10/16 -- Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine's gas facilities; Let's shut down government for real
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Thomas L. Knapp
Oct 16, 2025, 6:22:56 AM (11 days ago) Oct 16
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 10/16/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine’s gas facilities
2) IL: Gang members carry out chemical attack on Chicago crowd, local cops
3) Lebanon: At Least One Killed as Israeli Drones Pound Seddiqine
4) Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
5) Germany: Regime’s military enslavement scheme stalls after defense minister’s objections
6) SCOTUS Questions Role of Race in State Election Maps
7) ICC disqualifies chief prosecutor from Duterte case over perceived conflict of interest
8) FL: Judge grants woman restraining order against creepy politician ex-boyfriend
9) France: Top court upholds ban threatening Marine Le Pen’s 2027 candidacy
10) FL: Disney World guest dies by apparent suicide on monorail track
11) MA: Moulton to challenge Markey for US Senate seat
12) In first non-western aircraft purchase deal, Indonesia to buy 42 fighter jets from China
13) Myanmar: Junta Chief Admits Election Won’t Be Nationwide as War Continues
14) FL: State Data Reveals Just 0.5% of ICE Abductees Are Gang-Affiliated
15) NH: Court rules in clergy abuse case that 2020 law cannot be applied retroactively
16) US regime pays for 2025’s most expensive political ad campaign
17) Dems storm Speaker’s office, berating Capitol officer and messing with signs
18) Italy: Protesters demand Israel boycott before World Cup qualifier
19) CA: OpenAI launches new adult-only “erotica chatbots”
20) US heimatschutz: Mexican cartels offering bounties on rival gang members in Chicago
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Let’s shut down government for real
22) Free Trade and Dynamic Efficiency
23) The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller after the Government Shutdown Ends
24) The Peace in Gaza Won’t Last
25) Russia’s Collectivist Cult of the Strong State
26) Trumpanyahu Administration Already Sabotaging Ceasefire
27) A Government Shutdown Is Less Scary Than Its Dysfunction-As-Usual
28) Masked law enforcement enters a danger zone beyond US democracy
29) 10 Ways Billionaires Making Your Life Worse, and 5 Ways to Fight Back
30) The Right Needs to Reject Conservatism
31) Trump’s Gaza plan has resulted in a cease-fire, but the devil lies in the details going forward
32) The Threat to Liberty is Coming from Inside the House
33) The Abundance Movement’s Deregulatory Deceit
34) Too Hot to Handle
35) The Politics of Fear in American History
36) Antifa in Popular Ontology
37) Syria’s ticking time bomb
38) Infant Adoption is Now Tragically Rare
39) Trump’s sacrilegious campaign to put his name on everything
40) Abraham and Isaac
41) Joe Biden’s Ignominious Gaza Failure
42) Removal Power and the Original Presidency
43) Undeserved Peace Prize Paves the Path to War
44) Government-run schools and religious liberty
45) Trump using government shutdown to do something no president has ever done
46) The Right Wing Desperately Wants to Make Charlie Kirk Its MLK
47) America’s Middle Class Has Not Been Hollowed Out. Far from It.
48) Permitting reform is back, and here’s how Congress can get it done this time
49) A Strategy to Stop the Flow of Our Money to Billionaires
50) Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Fifth Column, episode 528
52) Rising, 10/15/25
53) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/15/25
54) Reason Interview: Ben Wizner
55) Collateral Damage, episode 2
56) Questions for Corbett, 10/15/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/15/25
58) Conflicts of Interest, episode 845
59) Politics Politics Politics, 10/14/25
60) The Climate Realism Show, episode 177
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors ES, WSS3, and MM! Their payments yesterday, totaling $20, bring our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5:30am on Thursday) to $542.50.
Our goal is $5,501. Since supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for half of that, we have to raise $2,750.50 from our other readers … and the sooner the better, because once we get there I’ll stop talking about money entirely for the rest of the year and mostly until NEXT October. So, please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at:
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Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine’s gas facilities
Source: Reuters
“Russia launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Targets in the central Vinnytsia and Poltava regions, as well as the northeast regions of Sumy and Kharkiv regions came under attack, he said. … Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year, initially focusing on electricity but this year increasingly targeting gas infrastructure.” (10/16/25)
https://archive.is/Y14dw
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2) IL: Gang members carry out chemical attack on Chicago crowd, local cops
Source: The Hill
“Border Patrol [gang-bangers] were involved in a Tuesday car chase that ended in dozens of protesters being sprayed with tear gas and two [abductions] in a Chicago neighborhood amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime. Federal [gang members] chased two people who rammed into a Border Patrol vehicle before fleeing the scene, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ‘Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal [sic] aliens, attempted to flee on foot,’ the DHS said in a statement to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. ‘As Border Patrol [abducted] the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.’ … Thirteen Chicago police officers were impacted by the tear gas while attempting to ‘de-escalate’ the situation, DHS said.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5556412-car-chase-arrests-teargas-chicago/
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3) Lebanon: At Least One Killed as Israeli Drones Pound Seddiqine
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel drones carried out multiple strikes against the town of Seddiqine in southern Lebanon overnight and into Wednesday. At least one person was killed when one of the strikes hit a medical center, and another person was wounded. Another overnight strike was reported near Wadi Jilou, another village in the south, targeting a vehicle and wounding one person. The identity of the person was not reported, but media referred to them as a Lebanese citizen. Somewhat further north, in the area around Zahrani, IDF drones were reported to be flying at low altitude overhead. There have as yet not been reports of any strikes in that area, however.” (10/15/25)
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/10/15/at-least-one-killed-as-israeli-drones-pound-seddiqine-in-southern-lebanon/
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4) Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
Source: NBC News
“A federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown, which has now stretched to two weeks. Two unions sued the Trump administration last month ahead of the shutdown after the White House signaled a plan to lay off workers through ‘reductions in force’ (RIFs) at federal agencies. At a hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge in the Northern District of California granted the unions’ motion to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the layoffs, which began on Friday.” (10/15/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/judge-blocks-trumps-shutdown-layoffs-calling-illegal-rcna237837
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5) Germany: Regime’s military enslavement scheme stalls after defense minister’s objections
Source: Politico
“Germany’s plan to bring back a form of conscription was derailed late Tuesday after last-minute objections from Defense Minister Boris Pistorius upended an agreement among the country’s governing parties, multiple people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Lawmakers from the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats had spent the past week finalizing a compromise to revive military service under the Defense Service Modernization Act — a flagship project of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government to rebuild the Bundeswehr’s depleted ranks. But several parliamentary officials said the deal was halted after Pistorius expressed concerns over key aspects of the draft during a meeting of the parliamentary group of the Social Democrats on Tuesday evening. … The plan had already faced resistance in parliament.” (10/15/25)
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-could-bring-back-conscription-by-lottery
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6) SCOTUS Questions Role of Race in State Election Maps
Source: New York Times
“The Supreme Court is hearing a case on Wednesday whose outcome could cause congressional seats throughout the country to flip from blue to red to cement Republican control of Congress. The case, a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map, is a battle over whether states can use race as a factor in drawing electoral districts. But it could have much broader implications for the law, politics, and the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. … Chief Justice John Roberts asked the lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund about the proper role of race in drawing congressional boundaries. … Justice Kavanaugh suggests that aspects of the Voting Rights Act might have an implicit sunset date, like the 25-year deadline Justice O’Connor proposed for race-conscious admissions in higher education in 2003.” (10/15/25)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/15/us/supreme-court-voting-rights
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7) ICC disqualifies chief prosecutor from Duterte case over perceived conflict of interest
Source: ABC News
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday disqualified the court’s chief prosecutor from the case against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is charged with involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called ‘war on drugs’ when in office. The written decision cited a ‘reasonable appearance of bias’ because Prosecutor Karim Khan — before he took office — represented victims of Duterte’s alleged crimes. The decision, dated Oct. 2 but released in redacted form on Wednesday, comes with Khan already having stepped back in May from his duties pending the outcome of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.” (10/15/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/icc-disqualifies-chief-prosecutor-duterte-case-perceived-conflict-126549369
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8) FL: Judge grants woman restraining order against creepy politician ex-boyfriend
Source: The Independent
“Cory Mills, a Florida Republican congressman, has been hit with a restraining order that prevents him from contacting an ex-partner for reasons of ‘protection against dating violence.’ Lindsey Langston, his ex-girlfriend, filed a petition in August and claimed that the Republican was threatening to release nude images and videos to blackmail her. … According to the order, he is now barred from contacting Langston until January 1 or directly referring to her on social media. … Allegedly, the relationship crumbled after Langston saw reports that Mills had been involved in a physical altercation with a woman in Washington, DC. … Sarah Raviani, 27, allegedly called the police to the conservative’s apartment in Washington D.C., and claimed that he had assaulted her.” (10/15/125)
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/cory-mills-republican-restraining-order-b2845735.html
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9) France: Top court upholds ban threatening Marine Le Pen’s 2027 candidacy
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France’s highest administrative court rejected a challenge to electoral rules by far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, dealing a blow to her efforts to overturn a sentence that could derail her candidacy in the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen was barred in March from seeking public office for five years after a French court convicted her and other members of her party for misappropriation of funds. Le Pen has said the case and the decision were politically motivated. The Paris Criminal Court sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison, including two to be served, a 100,000€ ($116,230.00) fine and a five-year ban on holding public office, which is immediately enforceable despite pending appeals. Le Pen had argued that the immediate application of the law that bars people convicted of certain crimes – including those related to corruption, fraud, or misuse of public funds – unfairly infringed upon her political rights.” (10/15/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20251015-top-french-court-upholds-ban-threatening-marine-le-pen-s-2027-candidacy
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10) FL: Disney World guest dies by apparent suicide on monorail track
Source: New York Post
“A person died Tuesday in an apparent suicide at Disney World near the theme park’s famous resort, according to police. The vacationer’s body was found near the Contemporary Resort — one of more than 25 hotels on the sprawling Orlando property. Original social media reports suggested the person had been struck by the resort’s monorail, which connects the Contemporary to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park and several other hotels. But the Orange County Sheriff’s Office told Entertainment Weekly that the death was ‘an apparent suicide.’ ‘[The guest] was NOT struck by the monorail, so that is erroneous information,’ said a statement from the office. Witnesses said the person jumped from a platform of the monorail onto its track, according to previous reports.” (10/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/15/us-news/disney-world-guest-dies-by-apparent-suicide-on-monorail-track/
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11) MA: Moulton to challenge Markey for US Senate seat
Source: Seattle Times
“U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a moderate Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday that he will challenge U.S. Sen. Edward Markey for the Democratic nomination in next year’s Senate race, arguing it’s time for the party to embrace a new generation of leadership. The announcement makes the race one of the most anticipated primary contests in the country and pits two of the heavily Democratic state’s top politicians against one another. Markey, who fended off a challenge in 2020 from Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the Senate primary, would be 80 before his third six-year term would begin.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/VfNSe
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12) In first non-western aircraft purchase deal, Indonesia to buy 42 fighter jets from China
Source: SFGate
“Indonesia’s top defense official said Wednesday that Jakarta will acquire at least 42 Chinese-made Chengdu J-10C fighter jets, marking the country’s first non-Western aircraft purchase deal. Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, that Indonesia would soon buy fighter jets from China as part of a plan to modernize its military. Analysts said the deal could touch regional sensitivities and have geopolitical implications. ‘They will be flying over Jakarta soon,’ Sjamsoeddin said. He declined to provide further details of the purchase. The plan to buy the J-10s was first disclosed last month by defense ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Frega Wenas. Local media had reported that the Indonesian Air Force was still reviewing the Chinese-made fighter jets to ensure their acquisition would effectively strengthen Indonesia’s air defense capabilities. (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/indonesia-to-buy-42-fighter-jets-from-china-21102507.php
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13) Myanmar: Junta Chief Admits Election Won’t Be Nationwide as War Continues
Source: US News & World Report
“Myanmar’s junta chief acknowledged on Wednesday that the military-backed administration will be unable to conduct an upcoming general election across the entire country, as a civil war triggered by a 2021 coup rages on. Critics and many Western nations view the election — due to start in late December and the first since the coup — as a sham exercise to legitimise the military’s rule via proxy political parties. Dozens of anti-junta parties are either banned or refusing to take part. The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the coup, which deposed an elected civilian government and triggered a nationwide armed rebellion that has wrested swathes of territory from the military.” (10/15/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-15/myanmar-junta-chief-admits-election-wont-be-nationwide-as-war-continues
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14) FL: State Data Reveals Just 0.5% of ICE Abductees Are Gang-Affiliated
Source: Common Dreams
“Amid repeated assertions by administration figures that President Donald Trump’s deadly anti-immigrant blitz is ‘targeting the worst of the worst’ among ‘criminal illegal [sic] aliens,’ critics of the crackdown this week pointed to official data belying those claims. Take last month’s invasion by federal forces of a Chicago apartment complex, during which witnesses said agents broke down doors, terrorized residents including children, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged away dozens of zip-tied people including US citizens and minors. US citizen children were separated from their undocumented parents after the raid. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement calling the raid a ‘targeted enforcement operation’ in an area ‘frequented’ by Tren de Aragua (TDA), a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela that Trump has designated a terrorist group and targeted in a series of extrajudicial high-seas assassinations of people critics contend did not belong to the gang.” (10/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-lies-about-gang-members
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15) NH: Court rules in clergy abuse case that 2020 law cannot be applied retroactively
Source: SFGate
“New Hampshire’s 2020 law abolishing deadlines for lawsuits alleging sexual assault cannot be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in the case of Randy Ball, who sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester in 2023 alleging he was raped by a priest at a summer camp in the 1970s. Under the law at the time of the alleged assaults, Ball had only until he turned 20 in 1986 to sue, but he argued his lawsuit was permissible under a 2020 amendment that removed the statute of limitations. The amendment itself did not specify whether it could be applied retroactively, but the court ruled that doing so would violate the state Constitution, which gives private parties a vested right to a statute of limitations defense.” (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/new-hampshire-court-rules-in-clergy-abuse-case-21102436.php
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16) US regime pays for 2025’s most expensive political ad campaign
Source: Axios
“The most expensive political ad campaign of the year is being run by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS disputes that its ads are political. But it has spent at least $51 million this year on ads thanking President Trump for securing the border, according to AdImpact. The next closest ad campaign is the $41 million effort to support California’s redistricting measure, according to AdImpact. … ‘[T]his isn’t a political ad — this is a public service announcement urging illegal aliens to leave,’ Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios. ‘President Trump’ is the most mentioned phrase across all the ads. Three ads say: ‘Thank you, President Donald J. Trump for securing our border and putting America first.'” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/xbXyS
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17) Dems storm Speaker’s office, berating Capitol officer and messing with signs
Source: Fox News
“Democratic lawmakers stormed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Tuesday night, demanding that he swear in a newly-elected representative. Rep. Pramila Jayapal [D-WA] joined arms and chanted ‘swear her in’ with Reps. Melanie Stansbury, [D-NM] and Nanette Barragan [D-CA]. as well as Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, [D-AZ], as they marched on Johnson’s office with members of their staff. Capitol Hill police officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the speaker’s office. Footage from various angles shows Jayapal and Stansbury messing with the sign in front of the speaker’s office and getting into an altercation with one of the officers. Grijalva won her special election on Sept. 23, but she still has not been sworn into office. Her vote would be the final vote needed for the House to approve a discharge petition relating to the Epstein files, put forward by Reps. Ro Khanna [D-CA] and Thomas Massie [R-KY].” (10/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/video-dems-rush-speakers-office-last-night-berate-capitol-officer-mess-signs
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18) Italy: Protesters demand Israel boycott before World Cup qualifier
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Italy’s 2026 World Cup qualifier against Israel was preceded by clashes between some pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police, while thousands of others peacefully marched through Udine in protest at the hosting of a match they felt should not be played. The Gaza ceasefire agreement signed on Monday, along with an exchange of captives between Israel and Hamas, did nothing to diminish the resolve of about 10,000 protesters who descended on the small city in Italy’s far northeast, a small section of whom were involved in unrest at the end of the march.” (10/15/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/10/15/people-march-in-italy-demanding-israel-boycott-before-world-cup-qualifier
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19) CA: OpenAI launches new adult-only “erotica chatbots”
Source: SFGate
“Just a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom touted his signing of a series of bills to tighten restrictions on egregious AI chatbot interactions with minors, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman decided to announce the company’s newest version of its chatbot — one exclusively for ‘mature audiences’. Altman said that OpenAI will launch an adult-only version of ChatGPT at the end of the year, and specifically made sure to mention that it will allow erotica for ‘verified’ users. Elon Musk, as part of his company, xAi, previously launched his own erotica chatbot companion named ‘Ani’ this summer. The timing of the announcement comes a day after Newsom signed several AI regulation bills, including one that will require chatbots to establish protocols ‘to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicide ideation users’.” (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/sam-altman-chatgpt-announcement-21101126.php
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20) US heimatschutz: Mexican cartels offering bounties on rival gang members in Chicago
Source: United Press International
“The Department of Homeland Security said it has credible intelligence that Mexican cartels have placed bounties on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection [gang members]. The Tuesday statement from DHS said criminal networks have instructed ‘U.S.-based sympathetics,’ including Chicago street gangs, to ‘monitor, harass and assassinate’ federal [gang thugs]. According to the federal agencies, the cartels are offering $2,000 for gathering intelligence, between $5,000 and $10,000 for kidnapping and assaults on standard ICE and CBP [gang-bangers] and up to $50,000 to assassinate high-ranking [gang shot-callers].” (10/15/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/10/15/DHS-bounties/5291760505213/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Let’s shut down government for real
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“Recently, everyone has been up in arms over a supposed government shutdown. The same way they were over the last few and will be when the next regularly scheduled shutdowns roll around. Some act as if this hasn’t become normal political theatrics. I’m not sure which rock they’ve been hiding under for the past few decades, but it must be a remote one. These same people are trying to decide who’s to blame. Blame? Instead of assigning blame, if there were a government shutdown, I would suggest proudly claiming credit for the accomplishment. Blame belongs to those who want to end the shutdown and open government back up, not those who keep it shut down.” (10/15/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/10/15/voices/opinion-lets-shut-down-government-for-real/231899.html
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22) Free Trade and Dynamic Efficiency
Source: EconLog
by Arnold Kling
“The usual case for free trade is not the best case for free trade. The usual case is based on static efficiency, meaning making better use of a fixed set of resources. Economists use the term comparative advantage to describe how, if humans choose to specialize and trade with one another, each can end up better off than if they produce everything for themselves. But trade has an even more important role to play in what economists have come to call dynamic efficiency, which is the ability of an economy to exploit innovation and increase living standards over time. This dynamic efficiency is a central concern of the economists who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize: Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt, and Joel Mokyr.” (10/15/25)
https://www.econlib.org/free-trade-and-dynamic-efficiency/
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23) The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller after the Government Shutdown Ends
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“As promised — or threatened, if you wandered over to Reason by accident — the Trump administration has started using the government sort-of-shutdown as an opportunity to engage in mass layoffs of federal employees. In the game of chicken between Republicans and Democrats over just how much the government should overspend and on what, the losers so far appear to be some of the almost 3 million Americans who thought federal employment would be a comfortable way to collect a paycheck. Setting thousands of former government workers loose to seek jobs elsewhere — preferably not involving money forcibly extracted from taxpayers — is a step in the right direction.” (10/15/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/15/the-federal-workforce-will-be-a-little-smaller-after-the-government-shutdown-ends/
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24) The Peace in Gaza Won’t Last
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“We can all be grateful that the slaughter in Gaza has been suspended, at least temporarily; that Israeli hostages and Palestinian [hostages] are being exchanged; and that relief aid can flow more freely to the suffering Gazan population. Not surprisingly, U.S. President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap and calling the cease-fire agreement the ‘historic dawn of a new Middle East.’ … I hope he’s right, but I wouldn’t bet on it. There are two lingering questions looming in the aftermath of the present agreement. The first question, obviously, is: ‘Will it hold?’ The second question — on which the answer to the first largely depends — is whether Israel’s relations with the rest of the world, and especially its ‘special relationship’ with the United States, are evolving in ways that might make a lasting peace possible at long last.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/fCihV
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25) Russia’s Collectivist Cult of the Strong State
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Bart Frazier
“Through much of the remainder of the 19th century and an early part of the 20th century, the idea of liberty that de Tocqueville highlighted remained central to the American experience. But today, America in practice has become more guided by a set of ideas closer to those of the Russians than to our own ancestors. Ours may seem like a kinder and gentler political paternalism and system of plunder than in Russia, but our own variation on the collectivist theme has come to dominate America as well.” (10/15/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/russias-collectivist-cult-of-the-strong-state/
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26) Trumpanyahu Administration Already Sabotaging Ceasefire
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I don’t know who first coined the saying that an Israeli ceasefire means ‘you cease and we fire’, but it proves reliably accurate time after time. The IDF reportedly killed nine Palestinians trying to return to their homes today under the usual justification that they were traveling in some kind of unauthorized area in ways that made the troops feel threatened, blah blah. They did this all the time during the previous ‘ceasefire’ at the beginning of the year, using the exact same excuses. Just as we speculated the other day might happen, Israel has announced that it is going to cut the aid it allows into Gaza in half and cut off fuel and gas shipments, because Hamas hasn’t returned the bodies of all the dead Israeli hostages.” (10/15/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/15/the-trumpanyahu-administration-is-already-sabotaging-the-ceasefire/
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27) A Government Shutdown Is Less Scary Than Its Dysfunction-As-Usual
Source: The Daily Economy
by Scott Drylie
“There will be thousands of genuine stories of hardship and frustration that will emerge from this shutdown. There will be waste, interruptions, and inefficiency. Still, from a whole-of-society perspective, shutdowns have historically been much ado about little. Government is not shut and it is usually only moderately and briefly down.” (10/15/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/a-government-shutdown-is-less-scary-than-its-dysfunction-as-usual/
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28) Masked law enforcement enters a danger zone beyond US democracy
Source: The Hill
by James D Zirin
“The history of masks dates to prehistoric times, where they served diverse cultural purposes. Masks were used in dramatic performance in ancient Greece, to protect against plague in the Middle Ages and for entertainment purposes throughout history. Fictional masked figures include such superheroes as Batman, Zorro or the Lone Ranger. Also, there are villains like Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader who wore masks to create a scary presence. Face it, masks are intended to be intimidating, even on Halloween. But the practice of mask wearing by federal agents making arrests or controlling crowds is a novelty, particularly when their actions are the subject of civil liberties court challenges.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/5554243-masked-ice-agents-chicago/
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29) 10 Ways Billionaires Making Your Life Worse, and 5 Ways to Fight Back
Source: Inequality.org
by Chuck Collins
“As a coeditor of Inequality.org, I get a lot of fan mail (and a few complaints). Greg B. recently wrote in, ‘None of my problems exist as a result of someone else being a billionaire’. My response to Greg: ‘An economy rigged to funnel so much wealth and power to the billionaire class is bad for you and everyone else. It undermines your life in some major ways.’ I wrote my new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, for folks like Greg to talk about how extreme wealth inequality disrupts our daily lives. Here are 10 ways you are being burned by billionaires, pulled from my book.” (10/15/25)
https://inequality.org/article/ten-ways-you-are-being-burned-by-billionaires/
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30) The Right Needs to Reject Conservatism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“[W]hen it comes to fighting back against progressivism, socialism, globalism, interventionism, or whatever you want to call the ideology of the political establishment, the American right has long struggled to do so meaningfully. The reason was best explained in a 1938 pamphlet by the Old Right writer Garet Garrett, called The Revolution Was. Garrett witnessed a conservative movement that was similarly staring down a powerful coalition of New Deal Democrats, crony business leaders, and outright socialists …. In his pamphlet, Garrett argued that the fundamental problem with the conservatives of his day was that they were looking in the wrong direction. … as long as the American right ignored the institutional changes that had already happened and, therefore, allowed them to remain in place, it was effectively a certainty that they would lose. That what they were advocating against would come to pass.” (10/15/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/right-needs-reject-conservatism
-----
31) Trump’s Gaza plan has resulted in a cease-fire, but the devil lies in the details going forward
Source: New York Post
by Irwin M Stelzer
“He came, he saw, he conquered. That just about describes President Trump’s 12,000-mile round trip from Washington, DC, to Israel and Egypt. He addressed Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem, greeted the hostages and their families, hopped on Air Force One for a flight to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, signed the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, delivered a moving speech, met with the leaders of 27 countries to push the next phases of his 20-point peace plan forward and take a well-earned victory lap, and returned to Washington after what most people would consider a full day. The guns are silent, relief supplies are pouring into Gaza, IDF troops have withdrawn to agreed areas and the 20 surviving hostages have been released, along with four of the 28 bodies of the dead, the others to be returned when they are found by Hamas.” (10/14/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/14/opinion/trumps-gaza-plan-has-resulted-in-a-ceasefire-but-the-devil-lies-in-the-details-going-forward/
-----
32) The Threat to Liberty is Coming from Inside the House
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“You might be, as I am, alarmed about the future of liberty. How deep are the roots of liberty when so many submitted to authoritarian measures in response to COVID, and approved the use of coercion against those less eager to comply? Unable to visualize alternatives, public acceptance of top-down coercive solutions to COVID demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice liberty for the promise of safety. To restore liberty, our understanding of liberty needs to deepen.” (10/15/25)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/the-threat-to-liberty-is-coming-from-2b7
-----
33) The Abundance Movement’s Deregulatory Deceit
Source: Common Dreams
by Maya K Van Rossum
“The nation’s halting and uneven clean energy rollout — exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s hostility to anything green — threatens our prosperity, our climate, and our communities. Left unchecked, rising temperatures (driven largely by fossil fuels and the industries that burn them) will destroy ecosystems, disrupt our economy, and destabilize our society. Some opportunistic politicians think they have a solution in the latest media fad, the so-called ‘Abundance’ movement. They argue that the rules and regulations put in place to protect the environment are in fact obstacles impeding our ability to build the clean energy our climate needs. Their logic is nonsensical: Cut environmental regulations to protect the environment and unleash energy abundance.” (10/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abundance-deregulation
-----
34) Too Hot to Handle
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Between May 17 and September 30, there were 3,832 deaths in Spain linked to extreme heat, an increase of almost 87% from 2024. Many of these victims had underlying health conditions, 96% were over 65, and almost two thirds were 85 or older. But boiling Spanish summers are not a new phenomenon, nor is the global warming that politicians like to blame whenever fatalities result from extreme weather. The awkward truth for Spain’s Socialist-led government, which has promised to reduce socioeconomic inequality, is that energy poverty is the more decisive factor in heat-related deaths.” (10/15/25)
https://fee.org/articles/too-hot-to-handle/
-----
35) The Politics of Fear in American History
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia
“The failure of liberal-minded politicians to keep government officials accountable is a cause for great fear, especially when those state actors are perceived to be actively and intentionally undermining the public’s sense of security. As the American philosopher Judith Shklar explains, what she calls the ‘liberalism of fear’ regards ‘abuses of public powers in all regimes with equal trepidation.’ Knowing that ‘every page of political history’ teaches that ‘some agents of government will behave lawlessly and brutally in small or big ways most of the time unless they are prevented from doing so,’ a liberalism that considers the propagation of fear in society an evil will worry ‘about the excesses of official agents at every level of government.'” (10/15/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politics-of-fear-in-american-history/
-----
36) Antifa in Popular Ontology
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“What do Jimmy Kimmel and the late J. Edgar Hoover have in common? A kink for women’s dresswear? Nope. Both denied the existence of major criminal organizations. Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 to 1972, refused to affirm that the Mafia crime syndicate existed. Repeatedly, over the years. Rumors that he was being blackmailed by the Mafia itself, over his own cross-dressing kinks (the mob allegedly had photos), is not affirmed by major historians, who say his denial-of-the-facts was just politics. So when we encounter those rejecting the reality of Antifa, take them with a grain of salt.” (10/15/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/15/antifa-in-popular-ontology/
-----
37) Syria’s ticking time bomb
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols
“In March of this year, Laya’s world came crashing down. Following a series of skirmishes in the coastal region of Syria, the country’s transitional government had mobilized forces to put down what it saw as a brewing rebellion among Alawites, a minority offshoot of Shia Islam and the religion of former President Bashar al-Assad. The operation quickly turned into a bloodbath. Government-affiliated militants and non-state actors swept through coastal towns, going door to door and killing any Alawite men they could find. Hundreds of bodies were dumped in the sea or in mass graves. ‘They killed my cousin,’ recalled Laya, who lost several relatives in the attacks. ‘They came to his door and killed him there, in front of his wife and children.'” (10/15/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/minorities-in-syria/
-----
38) Infant Adoption is Now Tragically Rare
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Since 2017, I’ve known that international adoption is in decline. But only recently, while writing the introduction to the 15th-anniversary edition of Selfish Reasons, did I realize that both forms of infant adoption in the United States have become incredibly rare. Domestically, birth parents only put about one out of every 200 babies born up for adoption. … Internationally, the situation is even bleaker. In 2004, U.S. international adoptions peaked at 22,988. In 2023, the last available year, the total was just 1,275 — a 94% fall. Two decades ago, the market share of imported adoptees was about 50%. Now it’s about 7%.” (10/15/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/infant-adoption-is-now-tragically
-----
39) Trump’s sacrilegious campaign to put his name on everything
Source: Washington Post
by Theodore R Johnson
“Trump’s approach to the presidency has been the same as his business strategy, one that’s uncommon for democracies: putting his name and personal brand on everything, building monuments to himself along the way. He hung his massive portrait on buildings around the nation’s capital. He has gilded the Oval Office, put his name on the border wall and on federal stimulus checks, and bathed his career and venues in a sea of American flags. Republicans have proposed legislation to make his birthday a federal holiday, carve his face into Mount Rushmore, and rename D.C.’s Metro system and one of its airports after him. These kinds of civil religious measures canonize the man more than the country and its founding ideals. … Similarly, earlier this year, officials assured the public that the grandiosity of the Army’s 250th anniversary parade had nothing to do with its occurrence on Trump’s birthday.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/LXQgZ
-----
40) Abraham and Isaac
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“It is a funny thing, that old-time American religion. For a time, John Brown belonged to a Congregationalist church in Hudson, Ohio. He attended a prayer meeting there following the death of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy, who died defending his printing press from a mob of slavery supporters. Brown apparently said little or nothing until the end of the meeting, at which point he stood up and spoke: ‘Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.’ Unlike those show ponies angling for future Fox News gigs at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, John Brown meant it. He was that most dangerous and terrible sort of American: a believer.” (10/15/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/john-brown-harpers-ferry-slavery/
-----
41) Joe Biden’s Ignominious Gaza Failure
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“I’ll admit it: Donald Trump deserves some credit for the ceasefire in Gaza. I didn’t think it would happen – I thought Israel would fully ethnically cleanse the place, and then do the same thing to the West Bank, and Trump would not care. And one should not overstate the achievement here. There were two previous ceasefires negotiated under Joe Biden, under which many more hostages were released. The war may well start up again soon, just like it did after the other ceasefires. Indeed, as I was drafting this article, Israel was already violating the ceasefire terms by shooting several people and cutting the amount of aid let into Gaza in half, supposedly in retaliation for Hamas not producing hostage bodies fast enough. (Hamas claims it is working as fast as it can without digging equipment or electricity.)” (10/15/25)
https://prospect.org/world/2025-10-15-gaza-israel-joe-biden-peace-failure/
-----
42) Removal Power and the Original Presidency
Source: Law & Liberty
by Ilan Wurman
“The conventional view of executive power among formalists is that the Vesting Clause grants a ‘residuum’ of executive powers, including, for example, foreign affairs-related powers traditionally exercised by the British monarch. If removal is executive in nature, and the Constitution does not assign that power elsewhere or otherwise limit the president’s exercise of it, then it vests in the president by virtue of the residuum. As I have written elsewhere, I agree with Nelson and Mortenson that this account of the Vesting Clause is likely incorrect. My view is that ‘the executive power’ is a substantive grant of power, but of only one: the power to oversee the execution of the laws. But that power, I argue, includes removal — not because removal was a freestanding executive prerogative, but rather because it was part and parcel of the power to oversee the execution of the laws.” (10/15/25)
https://lawliberty.org/removal-power-and-the-original-presidency/
-----
43) Undeserved Peace Prize Paves the Path to War
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The historical record shows that, far from meeting the ‘three criteria … for selection of a Peace Prize laureate,’ [María Corina] Machado spectacularly fails all three. Machado did not bring Venezuela’s opposition together. The Nobel committee says that ‘Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided.’ That, Yale University history professor Greg Grandin says, is not true: ‘Machado is not a unifier, as the committee said. She represents the most intransigent face of the opposition.’ … More importantly, Machado has not fought for democracy. … Though the Nobel Prize committee makes its case by focusing exclusively on the controversial 2024 election, Machado’s career didn’t start there. … Not only has Machado not fought for democracy in Venezuela, she has neither fought for a ‘peaceful transition to democracy’ nor used ‘the tools of peace.'” (10/15/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/undeserved-peace-prize-paves-the-path-to-war/
-----
44) Government-run schools and religious liberty
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We are far from the first to point out that for a truly free people, schools and the state are not compatible. Part of the reason is that state schools do not accept nor truly support the idea of religious liberty. At least any religion except the worship of the omnipotent state. What goes on in Colorado is an example of that. Looking back with 20-20 hindsight, we see that promoting the necessity and acceptance of the power of governments as a primary purpose for ‘public schools’ – government-run, tax-funded institutions. To promote servitude to the state: to governments. Part of that is brainwashing even (and especially) children to see government as the primary (if not only) provider of all good things.” (10/14/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/10/14/government-run-schools-and-religious-liberty/
-----
45) Trump using government shutdown to do something no president has ever done
Source: Fox News
by Mehek Cooke
“The United States government shutdown drags on, marking a pivotal moment in America’s fiscal and constitutional history. President Donald Trump, the negotiator-in-chief, isn’t blinking. He’s swinging the axe at bloated, Democrat-run bureaucracies that have taken trillions from hardworking Americans for decades. While Nancy Pelosi and her party claim ‘chaos’ and Trump is turning crisis into clarity — freezing $26 billion in blue-state pork, halting green-energy pet projects and directing departments to prepare reduction-in-force plans as part of a broader review of spending and accountability. Those plans are now in motion: the Office of Management and Budget confirmed that federal layoffs have begun, with cuts underway in Health, Homeland Security and Commerce.” (10/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-using-government-shutdown-do-something-no-president-has-ever-done
-----
46) The Right Wing Desperately Wants to Make Charlie Kirk Its MLK
Source: The Intercept
by Alain Stephens
“They keep carving out calendar space for Charlie Kirk — days of remembrance, resolutions, flag orders — demanding the hush and reverence reserved for real moral witnesses. Congress moved to mark today as a ‘National Day of Remembrance;’ the White House ordered flags at half-staff after his death; towns are issuing local proclamations like it’s a civic sacrament. … The goal of the far right, Christian nationalists, and white supremacists in this moment is clear: to fix Kirk in the public imagination where Dr. King once stood. But the point isn’t to honor a tradition of justice — it’s to replace it entirely.” (10/14/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/14/charlie-kirk-remembrance-mlk/
-----
47) America’s Middle Class Has Not Been Hollowed Out. Far from It.
Source: Cato Institute
by Norbert Michel
“Populists from both major U.S. political parties have ditched the founding American principles that are integral to the nation’s economic and social development. … These principles, though imperfectly implemented, have proven invaluable to Americans. Tragically, the populists’ positions have been based on myths and deceit from the beginning. They insist that somewhere around the 1970s, the American middle class was hollowed out. As this story goes, policy makers’ blind adherence to free-market ideology triggered the catastrophe by killing the U.S. manufacturing sector. Those lucky few Americans who could find new jobs took low-paying ones in the service sector, and personal-income growth flatlined for the next five decades. It’s difficult to explain just how much is wrong with this story. For starters, Americans’ income growth over the past five decades has not been stagnant. It’s been great — and not just for the rich.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-middle-class-has-not-been-hollowed-out-far-it
-----
48) Permitting reform is back, and here’s how Congress can get it done this time
Source: Niskanen Center
by Rachel Levine & Liza Reed
“Permitting reform has reemerged as a priority in the 119th Congress as lawmakers seek to address the gap between stagnant energy supply and surging demand that is pushing prices higher. Today’s permitting processes are not streamlined, and reform has long eluded lawmakers seeking to cut red tape for new critical infrastructure builds. Negotiations on the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA) got close to a deal, but collapsed toward the end of the 118th Congress. Despite the deepening partisan divisions that have led to a shutdown of the federal government, lawmakers still have an opportunity to score a trifecta of energy-related reforms that would promote clean-firm generation, common sense updates to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and streamline permitting for nationally significant transmission lines.” (10/14/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/permitting-reform-is-back-and-heres-how-congress-can-get-it-done-this-time
-----
49) A Strategy to Stop the Flow of Our Money to Billionaires
Source: In These Times
by Sare Myklebust & Saqib Bhatti
“In the United States, we are living through a time of crisis. We’re witnessing a U.S.-backed genocide as Palestinian children are being starved. Our government is disappearing immigrants and U.S. citizens alike because of the color of their skin and their willingness to speak truth to power. Millions lack basic healthcare, companies are kicking families out of their homes and most of us are paid barely enough to survive. We’re living on the edge, terrified and traumatized. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of this unbearable status quo (billionaires, their companies and the government structures they now control) are using our money to fund these injustices while building their fortunes. Pension funds (totaling $6.1 trillion in state and local defined-benefit funds alone, as of March) are among the largest pots of our money that private equity firms and other financial players use to make themselves richer while ravaging our communities.” (10/15/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/strategy-to-stop-billionaires-pensions-retirement-gaza-palestine
-----
50) Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“How to make parenting much easier even if phones are dangerously different.” (10/14/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/lets-do-the-time-warp-again
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Fifth Column, episode 528
Source: The Fifth Column
“President Comacho Delivers Peace, w/ Mary Katharine Ham.” (10/15/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/528-president-comacho-delivers-peace
-----
52) Rising, 10/15/25
Source: The Hill
“Fox refuses to comply with new Pentagon press rules, signs joint statement.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5556398-rising-october-15-2025/
-----
53) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/15/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Erupts at ABC Over Vance On-Air Fiasco as Presser Goes Off Rails.” (10/15/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/201779/trump-erupts-abc-coverage-anger-presser-goes-off-rails
-----
54) Reason Interview: Ben Wizner
Source: Reason
“Can the ACLU Serve Progressives and Conservatives?” (10/15/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/10/15/can-the-aclu-serve-progressives-and-conservatives/?nab=1
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55) Collateral Damage, episode 2
Source: The Intercept
“A Death in the Dark: The Story of Ryan Frederick and Detective Jarrod Shivers.” (10/15/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/collateral-damage-episode-two-death-dark/
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56) Questions for Corbett, 10/15/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“Is the US Government Fascist?” (10/15/25)
https://corbettreport.com/is-the-us-government-fascist/
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/15/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump: We May Have To ‘Violently’ Disarm Hamas, Israel Violates Ceasefire By Limiting Aid, and More.” (10/15/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAaYhDmO-Y
-----
58) Conflicts of Interest, episode 845
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Is Israel Trying to Break the Ceasefire?.” (10/14/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-845-is-israel-trying-to-break-the-ceasefire
-----
59) Politics Politics Politics, 10/14/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Are the Democrats Blowing It in Virginia? (with Kirk Bado).” (10/14/250
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/are-the-democrats-blowing-it-in-virginia
-----
60) The Climate Realism Show, episode 177
Source: Heartland Institute
“Where Are All the Hurricanes? (Guest: Joe Bastardi).” (10/14/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/where-are-all-the-hurricanes-guest-joe-bastardi-the-climate-realism-show-177/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine’s gas facilities
2) IL: Gang members carry out chemical attack on Chicago crowd, local cops
3) Lebanon: At Least One Killed as Israeli Drones Pound Seddiqine
4) Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
5) Germany: Regime’s military enslavement scheme stalls after defense minister’s objections
6) SCOTUS Questions Role of Race in State Election Maps
7) ICC disqualifies chief prosecutor from Duterte case over perceived conflict of interest
8) FL: Judge grants woman restraining order against creepy politician ex-boyfriend
9) France: Top court upholds ban threatening Marine Le Pen’s 2027 candidacy
10) FL: Disney World guest dies by apparent suicide on monorail track
11) MA: Moulton to challenge Markey for US Senate seat
12) In first non-western aircraft purchase deal, Indonesia to buy 42 fighter jets from China
13) Myanmar: Junta Chief Admits Election Won’t Be Nationwide as War Continues
14) FL: State Data Reveals Just 0.5% of ICE Abductees Are Gang-Affiliated
15) NH: Court rules in clergy abuse case that 2020 law cannot be applied retroactively
16) US regime pays for 2025’s most expensive political ad campaign
17) Dems storm Speaker’s office, berating Capitol officer and messing with signs
18) Italy: Protesters demand Israel boycott before World Cup qualifier
19) CA: OpenAI launches new adult-only “erotica chatbots”
20) US heimatschutz: Mexican cartels offering bounties on rival gang members in Chicago
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Let’s shut down government for real
22) Free Trade and Dynamic Efficiency
23) The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller after the Government Shutdown Ends
24) The Peace in Gaza Won’t Last
25) Russia’s Collectivist Cult of the Strong State
26) Trumpanyahu Administration Already Sabotaging Ceasefire
27) A Government Shutdown Is Less Scary Than Its Dysfunction-As-Usual
28) Masked law enforcement enters a danger zone beyond US democracy
29) 10 Ways Billionaires Making Your Life Worse, and 5 Ways to Fight Back
30) The Right Needs to Reject Conservatism
31) Trump’s Gaza plan has resulted in a cease-fire, but the devil lies in the details going forward
32) The Threat to Liberty is Coming from Inside the House
33) The Abundance Movement’s Deregulatory Deceit
34) Too Hot to Handle
35) The Politics of Fear in American History
36) Antifa in Popular Ontology
37) Syria’s ticking time bomb
38) Infant Adoption is Now Tragically Rare
39) Trump’s sacrilegious campaign to put his name on everything
40) Abraham and Isaac
41) Joe Biden’s Ignominious Gaza Failure
42) Removal Power and the Original Presidency
43) Undeserved Peace Prize Paves the Path to War
44) Government-run schools and religious liberty
45) Trump using government shutdown to do something no president has ever done
46) The Right Wing Desperately Wants to Make Charlie Kirk Its MLK
47) America’s Middle Class Has Not Been Hollowed Out. Far from It.
48) Permitting reform is back, and here’s how Congress can get it done this time
49) A Strategy to Stop the Flow of Our Money to Billionaires
50) Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Fifth Column, episode 528
52) Rising, 10/15/25
53) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/15/25
54) Reason Interview: Ben Wizner
55) Collateral Damage, episode 2
56) Questions for Corbett, 10/15/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/15/25
58) Conflicts of Interest, episode 845
59) Politics Politics Politics, 10/14/25
60) The Climate Realism Show, episode 177
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1) Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine’s gas facilities
Source: Reuters
“Russia launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Targets in the central Vinnytsia and Poltava regions, as well as the northeast regions of Sumy and Kharkiv regions came under attack, he said. … Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year, initially focusing on electricity but this year increasingly targeting gas infrastructure.” (10/16/25)
https://archive.is/Y14dw
-----
2) IL: Gang members carry out chemical attack on Chicago crowd, local cops
Source: The Hill
“Border Patrol [gang-bangers] were involved in a Tuesday car chase that ended in dozens of protesters being sprayed with tear gas and two [abductions] in a Chicago neighborhood amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime. Federal [gang members] chased two people who rammed into a Border Patrol vehicle before fleeing the scene, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ‘Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal [sic] aliens, attempted to flee on foot,’ the DHS said in a statement to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. ‘As Border Patrol [abducted] the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.’ … Thirteen Chicago police officers were impacted by the tear gas while attempting to ‘de-escalate’ the situation, DHS said.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5556412-car-chase-arrests-teargas-chicago/
-----
3) Lebanon: At Least One Killed as Israeli Drones Pound Seddiqine
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel drones carried out multiple strikes against the town of Seddiqine in southern Lebanon overnight and into Wednesday. At least one person was killed when one of the strikes hit a medical center, and another person was wounded. Another overnight strike was reported near Wadi Jilou, another village in the south, targeting a vehicle and wounding one person. The identity of the person was not reported, but media referred to them as a Lebanese citizen. Somewhat further north, in the area around Zahrani, IDF drones were reported to be flying at low altitude overhead. There have as yet not been reports of any strikes in that area, however.” (10/15/25)
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/10/15/at-least-one-killed-as-israeli-drones-pound-seddiqine-in-southern-lebanon/
-----
4) Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
Source: NBC News
“A federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown, which has now stretched to two weeks. Two unions sued the Trump administration last month ahead of the shutdown after the White House signaled a plan to lay off workers through ‘reductions in force’ (RIFs) at federal agencies. At a hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge in the Northern District of California granted the unions’ motion to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the layoffs, which began on Friday.” (10/15/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/judge-blocks-trumps-shutdown-layoffs-calling-illegal-rcna237837
-----
5) Germany: Regime’s military enslavement scheme stalls after defense minister’s objections
Source: Politico
“Germany’s plan to bring back a form of conscription was derailed late Tuesday after last-minute objections from Defense Minister Boris Pistorius upended an agreement among the country’s governing parties, multiple people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Lawmakers from the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats had spent the past week finalizing a compromise to revive military service under the Defense Service Modernization Act — a flagship project of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government to rebuild the Bundeswehr’s depleted ranks. But several parliamentary officials said the deal was halted after Pistorius expressed concerns over key aspects of the draft during a meeting of the parliamentary group of the Social Democrats on Tuesday evening. … The plan had already faced resistance in parliament.” (10/15/25)
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-could-bring-back-conscription-by-lottery
-----
6) SCOTUS Questions Role of Race in State Election Maps
Source: New York Times
“The Supreme Court is hearing a case on Wednesday whose outcome could cause congressional seats throughout the country to flip from blue to red to cement Republican control of Congress. The case, a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map, is a battle over whether states can use race as a factor in drawing electoral districts. But it could have much broader implications for the law, politics, and the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. … Chief Justice John Roberts asked the lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund about the proper role of race in drawing congressional boundaries. … Justice Kavanaugh suggests that aspects of the Voting Rights Act might have an implicit sunset date, like the 25-year deadline Justice O’Connor proposed for race-conscious admissions in higher education in 2003.” (10/15/25)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/15/us/supreme-court-voting-rights
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7) ICC disqualifies chief prosecutor from Duterte case over perceived conflict of interest
Source: ABC News
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday disqualified the court’s chief prosecutor from the case against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is charged with involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called ‘war on drugs’ when in office. The written decision cited a ‘reasonable appearance of bias’ because Prosecutor Karim Khan — before he took office — represented victims of Duterte’s alleged crimes. The decision, dated Oct. 2 but released in redacted form on Wednesday, comes with Khan already having stepped back in May from his duties pending the outcome of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.” (10/15/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/icc-disqualifies-chief-prosecutor-duterte-case-perceived-conflict-126549369
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8) FL: Judge grants woman restraining order against creepy politician ex-boyfriend
Source: The Independent
“Cory Mills, a Florida Republican congressman, has been hit with a restraining order that prevents him from contacting an ex-partner for reasons of ‘protection against dating violence.’ Lindsey Langston, his ex-girlfriend, filed a petition in August and claimed that the Republican was threatening to release nude images and videos to blackmail her. … According to the order, he is now barred from contacting Langston until January 1 or directly referring to her on social media. … Allegedly, the relationship crumbled after Langston saw reports that Mills had been involved in a physical altercation with a woman in Washington, DC. … Sarah Raviani, 27, allegedly called the police to the conservative’s apartment in Washington D.C., and claimed that he had assaulted her.” (10/15/125)
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/cory-mills-republican-restraining-order-b2845735.html
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9) France: Top court upholds ban threatening Marine Le Pen’s 2027 candidacy
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France’s highest administrative court rejected a challenge to electoral rules by far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, dealing a blow to her efforts to overturn a sentence that could derail her candidacy in the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen was barred in March from seeking public office for five years after a French court convicted her and other members of her party for misappropriation of funds. Le Pen has said the case and the decision were politically motivated. The Paris Criminal Court sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison, including two to be served, a 100,000€ ($116,230.00) fine and a five-year ban on holding public office, which is immediately enforceable despite pending appeals. Le Pen had argued that the immediate application of the law that bars people convicted of certain crimes – including those related to corruption, fraud, or misuse of public funds – unfairly infringed upon her political rights.” (10/15/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20251015-top-french-court-upholds-ban-threatening-marine-le-pen-s-2027-candidacy
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10) FL: Disney World guest dies by apparent suicide on monorail track
Source: New York Post
“A person died Tuesday in an apparent suicide at Disney World near the theme park’s famous resort, according to police. The vacationer’s body was found near the Contemporary Resort — one of more than 25 hotels on the sprawling Orlando property. Original social media reports suggested the person had been struck by the resort’s monorail, which connects the Contemporary to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park and several other hotels. But the Orange County Sheriff’s Office told Entertainment Weekly that the death was ‘an apparent suicide.’ ‘[The guest] was NOT struck by the monorail, so that is erroneous information,’ said a statement from the office. Witnesses said the person jumped from a platform of the monorail onto its track, according to previous reports.” (10/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/15/us-news/disney-world-guest-dies-by-apparent-suicide-on-monorail-track/
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11) MA: Moulton to challenge Markey for US Senate seat
Source: Seattle Times
“U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a moderate Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday that he will challenge U.S. Sen. Edward Markey for the Democratic nomination in next year’s Senate race, arguing it’s time for the party to embrace a new generation of leadership. The announcement makes the race one of the most anticipated primary contests in the country and pits two of the heavily Democratic state’s top politicians against one another. Markey, who fended off a challenge in 2020 from Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the Senate primary, would be 80 before his third six-year term would begin.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/VfNSe
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12) In first non-western aircraft purchase deal, Indonesia to buy 42 fighter jets from China
Source: SFGate
“Indonesia’s top defense official said Wednesday that Jakarta will acquire at least 42 Chinese-made Chengdu J-10C fighter jets, marking the country’s first non-Western aircraft purchase deal. Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, that Indonesia would soon buy fighter jets from China as part of a plan to modernize its military. Analysts said the deal could touch regional sensitivities and have geopolitical implications. ‘They will be flying over Jakarta soon,’ Sjamsoeddin said. He declined to provide further details of the purchase. The plan to buy the J-10s was first disclosed last month by defense ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Frega Wenas. Local media had reported that the Indonesian Air Force was still reviewing the Chinese-made fighter jets to ensure their acquisition would effectively strengthen Indonesia’s air defense capabilities. (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/indonesia-to-buy-42-fighter-jets-from-china-21102507.php
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13) Myanmar: Junta Chief Admits Election Won’t Be Nationwide as War Continues
Source: US News & World Report
“Myanmar’s junta chief acknowledged on Wednesday that the military-backed administration will be unable to conduct an upcoming general election across the entire country, as a civil war triggered by a 2021 coup rages on. Critics and many Western nations view the election — due to start in late December and the first since the coup — as a sham exercise to legitimise the military’s rule via proxy political parties. Dozens of anti-junta parties are either banned or refusing to take part. The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the coup, which deposed an elected civilian government and triggered a nationwide armed rebellion that has wrested swathes of territory from the military.” (10/15/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-15/myanmar-junta-chief-admits-election-wont-be-nationwide-as-war-continues
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14) FL: State Data Reveals Just 0.5% of ICE Abductees Are Gang-Affiliated
Source: Common Dreams
“Amid repeated assertions by administration figures that President Donald Trump’s deadly anti-immigrant blitz is ‘targeting the worst of the worst’ among ‘criminal illegal [sic] aliens,’ critics of the crackdown this week pointed to official data belying those claims. Take last month’s invasion by federal forces of a Chicago apartment complex, during which witnesses said agents broke down doors, terrorized residents including children, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged away dozens of zip-tied people including US citizens and minors. US citizen children were separated from their undocumented parents after the raid. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement calling the raid a ‘targeted enforcement operation’ in an area ‘frequented’ by Tren de Aragua (TDA), a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela that Trump has designated a terrorist group and targeted in a series of extrajudicial high-seas assassinations of people critics contend did not belong to the gang.” (10/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-lies-about-gang-members
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15) NH: Court rules in clergy abuse case that 2020 law cannot be applied retroactively
Source: SFGate
“New Hampshire’s 2020 law abolishing deadlines for lawsuits alleging sexual assault cannot be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in the case of Randy Ball, who sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester in 2023 alleging he was raped by a priest at a summer camp in the 1970s. Under the law at the time of the alleged assaults, Ball had only until he turned 20 in 1986 to sue, but he argued his lawsuit was permissible under a 2020 amendment that removed the statute of limitations. The amendment itself did not specify whether it could be applied retroactively, but the court ruled that doing so would violate the state Constitution, which gives private parties a vested right to a statute of limitations defense.” (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/new-hampshire-court-rules-in-clergy-abuse-case-21102436.php
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16) US regime pays for 2025’s most expensive political ad campaign
Source: Axios
“The most expensive political ad campaign of the year is being run by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS disputes that its ads are political. But it has spent at least $51 million this year on ads thanking President Trump for securing the border, according to AdImpact. The next closest ad campaign is the $41 million effort to support California’s redistricting measure, according to AdImpact. … ‘[T]his isn’t a political ad — this is a public service announcement urging illegal aliens to leave,’ Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios. ‘President Trump’ is the most mentioned phrase across all the ads. Three ads say: ‘Thank you, President Donald J. Trump for securing our border and putting America first.'” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/xbXyS
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17) Dems storm Speaker’s office, berating Capitol officer and messing with signs
Source: Fox News
“Democratic lawmakers stormed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Tuesday night, demanding that he swear in a newly-elected representative. Rep. Pramila Jayapal [D-WA] joined arms and chanted ‘swear her in’ with Reps. Melanie Stansbury, [D-NM] and Nanette Barragan [D-CA]. as well as Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, [D-AZ], as they marched on Johnson’s office with members of their staff. Capitol Hill police officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the speaker’s office. Footage from various angles shows Jayapal and Stansbury messing with the sign in front of the speaker’s office and getting into an altercation with one of the officers. Grijalva won her special election on Sept. 23, but she still has not been sworn into office. Her vote would be the final vote needed for the House to approve a discharge petition relating to the Epstein files, put forward by Reps. Ro Khanna [D-CA] and Thomas Massie [R-KY].” (10/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/video-dems-rush-speakers-office-last-night-berate-capitol-officer-mess-signs
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18) Italy: Protesters demand Israel boycott before World Cup qualifier
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Italy’s 2026 World Cup qualifier against Israel was preceded by clashes between some pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police, while thousands of others peacefully marched through Udine in protest at the hosting of a match they felt should not be played. The Gaza ceasefire agreement signed on Monday, along with an exchange of captives between Israel and Hamas, did nothing to diminish the resolve of about 10,000 protesters who descended on the small city in Italy’s far northeast, a small section of whom were involved in unrest at the end of the march.” (10/15/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/10/15/people-march-in-italy-demanding-israel-boycott-before-world-cup-qualifier
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19) CA: OpenAI launches new adult-only “erotica chatbots”
Source: SFGate
“Just a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom touted his signing of a series of bills to tighten restrictions on egregious AI chatbot interactions with minors, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman decided to announce the company’s newest version of its chatbot — one exclusively for ‘mature audiences’. Altman said that OpenAI will launch an adult-only version of ChatGPT at the end of the year, and specifically made sure to mention that it will allow erotica for ‘verified’ users. Elon Musk, as part of his company, xAi, previously launched his own erotica chatbot companion named ‘Ani’ this summer. The timing of the announcement comes a day after Newsom signed several AI regulation bills, including one that will require chatbots to establish protocols ‘to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicide ideation users’.” (10/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/sam-altman-chatgpt-announcement-21101126.php
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20) US heimatschutz: Mexican cartels offering bounties on rival gang members in Chicago
Source: United Press International
“The Department of Homeland Security said it has credible intelligence that Mexican cartels have placed bounties on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection [gang members]. The Tuesday statement from DHS said criminal networks have instructed ‘U.S.-based sympathetics,’ including Chicago street gangs, to ‘monitor, harass and assassinate’ federal [gang thugs]. According to the federal agencies, the cartels are offering $2,000 for gathering intelligence, between $5,000 and $10,000 for kidnapping and assaults on standard ICE and CBP [gang-bangers] and up to $50,000 to assassinate high-ranking [gang shot-callers].” (10/15/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/10/15/DHS-bounties/5291760505213/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Let’s shut down government for real
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“Recently, everyone has been up in arms over a supposed government shutdown. The same way they were over the last few and will be when the next regularly scheduled shutdowns roll around. Some act as if this hasn’t become normal political theatrics. I’m not sure which rock they’ve been hiding under for the past few decades, but it must be a remote one. These same people are trying to decide who’s to blame. Blame? Instead of assigning blame, if there were a government shutdown, I would suggest proudly claiming credit for the accomplishment. Blame belongs to those who want to end the shutdown and open government back up, not those who keep it shut down.” (10/15/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/10/15/voices/opinion-lets-shut-down-government-for-real/231899.html
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22) Free Trade and Dynamic Efficiency
Source: EconLog
by Arnold Kling
“The usual case for free trade is not the best case for free trade. The usual case is based on static efficiency, meaning making better use of a fixed set of resources. Economists use the term comparative advantage to describe how, if humans choose to specialize and trade with one another, each can end up better off than if they produce everything for themselves. But trade has an even more important role to play in what economists have come to call dynamic efficiency, which is the ability of an economy to exploit innovation and increase living standards over time. This dynamic efficiency is a central concern of the economists who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize: Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt, and Joel Mokyr.” (10/15/25)
https://www.econlib.org/free-trade-and-dynamic-efficiency/
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23) The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller after the Government Shutdown Ends
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“As promised — or threatened, if you wandered over to Reason by accident — the Trump administration has started using the government sort-of-shutdown as an opportunity to engage in mass layoffs of federal employees. In the game of chicken between Republicans and Democrats over just how much the government should overspend and on what, the losers so far appear to be some of the almost 3 million Americans who thought federal employment would be a comfortable way to collect a paycheck. Setting thousands of former government workers loose to seek jobs elsewhere — preferably not involving money forcibly extracted from taxpayers — is a step in the right direction.” (10/15/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/15/the-federal-workforce-will-be-a-little-smaller-after-the-government-shutdown-ends/
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24) The Peace in Gaza Won’t Last
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“We can all be grateful that the slaughter in Gaza has been suspended, at least temporarily; that Israeli hostages and Palestinian [hostages] are being exchanged; and that relief aid can flow more freely to the suffering Gazan population. Not surprisingly, U.S. President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap and calling the cease-fire agreement the ‘historic dawn of a new Middle East.’ … I hope he’s right, but I wouldn’t bet on it. There are two lingering questions looming in the aftermath of the present agreement. The first question, obviously, is: ‘Will it hold?’ The second question — on which the answer to the first largely depends — is whether Israel’s relations with the rest of the world, and especially its ‘special relationship’ with the United States, are evolving in ways that might make a lasting peace possible at long last.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/fCihV
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25) Russia’s Collectivist Cult of the Strong State
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Bart Frazier
“Through much of the remainder of the 19th century and an early part of the 20th century, the idea of liberty that de Tocqueville highlighted remained central to the American experience. But today, America in practice has become more guided by a set of ideas closer to those of the Russians than to our own ancestors. Ours may seem like a kinder and gentler political paternalism and system of plunder than in Russia, but our own variation on the collectivist theme has come to dominate America as well.” (10/15/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/russias-collectivist-cult-of-the-strong-state/
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26) Trumpanyahu Administration Already Sabotaging Ceasefire
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I don’t know who first coined the saying that an Israeli ceasefire means ‘you cease and we fire’, but it proves reliably accurate time after time. The IDF reportedly killed nine Palestinians trying to return to their homes today under the usual justification that they were traveling in some kind of unauthorized area in ways that made the troops feel threatened, blah blah. They did this all the time during the previous ‘ceasefire’ at the beginning of the year, using the exact same excuses. Just as we speculated the other day might happen, Israel has announced that it is going to cut the aid it allows into Gaza in half and cut off fuel and gas shipments, because Hamas hasn’t returned the bodies of all the dead Israeli hostages.” (10/15/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/15/the-trumpanyahu-administration-is-already-sabotaging-the-ceasefire/
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27) A Government Shutdown Is Less Scary Than Its Dysfunction-As-Usual
Source: The Daily Economy
by Scott Drylie
“There will be thousands of genuine stories of hardship and frustration that will emerge from this shutdown. There will be waste, interruptions, and inefficiency. Still, from a whole-of-society perspective, shutdowns have historically been much ado about little. Government is not shut and it is usually only moderately and briefly down.” (10/15/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/a-government-shutdown-is-less-scary-than-its-dysfunction-as-usual/
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28) Masked law enforcement enters a danger zone beyond US democracy
Source: The Hill
by James D Zirin
“The history of masks dates to prehistoric times, where they served diverse cultural purposes. Masks were used in dramatic performance in ancient Greece, to protect against plague in the Middle Ages and for entertainment purposes throughout history. Fictional masked figures include such superheroes as Batman, Zorro or the Lone Ranger. Also, there are villains like Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader who wore masks to create a scary presence. Face it, masks are intended to be intimidating, even on Halloween. But the practice of mask wearing by federal agents making arrests or controlling crowds is a novelty, particularly when their actions are the subject of civil liberties court challenges.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/5554243-masked-ice-agents-chicago/
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29) 10 Ways Billionaires Making Your Life Worse, and 5 Ways to Fight Back
Source: Inequality.org
by Chuck Collins
“As a coeditor of Inequality.org, I get a lot of fan mail (and a few complaints). Greg B. recently wrote in, ‘None of my problems exist as a result of someone else being a billionaire’. My response to Greg: ‘An economy rigged to funnel so much wealth and power to the billionaire class is bad for you and everyone else. It undermines your life in some major ways.’ I wrote my new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, for folks like Greg to talk about how extreme wealth inequality disrupts our daily lives. Here are 10 ways you are being burned by billionaires, pulled from my book.” (10/15/25)
https://inequality.org/article/ten-ways-you-are-being-burned-by-billionaires/
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30) The Right Needs to Reject Conservatism
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“[W]hen it comes to fighting back against progressivism, socialism, globalism, interventionism, or whatever you want to call the ideology of the political establishment, the American right has long struggled to do so meaningfully. The reason was best explained in a 1938 pamphlet by the Old Right writer Garet Garrett, called The Revolution Was. Garrett witnessed a conservative movement that was similarly staring down a powerful coalition of New Deal Democrats, crony business leaders, and outright socialists …. In his pamphlet, Garrett argued that the fundamental problem with the conservatives of his day was that they were looking in the wrong direction. … as long as the American right ignored the institutional changes that had already happened and, therefore, allowed them to remain in place, it was effectively a certainty that they would lose. That what they were advocating against would come to pass.” (10/15/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/right-needs-reject-conservatism
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31) Trump’s Gaza plan has resulted in a cease-fire, but the devil lies in the details going forward
Source: New York Post
by Irwin M Stelzer
“He came, he saw, he conquered. That just about describes President Trump’s 12,000-mile round trip from Washington, DC, to Israel and Egypt. He addressed Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem, greeted the hostages and their families, hopped on Air Force One for a flight to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, signed the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, delivered a moving speech, met with the leaders of 27 countries to push the next phases of his 20-point peace plan forward and take a well-earned victory lap, and returned to Washington after what most people would consider a full day. The guns are silent, relief supplies are pouring into Gaza, IDF troops have withdrawn to agreed areas and the 20 surviving hostages have been released, along with four of the 28 bodies of the dead, the others to be returned when they are found by Hamas.” (10/14/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/14/opinion/trumps-gaza-plan-has-resulted-in-a-ceasefire-but-the-devil-lies-in-the-details-going-forward/
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32) The Threat to Liberty is Coming from Inside the House
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein
“You might be, as I am, alarmed about the future of liberty. How deep are the roots of liberty when so many submitted to authoritarian measures in response to COVID, and approved the use of coercion against those less eager to comply? Unable to visualize alternatives, public acceptance of top-down coercive solutions to COVID demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice liberty for the promise of safety. To restore liberty, our understanding of liberty needs to deepen.” (10/15/25)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/the-threat-to-liberty-is-coming-from-2b7
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33) The Abundance Movement’s Deregulatory Deceit
Source: Common Dreams
by Maya K Van Rossum
“The nation’s halting and uneven clean energy rollout — exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s hostility to anything green — threatens our prosperity, our climate, and our communities. Left unchecked, rising temperatures (driven largely by fossil fuels and the industries that burn them) will destroy ecosystems, disrupt our economy, and destabilize our society. Some opportunistic politicians think they have a solution in the latest media fad, the so-called ‘Abundance’ movement. They argue that the rules and regulations put in place to protect the environment are in fact obstacles impeding our ability to build the clean energy our climate needs. Their logic is nonsensical: Cut environmental regulations to protect the environment and unleash energy abundance.” (10/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abundance-deregulation
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34) Too Hot to Handle
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Between May 17 and September 30, there were 3,832 deaths in Spain linked to extreme heat, an increase of almost 87% from 2024. Many of these victims had underlying health conditions, 96% were over 65, and almost two thirds were 85 or older. But boiling Spanish summers are not a new phenomenon, nor is the global warming that politicians like to blame whenever fatalities result from extreme weather. The awkward truth for Spain’s Socialist-led government, which has promised to reduce socioeconomic inequality, is that energy poverty is the more decisive factor in heat-related deaths.” (10/15/25)
https://fee.org/articles/too-hot-to-handle/
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35) The Politics of Fear in American History
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia
“The failure of liberal-minded politicians to keep government officials accountable is a cause for great fear, especially when those state actors are perceived to be actively and intentionally undermining the public’s sense of security. As the American philosopher Judith Shklar explains, what she calls the ‘liberalism of fear’ regards ‘abuses of public powers in all regimes with equal trepidation.’ Knowing that ‘every page of political history’ teaches that ‘some agents of government will behave lawlessly and brutally in small or big ways most of the time unless they are prevented from doing so,’ a liberalism that considers the propagation of fear in society an evil will worry ‘about the excesses of official agents at every level of government.'” (10/15/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politics-of-fear-in-american-history/
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36) Antifa in Popular Ontology
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“What do Jimmy Kimmel and the late J. Edgar Hoover have in common? A kink for women’s dresswear? Nope. Both denied the existence of major criminal organizations. Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 to 1972, refused to affirm that the Mafia crime syndicate existed. Repeatedly, over the years. Rumors that he was being blackmailed by the Mafia itself, over his own cross-dressing kinks (the mob allegedly had photos), is not affirmed by major historians, who say his denial-of-the-facts was just politics. So when we encounter those rejecting the reality of Antifa, take them with a grain of salt.” (10/15/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/15/antifa-in-popular-ontology/
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37) Syria’s ticking time bomb
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols
“In March of this year, Laya’s world came crashing down. Following a series of skirmishes in the coastal region of Syria, the country’s transitional government had mobilized forces to put down what it saw as a brewing rebellion among Alawites, a minority offshoot of Shia Islam and the religion of former President Bashar al-Assad. The operation quickly turned into a bloodbath. Government-affiliated militants and non-state actors swept through coastal towns, going door to door and killing any Alawite men they could find. Hundreds of bodies were dumped in the sea or in mass graves. ‘They killed my cousin,’ recalled Laya, who lost several relatives in the attacks. ‘They came to his door and killed him there, in front of his wife and children.'” (10/15/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/minorities-in-syria/
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38) Infant Adoption is Now Tragically Rare
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Since 2017, I’ve known that international adoption is in decline. But only recently, while writing the introduction to the 15th-anniversary edition of Selfish Reasons, did I realize that both forms of infant adoption in the United States have become incredibly rare. Domestically, birth parents only put about one out of every 200 babies born up for adoption. … Internationally, the situation is even bleaker. In 2004, U.S. international adoptions peaked at 22,988. In 2023, the last available year, the total was just 1,275 — a 94% fall. Two decades ago, the market share of imported adoptees was about 50%. Now it’s about 7%.” (10/15/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/infant-adoption-is-now-tragically
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39) Trump’s sacrilegious campaign to put his name on everything
Source: Washington Post
by Theodore R Johnson
“Trump’s approach to the presidency has been the same as his business strategy, one that’s uncommon for democracies: putting his name and personal brand on everything, building monuments to himself along the way. He hung his massive portrait on buildings around the nation’s capital. He has gilded the Oval Office, put his name on the border wall and on federal stimulus checks, and bathed his career and venues in a sea of American flags. Republicans have proposed legislation to make his birthday a federal holiday, carve his face into Mount Rushmore, and rename D.C.’s Metro system and one of its airports after him. These kinds of civil religious measures canonize the man more than the country and its founding ideals. … Similarly, earlier this year, officials assured the public that the grandiosity of the Army’s 250th anniversary parade had nothing to do with its occurrence on Trump’s birthday.” (10/15/25)
https://archive.is/LXQgZ
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40) Abraham and Isaac
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“It is a funny thing, that old-time American religion. For a time, John Brown belonged to a Congregationalist church in Hudson, Ohio. He attended a prayer meeting there following the death of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy, who died defending his printing press from a mob of slavery supporters. Brown apparently said little or nothing until the end of the meeting, at which point he stood up and spoke: ‘Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.’ Unlike those show ponies angling for future Fox News gigs at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, John Brown meant it. He was that most dangerous and terrible sort of American: a believer.” (10/15/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/john-brown-harpers-ferry-slavery/
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41) Joe Biden’s Ignominious Gaza Failure
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“I’ll admit it: Donald Trump deserves some credit for the ceasefire in Gaza. I didn’t think it would happen – I thought Israel would fully ethnically cleanse the place, and then do the same thing to the West Bank, and Trump would not care. And one should not overstate the achievement here. There were two previous ceasefires negotiated under Joe Biden, under which many more hostages were released. The war may well start up again soon, just like it did after the other ceasefires. Indeed, as I was drafting this article, Israel was already violating the ceasefire terms by shooting several people and cutting the amount of aid let into Gaza in half, supposedly in retaliation for Hamas not producing hostage bodies fast enough. (Hamas claims it is working as fast as it can without digging equipment or electricity.)” (10/15/25)
https://prospect.org/world/2025-10-15-gaza-israel-joe-biden-peace-failure/
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42) Removal Power and the Original Presidency
Source: Law & Liberty
by Ilan Wurman
“The conventional view of executive power among formalists is that the Vesting Clause grants a ‘residuum’ of executive powers, including, for example, foreign affairs-related powers traditionally exercised by the British monarch. If removal is executive in nature, and the Constitution does not assign that power elsewhere or otherwise limit the president’s exercise of it, then it vests in the president by virtue of the residuum. As I have written elsewhere, I agree with Nelson and Mortenson that this account of the Vesting Clause is likely incorrect. My view is that ‘the executive power’ is a substantive grant of power, but of only one: the power to oversee the execution of the laws. But that power, I argue, includes removal — not because removal was a freestanding executive prerogative, but rather because it was part and parcel of the power to oversee the execution of the laws.” (10/15/25)
https://lawliberty.org/removal-power-and-the-original-presidency/
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43) Undeserved Peace Prize Paves the Path to War
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The historical record shows that, far from meeting the ‘three criteria … for selection of a Peace Prize laureate,’ [María Corina] Machado spectacularly fails all three. Machado did not bring Venezuela’s opposition together. The Nobel committee says that ‘Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided.’ That, Yale University history professor Greg Grandin says, is not true: ‘Machado is not a unifier, as the committee said. She represents the most intransigent face of the opposition.’ … More importantly, Machado has not fought for democracy. … Though the Nobel Prize committee makes its case by focusing exclusively on the controversial 2024 election, Machado’s career didn’t start there. … Not only has Machado not fought for democracy in Venezuela, she has neither fought for a ‘peaceful transition to democracy’ nor used ‘the tools of peace.'” (10/15/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/undeserved-peace-prize-paves-the-path-to-war/
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44) Government-run schools and religious liberty
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“We are far from the first to point out that for a truly free people, schools and the state are not compatible. Part of the reason is that state schools do not accept nor truly support the idea of religious liberty. At least any religion except the worship of the omnipotent state. What goes on in Colorado is an example of that. Looking back with 20-20 hindsight, we see that promoting the necessity and acceptance of the power of governments as a primary purpose for ‘public schools’ – government-run, tax-funded institutions. To promote servitude to the state: to governments. Part of that is brainwashing even (and especially) children to see government as the primary (if not only) provider of all good things.” (10/14/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/10/14/government-run-schools-and-religious-liberty/
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45) Trump using government shutdown to do something no president has ever done
Source: Fox News
by Mehek Cooke
“The United States government shutdown drags on, marking a pivotal moment in America’s fiscal and constitutional history. President Donald Trump, the negotiator-in-chief, isn’t blinking. He’s swinging the axe at bloated, Democrat-run bureaucracies that have taken trillions from hardworking Americans for decades. While Nancy Pelosi and her party claim ‘chaos’ and Trump is turning crisis into clarity — freezing $26 billion in blue-state pork, halting green-energy pet projects and directing departments to prepare reduction-in-force plans as part of a broader review of spending and accountability. Those plans are now in motion: the Office of Management and Budget confirmed that federal layoffs have begun, with cuts underway in Health, Homeland Security and Commerce.” (10/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-using-government-shutdown-do-something-no-president-has-ever-done
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46) The Right Wing Desperately Wants to Make Charlie Kirk Its MLK
Source: The Intercept
by Alain Stephens
“They keep carving out calendar space for Charlie Kirk — days of remembrance, resolutions, flag orders — demanding the hush and reverence reserved for real moral witnesses. Congress moved to mark today as a ‘National Day of Remembrance;’ the White House ordered flags at half-staff after his death; towns are issuing local proclamations like it’s a civic sacrament. … The goal of the far right, Christian nationalists, and white supremacists in this moment is clear: to fix Kirk in the public imagination where Dr. King once stood. But the point isn’t to honor a tradition of justice — it’s to replace it entirely.” (10/14/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/14/charlie-kirk-remembrance-mlk/
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47) America’s Middle Class Has Not Been Hollowed Out. Far from It.
Source: Cato Institute
by Norbert Michel
“Populists from both major U.S. political parties have ditched the founding American principles that are integral to the nation’s economic and social development. … These principles, though imperfectly implemented, have proven invaluable to Americans. Tragically, the populists’ positions have been based on myths and deceit from the beginning. They insist that somewhere around the 1970s, the American middle class was hollowed out. As this story goes, policy makers’ blind adherence to free-market ideology triggered the catastrophe by killing the U.S. manufacturing sector. Those lucky few Americans who could find new jobs took low-paying ones in the service sector, and personal-income growth flatlined for the next five decades. It’s difficult to explain just how much is wrong with this story. For starters, Americans’ income growth over the past five decades has not been stagnant. It’s been great — and not just for the rich.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-middle-class-has-not-been-hollowed-out-far-it
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48) Permitting reform is back, and here’s how Congress can get it done this time
Source: Niskanen Center
by Rachel Levine & Liza Reed
“Permitting reform has reemerged as a priority in the 119th Congress as lawmakers seek to address the gap between stagnant energy supply and surging demand that is pushing prices higher. Today’s permitting processes are not streamlined, and reform has long eluded lawmakers seeking to cut red tape for new critical infrastructure builds. Negotiations on the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA) got close to a deal, but collapsed toward the end of the 118th Congress. Despite the deepening partisan divisions that have led to a shutdown of the federal government, lawmakers still have an opportunity to score a trifecta of energy-related reforms that would promote clean-firm generation, common sense updates to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and streamline permitting for nationally significant transmission lines.” (10/14/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/permitting-reform-is-back-and-heres-how-congress-can-get-it-done-this-time
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49) A Strategy to Stop the Flow of Our Money to Billionaires
Source: In These Times
by Sare Myklebust & Saqib Bhatti
“In the United States, we are living through a time of crisis. We’re witnessing a U.S.-backed genocide as Palestinian children are being starved. Our government is disappearing immigrants and U.S. citizens alike because of the color of their skin and their willingness to speak truth to power. Millions lack basic healthcare, companies are kicking families out of their homes and most of us are paid barely enough to survive. We’re living on the edge, terrified and traumatized. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of this unbearable status quo (billionaires, their companies and the government structures they now control) are using our money to fund these injustices while building their fortunes. Pension funds (totaling $6.1 trillion in state and local defined-benefit funds alone, as of March) are among the largest pots of our money that private equity firms and other financial players use to make themselves richer while ravaging our communities.” (10/15/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/strategy-to-stop-billionaires-pensions-retirement-gaza-palestine
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50) Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“How to make parenting much easier even if phones are dangerously different.” (10/14/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/lets-do-the-time-warp-again
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Fifth Column, episode 528
Source: The Fifth Column
“President Comacho Delivers Peace, w/ Mary Katharine Ham.” (10/15/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/528-president-comacho-delivers-peace
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52) Rising, 10/15/25
Source: The Hill
“Fox refuses to comply with new Pentagon press rules, signs joint statement.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5556398-rising-october-15-2025/
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53) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/15/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Erupts at ABC Over Vance On-Air Fiasco as Presser Goes Off Rails.” (10/15/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/201779/trump-erupts-abc-coverage-anger-presser-goes-off-rails
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54) Reason Interview: Ben Wizner
Source: Reason
“Can the ACLU Serve Progressives and Conservatives?” (10/15/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/10/15/can-the-aclu-serve-progressives-and-conservatives/?nab=1
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55) Collateral Damage, episode 2
Source: The Intercept
“A Death in the Dark: The Story of Ryan Frederick and Detective Jarrod Shivers.” (10/15/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/collateral-damage-episode-two-death-dark/
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56) Questions for Corbett, 10/15/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“Is the US Government Fascist?” (10/15/25)
https://corbettreport.com/is-the-us-government-fascist/
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/15/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump: We May Have To ‘Violently’ Disarm Hamas, Israel Violates Ceasefire By Limiting Aid, and More.” (10/15/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAaYhDmO-Y
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58) Conflicts of Interest, episode 845
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Is Israel Trying to Break the Ceasefire?.” (10/14/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-845-is-israel-trying-to-break-the-ceasefire
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59) Politics Politics Politics, 10/14/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Are the Democrats Blowing It in Virginia? (with Kirk Bado).” (10/14/250
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/are-the-democrats-blowing-it-in-virginia
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60) The Climate Realism Show, episode 177
Source: Heartland Institute
“Where Are All the Hurricanes? (Guest: Joe Bastardi).” (10/14/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/where-are-all-the-hurricanes-guest-joe-bastardi-the-climate-realism-show-177/
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