02/20 -- UK: Regime refuses to let Trump use Chagos Islands base to attack Iran; In Defense of Sanctuary Cities
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Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 20, 2026, 6:15:16 AM (12 days ago) Feb 20
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 02/20/26
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Publisher's Note
1) UK: Regime refuses to let Trump use Chagos Islands base to attack Iran
2) US trade deficit widens sharply in December, testing Trump tariff claims
3) Federal judge notices that Trump regime is state sponsor of terrorism
4) Bitcoin Lightning Network exceeds $1 billion in monthly volume
5) Trump ordering release of government files on aliens after Obama comment
6) Paraguay: Nearly five million without electricity amid heat wave
7) US regime pays about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
8) US weekly jobless claims fall more than expected amid labor market stability
9) Palestine: Israeli squatters murder American
10) Iran: Regime issues NOTAM amid tensions with US; pilots advised to steer clear as Islamic Republic plans rocket launches
11) FDA to drop two-study requirement for new drug approvals, aiming to speed access
12) Peru: Balcázar becomes eighth president in a decade
13) Gates pulls out of India’s AI summit over Epstein files controversy
14) MN: Judge holds ICE gang lawyer in contempt
15) Trump heads to Georgia after securing Board of Peace bribes
16) UN Report: Israeli Forces and Hamas Committed Atrocity Crimes in Gaza
17) Former NYPD chief calls police cuts “recipe for disaster” as Mamdani threatens tax hikes
18) RNC sues to block Democratic-backed Virginia redistricting referendum
19) Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters
20) UK: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) In Defense of Sanctuary Cities
22) In Mamdani’s New York City, It’s “Democratic Socialists” vs. Workers
23) Crime As Proxy For Disorder
24) AI, Technology, and Work
25) On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same
26) 85 Seconds to My Own Midnight? Working for a Nuclear-Free Future
27) Attacking Iran Would Be Monstrous
28) The Capitalism “Stranger Things” Runs On — But Pretends Not to Like
29) Trump Promised to Drain the Swamp; Turns Out He’s Best Friends With the Swamp Monster
30) The CBO’s latest report and the choice between reform and disorder
31) Mamdani’s budget ultimatum for Gov. Hochul is a crisis of his own making
32) As Consumer Confidence Sags, Policy Prescriptions Miss the Mark
33) US War on Iran Would Be a Cynical, Lawless, and Catastrophic Escalation
34) A Very Liberal Conservative
35) You Cannot Beat Nihilism with Nihilism
36) Conservatives’ “Talking Filibuster” Scheme Isn’t the Norm in the Senate
37) How Stephen Colbert conned Dem donors and burned Jasmine Crockett
38) Venezuela’s Oil and the Death of a Latin American Dream
39) Structure, Loyalty, and Power: Understanding China’s Party-State Under Xi Jinping
40) Mamdani Attacks Workers
41) The Wild Card in Trump’s Attempt to Control the News
42) Is NATO creating an Arctic crisis to placate Trump?
43) Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
44) Relativism in today’s world
45) Stephen Colbert Hates Black Women, and Other Universal Truths
46) FDA’s Straight Shooter: Don’t Bring Crappy Data To A Gunfight
47) The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England’s Politics
48) Trump should step back from the brink with Iran
49) No US War on Iran: An Open Letter to the UN Security Council
50) “No taxation without representation” must be non-negotiable
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Fifth Column, episode 545
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/19/26
53) Capital Record, episode 285
54) The Lou Perez Podcast, 02/19/26
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/19/26
56) Cato Daily Podcast, 02/19/26
57) SolutionsWatch, 02/19/26
58) Speech and Panel Discussion on Brussels Bureaucracy
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/19/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/19/26
61) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/18/26
62) Kibbe on Liberty, 02/18/26
63) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2736
64) System Update, 02/18/26
65) The Science of Politics, 02/18/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
0) Publisher's Note
Hey, everyone ...
A little while back, I mentioned that the freedom movement's newspaper was moving to an "all hybrid, all the time" format -- continuing our 60-70 item daily email and social media editions, but offering additional content at the web edition EVERY DAY instead of just occasionally.
I thought I'd mention that again, as not everyone notices everything all the time.
Today, we've got 65 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links line up for our email readers ... and nearly that many MORE at the web edition:
https://news.rationalreview.com
Why the change? Well, there's almost always enough content out there to do it that way these days, and at some point I realized that deciding what to exclude was nearly (not quite, but nearly) as much work as just including a lot more. "A little more work for me, a lot more content for the readers" sounded like a good thing, so here we are. Enjoy!
And while you're enjoying, don't forget we're a reader-supported publication:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) UK: Regime refuses to let Trump use Chagos Islands base to attack Iran
Source: Yahoo! News
“Donald Trump has withdrawn his support for the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius because the UK will not agree to the US military using British bases to attack Iran, it has been reported. The Times newspaper reports that the White House is drawing up detailed military plans for a strike against Iran. The plans are understood to involve the use of the Diego Garcia base, in the Chagos Islands, and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The English base is home to America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe. These bases can only be used for military operations that have been agreed in advance with the UK Government, under long-standing agreements between the US and UK.” (02/19/26)
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-refuses-let-donald-trump-171737565.html
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2) US trade deficit widens sharply in December, testing Trump tariff claims
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“The US trade imbalance widened sharply in December 2025, highlighting continued challenges in America’s economic relationship with the world and with key economic competitor China, according to a release from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday. For the full year 2025, the US recorded a goods and services trade deficit of US$901.5 billion, a modest decline of 0.2 per cent from 2024, one of the largest since 1960. The total goods and services deficit in 2024 was US$903.5 billion, the report showed. According to the new data, the US goods and services deficit rose to US$70.3 billion in December, a sharp increase of 32.6 per cent from November’s revised US$53.0 billion. Exports fell slightly while imports increased, widening the gap as global demand shifted in the final months of the year.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/f0mga
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3) Federal judge notices that Trump regime is state sponsor of terrorism
Source: Associated Press
“A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. Citing the [murders] of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also ‘extended its violence on its own citizens.’ … [U.S. District Judge Sunshine] Sykes said the administration had violated her December ruling that found it was illegally denying many detained immigrants a chance for release. She ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide them with notice that they may be eligible for bond and then give them access to a phone to call an attorney within an hour. She also threw out a September ruling by an immigration court that the administration had cited for continuing its mandatory detention policy.” (02/19/26)
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-trump-detention-bond-judge-50a5da122aa51eed77cace0830548df3
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4) Bitcoin Lightning Network exceeds $1 billion in monthly volume
Source: CoinTelegraph
“Monthly transaction volume on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a secondary layer for BTC that enables payment use cases, surpassed the $1 billion milestone in November 2025, according to a report from Bitcoin financial services company River. … The Bitcoin Lightning Network helps scale the Bitcoin network, enabling Bitcoin payments between parties that settle in seconds instead of minutes, encouraging Bitcoin’s use as a medium of exchange, instead of just a risk asset or store of value.” (02/19/26)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-lightning-network-1b-monthly-volume
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5) Trump ordering release of government files on aliens after Obama comment
Source: USA Today
“President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of disclosing classified information in comments the former president made recently about aliens, then acknowledged hours later the ‘tremendous interest’ in the topic and said he was ordering the government to release more information. ‘He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,’ Trump told reporters Feb. 19 aboard Air Force One, adding Obama’s comments were a ‘big mistake.’ Podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama if aliens are real in an interview published Feb. 14 and the former president replied: ‘They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.'” (02/19/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/19/donald-trump-barack-obama-aliens-real-classified-information/88762872007/
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6) Paraguay: Nearly five million without electricity amid heat wave
Source: United Press International
“A massive blackout left nearly five million people without electricity in Paraguay amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 108 degrees Fahrenheit across large parts of the country and as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas, according to local meteorological reports. The outage affected 90% of customers of the National Electricity Administration, or ANDE, the state-run company that supplies nearly the entire population of 6.4 million people. The interruption on Wednesday also disrupted drinking water services in urban areas due to reliance on electric pumping systems. Nearly 24 hours after the blackout, service had not been fully restored.” (02/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/02/19/latam-Paraguay-blackout-heat-wave/2741771521283/
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7) US regime pays about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
Source: Seattle Times
“The United States has paid about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations, the U.N. said Thursday. The Trump administration’s payment is earmarked for the U.N.’s regular operating budget, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press. The U.N. has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, and $1.8 billion for a separate budget for the far-flung U.N. peacekeeping operations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month that the world body faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/zCdDO
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8) US weekly jobless claims fall more than expected amid labor market stability
Source: Reuters
“The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, consistent with a stabilizing labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 206,0000 for the week ended February 14, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week. Last week’s drop marked a signficant decline in claims since they jumped to 232,000 at the end of January. … The claims data covered the week during which the government surveyed employers for the nonfarm payrolls portion of February’s employment report. Job growth accelerated in January, though nearly all the employment gains came from the healthcare and social assistance sector.” (02/19/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-more-than-expected-amid-labor-market-stability-2026-02-19/
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9) Palestine: Israeli squatters murder American
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank killed a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man late Wednesday night, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The ministry said Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siyam was shot by [squatters] in the village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem. The Israeli military said soldiers responded to a violent confrontation in the area and attempted to disperse a riot. The military said that suspects shot at several Palestinians, who were evacuated for medical treatment.Abu Siyam’s mother told The Associated Press that he also held American citizenship. The U.S. Embassy did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/19/west-bank-palestinian-american-killed/
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10) Iran: Regime issues NOTAM amid tensions with US; pilots advised to steer clear as Islamic Republic plans rocket launches
Source: mint [India]
“Iran issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) on Thursday, warning of potential rocket activity in the airspace. It was issued amid escalating tensions with the US, which has deployed warships near the Islamic Republic. US Vice President JD Vance reportedly said Washington was weighing whether to continue diplomatic engagement with Tehran or pursue other options. According to the alert, pilots are advised to avoid flying between ground level and Flight Level 100 in the affected region due to safety risks linked to possible launches, as shown by the Flightradar24 tracker. The NOTAM mentioned that Iran has planned rocket launches in areas across its south on Thursday from 330 GMT to 1330 GMT, news agency Reuters reported, citing the US Federal Aviation Administration website.” (02/19/26)
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/iran-issues-notam-amid-tensions-with-us-pilots-advised-to-steer-clear-as-islamic-republic-plans-rocket-launches-11771496929512.html
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11) FDA to drop two-study requirement for new drug approvals, aiming to speed access
Source: SFGate
“The Food and Drug Administration plans to drop its longtime standard of requiring two rigorous studies to win approval for new drugs, the latest change from Trump administration officials vowing to speed up the availability of certain medical products. Going forward, the FDA’s ‘default position’ will be to require one study for new drugs and other novel health products, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and a top deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, wrote in a New England Journal of Medicine piece published Wednesday. The announcement is the latest example of Makary and his team changing longstanding FDA standards and procedures with the stated goal of slashing bureaucracy and accelerating the availability of new medicines. Since arriving at the agency last April, Makary has launched a series of directives that he says will shorten FDA reviews, including mandating the use of artificial intelligence by staffers and offering one-month drug assessments for new medications that serve ‘national interests.'” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/fda-will-drop-two-study-requirement-for-new-drug-21361231.php
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12) Peru: Balcázar becomes eighth president in a decade
Source: Associated Press
“Peru’s Congress late Wednesday elected legislator José María Balcázar as the country’s eighth president in a decade, replacing another interim leader who was ousted the previous day over corruption allegations just four months into his term. Balcázar, an 83-year-old former judge representing the leftist Perú Libre party, defeated three other candidates with a majority of the 130-member legislature. The revolving-door presidency in Peru reflects a political crisis fueled by a lack of legislative majorities for leaders. Lawmakers have frequently used a broad interpretation of a constitutional article regarding ‘permanent moral incapacity’ to remove sitting presidents.” (02/19/26)
https://apnews.com/article/peru-president-congress-interim-election-c6f1e2d6c061ea8ba1cb0f4f467609bc
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13) Gates pulls out of India’s AI summit over Epstein files controversy
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after ‘careful consideration’ and ‘to ensure the focus remains on the [summit’s] key priorities’, but did not elaborate. Gates’s withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January. Gates’s spokesperson has called the claims in the files ‘absolutely absurd and completely false’, and the billionaire has said he regretted spending time with Epstein. Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein’s victims and the appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind.” (02/19/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c309qv9zglno
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14) MN: Judge holds ICE gang lawyer in contempt
Source: KMSP 9 News
“For the first time during Operation Metro Surge, a federal judge has imposed stiff consequences on a government attorney for ICE’s violation of a court order related to the release of a detained immigrant. Judge Laura Provinzino found Special Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt during a Wednesday afternoon hearing. Judge Provinzino issued a civil contempt order against Isihara in a habeas case, ordering daily fines of $500. She said her goal is to ensure the government complies with her orders regarding a detained Mexican immigrant from Big Lake, Minnesota. … Isihara blamed a massive caseload and ‘not enough staff’ in the U.S. Attorney’s office to handle all the civil litigation connected to Operation Metro Surge.” (02/18/26)
https://www.fox9.com/news/federal-judge-holds-government-attorney-contempt-violation-court-order
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15) Trump heads to Georgia after securing Board of Peace bribes
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump announced Thursday at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting that nine members have agreed to pledge a combined $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package, while five countries have agreed to deploy troops to take part in an international stabilization force to the war-battered Palestinian territory. But $7 billion is only a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal looms over Trump’s ambitions for his board to rival the United Nations in solving world conflicts. Trump also announced the U.S. was pledging $10 billion for the Board of Peace but didn’t specify what the money will be used for. Instead, the president is turning his focus to domestic issues: In an hour, he’ll arrive in Georgia for a trip designed to help boost Republicans’ political standing heading into the midterms.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/the-latest-trump-convenes-his-board-of-peace-21362391.php
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16) UN Report: Israeli Forces and Hamas Committed Atrocity Crimes in Gaza
Source: US News & World Report
“Israeli forces, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have both committed serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and carried out atrocity crimes, a U.N. report published on Thursday said. Intensified Israeli attacks and the forcible transfer of Palestinians appeared aimed at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza ‘raising concerns over ethnic cleansing,’ the report by the U.N. human rights office said. The holding and mistreatment of hostages by the Hamas Islamist militant group may amount to war crimes, it said.” (02/19/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-02-19/israeli-forces-and-hamas-committed-atrocity-crimes-in-gaza-un-report-says
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17) Former NYPD chief calls police cuts “recipe for disaster” as Mamdani threatens tax hikes
Source: Fox News
“Former New York City Police Department (NYPD) Chief John Chell blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for walking back the planned hiring of 5,000 more police officers amid a city budget shortfall of billions of dollars, calling it a ‘recipe for disaster.’ Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, proposed at the end of his term that the city hire 5,000 more NYPD officers. Upon entering office, Mamdani moved to cancel all orders signed by Adams after his Sept. 26, 2024, indictment, including the proposed NYPD personnel increase. Under Adams'[s] plan, the NYPD would gradually hire more officers over the coming years, ultimately allowing the NYPD to deploy around 40,000 officers to the streets, while Mamdani’s plan caps the number closer to its current level of around 35,000.” (02/19/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-nypd-chief-calls-police-cuts-recipe-disaster-mamdani-threatens-tax-hikes
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18) RNC sues to block Democratic-backed Virginia redistricting referendum
Source: United Press International
“The Republican National Committee is suing to halt a Democratic-backed referendum on redrawing the commonwealth’s congressional map, as both parties wage a mid-decade redistricting fight ahead of November’s midterm elections. The RNC filed its lawsuit Wednesday, after GOP-led Texas began a Trump-urged push last summer to redraw its map to add more Republican seats, kicking off tit-for-tat moves across the country in a fight that could decide control of Congress. The lawsuit seeks emergency injunctive relief to block an April 21 referendum on a proposed amendment to the commonwealth’s Constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting, arguing the legislation Virginia’s General Assembly approved to put the question before voters is invalid and goes against the state’s Constitution.” (02/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/19/RNC-sues-Virginia-redistricting/7211771489812/
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19) Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters
Source: SFGate
“A large banner featuring Donald Trump’s face was hung on the exterior of Justice Department headquarters on Thursday in a physical display of the Republican president’s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him. While Trump banners have been hung outside other agencies across Washington, the decision to place one on the storied Justice Department building amounted to a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control. The banner, hung between two columns on one corner of the building, says, ‘Make America Safe Again,’ a slogan used by the administration to tout its efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration and violent crime. Attorney General Pam Bondi has postured herself as the president’s chief supporter and protector, eschewing the approach of predecessors who sought to maintain an arms-length distance from the White House to protect the impartiality of investigations and prosecutions.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/large-banner-featuring-trump-s-face-is-displayed-21367587.php
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20) UK: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Source: The Hill
“U.K. police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Thames Valley Police, an agency that covers areas west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, said it was ‘assessing’ reports that the former Prince Andrew sent trade reports to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2010. The assessment followed the release of millions of pages of documents connected to a U.S. investigation of Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor features a number of times in the documents. The police force did not name Mountbatten-Windsor, as is normal under U.K. law. But when asked if he had been arrested, the force pointed to a statement saying that they had arrested a man in his 60s. Mountbatten-Windsor is 66.” (02/19/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/international/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-jeffrey-epstein
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) In Defense of Sanctuary Cities
Source: The Dispatch
by Ilya Somin
“Sanctuary cities and states have been a major focus of political conflict in the second Trump administration, perhaps even more than in the first. These jurisdictions refuse or severely limit assistance to federal efforts to detain and deport suspected illegal immigrants. Most only provide such assistance in cases involving undocumented migrants who have committed serious crimes. Regardless of the politics, the 10th Amendment protects sanctuary jurisdictions from compulsion by the federal government. And their policies are also well justified on moral and pragmatic grounds. This is particularly true at a time when many federal immigration enforcement efforts are cruel and illegal.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/Ui3TQ
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22) In Mamdani’s New York City, It’s “Democratic Socialists” vs. Workers
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The premise of socialism is ‘worker control of the means of production,’ and the gig economy is far and away the most successful experiment in human history when it comes to achieving that. Gig workers own their tools. Gig workers set their own hours. Gig workers choose who they work for, where they work, and what kind of work they do. Gig workers even set their own salaries by accepting the individual tasks that meet their pay requirements and rejecting those that don’t. Mamdani and friends hate that worker control with a passion. To them, worker happiness and welfare only matter to the extent that they can claim credit for, and gain power from, that happiness and welfare. … if anyone, anywhere, somehow manages to make a living without Mamdani’s permission, why, that’s ‘exploitation.'” (02/19/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20384
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23) Crime As Proxy For Disorder
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“[P]eople hate crime and think it’s going up. But actually, crime barely affects most people and is historically low. So what’s going on? In our discussion yesterday, many commenters proposed that the discussion about ‘crime’ was really about disorder. Disorder takes many forms, but its symptoms include litter, graffiti, shoplifting, tent cities, weird homeless people wandering about muttering to themselves, and people walking around with giant boom boxes shamelessly playing music at 200 decibels on a main street where people are trying to engage in normal activities. When people complain about these things, they risk getting called a racist or a ‘Karen.’ But when they complain about crime, there’s still a 50-50 chance that listeners will let them finish the sentence without accusing them of racism. … might this explain why people act like crime is rampant and increasing, even when it’s rare and going down?” (02/19/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/crime-as-proxy-for-disorder
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24) AI, Technology, and Work
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is upending professions as diverse as art, cinema, accounting, national defense, and education. Some even argue that AI will render almost all work obsolete. They say its ability to ‘think’ and accomplish tasks previously solely in the realm of human ability will mean that humans will not need to work; the machines will do everything for us. Whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing depends on the story one wants to tell.” (02/19/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/ai-technology-and-work
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25) On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same
Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov
“lexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the Munich Security Conference to introduce herself to the world as a foreign policy thinker. She returned having demonstrated something else entirely: that the Democratic Party’s progressive star has absorbed the establishment’s worst ideas while shedding only its least popular rhetoric.” (02/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-foreign-policy-aoc-is-just-more-of-the-same/
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26) 85 Seconds to My Own Midnight? Working for a Nuclear-Free Future
Source: TomDispatch
by Frida Berrigan
“‘I’m not scared, you’re scared!’ is the repeated line in a children’s story we recently read to the kids at the Unitarian Universalist version of Sunday school I attend with my children. In that story, a scared bear and a brave rabbit, who (naturally!) are best friends, go on a hike together. Rabbit has to cajole and encourage Bear through every imaginable obstacle, but in the end (of course!) it’s Rabbit who gets stuck at the crucial moment and has to call on Bear for help. Bear (no surprise) sets aside his fears to rescue his friend and (tada!) finds new depths of bravery and adventurousness in the process. After we read the story, the kids worked together to build paths from blocks and Legos through the imagined obstacles in the story — a bridge over a rushing river, a path through a dark forest, a staircase up a steep mountain.” (02/19/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/85-seconds-to-my-own-midnight/
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27) Attacking Iran Would Be Monstrous
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“There is no cause for war. The U.S. government is preparing to attack another country not because of anything that its government has done or threatened to do to us, but solely because the president feels like doing it. The president created the current crisis by making reckless threats and then by ordering a massive buildup in preparation to carry them out. We know that he has been goaded into doing this by the Israeli prime minister and hardliners here at home, but in the end the decisions and the responsibility are his and his alone. No one can explain what the president wants to achieve by attacking Iran.” (02/19/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/attacking-iran-would-be-monstrous
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28) The Capitalism “Stranger Things” Runs On — But Pretends Not to Like
Source: The Daily Economy
by Kimberlee Josephson
“When Jonathan declares his artistic ambitions are anti-capitalist, it clashes with everything the show has relied on for five seasons. The finale demonstrates better jobs, bigger dreams, and individual agency rely on voluntary exchange.” (02/19/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-capitalism-stranger-things-runs-on-but-pretends-not-to-like/
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29) Trump Promised to Drain the Swamp; Turns Out He’s Best Friends With the Swamp Monster
Source: OtherWords
by Sonali Kolhatkar
“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s contentious House hearing about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files offered a clear message to the nation: Sex trafficking of women and minors is perfectly acceptable as long as wealthy white men do it. Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced late sex trafficker, fixer, and political networker, was found to have ties to huge number of the world’s elites on both sides of the political aisle—including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ehud Barak, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, and of course, Donald Trump. For years, Trump’s conservative backers have attacked LGBTQ+ people, drag queens, immigrants, and others, claiming a desire to protect women and children from rapists and groomers. Trump even boasted that ‘whether the women liked it or not,’ he would ‘protect’ them from migrants, whom he slandered as ‘monsters’ who ‘kidnap and kill our children’.” (02/19/26)
https://otherwords.org/the-epstein-class-they-are-the-elites-they-pretend-to-hate/
-----
30) The CBO’s latest report and the choice between reform and disorder
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Despite what progressives have been arguing lately, the United States does not have a tax problem. Federal revenues, even after last year’s extension of the Trump tax cuts, are running above their historical average as a share of GDP. What America has is a spending problem so large that the Congressional Budget Office’s latest 10-year outlook reads less like a fiscal forecast than a warning label.” (02/19/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/19/the-cbos-latest-report-and-the-choice-between-reform-and-disorder/
-----
31) Mamdani’s budget ultimatum for Gov. Hochul is a crisis of his own making
Source: New York Post
by Ken Girardin & John Ketcham
“Budgets are usually about choices, but Mayor Mamdani’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal presents Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers with just one: They can sign off on the suite of tax hikes he’s demanded, or he’ll ask the City Council for a painful property tax increase of almost 10%. The mayor has complained — not without some merit — that the Adams administration lowballed expenses. If the city’s finances are truly in ‘crisis’ condition, the appropriate response is triage. But the mayor has yet to administer even basic first aid. The ‘chief spending officers’ he tasked with trimming spending haven’t yet made suggestions, and the phrase ‘hiring freeze’ hasn’t been uttered. Instead, he’s sending property owners to the hospital with a 9.5% property tax hike.” (02/18/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/18/opinion/mamdanis-budget-ultimatum-for-gov-hochul-is-a-crisis-of-his-own-making/
-----
32) As Consumer Confidence Sags, Policy Prescriptions Miss the Mark
Source: Cato Institute
by Romina Boccia
“year into President Trump’s second term, inflation may have eased, falling from 3 percent year-over-year in January 2025 to 2.7 percent in December, but the cost of living remains elevated for many households. This affordability challenge is the result of fiscal excess and politicized policymaking that have raised costs while undermining confidence in the U.S. economy.” (02/19/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/consumer-confidence-sags-policy-prescriptions-miss-mark
-----
33) US War on Iran Would Be a Cynical, Lawless, and Catastrophic Escalation
Source: Common Dreams
by Nicolas JS Davies
“After some delays, the United States is dispatching a second aircraft-carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, from the Caribbean to the Middle East to join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and threaten Iran. This is the third Atlantic crossing for the Ford’s crew since it set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, in June 2025, and the second time its deployment has been extended, first to redeploy from the Middle East to the Caribbean, and now to redeploy back to the Middle East. There is a grave danger that the US government is preparing to exploit the genuine sympathy of people all over the world for the Iranian civilians massacred during protests in December and January as a pretext for an illegal military assault on Iran.” (02/19/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-war-on-iran
-----
34) A Very Liberal Conservative
Source: Law & LIberty
by Max Skjönsberg
“Josiah Tucker (1713–99), dean of Gloucester Cathedral in England, is best known in the history of political thought as a proto-conservative who had the audacity to question the Lockean natural rights school in the age of the American Revolution. The rebellious spirit of the American Revolution, and even more so its supporters in Britain, made him suspicious of Locke’s theory of government based on the social contract and consent. As a consequence, Tucker is a neglected and underrated thinker who contributed to both the conservative and liberal traditions; his Political and Economic Writings repay careful study.” (02/19/26)
https://lawliberty.org/classic/a-very-liberal-conservative/
-----
35) You Cannot Beat Nihilism with Nihilism
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Thomas Harrington
“Today, Barcelona is today one of the great tourist destinations of the Western world. Fifty years ago, however, it was a somewhat dusty backwater still smarting from the punishments inflicted on it by the Franco regime (1939-1975) for its citizens’ stubborn refusal to abandon their attachment to the Catalan language and culture, and for having served as the nerve center of the defeated Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) eventually won by the Nationalist general. The city’s dramatic transformation is rooted in actions taken under the leadership of Mayor Pasqual Maragall in the six or so years leading to the city’s hosting of the 1992 Summer Olympics. While the mayor of every Olympic venue promises that the Games will enduringly change his city for the better, this actually occurred in Maragall’s Barcelona, especially in the realm of public infrastructure.” (02/19/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/you-cannot-beat-nihilism-with-nihilism/
-----
36) Conservatives’ “Talking Filibuster” Scheme Isn’t the Norm in the Senate
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“Conservatives want you to believe that the ‘talking filibuster’ is the norm in the Senate. This is misleading. What these conservatives aren’t describing is how the Senate actually works today. Before the adoption of the cloture motion in 1917 — found in Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate — there wasn’t a way to force an end to debate. Prior to 1917, senators could use various tactics to stop a bill from moving forward, ranging from objecting to unanimous consent to engaging in a talking filibuster. What we think of as the modern-day filibuster—the cloture motion—was created out of necessity during World War I, after the Senate proved incapable of ending debate on critical wartime legislation.” (02/19/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/conservatives-talking-filibuster
-----
37) How Stephen Colbert conned Dem donors and burned Jasmine Crockett
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign is $2.5 million richer this week and a bit closer to victory after Stephen Colbert, host of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS, made up a ridiculous lie about being censored by President Trump. It took a few days for the dust to settle, but now that we have a clear picture of what happened, it is about as bad as it can be. In fact, it would likely be a fireable offense if the ratings challenged Colbert was not already slated to get the ax in May. According to Colbert’s version of events, which is falling apart faster than a house of cards in a wind tunnel, he was told by CBS lawyers on Monday, just minutes before he was set to interview Talarico, that he could not air the conversation. Why? Because of the Trump administration Federal Communication Commission’s new rules on equal time.” (02/19/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-how-stephen-colbert-conned-dem-donors-burned-jasmine-crockett
-----
38) Venezuela’s Oil and the Death of a Latin American Dream
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“On January 29, Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, signed a law that opens Venezuela’s oil industry to privatization. With the stroke of a pen, Rodríguez signed, not only the law, but the death certificate of a decades old Latin American dream.” (02/19/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2026/02/18/venezuelas-oil-and-the-death-of-a-latin-american-dream/
-----
39) Structure, Loyalty, and Power: Understanding China’s Party-State Under Xi Jinping
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“In late January 2026, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced investigations into two of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) most senior officers …. These investigations capped a wave of high-level purges that began in 2023 and steadily hollowed out the PLA’s senior leadership. At one point, the CMC, China’s supreme military decision-making body, was reduced in functional terms to Xi himself as chairman and the anti-corruption chief Zhang Shengmin as vice chairman. … To understand what these developments mean, one must understand the architecture of Chinese politics. China is not merely an authoritarian state. It is a Leninist party-state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dominates every lever of power, the PLA functions as the party’s armed wing, and central authority increasingly overrides provincial discretion. The recent purges illuminate not dysfunction, but design.” (02/19/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/structure-loyalty-and-power-understanding-chinas-party-state-under-xi-jinping/
-----
40) Mamdani Attacks Workers
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is going after gig workers. To do his dirty work, the mayor is using holdovers from the Biden administration (who oppose independent contractors), reports C. Jarrett Dieterle at Reason magazine. … Mamdani’s war on freelancers will be costly not only for gig workers and the companies that help them function but also for customers.” (02/19/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/mamdani-attacks-workers/
-----
41) The Wild Card in Trump’s Attempt to Control the News
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The attempted censorship [sic] of Stephen Colbert’s late-night interview with Texas’s U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico backfired so completely, with millions watching the interview on YouTube, that it may have made Talarico more likely to win his Democratic primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Yet regardless of how you feel about the electoral outcome, the episode is another example of David Ellison and the new ownership at Paramount, parent company of CBS, signaling its intention to use one of the nation’s major broadcast networks as a tool for the Trump regime, with only sanctioned content going out over the airwaves. That’s always been the fear associated with Paramount’s numerous attempts to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), parent company of CNN. If that ever went through, the majority of the nation’s main cable news networks would be in the hands of conservative partisans.” (02/19/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/19/trump-warner-bros-netflix-paramount-cnn-hbo-stephen-colbert/
-----
42) Is NATO creating an Arctic crisis to placate Trump?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Pavel Devyatkin
“Last week, NATO launched ‘Arctic Sentry,’ a new ‘multi-domain activity’ that, for the first time, places Allied operations in the Arctic under a single command structure. The move marks a significant scaling-up of NATO’s footprint in the Arctic. But unfortunately, as NATO’s regional military presence increases, the mechanisms for preventing that footprint from generating a crisis are not keeping pace. … Arctic Sentry arrives in a politically charged context. President Trump has ramped up tensions in the alliance by threatening to annex Greenland. The mission follows Trump’s meeting with Rutte in Davos, where they agreed NATO should do more for Arctic defense and ‘prevent the Russians and the Chinese getting more access to the Arctic region.’ Even after Europe dispatched a small, symbolic force to Greenland last month, the White House made clear that European troops there would not change Trump’s mind about annexation.” (02/19/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nato-arctic-military-exercises/
-----
43) Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“Last week, anti-Israel activist group Palestine Action won a victory in the courts as the High Court of Justice in London declared the government’s 2025 ban on the group disproportionate and unlawful. The ruling could have major implications for free expression in the United Kingdom given how widely and aggressively the ban on Palestine Action was imposed last year. Ultimately, the ban wasn’t just about the group itself or its conduct but a much broader range of speech about the group — all enforced under anti-terror legislation.” (02/19/26)
https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/ruling-palestine-action-ban-casts-even-more-doubt-uks-troubling
-----
44) Relativism in today’s world
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Who are you to say? is a way of saying that you (or I) have no right to judge other people, nor to judge actions. As it is applied today, especially if the people whose actions you are judging are of a different ethnicity, ‘race’ (skin color), cultural background, nation, or even sex. It ties back to a statement by Jesus the Christ. It is perhaps the most twisted of any of His quotes: ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ (King James version) It is taken out of context to make judging other people, their actions, and their character a sin. In context, it is clear that He is teaching teaching something else.” (02/18/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/02/18/relativism-in-todays-world/
-----
45) Stephen Colbert Hates Black Women, and Other Universal Truths
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“As someone who loves comedy, what ass-clowns like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have done to the concept is like what Harvey Weinstein did to movie production or what Democrats have done to journalism, if journalism were their cellmate in Super-Max. Colbert is the Jeffrey Epstein of truth and Kimmel is the Luigi Mangione of honesty. That’s why it was not shocking to anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size that Colbert would go on his show and lie, doing his best to help a white guy, James Talarico, beat a black woman, Jasmine Crockett, in the Democratic primary in the Texas Senate race. First, I have to tell you about the concept of equal time.” (02/19/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/19/stephen-colbert-hates-black-women-and-other-universal-truths-n2671532
-----
46) FDA’s Straight Shooter: Don’t Bring Crappy Data To A Gunfight
Source: Racket News
by Emily Kopp
“For years the Food and Drug Administration has handed down shocking decision after shocking decision, always in the same direction: The approval of Alzheimer’s drugs that are balanced precariously on a mountain of fraudulent papers and that sometimes make your brain explode; the approval of OxyContin for 11-year-olds; the approval of COVID-19 booster shots in healthy young people in order to please the political science majors in the White House. But there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s made a lot of powerful enemies already reining in a lawless pharmaceutical industry.” (02/18/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/fdas-straight-shooter-dont-bring
-----
47) The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England’s Politics
Source: The UnPopulist
by Alan Elrod
“When Britain’s most notorious far-right agitator, Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), endorsed a Reform UK candidate late last month, it was yet another indicator of the growing ideological overlap between the nation’s most extreme anti-immigration elements and the right’s institutional organs. Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s insurgent right-wing populist party that has led the polls for over a year, disavowed Robinson—a predictable maneuver aimed at damage control. But it couldn’t obscure the real story: the collapse of any meaningful ideological daylight between Robinson’s street-level radicalism and right-wing electoral politics in Britain today.” (02/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-far-right-is-rapidly-remaking
-----
48) Trump should step back from the brink with Iran
Source: Orange County Register
by Alexander Langlois
“One can be excused for wondering why the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently beaten accusations of near-death since its inception in 1979. The regime in Tehran has held onto power through successive internal and external crises regardless of doomsday prophesizing in Washington or Tel Aviv. As the Iranian government faces one of the most difficult moments in its brief existence – both internally and externally — the question now, as the US sends a second aircraft carrier to the region is will this time be different?” (02/18/26)
https://archive.is/BOZvf
-----
49) No US War on Iran: An Open Letter to the UN Security Council
Source: In These Times
by Jeffrey D Sachs
“Distinguished Members of the Security Council, The President of the United States is issuing grave threats of force against the Islamic Republic of Iran if it does not accede to US demands. His actions risk a major regional war that would be devastating. Asked if he wanted regime change, he responded that it ‘seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.’ When asked why a second US aircraft carrier has been sent to the region, President Trump answered ’in case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it … if we need it, we’ll have it ready.’ These threats are in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which declares that ’All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.'” (02/19/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/no-us-war-on-iran-open-letter-to-un-security-council-jeffrey-sachs
-----
50) “No taxation without representation” must be non-negotiable
Source: spiked
by Ann Strickland
“Around this time last week, I was standing in the pouring rain in West Sussex, handing out leaflets to defend something that should never have needed defending: the right of local residents to vote. The TaxPayers’ Alliance had been out across the county campaigning against the Labour government’s plan to cancel elections in 30 local authorities across England. … taxpayers should never have had to rely on opposition parties, newspapers and campaign groups to defend the most basic principles of democracy. Holding regular elections should be the bare minimum we expect of the people in charge.” (02/18/26)
https://archive.is/M4HgH
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Fifth Column, episode 545
Source: The Fifth Column
“Ambiguity in the Age of Outrage (w/ Jon Meacham).” (02/19/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/ambiguity-in-the-age-of-outrage-w
-----
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/19/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Oil Siege Against Cuba.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWumQpgTNI
-----
53) Capital Record, episode 285
Source: National Review
“A Report Card on Corporate America.” (02/19/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/a-report-card-on-corporate-america/
-----
54) The Lou Perez Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Neoborn Caveman — Everything is Blurry.” (02/19/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/tlpp-neoborn-caveman-everything-is-blurry
-----
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Underthrow
“America has a Corruption Contagion only the People Can Cure w/ Max Borders.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-GWAT8Tc4
-----
56) Cato Daily Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Cato Institute
“No Tax on Tips and Overtime? Not So Fast.” (02/19/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/no-tax-tips-overtime-not-so-fast
-----
57) SolutionsWatch, 02/19/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“Escaping Energy Poverty.” (02/19/26)
https://corbettreport.com/escaping-energy-poverty-solutionswatch/
-----
58) Speech and Panel Discussion on Brussels Bureaucracy
Source: Cobden Centre
“A couple of weeks ago I [Max Rangeley] gave this speech on EU bureaucracy, followed by a panel discussion at the Martens Centre think tank in Brussels. The Martens Centre is the think tank of the EPP, the largest political group in the European Parliament. The European Commission massively understates the cost of bureaucracy — but what can be done?” (02/19/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/02/speech-and-panel-discussion-on-brussels-bureaucracy/
-----
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/19/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Erupts in Angry Panic over 2026 as Polls Take Truly Brutal Turn.” (02/19/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/206743/trump-erupts-angry-panic-2026-polls-take-truly-brutal-turn
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/19/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Reps. Khanna and Massie To Force Iran War Powers Vote, Trump Preps Major Attack, and More.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswgpX-X4U0
-----
61) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/18/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“As War with Iran Lurks in Wait, How Did We Get Here? w/ Dr. Arta Moeini.” (02/18/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/amoeini/
-----
62) Kibbe on Liberty, 02/18/26
Source: Free the People
“Government Corruption Runs Even Deeper Than We Thought | Guest: Mike Benz.” (02/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8RfKZmb64
-----
63) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2736
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“The GDP Racket, and the AI Profitability Problem.” (02/18/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2736-the-gdp-racket-and-the-ai-profitability-problem/
-----
64) System Update, 02/18/26
Source: System Update
“Lindsey Graham’s Extreme Devotion to Israel on Full Display.” (02/18/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/lindsey-grahams-extreme-devotion
-----
65) The Science of Politics, 02/18/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Legislators are raising money instead of making policy.” (02/18/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/legislators-are-raising-money-instead-of-making-policy
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Publisher's Note
1) UK: Regime refuses to let Trump use Chagos Islands base to attack Iran
2) US trade deficit widens sharply in December, testing Trump tariff claims
3) Federal judge notices that Trump regime is state sponsor of terrorism
4) Bitcoin Lightning Network exceeds $1 billion in monthly volume
5) Trump ordering release of government files on aliens after Obama comment
6) Paraguay: Nearly five million without electricity amid heat wave
7) US regime pays about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
8) US weekly jobless claims fall more than expected amid labor market stability
9) Palestine: Israeli squatters murder American
10) Iran: Regime issues NOTAM amid tensions with US; pilots advised to steer clear as Islamic Republic plans rocket launches
11) FDA to drop two-study requirement for new drug approvals, aiming to speed access
12) Peru: Balcázar becomes eighth president in a decade
13) Gates pulls out of India’s AI summit over Epstein files controversy
14) MN: Judge holds ICE gang lawyer in contempt
15) Trump heads to Georgia after securing Board of Peace bribes
16) UN Report: Israeli Forces and Hamas Committed Atrocity Crimes in Gaza
17) Former NYPD chief calls police cuts “recipe for disaster” as Mamdani threatens tax hikes
18) RNC sues to block Democratic-backed Virginia redistricting referendum
19) Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters
20) UK: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) In Defense of Sanctuary Cities
22) In Mamdani’s New York City, It’s “Democratic Socialists” vs. Workers
23) Crime As Proxy For Disorder
24) AI, Technology, and Work
25) On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same
26) 85 Seconds to My Own Midnight? Working for a Nuclear-Free Future
27) Attacking Iran Would Be Monstrous
28) The Capitalism “Stranger Things” Runs On — But Pretends Not to Like
29) Trump Promised to Drain the Swamp; Turns Out He’s Best Friends With the Swamp Monster
30) The CBO’s latest report and the choice between reform and disorder
31) Mamdani’s budget ultimatum for Gov. Hochul is a crisis of his own making
32) As Consumer Confidence Sags, Policy Prescriptions Miss the Mark
33) US War on Iran Would Be a Cynical, Lawless, and Catastrophic Escalation
34) A Very Liberal Conservative
35) You Cannot Beat Nihilism with Nihilism
36) Conservatives’ “Talking Filibuster” Scheme Isn’t the Norm in the Senate
37) How Stephen Colbert conned Dem donors and burned Jasmine Crockett
38) Venezuela’s Oil and the Death of a Latin American Dream
39) Structure, Loyalty, and Power: Understanding China’s Party-State Under Xi Jinping
40) Mamdani Attacks Workers
41) The Wild Card in Trump’s Attempt to Control the News
42) Is NATO creating an Arctic crisis to placate Trump?
43) Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
44) Relativism in today’s world
45) Stephen Colbert Hates Black Women, and Other Universal Truths
46) FDA’s Straight Shooter: Don’t Bring Crappy Data To A Gunfight
47) The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England’s Politics
48) Trump should step back from the brink with Iran
49) No US War on Iran: An Open Letter to the UN Security Council
50) “No taxation without representation” must be non-negotiable
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Fifth Column, episode 545
52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/19/26
53) Capital Record, episode 285
54) The Lou Perez Podcast, 02/19/26
55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/19/26
56) Cato Daily Podcast, 02/19/26
57) SolutionsWatch, 02/19/26
58) Speech and Panel Discussion on Brussels Bureaucracy
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/19/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/19/26
61) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/18/26
62) Kibbe on Liberty, 02/18/26
63) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2736
64) System Update, 02/18/26
65) The Science of Politics, 02/18/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
0) Publisher's Note
Hey, everyone ...
A little while back, I mentioned that the freedom movement's newspaper was moving to an "all hybrid, all the time" format -- continuing our 60-70 item daily email and social media editions, but offering additional content at the web edition EVERY DAY instead of just occasionally.
I thought I'd mention that again, as not everyone notices everything all the time.
Today, we've got 65 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links line up for our email readers ... and nearly that many MORE at the web edition:
https://news.rationalreview.com
Why the change? Well, there's almost always enough content out there to do it that way these days, and at some point I realized that deciding what to exclude was nearly (not quite, but nearly) as much work as just including a lot more. "A little more work for me, a lot more content for the readers" sounded like a good thing, so here we are. Enjoy!
And while you're enjoying, don't forget we're a reader-supported publication:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
-----
1) UK: Regime refuses to let Trump use Chagos Islands base to attack Iran
Source: Yahoo! News
“Donald Trump has withdrawn his support for the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius because the UK will not agree to the US military using British bases to attack Iran, it has been reported. The Times newspaper reports that the White House is drawing up detailed military plans for a strike against Iran. The plans are understood to involve the use of the Diego Garcia base, in the Chagos Islands, and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The English base is home to America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe. These bases can only be used for military operations that have been agreed in advance with the UK Government, under long-standing agreements between the US and UK.” (02/19/26)
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-refuses-let-donald-trump-171737565.html
-----
2) US trade deficit widens sharply in December, testing Trump tariff claims
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“The US trade imbalance widened sharply in December 2025, highlighting continued challenges in America’s economic relationship with the world and with key economic competitor China, according to a release from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday. For the full year 2025, the US recorded a goods and services trade deficit of US$901.5 billion, a modest decline of 0.2 per cent from 2024, one of the largest since 1960. The total goods and services deficit in 2024 was US$903.5 billion, the report showed. According to the new data, the US goods and services deficit rose to US$70.3 billion in December, a sharp increase of 32.6 per cent from November’s revised US$53.0 billion. Exports fell slightly while imports increased, widening the gap as global demand shifted in the final months of the year.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/f0mga
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3) Federal judge notices that Trump regime is state sponsor of terrorism
Source: Associated Press
“A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. Citing the [murders] of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also ‘extended its violence on its own citizens.’ … [U.S. District Judge Sunshine] Sykes said the administration had violated her December ruling that found it was illegally denying many detained immigrants a chance for release. She ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide them with notice that they may be eligible for bond and then give them access to a phone to call an attorney within an hour. She also threw out a September ruling by an immigration court that the administration had cited for continuing its mandatory detention policy.” (02/19/26)
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-trump-detention-bond-judge-50a5da122aa51eed77cace0830548df3
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4) Bitcoin Lightning Network exceeds $1 billion in monthly volume
Source: CoinTelegraph
“Monthly transaction volume on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a secondary layer for BTC that enables payment use cases, surpassed the $1 billion milestone in November 2025, according to a report from Bitcoin financial services company River. … The Bitcoin Lightning Network helps scale the Bitcoin network, enabling Bitcoin payments between parties that settle in seconds instead of minutes, encouraging Bitcoin’s use as a medium of exchange, instead of just a risk asset or store of value.” (02/19/26)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-lightning-network-1b-monthly-volume
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5) Trump ordering release of government files on aliens after Obama comment
Source: USA Today
“President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of disclosing classified information in comments the former president made recently about aliens, then acknowledged hours later the ‘tremendous interest’ in the topic and said he was ordering the government to release more information. ‘He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,’ Trump told reporters Feb. 19 aboard Air Force One, adding Obama’s comments were a ‘big mistake.’ Podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama if aliens are real in an interview published Feb. 14 and the former president replied: ‘They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.'” (02/19/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/19/donald-trump-barack-obama-aliens-real-classified-information/88762872007/
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6) Paraguay: Nearly five million without electricity amid heat wave
Source: United Press International
“A massive blackout left nearly five million people without electricity in Paraguay amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 108 degrees Fahrenheit across large parts of the country and as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas, according to local meteorological reports. The outage affected 90% of customers of the National Electricity Administration, or ANDE, the state-run company that supplies nearly the entire population of 6.4 million people. The interruption on Wednesday also disrupted drinking water services in urban areas due to reliance on electric pumping systems. Nearly 24 hours after the blackout, service had not been fully restored.” (02/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/02/19/latam-Paraguay-blackout-heat-wave/2741771521283/
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7) US regime pays about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
Source: Seattle Times
“The United States has paid about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations, the U.N. said Thursday. The Trump administration’s payment is earmarked for the U.N.’s regular operating budget, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press. The U.N. has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, and $1.8 billion for a separate budget for the far-flung U.N. peacekeeping operations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month that the world body faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/zCdDO
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8) US weekly jobless claims fall more than expected amid labor market stability
Source: Reuters
“The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, consistent with a stabilizing labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 206,0000 for the week ended February 14, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week. Last week’s drop marked a signficant decline in claims since they jumped to 232,000 at the end of January. … The claims data covered the week during which the government surveyed employers for the nonfarm payrolls portion of February’s employment report. Job growth accelerated in January, though nearly all the employment gains came from the healthcare and social assistance sector.” (02/19/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-more-than-expected-amid-labor-market-stability-2026-02-19/
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9) Palestine: Israeli squatters murder American
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank killed a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man late Wednesday night, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The ministry said Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siyam was shot by [squatters] in the village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem. The Israeli military said soldiers responded to a violent confrontation in the area and attempted to disperse a riot. The military said that suspects shot at several Palestinians, who were evacuated for medical treatment.Abu Siyam’s mother told The Associated Press that he also held American citizenship. The U.S. Embassy did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/19/west-bank-palestinian-american-killed/
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10) Iran: Regime issues NOTAM amid tensions with US; pilots advised to steer clear as Islamic Republic plans rocket launches
Source: mint [India]
“Iran issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) on Thursday, warning of potential rocket activity in the airspace. It was issued amid escalating tensions with the US, which has deployed warships near the Islamic Republic. US Vice President JD Vance reportedly said Washington was weighing whether to continue diplomatic engagement with Tehran or pursue other options. According to the alert, pilots are advised to avoid flying between ground level and Flight Level 100 in the affected region due to safety risks linked to possible launches, as shown by the Flightradar24 tracker. The NOTAM mentioned that Iran has planned rocket launches in areas across its south on Thursday from 330 GMT to 1330 GMT, news agency Reuters reported, citing the US Federal Aviation Administration website.” (02/19/26)
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/iran-issues-notam-amid-tensions-with-us-pilots-advised-to-steer-clear-as-islamic-republic-plans-rocket-launches-11771496929512.html
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11) FDA to drop two-study requirement for new drug approvals, aiming to speed access
Source: SFGate
“The Food and Drug Administration plans to drop its longtime standard of requiring two rigorous studies to win approval for new drugs, the latest change from Trump administration officials vowing to speed up the availability of certain medical products. Going forward, the FDA’s ‘default position’ will be to require one study for new drugs and other novel health products, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and a top deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, wrote in a New England Journal of Medicine piece published Wednesday. The announcement is the latest example of Makary and his team changing longstanding FDA standards and procedures with the stated goal of slashing bureaucracy and accelerating the availability of new medicines. Since arriving at the agency last April, Makary has launched a series of directives that he says will shorten FDA reviews, including mandating the use of artificial intelligence by staffers and offering one-month drug assessments for new medications that serve ‘national interests.'” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/fda-will-drop-two-study-requirement-for-new-drug-21361231.php
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12) Peru: Balcázar becomes eighth president in a decade
Source: Associated Press
“Peru’s Congress late Wednesday elected legislator José María Balcázar as the country’s eighth president in a decade, replacing another interim leader who was ousted the previous day over corruption allegations just four months into his term. Balcázar, an 83-year-old former judge representing the leftist Perú Libre party, defeated three other candidates with a majority of the 130-member legislature. The revolving-door presidency in Peru reflects a political crisis fueled by a lack of legislative majorities for leaders. Lawmakers have frequently used a broad interpretation of a constitutional article regarding ‘permanent moral incapacity’ to remove sitting presidents.” (02/19/26)
https://apnews.com/article/peru-president-congress-interim-election-c6f1e2d6c061ea8ba1cb0f4f467609bc
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13) Gates pulls out of India’s AI summit over Epstein files controversy
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after ‘careful consideration’ and ‘to ensure the focus remains on the [summit’s] key priorities’, but did not elaborate. Gates’s withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January. Gates’s spokesperson has called the claims in the files ‘absolutely absurd and completely false’, and the billionaire has said he regretted spending time with Epstein. Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein’s victims and the appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind.” (02/19/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c309qv9zglno
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14) MN: Judge holds ICE gang lawyer in contempt
Source: KMSP 9 News
“For the first time during Operation Metro Surge, a federal judge has imposed stiff consequences on a government attorney for ICE’s violation of a court order related to the release of a detained immigrant. Judge Laura Provinzino found Special Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt during a Wednesday afternoon hearing. Judge Provinzino issued a civil contempt order against Isihara in a habeas case, ordering daily fines of $500. She said her goal is to ensure the government complies with her orders regarding a detained Mexican immigrant from Big Lake, Minnesota. … Isihara blamed a massive caseload and ‘not enough staff’ in the U.S. Attorney’s office to handle all the civil litigation connected to Operation Metro Surge.” (02/18/26)
https://www.fox9.com/news/federal-judge-holds-government-attorney-contempt-violation-court-order
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15) Trump heads to Georgia after securing Board of Peace bribes
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump announced Thursday at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting that nine members have agreed to pledge a combined $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package, while five countries have agreed to deploy troops to take part in an international stabilization force to the war-battered Palestinian territory. But $7 billion is only a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal looms over Trump’s ambitions for his board to rival the United Nations in solving world conflicts. Trump also announced the U.S. was pledging $10 billion for the Board of Peace but didn’t specify what the money will be used for. Instead, the president is turning his focus to domestic issues: In an hour, he’ll arrive in Georgia for a trip designed to help boost Republicans’ political standing heading into the midterms.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/the-latest-trump-convenes-his-board-of-peace-21362391.php
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16) UN Report: Israeli Forces and Hamas Committed Atrocity Crimes in Gaza
Source: US News & World Report
“Israeli forces, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have both committed serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and carried out atrocity crimes, a U.N. report published on Thursday said. Intensified Israeli attacks and the forcible transfer of Palestinians appeared aimed at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza ‘raising concerns over ethnic cleansing,’ the report by the U.N. human rights office said. The holding and mistreatment of hostages by the Hamas Islamist militant group may amount to war crimes, it said.” (02/19/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-02-19/israeli-forces-and-hamas-committed-atrocity-crimes-in-gaza-un-report-says
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17) Former NYPD chief calls police cuts “recipe for disaster” as Mamdani threatens tax hikes
Source: Fox News
“Former New York City Police Department (NYPD) Chief John Chell blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for walking back the planned hiring of 5,000 more police officers amid a city budget shortfall of billions of dollars, calling it a ‘recipe for disaster.’ Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, proposed at the end of his term that the city hire 5,000 more NYPD officers. Upon entering office, Mamdani moved to cancel all orders signed by Adams after his Sept. 26, 2024, indictment, including the proposed NYPD personnel increase. Under Adams'[s] plan, the NYPD would gradually hire more officers over the coming years, ultimately allowing the NYPD to deploy around 40,000 officers to the streets, while Mamdani’s plan caps the number closer to its current level of around 35,000.” (02/19/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-nypd-chief-calls-police-cuts-recipe-disaster-mamdani-threatens-tax-hikes
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18) RNC sues to block Democratic-backed Virginia redistricting referendum
Source: United Press International
“The Republican National Committee is suing to halt a Democratic-backed referendum on redrawing the commonwealth’s congressional map, as both parties wage a mid-decade redistricting fight ahead of November’s midterm elections. The RNC filed its lawsuit Wednesday, after GOP-led Texas began a Trump-urged push last summer to redraw its map to add more Republican seats, kicking off tit-for-tat moves across the country in a fight that could decide control of Congress. The lawsuit seeks emergency injunctive relief to block an April 21 referendum on a proposed amendment to the commonwealth’s Constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting, arguing the legislation Virginia’s General Assembly approved to put the question before voters is invalid and goes against the state’s Constitution.” (02/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/19/RNC-sues-Virginia-redistricting/7211771489812/
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19) Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters
Source: SFGate
“A large banner featuring Donald Trump’s face was hung on the exterior of Justice Department headquarters on Thursday in a physical display of the Republican president’s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him. While Trump banners have been hung outside other agencies across Washington, the decision to place one on the storied Justice Department building amounted to a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control. The banner, hung between two columns on one corner of the building, says, ‘Make America Safe Again,’ a slogan used by the administration to tout its efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration and violent crime. Attorney General Pam Bondi has postured herself as the president’s chief supporter and protector, eschewing the approach of predecessors who sought to maintain an arms-length distance from the White House to protect the impartiality of investigations and prosecutions.” (02/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/large-banner-featuring-trump-s-face-is-displayed-21367587.php
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20) UK: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Source: The Hill
“U.K. police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Thames Valley Police, an agency that covers areas west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, said it was ‘assessing’ reports that the former Prince Andrew sent trade reports to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2010. The assessment followed the release of millions of pages of documents connected to a U.S. investigation of Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor features a number of times in the documents. The police force did not name Mountbatten-Windsor, as is normal under U.K. law. But when asked if he had been arrested, the force pointed to a statement saying that they had arrested a man in his 60s. Mountbatten-Windsor is 66.” (02/19/26)
https://thehill.com/policy/international/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-jeffrey-epstein
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) In Defense of Sanctuary Cities
Source: The Dispatch
by Ilya Somin
“Sanctuary cities and states have been a major focus of political conflict in the second Trump administration, perhaps even more than in the first. These jurisdictions refuse or severely limit assistance to federal efforts to detain and deport suspected illegal immigrants. Most only provide such assistance in cases involving undocumented migrants who have committed serious crimes. Regardless of the politics, the 10th Amendment protects sanctuary jurisdictions from compulsion by the federal government. And their policies are also well justified on moral and pragmatic grounds. This is particularly true at a time when many federal immigration enforcement efforts are cruel and illegal.” (02/19/26)
https://archive.is/Ui3TQ
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22) In Mamdani’s New York City, It’s “Democratic Socialists” vs. Workers
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The premise of socialism is ‘worker control of the means of production,’ and the gig economy is far and away the most successful experiment in human history when it comes to achieving that. Gig workers own their tools. Gig workers set their own hours. Gig workers choose who they work for, where they work, and what kind of work they do. Gig workers even set their own salaries by accepting the individual tasks that meet their pay requirements and rejecting those that don’t. Mamdani and friends hate that worker control with a passion. To them, worker happiness and welfare only matter to the extent that they can claim credit for, and gain power from, that happiness and welfare. … if anyone, anywhere, somehow manages to make a living without Mamdani’s permission, why, that’s ‘exploitation.'” (02/19/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20384
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23) Crime As Proxy For Disorder
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“[P]eople hate crime and think it’s going up. But actually, crime barely affects most people and is historically low. So what’s going on? In our discussion yesterday, many commenters proposed that the discussion about ‘crime’ was really about disorder. Disorder takes many forms, but its symptoms include litter, graffiti, shoplifting, tent cities, weird homeless people wandering about muttering to themselves, and people walking around with giant boom boxes shamelessly playing music at 200 decibels on a main street where people are trying to engage in normal activities. When people complain about these things, they risk getting called a racist or a ‘Karen.’ But when they complain about crime, there’s still a 50-50 chance that listeners will let them finish the sentence without accusing them of racism. … might this explain why people act like crime is rampant and increasing, even when it’s rare and going down?” (02/19/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/crime-as-proxy-for-disorder
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24) AI, Technology, and Work
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is upending professions as diverse as art, cinema, accounting, national defense, and education. Some even argue that AI will render almost all work obsolete. They say its ability to ‘think’ and accomplish tasks previously solely in the realm of human ability will mean that humans will not need to work; the machines will do everything for us. Whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing depends on the story one wants to tell.” (02/19/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/ai-technology-and-work
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25) On Foreign Policy, AOC Is Just More of the Same
Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov
“lexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the Munich Security Conference to introduce herself to the world as a foreign policy thinker. She returned having demonstrated something else entirely: that the Democratic Party’s progressive star has absorbed the establishment’s worst ideas while shedding only its least popular rhetoric.” (02/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-foreign-policy-aoc-is-just-more-of-the-same/
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26) 85 Seconds to My Own Midnight? Working for a Nuclear-Free Future
Source: TomDispatch
by Frida Berrigan
“‘I’m not scared, you’re scared!’ is the repeated line in a children’s story we recently read to the kids at the Unitarian Universalist version of Sunday school I attend with my children. In that story, a scared bear and a brave rabbit, who (naturally!) are best friends, go on a hike together. Rabbit has to cajole and encourage Bear through every imaginable obstacle, but in the end (of course!) it’s Rabbit who gets stuck at the crucial moment and has to call on Bear for help. Bear (no surprise) sets aside his fears to rescue his friend and (tada!) finds new depths of bravery and adventurousness in the process. After we read the story, the kids worked together to build paths from blocks and Legos through the imagined obstacles in the story — a bridge over a rushing river, a path through a dark forest, a staircase up a steep mountain.” (02/19/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/85-seconds-to-my-own-midnight/
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27) Attacking Iran Would Be Monstrous
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“There is no cause for war. The U.S. government is preparing to attack another country not because of anything that its government has done or threatened to do to us, but solely because the president feels like doing it. The president created the current crisis by making reckless threats and then by ordering a massive buildup in preparation to carry them out. We know that he has been goaded into doing this by the Israeli prime minister and hardliners here at home, but in the end the decisions and the responsibility are his and his alone. No one can explain what the president wants to achieve by attacking Iran.” (02/19/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/attacking-iran-would-be-monstrous
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28) The Capitalism “Stranger Things” Runs On — But Pretends Not to Like
Source: The Daily Economy
by Kimberlee Josephson
“When Jonathan declares his artistic ambitions are anti-capitalist, it clashes with everything the show has relied on for five seasons. The finale demonstrates better jobs, bigger dreams, and individual agency rely on voluntary exchange.” (02/19/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-capitalism-stranger-things-runs-on-but-pretends-not-to-like/
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29) Trump Promised to Drain the Swamp; Turns Out He’s Best Friends With the Swamp Monster
Source: OtherWords
by Sonali Kolhatkar
“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s contentious House hearing about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files offered a clear message to the nation: Sex trafficking of women and minors is perfectly acceptable as long as wealthy white men do it. Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced late sex trafficker, fixer, and political networker, was found to have ties to huge number of the world’s elites on both sides of the political aisle—including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ehud Barak, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, and of course, Donald Trump. For years, Trump’s conservative backers have attacked LGBTQ+ people, drag queens, immigrants, and others, claiming a desire to protect women and children from rapists and groomers. Trump even boasted that ‘whether the women liked it or not,’ he would ‘protect’ them from migrants, whom he slandered as ‘monsters’ who ‘kidnap and kill our children’.” (02/19/26)
https://otherwords.org/the-epstein-class-they-are-the-elites-they-pretend-to-hate/
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30) The CBO’s latest report and the choice between reform and disorder
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Despite what progressives have been arguing lately, the United States does not have a tax problem. Federal revenues, even after last year’s extension of the Trump tax cuts, are running above their historical average as a share of GDP. What America has is a spending problem so large that the Congressional Budget Office’s latest 10-year outlook reads less like a fiscal forecast than a warning label.” (02/19/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/19/the-cbos-latest-report-and-the-choice-between-reform-and-disorder/
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31) Mamdani’s budget ultimatum for Gov. Hochul is a crisis of his own making
Source: New York Post
by Ken Girardin & John Ketcham
“Budgets are usually about choices, but Mayor Mamdani’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal presents Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers with just one: They can sign off on the suite of tax hikes he’s demanded, or he’ll ask the City Council for a painful property tax increase of almost 10%. The mayor has complained — not without some merit — that the Adams administration lowballed expenses. If the city’s finances are truly in ‘crisis’ condition, the appropriate response is triage. But the mayor has yet to administer even basic first aid. The ‘chief spending officers’ he tasked with trimming spending haven’t yet made suggestions, and the phrase ‘hiring freeze’ hasn’t been uttered. Instead, he’s sending property owners to the hospital with a 9.5% property tax hike.” (02/18/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/18/opinion/mamdanis-budget-ultimatum-for-gov-hochul-is-a-crisis-of-his-own-making/
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32) As Consumer Confidence Sags, Policy Prescriptions Miss the Mark
Source: Cato Institute
by Romina Boccia
“year into President Trump’s second term, inflation may have eased, falling from 3 percent year-over-year in January 2025 to 2.7 percent in December, but the cost of living remains elevated for many households. This affordability challenge is the result of fiscal excess and politicized policymaking that have raised costs while undermining confidence in the U.S. economy.” (02/19/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/consumer-confidence-sags-policy-prescriptions-miss-mark
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33) US War on Iran Would Be a Cynical, Lawless, and Catastrophic Escalation
Source: Common Dreams
by Nicolas JS Davies
“After some delays, the United States is dispatching a second aircraft-carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, from the Caribbean to the Middle East to join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and threaten Iran. This is the third Atlantic crossing for the Ford’s crew since it set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, in June 2025, and the second time its deployment has been extended, first to redeploy from the Middle East to the Caribbean, and now to redeploy back to the Middle East. There is a grave danger that the US government is preparing to exploit the genuine sympathy of people all over the world for the Iranian civilians massacred during protests in December and January as a pretext for an illegal military assault on Iran.” (02/19/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-war-on-iran
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34) A Very Liberal Conservative
Source: Law & LIberty
by Max Skjönsberg
“Josiah Tucker (1713–99), dean of Gloucester Cathedral in England, is best known in the history of political thought as a proto-conservative who had the audacity to question the Lockean natural rights school in the age of the American Revolution. The rebellious spirit of the American Revolution, and even more so its supporters in Britain, made him suspicious of Locke’s theory of government based on the social contract and consent. As a consequence, Tucker is a neglected and underrated thinker who contributed to both the conservative and liberal traditions; his Political and Economic Writings repay careful study.” (02/19/26)
https://lawliberty.org/classic/a-very-liberal-conservative/
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35) You Cannot Beat Nihilism with Nihilism
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Thomas Harrington
“Today, Barcelona is today one of the great tourist destinations of the Western world. Fifty years ago, however, it was a somewhat dusty backwater still smarting from the punishments inflicted on it by the Franco regime (1939-1975) for its citizens’ stubborn refusal to abandon their attachment to the Catalan language and culture, and for having served as the nerve center of the defeated Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) eventually won by the Nationalist general. The city’s dramatic transformation is rooted in actions taken under the leadership of Mayor Pasqual Maragall in the six or so years leading to the city’s hosting of the 1992 Summer Olympics. While the mayor of every Olympic venue promises that the Games will enduringly change his city for the better, this actually occurred in Maragall’s Barcelona, especially in the realm of public infrastructure.” (02/19/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/you-cannot-beat-nihilism-with-nihilism/
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36) Conservatives’ “Talking Filibuster” Scheme Isn’t the Norm in the Senate
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“Conservatives want you to believe that the ‘talking filibuster’ is the norm in the Senate. This is misleading. What these conservatives aren’t describing is how the Senate actually works today. Before the adoption of the cloture motion in 1917 — found in Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate — there wasn’t a way to force an end to debate. Prior to 1917, senators could use various tactics to stop a bill from moving forward, ranging from objecting to unanimous consent to engaging in a talking filibuster. What we think of as the modern-day filibuster—the cloture motion—was created out of necessity during World War I, after the Senate proved incapable of ending debate on critical wartime legislation.” (02/19/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/conservatives-talking-filibuster
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37) How Stephen Colbert conned Dem donors and burned Jasmine Crockett
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign is $2.5 million richer this week and a bit closer to victory after Stephen Colbert, host of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS, made up a ridiculous lie about being censored by President Trump. It took a few days for the dust to settle, but now that we have a clear picture of what happened, it is about as bad as it can be. In fact, it would likely be a fireable offense if the ratings challenged Colbert was not already slated to get the ax in May. According to Colbert’s version of events, which is falling apart faster than a house of cards in a wind tunnel, he was told by CBS lawyers on Monday, just minutes before he was set to interview Talarico, that he could not air the conversation. Why? Because of the Trump administration Federal Communication Commission’s new rules on equal time.” (02/19/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-how-stephen-colbert-conned-dem-donors-burned-jasmine-crockett
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38) Venezuela’s Oil and the Death of a Latin American Dream
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“On January 29, Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, signed a law that opens Venezuela’s oil industry to privatization. With the stroke of a pen, Rodríguez signed, not only the law, but the death certificate of a decades old Latin American dream.” (02/19/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2026/02/18/venezuelas-oil-and-the-death-of-a-latin-american-dream/
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39) Structure, Loyalty, and Power: Understanding China’s Party-State Under Xi Jinping
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“In late January 2026, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced investigations into two of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) most senior officers …. These investigations capped a wave of high-level purges that began in 2023 and steadily hollowed out the PLA’s senior leadership. At one point, the CMC, China’s supreme military decision-making body, was reduced in functional terms to Xi himself as chairman and the anti-corruption chief Zhang Shengmin as vice chairman. … To understand what these developments mean, one must understand the architecture of Chinese politics. China is not merely an authoritarian state. It is a Leninist party-state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dominates every lever of power, the PLA functions as the party’s armed wing, and central authority increasingly overrides provincial discretion. The recent purges illuminate not dysfunction, but design.” (02/19/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/structure-loyalty-and-power-understanding-chinas-party-state-under-xi-jinping/
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40) Mamdani Attacks Workers
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is going after gig workers. To do his dirty work, the mayor is using holdovers from the Biden administration (who oppose independent contractors), reports C. Jarrett Dieterle at Reason magazine. … Mamdani’s war on freelancers will be costly not only for gig workers and the companies that help them function but also for customers.” (02/19/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/mamdani-attacks-workers/
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41) The Wild Card in Trump’s Attempt to Control the News
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The attempted censorship [sic] of Stephen Colbert’s late-night interview with Texas’s U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico backfired so completely, with millions watching the interview on YouTube, that it may have made Talarico more likely to win his Democratic primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Yet regardless of how you feel about the electoral outcome, the episode is another example of David Ellison and the new ownership at Paramount, parent company of CBS, signaling its intention to use one of the nation’s major broadcast networks as a tool for the Trump regime, with only sanctioned content going out over the airwaves. That’s always been the fear associated with Paramount’s numerous attempts to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), parent company of CNN. If that ever went through, the majority of the nation’s main cable news networks would be in the hands of conservative partisans.” (02/19/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/19/trump-warner-bros-netflix-paramount-cnn-hbo-stephen-colbert/
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42) Is NATO creating an Arctic crisis to placate Trump?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Pavel Devyatkin
“Last week, NATO launched ‘Arctic Sentry,’ a new ‘multi-domain activity’ that, for the first time, places Allied operations in the Arctic under a single command structure. The move marks a significant scaling-up of NATO’s footprint in the Arctic. But unfortunately, as NATO’s regional military presence increases, the mechanisms for preventing that footprint from generating a crisis are not keeping pace. … Arctic Sentry arrives in a politically charged context. President Trump has ramped up tensions in the alliance by threatening to annex Greenland. The mission follows Trump’s meeting with Rutte in Davos, where they agreed NATO should do more for Arctic defense and ‘prevent the Russians and the Chinese getting more access to the Arctic region.’ Even after Europe dispatched a small, symbolic force to Greenland last month, the White House made clear that European troops there would not change Trump’s mind about annexation.” (02/19/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nato-arctic-military-exercises/
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43) Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“Last week, anti-Israel activist group Palestine Action won a victory in the courts as the High Court of Justice in London declared the government’s 2025 ban on the group disproportionate and unlawful. The ruling could have major implications for free expression in the United Kingdom given how widely and aggressively the ban on Palestine Action was imposed last year. Ultimately, the ban wasn’t just about the group itself or its conduct but a much broader range of speech about the group — all enforced under anti-terror legislation.” (02/19/26)
https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/ruling-palestine-action-ban-casts-even-more-doubt-uks-troubling
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44) Relativism in today’s world
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Who are you to say? is a way of saying that you (or I) have no right to judge other people, nor to judge actions. As it is applied today, especially if the people whose actions you are judging are of a different ethnicity, ‘race’ (skin color), cultural background, nation, or even sex. It ties back to a statement by Jesus the Christ. It is perhaps the most twisted of any of His quotes: ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ (King James version) It is taken out of context to make judging other people, their actions, and their character a sin. In context, it is clear that He is teaching teaching something else.” (02/18/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/02/18/relativism-in-todays-world/
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45) Stephen Colbert Hates Black Women, and Other Universal Truths
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“As someone who loves comedy, what ass-clowns like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have done to the concept is like what Harvey Weinstein did to movie production or what Democrats have done to journalism, if journalism were their cellmate in Super-Max. Colbert is the Jeffrey Epstein of truth and Kimmel is the Luigi Mangione of honesty. That’s why it was not shocking to anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size that Colbert would go on his show and lie, doing his best to help a white guy, James Talarico, beat a black woman, Jasmine Crockett, in the Democratic primary in the Texas Senate race. First, I have to tell you about the concept of equal time.” (02/19/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/02/19/stephen-colbert-hates-black-women-and-other-universal-truths-n2671532
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46) FDA’s Straight Shooter: Don’t Bring Crappy Data To A Gunfight
Source: Racket News
by Emily Kopp
“For years the Food and Drug Administration has handed down shocking decision after shocking decision, always in the same direction: The approval of Alzheimer’s drugs that are balanced precariously on a mountain of fraudulent papers and that sometimes make your brain explode; the approval of OxyContin for 11-year-olds; the approval of COVID-19 booster shots in healthy young people in order to please the political science majors in the White House. But there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s made a lot of powerful enemies already reining in a lawless pharmaceutical industry.” (02/18/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/fdas-straight-shooter-dont-bring
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47) The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England’s Politics
Source: The UnPopulist
by Alan Elrod
“When Britain’s most notorious far-right agitator, Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), endorsed a Reform UK candidate late last month, it was yet another indicator of the growing ideological overlap between the nation’s most extreme anti-immigration elements and the right’s institutional organs. Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s insurgent right-wing populist party that has led the polls for over a year, disavowed Robinson—a predictable maneuver aimed at damage control. But it couldn’t obscure the real story: the collapse of any meaningful ideological daylight between Robinson’s street-level radicalism and right-wing electoral politics in Britain today.” (02/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-far-right-is-rapidly-remaking
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48) Trump should step back from the brink with Iran
Source: Orange County Register
by Alexander Langlois
“One can be excused for wondering why the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently beaten accusations of near-death since its inception in 1979. The regime in Tehran has held onto power through successive internal and external crises regardless of doomsday prophesizing in Washington or Tel Aviv. As the Iranian government faces one of the most difficult moments in its brief existence – both internally and externally — the question now, as the US sends a second aircraft carrier to the region is will this time be different?” (02/18/26)
https://archive.is/BOZvf
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49) No US War on Iran: An Open Letter to the UN Security Council
Source: In These Times
by Jeffrey D Sachs
“Distinguished Members of the Security Council, The President of the United States is issuing grave threats of force against the Islamic Republic of Iran if it does not accede to US demands. His actions risk a major regional war that would be devastating. Asked if he wanted regime change, he responded that it ‘seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.’ When asked why a second US aircraft carrier has been sent to the region, President Trump answered ’in case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it … if we need it, we’ll have it ready.’ These threats are in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which declares that ’All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.'” (02/19/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/no-us-war-on-iran-open-letter-to-un-security-council-jeffrey-sachs
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50) “No taxation without representation” must be non-negotiable
Source: spiked
by Ann Strickland
“Around this time last week, I was standing in the pouring rain in West Sussex, handing out leaflets to defend something that should never have needed defending: the right of local residents to vote. The TaxPayers’ Alliance had been out across the county campaigning against the Labour government’s plan to cancel elections in 30 local authorities across England. … taxpayers should never have had to rely on opposition parties, newspapers and campaign groups to defend the most basic principles of democracy. Holding regular elections should be the bare minimum we expect of the people in charge.” (02/18/26)
https://archive.is/M4HgH
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Fifth Column, episode 545
Source: The Fifth Column
“Ambiguity in the Age of Outrage (w/ Jon Meacham).” (02/19/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/ambiguity-in-the-age-of-outrage-w
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52) The Libertarian Angle, 02/19/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Oil Siege Against Cuba.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWumQpgTNI
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53) Capital Record, episode 285
Source: National Review
“A Report Card on Corporate America.” (02/19/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/a-report-card-on-corporate-america/
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54) The Lou Perez Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Neoborn Caveman — Everything is Blurry.” (02/19/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/tlpp-neoborn-caveman-everything-is-blurry
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55) Underthrow Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Underthrow
“America has a Corruption Contagion only the People Can Cure w/ Max Borders.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-GWAT8Tc4
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56) Cato Daily Podcast, 02/19/26
Source: Cato Institute
“No Tax on Tips and Overtime? Not So Fast.” (02/19/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/no-tax-tips-overtime-not-so-fast
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57) SolutionsWatch, 02/19/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“Escaping Energy Poverty.” (02/19/26)
https://corbettreport.com/escaping-energy-poverty-solutionswatch/
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58) Speech and Panel Discussion on Brussels Bureaucracy
Source: Cobden Centre
“A couple of weeks ago I [Max Rangeley] gave this speech on EU bureaucracy, followed by a panel discussion at the Martens Centre think tank in Brussels. The Martens Centre is the think tank of the EPP, the largest political group in the European Parliament. The European Commission massively understates the cost of bureaucracy — but what can be done?” (02/19/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/02/speech-and-panel-discussion-on-brussels-bureaucracy/
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59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 02/19/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Erupts in Angry Panic over 2026 as Polls Take Truly Brutal Turn.” (02/19/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/206743/trump-erupts-angry-panic-2026-polls-take-truly-brutal-turn
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/19/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Reps. Khanna and Massie To Force Iran War Powers Vote, Trump Preps Major Attack, and More.” (02/19/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswgpX-X4U0
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61) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 02/18/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“As War with Iran Lurks in Wait, How Did We Get Here? w/ Dr. Arta Moeini.” (02/18/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/amoeini/
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62) Kibbe on Liberty, 02/18/26
Source: Free the People
“Government Corruption Runs Even Deeper Than We Thought | Guest: Mike Benz.” (02/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8RfKZmb64
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63) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2736
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“The GDP Racket, and the AI Profitability Problem.” (02/18/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2736-the-gdp-racket-and-the-ai-profitability-problem/
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64) System Update, 02/18/26
Source: System Update
“Lindsey Graham’s Extreme Devotion to Israel on Full Display.” (02/18/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/lindsey-grahams-extreme-devotion
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65) The Science of Politics, 02/18/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Legislators are raising money instead of making policy.” (02/18/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/legislators-are-raising-money-instead-of-making-policy
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