07/08 -- Trump says he's resuming illegal war vs. Iran; Let's Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 8, 2026, 6:16:07 AM (yesterday) Jul 8
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 07/08/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump says he’s resuming illegal war vs. Iran
2) TX: ICE gang member murders motorist
3) Ukraine: Three killed in Russian strikes
4) Judge Throws Out Trump Media’s Vexatious Lawsuit Against Washington Post
5) UK: Harry loses legal battle against Daily Mail
6) UK: Farage triggers by-election amid donations probe
7) France: Le Pen says she will run for president after court shortens ban on holding office
8) UT: Regime revokes license for boarding school where Paris Hilton says she was abused as a teen
9) NATO picks Swedish Saab early-warning planes over US rival
10) Poll: US support for Israel slips as Democrats grow more critical
11) Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar
12) Ukraine: Woman Suspected in Monaco Bombing Found Shot Dead, Report Says
13) CA: SJSU was told of decades-old allegations against volleyball coach during controversial 2024 season
14) Teen snags Wilt Chamberlain’s LA Lakers jacket at Goodwill for $4. He could make $335k
15) Following Platner Allegations, Progressives Warn Democratic Establishment: “This Is Not Your Opening”
16) Syria: Explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit
17) WI: Supreme Court refuses to release voter records sought by conservative activist
18) Mitch McConnell’s daughter deletes her X account as questions swirl over health after his hospitalization
19) UK: MI5 knew agent was misogynist “obsessed” with violence, watchdog finds
20) Belgium: Regime eyes Palestinian recognition after Hamas steps back from Gaza governance
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Let’s Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
22) Politics is Just Another Word for No Freedom Left to Choose
23) Billionaire Welfare Queens and Their Sycophants
24) People Used to Control Machines. They Don’t Anymore
25) Democracy has a participation problem. AI may help solve it.
26) Mamdani’s Embittered Fourth of July Rant to America
27) Rewarding Good Governance: How Foot-Voters Benefit Society
28) Return-to-office mandates are a pay cut in disguise
29) Today In Dystopia
30) Freedom Versus the Income Tax
31) Memo to Trump: Don’t go wobbly on Ukraine at the NATO summit
32) A Mutual Sympathy of Sentiments
33) A Military Flyover Country Turns 250
34) Why Does the Earth Need More Fences to Stay Green?
35) Why Are Millionaires Leaving the UK?
36) Chatrie and the Long and Winding Road to Privacy
37) Left’s [sic] SCOTUS panic collapses under weight of facts
38) The Plot to Ruin America
39) America: Land of the cheats
40) European Rearmament Is a Trap
41) Maine Needs a Lighthouse Primary
42) Iraq PM embraces his inner Michael Corleone — for the best of reasons
43) Technology shocks and boom bust cycles
44) America Was Not Founded by “Tariff Men,” Contrary to This Painting in Trump’s White House
45) Democreeps Only Believe Women When It’s Useful to Them
46) Progressive Asceticism Will Never Win Elections
47) Hazelwood is the training-wheels version of free speech. It’s past time the Court revisited it.
48) Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act
49) The Elite “OK” to Police Our Every Thought and Move
50) Air Conditioners — Threat or Menace?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, 07/07/26
52) Michael Boldin on The Scott Horton Show
53) Freedom Watch, 07/07/26
54) Advisory Opinions, 07/07/26
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/07/26
56) Cato Podcast, 07/07/26
57) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/07/26
58) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/06/26
59) The Vital Center, 07/06/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/06/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump says he’s resuming illegal war vs. Iran
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump said he believes the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran ‘is over,’ after the US and Iran exchanged strikes across the Middle East. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched strikes on US military targets across Bahrain and Kuwait in response to a wave of US strikes. And Iran’s military said it targeted an air base in Bahrain that hosts US forces. The US had launched strikes and reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales as ‘punishment’ for attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz, according to an American official.” [editor’s note: Not only has there been no declaration of war, there has been a concurrent “war powers resolution” ordering Trump to end the war. If Congress had a spine, he’d have been impeached and removed by now – TLK] (07/08/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/world/live-news/iran-war-nato-summit-ukraine-trump
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2) TX: ICE gang member murders motorist
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal immigration agent fatally shot a driver in Houston on Tuesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has said. Agents stopped Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at around 6.50am and tried to [abduct] him, according to ICE, which described Salgado Araujo as a Mexican national and an ‘illegal [sic] alien’ whom the agency was seeking as part of a ‘targeted enforcement operation.’ … According to ICE, Salgado Araujo ‘weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer’. The confrontation resulted in ‘our officer firing his weapon in self-defense [sic]’.” (07/07/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/07/ice-agents-shoot-motorist-texas-houston
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3) Ukraine: Three killed in Russian strikes
Source: WRAL News
“Three people were killed across Ukraine on Wednesday in overnight Russian attacks, including one in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row. Several explosions were heard shortly after midnight, before authorities issued an air raid alert. It was an unusual sequence of events because warnings typically precede strikes, giving civilians time to find shelter. In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. … [In Russia] Nizhhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev didn’t name the facilities that were damaged. Yuri Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov region, said that Ukrainian drones hit and damaged two oil tankers in Taganrog Bay, injuring two crew members. The crew of one of the ships had to be evacuated.” (07/08/26)
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/83bcb-russian-attacks-kill-3-across-ukraine-strikes-kyiv-for-second-consecutive-night/
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4) Judge Throws Out Trump Media’s Vexatious Lawsuit Against Washington Post
Source: Yahoo! News
“A federal judge ruled in favor of The Washington Post last week, formally throwing out Trump Media’s $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit against the outlet. U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber issued the ruling on Thursday and wrote in his summary docket that President Donald Trump’s social media company ‘failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence’ that the outlet ‘published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.’ … The decision comes three years after Trump Media and Technology Group sued The Washington Post for defamation, alleging a ‘years-long crusade’ had been conducted by the paper.” (07/07/26)
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/judge-throws-trump-media-3-012659265.html
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5) UK: Harry loses legal battle against Daily Mail
Source: CBS News
“Britain’s Prince Harry has lost his long-running legal battle against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday tabloid newspapers, according to court documents seen by CBS News on Tuesday. All claims were thrown out by the court in what is widely expected to be the last of the prince’s courtroom battles against British media outlets. Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was among several claimants in the case — along with pop star Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley — who accused the publisher of the popular tabloids, Associated Newspapers (ANL), of unlawfully gathering information about them through methods such as phone tapping, intercepting voicemails and impersonating people to obtain personal information. In its ruling on Tuesday, the U.K. High Court dismissed the claims, saying they could not be proven.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prince-harry-loses-legal-case-daily-mail-publisher-uk-court-dismisses-claims/
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6) UK: Farage triggers by-election amid donations probe
Source: Politico
“Nigel Farage resigned as an MP Tuesday to trigger a by-election amid intense scrutiny of his financial arrangements. … Farage is being investigated by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg over whether he broke House of Commons rules by failing to declare a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage has repeatedly said he was under no obligation to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP. He said Tuesday he is also being investigated over fresh accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations from crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell.” (07/07/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-triggers-by-election-amid-donations-probe
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7) France: Le Pen says she will run for president after court shortens ban on holding office
Source: Reuters
"French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced that she will run for president in 2027. Le Pen made the announcement during a prime-time TV interview, hours after an appeals court shortened her ban on holding public office. Her presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received the five-year ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. The appeals court in Paris upheld her conviction but significantly shortened the ban, so that in effect it is already over. However, the court said she would need to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year. Le Pen said she would appeal against the ruling to France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation. That would suspend her sentence and the order to wear the tag until the court delivers its own decision, allowing her to campaign freely, she said." (07/07/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/marine-le-pen-verdict-live-frances-far-right-leader-awaits-appeal-ruling-with-2026-07-07/
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8) UT: Regime revokes license for boarding school where Paris Hilton says she was abused as a teen
Source: Seattle Times
“The state of Utah has revoked the license of a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton said she was abused as a teenager, saying the school has ‘failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients.’ The state’s action, which took effect Monday, cites multiple noncompliance issues against the Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville. The school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Department of Health & Human Services. … ‘For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma,’ Hilton said in a statement provided Tuesday. ‘Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care. I was one of those children.’ … She alleges staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills and locked her in solitary confinement without clothing.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/c8rWK
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9) NATO picks Swedish Saab early-warning planes over US rival
Source: Reuters
“NATO announced a roughly $4.5 billion plan on Tuesday to buy up to 10 Saab GlobalEye surveillance planes to replace ageing AWACS early warning aircraft, backing a Swedish system over a rival solution from U.S. planemaker Boeing. Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the replacement of Cold War-era Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes, best known for their rotating radomes, with a new system based on smaller business jets would tackle threats like drone swarms. … With U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly pressing allies to spend more on defence and buy more U.S. equipment, Rutte took pains to underline the international pedigree of the system which is mounted on top of Bombardier Global 6500 business jets. … GlobalEye competes with Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail, an early warning and command-and-control aircraft based on the 737 jetliner and designed to oversee and direct battle.” (07/07/26)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/nato-picks-swedish-saab-early-warning-planes-over-us-rival-2026-07-07/
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10) Poll: US support for Israel slips as Democrats grow more critical
Source: Seattle Times
“After decades of reliable bipartisan backing for Israel, a new AP-NORC poll reveals a dramatic erosion of support for the longtime U.S. ally, with rising opposition from Democrats and signs of division among Republicans. The survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research arrives at a moment when a once-consensus foreign policy issue is increasingly polarizing Americans along partisan and generational lines, driven by criticism for Israel’s conduct nearly three years after the outbreak of its latest war with Hamas in Gaza. About one-third of U.S. adults — including roughly half of Democrats — believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza …. About 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is ‘too supportive’ of the Israelis, up from 45% in an AP-NORC poll from January 2024 when former President Joe Biden was in office. That includes 51% of Jewish Democrats in the new poll.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/IWoxk
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11) Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips. The company forecast that it made 89.4tn won (£43.6bn; $58.4bn) between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row. Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors.” (07/07/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kyy8yrpxdo
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12) Ukraine: Woman Suspected in Monaco Bombing Found Shot Dead, Report Says
Source: US News & World Report
“The body of a Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out a bomb attack that targeted a wealthy Ukrainian-born businessman in Monaco last week was found near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Tuesday. Citing sources in law enforcement, the Ukrainian news outlet said the woman had been shot and her body was found close to 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Monday. Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was named as the chief suspect in an Interpol Red Notice, which said she was Ukrainian, spoke German and was wanted by authorities in Monaco for attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. … Ukrainian-born Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and son were wounded in the attack on Monday last week, sources said.” (07/07/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-07/woman-suspected-in-monaco-bombing-found-shot-dead-near-kyiv-report-says
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13) CA: SJSU was told of decades-old allegations against volleyball coach during controversial 2024 season
Source: Fox News
“During the San Jose State University (SJSU) volleyball team’s scandal-ridden 2024 season, the athletic department received a letter from one of head coach Todd Kress’[s] former players. The letter included allegations that Kress attacked her in a hotel room in 1998. Emails show that SJSU officials acknowledged the receipt of the allegations, thanked the former player for coming forward and apologized for her experiences. Despite this, Kress was never suspended and has continued to serve as the head coach of the women’s volleyball team. Fox News Digital was given copies of the emails exchanged between SJSU and the former Fairfield player, from an independently verified source. Fox News Digital has independently verified she played at Fairfield under Kress in the 1998 season, but is not disclosing her name.” (07/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/sjsu-told-decades-old-allegations-against-volleyball-coach-during-controversial-2024-season
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14) Teen snags Wilt Chamberlain’s LA Lakers jacket at Goodwill for $4. He could make $335k
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“When Quinn Brown, 19, first laid eyes on basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain’s 1972 Los Angeles Lakers warmup jacket, it was in somebody else’s hands. The Portland, Ore., teen was picking through bins of new arrivals at a local Goodwill store in January when he saw another shopper pick up a massive, bright yellow jacket with Chamberlain’s name etched on the back. The shopper eyed it indecisively, then tossed it back. Brown snatched it up. As an avid thrifter, he says he knew right away it was a good find. He bought it for $3.07 US ($4.36 Cdn), figuring he could sell it online for a couple hundred bucks. Now it’s on the auction block at Sotheby’s, where it’s expected to fetch as much as $250,000 US ($355,150 Cdn). … it wasn’t until he started looking up photos online that he began to suspect it might actually have been worn by Chamberlain himself.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/wilt-chamberlain-jacket-goodwill-9.7260381?cmp=rss
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15) Following Platner Allegations, Progressives Warn Democratic Establishment: “This Is Not Your Opening”
Source: Common Dreams
“As calls mounted on Monday evening for US Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out of the race in Maine following sexual assault allegations, progressive organizers emphasized that primary voters in the state have made clear their demand for a candidate who prioritizes the needs of working people. Should Platner be replaced as the Democratic nominee, said the political action organization Our Revolution, the new candidate must be ‘one who has actually lived the fight Graham Platner ran on: a record with working people, with unions, against corporate money’. ‘To the Democratic establishment: This is not your opening,’ said Joseph Geevarghese, the group’s executive director. ‘Mainers did not vote by an overwhelming margin against Janet Mills and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee]’s handpicked pick just to be handed another status-quo candidate anyway.'” [editor’s note: Newsflash for these idiots, “what they voted for” was no more Gov Mills in a position of power! Platner was just what they considered “the lesser evil” – SAT] (07/07/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/platner-election
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16) Syria: Explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least two explosive devices have gone off in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as French President Emmanuel Macron visits the country. Syria’s Interior Ministry said at least 18 people, including four police officers, were wounded in the blasts, the state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. Television footage showed plumes of smoke rising over the city and other footage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera showed a vehicle on fire. An Al Jazeera correspondent said that the blasts occurred near the Ministry of Tourism and a hotel where Macron was meant to be staying during a visit to the capital for talks with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa.” (07/07/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/7/explosions-heard-in-syrias-damascus
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17) WI: Supreme Court refuses to release voter records sought by conservative activist
Source: SFGate
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by a conservative activist to obtain guardianship records in an effort to find ineligible voters in the presidential battleground state. The case has been winding its way through the courts for years and stems from attempts by conservatives to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin over President Donald Trump in 2020. The case tested the line between protecting personal privacy rights and ensuring that ineligible people can’t vote. Former travel executive Ron Heuer and a group he leads, the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, brought the lawsuit in 2022 alleging that the number of ineligible voters doesn’t match the count on Wisconsin’s voter registration list. The lawsuit doesn’t specify how many people could be affected.” (07/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-refuses-to-release-voter-22335491.php
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18) Mitch McConnell’s daughter deletes her X account as questions swirl over health after his hospitalization
Source: Independent [UK]
“The daughter of Senator Mitch McConnell has deleted her X account amid widespread speculation over the former Senate majority leader’s health, following a sudden June hospitalization. It is unclear when or why Porter McConnell, a progressive-leaning political activist who previously directed the Take On Wall Street campaign, deleted her account. … McConnell was found unconscious on June 14 and received CPR after suffering an apparent heart attack in his Washington, D.C., home, according to emergency records obtained by a variety of news outlets. Little else is known about his current condition.” (07/06/26)
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/mitch-mcconnell-health-daughter-x-account-b3010103.html
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19) UK: MI5 knew agent was misogynist “obsessed” with violence, watchdog finds
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A secret inquiry by MI5’s watchdog concluded the security service knew an abusive agent it defended in court was a misogynist who was ‘obsessed’ with violence, the BBC can reveal. The inquiry took place after BBC News originally exposed how MI5 had covered up for the man – a neo-Nazi informant known publicly as agent X. The government took the BBC to court in 2022 in a failed attempt to block our investigation, but it won agent X legal anonymity. That year, the BBC first reported how the MI5 spy had used his status to coercively control his girlfriend, including attacking her with a machete, before moving abroad to continue intelligence work while he was still under investigation. Following the BBC story, the office of the investigatory powers commissioner (IPCO) Sir Brian Leveson launched an inquiry, which – like much of IPCO’s work – was secret.” (07/07/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9gggjekyjo
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20) Belgium: Regime eyes Palestinian recognition after Hamas steps back from Gaza governance
Source: Politico
“Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said Monday that he has instructed his Cabinet to move toward a decision on recognizing Palestinian statehood. The move comes after the militant group Hamas announced earlier in the day that it would dissolve the body that has governed Gaza for the best part of 20 years. Hamas stepping away from power is one of Prévot’s prerequisites for Belgian recognition of Palestine.” (07/06/26)
https://archive.is/RVfMx
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Let’s Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“[P]erhaps the most destructive ‘own-goal’ of the US attack is the Iranian decision to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz. Even in the US/Israeli attacks of last June, the Strait was kept open by Iran. It is a vital trade route and in everyone’s best interest to keep open for business. The February attack and Iran’s strong regional response led the country to embrace what some have called a de facto nuclear weapon: control of the Strait. … It is in the best interest of the United States to abandon claims on Hormuz – which is thousands of miles away – and live with the consequences of Trump’s mistake.” (07/07/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/07/06/lets-leave-the-strait-of-hormuz-alone
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22) Politics is Just Another Word for No Freedom Left to Choose
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg
“Big business versus big government is the ultimate false dichotomy of our time. Championing the former won’t break the cycle that allows both to marginalize the scope of (and solutions emerging from) voluntary cooperation, decentralized association, and individual freedom.” (07/07/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20727
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23) Billionaire Welfare Queens and Their Sycophants
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem
“Elon Musk has taken in at least $38 billion in subsidies and federal contracts, not counting the $1.5 billion EV subsidy Tesla took advantage of from President Barack Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA gave a $7,500 per vehicle subsidy to electric vehicle purchases. In total, that $39.5 billion in subsidies amounts to $470 for every one of the 84.2 million American families. That means the average family is $470 poorer because of Elon Musk. Billionaire and trillionaire sycophants counter that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and the other super-wealthy provide services to the American government, that these services are ‘worth it,’ and that if they hadn’t provided the services or taken the subsidies someone else would have. … [That] sounds a lot like an argument a leftist greenie and a loyalist of the military-industrial complex would make, respectively.” (07/07/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/billionaire-welfare-queens-and-their-sycophants
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24) People Used to Control Machines. They Don’t Anymore
Source: Wired
by Ian Bogost
“If gratification is so easy, why don’t you feel more gratified already? Because it’s gotten harder. It’s still easy to experience individual feats of gratification when you find them (or they find you). But the ordinary circumstances that once produced so much gratification have gradually receded. Unseen choices in design, business, and social life have made it harder for you to engage directly with the sensory world. This problem snuck up on me, and probably on you as well. Slowly, over time, the world started withdrawing from us. Automation took over ordinary tasks. Things that used to have buttons suddenly did not. Basic activities got taken over by computers. I was slow to notice it happening, too. But once I did, I saw it everywhere and every day.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/ivBfr
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25) Democracy has a participation problem. AI may help solve it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Education
by Chloe Ratner
“While discussions about AI often focus on misinformation and transparency, these concerns miss the bigger picture. The question is no longer whether AI should shape democratic processes — it already does — but how it can be channeled to promote free speech and democracy with imperfect tools. Generative AI has become a hot debate topic in the world of First Amendment rights and free speech. Questions about how to classify AI-generated content, what protections it does or does not deserve, and who bears liability for its outputs represent genuine legal and ethical frontiers. But amid these legal and ethical debates, a fundamental capability of AI gets lost in the noise: its ability to sort, organize, and amplify human speech rather than replace it.” (07/08/25)
https://www.fire.org/news/democracy-has-participation-problem-ai-may-help-solve-it
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26) Mamdani’s Embittered Fourth of July Rant to America
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“Zohran Mamdani, New York’s self-described socialist mayor, could not resist using the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration to trash the very country that he and his parents voluntarily sought out. As is his custom, Mamdani speaks in stereotypes and generalities, offering few if any examples, all laced with his accustomed unctuous hypocrisy. … At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Thus spoke the pampered rich kid from Uganda, who immigrated to America with his now-endowed professor father and elite filmmaker mother, the latter reportedly supported by millions of dollars in grants from the Qatari royal autocracy.” (07/07/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/07/mamdanis-embittered-fourth-of-july-rant-to-america/
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27) Rewarding Good Governance: How Foot-Voters Benefit Society
Source: The Daily Economy
by Emile Phaneuf III
“Governance improves when people and businesses are free to leave high-tax, low-value jurisdictions. Competition can improve public policy just as it improves products and services.” (07/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rewarding-good-governance-how-foot-voters-benefit-society/
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28) Return-to-office mandates are a pay cut in disguise
Source: The Hill
by Gleb Tsipursky
“Return-to-office is a compensation decision that hits wallets first and morale soon after. If leaders want people in seats, the fair move is simple: cover the costs or raise the pay. When workers go to the office, they pay to work. The typical in-office day now runs roughly $15 for the commute, $9 for parking, $13 for breakfast or coffee, and $18 for lunch, all detailed in the 2025 Owl Labs report.” [editor’s note: While I agree that it’s a pay cut, if you’re spending $13 for breakfast/coffee and $18 for lunch on a daily basis, I suggest Googling terms like “lunch box” and “insulated mug” – TLK] (07/07/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5955528-office-commute-costs-employees/
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29) Today In Dystopia
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquity of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces. Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now. Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil.” (07/07/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/07/today-in-dystopia/
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30) Freedom Versus the Income Tax
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“[F]or more than 100 years, Americans were free to keep everything they earned — 100 percent — and there was nothing that U.S. officials could do about. That’s what it once meant to be an American. That’s what it once meant to be free. By the time the late 1800s came along, the standard of living of the American people was skyrocketing. A big reason for that phenomenon was that there had been no income tax for almost 100 years.” (07/07/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/07/07/freedom-versus-the-income-tax/
-----
31) Memo to Trump: Don’t go wobbly on Ukraine at the NATO summit
Source: New York Post
by staff
“As President Donald Trump prepares to take center stage at the NATO summit in Ankara, he must place the robust defense of Ukraine at the absolute top of the agenda. Whatever he does — whatever his current irritations — he must not look to throw Kyiv under the bus. Rather, with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin still baring his gritted teeth, Trump must communicate to his counterparts in the great North Atlantic security alliance the necessity of holding the line, ramping up pressure on Moscow and bolstering its defensive posture on the eastern frontier. Russian aggression is Europe’s generational security challenge (and down the road, potentially America’s, too); it demands to be top-of-mind for every leader in the alliance. Anything less would signal weakness to Putin and embolden adversaries from Beijing to Tehran.” (07/06/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/06/opinion/memo-to-trump-dont-go-wobbly-on-ukraine-at-the-nato-summit/
-----
32) A Mutual Sympathy of Sentiments
Source: EconLog
by Art Carden
“In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith explains that we want to establish a ‘mutual sympathy of sentiments.’ We want people to agree with our views, and we want to agree with their views. Smith first expanded on this idea … before he developed his broader theory of a commercial society in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The implications were astounding: a complex division of labor and division of knowledge, and the kind of prosperity we see today. That’s what every bid and ask in a market is: a request to cooperate through mutual sympathy with another person. It can be plainly rejected by someone who doesn’t share similar sentiments, but every opportunity to exchange is a sacred opportunity to work together with someone to mutual advantage.” (07/07/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/a-mutual-sympathy-of-sentiments
-----
33) A Military Flyover Country Turns 250
Source: Common Dreams
by Bita Iuliano & Olivia Dinucci
“As the country and this administration launched its America 250 and Freedom 250 ‘Celebrations’ over the holiday weekend, what we experienced in the nation’s capitol and a city of 700,000 residents replicated what the United States does to other parts of the world. The streets were invaded by the military, public spaces barricaded with multiple levels of security checkpoints, and the sky full of military flyovers, including a seven-hour schedule of flyovers on July 4th. Military flyovers come at a devastating cost—economically, psychologically, and environmentally. The most recent ones came in the middle of a heatwave where even Trump’s American State Fair closed after people were baptizing themselves in the religious tent to prevent heat stroke. But flyovers are not new and have been used as a propaganda tool for military recruitment during NFL games and summer festivals. The militarization has been so normalized for so long.” (07/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/patriotic-flyovers
-----
34) Why Does the Earth Need More Fences to Stay Green?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Ketevani Kadagishvili
“Walk down any residential street and you will notice a curious, common pattern. A homeowner’s private garden is often a well-tended space filled with blooming flowers and vibrant life. In contrast, the public park we share is frequently damaged by litter, ruined grass, and broken benches. Why does this difference exist? The answer lies in the deep connection between ownership and care, a principle that Frédéric Bastiat understood nearly two centuries ago.” (07/07/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/why-does-the-earth-need-more-fences-to-stay-green/
-----
35) Why Are Millionaires Leaving the UK?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“Samuel Johnson once wrote that ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’ Today, however, there seems to be one group that is tired of London: millionaires.” (07/07/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-are-millionaires-leaving-the-uk/
-----
36) Chatrie and the Long and Winding Road to Privacy
Source: Law & Liberty
by Amy Peikoff
“A Supreme Court ruling on cell phone location data may signal a deeper shift in how courts define privacy under the Fourth Amendment.” (07/07/26)
https://lawliberty.org/chatrie-and-the-long-and-winding-road-to-privacy/
-----
37) Left’s [sic] SCOTUS panic collapses under weight of facts
Source: Fox News
by John Yoo
“The Supreme Court’s rush of decisions last week belies several myths concocted by its leftist [sic] critics. Listen to Democratic politicians or read liberal [sic] legal commentators, and you would believe that a conservative Supreme Court is marching in lockstep with Donald Trump to impose an extremist agenda on an unwilling American people. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY] for example, often criticizes what he dubs ‘the MAGA Supreme Court’ for transforming government agencies into ‘members-only clubs for his golf buddies and cronies’. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY] decries ‘the corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump’ for ‘taking a blowtorch’ to civil rights laws. Almost every Democratic leader, especially those jockeying for position in the 2028 presidential race, demands that Congress pack the court in order to correct this alleged bias of the conservative justices.” (07/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/john-yoo-lefts-supreme-court-panic-collapses-weight-facts
-----
38) The Plot to Ruin America
Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Estes
“Nothing encapsulates the decline of the American project quite like the optics of its 250th anniversary. While four hundred masked neo-fascists marched through the capitol in navy-blue button-downs and khakis chanting ‘Reclaim America!’—entirely unchallenged either by police or antifascists—the official Independence Day parade was canceled because of extreme heat. It’s a disturbing vignette for our era. The country is turning far to the right and becoming too hot to even celebrate its own founding myths, reaching temperatures that climate scientists said would have been ‘virtually impossible’ before human-caused climate change. So who’s to blame for this current mess? Predictably, the political class has no interest in examining the structural decay.” (07/07/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/07/the-plot-to-ruin-america/
-----
39) America: Land of the cheats
Source: UnHerd
by B Duncan Moench
“‘Ball don’t lie.’ This phrase, originally attributed to NBA star Rasheed Wallace, comes from American basketball culture and implies that, no matter what the referees or back-office bureaucrats do to intervene in the game, the ball will end up where it should. If it goes through the net, the sporting gods wanted it to happen. The best team wins. Always. … Yes, Donald Trump may have personally intervened with Fifa to get Folarin Balogun, America’s star striker, an exception on the red card he’d earned in the previous match. But having Daddy Warbucks pull strings for your side can take an athletic effort only so far: in the end, Belgium won the game 4-1.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/PF12h
-----
40) European Rearmament Is a Trap
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“[T]he plain truth is that the U.S. military presence is not necessary to keep the Cossacks from waltzing into Warsaw, let alone Berlin or Paris. This would be the case even in the absence of the current rearmament push, and even if Russia had demonstrable designs on European territory beyond Ukraine. The non-U.S. members of NATO have a collective GDP that is over 10 times that of Russia. There are over 600 million Europeans to about 140 million Russians. Although its militaries are short on what the heads call ‘strategic enablers,’ there is little doubt that they would make a conventional conflict with Russia so painful as to deter its commencement. And indeed, when it comes to Russia, America’s aim should be to avoid conflict—not provoke it.” (07/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/european-rearmament-is-a-trap/
-----
41) Maine Needs a Lighthouse Primary
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The first of the two times I wrote about Graham Platner at these pages was last year. Among other things, it made the point that candidates are vessels for ideas and policies, and that none of them are indispensable. The second time, a week ago, was about how financial corruption exists on a different plane than other scandals. That is not diminished by the latest news; Platner’s actions and Susan Collins’s corruption can both be inexcusable and described as such. Regardless of any public defiance from unnamed sources, Platner is not going to survive the latest allegations, and he should not. What comes next is the only thing that matters now, in a world where a Democratic Senate is vital to preventing continued unchecked lawlessness, the confirmation of dozens more right-wing judges, and to preserve the vestiges of democracy.” [editor’s note: In recent years I have watched from afar the madness in my homeland states, with a mixture of amusement and horror. I am SO happy to be back to amusement – SAT] (07/07/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/06/maine-needs-lighthouse-primary-graham-platner-senate-susan-collins/
-----
42) Iraq PM embraces his inner Michael Corleone — for the best of reasons
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Tanya Goudsouzian & Ibrahim Al-Marashi
“Ali Al Zaidi has launched an unprecedented but much needed crackdown on figures tied to the country’s massively corrupt patronage system.” (07/07/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ali-zaidi-iraq-corruption/
-----
43) Technology shocks and boom bust cycles
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“Contrary to KP, an economic boom is not about economic prosperity and wealth generation, but about the diversion of resources from the wealth generating activities towards activities that consume and do not produce wealth i.e. undermine the wealth generating process. Or we could say that an economic boom gives rise to activities that are engaged in consumption, which is unbacked by the previous production of wealth i.e. non-productive consumption. If for some reason the diversion of resources is arrested, various non-productive activities that sprang up as a result of this diversion come under pressure i.e. an economic bust emerges.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/07/technology-shocks-and-boom-bust-cycles/
-----
44) America Was Not Founded by “Tariff Men,” Contrary to This Painting in Trump’s White House
Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness
“The significance of trade to the Revolution’s origins helps to resolve a long-observed paradox about the colonists’ motives. Despite the Revolution’s reputation as a tax revolt, Americans paid relatively low tax rates compared to people in England proper. The total sum was ‘paltry,’ and most of Parliament’s new revenue measures were ‘moderate and often short-lived,’ to quote economist Deirdre Nansen Mccloskey. They nonetheless sparked a political upheaval against the assertion of a novel and foreign authority. The issue was not the tax rate; it was the fact that Parliament could claim a tax power over trade, and thus over all else.” (07/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/06/america-founded-tariff-men/
-----
45) Democreeps Only Believe Women When It’s Useful to Them
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“What a difference political affiliation makes. Democrat Graham Platner is now on the outs with the party, not because of assaulting women, but because he is accused of assaulting a fellow Democrat. That party has lost its soul, as has the media. When Platner was accused of assaulting and abusing a conservative woman he dated, none of these people cared. ‘She can’t be trusted, she’s a conservative activist’, they said. The devotion to victims, the currency of victimhood, disappeared when it wasn’t one of ‘their team’. Ro Khana, a ‘progressive’ leftist hypocrite from California who rails against wealth while amassing a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars through marriage and stock trades, was unbothered when a conservative woman told of how Platner was physically abusive with her, just as long as ‘there were no more shoes to drop’.” (07/07/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/07/07/democreeps-only-believe-women-when-its-useful-to-them-n2678931
-----
46) Progressive Asceticism Will Never Win Elections
Source: Persuasion
by Harry Cheadle
“Alicia Kennedy, one of the most celebrated food writers of her generation, sometimes seems to approach food as a series of moral dilemmas waiting to be untangled. In her new memoir, On Eating—a useful starting point to consider progressive culture as a whole—she writes that alcohol ‘is one of the most wasteful things one can consume, producing twelve times the wastewater for the amount of spirit created.’ Climate change may make wheat scarce, she worries. Sugar, meanwhile, conjures up a litany of horrors—it was originally harvested by slaves, and the present-day sugar industry is often accused of mistreating workers. … For at least a decade, left-of-center, educated, middle-class-and-above Westerners have become inflamed with guilt for the way we live. In a roundabout way, the left has reinvented the idea of sin.” (07/06/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/progressives-have-reinvented-sin
-----
47) Hazelwood is the training-wheels version of free speech. It’s past time the Court revisited it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“For nearly four decades, students in America’s public schools have experienced a straightjacketed version of the First Amendment. That’s due to the Supreme Court’s Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision. School administrators — who are government officials — have used Hazelwood to censor student expression, often prioritizing the school’s reputation over student voices. These administrators mark certain stories and topics as off-limits, including critiques of school boards or commentary on federal immigration policy. … Justice Samuel Alito’s recent dissent calling the Court to reconsider Hazelwood should be echoed, not dismissed.” (07/06/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/hazelwood-training-wheels-version-free-speech-its-past-time-court-revisited-it
-----
48) Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act
Source: Reason
by Joe Lancaster
“When the U.S. launched a war against Iran in February, it sent the prices of goods like fuel and fertilizer skyrocketing. Hoping to remediate the damage, President Donald Trump issued a waiver of Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Better known as the Jones Act, the statute says cargo moving between American ports must be carried on a ship that was built in America, with predominantly American owners and crew. … Since the waiver has been in effect, America’s shipping lanes have thrived—providing further evidence that we should scrap the Jones Act altogether.” (07/06/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/06/shipping-thrived-after-trump-waived-the-jones-act/
-----
49) The Elite “OK” to Police Our Every Thought and Move
Source: In These Times
by Adam Johnson and Steven Thrasher
“In late May, Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza spoke with Steven Thrasher, author of The Overseer Class: A Manifesto, about their respective books’ efforts to catalogue the ways that many of the same elite voices now opposed to Trump resorted to similarly Orwellian and even violent tactics in their effort to quell the movement for Palestinian liberation after Oct. 7. Their talk dissects the way these powerful liberals, as Thrasher puts it, exist to ’police the boundaries of what we’re allowed to think about and what we’re allowed to do.'” (07/06/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/steven-thrasher-adam-johnson-books-palestinian-liberation-complicity
-----
50) Air Conditioners — Threat or Menace?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Is it selfish, asks Good Morning Britain, to want air conditioning? Yes, it’s selfish to want to live and prosper and be comfortable in 90 degree heat. And this ‘selfish’ cooling is bad because … ? According to ‘the experts’ queried by the Good Morning Britain presenters — which broadcasts using ‘non-green’ energy — it’s bad because ‘we know’ that the cooling of indoor air will heat up the outdoors — and therefore the planet. Catastrophically, of course. But we don’t know. It’s one of many unproven assertions about the future of weather that get tossed around to make us feel guilty about not wanting to live in caves and eat dandelions.” (07/06/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/06/air-conditioners/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, 07/07/26
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Does Tucker Carlson Understand the Rigged Two Party System?” (07/07/26)
https://rumble.com/v7ccd2q-does-tucker-carlson-understand-the-rigged-two-party-system-gracearchy-with-.html
-----
52) Michael Boldin on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Michael Boldin on How the American Revolution Has Been Betrayed.” (07/07/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/7-3-26-michael-boldin-on-how-the-american-revolution-has-been-betrayed/
-----
53) Freedom Watch, 07/07/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Bizarre Support of Communism in Venezuela.” (07/07/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPNisOPb1rc
-----
54) Advisory Opinions, 07/07/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Complicating the Polarization Narrative.” (07/07/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/complicating-the-polarization-narrative/
-----
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/07/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“The Harmony of the American Founding with Hans Eicholz, hosted by James M. Patterson.” (07/07/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-intellectual-harmony-of-the-american-founding/
-----
56) Cato Podcast, 07/07/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Data Centers Turn Electricity into Breakthroughs.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/data-centers-turn-electricity-breakthroughs
-----
57) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/07/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly check-in with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. We talk about the growing threat of flock cameras and whether we have a duty to participate in our own enslavement.” (07/07/26)
https://www.thebryanhydeshow.com/
-----
58) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/06/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Jim Webb: Commies or Trump? Who Is a Threat to the American Dream.” (07/06/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-jim-webb-commies-or-trump-who-is-a-threat-to-the-american-dream/
-----
59) The Vital Center, 07/06/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Can Democrats win back the working class, with Joan Williams.” (07/06/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/can-democrats-win-back-the-working-class-with-joan-williams/
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/06/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Threatens Attacks on Iran If No Deal, Israeli Drone Strike Kills Four in Lebanon, and More.” (07/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNaOi6hWJm0
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump says he’s resuming illegal war vs. Iran
2) TX: ICE gang member murders motorist
3) Ukraine: Three killed in Russian strikes
4) Judge Throws Out Trump Media’s Vexatious Lawsuit Against Washington Post
5) UK: Harry loses legal battle against Daily Mail
6) UK: Farage triggers by-election amid donations probe
7) France: Le Pen says she will run for president after court shortens ban on holding office
8) UT: Regime revokes license for boarding school where Paris Hilton says she was abused as a teen
9) NATO picks Swedish Saab early-warning planes over US rival
10) Poll: US support for Israel slips as Democrats grow more critical
11) Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar
12) Ukraine: Woman Suspected in Monaco Bombing Found Shot Dead, Report Says
13) CA: SJSU was told of decades-old allegations against volleyball coach during controversial 2024 season
14) Teen snags Wilt Chamberlain’s LA Lakers jacket at Goodwill for $4. He could make $335k
15) Following Platner Allegations, Progressives Warn Democratic Establishment: “This Is Not Your Opening”
16) Syria: Explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit
17) WI: Supreme Court refuses to release voter records sought by conservative activist
18) Mitch McConnell’s daughter deletes her X account as questions swirl over health after his hospitalization
19) UK: MI5 knew agent was misogynist “obsessed” with violence, watchdog finds
20) Belgium: Regime eyes Palestinian recognition after Hamas steps back from Gaza governance
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Let’s Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
22) Politics is Just Another Word for No Freedom Left to Choose
23) Billionaire Welfare Queens and Their Sycophants
24) People Used to Control Machines. They Don’t Anymore
25) Democracy has a participation problem. AI may help solve it.
26) Mamdani’s Embittered Fourth of July Rant to America
27) Rewarding Good Governance: How Foot-Voters Benefit Society
28) Return-to-office mandates are a pay cut in disguise
29) Today In Dystopia
30) Freedom Versus the Income Tax
31) Memo to Trump: Don’t go wobbly on Ukraine at the NATO summit
32) A Mutual Sympathy of Sentiments
33) A Military Flyover Country Turns 250
34) Why Does the Earth Need More Fences to Stay Green?
35) Why Are Millionaires Leaving the UK?
36) Chatrie and the Long and Winding Road to Privacy
37) Left’s [sic] SCOTUS panic collapses under weight of facts
38) The Plot to Ruin America
39) America: Land of the cheats
40) European Rearmament Is a Trap
41) Maine Needs a Lighthouse Primary
42) Iraq PM embraces his inner Michael Corleone — for the best of reasons
43) Technology shocks and boom bust cycles
44) America Was Not Founded by “Tariff Men,” Contrary to This Painting in Trump’s White House
45) Democreeps Only Believe Women When It’s Useful to Them
46) Progressive Asceticism Will Never Win Elections
47) Hazelwood is the training-wheels version of free speech. It’s past time the Court revisited it.
48) Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act
49) The Elite “OK” to Police Our Every Thought and Move
50) Air Conditioners — Threat or Menace?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, 07/07/26
52) Michael Boldin on The Scott Horton Show
53) Freedom Watch, 07/07/26
54) Advisory Opinions, 07/07/26
55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/07/26
56) Cato Podcast, 07/07/26
57) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/07/26
58) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/06/26
59) The Vital Center, 07/06/26
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/06/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump says he’s resuming illegal war vs. Iran
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump said he believes the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran ‘is over,’ after the US and Iran exchanged strikes across the Middle East. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched strikes on US military targets across Bahrain and Kuwait in response to a wave of US strikes. And Iran’s military said it targeted an air base in Bahrain that hosts US forces. The US had launched strikes and reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales as ‘punishment’ for attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz, according to an American official.” [editor’s note: Not only has there been no declaration of war, there has been a concurrent “war powers resolution” ordering Trump to end the war. If Congress had a spine, he’d have been impeached and removed by now – TLK] (07/08/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/world/live-news/iran-war-nato-summit-ukraine-trump
-----
2) TX: ICE gang member murders motorist
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal immigration agent fatally shot a driver in Houston on Tuesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has said. Agents stopped Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at around 6.50am and tried to [abduct] him, according to ICE, which described Salgado Araujo as a Mexican national and an ‘illegal [sic] alien’ whom the agency was seeking as part of a ‘targeted enforcement operation.’ … According to ICE, Salgado Araujo ‘weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer’. The confrontation resulted in ‘our officer firing his weapon in self-defense [sic]’.” (07/07/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/07/ice-agents-shoot-motorist-texas-houston
-----
3) Ukraine: Three killed in Russian strikes
Source: WRAL News
“Three people were killed across Ukraine on Wednesday in overnight Russian attacks, including one in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row. Several explosions were heard shortly after midnight, before authorities issued an air raid alert. It was an unusual sequence of events because warnings typically precede strikes, giving civilians time to find shelter. In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. … [In Russia] Nizhhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev didn’t name the facilities that were damaged. Yuri Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov region, said that Ukrainian drones hit and damaged two oil tankers in Taganrog Bay, injuring two crew members. The crew of one of the ships had to be evacuated.” (07/08/26)
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/83bcb-russian-attacks-kill-3-across-ukraine-strikes-kyiv-for-second-consecutive-night/
-----
4) Judge Throws Out Trump Media’s Vexatious Lawsuit Against Washington Post
Source: Yahoo! News
“A federal judge ruled in favor of The Washington Post last week, formally throwing out Trump Media’s $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit against the outlet. U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber issued the ruling on Thursday and wrote in his summary docket that President Donald Trump’s social media company ‘failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence’ that the outlet ‘published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.’ … The decision comes three years after Trump Media and Technology Group sued The Washington Post for defamation, alleging a ‘years-long crusade’ had been conducted by the paper.” (07/07/26)
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/judge-throws-trump-media-3-012659265.html
-----
5) UK: Harry loses legal battle against Daily Mail
Source: CBS News
“Britain’s Prince Harry has lost his long-running legal battle against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday tabloid newspapers, according to court documents seen by CBS News on Tuesday. All claims were thrown out by the court in what is widely expected to be the last of the prince’s courtroom battles against British media outlets. Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was among several claimants in the case — along with pop star Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley — who accused the publisher of the popular tabloids, Associated Newspapers (ANL), of unlawfully gathering information about them through methods such as phone tapping, intercepting voicemails and impersonating people to obtain personal information. In its ruling on Tuesday, the U.K. High Court dismissed the claims, saying they could not be proven.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prince-harry-loses-legal-case-daily-mail-publisher-uk-court-dismisses-claims/
-----
6) UK: Farage triggers by-election amid donations probe
Source: Politico
“Nigel Farage resigned as an MP Tuesday to trigger a by-election amid intense scrutiny of his financial arrangements. … Farage is being investigated by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg over whether he broke House of Commons rules by failing to declare a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage has repeatedly said he was under no obligation to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP. He said Tuesday he is also being investigated over fresh accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations from crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell.” (07/07/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-triggers-by-election-amid-donations-probe
-----
7) France: Le Pen says she will run for president after court shortens ban on holding office
Source: Reuters
"French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced that she will run for president in 2027. Le Pen made the announcement during a prime-time TV interview, hours after an appeals court shortened her ban on holding public office. Her presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received the five-year ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. The appeals court in Paris upheld her conviction but significantly shortened the ban, so that in effect it is already over. However, the court said she would need to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year. Le Pen said she would appeal against the ruling to France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation. That would suspend her sentence and the order to wear the tag until the court delivers its own decision, allowing her to campaign freely, she said." (07/07/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/marine-le-pen-verdict-live-frances-far-right-leader-awaits-appeal-ruling-with-2026-07-07/
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8) UT: Regime revokes license for boarding school where Paris Hilton says she was abused as a teen
Source: Seattle Times
“The state of Utah has revoked the license of a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton said she was abused as a teenager, saying the school has ‘failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients.’ The state’s action, which took effect Monday, cites multiple noncompliance issues against the Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville. The school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Department of Health & Human Services. … ‘For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma,’ Hilton said in a statement provided Tuesday. ‘Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care. I was one of those children.’ … She alleges staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills and locked her in solitary confinement without clothing.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/c8rWK
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9) NATO picks Swedish Saab early-warning planes over US rival
Source: Reuters
“NATO announced a roughly $4.5 billion plan on Tuesday to buy up to 10 Saab GlobalEye surveillance planes to replace ageing AWACS early warning aircraft, backing a Swedish system over a rival solution from U.S. planemaker Boeing. Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the replacement of Cold War-era Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes, best known for their rotating radomes, with a new system based on smaller business jets would tackle threats like drone swarms. … With U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly pressing allies to spend more on defence and buy more U.S. equipment, Rutte took pains to underline the international pedigree of the system which is mounted on top of Bombardier Global 6500 business jets. … GlobalEye competes with Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail, an early warning and command-and-control aircraft based on the 737 jetliner and designed to oversee and direct battle.” (07/07/26)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/nato-picks-swedish-saab-early-warning-planes-over-us-rival-2026-07-07/
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10) Poll: US support for Israel slips as Democrats grow more critical
Source: Seattle Times
“After decades of reliable bipartisan backing for Israel, a new AP-NORC poll reveals a dramatic erosion of support for the longtime U.S. ally, with rising opposition from Democrats and signs of division among Republicans. The survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research arrives at a moment when a once-consensus foreign policy issue is increasingly polarizing Americans along partisan and generational lines, driven by criticism for Israel’s conduct nearly three years after the outbreak of its latest war with Hamas in Gaza. About one-third of U.S. adults — including roughly half of Democrats — believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza …. About 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is ‘too supportive’ of the Israelis, up from 45% in an AP-NORC poll from January 2024 when former President Joe Biden was in office. That includes 51% of Jewish Democrats in the new poll.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/IWoxk
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11) Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips. The company forecast that it made 89.4tn won (£43.6bn; $58.4bn) between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row. Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors.” (07/07/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kyy8yrpxdo
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12) Ukraine: Woman Suspected in Monaco Bombing Found Shot Dead, Report Says
Source: US News & World Report
“The body of a Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out a bomb attack that targeted a wealthy Ukrainian-born businessman in Monaco last week was found near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Tuesday. Citing sources in law enforcement, the Ukrainian news outlet said the woman had been shot and her body was found close to 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Monday. Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was named as the chief suspect in an Interpol Red Notice, which said she was Ukrainian, spoke German and was wanted by authorities in Monaco for attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. … Ukrainian-born Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and son were wounded in the attack on Monday last week, sources said.” (07/07/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-07/woman-suspected-in-monaco-bombing-found-shot-dead-near-kyiv-report-says
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13) CA: SJSU was told of decades-old allegations against volleyball coach during controversial 2024 season
Source: Fox News
“During the San Jose State University (SJSU) volleyball team’s scandal-ridden 2024 season, the athletic department received a letter from one of head coach Todd Kress’[s] former players. The letter included allegations that Kress attacked her in a hotel room in 1998. Emails show that SJSU officials acknowledged the receipt of the allegations, thanked the former player for coming forward and apologized for her experiences. Despite this, Kress was never suspended and has continued to serve as the head coach of the women’s volleyball team. Fox News Digital was given copies of the emails exchanged between SJSU and the former Fairfield player, from an independently verified source. Fox News Digital has independently verified she played at Fairfield under Kress in the 1998 season, but is not disclosing her name.” (07/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/sjsu-told-decades-old-allegations-against-volleyball-coach-during-controversial-2024-season
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14) Teen snags Wilt Chamberlain’s LA Lakers jacket at Goodwill for $4. He could make $335k
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“When Quinn Brown, 19, first laid eyes on basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain’s 1972 Los Angeles Lakers warmup jacket, it was in somebody else’s hands. The Portland, Ore., teen was picking through bins of new arrivals at a local Goodwill store in January when he saw another shopper pick up a massive, bright yellow jacket with Chamberlain’s name etched on the back. The shopper eyed it indecisively, then tossed it back. Brown snatched it up. As an avid thrifter, he says he knew right away it was a good find. He bought it for $3.07 US ($4.36 Cdn), figuring he could sell it online for a couple hundred bucks. Now it’s on the auction block at Sotheby’s, where it’s expected to fetch as much as $250,000 US ($355,150 Cdn). … it wasn’t until he started looking up photos online that he began to suspect it might actually have been worn by Chamberlain himself.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/wilt-chamberlain-jacket-goodwill-9.7260381?cmp=rss
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15) Following Platner Allegations, Progressives Warn Democratic Establishment: “This Is Not Your Opening”
Source: Common Dreams
“As calls mounted on Monday evening for US Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out of the race in Maine following sexual assault allegations, progressive organizers emphasized that primary voters in the state have made clear their demand for a candidate who prioritizes the needs of working people. Should Platner be replaced as the Democratic nominee, said the political action organization Our Revolution, the new candidate must be ‘one who has actually lived the fight Graham Platner ran on: a record with working people, with unions, against corporate money’. ‘To the Democratic establishment: This is not your opening,’ said Joseph Geevarghese, the group’s executive director. ‘Mainers did not vote by an overwhelming margin against Janet Mills and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee]’s handpicked pick just to be handed another status-quo candidate anyway.'” [editor’s note: Newsflash for these idiots, “what they voted for” was no more Gov Mills in a position of power! Platner was just what they considered “the lesser evil” – SAT] (07/07/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/platner-election
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16) Syria: Explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least two explosive devices have gone off in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as French President Emmanuel Macron visits the country. Syria’s Interior Ministry said at least 18 people, including four police officers, were wounded in the blasts, the state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. Television footage showed plumes of smoke rising over the city and other footage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera showed a vehicle on fire. An Al Jazeera correspondent said that the blasts occurred near the Ministry of Tourism and a hotel where Macron was meant to be staying during a visit to the capital for talks with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa.” (07/07/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/7/explosions-heard-in-syrias-damascus
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17) WI: Supreme Court refuses to release voter records sought by conservative activist
Source: SFGate
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by a conservative activist to obtain guardianship records in an effort to find ineligible voters in the presidential battleground state. The case has been winding its way through the courts for years and stems from attempts by conservatives to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin over President Donald Trump in 2020. The case tested the line between protecting personal privacy rights and ensuring that ineligible people can’t vote. Former travel executive Ron Heuer and a group he leads, the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, brought the lawsuit in 2022 alleging that the number of ineligible voters doesn’t match the count on Wisconsin’s voter registration list. The lawsuit doesn’t specify how many people could be affected.” (07/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-refuses-to-release-voter-22335491.php
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18) Mitch McConnell’s daughter deletes her X account as questions swirl over health after his hospitalization
Source: Independent [UK]
“The daughter of Senator Mitch McConnell has deleted her X account amid widespread speculation over the former Senate majority leader’s health, following a sudden June hospitalization. It is unclear when or why Porter McConnell, a progressive-leaning political activist who previously directed the Take On Wall Street campaign, deleted her account. … McConnell was found unconscious on June 14 and received CPR after suffering an apparent heart attack in his Washington, D.C., home, according to emergency records obtained by a variety of news outlets. Little else is known about his current condition.” (07/06/26)
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/mitch-mcconnell-health-daughter-x-account-b3010103.html
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19) UK: MI5 knew agent was misogynist “obsessed” with violence, watchdog finds
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A secret inquiry by MI5’s watchdog concluded the security service knew an abusive agent it defended in court was a misogynist who was ‘obsessed’ with violence, the BBC can reveal. The inquiry took place after BBC News originally exposed how MI5 had covered up for the man – a neo-Nazi informant known publicly as agent X. The government took the BBC to court in 2022 in a failed attempt to block our investigation, but it won agent X legal anonymity. That year, the BBC first reported how the MI5 spy had used his status to coercively control his girlfriend, including attacking her with a machete, before moving abroad to continue intelligence work while he was still under investigation. Following the BBC story, the office of the investigatory powers commissioner (IPCO) Sir Brian Leveson launched an inquiry, which – like much of IPCO’s work – was secret.” (07/07/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9gggjekyjo
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20) Belgium: Regime eyes Palestinian recognition after Hamas steps back from Gaza governance
Source: Politico
“Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said Monday that he has instructed his Cabinet to move toward a decision on recognizing Palestinian statehood. The move comes after the militant group Hamas announced earlier in the day that it would dissolve the body that has governed Gaza for the best part of 20 years. Hamas stepping away from power is one of Prévot’s prerequisites for Belgian recognition of Palestine.” (07/06/26)
https://archive.is/RVfMx
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Let’s Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“[P]erhaps the most destructive ‘own-goal’ of the US attack is the Iranian decision to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz. Even in the US/Israeli attacks of last June, the Strait was kept open by Iran. It is a vital trade route and in everyone’s best interest to keep open for business. The February attack and Iran’s strong regional response led the country to embrace what some have called a de facto nuclear weapon: control of the Strait. … It is in the best interest of the United States to abandon claims on Hormuz – which is thousands of miles away – and live with the consequences of Trump’s mistake.” (07/07/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/07/06/lets-leave-the-strait-of-hormuz-alone
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22) Politics is Just Another Word for No Freedom Left to Choose
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg
“Big business versus big government is the ultimate false dichotomy of our time. Championing the former won’t break the cycle that allows both to marginalize the scope of (and solutions emerging from) voluntary cooperation, decentralized association, and individual freedom.” (07/07/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20727
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23) Billionaire Welfare Queens and Their Sycophants
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem
“Elon Musk has taken in at least $38 billion in subsidies and federal contracts, not counting the $1.5 billion EV subsidy Tesla took advantage of from President Barack Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA gave a $7,500 per vehicle subsidy to electric vehicle purchases. In total, that $39.5 billion in subsidies amounts to $470 for every one of the 84.2 million American families. That means the average family is $470 poorer because of Elon Musk. Billionaire and trillionaire sycophants counter that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and the other super-wealthy provide services to the American government, that these services are ‘worth it,’ and that if they hadn’t provided the services or taken the subsidies someone else would have. … [That] sounds a lot like an argument a leftist greenie and a loyalist of the military-industrial complex would make, respectively.” (07/07/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/billionaire-welfare-queens-and-their-sycophants
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24) People Used to Control Machines. They Don’t Anymore
Source: Wired
by Ian Bogost
“If gratification is so easy, why don’t you feel more gratified already? Because it’s gotten harder. It’s still easy to experience individual feats of gratification when you find them (or they find you). But the ordinary circumstances that once produced so much gratification have gradually receded. Unseen choices in design, business, and social life have made it harder for you to engage directly with the sensory world. This problem snuck up on me, and probably on you as well. Slowly, over time, the world started withdrawing from us. Automation took over ordinary tasks. Things that used to have buttons suddenly did not. Basic activities got taken over by computers. I was slow to notice it happening, too. But once I did, I saw it everywhere and every day.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/ivBfr
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25) Democracy has a participation problem. AI may help solve it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Education
by Chloe Ratner
“While discussions about AI often focus on misinformation and transparency, these concerns miss the bigger picture. The question is no longer whether AI should shape democratic processes — it already does — but how it can be channeled to promote free speech and democracy with imperfect tools. Generative AI has become a hot debate topic in the world of First Amendment rights and free speech. Questions about how to classify AI-generated content, what protections it does or does not deserve, and who bears liability for its outputs represent genuine legal and ethical frontiers. But amid these legal and ethical debates, a fundamental capability of AI gets lost in the noise: its ability to sort, organize, and amplify human speech rather than replace it.” (07/08/25)
https://www.fire.org/news/democracy-has-participation-problem-ai-may-help-solve-it
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26) Mamdani’s Embittered Fourth of July Rant to America
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“Zohran Mamdani, New York’s self-described socialist mayor, could not resist using the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration to trash the very country that he and his parents voluntarily sought out. As is his custom, Mamdani speaks in stereotypes and generalities, offering few if any examples, all laced with his accustomed unctuous hypocrisy. … At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Thus spoke the pampered rich kid from Uganda, who immigrated to America with his now-endowed professor father and elite filmmaker mother, the latter reportedly supported by millions of dollars in grants from the Qatari royal autocracy.” (07/07/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/07/mamdanis-embittered-fourth-of-july-rant-to-america/
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27) Rewarding Good Governance: How Foot-Voters Benefit Society
Source: The Daily Economy
by Emile Phaneuf III
“Governance improves when people and businesses are free to leave high-tax, low-value jurisdictions. Competition can improve public policy just as it improves products and services.” (07/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rewarding-good-governance-how-foot-voters-benefit-society/
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28) Return-to-office mandates are a pay cut in disguise
Source: The Hill
by Gleb Tsipursky
“Return-to-office is a compensation decision that hits wallets first and morale soon after. If leaders want people in seats, the fair move is simple: cover the costs or raise the pay. When workers go to the office, they pay to work. The typical in-office day now runs roughly $15 for the commute, $9 for parking, $13 for breakfast or coffee, and $18 for lunch, all detailed in the 2025 Owl Labs report.” [editor’s note: While I agree that it’s a pay cut, if you’re spending $13 for breakfast/coffee and $18 for lunch on a daily basis, I suggest Googling terms like “lunch box” and “insulated mug” – TLK] (07/07/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5955528-office-commute-costs-employees/
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29) Today In Dystopia
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquity of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces. Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now. Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil.” (07/07/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/07/today-in-dystopia/
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30) Freedom Versus the Income Tax
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“[F]or more than 100 years, Americans were free to keep everything they earned — 100 percent — and there was nothing that U.S. officials could do about. That’s what it once meant to be an American. That’s what it once meant to be free. By the time the late 1800s came along, the standard of living of the American people was skyrocketing. A big reason for that phenomenon was that there had been no income tax for almost 100 years.” (07/07/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/07/07/freedom-versus-the-income-tax/
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31) Memo to Trump: Don’t go wobbly on Ukraine at the NATO summit
Source: New York Post
by staff
“As President Donald Trump prepares to take center stage at the NATO summit in Ankara, he must place the robust defense of Ukraine at the absolute top of the agenda. Whatever he does — whatever his current irritations — he must not look to throw Kyiv under the bus. Rather, with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin still baring his gritted teeth, Trump must communicate to his counterparts in the great North Atlantic security alliance the necessity of holding the line, ramping up pressure on Moscow and bolstering its defensive posture on the eastern frontier. Russian aggression is Europe’s generational security challenge (and down the road, potentially America’s, too); it demands to be top-of-mind for every leader in the alliance. Anything less would signal weakness to Putin and embolden adversaries from Beijing to Tehran.” (07/06/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/06/opinion/memo-to-trump-dont-go-wobbly-on-ukraine-at-the-nato-summit/
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32) A Mutual Sympathy of Sentiments
Source: EconLog
by Art Carden
“In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith explains that we want to establish a ‘mutual sympathy of sentiments.’ We want people to agree with our views, and we want to agree with their views. Smith first expanded on this idea … before he developed his broader theory of a commercial society in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The implications were astounding: a complex division of labor and division of knowledge, and the kind of prosperity we see today. That’s what every bid and ask in a market is: a request to cooperate through mutual sympathy with another person. It can be plainly rejected by someone who doesn’t share similar sentiments, but every opportunity to exchange is a sacred opportunity to work together with someone to mutual advantage.” (07/07/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/a-mutual-sympathy-of-sentiments
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33) A Military Flyover Country Turns 250
Source: Common Dreams
by Bita Iuliano & Olivia Dinucci
“As the country and this administration launched its America 250 and Freedom 250 ‘Celebrations’ over the holiday weekend, what we experienced in the nation’s capitol and a city of 700,000 residents replicated what the United States does to other parts of the world. The streets were invaded by the military, public spaces barricaded with multiple levels of security checkpoints, and the sky full of military flyovers, including a seven-hour schedule of flyovers on July 4th. Military flyovers come at a devastating cost—economically, psychologically, and environmentally. The most recent ones came in the middle of a heatwave where even Trump’s American State Fair closed after people were baptizing themselves in the religious tent to prevent heat stroke. But flyovers are not new and have been used as a propaganda tool for military recruitment during NFL games and summer festivals. The militarization has been so normalized for so long.” (07/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/patriotic-flyovers
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34) Why Does the Earth Need More Fences to Stay Green?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Ketevani Kadagishvili
“Walk down any residential street and you will notice a curious, common pattern. A homeowner’s private garden is often a well-tended space filled with blooming flowers and vibrant life. In contrast, the public park we share is frequently damaged by litter, ruined grass, and broken benches. Why does this difference exist? The answer lies in the deep connection between ownership and care, a principle that Frédéric Bastiat understood nearly two centuries ago.” (07/07/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/why-does-the-earth-need-more-fences-to-stay-green/
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35) Why Are Millionaires Leaving the UK?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“Samuel Johnson once wrote that ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’ Today, however, there seems to be one group that is tired of London: millionaires.” (07/07/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-are-millionaires-leaving-the-uk/
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36) Chatrie and the Long and Winding Road to Privacy
Source: Law & Liberty
by Amy Peikoff
“A Supreme Court ruling on cell phone location data may signal a deeper shift in how courts define privacy under the Fourth Amendment.” (07/07/26)
https://lawliberty.org/chatrie-and-the-long-and-winding-road-to-privacy/
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37) Left’s [sic] SCOTUS panic collapses under weight of facts
Source: Fox News
by John Yoo
“The Supreme Court’s rush of decisions last week belies several myths concocted by its leftist [sic] critics. Listen to Democratic politicians or read liberal [sic] legal commentators, and you would believe that a conservative Supreme Court is marching in lockstep with Donald Trump to impose an extremist agenda on an unwilling American people. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY] for example, often criticizes what he dubs ‘the MAGA Supreme Court’ for transforming government agencies into ‘members-only clubs for his golf buddies and cronies’. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY] decries ‘the corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump’ for ‘taking a blowtorch’ to civil rights laws. Almost every Democratic leader, especially those jockeying for position in the 2028 presidential race, demands that Congress pack the court in order to correct this alleged bias of the conservative justices.” (07/07/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/john-yoo-lefts-supreme-court-panic-collapses-weight-facts
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38) The Plot to Ruin America
Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Estes
“Nothing encapsulates the decline of the American project quite like the optics of its 250th anniversary. While four hundred masked neo-fascists marched through the capitol in navy-blue button-downs and khakis chanting ‘Reclaim America!’—entirely unchallenged either by police or antifascists—the official Independence Day parade was canceled because of extreme heat. It’s a disturbing vignette for our era. The country is turning far to the right and becoming too hot to even celebrate its own founding myths, reaching temperatures that climate scientists said would have been ‘virtually impossible’ before human-caused climate change. So who’s to blame for this current mess? Predictably, the political class has no interest in examining the structural decay.” (07/07/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/07/the-plot-to-ruin-america/
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39) America: Land of the cheats
Source: UnHerd
by B Duncan Moench
“‘Ball don’t lie.’ This phrase, originally attributed to NBA star Rasheed Wallace, comes from American basketball culture and implies that, no matter what the referees or back-office bureaucrats do to intervene in the game, the ball will end up where it should. If it goes through the net, the sporting gods wanted it to happen. The best team wins. Always. … Yes, Donald Trump may have personally intervened with Fifa to get Folarin Balogun, America’s star striker, an exception on the red card he’d earned in the previous match. But having Daddy Warbucks pull strings for your side can take an athletic effort only so far: in the end, Belgium won the game 4-1.” (07/07/26)
https://archive.is/PF12h
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40) European Rearmament Is a Trap
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“[T]he plain truth is that the U.S. military presence is not necessary to keep the Cossacks from waltzing into Warsaw, let alone Berlin or Paris. This would be the case even in the absence of the current rearmament push, and even if Russia had demonstrable designs on European territory beyond Ukraine. The non-U.S. members of NATO have a collective GDP that is over 10 times that of Russia. There are over 600 million Europeans to about 140 million Russians. Although its militaries are short on what the heads call ‘strategic enablers,’ there is little doubt that they would make a conventional conflict with Russia so painful as to deter its commencement. And indeed, when it comes to Russia, America’s aim should be to avoid conflict—not provoke it.” (07/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/european-rearmament-is-a-trap/
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41) Maine Needs a Lighthouse Primary
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The first of the two times I wrote about Graham Platner at these pages was last year. Among other things, it made the point that candidates are vessels for ideas and policies, and that none of them are indispensable. The second time, a week ago, was about how financial corruption exists on a different plane than other scandals. That is not diminished by the latest news; Platner’s actions and Susan Collins’s corruption can both be inexcusable and described as such. Regardless of any public defiance from unnamed sources, Platner is not going to survive the latest allegations, and he should not. What comes next is the only thing that matters now, in a world where a Democratic Senate is vital to preventing continued unchecked lawlessness, the confirmation of dozens more right-wing judges, and to preserve the vestiges of democracy.” [editor’s note: In recent years I have watched from afar the madness in my homeland states, with a mixture of amusement and horror. I am SO happy to be back to amusement – SAT] (07/07/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/06/maine-needs-lighthouse-primary-graham-platner-senate-susan-collins/
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42) Iraq PM embraces his inner Michael Corleone — for the best of reasons
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Tanya Goudsouzian & Ibrahim Al-Marashi
“Ali Al Zaidi has launched an unprecedented but much needed crackdown on figures tied to the country’s massively corrupt patronage system.” (07/07/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ali-zaidi-iraq-corruption/
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43) Technology shocks and boom bust cycles
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“Contrary to KP, an economic boom is not about economic prosperity and wealth generation, but about the diversion of resources from the wealth generating activities towards activities that consume and do not produce wealth i.e. undermine the wealth generating process. Or we could say that an economic boom gives rise to activities that are engaged in consumption, which is unbacked by the previous production of wealth i.e. non-productive consumption. If for some reason the diversion of resources is arrested, various non-productive activities that sprang up as a result of this diversion come under pressure i.e. an economic bust emerges.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/07/technology-shocks-and-boom-bust-cycles/
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44) America Was Not Founded by “Tariff Men,” Contrary to This Painting in Trump’s White House
Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness
“The significance of trade to the Revolution’s origins helps to resolve a long-observed paradox about the colonists’ motives. Despite the Revolution’s reputation as a tax revolt, Americans paid relatively low tax rates compared to people in England proper. The total sum was ‘paltry,’ and most of Parliament’s new revenue measures were ‘moderate and often short-lived,’ to quote economist Deirdre Nansen Mccloskey. They nonetheless sparked a political upheaval against the assertion of a novel and foreign authority. The issue was not the tax rate; it was the fact that Parliament could claim a tax power over trade, and thus over all else.” (07/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/06/america-founded-tariff-men/
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45) Democreeps Only Believe Women When It’s Useful to Them
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“What a difference political affiliation makes. Democrat Graham Platner is now on the outs with the party, not because of assaulting women, but because he is accused of assaulting a fellow Democrat. That party has lost its soul, as has the media. When Platner was accused of assaulting and abusing a conservative woman he dated, none of these people cared. ‘She can’t be trusted, she’s a conservative activist’, they said. The devotion to victims, the currency of victimhood, disappeared when it wasn’t one of ‘their team’. Ro Khana, a ‘progressive’ leftist hypocrite from California who rails against wealth while amassing a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars through marriage and stock trades, was unbothered when a conservative woman told of how Platner was physically abusive with her, just as long as ‘there were no more shoes to drop’.” (07/07/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/07/07/democreeps-only-believe-women-when-its-useful-to-them-n2678931
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46) Progressive Asceticism Will Never Win Elections
Source: Persuasion
by Harry Cheadle
“Alicia Kennedy, one of the most celebrated food writers of her generation, sometimes seems to approach food as a series of moral dilemmas waiting to be untangled. In her new memoir, On Eating—a useful starting point to consider progressive culture as a whole—she writes that alcohol ‘is one of the most wasteful things one can consume, producing twelve times the wastewater for the amount of spirit created.’ Climate change may make wheat scarce, she worries. Sugar, meanwhile, conjures up a litany of horrors—it was originally harvested by slaves, and the present-day sugar industry is often accused of mistreating workers. … For at least a decade, left-of-center, educated, middle-class-and-above Westerners have become inflamed with guilt for the way we live. In a roundabout way, the left has reinvented the idea of sin.” (07/06/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/progressives-have-reinvented-sin
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47) Hazelwood is the training-wheels version of free speech. It’s past time the Court revisited it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Marie McMullan
“For nearly four decades, students in America’s public schools have experienced a straightjacketed version of the First Amendment. That’s due to the Supreme Court’s Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision. School administrators — who are government officials — have used Hazelwood to censor student expression, often prioritizing the school’s reputation over student voices. These administrators mark certain stories and topics as off-limits, including critiques of school boards or commentary on federal immigration policy. … Justice Samuel Alito’s recent dissent calling the Court to reconsider Hazelwood should be echoed, not dismissed.” (07/06/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/hazelwood-training-wheels-version-free-speech-its-past-time-court-revisited-it
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48) Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act
Source: Reason
by Joe Lancaster
“When the U.S. launched a war against Iran in February, it sent the prices of goods like fuel and fertilizer skyrocketing. Hoping to remediate the damage, President Donald Trump issued a waiver of Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Better known as the Jones Act, the statute says cargo moving between American ports must be carried on a ship that was built in America, with predominantly American owners and crew. … Since the waiver has been in effect, America’s shipping lanes have thrived—providing further evidence that we should scrap the Jones Act altogether.” (07/06/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/06/shipping-thrived-after-trump-waived-the-jones-act/
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49) The Elite “OK” to Police Our Every Thought and Move
Source: In These Times
by Adam Johnson and Steven Thrasher
“In late May, Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza spoke with Steven Thrasher, author of The Overseer Class: A Manifesto, about their respective books’ efforts to catalogue the ways that many of the same elite voices now opposed to Trump resorted to similarly Orwellian and even violent tactics in their effort to quell the movement for Palestinian liberation after Oct. 7. Their talk dissects the way these powerful liberals, as Thrasher puts it, exist to ’police the boundaries of what we’re allowed to think about and what we’re allowed to do.'” (07/06/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/steven-thrasher-adam-johnson-books-palestinian-liberation-complicity
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50) Air Conditioners — Threat or Menace?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Is it selfish, asks Good Morning Britain, to want air conditioning? Yes, it’s selfish to want to live and prosper and be comfortable in 90 degree heat. And this ‘selfish’ cooling is bad because … ? According to ‘the experts’ queried by the Good Morning Britain presenters — which broadcasts using ‘non-green’ energy — it’s bad because ‘we know’ that the cooling of indoor air will heat up the outdoors — and therefore the planet. Catastrophically, of course. But we don’t know. It’s one of many unproven assertions about the future of weather that get tossed around to make us feel guilty about not wanting to live in caves and eat dandelions.” (07/06/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/06/air-conditioners/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, 07/07/26
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Does Tucker Carlson Understand the Rigged Two Party System?” (07/07/26)
https://rumble.com/v7ccd2q-does-tucker-carlson-understand-the-rigged-two-party-system-gracearchy-with-.html
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52) Michael Boldin on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Michael Boldin on How the American Revolution Has Been Betrayed.” (07/07/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/7-3-26-michael-boldin-on-how-the-american-revolution-has-been-betrayed/
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53) Freedom Watch, 07/07/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s Bizarre Support of Communism in Venezuela.” (07/07/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPNisOPb1rc
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54) Advisory Opinions, 07/07/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Complicating the Polarization Narrative.” (07/07/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/complicating-the-polarization-narrative/
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55) Law & Liberty Podcast, 07/07/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“The Harmony of the American Founding with Hans Eicholz, hosted by James M. Patterson.” (07/07/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-intellectual-harmony-of-the-american-founding/
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56) Cato Podcast, 07/07/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Data Centers Turn Electricity into Breakthroughs.” (07/07/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/data-centers-turn-electricity-breakthroughs
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57) The Bryan Hyde Show, 07/07/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly check-in with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. We talk about the growing threat of flock cameras and whether we have a duty to participate in our own enslavement.” (07/07/26)
https://www.thebryanhydeshow.com/
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58) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 07/06/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Jim Webb: Commies or Trump? Who Is a Threat to the American Dream.” (07/06/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-jim-webb-commies-or-trump-who-is-a-threat-to-the-american-dream/
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59) The Vital Center, 07/06/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Can Democrats win back the working class, with Joan Williams.” (07/06/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/can-democrats-win-back-the-working-class-with-joan-williams/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/06/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Threatens Attacks on Iran If No Deal, Israeli Drone Strike Kills Four in Lebanon, and More.” (07/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNaOi6hWJm0
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