07/22 -- Hegseth, Caine beg Congress for more money to spend on Iran fiasco; Reminder: US Tariffs are Taxes on Americans
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 22, 2026, 6:08:52 AM (5 days ago) Jul 22
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 07/22/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Hegseth, Caine beg Congress for more money to spend on Iran fiasco
2) Ukraine: Zelenskyy fires commander-in-chief after protests and major rift
3) AZ: Trump-backed candidates win closely watched primary races
4) France: Idiot pols fantasize that they can ban kids under 15 from social media
5) RFK Jr. pauses $1 billion in Medicaid funding to California, Minnesota
6) Judge orders release of Florida woman abducted by ICE gang
7) Filipino, Chinese regime summon each others’ envoys over South China Sea incident
8) Judge Approves a $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Books Used to Train the Claude Chatbot
9) Hungary: Prosecutors raid Orbán party’s data center in embezzlement probe
10) Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly, alleging misleading GLP-1 advertising
11) Tropical Storm Bertha to make likely Louisiana landfall before Texas
12) Turkey: Deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan
13) Appeals court rejects Biden bid to block release of ghostwriter recordings used in special counsel probe
14) WA: Judge blocks Kalshi contracts, cites state’s gambling law
15) Ghana: Politician sentenced to 20 years for illegal mining
16) Germany: Descendant of Nazi opponent tries to remove far-right party’s wreath at Hitler plot memorial event
17) Nicaragua: Ortega says regime will “never again” hold elections, shutting out opposition
18) India: Explosion in Tunnel at Hydropower Project Leaves 10 Dead and 17 Missing
19) Experimental drug shows ‘phenomenal’ results fighting California fungal disease
20) Italy: Demonstrations break out in Bologna after Moroccan man dies while being restrained by police
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Reminder: US Tariffs are Taxes on Americans
22) America’s National Mood Was OK in 1988-1991
23) Reality Sends the Bill: How Ignoring Price Signals Ends in Disaster
24) How To Honor the Dead US Service Members
25) What Trump didn’t say about election interference
26) My Visit to the Data Center
27) What Is the Government Good For?
28) The Death of a Silenced Conscience
29) This Is How We Close the Camps
30) Exporters Still Are Not Eating the Trump Tariffs: They are Taxes on Us
31) The Trump economy is doing better than the media want to admit
32) Chance and its consequences
33) Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President
34) The AI tax movement is built on a myth
35) Diamonds in the Lab
36) The Ideology Behind the American Revolution
37) The World Is Collapsing—or Is It?
38) Truth Be Told
39) Israel is sabotaging Trump’s peace plan for Gaza
40) The High Cost of Just Cause
41) Ukraine: America’s Enduring Proxy War on Russia
42) What the Conservatives Get Wrong about the French Revolution
43) Trump Can Still Salvage Midterms If He Acts Quickly
44) The Tobacco Wars
45) Young progressives think trouble sleeping is a mental health issue — blame the ideology that says the world is stacked against them
46) Trump’s shadow economy
47) Our right to defend ourselves – anywhere and against anything
48) Lessons from Argentina’s World Cup Run
49) A Great Economy Unless You Have to Work for a Living
50) Contradictions of Socialist Prison Abolitionism
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Cato Podcast, 07/21/26
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/21/26
53) Rising, 07/21/26
54) Trump Watch, 07/21/26
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/21/26
56) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/21/26
57) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/21/26
58) The Good Fight, 07/21/26
59) Liberty Pub Live at PubKey
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/20/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Hegseth, Caine beg Congress for more money to spend on Iran fiasco
Source: Associated Press
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. war against Iran has cost $37.5 billion, so far, as he is facing questions and protests at a Senate hearing ahead of a $95 billion GOP budget package to fund the military, along with aid to farmers and voting law changes that are top White House priorities. Hegseth provided the new estimate, up from earlier accounts, during testmnony before the Senate Appropriations Committee. … Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are also testifying before the panel. … War funding makes up the bulk of the GOP’s new budget proposal, one last priority package the Republicans hope to launch before lawmakers recess to campaign for the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.” (07/21/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-hegseth-military-deaths-95-billion-7d158708c3e5385683930f8b839d0344
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2) Ukraine: Zelenskyy fires commander-in-chief after protests and major rift
Source: NBC News
“The Ukrainian president fired his commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Tuesday, bowing to pressure after the removal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov sparked the fiercest leadership crisis of his presidency. President Volodomyr Zelenskyy announced in a post on Telegram that Syrskyi will be replaced by Mykhailo Drapatyi. Zelenskyy’s decision to fire Fedorov, one of his closest allies, led to rare wartime protests on the streets of Kyiv. Fedorov publicly aired his disagreements over military strategy with Syrskyi, known as ‘The Butcher.’ Syrskyi, 60, is a more traditional military commander focused on infantry and artillery, while Fedorov, 35, is seen as a modernizer, whose focus on technological advancements in drone warfare has led to Ukraine’s recent successes in hitting Russia.” (07/21/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/ukraines-zelenskyy-fires-commander-chief-protests-major-rift-rcna588159
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3) AZ: Trump-backed candidates win closely watched primary races
Source: Reuters
“Republican voters in Tuesday’s Arizona primaries nominated conservative [sic] candidates for high-profile races for governor and a U.S. House seat, as Democrats rallied behind moderates [sic] leading up to the November 3 midterm elections. The results also marked wins for U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed victorious Republicans in two of the most-watched primary races. U.S. Representative Andy Biggs comfortably won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who was unopposed in her primary. With Trump’s endorsement in hand, Biggs handily defeated U.S. Representative David Schweikert and two other candidates, according to media projections. … Meanwhile, former professional football player Jay Feely, who is also backed by Trump, defeated two challengers, secured the Republican nomination that puts him on the November ballot for election to Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-bank-republicans-nominating-far-right-primary-candidates-swing-state-2026-07-21/
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4) France: Idiot pols fantasize that they can ban kids under 15 from social media
Source: ABC News
“French lawmakers have adopted a bill prohibiting minors under 15 years old from accessing social media. French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the bill’s passage in a social media post Tuesday, shortly after it received approval by both chambers of Parliament, saying it was now up to the Constitutional Council, which reviews the constitutionality of legislation, to rule on the measure. The bill, the first of its kind within the European Union, also enforces a ban on cellphones in secondary schools. … If the bill is greenlit by the Constitutional Council, the ban will take effect starting in September 2026. Some left-wing lawmakers have questioned the measure’s constitutionality and the government’s ability to actually enforce the ban, among other things.” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/french-lawmakers-social-media-ban-kids-under-15/story?id=134959102
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5) RFK Jr. pauses $1 billion in Medicaid funding to California, Minnesota
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The Trump administration has paused more than $1bn in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota, citing ‘suspected fraud and noncompliance’ – withholding of funding that follows a $243m pause in Medicaid payments to Minnesota earlier this year. ‘If those states want that money, they need to provide documentation that these payments are legitimate,’ said Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said at a press conference on Tuesday. Officials relied on AI to identify potential fraud, Kennedy said.” (07/21/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/21/medicaid-funding-california-minnesota-paused
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6) Judge orders release of Florida woman abducted by ICE gang
Source: Boston Globe
“A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of a woman [abducted] by ICE at Logan International Airport after traveling to Boston for a Noah Kahan concert. Maria Rosales, 32, a former DACA recipient whose application to renew her spot in the immigration program has been pending since 2023, was [abducted] at the airport while trying to fly home to Florida on July 10. She has been detained at an ICE [concentration camp] in Burlington since then, according to court filings. US District Judge Myong J. Joun ordered that Rosales be released by 7 p.m. Monday. Rosales was no longer listed on ICE’s detainee locator website on Tuesday morning.” (07/21/26)
https://archive.is/kX5AJ
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7) Filipino, Chinese regime summon each others’ envoys over South China Sea incident
Source: Reuters
“Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will summon China’s ambassador in Manila, his office said on Tuesday, hours after Manila’s envoy in Beijing was similarly summoned following accusations by both sides of provoking tensions in the contested South China Sea. Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed to reporters Marcos had summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan at 5 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, China’s foreign ministry said it summoned Manila’s envoy to China. The summoning of ambassadors comes a day after the Philippines and China accused each other [over] an encounter in the Second Thomas Shoal of the South China Sea. Philippine officials said one of its navy personnel was struck on the head but Beijing said Manila provoked the incident.” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-summons-philippine-ambassador-over-south-china-sea-encounter-2026-07-21/
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8) Judge Approves a $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Books Used to Train the Claude Chatbot
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal judge has approved a $1.5 billion copyright settlement in which artificial intelligence company Anthropic will pay thousands of authors about $3,000 per book after using pirated copies of their works to train its Claude chatbot. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides ‘meaningful relief’ to affected authors and publishers. About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment. Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was ‘the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible.'” (07/21/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2026-07-21/judge-approves-a-1-5b-anthropic-settlement-over-pirated-books-used-to-train-the-claude-chatbot
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9) Hungary: Prosecutors raid Orbán party’s data center in embezzlement probe
Source: ABC News
“Prosecutors and investigators with Hungary’s tax authority on Tuesday raided offices housing data servers used by former prime minister Viktor Orbán ‘s Fidesz party as part of a probe into suspected embezzlement and other crimes, a prosecutor’s office spokesperson told The Associated Press. Fidesz accused the governing Tisza party, led by pro-European Prime Minister Péter Magyar, of seeking to use legal means to destroy it. Marianna Bodó, a spokesperson for the Bács-Kiskun County chief prosecutor’s office, said in an email that the raid was part of an investigation into the suspected misuse of grant money through Hungary’s National Cultural Fund while Orbán’s government was in office.” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/hungarian-prosecutors-raid-orbn-partys-data-center-embezzlement-134950241
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10) Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly, alleging misleading GLP-1 advertising
Source: CNBC
“Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, alleging that its advertising campaigns for its blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs are designed to mislead consumers about their superior efficacy relative to the Danish drugmaker’s rival injections. Novo Nordisk is specifically taking issue with nationwide ads that cite what it called ‘outdated’ clinical trials to compare the highest doses of Lilly’s medicines to lower doses of Novo’s drugs. Novo asked the court to permanently stop Lilly from running the ads and require the drugmaker to issue corrective advertising.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/21/novo-nordisk-sues-eli-lilly-glp-1-ads.html
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11) Tropical Storm Bertha to make likely Louisiana landfall before Texas
Source: Houston Chronicle
“Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to make a Louisiana landfall later this week—possibly Wednesday—before a more disorganized system impacts the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday and Saturday. If that turns out to be true, the biggest impact for Texas could turn out to be low levels of rain from one to four inches. … If Bertha heads to Texas, it will most likely do so as a tropical depression or weaker. That could mean rain for portions of the Texas coast. The 4 a.m. update downgraded that rain chance and mostly erased predicted rainfall south of Victoria. Houston would still get potentially two inches of rain.” (07/21/26)
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/tropical-storm-bertha-texas-22353383.php
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12) Turkey: Deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan
Source: ABC News
“The deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition announced plans on Tuesday to create a new political party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ozgur Ozel ‘s announcement came months after he was removed as leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, by a court order — a ruling critics say was a politically motivated effort to weaken the opposition. His ouster, and the reinstatement of the party’s former and unpopular leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, sparked outrage among many CHP supporters. … The new political movement, which is expected to be called Yeni Parti, or New Party, will be formally launched later this week, according to reports. Many of the CHP’s 135 legislators in the 600‑seat parliament were expected to defect and join the new party, which Ozel said would become the parliament’s main opposition ‘by a wide margin.'” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/turkish-oppositions-deposed-leader-plans-new-party-erdogan-134945551
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13) Appeals court rejects Biden bid to block release of ghostwriter recordings used in special counsel probe
Source: New York Post
“Former President Joe Biden lost his bid Monday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with his longtime ghostwriter that were used in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s unlawful hoarding of classified information. A divided federal appeals court ruled the 46th president’s privacy claims did not outweigh the ‘substantial’ public interest in the material, though it suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow the former chief executive to consider additional action. … The Heritage Foundation initially sued the Justice Department in March 2024, seeking the transcripts and recordings under the Freedom of Information Act. The former president is arguing the material isn’t subject to FOIA because it’s personal property.” (07/21/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/21/us-news/appeals-court-rejects-biden-bid-to-block-release-of-ghostwriter-recordings-used-in-special-counsel-probe/
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14) WA: Judge blocks Kalshi contracts, cites state’s gambling law
Source: Reuters
“A judge granted Washington’s request to block Kalshi from offering its so-called event contracts in the state, saying the prediction markets platform likely violated the state’s gambling laws. In a decision on Monday, Judge John McHale of the King County Superior Court granted Washington’s motion for a preliminary injunction. … The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meanwhile, has claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the industry, and challenged regulatory activity in at least nine states. In April, a divided federal appeals court cited the CFTC’s authority in blocking New Jersey gaming authorities from regulating Kalshi’s sports event contracts. ‘States don’t have jurisdiction to regulate prediction markets,’ Kalshi said in a statement on Tuesday. ‘We’re disappointed to see Washington state continue wasting taxpayer dollars.'” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/washington-judge-blocks-kalshi-contracts-cites-states-gambling-law-2026-07-21/
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15) Ghana: Politician sentenced to 20 years for illegal mining
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ghana’s main opposition party has reacted with anger after one of its most influential leaders was sentenced to 20 years in jail, with hard labour, for illegal mining offences. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that the landmark judgement against Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the party’s chairman for the Ashanti region, was politically motivated. Popularly known as ‘Chairman Wontumi’, Boasiako is the first senior politician in Ghana to be convicted of illegal mining since the government began a crackdown on the practice in 2017. As well as receiving a jail sentence, Boasiako, who had denied the charges, was ordered to pay more than $10,000 (£7,450) in fines.” (07/21/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvwnjllwvwo
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16) Germany: Descendant of Nazi opponent tries to remove far-right party’s wreath at Hitler plot memorial event
Source: ABC News
“A descendant of an executed opponent of the Nazis tried to remove a wreath from the far-right Alternative for Germany party at an event in Berlin marking the 82nd anniversary of a failed attempt to kill Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Tobias Korenke, a great-nephew of Protestant pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, attempted to remove the wreath from the parliamentary group of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, at Monday’s event at the site where the main plotters were executed, German news agency dpa reported. Security officers intervened, and the wreath was damaged in the scuffle. ‘Many descendants, myself included, feel really great anger when we see AfD laying wreaths here,’ Korenke said. ‘We will not accept this.'” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/descendant-nazi-opponent-remove-partys-wreath-hitler-plot-134940668
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17) Nicaragua: Ortega says regime will “never again” hold elections, shutting out opposition
Source: Fox News
“Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega said the Central American country would no longer hold elections, further closing off any potential path for the opposition to challenge the government he leads with his wife, Rosario Murillo. Ortega, Nicaragua’s longest-serving leader, has remained in power since 2007 after previously governing during the 1980s. His current presidential term is scheduled to run through 2027. ‘There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,’ Ortega said. He delivered the remarks Sunday during a speech commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega participated in the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.” (07/21/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/nicaragua-ortega-ends-elections
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18) India: Explosion in Tunnel at Hydropower Project Leaves 10 Dead and 17 Missing
Source: US News & World Report
“A suspected gas explosion triggered a collapse inside an under-construction tunnel at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, near the Chinese border, leaving least 10 people dead and 17 others missing, officials said on Tuesday. The blast ripped through the tunnel on Monday at Samardung village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the state capital, Gangtok, where multiple workers were carrying out construction work on the 500-megawatt Teesta hydroelectric project, Anupama Tamling, a civil official in the area, told reporters. Survivors who managed to escape told authorities they heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, trapping dozens inside, she said.” (07/21/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-21/india-tunnel-disaster-at-a-himalayan-hydropower-project-leaves-10-dead-and-missing
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19) Experimental drug shows ‘phenomenal’ results fighting California fungal disease
Source: SFGate
“With Valley fever cases climbing in California, physicians have struggled to treat the increasing number of patients grappling with the deadliest version of the disease. When Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, spreads from the lungs, it can cause infected joints, scarred lungs and even deadly meningitis. Now, researchers appear to have found a major breakthrough studying an experimental drug that helped the sickest patients, who otherwise had run out of treatment options. The study’s results, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at whether an experimental antifungal medication called olorofim could help relieve symptoms of people with disseminated Valley fever, meaning their disease has spread beyond their lungs. The team found a significant number, over 70%, of patients with the stubborn and potentially deadly form of disease were helped after taking the new drug.” (07/21/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/calif-valley-fever-drug-22349478.php
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20) Italy: Demonstrations break out in Bologna after Moroccan man dies while being restrained by police
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Italian police clashed with demonstrators in the northern city of Bologna on Monday, ANSA news agency reported, during a protest over the death of a Moroccan man who died while being forcibly restrained by police during an attempted arrest. Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born entrepreneur who ran a small removals and cleaning business, died on Sunday after police were called to deal with a man behaving aggressively and damaging a vehicle …. video showed Fakir lying face down on the ground while two officers restrained him. Fakir – who reportedly suffered from heart issues and asthma – repeatedly calls out ‘aiuto, aiuto, basta’ (‘help, help, that’s enough’) as the officers sit on him and ambulance workers look on. After he stops moving, the police bind his ankles together. Only after a moment or two do they and the ambulance workers check his vital signs, the video shows.” (07/21/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260721-demonstrations-break-out-in-bologna-after-moroccan-man-dies-while-being-restrained-by-police
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Reminder: US Tariffs are Taxes on Americans
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Tariff supporters try to sell their desired tax increases on American consumers as ‘retaliation’ against other regimes for ‘unfair’ treatment of goods made by American workers and exported by American companies. Odd form of retaliation, that — ‘you’re hurting YOUR people … fine, we’ll hurt OUR people — that’ll show YOU!’ And for for the most part, those other regimes aren’t the manufacturers of or buyers of those exports/imports, any more than the US regime is the manufacturer or buyer of whatever the company you work for happens to export or the imported goods you choose to buy. So no, tariffs aren’t ‘retaliation’ for ‘unfairness.’ What are they, then? They’re a way of protecting politicians’ domestic business cronies from competition, at the expense of domestic consumers.” (07/21/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20768
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22) America’s National Mood Was OK in 1988-1991
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Materially, Americans are far better off than they were during the Cold War. But even thinkers who acknowledge this truism often fondly reminisce about the long-lost Golden Age of American optimism that supposedly spanned the second half of the 20th century. This reminiscing always puzzles me, because I vividly remember the second half of the second half of the 20th century. Except for a brief window of roughly 1988-1991, my first-hand experience is that America’s national mood has been relentlessly bad. While I’ve known plenty of American optimists, and count myself among them, ‘American optimism’ is a will-o’-the-wisp. It appears so fleetingly that you have to wonder if it was ever there at all.” (07/21/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/americas-national-mood-was-ok-in
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23) Reality Sends the Bill: How Ignoring Price Signals Ends in Disaster
Source: The Daily Economy
by Attila Rebak
“If prices carry such reliable knowledge, why do governments override them so routinely — and why does it so often take a catastrophe to stop them? The answer is the least romantic and most dependable part of political economy. A market transmits a price almost instantly. Politics transmits it slowly and through heavy distortion. Mancur Olson explained its core: the beneficiaries of an intervention are usually concentrated, organized, and loud, while those who pay for it are dispersed, unorganized, and often not yet harmed.” (07/21/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/reality-sends-the-bill-how-ignoring-price-signals-ends-in-disaster/
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24) How To Honor the Dead US Service Members
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“Over the weekend the Pentagon announced that four more US soldiers have been killed in President Trump’s war on Iran. That brings the total to 17, but many believe the real number of dead US servicemembers is much higher than that. The Pentagon has claimed it has no obligation to reveal how many military personnel have been injured, which suggests that number may be much higher than we are hearing. Many of these injuries will be horrific and life-altering. … If the President really wants to honor our military, he will declare an end to this pointless war, bring all of our troops home from the region, and announce that the destroyed US bases will not be rebuilt. It is time to end the American empire and come home.” (07/21/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/07/20/how-to-honor-the-dead-us-service-members
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25) What Trump didn’t say about election interference
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“After six years of asserting the 2020 presidential election was stolen and repeatedly claiming he would produce the evidence, President Trump gave it his best shot Thursday night. It didn’t go well. His speech was universally panned for regurgitating what we already knew and not providing any proof of election interference. But the worst part is the U.S. intelligence he so frequently mentioned largely disagrees with him. Here’s what Trump didn’t say.” (07/21/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5979616-trump-misquotes-intel-reports/
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26) My Visit to the Data Center
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Stephen Moore
“I am well aware that Americans are very split on the benefits of data centers, and the majority of voters say they don’t want one anywhere near their community. I’m in favor of letting voters of every community decide whether they want a data center or not. But I also believe that if people actually visited a data center, as I did, they would be astounded by the jaw-dropping technological wizardry that lies within. If you get the chance to tour one of these facilities, take it. And take your kids.” (07/21/26)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/07/21/my_visit_to_the_data_center_154351.html
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27) What Is the Government Good For?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Bradley J Birzer
“Over the last several years, as we all navigate the surge of the deconstructive radical left and the surge of populism on the right, the meanings of several words and terms—once so sure and so inspirational—have become loose from their moorings. Words and terms such as conservative, classical liberal, libertarian, and even anarchist don’t mean quite what they once did. Even the very directional political terms—right and left—do not mean quite what they once did. … In his truly insightful and brilliant book, Deleting the State: Requiem for an Illusion, Bridgewater State University philosophy professor Aeon Skoble dives deep into this very quagmire of meaning, looking left and right, up and down, exploring the mundane and transcendent, the humane and inhumane.” (07/21/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/what-is-the-government-good-for/
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28) The Death of a Silenced Conscience
Source: Roads Go Ever On
by Bekah Graham
“One of the reasons people like me (when I was still a Christian) vociferously opposed linking Christianity to American right-wing politics was knowing it would inevitably become difficult to distinguish between an informed believer speaking from sincere conviction and a charlatan appropriating faith to gain new followers and climb the ladder of political power. I’m no longer a believer, but I have been proven correct. I don’t envy my former siblings in Christ, who are confronted daily with the anti-Christ behavior of professing Christians in political office and their loudest public supporters. Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, anyone attempting to continue supporting him while sincerely seeking to follow Jesus must wage a daily war to reconcile backing an administration that routinely demeans, dehumanizes, and destroys lives.” (07/21/26)
https://bekahgwen.substack.com/p/the-death-of-a-silenced-conscience
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29) This Is How We Close the Camps
Source: The Nation
by John Washington
“Until we, as a society, reject the camp and its logic, it will remain a threat—and the linchpin in the entire immigration enforcement regime.” (07/21/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/immigration-camps-how-to-close-a-camp/
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30) Exporters Still Are Not Eating the Trump Tariffs: They are Taxes on Us
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“As we all know, Donald Trump likes to play the tough guy. Unfortunately, he often does it in really foolish ways, and this time I’m not talking about his war against Iran. I’m talking about Trump’s tariffs. From the way he talks, he seems to think that foreign countries are sending us checks equal to the tariffs he has imposed on U.S. imports from them. Donald Trump’s mind can be a scary place, so it’s not worth trying to tease out his thought process, except to point out that the idea that foreigners are sending us checks is absurd.” (07/21/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/21/exporters-still-are-not-eating-the-trump-tariffs-they-are-taxes-on-us/
-----
31) The Trump economy is doing better than the media want to admit
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“President Donald Trump has a good story to tell on the economy; he should be telling it, because it’s a sure bet the liberal media will not. Consider the big picture: unemployment is low, real wages are rising, the stock market is high, investment is booming and inflation, though above the Federal Reserve’s target, came down last month, and will recede again once oil prices stabilize. (Inflation, most recently at 3.5%, and at 2.6% excluding volatile food and energy, is also significantly below the 4.95% recorded on average under President Joe Biden.) … Sure, we have challenges, as always, and especially with the cost of living being too high and housing too expensive for many Americans. But, overall, the economy is in pretty good shape. That’s not what most people think.” (07/21/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-trump-economy-doing-better-media-admit
-----
32) Chance and its consequences
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“William James called her ‘the bitch-goddess, Success.’ He meant it as a complaint about America’s worship of her, but the phrase catches something true. She is a goddess because we deify whatever she touches, crediting it with foresight and merit it never had. She is a bitch because she hands out her favours with no regard for desert at all. What I want to call contingency is just her proper name – the rather distinguished term by which we dress up and disguise mere chance.” (07/21/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/chance-and-its-consequences
-----
33) Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the dumbest popular narratives you see today is the idea that Zionists persuaded a reluctant Trump to start a war with Iran after he was re-elected, like they were chasing him around going ‘Would you like to bomb Iran? like the guy from Green Eggs and Ham while he yelled ‘Not in a box! Not with a fox!’ until he eventually caved in. It is now abundantly clear that this war was planned a long time ago. Not in 2026, not in 2025, not in 2024, and not even during the Biden administration. This was planned before Trump was ever elected president.” (07/21/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/21/trump-is-not-a-reluctant-war-president/
-----
34) The AI tax movement is built on a myth
Source: Washington Post
by Adam Michel
“Washington at last seems to have hit upon a revenue idea that both Republicans and Democrats like: taxing artificial intelligence to help the American worker. Too bad it would do the opposite. On the right, President Donald Trump wants AI companies to give ‘something back to the public,’ while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) has expressed openness to taxation to make sure AI companies ‘are actually working for the public good.’ On the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) wants the public to own half of the biggest AI companies, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) has called for a tax on AI tokens, the basic data unit processed by large language models. The various tax proposals rely on different mechanisms, but the same story motivates them. It’s a story based on a zero-sum assumption — that gains for capital automatically means losses for labor.” (07/21/26)
https://archive.is/QSKvQ
-----
35) Diamonds in the Lab
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Stefan Bartl
“From De Beers’s 1940s slogan ‘A Diamond Is Forever,’ to ‘Every Kiss Begins with Kay’ and ‘He Went to Jared,’ the diamond industry had already done its most important work before anyone chose a ring. It had written the rules of romance: what love looked like, what it cost, and what it said about someone who spent less. Those rules were not ancient traditions. The industry manufactured not diamonds, but desire. Even in popular culture, Rihanna gave us the song ‘Diamonds.’ The more interesting economic story, however, is not the diamonds in the sky, but the diamonds in the lab. Desire has not gone anywhere. For the first time, it has a better offer.” (07/21/26)
https://fee.org/articles/diamonds-in-the-lab/
-----
36) The Ideology Behind the American Revolution
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“In his book The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell argues that most people’s political opinions are shaped by ‘a particular set of underlying assumptions about the world—a certain vision of reality.’ By vision, he means an instinctive sense of the correct way of understanding the world and making sense of what we see or hear. The same insight applies to people’s understanding of political labels like libertarian or conservative. We assume we know what a libertarian means by reference to his ideology, or that we know what it means to describe a position as conservative. But often these assumptions owe more to our own vision of the world than they do to the speaker’s intention.” (07/21/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/ideology-behind-american-revolution
-----
37) The World Is Collapsing—or Is It?
Source: Townhall
by Alan Joseph Bauer
“The U.S.-Israel relationship will change after Donald Trump. It may become more transactional, and the U.S. does benefit enormously from its friendship with Israel. Every high-tech company has a research office here, and the U.S. gets all of Israel’s military tech and knowledge. The world is not collapsing, but the relationship may well be changing.” (07/21/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/alanjosephbauer/2026/07/21/the-world-is-collapsingor-is-it-n2679745
-----
38) Truth Be Told
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“President Donald Trump told a prime-time national audience, last week, that the Department of Homeland Security found 278,000 noncitizens on state voter rolls after checking roughly half the states. ‘It’s a number,’ as my old boss says. The Washington Post called it ‘an exaggerated claim that noncitizens are registering to vote en masse.’ No, noncitizens are not really registering to vote so much as being registered — without their knowledge or understanding through deliberate government policy that pretends it’s pro-democracy to throw folks on the voter list who are not legally entitled to vote.” (07/21/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/21/truth-be-told/
-----
39) Israel is sabotaging Trump’s peace plan for Gaza
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Paul R Pillar
“An image of Iran as a regional bête noire has long served Israel’s objective of drawing international attention away from Israeli conduct. This is a major reason Israel has promoted unending confrontation with Iran, including the starting and continuation of the current war. This also helps explain why Israel opposes and often seeks to sabotage diplomacy with Tehran. Netanyahu’s government is using the current preoccupation with a rekindled U.S.-Iranian war to intensify its violent subjugation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. While President Donald Trump has said little about Gaza in recent weeks, Israel’s actions there are undermining the president’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which he proposed last October.” (07/21/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-netanyahu-gaza-peace-plan/
-----
40) The High Cost of Just Cause
Source: EconLog
by Alex MacDonald
“This month, amid World Cup fever, New York City implemented a new job-protection law. This law forbids app-based rideshare platforms from removing drivers unless they can show they have ‘just cause’ or a ‘bona fide economic reason.’ The new law follows a pattern set by a similar pandemic-era law, also from New York City, which applied the same standards to the fast-food industry. As examples of political sloganeering, these laws are hard to beat: no one will argue with fairness in firing. But as economic policies, they’re nothing short of an own goal. By making it harder to fire people, they inadvertently discourage businesses from hiring those people in the first place. They also make it harder for already-employed people to switch jobs.” (07/21/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/the-high-cost-of-just-cause
-----
41) Ukraine: America’s Enduring Proxy War on Russia
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“Eisenhower’s warning that US policy would be captured by a scientific-technological elite supplies a specific reason the US sustains the Ukraine war: Ukraine has become a unique, live-fire laboratory for AI warfare at scale.” (07/21/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-proxy-war-in-ukraine
-----
42) What the Conservatives Get Wrong about the French Revolution
Source: Cobden Centre
by Ryan McMaken
“The thing we now call ‘conservatism’ in the West largely comes out of a reaction against the French Revolution and other revolutionary movements inspired by it. The Continental conservatives—e.g., Joseph de Maistre, Friedrich von Gentz, Klemens von Metternich, and Juan Donoso Cortés—embraced monarchism, often including its more authoritarian and absolutist varieties, in an effort to avoid repeating the excesses of the French revolution. The conservatives also opposed economic liberalism in the form of free trade and ‘free markets’ because these were associated—wrongly in many cases—with the French revolutionaries.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/07/what-the-conservatives-get-wrong-about-the-french-revolution/
-----
43) Trump Can Still Salvage Midterms If He Acts Quickly
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“Recent socialist victories in Democratic primaries appear to be narrowing the party’s lead, with Republicans outrunning Trump’s job approval rating and possessing a real opportunity to defy history. But Republicans cannot forever defy basic math, economics, or gravity. It is now summertime. Public perceptions of the economy will be baked in by Labor Day, with extremely limited opportunities for improvement by Election Day after that. The public’s attitude about the Iran war may already be set, and not to Trump’s or the GOP’s benefit.” (07/21/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-can-still-salvage-midterms-if-he-acts-quickly/
-----
44) The Tobacco Wars
Source: Quillette
by Andrew BUshnell
“In the early 1930s, the Australian government lost a war against emus, and its present war, this time on tobacco, is heading the same way. Excessive taxation in the name of public health has backfired in extraordinary fashion, helping create a massive black market in tobacco products. This has led to an effective transfer to criminal gangs of billions of dollars of revenue previously earned by the legal tobacco industry, and a corresponding significant drop in excise tax revenue collected by the government, unprecedented violence between those gangs as they scrap over money and territory, and, to top it all off, an increase in the consumption of tobacco and nicotine.” (07/20/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/07/20/the-tobacco-wars/
-----
45) Young progressives think trouble sleeping is a mental health issue — blame the ideology that says the world is stacked against them
Source: New York Post
by Rikki Schlott
“Young progressives are more likely to consider normal day-to-day struggles — like difficulty sleeping and feeling blue — as mental health problems, per a new analysis. Is it any wonder, given the left-leaning ideology that convinces Americans that the system is simply stacked against them? Data from the US General Social Survey, analyzed by the Financial Times, revealed that younger people and more progressive people were more likely to believe that everything from feeling worried, trouble sleeping and feeling a little sad were symptomatic of a disorder. … This politics of suffering and victimization pairs perfectly with a population eager to identify with their struggles rather than their strengths. In recent years, claiming mental illness has become chic in progressive spaces, conferring socially valuable oppression points in the battle to prove who is most downtrodden.” (07/20/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/20/opinion/young-lefties-say-normal-struggles-are-mental-health-issues/
-----
46) Trump’s shadow economy
Source: Unherd
by Poppy Sowerby
“Think about it: every day, every person of influence is likely to encounter an army of auxiliaries who at any moment could overhear privileged information. Bank tellers, family counselors, pharmacists. For a nice little earner, wedding planners could short a celebrity marriage, security staff have a flutter on which stars will show up, and soldiers gamble on the capture of a Venezuelan strongman — except that’s already (allegedly) happened. Closeness to major events transforms being ‘in the know’ into possessing insider alpha; with these new incentives, secrets become stranded assets. He who dares is not gambling on uncertainty — his privileged access means he knows the direction of travel — but rather on the likelihood of being rumbled. Taking that risk could set him up for life, and could far outstrip baseline salaries for clerical or flunky work. You can see the appeal. Within the present White House, the temptation would seem to be irresistible.” (07/20/26)
https://archive.is/eDB6r
-----
47) Our right to defend ourselves – anywhere and against anything
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Lovers of liberty tend to concentrate on human threats which must be countered in self-defense by having and using a firearm. But animals are also threats that must be addressed.” (07/20/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/07/20/our-right-to-defend-ourselves-anywhere-and-against-anything/
-----
48) Lessons from Argentina’s World Cup Run
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
“I have visited five countries across Asia and Europe over the last few weeks. The hatred the Argentine national soccer team seems to have awakened in people around the world—due to their behavior at this World Cup—is something Argentina’s soccer authorities must take seriously. Now that they have lost to Spain, and given that Lionel Messi, the best player on the planet, is 39 and on the verge of retirement, they will have to reconstruct much of their team. … The broader issue—and what appears to make Argentina so widely disliked around the world—is that the team has learned neither how to win nor how to lose with grace in international competitions.” (07/20/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/20/lessons-from-argentinas-world-cup-run/
-----
49) A Great Economy Unless You Have to Work for a Living
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“If there’s a problem with the American economy, it’s only because some people have to work for a living. Income from investment—the primary source of income for roughly 1 percent of Americans—is soaring. The remaining 99 percent, who depend primarily on income from their work, are the laggards grousing about prices and necessities that may be out of reach.” (07/21/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/21/great-economy-unless-you-have-to-work-wages-productivity-investment-income/
-----
50) Contradictions of Socialist Prison Abolitionism
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“‘Democratic socialists’ are a growing movement on the political left. And many of them are also prison abolitionists. But there is a deep contradiction between their socialism and their abolitionism. Socialism requires making numerous economic activities illegal, and those laws have to be enforced by some system of punishment. As the history of actual socialist states shows, serious attempts to implement socialism lead to vastly greater incarceration (and other punishment), not less. There are a number of possible ways to try to escape this contradiction. But none of them work.” (07/20/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/07/20/contradictions-of-socialist-prison-abolitionism/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Cato Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Fight Against Financial Surveillance.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/fight-against-financial-surveillance
-----
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/21/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Silver Lining In Trump’s Iran Debacle.” (07/21/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rGmqqadDaDGy
-----
53) Rising, 07/21/26
Source: The Hill
“Dems flailing in midterm polls despite Trump; socialists to blame?” (07/21/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5978085-rising-july-21-2026/
-----
54) Trump Watch, 07/21/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Iran Tar Baby Grows Bigger.” (07/21/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0E6hLQ-yU
-----
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Senior Writer John McGinnis joins the podcast to discuss the latest term of the Supreme Court.” (07/21/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/an-independent-and-originalist-court/
-----
56) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/21/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me to make sense of the world in our weekly visit. We talk about keeping politics in its proper perspective as well as whether texting and driving should be illegal.” (07/21/26)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-rexbj-1b1882d
-----
57) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“Declining Student Enrollment and a Growing Opportunity with Jude Schwalbach.” (07/21/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/declining-student-enrollment-and-a-growing-opportunity-with-jude-schwalbach/
-----
58) The Good Fight, 07/21/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Claude Steele on the Hidden Stress of Diverse Spaces.” (07/21/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/claude-steele
-----
59) Liberty Pub Live at PubKey
Source: Free the People
“Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins joined Free the People’s Liberty Pub at PubKey DC for a conversation with Matt Kibbe and Thomas Pacchia about crypto, innovation, self-custody, and the future of American capital markets.” (07/20/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNVomcV3vT0
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/20/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Yemen Announces Maritime Blockade on Saudi Arabia, Nearly 100 US Troops Injured This Month, and More.” (07/20/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AB9-3efOUc
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Hegseth, Caine beg Congress for more money to spend on Iran fiasco
2) Ukraine: Zelenskyy fires commander-in-chief after protests and major rift
3) AZ: Trump-backed candidates win closely watched primary races
4) France: Idiot pols fantasize that they can ban kids under 15 from social media
5) RFK Jr. pauses $1 billion in Medicaid funding to California, Minnesota
6) Judge orders release of Florida woman abducted by ICE gang
7) Filipino, Chinese regime summon each others’ envoys over South China Sea incident
8) Judge Approves a $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Books Used to Train the Claude Chatbot
9) Hungary: Prosecutors raid Orbán party’s data center in embezzlement probe
10) Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly, alleging misleading GLP-1 advertising
11) Tropical Storm Bertha to make likely Louisiana landfall before Texas
12) Turkey: Deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan
13) Appeals court rejects Biden bid to block release of ghostwriter recordings used in special counsel probe
14) WA: Judge blocks Kalshi contracts, cites state’s gambling law
15) Ghana: Politician sentenced to 20 years for illegal mining
16) Germany: Descendant of Nazi opponent tries to remove far-right party’s wreath at Hitler plot memorial event
17) Nicaragua: Ortega says regime will “never again” hold elections, shutting out opposition
18) India: Explosion in Tunnel at Hydropower Project Leaves 10 Dead and 17 Missing
19) Experimental drug shows ‘phenomenal’ results fighting California fungal disease
20) Italy: Demonstrations break out in Bologna after Moroccan man dies while being restrained by police
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Reminder: US Tariffs are Taxes on Americans
22) America’s National Mood Was OK in 1988-1991
23) Reality Sends the Bill: How Ignoring Price Signals Ends in Disaster
24) How To Honor the Dead US Service Members
25) What Trump didn’t say about election interference
26) My Visit to the Data Center
27) What Is the Government Good For?
28) The Death of a Silenced Conscience
29) This Is How We Close the Camps
30) Exporters Still Are Not Eating the Trump Tariffs: They are Taxes on Us
31) The Trump economy is doing better than the media want to admit
32) Chance and its consequences
33) Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President
34) The AI tax movement is built on a myth
35) Diamonds in the Lab
36) The Ideology Behind the American Revolution
37) The World Is Collapsing—or Is It?
38) Truth Be Told
39) Israel is sabotaging Trump’s peace plan for Gaza
40) The High Cost of Just Cause
41) Ukraine: America’s Enduring Proxy War on Russia
42) What the Conservatives Get Wrong about the French Revolution
43) Trump Can Still Salvage Midterms If He Acts Quickly
44) The Tobacco Wars
45) Young progressives think trouble sleeping is a mental health issue — blame the ideology that says the world is stacked against them
46) Trump’s shadow economy
47) Our right to defend ourselves – anywhere and against anything
48) Lessons from Argentina’s World Cup Run
49) A Great Economy Unless You Have to Work for a Living
50) Contradictions of Socialist Prison Abolitionism
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Cato Podcast, 07/21/26
52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/21/26
53) Rising, 07/21/26
54) Trump Watch, 07/21/26
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/21/26
56) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/21/26
57) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/21/26
58) The Good Fight, 07/21/26
59) Liberty Pub Live at PubKey
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/20/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Hegseth, Caine beg Congress for more money to spend on Iran fiasco
Source: Associated Press
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. war against Iran has cost $37.5 billion, so far, as he is facing questions and protests at a Senate hearing ahead of a $95 billion GOP budget package to fund the military, along with aid to farmers and voting law changes that are top White House priorities. Hegseth provided the new estimate, up from earlier accounts, during testmnony before the Senate Appropriations Committee. … Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are also testifying before the panel. … War funding makes up the bulk of the GOP’s new budget proposal, one last priority package the Republicans hope to launch before lawmakers recess to campaign for the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.” (07/21/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-hegseth-military-deaths-95-billion-7d158708c3e5385683930f8b839d0344
-----
2) Ukraine: Zelenskyy fires commander-in-chief after protests and major rift
Source: NBC News
“The Ukrainian president fired his commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Tuesday, bowing to pressure after the removal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov sparked the fiercest leadership crisis of his presidency. President Volodomyr Zelenskyy announced in a post on Telegram that Syrskyi will be replaced by Mykhailo Drapatyi. Zelenskyy’s decision to fire Fedorov, one of his closest allies, led to rare wartime protests on the streets of Kyiv. Fedorov publicly aired his disagreements over military strategy with Syrskyi, known as ‘The Butcher.’ Syrskyi, 60, is a more traditional military commander focused on infantry and artillery, while Fedorov, 35, is seen as a modernizer, whose focus on technological advancements in drone warfare has led to Ukraine’s recent successes in hitting Russia.” (07/21/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/ukraines-zelenskyy-fires-commander-chief-protests-major-rift-rcna588159
-----
3) AZ: Trump-backed candidates win closely watched primary races
Source: Reuters
“Republican voters in Tuesday’s Arizona primaries nominated conservative [sic] candidates for high-profile races for governor and a U.S. House seat, as Democrats rallied behind moderates [sic] leading up to the November 3 midterm elections. The results also marked wins for U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed victorious Republicans in two of the most-watched primary races. U.S. Representative Andy Biggs comfortably won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who was unopposed in her primary. With Trump’s endorsement in hand, Biggs handily defeated U.S. Representative David Schweikert and two other candidates, according to media projections. … Meanwhile, former professional football player Jay Feely, who is also backed by Trump, defeated two challengers, secured the Republican nomination that puts him on the November ballot for election to Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-bank-republicans-nominating-far-right-primary-candidates-swing-state-2026-07-21/
-----
4) France: Idiot pols fantasize that they can ban kids under 15 from social media
Source: ABC News
“French lawmakers have adopted a bill prohibiting minors under 15 years old from accessing social media. French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the bill’s passage in a social media post Tuesday, shortly after it received approval by both chambers of Parliament, saying it was now up to the Constitutional Council, which reviews the constitutionality of legislation, to rule on the measure. The bill, the first of its kind within the European Union, also enforces a ban on cellphones in secondary schools. … If the bill is greenlit by the Constitutional Council, the ban will take effect starting in September 2026. Some left-wing lawmakers have questioned the measure’s constitutionality and the government’s ability to actually enforce the ban, among other things.” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/french-lawmakers-social-media-ban-kids-under-15/story?id=134959102
-----
5) RFK Jr. pauses $1 billion in Medicaid funding to California, Minnesota
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The Trump administration has paused more than $1bn in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota, citing ‘suspected fraud and noncompliance’ – withholding of funding that follows a $243m pause in Medicaid payments to Minnesota earlier this year. ‘If those states want that money, they need to provide documentation that these payments are legitimate,’ said Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said at a press conference on Tuesday. Officials relied on AI to identify potential fraud, Kennedy said.” (07/21/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/21/medicaid-funding-california-minnesota-paused
-----
6) Judge orders release of Florida woman abducted by ICE gang
Source: Boston Globe
“A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of a woman [abducted] by ICE at Logan International Airport after traveling to Boston for a Noah Kahan concert. Maria Rosales, 32, a former DACA recipient whose application to renew her spot in the immigration program has been pending since 2023, was [abducted] at the airport while trying to fly home to Florida on July 10. She has been detained at an ICE [concentration camp] in Burlington since then, according to court filings. US District Judge Myong J. Joun ordered that Rosales be released by 7 p.m. Monday. Rosales was no longer listed on ICE’s detainee locator website on Tuesday morning.” (07/21/26)
https://archive.is/kX5AJ
-----
7) Filipino, Chinese regime summon each others’ envoys over South China Sea incident
Source: Reuters
“Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will summon China’s ambassador in Manila, his office said on Tuesday, hours after Manila’s envoy in Beijing was similarly summoned following accusations by both sides of provoking tensions in the contested South China Sea. Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed to reporters Marcos had summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan at 5 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, China’s foreign ministry said it summoned Manila’s envoy to China. The summoning of ambassadors comes a day after the Philippines and China accused each other [over] an encounter in the Second Thomas Shoal of the South China Sea. Philippine officials said one of its navy personnel was struck on the head but Beijing said Manila provoked the incident.” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-summons-philippine-ambassador-over-south-china-sea-encounter-2026-07-21/
-----
8) Judge Approves a $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Books Used to Train the Claude Chatbot
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal judge has approved a $1.5 billion copyright settlement in which artificial intelligence company Anthropic will pay thousands of authors about $3,000 per book after using pirated copies of their works to train its Claude chatbot. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides ‘meaningful relief’ to affected authors and publishers. About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment. Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was ‘the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible.'” (07/21/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2026-07-21/judge-approves-a-1-5b-anthropic-settlement-over-pirated-books-used-to-train-the-claude-chatbot
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9) Hungary: Prosecutors raid Orbán party’s data center in embezzlement probe
Source: ABC News
“Prosecutors and investigators with Hungary’s tax authority on Tuesday raided offices housing data servers used by former prime minister Viktor Orbán ‘s Fidesz party as part of a probe into suspected embezzlement and other crimes, a prosecutor’s office spokesperson told The Associated Press. Fidesz accused the governing Tisza party, led by pro-European Prime Minister Péter Magyar, of seeking to use legal means to destroy it. Marianna Bodó, a spokesperson for the Bács-Kiskun County chief prosecutor’s office, said in an email that the raid was part of an investigation into the suspected misuse of grant money through Hungary’s National Cultural Fund while Orbán’s government was in office.” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/hungarian-prosecutors-raid-orbn-partys-data-center-embezzlement-134950241
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10) Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly, alleging misleading GLP-1 advertising
Source: CNBC
“Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, alleging that its advertising campaigns for its blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs are designed to mislead consumers about their superior efficacy relative to the Danish drugmaker’s rival injections. Novo Nordisk is specifically taking issue with nationwide ads that cite what it called ‘outdated’ clinical trials to compare the highest doses of Lilly’s medicines to lower doses of Novo’s drugs. Novo asked the court to permanently stop Lilly from running the ads and require the drugmaker to issue corrective advertising.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/21/novo-nordisk-sues-eli-lilly-glp-1-ads.html
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11) Tropical Storm Bertha to make likely Louisiana landfall before Texas
Source: Houston Chronicle
“Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to make a Louisiana landfall later this week—possibly Wednesday—before a more disorganized system impacts the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday and Saturday. If that turns out to be true, the biggest impact for Texas could turn out to be low levels of rain from one to four inches. … If Bertha heads to Texas, it will most likely do so as a tropical depression or weaker. That could mean rain for portions of the Texas coast. The 4 a.m. update downgraded that rain chance and mostly erased predicted rainfall south of Victoria. Houston would still get potentially two inches of rain.” (07/21/26)
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/tropical-storm-bertha-texas-22353383.php
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12) Turkey: Deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan
Source: ABC News
“The deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition announced plans on Tuesday to create a new political party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ozgur Ozel ‘s announcement came months after he was removed as leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, by a court order — a ruling critics say was a politically motivated effort to weaken the opposition. His ouster, and the reinstatement of the party’s former and unpopular leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, sparked outrage among many CHP supporters. … The new political movement, which is expected to be called Yeni Parti, or New Party, will be formally launched later this week, according to reports. Many of the CHP’s 135 legislators in the 600‑seat parliament were expected to defect and join the new party, which Ozel said would become the parliament’s main opposition ‘by a wide margin.'” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/turkish-oppositions-deposed-leader-plans-new-party-erdogan-134945551
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13) Appeals court rejects Biden bid to block release of ghostwriter recordings used in special counsel probe
Source: New York Post
“Former President Joe Biden lost his bid Monday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with his longtime ghostwriter that were used in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s unlawful hoarding of classified information. A divided federal appeals court ruled the 46th president’s privacy claims did not outweigh the ‘substantial’ public interest in the material, though it suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow the former chief executive to consider additional action. … The Heritage Foundation initially sued the Justice Department in March 2024, seeking the transcripts and recordings under the Freedom of Information Act. The former president is arguing the material isn’t subject to FOIA because it’s personal property.” (07/21/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/21/us-news/appeals-court-rejects-biden-bid-to-block-release-of-ghostwriter-recordings-used-in-special-counsel-probe/
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14) WA: Judge blocks Kalshi contracts, cites state’s gambling law
Source: Reuters
“A judge granted Washington’s request to block Kalshi from offering its so-called event contracts in the state, saying the prediction markets platform likely violated the state’s gambling laws. In a decision on Monday, Judge John McHale of the King County Superior Court granted Washington’s motion for a preliminary injunction. … The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meanwhile, has claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the industry, and challenged regulatory activity in at least nine states. In April, a divided federal appeals court cited the CFTC’s authority in blocking New Jersey gaming authorities from regulating Kalshi’s sports event contracts. ‘States don’t have jurisdiction to regulate prediction markets,’ Kalshi said in a statement on Tuesday. ‘We’re disappointed to see Washington state continue wasting taxpayer dollars.'” (07/21/26)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/washington-judge-blocks-kalshi-contracts-cites-states-gambling-law-2026-07-21/
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15) Ghana: Politician sentenced to 20 years for illegal mining
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ghana’s main opposition party has reacted with anger after one of its most influential leaders was sentenced to 20 years in jail, with hard labour, for illegal mining offences. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that the landmark judgement against Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the party’s chairman for the Ashanti region, was politically motivated. Popularly known as ‘Chairman Wontumi’, Boasiako is the first senior politician in Ghana to be convicted of illegal mining since the government began a crackdown on the practice in 2017. As well as receiving a jail sentence, Boasiako, who had denied the charges, was ordered to pay more than $10,000 (£7,450) in fines.” (07/21/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvwnjllwvwo
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16) Germany: Descendant of Nazi opponent tries to remove far-right party’s wreath at Hitler plot memorial event
Source: ABC News
“A descendant of an executed opponent of the Nazis tried to remove a wreath from the far-right Alternative for Germany party at an event in Berlin marking the 82nd anniversary of a failed attempt to kill Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Tobias Korenke, a great-nephew of Protestant pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, attempted to remove the wreath from the parliamentary group of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, at Monday’s event at the site where the main plotters were executed, German news agency dpa reported. Security officers intervened, and the wreath was damaged in the scuffle. ‘Many descendants, myself included, feel really great anger when we see AfD laying wreaths here,’ Korenke said. ‘We will not accept this.'” (07/21/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/descendant-nazi-opponent-remove-partys-wreath-hitler-plot-134940668
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17) Nicaragua: Ortega says regime will “never again” hold elections, shutting out opposition
Source: Fox News
“Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega said the Central American country would no longer hold elections, further closing off any potential path for the opposition to challenge the government he leads with his wife, Rosario Murillo. Ortega, Nicaragua’s longest-serving leader, has remained in power since 2007 after previously governing during the 1980s. His current presidential term is scheduled to run through 2027. ‘There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,’ Ortega said. He delivered the remarks Sunday during a speech commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega participated in the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.” (07/21/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/nicaragua-ortega-ends-elections
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18) India: Explosion in Tunnel at Hydropower Project Leaves 10 Dead and 17 Missing
Source: US News & World Report
“A suspected gas explosion triggered a collapse inside an under-construction tunnel at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, near the Chinese border, leaving least 10 people dead and 17 others missing, officials said on Tuesday. The blast ripped through the tunnel on Monday at Samardung village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the state capital, Gangtok, where multiple workers were carrying out construction work on the 500-megawatt Teesta hydroelectric project, Anupama Tamling, a civil official in the area, told reporters. Survivors who managed to escape told authorities they heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, trapping dozens inside, she said.” (07/21/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-21/india-tunnel-disaster-at-a-himalayan-hydropower-project-leaves-10-dead-and-missing
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19) Experimental drug shows ‘phenomenal’ results fighting California fungal disease
Source: SFGate
“With Valley fever cases climbing in California, physicians have struggled to treat the increasing number of patients grappling with the deadliest version of the disease. When Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, spreads from the lungs, it can cause infected joints, scarred lungs and even deadly meningitis. Now, researchers appear to have found a major breakthrough studying an experimental drug that helped the sickest patients, who otherwise had run out of treatment options. The study’s results, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at whether an experimental antifungal medication called olorofim could help relieve symptoms of people with disseminated Valley fever, meaning their disease has spread beyond their lungs. The team found a significant number, over 70%, of patients with the stubborn and potentially deadly form of disease were helped after taking the new drug.” (07/21/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/calif-valley-fever-drug-22349478.php
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20) Italy: Demonstrations break out in Bologna after Moroccan man dies while being restrained by police
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Italian police clashed with demonstrators in the northern city of Bologna on Monday, ANSA news agency reported, during a protest over the death of a Moroccan man who died while being forcibly restrained by police during an attempted arrest. Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born entrepreneur who ran a small removals and cleaning business, died on Sunday after police were called to deal with a man behaving aggressively and damaging a vehicle …. video showed Fakir lying face down on the ground while two officers restrained him. Fakir – who reportedly suffered from heart issues and asthma – repeatedly calls out ‘aiuto, aiuto, basta’ (‘help, help, that’s enough’) as the officers sit on him and ambulance workers look on. After he stops moving, the police bind his ankles together. Only after a moment or two do they and the ambulance workers check his vital signs, the video shows.” (07/21/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260721-demonstrations-break-out-in-bologna-after-moroccan-man-dies-while-being-restrained-by-police
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Reminder: US Tariffs are Taxes on Americans
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Tariff supporters try to sell their desired tax increases on American consumers as ‘retaliation’ against other regimes for ‘unfair’ treatment of goods made by American workers and exported by American companies. Odd form of retaliation, that — ‘you’re hurting YOUR people … fine, we’ll hurt OUR people — that’ll show YOU!’ And for for the most part, those other regimes aren’t the manufacturers of or buyers of those exports/imports, any more than the US regime is the manufacturer or buyer of whatever the company you work for happens to export or the imported goods you choose to buy. So no, tariffs aren’t ‘retaliation’ for ‘unfairness.’ What are they, then? They’re a way of protecting politicians’ domestic business cronies from competition, at the expense of domestic consumers.” (07/21/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20768
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22) America’s National Mood Was OK in 1988-1991
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Materially, Americans are far better off than they were during the Cold War. But even thinkers who acknowledge this truism often fondly reminisce about the long-lost Golden Age of American optimism that supposedly spanned the second half of the 20th century. This reminiscing always puzzles me, because I vividly remember the second half of the second half of the 20th century. Except for a brief window of roughly 1988-1991, my first-hand experience is that America’s national mood has been relentlessly bad. While I’ve known plenty of American optimists, and count myself among them, ‘American optimism’ is a will-o’-the-wisp. It appears so fleetingly that you have to wonder if it was ever there at all.” (07/21/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/americas-national-mood-was-ok-in
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23) Reality Sends the Bill: How Ignoring Price Signals Ends in Disaster
Source: The Daily Economy
by Attila Rebak
“If prices carry such reliable knowledge, why do governments override them so routinely — and why does it so often take a catastrophe to stop them? The answer is the least romantic and most dependable part of political economy. A market transmits a price almost instantly. Politics transmits it slowly and through heavy distortion. Mancur Olson explained its core: the beneficiaries of an intervention are usually concentrated, organized, and loud, while those who pay for it are dispersed, unorganized, and often not yet harmed.” (07/21/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/reality-sends-the-bill-how-ignoring-price-signals-ends-in-disaster/
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24) How To Honor the Dead US Service Members
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“Over the weekend the Pentagon announced that four more US soldiers have been killed in President Trump’s war on Iran. That brings the total to 17, but many believe the real number of dead US servicemembers is much higher than that. The Pentagon has claimed it has no obligation to reveal how many military personnel have been injured, which suggests that number may be much higher than we are hearing. Many of these injuries will be horrific and life-altering. … If the President really wants to honor our military, he will declare an end to this pointless war, bring all of our troops home from the region, and announce that the destroyed US bases will not be rebuilt. It is time to end the American empire and come home.” (07/21/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/07/20/how-to-honor-the-dead-us-service-members
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25) What Trump didn’t say about election interference
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“After six years of asserting the 2020 presidential election was stolen and repeatedly claiming he would produce the evidence, President Trump gave it his best shot Thursday night. It didn’t go well. His speech was universally panned for regurgitating what we already knew and not providing any proof of election interference. But the worst part is the U.S. intelligence he so frequently mentioned largely disagrees with him. Here’s what Trump didn’t say.” (07/21/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5979616-trump-misquotes-intel-reports/
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26) My Visit to the Data Center
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Stephen Moore
“I am well aware that Americans are very split on the benefits of data centers, and the majority of voters say they don’t want one anywhere near their community. I’m in favor of letting voters of every community decide whether they want a data center or not. But I also believe that if people actually visited a data center, as I did, they would be astounded by the jaw-dropping technological wizardry that lies within. If you get the chance to tour one of these facilities, take it. And take your kids.” (07/21/26)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/07/21/my_visit_to_the_data_center_154351.html
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27) What Is the Government Good For?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Bradley J Birzer
“Over the last several years, as we all navigate the surge of the deconstructive radical left and the surge of populism on the right, the meanings of several words and terms—once so sure and so inspirational—have become loose from their moorings. Words and terms such as conservative, classical liberal, libertarian, and even anarchist don’t mean quite what they once did. Even the very directional political terms—right and left—do not mean quite what they once did. … In his truly insightful and brilliant book, Deleting the State: Requiem for an Illusion, Bridgewater State University philosophy professor Aeon Skoble dives deep into this very quagmire of meaning, looking left and right, up and down, exploring the mundane and transcendent, the humane and inhumane.” (07/21/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/what-is-the-government-good-for/
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28) The Death of a Silenced Conscience
Source: Roads Go Ever On
by Bekah Graham
“One of the reasons people like me (when I was still a Christian) vociferously opposed linking Christianity to American right-wing politics was knowing it would inevitably become difficult to distinguish between an informed believer speaking from sincere conviction and a charlatan appropriating faith to gain new followers and climb the ladder of political power. I’m no longer a believer, but I have been proven correct. I don’t envy my former siblings in Christ, who are confronted daily with the anti-Christ behavior of professing Christians in political office and their loudest public supporters. Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, anyone attempting to continue supporting him while sincerely seeking to follow Jesus must wage a daily war to reconcile backing an administration that routinely demeans, dehumanizes, and destroys lives.” (07/21/26)
https://bekahgwen.substack.com/p/the-death-of-a-silenced-conscience
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29) This Is How We Close the Camps
Source: The Nation
by John Washington
“Until we, as a society, reject the camp and its logic, it will remain a threat—and the linchpin in the entire immigration enforcement regime.” (07/21/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/immigration-camps-how-to-close-a-camp/
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30) Exporters Still Are Not Eating the Trump Tariffs: They are Taxes on Us
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“As we all know, Donald Trump likes to play the tough guy. Unfortunately, he often does it in really foolish ways, and this time I’m not talking about his war against Iran. I’m talking about Trump’s tariffs. From the way he talks, he seems to think that foreign countries are sending us checks equal to the tariffs he has imposed on U.S. imports from them. Donald Trump’s mind can be a scary place, so it’s not worth trying to tease out his thought process, except to point out that the idea that foreigners are sending us checks is absurd.” (07/21/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/21/exporters-still-are-not-eating-the-trump-tariffs-they-are-taxes-on-us/
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31) The Trump economy is doing better than the media want to admit
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“President Donald Trump has a good story to tell on the economy; he should be telling it, because it’s a sure bet the liberal media will not. Consider the big picture: unemployment is low, real wages are rising, the stock market is high, investment is booming and inflation, though above the Federal Reserve’s target, came down last month, and will recede again once oil prices stabilize. (Inflation, most recently at 3.5%, and at 2.6% excluding volatile food and energy, is also significantly below the 4.95% recorded on average under President Joe Biden.) … Sure, we have challenges, as always, and especially with the cost of living being too high and housing too expensive for many Americans. But, overall, the economy is in pretty good shape. That’s not what most people think.” (07/21/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-trump-economy-doing-better-media-admit
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32) Chance and its consequences
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“William James called her ‘the bitch-goddess, Success.’ He meant it as a complaint about America’s worship of her, but the phrase catches something true. She is a goddess because we deify whatever she touches, crediting it with foresight and merit it never had. She is a bitch because she hands out her favours with no regard for desert at all. What I want to call contingency is just her proper name – the rather distinguished term by which we dress up and disguise mere chance.” (07/21/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/chance-and-its-consequences
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33) Trump Is NOT A Reluctant War President
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the dumbest popular narratives you see today is the idea that Zionists persuaded a reluctant Trump to start a war with Iran after he was re-elected, like they were chasing him around going ‘Would you like to bomb Iran? like the guy from Green Eggs and Ham while he yelled ‘Not in a box! Not with a fox!’ until he eventually caved in. It is now abundantly clear that this war was planned a long time ago. Not in 2026, not in 2025, not in 2024, and not even during the Biden administration. This was planned before Trump was ever elected president.” (07/21/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/21/trump-is-not-a-reluctant-war-president/
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34) The AI tax movement is built on a myth
Source: Washington Post
by Adam Michel
“Washington at last seems to have hit upon a revenue idea that both Republicans and Democrats like: taxing artificial intelligence to help the American worker. Too bad it would do the opposite. On the right, President Donald Trump wants AI companies to give ‘something back to the public,’ while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) has expressed openness to taxation to make sure AI companies ‘are actually working for the public good.’ On the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) wants the public to own half of the biggest AI companies, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) has called for a tax on AI tokens, the basic data unit processed by large language models. The various tax proposals rely on different mechanisms, but the same story motivates them. It’s a story based on a zero-sum assumption — that gains for capital automatically means losses for labor.” (07/21/26)
https://archive.is/QSKvQ
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35) Diamonds in the Lab
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Stefan Bartl
“From De Beers’s 1940s slogan ‘A Diamond Is Forever,’ to ‘Every Kiss Begins with Kay’ and ‘He Went to Jared,’ the diamond industry had already done its most important work before anyone chose a ring. It had written the rules of romance: what love looked like, what it cost, and what it said about someone who spent less. Those rules were not ancient traditions. The industry manufactured not diamonds, but desire. Even in popular culture, Rihanna gave us the song ‘Diamonds.’ The more interesting economic story, however, is not the diamonds in the sky, but the diamonds in the lab. Desire has not gone anywhere. For the first time, it has a better offer.” (07/21/26)
https://fee.org/articles/diamonds-in-the-lab/
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36) The Ideology Behind the American Revolution
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“In his book The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell argues that most people’s political opinions are shaped by ‘a particular set of underlying assumptions about the world—a certain vision of reality.’ By vision, he means an instinctive sense of the correct way of understanding the world and making sense of what we see or hear. The same insight applies to people’s understanding of political labels like libertarian or conservative. We assume we know what a libertarian means by reference to his ideology, or that we know what it means to describe a position as conservative. But often these assumptions owe more to our own vision of the world than they do to the speaker’s intention.” (07/21/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/ideology-behind-american-revolution
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37) The World Is Collapsing—or Is It?
Source: Townhall
by Alan Joseph Bauer
“The U.S.-Israel relationship will change after Donald Trump. It may become more transactional, and the U.S. does benefit enormously from its friendship with Israel. Every high-tech company has a research office here, and the U.S. gets all of Israel’s military tech and knowledge. The world is not collapsing, but the relationship may well be changing.” (07/21/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/alanjosephbauer/2026/07/21/the-world-is-collapsingor-is-it-n2679745
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38) Truth Be Told
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“President Donald Trump told a prime-time national audience, last week, that the Department of Homeland Security found 278,000 noncitizens on state voter rolls after checking roughly half the states. ‘It’s a number,’ as my old boss says. The Washington Post called it ‘an exaggerated claim that noncitizens are registering to vote en masse.’ No, noncitizens are not really registering to vote so much as being registered — without their knowledge or understanding through deliberate government policy that pretends it’s pro-democracy to throw folks on the voter list who are not legally entitled to vote.” (07/21/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/21/truth-be-told/
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39) Israel is sabotaging Trump’s peace plan for Gaza
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Paul R Pillar
“An image of Iran as a regional bête noire has long served Israel’s objective of drawing international attention away from Israeli conduct. This is a major reason Israel has promoted unending confrontation with Iran, including the starting and continuation of the current war. This also helps explain why Israel opposes and often seeks to sabotage diplomacy with Tehran. Netanyahu’s government is using the current preoccupation with a rekindled U.S.-Iranian war to intensify its violent subjugation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. While President Donald Trump has said little about Gaza in recent weeks, Israel’s actions there are undermining the president’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which he proposed last October.” (07/21/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-netanyahu-gaza-peace-plan/
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40) The High Cost of Just Cause
Source: EconLog
by Alex MacDonald
“This month, amid World Cup fever, New York City implemented a new job-protection law. This law forbids app-based rideshare platforms from removing drivers unless they can show they have ‘just cause’ or a ‘bona fide economic reason.’ The new law follows a pattern set by a similar pandemic-era law, also from New York City, which applied the same standards to the fast-food industry. As examples of political sloganeering, these laws are hard to beat: no one will argue with fairness in firing. But as economic policies, they’re nothing short of an own goal. By making it harder to fire people, they inadvertently discourage businesses from hiring those people in the first place. They also make it harder for already-employed people to switch jobs.” (07/21/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/the-high-cost-of-just-cause
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41) Ukraine: America’s Enduring Proxy War on Russia
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“Eisenhower’s warning that US policy would be captured by a scientific-technological elite supplies a specific reason the US sustains the Ukraine war: Ukraine has become a unique, live-fire laboratory for AI warfare at scale.” (07/21/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-proxy-war-in-ukraine
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42) What the Conservatives Get Wrong about the French Revolution
Source: Cobden Centre
by Ryan McMaken
“The thing we now call ‘conservatism’ in the West largely comes out of a reaction against the French Revolution and other revolutionary movements inspired by it. The Continental conservatives—e.g., Joseph de Maistre, Friedrich von Gentz, Klemens von Metternich, and Juan Donoso Cortés—embraced monarchism, often including its more authoritarian and absolutist varieties, in an effort to avoid repeating the excesses of the French revolution. The conservatives also opposed economic liberalism in the form of free trade and ‘free markets’ because these were associated—wrongly in many cases—with the French revolutionaries.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/07/what-the-conservatives-get-wrong-about-the-french-revolution/
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43) Trump Can Still Salvage Midterms If He Acts Quickly
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“Recent socialist victories in Democratic primaries appear to be narrowing the party’s lead, with Republicans outrunning Trump’s job approval rating and possessing a real opportunity to defy history. But Republicans cannot forever defy basic math, economics, or gravity. It is now summertime. Public perceptions of the economy will be baked in by Labor Day, with extremely limited opportunities for improvement by Election Day after that. The public’s attitude about the Iran war may already be set, and not to Trump’s or the GOP’s benefit.” (07/21/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-can-still-salvage-midterms-if-he-acts-quickly/
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44) The Tobacco Wars
Source: Quillette
by Andrew BUshnell
“In the early 1930s, the Australian government lost a war against emus, and its present war, this time on tobacco, is heading the same way. Excessive taxation in the name of public health has backfired in extraordinary fashion, helping create a massive black market in tobacco products. This has led to an effective transfer to criminal gangs of billions of dollars of revenue previously earned by the legal tobacco industry, and a corresponding significant drop in excise tax revenue collected by the government, unprecedented violence between those gangs as they scrap over money and territory, and, to top it all off, an increase in the consumption of tobacco and nicotine.” (07/20/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/07/20/the-tobacco-wars/
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45) Young progressives think trouble sleeping is a mental health issue — blame the ideology that says the world is stacked against them
Source: New York Post
by Rikki Schlott
“Young progressives are more likely to consider normal day-to-day struggles — like difficulty sleeping and feeling blue — as mental health problems, per a new analysis. Is it any wonder, given the left-leaning ideology that convinces Americans that the system is simply stacked against them? Data from the US General Social Survey, analyzed by the Financial Times, revealed that younger people and more progressive people were more likely to believe that everything from feeling worried, trouble sleeping and feeling a little sad were symptomatic of a disorder. … This politics of suffering and victimization pairs perfectly with a population eager to identify with their struggles rather than their strengths. In recent years, claiming mental illness has become chic in progressive spaces, conferring socially valuable oppression points in the battle to prove who is most downtrodden.” (07/20/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/20/opinion/young-lefties-say-normal-struggles-are-mental-health-issues/
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46) Trump’s shadow economy
Source: Unherd
by Poppy Sowerby
“Think about it: every day, every person of influence is likely to encounter an army of auxiliaries who at any moment could overhear privileged information. Bank tellers, family counselors, pharmacists. For a nice little earner, wedding planners could short a celebrity marriage, security staff have a flutter on which stars will show up, and soldiers gamble on the capture of a Venezuelan strongman — except that’s already (allegedly) happened. Closeness to major events transforms being ‘in the know’ into possessing insider alpha; with these new incentives, secrets become stranded assets. He who dares is not gambling on uncertainty — his privileged access means he knows the direction of travel — but rather on the likelihood of being rumbled. Taking that risk could set him up for life, and could far outstrip baseline salaries for clerical or flunky work. You can see the appeal. Within the present White House, the temptation would seem to be irresistible.” (07/20/26)
https://archive.is/eDB6r
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47) Our right to defend ourselves – anywhere and against anything
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Lovers of liberty tend to concentrate on human threats which must be countered in self-defense by having and using a firearm. But animals are also threats that must be addressed.” (07/20/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/07/20/our-right-to-defend-ourselves-anywhere-and-against-anything/
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48) Lessons from Argentina’s World Cup Run
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
“I have visited five countries across Asia and Europe over the last few weeks. The hatred the Argentine national soccer team seems to have awakened in people around the world—due to their behavior at this World Cup—is something Argentina’s soccer authorities must take seriously. Now that they have lost to Spain, and given that Lionel Messi, the best player on the planet, is 39 and on the verge of retirement, they will have to reconstruct much of their team. … The broader issue—and what appears to make Argentina so widely disliked around the world—is that the team has learned neither how to win nor how to lose with grace in international competitions.” (07/20/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/20/lessons-from-argentinas-world-cup-run/
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49) A Great Economy Unless You Have to Work for a Living
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“If there’s a problem with the American economy, it’s only because some people have to work for a living. Income from investment—the primary source of income for roughly 1 percent of Americans—is soaring. The remaining 99 percent, who depend primarily on income from their work, are the laggards grousing about prices and necessities that may be out of reach.” (07/21/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/21/great-economy-unless-you-have-to-work-wages-productivity-investment-income/
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50) Contradictions of Socialist Prison Abolitionism
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“‘Democratic socialists’ are a growing movement on the political left. And many of them are also prison abolitionists. But there is a deep contradiction between their socialism and their abolitionism. Socialism requires making numerous economic activities illegal, and those laws have to be enforced by some system of punishment. As the history of actual socialist states shows, serious attempts to implement socialism lead to vastly greater incarceration (and other punishment), not less. There are a number of possible ways to try to escape this contradiction. But none of them work.” (07/20/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/07/20/contradictions-of-socialist-prison-abolitionism/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Cato Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Fight Against Financial Surveillance.” (07/21/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/fight-against-financial-surveillance
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52) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/21/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Silver Lining In Trump’s Iran Debacle.” (07/21/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rGmqqadDaDGy
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53) Rising, 07/21/26
Source: The Hill
“Dems flailing in midterm polls despite Trump; socialists to blame?” (07/21/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5978085-rising-july-21-2026/
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54) Trump Watch, 07/21/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Iran Tar Baby Grows Bigger.” (07/21/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0E6hLQ-yU
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55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Senior Writer John McGinnis joins the podcast to discuss the latest term of the Supreme Court.” (07/21/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/an-independent-and-originalist-court/
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56) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/21/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me to make sense of the world in our weekly visit. We talk about keeping politics in its proper perspective as well as whether texting and driving should be illegal.” (07/21/26)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-rexbj-1b1882d
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57) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/21/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“Declining Student Enrollment and a Growing Opportunity with Jude Schwalbach.” (07/21/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/declining-student-enrollment-and-a-growing-opportunity-with-jude-schwalbach/
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58) The Good Fight, 07/21/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Claude Steele on the Hidden Stress of Diverse Spaces.” (07/21/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/claude-steele
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59) Liberty Pub Live at PubKey
Source: Free the People
“Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins joined Free the People’s Liberty Pub at PubKey DC for a conversation with Matt Kibbe and Thomas Pacchia about crypto, innovation, self-custody, and the future of American capital markets.” (07/20/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNVomcV3vT0
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/20/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Yemen Announces Maritime Blockade on Saudi Arabia, Nearly 100 US Troops Injured This Month, and More.” (07/20/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AB9-3efOUc
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