’s registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities. The firebrand, Holocaust-questioning politician’s return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, its arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent.” (06/02/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/irans-hard-line-former-president-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-registers-110750103
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12) Coinbase: US SEC is “bent on choking” the crypto industry
Source: CoinTelegraph
“The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue its regulation-by-enforcement approach to the cryptocurrency industry for as long as it can to satisfy its goal of ‘choking’ the industry, according to crypto exchange Coinbase. ‘The SEC is serious about the destruction of digital assets,’ Coinbase declared in a May 31 filing with the U.S Court of Appeals in its ongoing effort to push the court to force the SEC to begin making fair rules for the crypto industry. … The SEC initiated the lawsuit against Coinbase in June 2023 alleging that Coinbase has never registered as a broker, national securities exchange or clearing agency, evading the disclosure scheme for securities markets.” (06/01/24)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-sec-crypto-exchange-coinbase-complaints-appeals-court
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13) Sri Lanka: Monsoon floods kill seven people
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rains in Sri Lanka have killed at least seven people, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has said. In Sitawaka — outside the capital, Colombo — three members of the same family died when their house was flooded. Supplies of electricity have been cut off in several areas and schools ordered to remain shut on Monday. Landslide warnings have been issued in nine districts. DMC Director Pradeep Kodippili told the BBC’s Sinhala service that the risk of flooding was rapidly increasing in Colombo and other areas of the south. ‘Many areas have reportedly received more than 400mm of rain so far,’ Mr Kodippili said. ‘The minor flood risk is increasing to a major flood risk.’ He urged Sri Lankans to pay attention to emergency announcements from the government and DMC.” (06/02/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck77391e9nlo
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14) South Africa: ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominance
Source: Reuters
“South Africans angry at joblessness, inequality and power shortages slashed support for the African National Congress (ANC) to 40% in this week’s election, ending three decades of dominance by the party that freed the country from apartheid. A dramatically weakened mandate for the legacy party of Nelson Mandela, down from the 57.5% it garnered in the 2019 parliamentary election, means the ANC must share power with a rival in order to keep it — an unprecedented prospect. … The ANC had won every national election by a landslide since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule, but over the last decade its support has dwindled as the economy stagnated, unemployment rose and roads and power stations crumbled.” (06/01/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-latest-vote-count-puts-anc-just-over-40-2024-06-01/
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15) Democrats wanted an agreement on using artificial intelligence; it went nowhere
Source: SFGate
“The Democratic National Committee was watching earlier this year as campaigns nationwide were experimenting with artificial intelligence. So the organization approached a handful of influential party campaign committees with a request: Sign onto guidelines that would commit them to use the technology in a ‘responsible’ way. The draft agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was hardly full of revolutionary ideas. It asked campaigns to check work by AI tools, protect against biases and avoid using AI to create misleading content. ‘Our goal is to use this new technology both effectively and ethically, and in a way that advances – rather than undermines – the values that we espouse in our campaigns,’ the draft said. The plan went nowhere. Instead of fostering an agreement, the guidelines sparked a debate about the value of such pledges, particularly those governing fast-evolving technology.” (06/02/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/democrats-wanted-an-agreement-on-using-artificial-19490887.php
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16) NY: Couple finds safe stuffed with $100,000 cash while magnet fishing
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A New York City couple who were ‘magnet fishing’ in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside. James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May, Friday afternoon. The couple managed to open the safe and found the cash, bundles of $100 bills, with an estimated value of $100,000, though the money was damaged by the water. In an interview with NY1, James Kane explained they began magnet fishing during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the allure of treasure-hunting without having to spend a lot of money on equipment. Magnet fishing simply involves putting a rope with a strong magnet on it into water with the hopes of retrieving metal objects.” (06/02/24)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/02/couple-magnet-fishing-safe-cash-new-york
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17) Israeli justices press government on religious conscription waivers
Source: Reuters
“The top Israeli court heard responses by the state on Sunday to challenges against exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews from military conscription, a long-standing source of friction with more secular citizens now inflamed by the long Gaza war. In the name of equality, the Supreme Court in 2018 voided a law waiving the call-up for ultra-Orthodox men who want to study in seminaries instead. Parliament failed to come up with an alternative arrangement, and a government-ordered stay on a mandatory mobilisation of ultra-Orthodox expired in March. That has left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to agree with ultra-Orthodox coalition partners on a military service compromise that might preempt any Supreme Court ruling that Israel’s fasted-growing minority must be forcibly drafted.” (06/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-justices-press-government-religious-conscription-waivers-2024-06-02/
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18) Chinese probe lands on moon’s far side in first-ever sample retrieval mission
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“China has landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon, overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement that the Chang’e-6 touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6:23am Beijing time on Sunday after completing a multistage landing process. … After another landing in 2019, this is China’s second descent on the far side of the moon, where no other country has reached.” (06/02/24)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/2/china-probe-lands-on-moons-far-side-in-first-ever-sample-retrieval-mission
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19) ME: Monster truck clips a power line at show, toppling utility poles in spectator area
Source: SFGate
“A lobster-themed monster truck performing for spectators in Maine clipped an aerial power line, toppling several utility poles and sending two people to hospitals, police said. Others suffered minor injuries. The Topsham Fairgrounds was hosting the monster truck event on Saturday when a vehicle dubbed the Crushstation bounced up a ramp, went airborne and hit the power line. Video showed people scrambling as the snagged line triggered a cascade of events with several utility poles and a transformer falling near the grandstands, with live wires on the ground. Two people were transported to hospitals and others suffered minor injuries, Topsham police reported. The driver of the truck was not injured. ” (06/02/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/monster-truck-clips-aerial-power-line-toppling-19491103.php
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20) FL: DeSantis suddenly changes his mind about convicted felons’ voting rights
Source: Politico
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’ll make sure Donald Trump can vote in his home state this November despite his felony convictions. DeSantis said Friday that he disputes the assessment of some experts who say that Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts would make him ineligible to cast a ballot in the state. But, in any case, the Florida governor said he would ensure the state clemency board cleared the way for his former rival for the Republican presidential nomination to vote back home.” (05/31/24)
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/31/desantis-says-trump-can-still-vote-in-florida-despite-felony-conviction-00161128
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Politics will never increase liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“If you are a good person who votes for Democratic or Republican candidates because you feel you must, even if you don’t agree with the crazy positions the national party holds, I won’t hold the party’s flaws against you. I also hope you don’t confuse the Libertarian Party for libertarian people. They aren’t the same thing at all. Politics ruins everything it touches. The problem with political Libertarianism is that libertarianism and politics aren’t compatible.” (06/02/24)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2024/06/02/voices/opinion-politics-will-never-increase-liberty/178624.html
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22) David Boaz: Liberty’s North Star
Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell
“My friend and mentor David Boaz is dying. I hope you’ll indulge me in some thoughts on why David matters to me — and also why he should matter to you. Tributes like these typically get published after their subject has died, but I wanted to say this before, because, for however brief a time still, we all share the world with a good man. … David became what he became, and built the organization he built, because he feels the moral weight of freedom’s call — not just for himself, because everyone wants freedom for themselves, but for everyone. His tireless advocacy for gay rights, long before such a thing was popular in Washington, and his early calls to end the war on drugs, speak to what made David a libertarian, and not a Republican masquerading as one.” (06/01/24)
https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/david-boaz-libertys-north-star
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23) Don’t Chip Off the Old Mr. Block
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg
“‘Mr. Block … licks the hand that smites him and kisses the boot that kicks him.’ Industrial Worker editor Walker C. Smith wasn’t foreseeing, by 111 years, Walter Block, PhD’s ‘Libertarians Should Vote For Trump’ (The Wall Street Journal, May 29); the character from Walker’s newspaper was fictional enough to be a blockhead in the most literal sense. Dr. Block should get his head examined. ‘Hats off’ to inviting Donald Trump to the Libertarian National Convention as being a more effective move than anything else the Libertarian Party ‘did in more than half a century of existence?’ Such mental gymnastics dwarf the cartoon Block’s comically undersized bowler.” (06/01/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18639
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24) Libertarian Problems
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Many libertarians believe that we have all the answers, that it starts with A=A or some similar axiom and from there, with a few simple steps that any intelligent person could see if only he wasn’t blinded by his statist preconceptions, we end up with answers to all problems in the world. Here are some to which libertarianism, as many libertarians understand it, either gives no answer or gives an answer that most libertarians are unwilling to accept.” (06/01/24)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/libertarian-problems
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25) Trump Says the Game Is Rigged. It Is — in His Favor
Source: The Daily Beast
by Matt Lewis
“Trump commits egregious, unprecedented acts, and then he dares you to do something about it. Your choice is to either a) let him get away with it (thereby incentivizing future aggressions), or b) try to hold him accountable (which he will then cast as an act of aggression). To put it bluntly, Trump takes hostages. Rather than putting the country ahead of his own ego, Trump says, ‘You can shoot me, but I’ll make sure to also take down everything (the country, democracy, the criminal justice system, American institutions, etc.) with me.’ And then, amid the rubble wrought by chaos and division, Trump and his minions shout, ‘Look at what you made us do!’ Yes, the game is rigged, but it’s rigged toward Trump. It’s heads Trump wins, and tails the rest of us lose.” (06/01/24)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-says-the-game-is-rigged-it-isin-his-favor
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26) US Empire Not a Government That Runs Nonstop Wars, But a Nonstop War That Runs A Government
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It clears up a lot of confusion when you understand that the US empire is not a national government which happens to run nonstop military operations, it’s a nonstop military operation that happens to run a national government. The wars are not designed to serve the interests of the United States, the United States is designed to serve the interests of the wars. The US as a country is just a source of funding, personnel, resources and diplomatic cover for a nonstop campaign to dominate the planet with mass military violence and the threat thereof. This campaign is not waged to benefit the American people or their security, but to benefit the loose international alliance of plutocrats and unelected empire managers whose wealth and power are premised on the world order of continuous violence, exploitation and extraction which the campaign of global domination upholds.” (06/01/24)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/06/01/the-us-empire-isnt-a-government-that-runs-nonstop-wars-its-a-nonstop-war-that-runs-a-government/
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27) Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Economic freedom concerns the human liberty to engage in the activities necessary to sustain prosperity and civilization, as well as the institutional conditions necessary for human beings to thrive. Economic liberty is therefore subsumed within civilization itself. The two concepts are linked, and the idea that we can choose to reject economic principles while maintaining the level of economic progress to which we have become accustomed is simply wrong.” (06/01/24)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/civilization-depends-upon-economic-freedom
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28) Here’s how Congress can help stop backdoor government censorship
Source: The Hill
by John Coleman
“The American people shouldn’t have to rely solely on leaks and private companies publicizing government censorship requests to bring these threats to free expression to light. Congress must instead pass legislation mandating that government agencies publicly report any content moderation request made to social media companies.” (06/01/24)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4696767-heres-how-congress-can-help-stop-backdoor-government-censorship/
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29) Who Will Win? International Law or Benjamin Netanyahu?
Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by John Feffer
“Benjamin Netanyahu’s face may soon be on Wanted posters around the world. In Israel, the prime minister has been charged with various counts of corruption. But now that the International Criminal Court has requested a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest on war crimes, he may become a global outlaw as well. It’s not a done deal. The chief prosecutor has requested the warrants. Next, it’s up to the ICC judges to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to issue those warrants. Netanyahu is not alone. The latest ICC application for warrants applies to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three leaders of Hamas. The statement scrupulously avoids making any claims of moral equivalence.” (05/31/24)
https://fpif.org/he-fought-the-law-will-the-law-win/
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30) SWAT Goes to College
Source: Reason
by Katherine Mangu-Ward
“Even in an era of police militarization, there’s something shocking about seeing cops in riot gear on college campuses.” (for publication 07/24)
https://reason.com/2024/06/01/swat-goes-to-college/
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31) Medicare Advantage: Why Are We Paying for “Sham” Insurance?
Source: The Hartmann Report
by Thom Hartmann
“When George W. Bush and congressional Republicans (and a handful of bought-off Democrats) created Medicare Advantage in 2003, it was the fulfillment of half of Bush’s goal of privatizing Social Security and Medicare, dating all the way back to his unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978 and a main theme of his second term in office. Medicare Advantage is not Medicare. These plans are private health insurance provided by private corporations, who are then fully reimbursed by the Medicare trust fund regardless of how much their customers use their insurance. Thus, the more they can screw their customers and us taxpayers by withholding healthcare, the more money they make. With real Medicare, if your doctor says you need a test, procedure, scan, or any other medical intervention you simply get it done and real Medicare pays the bill. No muss, no fuss, no permission needed.” (05/30/24)
https://hartmannreport.com/p/medicare-advantage-why-are-we-paying-a86
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32) Renters and Owners Live in Separate Economies
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Peter St. Onge
“It turns out renters and homeowners are living in two entirely different economies, at least according to a new study by the Federal Reserve. Who, ironically enough, made it happen. In short, renters are in dire straits financially, while homeowners are ‘continuing to reap the rewards’ of cheap pandemic money that left renters with nothing but inflation. This is ‘complicating’ the Fed’s crystal ball as homeowners continue to splurge on everything from travel to eating out, ‘propping up prices with their discretionary spending power.’ Of course, the Fed’s money printers are what are propping up prices. But the robust homeowner spending means they’re not seeing the distress.” (06/01/24)
https://brownstone.org/articles/renters-and-owners-live-in-separate-economies/
-----
33) Failures of World Leaders Risk Collapse of International Order
Source: Common Dreams
by The Elders
“[Note: At the conclusion of their board meeting in São Paulo, The Elders this week called on world leaders to uphold international law and prioritize multilateral cooperation to build a better world for current and future generations. The following was their message to those leaders and the world at large.] The world stands on the edge of a precipice. The foundations of international law and multilateral cooperation are at serious risk of collapse due to cumulative failures of political leadership. We face the most perilous moment since the Second World War. The United Nations and other institutions created to promote the stability and accountability that come through the rule of law are under attack. The growing climate of impunity for states and leaders, who show no respect for the principles on which they were founded, may take us to a point of no return.” (06/01/24)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/collapse-of-international-order
-----
34) Freedom Civilized
Source: Shawn Huckaby
by Shawn Huckaby
“I have written previously on the subject of my transition from libertarian to liberal and briefly on what I see as the crucial difference in perspective between the two. Here I aim to do something more comprehensive, albeit at a high level; I aim to dismantle the libertarian argument via liberal principles and offer an alternative liberal vision for politics. I will start by outlining what I think are good, basic descriptions of libertarianism and liberalism. Given that these are both contentious terms, I would ask the reader, if they find themselves at odds with my descriptions, to grant them to me for the sake of this piece. I am using both terms to describe real things, even if the reader would use different terminology.” (06/01/24)
https://shawnhuckabay.substack.com/p/freedom-civilized
-----
35) Is the Slippery Slope “Fallacy” Really a Fallacy?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter Jacobsen
“If you participate at all in online discussions, particularly on social media, you’ve likely seen someone discuss the idea of the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy. Quite often, people will call out ‘fallacy!’ any time someone expresses concern about one thing leading to another. But it’s not always the case that slippery slope arguments are fallacious. It’s sometimes right to expect that doing one thing at the very least increases the chance that some related thing will happen. So when is it a fallacy and when is it not?” (06/01/24)
https://fee.org/articles/is-the-slippery-slope-fallacy-really-a-fallacy/
-----
36) The National Debt Is Becoming a Public Health Threat
Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann
“Over the past three years, the amount of interest the U.S. government has to pay on the national debt has become the fastest-growing category of government spending. It was already the second-largest government expenditure in 2024 and will soon become the largest. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimates that the growing burden of the interest paid on the national debt will account for 21% of the total expected growth in government spending over the next ten years. The cost of paying interest on the national debt is not the only contributor to the growth of future government spending. The CFRB also projects that Medicare and other healthcare spending will account for 35% of the increase in the U.S. government’s spending growth.” (05/31/24)
https://blog.independent.org/2024/05/31/national-debt-public-health-threat
-----
37) Dems Deserve Everything Bad That Comes Their Way … And More
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I haven’t liked them for a while now, but after this garbage involving former President Donald Trump and their hypocrisy about ‘respecting the justice system’ while the President brags about defying the Supreme Court on student loans and they all try to smear conservative Justices at every turn has me now thinking I wouldn’t give them the Heimlich Maneuver if they were choking, or even pee on them if they were on fire. Democrats truly are disgusting. I’d add a joke about meaning that in the nicest possible way, but I don’t. I wish them ill. I wish them what they deserve. I wish Joe Biden everything that smug smirk of his deserves as he half-dead shuffled his way out of the room after reading his staff-prepared statement on this on Friday.” (06/02/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2024/06/02/democrats-deserve-everything-bad-that-comes-their-wayand-more-n2639853
-----
38) From Nixon to Biden: How the US Turned Banks into Spy Networks
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Mike Maharrey
“‘Americans do not have financial privacy, really at all. We have this illusion of financial privacy.’ Cato policy analyst Nicholas Anthony summed it up bluntly in an interview with privacy advocate Naomi Brockwell. Beginning in 1970 the federal government passed a series of acts that turned the banking industry into a spy network for the government. And the U.S. has exported this regulatory framework to other countries, creating a worldwide surveillance dragnet. Five of the main acts are covered below. Before that time, as Anthony noted, it was a much freer market. Banks generally decided what information they wanted to gather and keep on file. This information almost exclusively remained in the possession of the bank. There was virtually no information sharing with the federal government. That all changed when President Richard Nixon signed the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) on Oct. 26, 1970.” (05/31/24)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2024/05/31/from-nixon-to-biden-how-the-us-turned-banks-into-spy-networks/
-----
39) The Jury, Not the Prosecutor, Decides Who’s Guilty
Source: The Atlantic
by David A Graham
“Republican leaders are adamant and practically unanimous on one thing: The case that got Donald Trump convicted on 34 felony counts was a political prosecution. … They have a point, but it’s not the condemnation they believe. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is an elected prosecutor who ran as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic city. Trump also received more scrutiny from prosecutors after he became a political figure than he’d ever experienced before. But none of this has any bearing on whether Trump actually committed the crimes with which he was charged. The bar for convicting any defendant in the American justice system is extremely high: It requires a unanimous decision by 12 citizens who deem a crime to have occurred beyond a reasonable doubt.” (05/31/24)
https://archive.is/DXBjP
-----
40) Fear and the Overton Window
Source: Quillette
by Naomi Schaefer Riley
“How does the Overton Window shift? How do absurd ideas become part of mainstream discussion while reasonable policy disagreements are pushed outside the bounds of legitimate discourse? This was the question that a philanthropist asked me and a number of other leaders in the child-welfare field last week. We were discussing why the movement to abolish child welfare (a movement that has grown up alongside ‘defund the police’) has been popularised, even though so many people in the field maintain — increasingly behind closed doors — that such a move would not only be impractical, but that it would also pose a serious danger to hundreds of thousands of children across the country. The answer arrived later that day on Twitter.” (05/31/24)
https://quillette.com/2024/05/31/naomi-schaefer-riley-child-welfare-roxanna-asgarian/
-----
41) Juries Rule
Source: American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of all accused criminals to a trial by a jury of their peers. Donald Trump doesn’t believe he has any peers, let alone that 12 ordinary people should be able to dictate the circumstances of his penthouse life. He was wrong, and a means of delivering long-lost accountability in America was rediscovered, by stepping outside the class of elites who have failed in their role, and letting people chosen by lot decide. There was a time during the running crime wave that has characterized the 21st century, amid unpunished torture and public corruption and financial fraud, where it was expressed that juries were simply too unsophisticated for the difficult business of holding criminal activity accountable.” [editor’s note: And the Fifth Amendment supposedly includes the provision that you are informed as to what the hell crimes you are charged with, with no exceptions for kangaroo courts – SAT] (05/31/24)
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-05-31-juries-rule-trump-trial/
-----
42) Tariffs Won’t Fix Our China Problems
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Unhappily, the two main competing currents of thought on U.S.-China relations are represented at the moment by Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which means that they are barely competing currents at all but instead are two very closely related variations on the theme of short-term parochial economic nationalism. Biden wants a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric cars; Trump, in … contrast? … prefers a 100-percent tariff on Chinese-made electric cars, other Chinese-made vehicles, and pretty much everything else made in China. Washington talks as though the United States were on the verge of war with China. Our top foreign policy thinkers have been describing China as a U.S. enemy — as the main U.S. enemy — for a quarter-century. … yet, relations between the two countries are, at the formal level, utterly normal.” (05/31/24)
https://thedispatch.com/article/tariffs-wont-fix-our-china-problems/
-----
43) Nikki Haley’s moral compass
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Haley is the former governor of South Carolina and the former ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump. She is also arguably the most relevant high profile neoconservative right now. If you still long for the Bush-Cheney years, think the Iraq war was the right thing to do, the Patriot Act was good policy, wonder why America hasn’t invaded Iran yet, and are disappointed the U.S. is no longer in Afghanistan, Nikki Haley is for you. These kinds of sentiments are what it meant to be a Republican in the aughts. They defined the party. In a post-Trump Republican party, foreign policy is more of a debate.” (05/31/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nikki-haley-finish-them/
-----
44) The new polarization that explains our politics
Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“There are a few schools of thought about how the guilty verdict in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump for falsifying business records will affect the election. What all the people involved in the debate have in common is that the guilty verdict has no chance of affecting their own votes. They already have fully formed views of the former president, as most people do. The argument is taking place among the minority of Americans who say they are very closely following the trial (16 percent of the public, according to a Yahoo News-YouGov poll) about the even tinier sliver of Americans who might be persuaded to change how, or if, they vote. The molten controversy over the flag-draping choices of the Alito household should be kept in the same perspective.” (05/31/24)
https://archive.is/IxzOc
-----
45) Biden backs US allies fighting for their lives — as long as they don’t fight too hard
Source: New York Post
by Post Editorial Board
“President Biden has made his view on responding to foreign attacks painfully clear: America will help its allies fight back fiercely — as long as they don’t cause their enemies too much damage. Wouldn’t want to risk escalating the situation, don’t you know. It’s a clear recipe for losing and has already proved a tragic failure with foes like Russia, Iran, China, Hamas, the Taliban, … Worst of all, it guarantees the one thing Biden supposedly fears most: more warfare. Take Russia. Biden backs Ukraine in its fight to roll back Moscow’s illegal invasion, yet he insists Kyiv defend itself with its hands tied behind its back — as Vladimir Putin beats his chest and rattles his nukes.” (06/01/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/06/01/opinion/joe-biden-backs-us-allies-at-war-if-they-dont-fight-too-hard/
-----
46) The World We Have Lost
Source: Law & Liberty
by James Hankins
“It’s a well-known fact that historians generally don’t like historical fiction. Movies set in past periods of history, ‘based on real events’ or not, generally put our teeth on edge. Such fictions are ordinarily filled with ridiculous anachronisms. The anachronisms are most obvious when mushy modern phrases from our therapeutic culture — urging us to share our feelings or hoping we are comfortable with this or that — are put in the mouths of Roman legionaries or medieval churchmen. The producers of British costume dramas are generally brilliant at providing exact reconstructions of the physical environment and costumes used in, say, Jane Austin’s Bath, but they are less accurate when it comes to reconstructing her lost linguistic and conceptual world. I’m sure it sounds stuffy to non-historians when those of us in the trade get annoyed over anachronisms in historical fiction and films. But there’s a method to our miffedness.” (05/31/24)
https://lawliberty.org/the-world-we-have-lost/
-----
47) Government Undermines Civilization
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“The good, great, and prosperous society depends on ever-widening trust among strangers. It’s not blind trust — ways to hedge against cheaters abound — but trust is vital. It is as vital as respect for private property and privacy. Like the system of private property, the system of trust can withstand repeated assaults, but it is not invulnerable. It can crumble and fall.” (05/31/24)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2024/05/tgif-government-undermines-civilization.html
-----
48) New Meta‐Study Details the Distortive Effects of Rent Control
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Sophia Bagley
“Rent control, which varies in stringency and scope, refers to government legal limits on rent price levels or rent increases. It is (generally) opposed by economists. As a price control, theory suggests binding caps on rents will produce some combination of shortages of rentable accommodation, lower quality housing, and higher rents for non‐controlled properties. Under rent control, landlords will be incentivized to cut maintenance, screen tenants more stringently, convert rentals to owner‐occupied units, or condos, or AirBnBs, and, in many cases, halt new rental construction. This all not only directly worsens problems in housing markets, but can induce misallocation, curb labor mobility, and depress property values and local tax bases.” (05/31/24)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/new-meta-study-details-distortive-effects-rent-control
-----
49) Indonesia’s leap into good governance
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In a globe-shifting moment this month, the world’s third-largest democracy officially began the process of joining a ‘club’ of 38 nations that tracks one another’s dedication to good governance and inclusive growth. That was no small choice for Indonesia, a huge Southeast Asian country rife with corruption and trade protectionism but with hopes of becoming an advanced economy in two decades. President Joko Widodo set up a team to launch reforms necessary for Indonesia to become a member of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD sets high standards for states in maintaining liberal democracy and free markets. It also serves as a stamp of approval for foreign investors. With a large, young population, Indonesia needs faster economic growth and a high-tech industry to avoid the ‘trap’ of remaining a middle-income nation.” (05/30/24)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0530/Indonesia-s-leap-into-good-governance
-----
50) “A Child Is Not the Mere Creature of the State”
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Jeff Ziegler
“The first day of June in 2025 will mark the centenary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters. Over the coming year, how fitting it would be for scholars to recall the landmark decision in academic events, and for professors, teachers, and school administrators to ensure that the decision is given due attention in classrooms. How fitting it would be for local, state, and federal government leaders to memorialize the decision by henceforth proclaiming June 1 as Educational Freedom Day.” (05/31/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/a-child-is-not-the-mere-creature-of-the-state/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Free Talk Cast, episode 1
Source: Free Talk Live
“Aria DiMezzo and Captain Kickass sit down in this debut episode of the Free Talk Cast to talk about federal prison, Free Talk Live, Ian Freeman’s noted absence, and the latest news that Donald Trump has promised to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence. Write to Ian Freeman today!” (06/01/24)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/free-talk-cast-001
-----
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 248
Source: International Guild of Professional Anarchists
“The little-known perks of being a coroner.” (06/01/24)
https://alexandersnitker.substack.com/p/unattended-baggage-episode-248-the
-----
53) See How They Run, 06/01/24
Source: See How They Run
“How Trump Swallowed the GOP Whole.” (06/01/24)
https://www.thenation.com/podcast/politics/shtr-002/
-----
54) Everyday Samurai, episode 60
Source: Everyday Samurai
“The Cartel of Martial Governance.” (06/01/24)
https://pod.co/everyday-samurai-life/ep60-the-cartel-of-martial-governance
-----
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 605
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Israel’s Decade-Long Effort to Intimidate the ICC.” (05/31/24)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-605-israels-decade-long-effort-to-intimidate-the-icc
-----
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/31/24
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Steve Forbes on The New Gold Standard with Guest Philip Patrick from Birch Gold.” (05/31/24)
https://rumble.com/v4yj5dx-steve-forbes-on-the-new-gold-standard-with-guest-philip-patrick-from-birch-.html
-----
57) Meme Wars, 05/31/24
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Is Trump Conviction a Dunk or a Dump for Dems?” (05/31/24)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/meme-wars-is-trump-conviction-a-dunk-or-a-dump-for-dems
-----
58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2498
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Will Our Deranged Regime Eventually Collapse?” (05/31/24)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2498-will-our-deranged-regime-eventually-collapse/
-----
59) Advisory Opinions, 05/31/24
Source: The Dispatch
“The Rights the Constitution Doesn’t Tell You About.” (05/31/24)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-rights-the-constitution-doesnt-tell-you-about/
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/31/24
Source: Antiwar.com
“Ukraine Can Use US Weapons To Strike Inside Russia, Heavy US-UK Airstrikes in Yemen, and More.” (05/31/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6gZsCGWPdU
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election
2) Biden regime quietly lightens up a little bit on the immigration police state BS
3) Israel: Two ministers threaten to topple regime if it accepts Biden’s Gaza peace plan
4) Retired US Navy admiral charged in bribery scheme with tech CEOs for $500,000 salary
5) Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
6) Iceland: Voters elect businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir as president
7) OPEC+ extends deep oil production cuts into 2025
8) Middle East terror kingpin accepts invitation to address US Congress
9) Mass Parachute Jump Over Normandy Kicks Commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day
10) New blood test “can predict” breast cancer return
11) Iran: Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 election
12) Coinbase: US SEC is “bent on choking” the crypto industry
13) Sri Lanka: Monsoon floods kill seven people
14) South Africa: ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominance
15) Democrats wanted an agreement on using artificial intelligence; it went nowhere
16) NY: Couple finds safe stuffed with $100,000 cash while magnet fishing
17) Israeli justices press government on religious conscription waivers
18) Chinese probe lands on moon’s far side in first-ever sample retrieval mission
19) ME: Monster truck clips a power line at show, toppling utility poles in spectator area
20) FL: DeSantis suddenly changes his mind about convicted felons’ voting rights
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Politics will never increase liberty
22) David Boaz: Liberty’s North Star
23) Don’t Chip Off the Old Mr. Block
24) Libertarian Problems
25) Trump Says the Game Is Rigged. It Is — in His Favor
26) US Empire Not a Government That Runs Nonstop Wars, But a Nonstop War That Runs A Government
27) Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
28) Here’s how Congress can help stop backdoor government censorship
29) Who Will Win? International Law or Benjamin Netanyahu?
30) SWAT Goes to College
31) Medicare Advantage: Why Are We Paying for “Sham” Insurance?
32) Renters and Owners Live in Separate Economies
33) Failures of World Leaders Risk Collapse of International Order
34) Freedom Civilized
35) Is the Slippery Slope “Fallacy” Really a Fallacy?
36) The National Debt Is Becoming a Public Health Threat
37) Dems Deserve Everything Bad That Comes Their Way … And More
38) From Nixon to Biden: How the US Turned Banks into Spy Networks
39) The Jury, Not the Prosecutor, Decides Who’s Guilty
40) Fear and the Overton Window
41) Juries Rule
42) Tariffs Won’t Fix Our China Problems
43) Nikki Haley’s moral compass
44) The new polarization that explains our politics
45) Biden backs US allies fighting for their lives — as long as they don’t fight too hard
46) The World We Have Lost
47) Government Undermines Civilization
48) New Meta‐Study Details the Distortive Effects of Rent Control
49) Indonesia’s leap into good governance
50) “A Child Is Not the Mere Creature of the State”
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Free Talk Cast, episode 1
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 248
53) See How They Run, 06/01/24
54) Everyday Samurai, episode 60
55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 605
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/31/24
57) Meme Wars, 05/31/24
58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2498
59) Advisory Opinions, 05/31/24
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/31/24
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Mexico: Sheinbaum wins presidential election
Source: New York Times
“Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won her nation’s elections on Sunday in a landslide victory that brought a double milestone: She became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico. Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, prevailed in what the authorities called the largest election in Mexico’s history, with the highest number of voters taking part and the most seats up for grabs. … Ms. Sheinbaum, a leftist, campaigned on a vow to continue the legacy of Mexico’s current president and her mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which delighted their party’s base — and raised alarm among detractors.” (06/03/24)
https://archive.is/uHUuu
-----
2) Biden regime quietly lightens up a little bit on the immigration police state BS
Source: Fox News
“As the White House finalizes plans for a U.S.-Mexico clampdown that would shut off asylum requests and automatically deny entrance to migrants once a threshold is met, the Biden administration has continued to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to remain in the U.S. with what amounts to amnesty, according to a report. A report released last month by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan data gathering organization that tracks immigration cases and backlogs shows that since 2022, over 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants were closed by the U.S. government on the basis that those who filed did not have a criminal record or were not deemed a threat to the U.S. Once cases are terminated without a decision on the merits of their asylum claim, the migrants are removed from the legal system, and they are not required to check in with authorities.” [editor’s note: Well, it’s a small step toward sanity, anyway – TLK] (06/02/24)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-quietly-dismisses-over-350k-asylum-applications-from-immigrants-since-2022-trac
-----
3) Israel: Two ministers threaten to topple regime if it accepts Biden’s Gaza peace plan
Source: ABC 57 News
“Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to resign and bring down the governing coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he accepts a peace proposal laid out by US President Joe Biden. Biden unveiled on Friday what he said was a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the conflict in Gaza that would pair a release of hostages with a ‘full and complete ceasefire.’ … But the Israeli government’s two most prominent far-right members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, made it explicitly clear they reject an immediate ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also signaled he is not ready either, casting doubt over Biden’s proposal.” (06/02/24)
https://www.abc57.com/news/two-far-right-israeli-ministers-threaten-to-topple-the-government-if-it-accepts-biden-peace-plan
-----
4) Retired US Navy admiral charged in bribery scheme with tech CEOs for $500,000 salary
Source: CNBC
“A retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral, who was once the military branch’s second-highest-ranking officer, was arrested on Friday for a bribery scheme with two tech CEOs, the Department of Justice announced. From 2020 to 2022, Robert Burke, a 62-year-old resident of Coconut Creek, Fla., allegedly used his high-ranking status in the Navy to help Yongchul ‘Charlie’ Kim and Meghan Messenger, the co-CEOs of New York-based workplace tech platform Next Jump, win military contracts, according to the DOJ. … ‘Admiral Burke disputes these charges,’ Burke’s attorney Timothy Parlatore told CNBC on Saturday. ‘We will be demanding a trial where we expect that he will be found not guilty.'” (06/01/24)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/01/retired-us-navy-admiral-charged-in-bribery-scheme-with-tech-ceos.html
-----
5) Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
Source: 2 News Nevada
“Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people. Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers. Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.” (06/02/24)
https://www.2news.com/news/world/energy-shutdowns-hit-ukraine-after-russian-attacks-target-infrastructure/article_d643d233-05d1-5635-8cf6-c2f30e55ce6a.html
-----
6) Iceland: Voters elect businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir as president
Source: ABC News
“Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland’s presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country’s national broadcast service reported. Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday. Tomasdottir, 55, campaigned as someone who was above party politics and could help open discussions on fundamental issues such as the effect of social media on the mental health of young people, Iceland’s development as a tourist destination and the role of artificial intelligence. She will replace President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who did not seek re-election after two four-year terms.” (06/02/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iceland-elects-businesswoman-halla-tomasdottir-president-110751048
-----
7) OPEC+ extends deep oil production cuts into 2025
Source: Reuters
“OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to extend most of its deep oil output cuts for 2024 but to start phasing them out in 2025, as the group seeks to shore up the market amid tepid global demand growth, high interest rates and rising rival U.S. production. Oil prices trade near $80 per barrel, below what many OPEC+ members need to balance their budget. Worries over slow demand growth in top oil importer China have weighed on prices alongside rising oil stocks in developed economies. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, together known as OPEC+, have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.” (06/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-seen-prolonging-cuts-2024-into-2025-two-sources-say-2024-06-02/
-----
8) Middle East terror kingpin accepts invitation to address US Congress
Source: CNN
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation from US congressional leaders to address a joint meeting of Congress, his office said in a statement Saturday. … The top four US congressional leaders on Friday formally invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress. … The invitation comes after much speculation as additional military aid to Israel remains in question and Democrats are facing pressure from their left wing as the party remains divided over Israel’s handling of the war against Hamas.” (06/01/24)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-joint-address-congress/index.html
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9) Mass Parachute Jump Over Normandy Kicks Commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day
Source: US News & World Report
“Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny. All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying ‘merci’ but also goodbye. The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last.” (06/02/24)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-06-02/a-mass-parachute-jump-over-normandy-kicks-commemorations-for-the-80th-anniversary-of-d-day
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10) New blood test “can predict” breast cancer return
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“An ‘ultra-sensitive’ new blood test can predict if breast cancer will return years before the disease shows up on scans, researchers say. It picks up traces of a tumour’s DNA before a full relapse and was found to be 100% accurate at predicting which patients would see their cancer return. It is hoped that the test can allow treatment to start earlier and improve survival rates. The UK research has been branded ‘incredibly exciting’ by experts but is still in its early stages. Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease worldwide, with 2.26 million women diagnosed in 2020 and 685,000 deaths in the same year, according to Breast Cancer UK. A team of researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London conducted the trial on 78 patients with different types of early breast cancer.” (06/02/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjjjnxdv188o
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11) Iran: Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 election
Source: ABC News
“Iran’s hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president. The populist former leader’s registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities. The firebrand, Holocaust-questioning politician’s return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, its arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent.” (06/02/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/irans-hard-line-former-president-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-registers-110750103
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12) Coinbase: US SEC is “bent on choking” the crypto industry
Source: CoinTelegraph
“The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue its regulation-by-enforcement approach to the cryptocurrency industry for as long as it can to satisfy its goal of ‘choking’ the industry, according to crypto exchange Coinbase. ‘The SEC is serious about the destruction of digital assets,’ Coinbase declared in a May 31 filing with the U.S Court of Appeals in its ongoing effort to push the court to force the SEC to begin making fair rules for the crypto industry. … The SEC initiated the lawsuit against Coinbase in June 2023 alleging that Coinbase has never registered as a broker, national securities exchange or clearing agency, evading the disclosure scheme for securities markets.” (06/01/24)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-sec-crypto-exchange-coinbase-complaints-appeals-court
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13) Sri Lanka: Monsoon floods kill seven people
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rains in Sri Lanka have killed at least seven people, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has said. In Sitawaka — outside the capital, Colombo — three members of the same family died when their house was flooded. Supplies of electricity have been cut off in several areas and schools ordered to remain shut on Monday. Landslide warnings have been issued in nine districts. DMC Director Pradeep Kodippili told the BBC’s Sinhala service that the risk of flooding was rapidly increasing in Colombo and other areas of the south. ‘Many areas have reportedly received more than 400mm of rain so far,’ Mr Kodippili said. ‘The minor flood risk is increasing to a major flood risk.’ He urged Sri Lankans to pay attention to emergency announcements from the government and DMC.” (06/02/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck77391e9nlo
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14) South Africa: ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominance
Source: Reuters
“South Africans angry at joblessness, inequality and power shortages slashed support for the African National Congress (ANC) to 40% in this week’s election, ending three decades of dominance by the party that freed the country from apartheid. A dramatically weakened mandate for the legacy party of Nelson Mandela, down from the 57.5% it garnered in the 2019 parliamentary election, means the ANC must share power with a rival in order to keep it — an unprecedented prospect. … The ANC had won every national election by a landslide since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule, but over the last decade its support has dwindled as the economy stagnated, unemployment rose and roads and power stations crumbled.” (06/01/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-latest-vote-count-puts-anc-just-over-40-2024-06-01/
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15) Democrats wanted an agreement on using artificial intelligence; it went nowhere
Source: SFGate
“The Democratic National Committee was watching earlier this year as campaigns nationwide were experimenting with artificial intelligence. So the organization approached a handful of influential party campaign committees with a request: Sign onto guidelines that would commit them to use the technology in a ‘responsible’ way. The draft agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was hardly full of revolutionary ideas. It asked campaigns to check work by AI tools, protect against biases and avoid using AI to create misleading content. ‘Our goal is to use this new technology both effectively and ethically, and in a way that advances – rather than undermines – the values that we espouse in our campaigns,’ the draft said. The plan went nowhere. Instead of fostering an agreement, the guidelines sparked a debate about the value of such pledges, particularly those governing fast-evolving technology.” (06/02/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/democrats-wanted-an-agreement-on-using-artificial-19490887.php
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16) NY: Couple finds safe stuffed with $100,000 cash while magnet fishing
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A New York City couple who were ‘magnet fishing’ in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside. James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May, Friday afternoon. The couple managed to open the safe and found the cash, bundles of $100 bills, with an estimated value of $100,000, though the money was damaged by the water. In an interview with NY1, James Kane explained they began magnet fishing during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the allure of treasure-hunting without having to spend a lot of money on equipment. Magnet fishing simply involves putting a rope with a strong magnet on it into water with the hopes of retrieving metal objects.” (06/02/24)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/02/couple-magnet-fishing-safe-cash-new-york
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17) Israeli justices press government on religious conscription waivers
Source: Reuters
“The top Israeli court heard responses by the state on Sunday to challenges against exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews from military conscription, a long-standing source of friction with more secular citizens now inflamed by the long Gaza war. In the name of equality, the Supreme Court in 2018 voided a law waiving the call-up for ultra-Orthodox men who want to study in seminaries instead. Parliament failed to come up with an alternative arrangement, and a government-ordered stay on a mandatory mobilisation of ultra-Orthodox expired in March. That has left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to agree with ultra-Orthodox coalition partners on a military service compromise that might preempt any Supreme Court ruling that Israel’s fasted-growing minority must be forcibly drafted.” (06/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-justices-press-government-religious-conscription-waivers-2024-06-02/
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18) Chinese probe lands on moon’s far side in first-ever sample retrieval mission
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“China has landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon, overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement that the Chang’e-6 touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6:23am Beijing time on Sunday after completing a multistage landing process. … After another landing in 2019, this is China’s second descent on the far side of the moon, where no other country has reached.” (06/02/24)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/2/china-probe-lands-on-moons-far-side-in-first-ever-sample-retrieval-mission
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19) ME: Monster truck clips a power line at show, toppling utility poles in spectator area
Source: SFGate
“A lobster-themed monster truck performing for spectators in Maine clipped an aerial power line, toppling several utility poles and sending two people to hospitals, police said. Others suffered minor injuries. The Topsham Fairgrounds was hosting the monster truck event on Saturday when a vehicle dubbed the Crushstation bounced up a ramp, went airborne and hit the power line. Video showed people scrambling as the snagged line triggered a cascade of events with several utility poles and a transformer falling near the grandstands, with live wires on the ground. Two people were transported to hospitals and others suffered minor injuries, Topsham police reported. The driver of the truck was not injured. ” (06/02/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/monster-truck-clips-aerial-power-line-toppling-19491103.php
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20) FL: DeSantis suddenly changes his mind about convicted felons’ voting rights
Source: Politico
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’ll make sure Donald Trump can vote in his home state this November despite his felony convictions. DeSantis said Friday that he disputes the assessment of some experts who say that Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts would make him ineligible to cast a ballot in the state. But, in any case, the Florida governor said he would ensure the state clemency board cleared the way for his former rival for the Republican presidential nomination to vote back home.” (05/31/24)
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/31/desantis-says-trump-can-still-vote-in-florida-despite-felony-conviction-00161128
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Politics will never increase liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“If you are a good person who votes for Democratic or Republican candidates because you feel you must, even if you don’t agree with the crazy positions the national party holds, I won’t hold the party’s flaws against you. I also hope you don’t confuse the Libertarian Party for libertarian people. They aren’t the same thing at all. Politics ruins everything it touches. The problem with political Libertarianism is that libertarianism and politics aren’t compatible.” (06/02/24)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2024/06/02/voices/opinion-politics-will-never-increase-liberty/178624.html
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22) David Boaz: Liberty’s North Star
Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell
“My friend and mentor David Boaz is dying. I hope you’ll indulge me in some thoughts on why David matters to me — and also why he should matter to you. Tributes like these typically get published after their subject has died, but I wanted to say this before, because, for however brief a time still, we all share the world with a good man. … David became what he became, and built the organization he built, because he feels the moral weight of freedom’s call — not just for himself, because everyone wants freedom for themselves, but for everyone. His tireless advocacy for gay rights, long before such a thing was popular in Washington, and his early calls to end the war on drugs, speak to what made David a libertarian, and not a Republican masquerading as one.” (06/01/24)
https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/david-boaz-libertys-north-star
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23) Don’t Chip Off the Old Mr. Block
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg
“‘Mr. Block … licks the hand that smites him and kisses the boot that kicks him.’ Industrial Worker editor Walker C. Smith wasn’t foreseeing, by 111 years, Walter Block, PhD’s ‘Libertarians Should Vote For Trump’ (The Wall Street Journal, May 29); the character from Walker’s newspaper was fictional enough to be a blockhead in the most literal sense. Dr. Block should get his head examined. ‘Hats off’ to inviting Donald Trump to the Libertarian National Convention as being a more effective move than anything else the Libertarian Party ‘did in more than half a century of existence?’ Such mental gymnastics dwarf the cartoon Block’s comically undersized bowler.” (06/01/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18639
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24) Libertarian Problems
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Many libertarians believe that we have all the answers, that it starts with A=A or some similar axiom and from there, with a few simple steps that any intelligent person could see if only he wasn’t blinded by his statist preconceptions, we end up with answers to all problems in the world. Here are some to which libertarianism, as many libertarians understand it, either gives no answer or gives an answer that most libertarians are unwilling to accept.” (06/01/24)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/libertarian-problems
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25) Trump Says the Game Is Rigged. It Is — in His Favor
Source: The Daily Beast
by Matt Lewis
“Trump commits egregious, unprecedented acts, and then he dares you to do something about it. Your choice is to either a) let him get away with it (thereby incentivizing future aggressions), or b) try to hold him accountable (which he will then cast as an act of aggression). To put it bluntly, Trump takes hostages. Rather than putting the country ahead of his own ego, Trump says, ‘You can shoot me, but I’ll make sure to also take down everything (the country, democracy, the criminal justice system, American institutions, etc.) with me.’ And then, amid the rubble wrought by chaos and division, Trump and his minions shout, ‘Look at what you made us do!’ Yes, the game is rigged, but it’s rigged toward Trump. It’s heads Trump wins, and tails the rest of us lose.” (06/01/24)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-says-the-game-is-rigged-it-isin-his-favor
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26) US Empire Not a Government That Runs Nonstop Wars, But a Nonstop War That Runs A Government
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It clears up a lot of confusion when you understand that the US empire is not a national government which happens to run nonstop military operations, it’s a nonstop military operation that happens to run a national government. The wars are not designed to serve the interests of the United States, the United States is designed to serve the interests of the wars. The US as a country is just a source of funding, personnel, resources and diplomatic cover for a nonstop campaign to dominate the planet with mass military violence and the threat thereof. This campaign is not waged to benefit the American people or their security, but to benefit the loose international alliance of plutocrats and unelected empire managers whose wealth and power are premised on the world order of continuous violence, exploitation and extraction which the campaign of global domination upholds.” (06/01/24)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/06/01/the-us-empire-isnt-a-government-that-runs-nonstop-wars-its-a-nonstop-war-that-runs-a-government/
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27) Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Economic freedom concerns the human liberty to engage in the activities necessary to sustain prosperity and civilization, as well as the institutional conditions necessary for human beings to thrive. Economic liberty is therefore subsumed within civilization itself. The two concepts are linked, and the idea that we can choose to reject economic principles while maintaining the level of economic progress to which we have become accustomed is simply wrong.” (06/01/24)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/civilization-depends-upon-economic-freedom
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28) Here’s how Congress can help stop backdoor government censorship
Source: The Hill
by John Coleman
“The American people shouldn’t have to rely solely on leaks and private companies publicizing government censorship requests to bring these threats to free expression to light. Congress must instead pass legislation mandating that government agencies publicly report any content moderation request made to social media companies.” (06/01/24)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4696767-heres-how-congress-can-help-stop-backdoor-government-censorship/
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29) Who Will Win? International Law or Benjamin Netanyahu?
Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by John Feffer
“Benjamin Netanyahu’s face may soon be on Wanted posters around the world. In Israel, the prime minister has been charged with various counts of corruption. But now that the International Criminal Court has requested a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest on war crimes, he may become a global outlaw as well. It’s not a done deal. The chief prosecutor has requested the warrants. Next, it’s up to the ICC judges to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to issue those warrants. Netanyahu is not alone. The latest ICC application for warrants applies to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three leaders of Hamas. The statement scrupulously avoids making any claims of moral equivalence.” (05/31/24)
https://fpif.org/he-fought-the-law-will-the-law-win/
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30) SWAT Goes to College
Source: Reason
by Katherine Mangu-Ward
“Even in an era of police militarization, there’s something shocking about seeing cops in riot gear on college campuses.” (for publication 07/24)
https://reason.com/2024/06/01/swat-goes-to-college/
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31) Medicare Advantage: Why Are We Paying for “Sham” Insurance?
Source: The Hartmann Report
by Thom Hartmann
“When George W. Bush and congressional Republicans (and a handful of bought-off Democrats) created Medicare Advantage in 2003, it was the fulfillment of half of Bush’s goal of privatizing Social Security and Medicare, dating all the way back to his unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978 and a main theme of his second term in office. Medicare Advantage is not Medicare. These plans are private health insurance provided by private corporations, who are then fully reimbursed by the Medicare trust fund regardless of how much their customers use their insurance. Thus, the more they can screw their customers and us taxpayers by withholding healthcare, the more money they make. With real Medicare, if your doctor says you need a test, procedure, scan, or any other medical intervention you simply get it done and real Medicare pays the bill. No muss, no fuss, no permission needed.” (05/30/24)
https://hartmannreport.com/p/medicare-advantage-why-are-we-paying-a86
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32) Renters and Owners Live in Separate Economies
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Peter St. Onge
“It turns out renters and homeowners are living in two entirely different economies, at least according to a new study by the Federal Reserve. Who, ironically enough, made it happen. In short, renters are in dire straits financially, while homeowners are ‘continuing to reap the rewards’ of cheap pandemic money that left renters with nothing but inflation. This is ‘complicating’ the Fed’s crystal ball as homeowners continue to splurge on everything from travel to eating out, ‘propping up prices with their discretionary spending power.’ Of course, the Fed’s money printers are what are propping up prices. But the robust homeowner spending means they’re not seeing the distress.” (06/01/24)
https://brownstone.org/articles/renters-and-owners-live-in-separate-economies/
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33) Failures of World Leaders Risk Collapse of International Order
Source: Common Dreams
by The Elders
“[Note: At the conclusion of their board meeting in São Paulo, The Elders this week called on world leaders to uphold international law and prioritize multilateral cooperation to build a better world for current and future generations. The following was their message to those leaders and the world at large.] The world stands on the edge of a precipice. The foundations of international law and multilateral cooperation are at serious risk of collapse due to cumulative failures of political leadership. We face the most perilous moment since the Second World War. The United Nations and other institutions created to promote the stability and accountability that come through the rule of law are under attack. The growing climate of impunity for states and leaders, who show no respect for the principles on which they were founded, may take us to a point of no return.” (06/01/24)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/collapse-of-international-order
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34) Freedom Civilized
Source: Shawn Huckaby
by Shawn Huckaby
“I have written previously on the subject of my transition from libertarian to liberal and briefly on what I see as the crucial difference in perspective between the two. Here I aim to do something more comprehensive, albeit at a high level; I aim to dismantle the libertarian argument via liberal principles and offer an alternative liberal vision for politics. I will start by outlining what I think are good, basic descriptions of libertarianism and liberalism. Given that these are both contentious terms, I would ask the reader, if they find themselves at odds with my descriptions, to grant them to me for the sake of this piece. I am using both terms to describe real things, even if the reader would use different terminology.” (06/01/24)
https://shawnhuckabay.substack.com/p/freedom-civilized
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35) Is the Slippery Slope “Fallacy” Really a Fallacy?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter Jacobsen
“If you participate at all in online discussions, particularly on social media, you’ve likely seen someone discuss the idea of the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy. Quite often, people will call out ‘fallacy!’ any time someone expresses concern about one thing leading to another. But it’s not always the case that slippery slope arguments are fallacious. It’s sometimes right to expect that doing one thing at the very least increases the chance that some related thing will happen. So when is it a fallacy and when is it not?” (06/01/24)
https://fee.org/articles/is-the-slippery-slope-fallacy-really-a-fallacy/
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36) The National Debt Is Becoming a Public Health Threat
Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann
“Over the past three years, the amount of interest the U.S. government has to pay on the national debt has become the fastest-growing category of government spending. It was already the second-largest government expenditure in 2024 and will soon become the largest. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimates that the growing burden of the interest paid on the national debt will account for 21% of the total expected growth in government spending over the next ten years. The cost of paying interest on the national debt is not the only contributor to the growth of future government spending. The CFRB also projects that Medicare and other healthcare spending will account for 35% of the increase in the U.S. government’s spending growth.” (05/31/24)
https://blog.independent.org/2024/05/31/national-debt-public-health-threat
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37) Dems Deserve Everything Bad That Comes Their Way … And More
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I haven’t liked them for a while now, but after this garbage involving former President Donald Trump and their hypocrisy about ‘respecting the justice system’ while the President brags about defying the Supreme Court on student loans and they all try to smear conservative Justices at every turn has me now thinking I wouldn’t give them the Heimlich Maneuver if they were choking, or even pee on them if they were on fire. Democrats truly are disgusting. I’d add a joke about meaning that in the nicest possible way, but I don’t. I wish them ill. I wish them what they deserve. I wish Joe Biden everything that smug smirk of his deserves as he half-dead shuffled his way out of the room after reading his staff-prepared statement on this on Friday.” (06/02/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2024/06/02/democrats-deserve-everything-bad-that-comes-their-wayand-more-n2639853
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38) From Nixon to Biden: How the US Turned Banks into Spy Networks
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Mike Maharrey
“‘Americans do not have financial privacy, really at all. We have this illusion of financial privacy.’ Cato policy analyst Nicholas Anthony summed it up bluntly in an interview with privacy advocate Naomi Brockwell. Beginning in 1970 the federal government passed a series of acts that turned the banking industry into a spy network for the government. And the U.S. has exported this regulatory framework to other countries, creating a worldwide surveillance dragnet. Five of the main acts are covered below. Before that time, as Anthony noted, it was a much freer market. Banks generally decided what information they wanted to gather and keep on file. This information almost exclusively remained in the possession of the bank. There was virtually no information sharing with the federal government. That all changed when President Richard Nixon signed the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) on Oct. 26, 1970.” (05/31/24)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2024/05/31/from-nixon-to-biden-how-the-us-turned-banks-into-spy-networks/
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39) The Jury, Not the Prosecutor, Decides Who’s Guilty
Source: The Atlantic
by David A Graham
“Republican leaders are adamant and practically unanimous on one thing: The case that got Donald Trump convicted on 34 felony counts was a political prosecution. … They have a point, but it’s not the condemnation they believe. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is an elected prosecutor who ran as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic city. Trump also received more scrutiny from prosecutors after he became a political figure than he’d ever experienced before. But none of this has any bearing on whether Trump actually committed the crimes with which he was charged. The bar for convicting any defendant in the American justice system is extremely high: It requires a unanimous decision by 12 citizens who deem a crime to have occurred beyond a reasonable doubt.” (05/31/24)
https://archive.is/DXBjP
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40) Fear and the Overton Window
Source: Quillette
by Naomi Schaefer Riley
“How does the Overton Window shift? How do absurd ideas become part of mainstream discussion while reasonable policy disagreements are pushed outside the bounds of legitimate discourse? This was the question that a philanthropist asked me and a number of other leaders in the child-welfare field last week. We were discussing why the movement to abolish child welfare (a movement that has grown up alongside ‘defund the police’) has been popularised, even though so many people in the field maintain — increasingly behind closed doors — that such a move would not only be impractical, but that it would also pose a serious danger to hundreds of thousands of children across the country. The answer arrived later that day on Twitter.” (05/31/24)
https://quillette.com/2024/05/31/naomi-schaefer-riley-child-welfare-roxanna-asgarian/
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41) Juries Rule
Source: American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of all accused criminals to a trial by a jury of their peers. Donald Trump doesn’t believe he has any peers, let alone that 12 ordinary people should be able to dictate the circumstances of his penthouse life. He was wrong, and a means of delivering long-lost accountability in America was rediscovered, by stepping outside the class of elites who have failed in their role, and letting people chosen by lot decide. There was a time during the running crime wave that has characterized the 21st century, amid unpunished torture and public corruption and financial fraud, where it was expressed that juries were simply too unsophisticated for the difficult business of holding criminal activity accountable.” [editor’s note: And the Fifth Amendment supposedly includes the provision that you are informed as to what the hell crimes you are charged with, with no exceptions for kangaroo courts – SAT] (05/31/24)
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-05-31-juries-rule-trump-trial/
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42) Tariffs Won’t Fix Our China Problems
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Unhappily, the two main competing currents of thought on U.S.-China relations are represented at the moment by Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which means that they are barely competing currents at all but instead are two very closely related variations on the theme of short-term parochial economic nationalism. Biden wants a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric cars; Trump, in … contrast? … prefers a 100-percent tariff on Chinese-made electric cars, other Chinese-made vehicles, and pretty much everything else made in China. Washington talks as though the United States were on the verge of war with China. Our top foreign policy thinkers have been describing China as a U.S. enemy — as the main U.S. enemy — for a quarter-century. … yet, relations between the two countries are, at the formal level, utterly normal.” (05/31/24)
https://thedispatch.com/article/tariffs-wont-fix-our-china-problems/
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43) Nikki Haley’s moral compass
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Haley is the former governor of South Carolina and the former ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump. She is also arguably the most relevant high profile neoconservative right now. If you still long for the Bush-Cheney years, think the Iraq war was the right thing to do, the Patriot Act was good policy, wonder why America hasn’t invaded Iran yet, and are disappointed the U.S. is no longer in Afghanistan, Nikki Haley is for you. These kinds of sentiments are what it meant to be a Republican in the aughts. They defined the party. In a post-Trump Republican party, foreign policy is more of a debate.” (05/31/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nikki-haley-finish-them/
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44) The new polarization that explains our politics
Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“There are a few schools of thought about how the guilty verdict in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump for falsifying business records will affect the election. What all the people involved in the debate have in common is that the guilty verdict has no chance of affecting their own votes. They already have fully formed views of the former president, as most people do. The argument is taking place among the minority of Americans who say they are very closely following the trial (16 percent of the public, according to a Yahoo News-YouGov poll) about the even tinier sliver of Americans who might be persuaded to change how, or if, they vote. The molten controversy over the flag-draping choices of the Alito household should be kept in the same perspective.” (05/31/24)
https://archive.is/IxzOc
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45) Biden backs US allies fighting for their lives — as long as they don’t fight too hard
Source: New York Post
by Post Editorial Board
“President Biden has made his view on responding to foreign attacks painfully clear: America will help its allies fight back fiercely — as long as they don’t cause their enemies too much damage. Wouldn’t want to risk escalating the situation, don’t you know. It’s a clear recipe for losing and has already proved a tragic failure with foes like Russia, Iran, China, Hamas, the Taliban, … Worst of all, it guarantees the one thing Biden supposedly fears most: more warfare. Take Russia. Biden backs Ukraine in its fight to roll back Moscow’s illegal invasion, yet he insists Kyiv defend itself with its hands tied behind its back — as Vladimir Putin beats his chest and rattles his nukes.” (06/01/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/06/01/opinion/joe-biden-backs-us-allies-at-war-if-they-dont-fight-too-hard/
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46) The World We Have Lost
Source: Law & Liberty
by James Hankins
“It’s a well-known fact that historians generally don’t like historical fiction. Movies set in past periods of history, ‘based on real events’ or not, generally put our teeth on edge. Such fictions are ordinarily filled with ridiculous anachronisms. The anachronisms are most obvious when mushy modern phrases from our therapeutic culture — urging us to share our feelings or hoping we are comfortable with this or that — are put in the mouths of Roman legionaries or medieval churchmen. The producers of British costume dramas are generally brilliant at providing exact reconstructions of the physical environment and costumes used in, say, Jane Austin’s Bath, but they are less accurate when it comes to reconstructing her lost linguistic and conceptual world. I’m sure it sounds stuffy to non-historians when those of us in the trade get annoyed over anachronisms in historical fiction and films. But there’s a method to our miffedness.” (05/31/24)
https://lawliberty.org/the-world-we-have-lost/
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47) Government Undermines Civilization
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“The good, great, and prosperous society depends on ever-widening trust among strangers. It’s not blind trust — ways to hedge against cheaters abound — but trust is vital. It is as vital as respect for private property and privacy. Like the system of private property, the system of trust can withstand repeated assaults, but it is not invulnerable. It can crumble and fall.” (05/31/24)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2024/05/tgif-government-undermines-civilization.html
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48) New Meta‐Study Details the Distortive Effects of Rent Control
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Sophia Bagley
“Rent control, which varies in stringency and scope, refers to government legal limits on rent price levels or rent increases. It is (generally) opposed by economists. As a price control, theory suggests binding caps on rents will produce some combination of shortages of rentable accommodation, lower quality housing, and higher rents for non‐controlled properties. Under rent control, landlords will be incentivized to cut maintenance, screen tenants more stringently, convert rentals to owner‐occupied units, or condos, or AirBnBs, and, in many cases, halt new rental construction. This all not only directly worsens problems in housing markets, but can induce misallocation, curb labor mobility, and depress property values and local tax bases.” (05/31/24)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/new-meta-study-details-distortive-effects-rent-control
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49) Indonesia’s leap into good governance
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In a globe-shifting moment this month, the world’s third-largest democracy officially began the process of joining a ‘club’ of 38 nations that tracks one another’s dedication to good governance and inclusive growth. That was no small choice for Indonesia, a huge Southeast Asian country rife with corruption and trade protectionism but with hopes of becoming an advanced economy in two decades. President Joko Widodo set up a team to launch reforms necessary for Indonesia to become a member of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD sets high standards for states in maintaining liberal democracy and free markets. It also serves as a stamp of approval for foreign investors. With a large, young population, Indonesia needs faster economic growth and a high-tech industry to avoid the ‘trap’ of remaining a middle-income nation.” (05/30/24)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0530/Indonesia-s-leap-into-good-governance
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50) “A Child Is Not the Mere Creature of the State”
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Jeff Ziegler
“The first day of June in 2025 will mark the centenary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters. Over the coming year, how fitting it would be for scholars to recall the landmark decision in academic events, and for professors, teachers, and school administrators to ensure that the decision is given due attention in classrooms. How fitting it would be for local, state, and federal government leaders to memorialize the decision by henceforth proclaiming June 1 as Educational Freedom Day.” (05/31/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/a-child-is-not-the-mere-creature-of-the-state/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Free Talk Cast, episode 1
Source: Free Talk Live
“Aria DiMezzo and Captain Kickass sit down in this debut episode of the Free Talk Cast to talk about federal prison, Free Talk Live, Ian Freeman’s noted absence, and the latest news that Donald Trump has promised to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence. Write to Ian Freeman today!” (06/01/24)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/free-talk-cast-001
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52) Unattended Baggage, episode 248
Source: International Guild of Professional Anarchists
“The little-known perks of being a coroner.” (06/01/24)
https://alexandersnitker.substack.com/p/unattended-baggage-episode-248-the
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53) See How They Run, 06/01/24
Source: See How They Run
“How Trump Swallowed the GOP Whole.” (06/01/24)
https://www.thenation.com/podcast/politics/shtr-002/
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54) Everyday Samurai, episode 60
Source: Everyday Samurai
“The Cartel of Martial Governance.” (06/01/24)
https://pod.co/everyday-samurai-life/ep60-the-cartel-of-martial-governance
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55) Conflicts of Interest, episode 605
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Israel’s Decade-Long Effort to Intimidate the ICC.” (05/31/24)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-605-israels-decade-long-effort-to-intimidate-the-icc
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56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/31/24
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Steve Forbes on The New Gold Standard with Guest Philip Patrick from Birch Gold.” (05/31/24)
https://rumble.com/v4yj5dx-steve-forbes-on-the-new-gold-standard-with-guest-philip-patrick-from-birch-.html
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57) Meme Wars, 05/31/24
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Is Trump Conviction a Dunk or a Dump for Dems?” (05/31/24)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/meme-wars-is-trump-conviction-a-dunk-or-a-dump-for-dems
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58) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2498
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Will Our Deranged Regime Eventually Collapse?” (05/31/24)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2498-will-our-deranged-regime-eventually-collapse/
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59) Advisory Opinions, 05/31/24
Source: The Dispatch
“The Rights the Constitution Doesn’t Tell You About.” (05/31/24)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-rights-the-constitution-doesnt-tell-you-about/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/31/24
Source: Antiwar.com
“Ukraine Can Use US Weapons To Strike Inside Russia, Heavy US-UK Airstrikes in Yemen, and More.” (05/31/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6gZsCGWPdU
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