08/25 -- Bitcoin Price "Flash Crash" Panic Suddenly Wipes $100 Billion From Crypto Market; Heaven Is No Place for War Criminals
10 views
Skip to first unread message
Thomas L. Knapp
Aug 25, 2025, 6:26:42 AMAug 25
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 08/25/25
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Bitcoin Price “Flash Crash” Panic Suddenly Wipes $100 Billion From Crypto Market
2) Yemen: Israeli strikes target Sanaa
3) TX: Legislature Gives Final Approval to New Congressional Gerrymander
4) Russia: Ukrainian drone hits nuclear plant, sparks huge fire at Novatek’s Ust-Luga terminal
5) TX: Homeowner shoots, kills two intruders wearing regime-affiliated gang’s colors
6) Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say US regime is trying to extort guilty plea with Uganda deportation threat
7) Syria: Regime delays election in Sweida and Kurdish areas
8) Socialist Trump partially nationalizes Intel
9) Grand Canyon University celebrates FTC dropping lawsuit, ending years of “lawfare” from Biden regime
10) European, Asian postal services to halt shipments to US after end of de minimis tariff exemption
11) UK: Farage backs “mass deportations” in new immigration proposal
12) South Africa struggles to find HIV medication after USAID cuts
13) Netherlands: Pols reject Palestine recognition, Israel sanctions
14) NY: Mamdani fails at bench press while trying to show-off at Men’s Day in Brooklyn
15) Taiwan: Opposition survives recall vote, nuclear power referendum fails
16) North Korea: Kim Jong Un supervises test of new antiair missiles
17) Study: Colon cancer may be missed as doctors rely on AI
18) Sri Lanka: Former president arrested for allegedly funding personal trip with state money
19) PA: Bus carrying junior high football team crashes near Pittsburgh; 21 taken to hospitals
20) Maxwell: “I do not believe [Jeffrey Epstein] died by suicide”
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Heaven Is No Place for War Criminals
22) Cracker Barrel vs. The Crack-Brained, Round Two
23) The Poverty of Poverty Data
24) Burger Chef and the McDonald’s Happy Meal: A Case Study in Creative Destruction
25) Notes on Smartphone Culture
26) What Is the Democratic Alternative to Trump?
27) Lessons from Historical Recreation
28) The Geopolitical Thriller: A Right-Wing Genre
29) When Trump Rails Against DC Crime, the Call Is Coming From Inside the House
30) Woodrow Wilson Has Something Donald Trump Desperately Wants
31) Think DC runs your life? Think again
32) Age Limits for Politicians
33) “Why Doesn’t Hamas Release The Hostages?”, And Other Reader Questions
34) Ted Cruz Knows Better
35) Mirror, Mirror
36) Mail-In Voting: Trust the States To Decide
37) Mangione case shows how grievance culture has become America’s “license to break the law”
38) Apple to Keep Encryption
39) The other Edinburgh dream
40) Newsom v. Trump trolling war speaks poorly for the nation
41) Providing Housing to End DC Homelessness Would Be Far Cheaper Than Trump’s Takeover
42) Understanding Inequality Across History
43) In a classic cartel move, college sports beg for federal help
44) “They” not “It”: Understanding Group Behavior Through Methodological Individualism
45) Desperate left [sic] now aiming to paint Trump as … secretly enfeebled
46) Few Americans Trust the Federal Government
47) Industrial Policy was the Gateway Drug to Cronyism
48) For peace in Ukraine, Russia needs “security guarantees” too
49) Will Next Week’s DNC Meeting Call for a Ban on US Arms to Israel?
50) Is Venezuela the Next Target of the US Empire?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Why Do So Many Jobs Require a License?
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/23/25
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 307
54) Free Talk Live, 08/23/25
55) Serious Trouble, 08/23/25
56) LPALive!, 08/23/25
57) Bulwark Takes, 08/23/25
58) Quillette Cetera, episode 51
59) The Tom Woods Show, episod 2685
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 08/22/25
61) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 08/22/25
62) Freakonomics Radio, 08/22/25
63) Nonzero, 08/22/25
64) The Climate Realism Show, episode 170
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/22/25
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION, by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947660853
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
ONE IDENTITY FOR ALL YOUR CRYPTO
https://fioprotocol.io/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHOP ONLINE, COLLECT A REBATE IN BITCOIN!
https://www.lolli.com/share/MZB4cCpheL
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Bitcoin Price “Flash Crash” Panic Suddenly Wipes $100 Billion From Crypto Market
Source: Forbes
“Bitcoin has suffered a so-called ‘flash crash’ that knocked $4,000 from the bitcoin price in a matter of minutes …. Bitcoin’s sudden decline, coming amid fears a U.S. dollar ‘crisis’ could propel the bitcoin price higher, has been blamed on a single large holder cashing out 24,000 bitcoin worth over $2 billion, according to social media reports. … The sudden sell off weighed on the wider crypto market, including ethereum, wiping around $100 billion from the combined $4 trillion crypto market in just 24 hours. … The bitcoin price downturn, following the bitcoin price rising sharply on Friday, has raised fears selling could spread to the wider crypto market.” (08/25/25)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/08/25/bitcoin-price-flash-crash-panic-suddenly-wipes-100-billion-from-crypto-market/
-----
2) Yemen: Israeli strikes target Sanaa
Source: Washington Post
“Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s capital on Sunday, just days after the Houthi rebels [sic] fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels [sic] had fired at it since 2023. The Iranian-backed Houthis said the strikes hit multiple areas across Sanaa, including a power plant and a gas station. Two people were killed and five others were wounded in a strike on an oil company, the rebels’ [sic] Al-Masirah satellite television reported. Video on social media showed a fireball erupting there.” (08/24/25)
https://archive.is/S2pHP
-----
3) TX: Legislature Gives Final Approval to New Congressional Gerrymander
Source: New York Times
“The Texas Legislature gave final approval on Saturday to an aggressively redrawn congressional map that kicked off a redistricting race between the parties that is likely to affect the fight for Congress long before any ballots are cast in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he would sign the map into law once it reaches his desk. … Texas Democrats, who temporarily blocked the passage of the map with a walkout in the State House, said the newly drawn lines illegally diminished the voting strength of Black and Hispanic Texans. They have vowed to file suit against the map after it is adopted.” (08/23/25)
https://archive.is/VChmD
-----
4) Russia: Ukrainian drone hits nuclear plant, sparks huge fire at Novatek’s Ust-Luga terminal
Source: Reuters
“Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia on Sunday, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power plants and sparking a huge blaze at the major Ust-Luga fuel export terminal, Russian officials said. … The Kursk nuclear power plant, just 60 km (38 miles) from the border with Ukraine, said that air defences shot down a drone that detonated near the plant just after midnight, damaging an auxiliary transformer and forcing a 50% reduction in the operating capacity at reactor No. 3. Radiation levels were normal and there were no injuries from the fire which the drone sparked, the plant said. … A thousand km north, on the Gulf of Finland, at least 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, with debris sparking fire at the Novatek-operated terminal – a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex, the regional governor said.” (08/24/25)
https://archive.is/NGb5p
-----
5) TX: Homeowner shoots, kills two intruders wearing regime-affiliated gang’s colors
Source: Fox News
“A Texas homeowner fatally shot two masked men late Friday after they posed as officers serving a warrant and opened fire on the house, police say. The Houston Police Department responded to reports of gunfire in the southeast part of the city around midnight, Officer C. Jones told Fox News Digital. The suspects were wearing bulletproof vests marked with ‘police,’ but no patrol cars or flashing lights were present, raising the homeowner’s suspicions, authorities said. The two men were also wearing masks covering their faces and badges around their necks, Fox 26 Houston reported, citing the police. … Police said the men fired into the home before the residents returned gunshots, killing both, the local station reported.” (08/24/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/2-men-claiming-police-shot-killed-homeowner-authorities-say
-----
6) Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say US regime is trying to extort guilty plea with Uganda deportation threat
Source: ABC News
“The federal government is trying to force Kilmar Abrego Garcia to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to Uganda, his attorneys claimed in a filing on Saturday. The Salvadoran man, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the United States to face human smuggling charges, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and sent back to Maryland on Friday. After Abrego Garcia declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges, his attorneys say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed them that he could be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Baltimore on Monday.” (08/23/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/abrego-garcias-attorneys-government-coerce-accept-guilty-plea/story?id=124916582
-----
7) Syria: Regime delays election in Sweida and Kurdish areas
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“The Syrian government on Saturday announced that elections will not be held in the provinces of Sweida, Hasaka and Raqqa when the rest of the country votes for a new parliament in September. The southern province of Sweida is majority-Druze, while most of Hasaka and parts of Raqqa are controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections said the ballot would be delayed in all three until a ‘safe environment’ was in place according to SANA state news agency. Sweida in southern Syria is the scene of long-simmering tensions between militias representing the Druze minority and Sunni Bedouin tribes over land and resources. … Beyond Sweida, the partially SDF-held provinces of Hasaka and Raqqa were also deemed too unsafe for elections.” (08/23/25)
https://www.dw.com/en/syria-delays-election-in-sweida-and-kurdish-areas/a-73742611
-----
8) Socialist Trump partially nationalizes Intel
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. government had reached a deal to take a 10 percent equity stake in the chipmaker Intel, worth approximately $10 billion. ‘I said, I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,’ Trump said Friday at the White House. ‘[CEO Lip-Bu Tan] agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it.’ Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the deal in a post on X on Friday: ‘BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies.’ Intel posted details of the plan soon afterward, saying the administration would make an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, paid for with the CHIPS grant money. The company said the stake would be funded with $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded but not yet paid, and $3.2 billion from a separate Defense Department program.” (08/22/25)
https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-white-house-takes-a-10b-stake-in-intel
-----
9) Grand Canyon University celebrates FTC dropping lawsuit, ending years of “lawfare” from Biden regime
Source: Fox News
“The largest Christian college in the United States has been cleared of federal allegations after university officials said the school was unjustly targeted by the Biden administration. Grand Canyon University announced last week that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously to drop its lawsuit against the school. In 2023, the FTC under the Biden administration filed suit in federal court against GCU, its marketer Grand Canyon Education, Inc., and its president and CEO, Brian Mueller, claiming the defendants used deceptive advertising and engaged in illegal telemarketing. In addition to providing marketing services, Grand Canyon Education, Inc., provides recruiting and support services to the university.years ago and has suffered losses in two motions to dismiss,’ FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/federal-trade-commission-drops-lawsuit-against-largest-christian-university
-----
10) European, Asian postal services to halt shipments to US after end of de minimis tariff exemption
Source: Fox News
“Postal services in Europe and around the world plan to halt shipping merchandise to the U.S. as the Trump administration’s end of the de minimus tariff exemption goes into effect. The ‘de minimus’ exemption allowed internation carriers to ship goods valued under $800 to the U.S. without paying any duties. The White House announced the end of the exemption weeks ago, linking it to fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming into the U.S. DHL, Europe’s largest shipping provider, said in a statement on its website Friday that ‘Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany will no longer be able to accept and transport parcels and postal items containing goods from business customers destined for the U.S.’ effective immediately. The end of the exemption goes into effect Aug. 29.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/european-asian-postal-services-halt-shipments-us-end-tariff-exemption
-----
11) UK: Farage backs “mass deportations” in new immigration proposal
Source: Politico
“Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage will push for the mass deportation of asylum seekers in a new Illegal Migration Bill expected on Aug. 26. In an interview with The Times published on Saturday, the far-right politician, whose party currently leads consistently in the polls, said migrants coming to Britain by small boats should be arrested on arrival, detained in Royal Air Force bases, denied the right to asylum, and deported within 30 days.” ()8/23/25)
https://archive.is/EGjWs
-----
12) South Africa struggles to find HIV medication after USAID cuts
Source: SFGate
“On a warm evening in Johannesburg, the news spread like wildfire among sex workers: Within 24 hours, several nonprofit clinics providing free HIV services would be closing as President Donald Trump announced the United States was slashing foreign aid. Some South Africans living with, or at risk of, HIV secured supplies of life-saving drugs just in time. Others did not. Half a year later, the country with more people living with HIV than any other is struggling to treat its most vulnerable. Over 63,000 people were being treated in the 12 clinics across the nation that shut down. Up to 220,000 people have faced disruption to their daily HIV medication. South Africa’s government has vowed it won’t let the U.S. withdrawal of about $427 million in support collapse its HIV program, the largest in the world.” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/south-africa-s-most-vulnerable-struggle-to-find-20962135.php
-----
13) Netherlands: Pols reject Palestine recognition, Israel sanctions
Source: United Press International
“Lawmakers in the Netherlands on Saturday rejected a motion that would recognize an independent Palestinian state and measures that would sanction Israel. The punitive measure would have banned the importation of products made in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and banned the Dutch government from buying Israeli-made weapons, Politico reported. A majority of ministers voted to ask the Israeli government to allow journalists into Gaza and to apply ‘maximum pressure’ on nations that condone the actions of Hamas leaders.” (08/23/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/08/23/netherlands-gaza-israel/7011755993606/
-----
14) NY: Mamdani fails at bench press while trying to show-off at Men’s Day in Brooklyn
Source: New York Post
“At least we know he won’t be a strongman leader. Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani struggled to execute a single unassisted bench press rep while trying to impress a crowd at the annual Men’s Day open streets event in Brooklyn Saturday — and wound up getting called ‘Mamscrawny’ by a rival on social media. Photos showed the 33-year-old Socialist, and Democratic Party nominee, was unable to lift a bar loaded with what was said to be 135-pounds off the rack without help — and his two reps required full assistance from a smiling, large-biceped Men’s Day celebrant, photos showed. Mamdani was unable to pick the bar up off the rack and required full assistance on two attempted reps on the bench.” (08/23/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/23/us-news/zohran-mamdani-fails-to-bench-press-meagre-weight-while-trying-to-show-off-at-annual-mens-day-in-brooklyn/
-----
15) Taiwan: Opposition survives recall vote, nuclear power referendum fails
Source: Associated Press
“Opposition lawmakers easily survived recall votes in Taiwan on Saturday, but an opposition-backed referendum to bring back nuclear power failed. The recall votes, the second in a month, were an attempt to restore ruling party control of the legislature after the Democratic Progressive Party lost its majority in a 2024 election. The recall results were a second straight setback for the ruling DPP. The seven lawmakers from the opposition Nationalist Party all held onto their seats, as did 24 members of other parties in a first round of recall votes on July 26.” (08/23/25)
https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-recall-vote-nuclear-referendum-2efa596845858a7e4bd89e0c23af39b8
-----
16) North Korea: Kim Jong Un supervises test of new antiair missiles
Source: SFGate
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of two types of new antiair missiles, state media said Sunday, displaying his expanding military capabilities as the South Korean and U.S. militaries carry out joint drills. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the test Saturday proved the missiles effective in countering aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and that Kim assigned unspecified ‘important’ tasks to defense scientists ahead of a major political conference expected early next year. The report did not specify the missiles that were tested or where the event took place. … The test coincided with new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they vowed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and their trilateral partnership with the United States to address common challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-supervises-tests-20960772.php
-----
17) Study: Colon cancer may be missed as doctors rely on AI
Source: Fox News
“The benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in the medical space are ever-growing, but evidence suggests it can also come with risks. A new study by European researchers investigated how AI can change the behavior of endoscopists when conducting a colonoscopy, and how their performance dips when not using AI. The research followed clinicians at four endoscopy centers in Poland participating in the ACCEPT (Artificial Intelligence in Colonoscopy for Cancer Prevention) trial, where AI tools for polyp detection were introduced at the end of 2021. Colonoscopies at these centers were randomly selected to be administered with or without AI assistance. The researchers gauged the quality of the colonoscopies by comparing the identification of tumors (also known as the adenoma detection rate, or ADR) three months before and three months after implementing the AI.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/colon-cancer-may-missed-doctors-rely-ai-alarming-study-warns
-----
18) Sri Lanka: Former president arrested for allegedly funding personal trip with state money
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Sri Lankan police on Friday arrested the country’s former president and senior opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of misusing public funds during his tenure as president, police said. Wickremesinghe, who served as the island nation’s president from 2022 to 2024, was arrested on allegations of using public funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the U.S, police spokesman Fedrick Wootler told The Associated Press. Wickremesinghe’s aide, Danushka Ramanayake, said the former president has been taken to a court after being arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department.” (08/22/25)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/former-sir-lanka-president-arrested-1.7615465
-----
19) PA: Bus carrying junior high football team crashes near Pittsburgh; 21 taken to hospitals
Source: SFGate
“A bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people on board to the hospital, officials said. Twenty-five Aliquippa Junior High students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O’Brien said he didn’t have information on the medical status of those taken to hospitals. O’Brien said he understood the bus turned on its side during the crash but came back upright as the students were evacuating the vehicle. The police chief said the crash occurred in a tough spot in the road. ‘It’s on a bad bend,’ O’Brien said. ‘It’s being investigated now to determine what happened.'” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/bus-carrying-junior-high-football-team-crashes-20945209.php
-----
20) Maxwell: “I do not believe [Jeffrey Epstein] died by suicide”
Source: Axios
“Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell told the Department of Justice in newly-released interview transcripts that she thinks he was murdered. … Maxwell said she had no firsthand knowledge of what happened but based her opinion on her knowledge of Epstein, who was not known to be suicidal. Maxwell faulted the Bureau of Prisons and said people can be killed for little money. ‘In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay — somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That’s about the going rate for a hit with a lock today,’ she said. … the DOJ released four redacted transcripts of their interview with Maxwell, the once associated of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, on Friday afternoon.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/H35U6
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Heaven Is No Place for War Criminals
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“‘I want to try to get to heaven if possible,’ Trump said, only hours before calling Netanyahu a war hero. ‘I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole,’ he added in jest. It was the sort of comment that has made Trump such a generational enigma. There appeared to be a striking humility in his admission that he was at the ‘bottom of the totem pole.’ But was it humility or simply a stark admission of what Trump, the man, must question of himself when he peers into his gaudy, gold-leafed mirrors at the White House? How can a man, any man, who supports the continued starvation and systematic destruction of poor, helpless people who were unlucky enough to be born into an ancient blood feud thread the eye of the needle? Furthermore, how can a man who has promised to end wars but has consistently signed off on bombing campaigns realistically believe he is a true peacemaker?” (08/23/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/heaven-is-no-place-for-war-criminals/
-----
22) Cracker Barrel vs. The Crack-Brained, Round Two
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I’m not going to lie: I don’t particularly like Cracker Barrel’s new branding. The popular restaurant chain recently replaced its iconic logo, featuring said barrel and the founder’s ‘Uncle Herschel’ sitting in a rocking chair, with a plainer version, a stylized ‘barrel on its side’ shape with the chain’s name on it. As one meme going around puts it, they removed the cracker AND the barrel. Meh. But is the new logo ‘woke,’ as ‘conservative’ ‘influencer’ Robby Starbuck and others would have us believe? Does it reveal a corporate conspiracy to brainwash the public in, perish the thought, ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ doctrine, by imposing brutalist signage on us or something of the sort? In a word, no.” (08/23/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19882
-----
23) The Poverty of Poverty Data
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“To hear some people tell it, America is in the grip of a vast conspiracy in which billionaires get richer, the middle class stagnates at best, and the poor get poorer. Poverty and inequality, by this account, are the shame of America. How can we let this go on! Do not fall for it. Except for the part about billionaires (those who get rich by innovatively serving consumers), the story is hokum. The middle class shrinks because its members move up, and the ‘poor’ get richer with mass production and lower prices.” (08/22/25)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/08/tgif-poverty-of-poverty-data.html
-----
24) Burger Chef and the McDonald’s Happy Meal: A Case Study in Creative Destruction
Source: The Daily Economy
by Michael Munger
“Burger Chef had always been an innovator. Years before McDonald’s introduced the Big Mac, Burger Chef had launched the Big Shef, a double-decker burger that one could describe as ‘two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, and cheese on a sesame seed bun.’ It also developed an imaginative cast of cartoon mascots — including Burger Chef & Jeff, Count Fangburger, Burgerini the magician, Burgerilla the talking ape, and Cackleburger the witch — decades before the Ronald McDonald’s cartoon universe was developed into the McDonaldland characters. But the biggest and most important marketing idea came in 1973: the Fun Meal …. a hamburger, fries, drink, cookie, and a toy — all packaged in a colorful, game-filled box featuring Burger Chef’s cartoon characters. … Of course, here comes McDonald’s …” (08/22/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rip-count-fangburger-a-kids-meal-case-study-in-creative-destruction/
-----
25) Notes on Smartphone Culture
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“The French social theorist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) memorably argued, ‘We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.’ The advent of smartphone culture was a kind of coup for the ruling class. It installed an incredibly pervasive infrastructure that captures attention and commodifies subjectivity; it embedded new tools of diffuse, voluntary social control through which people actively, almost obsessively, pursue their own erasure. Today, under digitized capitalism, the logic of the slot machine has come to dominate almost the entire social experience, with rewards spooned out variably and an uneasy sense that one must compulsively reengage the system.” (08/23/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/notes-on-smartphone-culture
-----
26) What Is the Democratic Alternative to Trump?
Source: American Greatness
By Victor Davis Hanson
“The Pavlovian Left [sic] goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy. Yet the new hard-left [sic] Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suddenly flew to the White House. The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing, and captured on both sides — on Europe’s doorstep.” (08/22/25)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/08/22/what_is_the_democratic_alternative_to_trump_153207.html
-----
27) Lessons from Historical Recreation
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“I have been an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that does historical recreation, mostly medieval and Renaissance, for more than fifty years. I have written and performed poems, told stories from medieval sources, fought with (non-lethal) sword and shield, made pavilions and armor and medieval furniture and jewelry, cooked from medieval cookbooks (the oldest from the 10th century), slept for most of a cumulative year in a pavilion on a rope bed based on an early medieval ivory carving, written, with my wife, a 357 page book on our medieval interests containing a cookbook with more than three hundred recipes. My web page lists my four worlds: family, academic work in economics and law, libertarian writing, recreational medievalism. That fairly, if incompletely, describes my life. What have I learned from the last of the four?” (08/22/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/lessons-from-historical-recreation
-----
28) The Geopolitical Thriller: A Right-Wing Genre
Source: Quillette
by Stewart Slater
“Other plots may attract both right and left-wing authors, but successful geopolitical thrillers are always informed by a conservative view of the world.” [editor’s note: Slater has obviously never read Larry Beinhart’s American Hero, on which the hit movie Wag The Dog was based – TLK] (08/22/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/08/22/the-geopolitical-thriller-a-right-wing-genre-spy-forsyth-le-carre/
-----
29) When Trump Rails Against DC Crime, the Call Is Coming From Inside the House
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“US President Donald Trump, always looking to distract attention from his many crimes, has deployed National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officials in Washington, DC. After his usual wild exaggerations about ‘violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youths, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,’ he moves to impose what is becoming his police state over an overwhelmingly Democratic city. As Trump’s troops fan out across more of the city, they are told to be aggressive, take credit for arrests made by the local DC police force, and arbitrarily interrogate DC residents, for example, people waiting at bus stops, minding their own business. Trump, during his first and current terms, rarely stepped out of his limousine to see what DC is like. He finally visited with a cluster of his police and troops yesterday …” (08/23/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-dc-crime
-----
30) Woodrow Wilson Has Something Donald Trump Desperately Wants
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“What President Trump is trying to do with Ukraine, in perverse pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, is turn the clock back to before Wilson’s time and restore the era of great power imperialism. While Wilson pushed reluctant countries away from imperialism, Trump is facing resistance from European leaders who still believe in today’s liberal world order.” (08/22/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/22/woodrow-wilson-has-something-donald-trump-desperately-wants/
-----
31) Think DC runs your life? Think again
Source: Town Hall
by Debbie Wuthnow
“At the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, I remember how surreal it felt when state and local officials across the country issued orders to ‘shelter in place’. At that time, we knew so little about the novel coronavirus, but the news coverage of massive deaths in Europe made these government orders seem reasonable, if drastic. Businesses closed. Schools shut down. Churches cancelled. Streets emptied. We were told to wear surgical masks and practice social distancing when in public — only venturing out for ‘essential activities,’ of course. Some cities and counties even threatened fines and jail time for those who didn’t comply. As we grappled with overcrowded hospitals and climbing death tolls, decisions made by local governments regulated our lives longer than we’d ever thought possible in America.” (08/23/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/debbiewuthnow/2025/08/23/think-dc-runs-your-life-think-again-n2662219
-----
32) Age Limits for Politicians
Source: Liberal Currents
by Andy Craig
“America’s political gerontocracy is a genuine problem. It fuels dysfunction, distrust, and concrete negative policy consequences. We can’t sweep it under the rug any longer: too many of our high officeholders, including a disproportionate number of Democrats, are simply too old. It’s not unacceptable ageism to say so; it’s the cold, hard reality. And it’s time to confront it head on: we need a mandatory retirement age for politicians.” (08/22/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/age-limits-for-politicians/
-----
33) “Why Doesn’t Hamas Release The Hostages?”, And Other Reader Questions
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The most important thing to make clear here is that anyone who suggests that Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has anything whatsoever to do with hostages is either ignorant or lying. Netanyahu has explicitly said that Israel’s attack will not end until Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan to permanently remove all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been accomplished. This is not about freeing hostages, this is about a land grab that Israel has been pursuing for generations. So when people say ‘why don’t Hamas release the hostages?’ in response to criticisms of Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza, they’re generally just throwing up a completely fallacious red herring to nullify that criticism. It is of course true that the Israeli government doesn’t care about the hostages, but it’s not accurate to say the hostages aren’t a bargaining chip.” (08/22/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/08/22/why-doesnt-hamas-release-the-hostages-and-other-reader-questions/
-----
34) Ted Cruz Knows Better
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Competition for the top spot is fierce, but the very worst of Donald Trump’s enablers and sycophants aren’t the rage-addled, rustic, resentment junkies but such polished epitomes of servility as Sen. Ted Cruz, who insists that his highest political calling is the defense and fortification of the Constitution, and who — being one of those anti-elitist sons of the Texas caliche who learned his ABCs at Princeton and Harvard Law — knows full well that the president’s contempt for the Constitution is exceeded only by his ignorance of it. … as Cruz no doubt heard many times at Harvard Law, insisting that the states act as its ‘agents’ is one of the things the federal government is prohibited from doing. Federal law may supersede state law in cases of conflict, but the federal government cannot command the states to enforce federal law, or to do — anything, really.” (08/22/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ted-cruz-trump-elections-constitution/
-----
35) Mirror, Mirror
Source: Law & Liberty
by Caroline Breashears
“Disney’s Snow White (2025) is among the company’s recent missteps, receiving an IMDB equivalent of poisoned apples — a rating of 2.1 — and earning $205.5 million globally despite a budget of $269.4 million. The computer-generated dwarfs didn’t help, nor did the lead actress’s propensity to insult Disney’s original 1937 film. Yet this movie is significant in reflecting current debates about elitism and the development of our youth. It is particularly instructive to compare it to its source material.” (08/22/25)
https://lawliberty.org/mirror-mirror/
-----
36) Mail-In Voting: Trust the States To Decide
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Jane Brewer & Pat McCrory
“For more than two centuries, the U.S. Constitution has left the administration of elections to the states. This principle of federalism is not an accident, nor is it an afterthought – it is central to the balance of powers our founders designed. Yet today, proposals in Washington seek to wrest control of election administration away from the states, including efforts to restrict time-tested practices like voting by mail. That would be a mistake.” (08/22/25)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/08/22/mail-in_voting_trust_the_states_to_decide_153206.html
-----
37) Mangione case shows how grievance culture has become America’s “license to break the law”
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Alpert
“In America today, a dangerous mindset is spreading: If you feel wronged, you get to make your own rules. That is how we have reached the point where some people hail a man accused of murder as a hero, simply because his violence was fueled by a grievance. The case of Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the name of a grievance, is a chilling example. It is the kind of headline that grabs attention, but the thinking behind it is not confined to extreme cases. In my two decades as a psychotherapist in New York City and Washington, D.C., I have seen the same logic at work in quieter, everyday forms. Whether the act is violent or seemingly small, the script is the same: I have been wronged, therefore I am entitled to break the rules.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/luigi-mangione-case-shows-how-grievance-culture-has-become-americas-license-break-law
-----
38) Apple to Keep Encryption
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Thanks, United Kingdom. Following pressure on UK officials by the Trump administration and some congressmen, British censors have caved — the U.S. Director of National Intelligence confirmed that the UK was abandoning its demand that Apple burn a hole in its iPhone encryption. So Apple may continue providing its flagship smartphone with robust encryption. Cyberhackers and autocratic regimes (including snoopy British officials) — who’d love a crashable gate into everyone’s private iPhone information — must now endure their extreme disappointment.” (08/22/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/22/apple-to-keep-encryption/
-----
39) The other Edinburgh dream
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Catalan secessionists are extracting so many concessions from the Spanish government that soon there will be no need to strive for independence. Their latest victory came last month — a tentative agreement from Spain’s Socialist-led government to allow the wealthy northeastern region, also controlled by a Socialist administration, to collect its own personal income tax. Fiscal autonomy has always been one of the separatists’ key goals; if this deal becomes reality, they will be considerably closer to achieving it.” (08/22/25)
https://fee.org/articles/the-other-edinburgh-dream/
-----
40) Newsom v. Trump trolling war speaks poorly for the nation
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“In the not-so-distant past, politicians — especially at the presidential level — have showed some decorum. Part of Donald Trump’s appeal is his rejection of those long-standing ground rules, but his humor is reminiscent of that of a schoolyard bully. He tirelessly trots out dopey insults and types out long, conspiracy-laden all-caps tirades. They seem unintelligent and mean, but are indeed authentic. Trump has been posting nonsense for years. … Democrats keep taking Trump’s bait, expressing outrage and playing politics along Marquis of Queensberry rules. Democrats often play dirty and do so here in California regularly given their supermajorities, but they currently are outmatched by Trump’s backyard-brawl tactics and keep getting shivved during these street fights. So Newsom hired a brass-knuckled social-media team to fight fire with fire — and he has gotten Trump’s and MAGA’s attention.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/cHKx1
-----
41) Providing Housing to End DC Homelessness Would Be Far Cheaper Than Trump’s Takeover
Source: OtherWords
by Hanna Homestead
“US President Donald Trump mobilized the DC National Guard under the guise of restoring security in the nation’s capital, despite DC’s crime rate being at a 30-year low. What began as a deployment of 800 DC National Guard troops has grown to encompass 2,091 as of this writing, as Republican governors send hundreds more. Trump hasn’t just complained about alleged crime in the district; he’s placed a target on people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Claiming that we’re ‘getting rid of the slums,’ Trump has called on troops and police to forcibly remove unhoused people from the city. Together, we can defend the truth when it’s under siege. Federal law prohibits deploying the military on US soil, except under certain extraordinary circumstances.” (08/23/25)
https://otherwords.org/trumps-invasion-of-d-c-costs-over-1-million-a-day-what-could-that-fund-instead/
-----
42) Understanding Inequality Across History
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato
“A strong claim can be made that the patterns of inequality in feudal societies and today’s state-corporate capitalist systems are more alike than not, even admitting important differences in way of life, economic forms, historical contexts, etc. Through both systems, across centuries, a pattern reveals itself, a startling one showing that a very small group at the top of the pyramid, perhaps one to five percent, have controlled half of all wealth or even more. A concentration of this kind becomes a durable power capable of maintaining hierarchies that run the political, economic, and social worlds. For all of their differences, and they are acknowledged, both systems siphon away the vast majority of the economic surplus to the hands of a privileged few in command of ‘our’ political and economic institutions.” (08/22/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/22/understanding-inequality-across-history/
-----
43) In a classic cartel move, college sports beg for federal help
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“It is axiomatic: When an industry begs government to regulate it, assume that it is seeking protection from threats to the status quo with which the industry is comfortable. The universities are pleading with Congress, which you might think has more urgent priorities, to protect them from twin terrors: athletes being paid their market value, and antitrust litigation resulting from the cartels collaborating to stifle this. The conferences want, in effect, federal price controls …. Trump, who cannot see a parade without jumping in front of it, has issued (what else?) an executive order, saying that federal action is needed to ‘restore order.’ Translation: to suppress the disorder that results when society’s lower orders (here, athletes suddenly allowed serious compensation) acquire rights and aspirations.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/E5IxG
-----
44) “They” not “It”: Understanding Group Behavior Through Methodological Individualism
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Methodological individualism is the idea that the dynamics of a group can best be analyzed by looking at the actions of the individuals that make up the group. Methodological individualism does not deny the existence of groups — of course groups exist. Indeed, there are times when it makes sense to refer to the group as something that accomplished a goal given the inherent complexities of life. For example, we might say ‘the firm produced the pencil.’ Yes, many individuals toiling away at various stages worked to make a pencil, but the firm is the framework, or the coordinating mechanism, that brought the pencil into existence. Applying methodological individualism means that individual behavior is the focus of our analysis. The constitution of the group emerges out of the behavior of the individuals who make up the group.” (08/22/25)
https://www.econlib.org/they-not-it-understanding-group-behavior
-----
45) Desperate left [sic] now aiming to paint Trump as … secretly enfeebled
Source: New York Post
by Rich Lowry
“The MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell believes he’s on to a scandal: The US president who held a snap summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and then, immediately after, hosted a spontaneous meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and major European leaders at the White House, is so debilitated that he can barely function. His evidence is that Donald Trump had a light public schedule a couple of days after this flurry of in-person, high-stakes diplomacy. This would be little like a critic of Charles Lindbergh accusing the landmark aviator of being a layabout because, after landing in Paris upon the completion of his historic transatlantic flight, he didn’t do anything except sleep at the American ambassador’s residence. According to O’Donnell, Trump’s absence might have been because he couldn’t stand up for very long or speak coherently.” [editor’s note: There’s nothing “secret” about Trump’s mental and physical “enfeeblement.” It’s on display daily – TLK] (08/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/opinion/a-desperate-left-now-hopes-to-paint-trump-as-get-this-secretly-enfeebled/
-----
46) Few Americans Trust the Federal Government
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“It will likely come as no surprise to readers that the federal government continues to enjoy rock-bottom trust among Americans. Charitable organizations are trusted by a majority of people, and state and local governments, as well as businesses, get thumbs-up from a fair number, but the years-long downward slide in trust in the federal government to act in society’s best interest proceeds apace. That’s grounds for knowing chuckles all around, but also for concern. That’s because, perversely, there’s evidence that low trust leads to bigger government.” (08/22/25)
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/few-americans-trust-the-federal-government/
-----
47) Industrial Policy was the Gateway Drug to Cronyism
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“In the last two months, Trump has extracted a golden share in U.S. Steel to approve its Nippon merger, strong-armed Apple into $600 billion of investment in U.S. production, called publicly for the Intel CEO’s ouster, and shaken down Nvidia and AMD for 15 percent of revenue from certain chips sales to China (in effect, an export tax). Now the administration is pondering a 10 percent stake in Intel, something that reports suggest could expand to all major semiconductor firms receiving federal funds. There’s a word for the government owning the means of production, of course: socialism.” (08/22/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/industrial-policy-was-gateway-drug-cronyism
-----
48) For peace in Ukraine, Russia needs “security guarantees” too
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nicolai Petro
“The failure of this week’s meeting in Washington to move the needle forward toward peace hinges, in my opinion, on the failure of the participants to properly understand the security dilemma they are facing. Rather than seeking security for all, Europe is still seeking partial security, only for Ukraine. This short-sightedness stems from the desire to punish Russia, which argues that it is only defending its national interests.” (08/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-russia-security-guarantees/
-----
49) Will Next Week’s DNC Meeting Call for a Ban on US Arms to Israel?
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“The Democratic Party is no stranger to tsuris these days. It’s not just its failure to win working-class votes; it’s also its failure to convince its own base that it can stand up to Donald Trump and move beyond those moderate positions crafted in and for a time of less extreme challenges. Next week, when the Democratic National Committee meets in Minneapolis, the party has an opportunity to show its disgruntled base (whose dismay is chiefly responsible for the party’s bottom-basement standing in the polls) that it can actually grapple with current realities. Of the various resolutions the DNC will consider, two stand out. One would ban corporate contributions and super PAC dark money from the Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries. The second would put the party on record as supporting a ban on the provision of U.S. arms to Israel.” (08/22/25)
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-22-will-dnc-meeting-ban-arms-to-israel/
-----
50) Is Venezuela the Next Target of the US Empire?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Will Porter & Kyle Anzalone
“President Donald Trump has deployed several warships and thousands of Marines to the southern Caribbean – just miles off the coast of Venezuela. The provocative mission was launched under the guise of an anti-narcotics crusade, but risks disastrous outcomes for both countries. While a war with Venezuela might seem unlikely, the move is sure to radically escalate tensions with the Latin American state, and in the worst-case scenario could become a trip-wire for direct conflict with Caracas.” (08/22/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/will_porter/2025/08/21/is-venezuela-the-next-target-of-the-us-empire/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Why Do So Many Jobs Require a License?
Source: Reason
“Becoming a taxidermist or hair braider shouldn’t involve costly hurdles.” (08/22/25)
https://reason.com/video/2025/08/22/why-do-so-many-jobs-require-a-license/
-----
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/23/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Andrew Chadderdon’s Garbage Defense of Angela McArdle.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJE2Bvaxi5E
-----
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 307
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Donald, WHO exactly told you that?” (08/23/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-307-donald-who-exactly-told
-----
54) Free Talk Live, 08/23/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“The feds raided John Bolton over classified documents :: Hillary Clinton and Frazzledrip :: Trump federalizing DC and maybe Chicago :: Ava Max new album review by Turd :: Skeeter gives us a trolley problem to solve :: Democrats always showing their racism :: Noise cameras to stop loud car exhaust :: Crrow777 lunar wave footage :: Jeffery Epstein alive? :: Should you sue your parents for sending you to government school? :: Caller is gay :: The inventor of talk radio, Bob Grant :: 2017 Vegas shooting fake :: ICE forced to leave in DC by neighbors :: Gen Z’s new ‘it boy’ George W Bush :: 08-23-25 Hosts: Bonnie, Stu, Angelo.” (08/23/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-08-23
-----
55) Serious Trouble, 08/23/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“Godmother of Greenpoint.” (08/23/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/godmother-of-greenpoint
-----
56) LPALive!, 08/23/25
Source: LP Alliance
“Rebekah Massie Interview.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYEEqDoAKhg
-----
57) Bulwark Takes, 08/23/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s INSANE White House Event Was Straight out of Idiocracy.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaTDaMXhlDo
-----
58) Quillette Cetera, episode 51
Source: Quillette
“How Cancel Culture and Sensitivity Readers Are Shaping the Publishing Industry and Silencing Dissent.” (08/22/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/08/22/how-cancel-culture-and-sensitivity-readers-are-shaping-the-publishing-industry-and-silencing-dissent-quillette-cetera-ep-51/
-----
59) The Tom Woods Show, episod 2685
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“How to Become a Renaissance Man in a World of Drones
Read the original article at TomWoods.com. http://tomwoods.com/ep-2685-how-to-become-a-renaissance-man-in-a-world-of-drones/.” (08/22/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2685-how-to-become-a-renaissance-man-in-a-world-of-drones/
-----
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 08/22/25
Source: Show-Me Institute
“What the Media Gets Wrong About School Choice with Matthew Ladner.” (08/22/25)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/education/what-the-media-gets-wrong-about-school-choice-with-matthew-ladner/
-----
61) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 08/22/25
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Doug Casey on his new book, The Preparation.” ()8/22/25)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/383357-2025-08-22-2025-08-22-doug-casey-on-his-new-book-the.htm
-----
62) Freakonomics Radio, 08/22/25
Source: Freakonomics
“What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update).” (08/22/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-can-whales-teach-us-about-clean-energy-workplace-harmony-and-living-the-good-life-update/
-----
63) Nonzero, 08/22/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Trump’s Failures in Israel and Ukraine | NonZero World feat. Robert Wright.” (08/22/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68961
-----
64) The Climate Realism Show, episode 170
Source: Heartland Institute
“COVID Was the Test Run… Climate Lockdowns Are the Goal (Guest: Matthew Wielicki).” (08/22/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/climate-lockdowns-exposed-matthew-wielicki/
-----
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/22/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“IDF Database Suggests 83% of Gaza Dead Are Civilians, Putin’s Conditions for Peace Deal, and More.” (08/22/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nil1rgwrbYg
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Bitcoin Price “Flash Crash” Panic Suddenly Wipes $100 Billion From Crypto Market
2) Yemen: Israeli strikes target Sanaa
3) TX: Legislature Gives Final Approval to New Congressional Gerrymander
4) Russia: Ukrainian drone hits nuclear plant, sparks huge fire at Novatek’s Ust-Luga terminal
5) TX: Homeowner shoots, kills two intruders wearing regime-affiliated gang’s colors
6) Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say US regime is trying to extort guilty plea with Uganda deportation threat
7) Syria: Regime delays election in Sweida and Kurdish areas
8) Socialist Trump partially nationalizes Intel
9) Grand Canyon University celebrates FTC dropping lawsuit, ending years of “lawfare” from Biden regime
10) European, Asian postal services to halt shipments to US after end of de minimis tariff exemption
11) UK: Farage backs “mass deportations” in new immigration proposal
12) South Africa struggles to find HIV medication after USAID cuts
13) Netherlands: Pols reject Palestine recognition, Israel sanctions
14) NY: Mamdani fails at bench press while trying to show-off at Men’s Day in Brooklyn
15) Taiwan: Opposition survives recall vote, nuclear power referendum fails
16) North Korea: Kim Jong Un supervises test of new antiair missiles
17) Study: Colon cancer may be missed as doctors rely on AI
18) Sri Lanka: Former president arrested for allegedly funding personal trip with state money
19) PA: Bus carrying junior high football team crashes near Pittsburgh; 21 taken to hospitals
20) Maxwell: “I do not believe [Jeffrey Epstein] died by suicide”
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Heaven Is No Place for War Criminals
22) Cracker Barrel vs. The Crack-Brained, Round Two
23) The Poverty of Poverty Data
24) Burger Chef and the McDonald’s Happy Meal: A Case Study in Creative Destruction
25) Notes on Smartphone Culture
26) What Is the Democratic Alternative to Trump?
27) Lessons from Historical Recreation
28) The Geopolitical Thriller: A Right-Wing Genre
29) When Trump Rails Against DC Crime, the Call Is Coming From Inside the House
30) Woodrow Wilson Has Something Donald Trump Desperately Wants
31) Think DC runs your life? Think again
32) Age Limits for Politicians
33) “Why Doesn’t Hamas Release The Hostages?”, And Other Reader Questions
34) Ted Cruz Knows Better
35) Mirror, Mirror
36) Mail-In Voting: Trust the States To Decide
37) Mangione case shows how grievance culture has become America’s “license to break the law”
38) Apple to Keep Encryption
39) The other Edinburgh dream
40) Newsom v. Trump trolling war speaks poorly for the nation
41) Providing Housing to End DC Homelessness Would Be Far Cheaper Than Trump’s Takeover
42) Understanding Inequality Across History
43) In a classic cartel move, college sports beg for federal help
44) “They” not “It”: Understanding Group Behavior Through Methodological Individualism
45) Desperate left [sic] now aiming to paint Trump as … secretly enfeebled
46) Few Americans Trust the Federal Government
47) Industrial Policy was the Gateway Drug to Cronyism
48) For peace in Ukraine, Russia needs “security guarantees” too
49) Will Next Week’s DNC Meeting Call for a Ban on US Arms to Israel?
50) Is Venezuela the Next Target of the US Empire?
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Why Do So Many Jobs Require a License?
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/23/25
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 307
54) Free Talk Live, 08/23/25
55) Serious Trouble, 08/23/25
56) LPALive!, 08/23/25
57) Bulwark Takes, 08/23/25
58) Quillette Cetera, episode 51
59) The Tom Woods Show, episod 2685
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 08/22/25
61) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 08/22/25
62) Freakonomics Radio, 08/22/25
63) Nonzero, 08/22/25
64) The Climate Realism Show, episode 170
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/22/25
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION, by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947660853
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
ONE IDENTITY FOR ALL YOUR CRYPTO
https://fioprotocol.io/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHOP ONLINE, COLLECT A REBATE IN BITCOIN!
https://www.lolli.com/share/MZB4cCpheL
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Bitcoin Price “Flash Crash” Panic Suddenly Wipes $100 Billion From Crypto Market
Source: Forbes
“Bitcoin has suffered a so-called ‘flash crash’ that knocked $4,000 from the bitcoin price in a matter of minutes …. Bitcoin’s sudden decline, coming amid fears a U.S. dollar ‘crisis’ could propel the bitcoin price higher, has been blamed on a single large holder cashing out 24,000 bitcoin worth over $2 billion, according to social media reports. … The sudden sell off weighed on the wider crypto market, including ethereum, wiping around $100 billion from the combined $4 trillion crypto market in just 24 hours. … The bitcoin price downturn, following the bitcoin price rising sharply on Friday, has raised fears selling could spread to the wider crypto market.” (08/25/25)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/08/25/bitcoin-price-flash-crash-panic-suddenly-wipes-100-billion-from-crypto-market/
-----
2) Yemen: Israeli strikes target Sanaa
Source: Washington Post
“Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s capital on Sunday, just days after the Houthi rebels [sic] fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels [sic] had fired at it since 2023. The Iranian-backed Houthis said the strikes hit multiple areas across Sanaa, including a power plant and a gas station. Two people were killed and five others were wounded in a strike on an oil company, the rebels’ [sic] Al-Masirah satellite television reported. Video on social media showed a fireball erupting there.” (08/24/25)
https://archive.is/S2pHP
-----
3) TX: Legislature Gives Final Approval to New Congressional Gerrymander
Source: New York Times
“The Texas Legislature gave final approval on Saturday to an aggressively redrawn congressional map that kicked off a redistricting race between the parties that is likely to affect the fight for Congress long before any ballots are cast in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he would sign the map into law once it reaches his desk. … Texas Democrats, who temporarily blocked the passage of the map with a walkout in the State House, said the newly drawn lines illegally diminished the voting strength of Black and Hispanic Texans. They have vowed to file suit against the map after it is adopted.” (08/23/25)
https://archive.is/VChmD
-----
4) Russia: Ukrainian drone hits nuclear plant, sparks huge fire at Novatek’s Ust-Luga terminal
Source: Reuters
“Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia on Sunday, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power plants and sparking a huge blaze at the major Ust-Luga fuel export terminal, Russian officials said. … The Kursk nuclear power plant, just 60 km (38 miles) from the border with Ukraine, said that air defences shot down a drone that detonated near the plant just after midnight, damaging an auxiliary transformer and forcing a 50% reduction in the operating capacity at reactor No. 3. Radiation levels were normal and there were no injuries from the fire which the drone sparked, the plant said. … A thousand km north, on the Gulf of Finland, at least 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, with debris sparking fire at the Novatek-operated terminal – a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex, the regional governor said.” (08/24/25)
https://archive.is/NGb5p
-----
5) TX: Homeowner shoots, kills two intruders wearing regime-affiliated gang’s colors
Source: Fox News
“A Texas homeowner fatally shot two masked men late Friday after they posed as officers serving a warrant and opened fire on the house, police say. The Houston Police Department responded to reports of gunfire in the southeast part of the city around midnight, Officer C. Jones told Fox News Digital. The suspects were wearing bulletproof vests marked with ‘police,’ but no patrol cars or flashing lights were present, raising the homeowner’s suspicions, authorities said. The two men were also wearing masks covering their faces and badges around their necks, Fox 26 Houston reported, citing the police. … Police said the men fired into the home before the residents returned gunshots, killing both, the local station reported.” (08/24/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/2-men-claiming-police-shot-killed-homeowner-authorities-say
-----
6) Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say US regime is trying to extort guilty plea with Uganda deportation threat
Source: ABC News
“The federal government is trying to force Kilmar Abrego Garcia to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to Uganda, his attorneys claimed in a filing on Saturday. The Salvadoran man, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the United States to face human smuggling charges, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and sent back to Maryland on Friday. After Abrego Garcia declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges, his attorneys say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed them that he could be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Baltimore on Monday.” (08/23/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/abrego-garcias-attorneys-government-coerce-accept-guilty-plea/story?id=124916582
-----
7) Syria: Regime delays election in Sweida and Kurdish areas
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“The Syrian government on Saturday announced that elections will not be held in the provinces of Sweida, Hasaka and Raqqa when the rest of the country votes for a new parliament in September. The southern province of Sweida is majority-Druze, while most of Hasaka and parts of Raqqa are controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections said the ballot would be delayed in all three until a ‘safe environment’ was in place according to SANA state news agency. Sweida in southern Syria is the scene of long-simmering tensions between militias representing the Druze minority and Sunni Bedouin tribes over land and resources. … Beyond Sweida, the partially SDF-held provinces of Hasaka and Raqqa were also deemed too unsafe for elections.” (08/23/25)
https://www.dw.com/en/syria-delays-election-in-sweida-and-kurdish-areas/a-73742611
-----
8) Socialist Trump partially nationalizes Intel
Source: Politico
“President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. government had reached a deal to take a 10 percent equity stake in the chipmaker Intel, worth approximately $10 billion. ‘I said, I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,’ Trump said Friday at the White House. ‘[CEO Lip-Bu Tan] agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it.’ Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the deal in a post on X on Friday: ‘BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies.’ Intel posted details of the plan soon afterward, saying the administration would make an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, paid for with the CHIPS grant money. The company said the stake would be funded with $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded but not yet paid, and $3.2 billion from a separate Defense Department program.” (08/22/25)
https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-white-house-takes-a-10b-stake-in-intel
-----
9) Grand Canyon University celebrates FTC dropping lawsuit, ending years of “lawfare” from Biden regime
Source: Fox News
“The largest Christian college in the United States has been cleared of federal allegations after university officials said the school was unjustly targeted by the Biden administration. Grand Canyon University announced last week that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously to drop its lawsuit against the school. In 2023, the FTC under the Biden administration filed suit in federal court against GCU, its marketer Grand Canyon Education, Inc., and its president and CEO, Brian Mueller, claiming the defendants used deceptive advertising and engaged in illegal telemarketing. In addition to providing marketing services, Grand Canyon Education, Inc., provides recruiting and support services to the university.years ago and has suffered losses in two motions to dismiss,’ FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/federal-trade-commission-drops-lawsuit-against-largest-christian-university
-----
10) European, Asian postal services to halt shipments to US after end of de minimis tariff exemption
Source: Fox News
“Postal services in Europe and around the world plan to halt shipping merchandise to the U.S. as the Trump administration’s end of the de minimus tariff exemption goes into effect. The ‘de minimus’ exemption allowed internation carriers to ship goods valued under $800 to the U.S. without paying any duties. The White House announced the end of the exemption weeks ago, linking it to fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming into the U.S. DHL, Europe’s largest shipping provider, said in a statement on its website Friday that ‘Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany will no longer be able to accept and transport parcels and postal items containing goods from business customers destined for the U.S.’ effective immediately. The end of the exemption goes into effect Aug. 29.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/european-asian-postal-services-halt-shipments-us-end-tariff-exemption
-----
11) UK: Farage backs “mass deportations” in new immigration proposal
Source: Politico
“Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage will push for the mass deportation of asylum seekers in a new Illegal Migration Bill expected on Aug. 26. In an interview with The Times published on Saturday, the far-right politician, whose party currently leads consistently in the polls, said migrants coming to Britain by small boats should be arrested on arrival, detained in Royal Air Force bases, denied the right to asylum, and deported within 30 days.” ()8/23/25)
https://archive.is/EGjWs
-----
12) South Africa struggles to find HIV medication after USAID cuts
Source: SFGate
“On a warm evening in Johannesburg, the news spread like wildfire among sex workers: Within 24 hours, several nonprofit clinics providing free HIV services would be closing as President Donald Trump announced the United States was slashing foreign aid. Some South Africans living with, or at risk of, HIV secured supplies of life-saving drugs just in time. Others did not. Half a year later, the country with more people living with HIV than any other is struggling to treat its most vulnerable. Over 63,000 people were being treated in the 12 clinics across the nation that shut down. Up to 220,000 people have faced disruption to their daily HIV medication. South Africa’s government has vowed it won’t let the U.S. withdrawal of about $427 million in support collapse its HIV program, the largest in the world.” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/south-africa-s-most-vulnerable-struggle-to-find-20962135.php
-----
13) Netherlands: Pols reject Palestine recognition, Israel sanctions
Source: United Press International
“Lawmakers in the Netherlands on Saturday rejected a motion that would recognize an independent Palestinian state and measures that would sanction Israel. The punitive measure would have banned the importation of products made in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and banned the Dutch government from buying Israeli-made weapons, Politico reported. A majority of ministers voted to ask the Israeli government to allow journalists into Gaza and to apply ‘maximum pressure’ on nations that condone the actions of Hamas leaders.” (08/23/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/08/23/netherlands-gaza-israel/7011755993606/
-----
14) NY: Mamdani fails at bench press while trying to show-off at Men’s Day in Brooklyn
Source: New York Post
“At least we know he won’t be a strongman leader. Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani struggled to execute a single unassisted bench press rep while trying to impress a crowd at the annual Men’s Day open streets event in Brooklyn Saturday — and wound up getting called ‘Mamscrawny’ by a rival on social media. Photos showed the 33-year-old Socialist, and Democratic Party nominee, was unable to lift a bar loaded with what was said to be 135-pounds off the rack without help — and his two reps required full assistance from a smiling, large-biceped Men’s Day celebrant, photos showed. Mamdani was unable to pick the bar up off the rack and required full assistance on two attempted reps on the bench.” (08/23/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/23/us-news/zohran-mamdani-fails-to-bench-press-meagre-weight-while-trying-to-show-off-at-annual-mens-day-in-brooklyn/
-----
15) Taiwan: Opposition survives recall vote, nuclear power referendum fails
Source: Associated Press
“Opposition lawmakers easily survived recall votes in Taiwan on Saturday, but an opposition-backed referendum to bring back nuclear power failed. The recall votes, the second in a month, were an attempt to restore ruling party control of the legislature after the Democratic Progressive Party lost its majority in a 2024 election. The recall results were a second straight setback for the ruling DPP. The seven lawmakers from the opposition Nationalist Party all held onto their seats, as did 24 members of other parties in a first round of recall votes on July 26.” (08/23/25)
https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-recall-vote-nuclear-referendum-2efa596845858a7e4bd89e0c23af39b8
-----
16) North Korea: Kim Jong Un supervises test of new antiair missiles
Source: SFGate
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of two types of new antiair missiles, state media said Sunday, displaying his expanding military capabilities as the South Korean and U.S. militaries carry out joint drills. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the test Saturday proved the missiles effective in countering aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and that Kim assigned unspecified ‘important’ tasks to defense scientists ahead of a major political conference expected early next year. The report did not specify the missiles that were tested or where the event took place. … The test coincided with new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they vowed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and their trilateral partnership with the United States to address common challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-supervises-tests-20960772.php
-----
17) Study: Colon cancer may be missed as doctors rely on AI
Source: Fox News
“The benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in the medical space are ever-growing, but evidence suggests it can also come with risks. A new study by European researchers investigated how AI can change the behavior of endoscopists when conducting a colonoscopy, and how their performance dips when not using AI. The research followed clinicians at four endoscopy centers in Poland participating in the ACCEPT (Artificial Intelligence in Colonoscopy for Cancer Prevention) trial, where AI tools for polyp detection were introduced at the end of 2021. Colonoscopies at these centers were randomly selected to be administered with or without AI assistance. The researchers gauged the quality of the colonoscopies by comparing the identification of tumors (also known as the adenoma detection rate, or ADR) three months before and three months after implementing the AI.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/colon-cancer-may-missed-doctors-rely-ai-alarming-study-warns
-----
18) Sri Lanka: Former president arrested for allegedly funding personal trip with state money
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Sri Lankan police on Friday arrested the country’s former president and senior opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of misusing public funds during his tenure as president, police said. Wickremesinghe, who served as the island nation’s president from 2022 to 2024, was arrested on allegations of using public funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the U.S, police spokesman Fedrick Wootler told The Associated Press. Wickremesinghe’s aide, Danushka Ramanayake, said the former president has been taken to a court after being arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department.” (08/22/25)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/former-sir-lanka-president-arrested-1.7615465
-----
19) PA: Bus carrying junior high football team crashes near Pittsburgh; 21 taken to hospitals
Source: SFGate
“A bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people on board to the hospital, officials said. Twenty-five Aliquippa Junior High students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O’Brien said he didn’t have information on the medical status of those taken to hospitals. O’Brien said he understood the bus turned on its side during the crash but came back upright as the students were evacuating the vehicle. The police chief said the crash occurred in a tough spot in the road. ‘It’s on a bad bend,’ O’Brien said. ‘It’s being investigated now to determine what happened.'” (08/23/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/bus-carrying-junior-high-football-team-crashes-20945209.php
-----
20) Maxwell: “I do not believe [Jeffrey Epstein] died by suicide”
Source: Axios
“Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell told the Department of Justice in newly-released interview transcripts that she thinks he was murdered. … Maxwell said she had no firsthand knowledge of what happened but based her opinion on her knowledge of Epstein, who was not known to be suicidal. Maxwell faulted the Bureau of Prisons and said people can be killed for little money. ‘In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay — somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That’s about the going rate for a hit with a lock today,’ she said. … the DOJ released four redacted transcripts of their interview with Maxwell, the once associated of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, on Friday afternoon.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/H35U6
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Heaven Is No Place for War Criminals
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“‘I want to try to get to heaven if possible,’ Trump said, only hours before calling Netanyahu a war hero. ‘I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole,’ he added in jest. It was the sort of comment that has made Trump such a generational enigma. There appeared to be a striking humility in his admission that he was at the ‘bottom of the totem pole.’ But was it humility or simply a stark admission of what Trump, the man, must question of himself when he peers into his gaudy, gold-leafed mirrors at the White House? How can a man, any man, who supports the continued starvation and systematic destruction of poor, helpless people who were unlucky enough to be born into an ancient blood feud thread the eye of the needle? Furthermore, how can a man who has promised to end wars but has consistently signed off on bombing campaigns realistically believe he is a true peacemaker?” (08/23/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/heaven-is-no-place-for-war-criminals/
-----
22) Cracker Barrel vs. The Crack-Brained, Round Two
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I’m not going to lie: I don’t particularly like Cracker Barrel’s new branding. The popular restaurant chain recently replaced its iconic logo, featuring said barrel and the founder’s ‘Uncle Herschel’ sitting in a rocking chair, with a plainer version, a stylized ‘barrel on its side’ shape with the chain’s name on it. As one meme going around puts it, they removed the cracker AND the barrel. Meh. But is the new logo ‘woke,’ as ‘conservative’ ‘influencer’ Robby Starbuck and others would have us believe? Does it reveal a corporate conspiracy to brainwash the public in, perish the thought, ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ doctrine, by imposing brutalist signage on us or something of the sort? In a word, no.” (08/23/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19882
-----
23) The Poverty of Poverty Data
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“To hear some people tell it, America is in the grip of a vast conspiracy in which billionaires get richer, the middle class stagnates at best, and the poor get poorer. Poverty and inequality, by this account, are the shame of America. How can we let this go on! Do not fall for it. Except for the part about billionaires (those who get rich by innovatively serving consumers), the story is hokum. The middle class shrinks because its members move up, and the ‘poor’ get richer with mass production and lower prices.” (08/22/25)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/08/tgif-poverty-of-poverty-data.html
-----
24) Burger Chef and the McDonald’s Happy Meal: A Case Study in Creative Destruction
Source: The Daily Economy
by Michael Munger
“Burger Chef had always been an innovator. Years before McDonald’s introduced the Big Mac, Burger Chef had launched the Big Shef, a double-decker burger that one could describe as ‘two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, and cheese on a sesame seed bun.’ It also developed an imaginative cast of cartoon mascots — including Burger Chef & Jeff, Count Fangburger, Burgerini the magician, Burgerilla the talking ape, and Cackleburger the witch — decades before the Ronald McDonald’s cartoon universe was developed into the McDonaldland characters. But the biggest and most important marketing idea came in 1973: the Fun Meal …. a hamburger, fries, drink, cookie, and a toy — all packaged in a colorful, game-filled box featuring Burger Chef’s cartoon characters. … Of course, here comes McDonald’s …” (08/22/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rip-count-fangburger-a-kids-meal-case-study-in-creative-destruction/
-----
25) Notes on Smartphone Culture
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“The French social theorist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) memorably argued, ‘We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.’ The advent of smartphone culture was a kind of coup for the ruling class. It installed an incredibly pervasive infrastructure that captures attention and commodifies subjectivity; it embedded new tools of diffuse, voluntary social control through which people actively, almost obsessively, pursue their own erasure. Today, under digitized capitalism, the logic of the slot machine has come to dominate almost the entire social experience, with rewards spooned out variably and an uneasy sense that one must compulsively reengage the system.” (08/23/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/notes-on-smartphone-culture
-----
26) What Is the Democratic Alternative to Trump?
Source: American Greatness
By Victor Davis Hanson
“The Pavlovian Left [sic] goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy. Yet the new hard-left [sic] Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suddenly flew to the White House. The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing, and captured on both sides — on Europe’s doorstep.” (08/22/25)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/08/22/what_is_the_democratic_alternative_to_trump_153207.html
-----
27) Lessons from Historical Recreation
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“I have been an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that does historical recreation, mostly medieval and Renaissance, for more than fifty years. I have written and performed poems, told stories from medieval sources, fought with (non-lethal) sword and shield, made pavilions and armor and medieval furniture and jewelry, cooked from medieval cookbooks (the oldest from the 10th century), slept for most of a cumulative year in a pavilion on a rope bed based on an early medieval ivory carving, written, with my wife, a 357 page book on our medieval interests containing a cookbook with more than three hundred recipes. My web page lists my four worlds: family, academic work in economics and law, libertarian writing, recreational medievalism. That fairly, if incompletely, describes my life. What have I learned from the last of the four?” (08/22/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/lessons-from-historical-recreation
-----
28) The Geopolitical Thriller: A Right-Wing Genre
Source: Quillette
by Stewart Slater
“Other plots may attract both right and left-wing authors, but successful geopolitical thrillers are always informed by a conservative view of the world.” [editor’s note: Slater has obviously never read Larry Beinhart’s American Hero, on which the hit movie Wag The Dog was based – TLK] (08/22/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/08/22/the-geopolitical-thriller-a-right-wing-genre-spy-forsyth-le-carre/
-----
29) When Trump Rails Against DC Crime, the Call Is Coming From Inside the House
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“US President Donald Trump, always looking to distract attention from his many crimes, has deployed National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officials in Washington, DC. After his usual wild exaggerations about ‘violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youths, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,’ he moves to impose what is becoming his police state over an overwhelmingly Democratic city. As Trump’s troops fan out across more of the city, they are told to be aggressive, take credit for arrests made by the local DC police force, and arbitrarily interrogate DC residents, for example, people waiting at bus stops, minding their own business. Trump, during his first and current terms, rarely stepped out of his limousine to see what DC is like. He finally visited with a cluster of his police and troops yesterday …” (08/23/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-dc-crime
-----
30) Woodrow Wilson Has Something Donald Trump Desperately Wants
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“What President Trump is trying to do with Ukraine, in perverse pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, is turn the clock back to before Wilson’s time and restore the era of great power imperialism. While Wilson pushed reluctant countries away from imperialism, Trump is facing resistance from European leaders who still believe in today’s liberal world order.” (08/22/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/22/woodrow-wilson-has-something-donald-trump-desperately-wants/
-----
31) Think DC runs your life? Think again
Source: Town Hall
by Debbie Wuthnow
“At the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, I remember how surreal it felt when state and local officials across the country issued orders to ‘shelter in place’. At that time, we knew so little about the novel coronavirus, but the news coverage of massive deaths in Europe made these government orders seem reasonable, if drastic. Businesses closed. Schools shut down. Churches cancelled. Streets emptied. We were told to wear surgical masks and practice social distancing when in public — only venturing out for ‘essential activities,’ of course. Some cities and counties even threatened fines and jail time for those who didn’t comply. As we grappled with overcrowded hospitals and climbing death tolls, decisions made by local governments regulated our lives longer than we’d ever thought possible in America.” (08/23/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/debbiewuthnow/2025/08/23/think-dc-runs-your-life-think-again-n2662219
-----
32) Age Limits for Politicians
Source: Liberal Currents
by Andy Craig
“America’s political gerontocracy is a genuine problem. It fuels dysfunction, distrust, and concrete negative policy consequences. We can’t sweep it under the rug any longer: too many of our high officeholders, including a disproportionate number of Democrats, are simply too old. It’s not unacceptable ageism to say so; it’s the cold, hard reality. And it’s time to confront it head on: we need a mandatory retirement age for politicians.” (08/22/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/age-limits-for-politicians/
-----
33) “Why Doesn’t Hamas Release The Hostages?”, And Other Reader Questions
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The most important thing to make clear here is that anyone who suggests that Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has anything whatsoever to do with hostages is either ignorant or lying. Netanyahu has explicitly said that Israel’s attack will not end until Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan to permanently remove all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been accomplished. This is not about freeing hostages, this is about a land grab that Israel has been pursuing for generations. So when people say ‘why don’t Hamas release the hostages?’ in response to criticisms of Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza, they’re generally just throwing up a completely fallacious red herring to nullify that criticism. It is of course true that the Israeli government doesn’t care about the hostages, but it’s not accurate to say the hostages aren’t a bargaining chip.” (08/22/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/08/22/why-doesnt-hamas-release-the-hostages-and-other-reader-questions/
-----
34) Ted Cruz Knows Better
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Competition for the top spot is fierce, but the very worst of Donald Trump’s enablers and sycophants aren’t the rage-addled, rustic, resentment junkies but such polished epitomes of servility as Sen. Ted Cruz, who insists that his highest political calling is the defense and fortification of the Constitution, and who — being one of those anti-elitist sons of the Texas caliche who learned his ABCs at Princeton and Harvard Law — knows full well that the president’s contempt for the Constitution is exceeded only by his ignorance of it. … as Cruz no doubt heard many times at Harvard Law, insisting that the states act as its ‘agents’ is one of the things the federal government is prohibited from doing. Federal law may supersede state law in cases of conflict, but the federal government cannot command the states to enforce federal law, or to do — anything, really.” (08/22/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ted-cruz-trump-elections-constitution/
-----
35) Mirror, Mirror
Source: Law & Liberty
by Caroline Breashears
“Disney’s Snow White (2025) is among the company’s recent missteps, receiving an IMDB equivalent of poisoned apples — a rating of 2.1 — and earning $205.5 million globally despite a budget of $269.4 million. The computer-generated dwarfs didn’t help, nor did the lead actress’s propensity to insult Disney’s original 1937 film. Yet this movie is significant in reflecting current debates about elitism and the development of our youth. It is particularly instructive to compare it to its source material.” (08/22/25)
https://lawliberty.org/mirror-mirror/
-----
36) Mail-In Voting: Trust the States To Decide
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Jane Brewer & Pat McCrory
“For more than two centuries, the U.S. Constitution has left the administration of elections to the states. This principle of federalism is not an accident, nor is it an afterthought – it is central to the balance of powers our founders designed. Yet today, proposals in Washington seek to wrest control of election administration away from the states, including efforts to restrict time-tested practices like voting by mail. That would be a mistake.” (08/22/25)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/08/22/mail-in_voting_trust_the_states_to_decide_153206.html
-----
37) Mangione case shows how grievance culture has become America’s “license to break the law”
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Alpert
“In America today, a dangerous mindset is spreading: If you feel wronged, you get to make your own rules. That is how we have reached the point where some people hail a man accused of murder as a hero, simply because his violence was fueled by a grievance. The case of Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the name of a grievance, is a chilling example. It is the kind of headline that grabs attention, but the thinking behind it is not confined to extreme cases. In my two decades as a psychotherapist in New York City and Washington, D.C., I have seen the same logic at work in quieter, everyday forms. Whether the act is violent or seemingly small, the script is the same: I have been wronged, therefore I am entitled to break the rules.” (08/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/luigi-mangione-case-shows-how-grievance-culture-has-become-americas-license-break-law
-----
38) Apple to Keep Encryption
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Thanks, United Kingdom. Following pressure on UK officials by the Trump administration and some congressmen, British censors have caved — the U.S. Director of National Intelligence confirmed that the UK was abandoning its demand that Apple burn a hole in its iPhone encryption. So Apple may continue providing its flagship smartphone with robust encryption. Cyberhackers and autocratic regimes (including snoopy British officials) — who’d love a crashable gate into everyone’s private iPhone information — must now endure their extreme disappointment.” (08/22/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/22/apple-to-keep-encryption/
-----
39) The other Edinburgh dream
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Catalan secessionists are extracting so many concessions from the Spanish government that soon there will be no need to strive for independence. Their latest victory came last month — a tentative agreement from Spain’s Socialist-led government to allow the wealthy northeastern region, also controlled by a Socialist administration, to collect its own personal income tax. Fiscal autonomy has always been one of the separatists’ key goals; if this deal becomes reality, they will be considerably closer to achieving it.” (08/22/25)
https://fee.org/articles/the-other-edinburgh-dream/
-----
40) Newsom v. Trump trolling war speaks poorly for the nation
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“In the not-so-distant past, politicians — especially at the presidential level — have showed some decorum. Part of Donald Trump’s appeal is his rejection of those long-standing ground rules, but his humor is reminiscent of that of a schoolyard bully. He tirelessly trots out dopey insults and types out long, conspiracy-laden all-caps tirades. They seem unintelligent and mean, but are indeed authentic. Trump has been posting nonsense for years. … Democrats keep taking Trump’s bait, expressing outrage and playing politics along Marquis of Queensberry rules. Democrats often play dirty and do so here in California regularly given their supermajorities, but they currently are outmatched by Trump’s backyard-brawl tactics and keep getting shivved during these street fights. So Newsom hired a brass-knuckled social-media team to fight fire with fire — and he has gotten Trump’s and MAGA’s attention.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/cHKx1
-----
41) Providing Housing to End DC Homelessness Would Be Far Cheaper Than Trump’s Takeover
Source: OtherWords
by Hanna Homestead
“US President Donald Trump mobilized the DC National Guard under the guise of restoring security in the nation’s capital, despite DC’s crime rate being at a 30-year low. What began as a deployment of 800 DC National Guard troops has grown to encompass 2,091 as of this writing, as Republican governors send hundreds more. Trump hasn’t just complained about alleged crime in the district; he’s placed a target on people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Claiming that we’re ‘getting rid of the slums,’ Trump has called on troops and police to forcibly remove unhoused people from the city. Together, we can defend the truth when it’s under siege. Federal law prohibits deploying the military on US soil, except under certain extraordinary circumstances.” (08/23/25)
https://otherwords.org/trumps-invasion-of-d-c-costs-over-1-million-a-day-what-could-that-fund-instead/
-----
42) Understanding Inequality Across History
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato
“A strong claim can be made that the patterns of inequality in feudal societies and today’s state-corporate capitalist systems are more alike than not, even admitting important differences in way of life, economic forms, historical contexts, etc. Through both systems, across centuries, a pattern reveals itself, a startling one showing that a very small group at the top of the pyramid, perhaps one to five percent, have controlled half of all wealth or even more. A concentration of this kind becomes a durable power capable of maintaining hierarchies that run the political, economic, and social worlds. For all of their differences, and they are acknowledged, both systems siphon away the vast majority of the economic surplus to the hands of a privileged few in command of ‘our’ political and economic institutions.” (08/22/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/22/understanding-inequality-across-history/
-----
43) In a classic cartel move, college sports beg for federal help
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“It is axiomatic: When an industry begs government to regulate it, assume that it is seeking protection from threats to the status quo with which the industry is comfortable. The universities are pleading with Congress, which you might think has more urgent priorities, to protect them from twin terrors: athletes being paid their market value, and antitrust litigation resulting from the cartels collaborating to stifle this. The conferences want, in effect, federal price controls …. Trump, who cannot see a parade without jumping in front of it, has issued (what else?) an executive order, saying that federal action is needed to ‘restore order.’ Translation: to suppress the disorder that results when society’s lower orders (here, athletes suddenly allowed serious compensation) acquire rights and aspirations.” (08/22/25)
https://archive.is/E5IxG
-----
44) “They” not “It”: Understanding Group Behavior Through Methodological Individualism
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Methodological individualism is the idea that the dynamics of a group can best be analyzed by looking at the actions of the individuals that make up the group. Methodological individualism does not deny the existence of groups — of course groups exist. Indeed, there are times when it makes sense to refer to the group as something that accomplished a goal given the inherent complexities of life. For example, we might say ‘the firm produced the pencil.’ Yes, many individuals toiling away at various stages worked to make a pencil, but the firm is the framework, or the coordinating mechanism, that brought the pencil into existence. Applying methodological individualism means that individual behavior is the focus of our analysis. The constitution of the group emerges out of the behavior of the individuals who make up the group.” (08/22/25)
https://www.econlib.org/they-not-it-understanding-group-behavior
-----
45) Desperate left [sic] now aiming to paint Trump as … secretly enfeebled
Source: New York Post
by Rich Lowry
“The MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell believes he’s on to a scandal: The US president who held a snap summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and then, immediately after, hosted a spontaneous meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and major European leaders at the White House, is so debilitated that he can barely function. His evidence is that Donald Trump had a light public schedule a couple of days after this flurry of in-person, high-stakes diplomacy. This would be little like a critic of Charles Lindbergh accusing the landmark aviator of being a layabout because, after landing in Paris upon the completion of his historic transatlantic flight, he didn’t do anything except sleep at the American ambassador’s residence. According to O’Donnell, Trump’s absence might have been because he couldn’t stand up for very long or speak coherently.” [editor’s note: There’s nothing “secret” about Trump’s mental and physical “enfeeblement.” It’s on display daily – TLK] (08/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/opinion/a-desperate-left-now-hopes-to-paint-trump-as-get-this-secretly-enfeebled/
-----
46) Few Americans Trust the Federal Government
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“It will likely come as no surprise to readers that the federal government continues to enjoy rock-bottom trust among Americans. Charitable organizations are trusted by a majority of people, and state and local governments, as well as businesses, get thumbs-up from a fair number, but the years-long downward slide in trust in the federal government to act in society’s best interest proceeds apace. That’s grounds for knowing chuckles all around, but also for concern. That’s because, perversely, there’s evidence that low trust leads to bigger government.” (08/22/25)
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/few-americans-trust-the-federal-government/
-----
47) Industrial Policy was the Gateway Drug to Cronyism
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“In the last two months, Trump has extracted a golden share in U.S. Steel to approve its Nippon merger, strong-armed Apple into $600 billion of investment in U.S. production, called publicly for the Intel CEO’s ouster, and shaken down Nvidia and AMD for 15 percent of revenue from certain chips sales to China (in effect, an export tax). Now the administration is pondering a 10 percent stake in Intel, something that reports suggest could expand to all major semiconductor firms receiving federal funds. There’s a word for the government owning the means of production, of course: socialism.” (08/22/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/industrial-policy-was-gateway-drug-cronyism
-----
48) For peace in Ukraine, Russia needs “security guarantees” too
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nicolai Petro
“The failure of this week’s meeting in Washington to move the needle forward toward peace hinges, in my opinion, on the failure of the participants to properly understand the security dilemma they are facing. Rather than seeking security for all, Europe is still seeking partial security, only for Ukraine. This short-sightedness stems from the desire to punish Russia, which argues that it is only defending its national interests.” (08/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-russia-security-guarantees/
-----
49) Will Next Week’s DNC Meeting Call for a Ban on US Arms to Israel?
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“The Democratic Party is no stranger to tsuris these days. It’s not just its failure to win working-class votes; it’s also its failure to convince its own base that it can stand up to Donald Trump and move beyond those moderate positions crafted in and for a time of less extreme challenges. Next week, when the Democratic National Committee meets in Minneapolis, the party has an opportunity to show its disgruntled base (whose dismay is chiefly responsible for the party’s bottom-basement standing in the polls) that it can actually grapple with current realities. Of the various resolutions the DNC will consider, two stand out. One would ban corporate contributions and super PAC dark money from the Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries. The second would put the party on record as supporting a ban on the provision of U.S. arms to Israel.” (08/22/25)
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-22-will-dnc-meeting-ban-arms-to-israel/
-----
50) Is Venezuela the Next Target of the US Empire?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Will Porter & Kyle Anzalone
“President Donald Trump has deployed several warships and thousands of Marines to the southern Caribbean – just miles off the coast of Venezuela. The provocative mission was launched under the guise of an anti-narcotics crusade, but risks disastrous outcomes for both countries. While a war with Venezuela might seem unlikely, the move is sure to radically escalate tensions with the Latin American state, and in the worst-case scenario could become a trip-wire for direct conflict with Caracas.” (08/22/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/will_porter/2025/08/21/is-venezuela-the-next-target-of-the-us-empire/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Why Do So Many Jobs Require a License?
Source: Reason
“Becoming a taxidermist or hair braider shouldn’t involve costly hurdles.” (08/22/25)
https://reason.com/video/2025/08/22/why-do-so-many-jobs-require-a-license/
-----
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/23/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Andrew Chadderdon’s Garbage Defense of Angela McArdle.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJE2Bvaxi5E
-----
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 307
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Donald, WHO exactly told you that?” (08/23/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-307-donald-who-exactly-told
-----
54) Free Talk Live, 08/23/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“The feds raided John Bolton over classified documents :: Hillary Clinton and Frazzledrip :: Trump federalizing DC and maybe Chicago :: Ava Max new album review by Turd :: Skeeter gives us a trolley problem to solve :: Democrats always showing their racism :: Noise cameras to stop loud car exhaust :: Crrow777 lunar wave footage :: Jeffery Epstein alive? :: Should you sue your parents for sending you to government school? :: Caller is gay :: The inventor of talk radio, Bob Grant :: 2017 Vegas shooting fake :: ICE forced to leave in DC by neighbors :: Gen Z’s new ‘it boy’ George W Bush :: 08-23-25 Hosts: Bonnie, Stu, Angelo.” (08/23/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-08-23
-----
55) Serious Trouble, 08/23/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“Godmother of Greenpoint.” (08/23/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/godmother-of-greenpoint
-----
56) LPALive!, 08/23/25
Source: LP Alliance
“Rebekah Massie Interview.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYEEqDoAKhg
-----
57) Bulwark Takes, 08/23/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s INSANE White House Event Was Straight out of Idiocracy.” (08/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaTDaMXhlDo
-----
58) Quillette Cetera, episode 51
Source: Quillette
“How Cancel Culture and Sensitivity Readers Are Shaping the Publishing Industry and Silencing Dissent.” (08/22/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/08/22/how-cancel-culture-and-sensitivity-readers-are-shaping-the-publishing-industry-and-silencing-dissent-quillette-cetera-ep-51/
-----
59) The Tom Woods Show, episod 2685
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“How to Become a Renaissance Man in a World of Drones
Read the original article at TomWoods.com. http://tomwoods.com/ep-2685-how-to-become-a-renaissance-man-in-a-world-of-drones/.” (08/22/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2685-how-to-become-a-renaissance-man-in-a-world-of-drones/
-----
60) Show-Me Institute Podcast, 08/22/25
Source: Show-Me Institute
“What the Media Gets Wrong About School Choice with Matthew Ladner.” (08/22/25)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/education/what-the-media-gets-wrong-about-school-choice-with-matthew-ladner/
-----
61) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 08/22/25
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Doug Casey on his new book, The Preparation.” ()8/22/25)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/383357-2025-08-22-2025-08-22-doug-casey-on-his-new-book-the.htm
-----
62) Freakonomics Radio, 08/22/25
Source: Freakonomics
“What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update).” (08/22/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-can-whales-teach-us-about-clean-energy-workplace-harmony-and-living-the-good-life-update/
-----
63) Nonzero, 08/22/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Trump’s Failures in Israel and Ukraine | NonZero World feat. Robert Wright.” (08/22/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68961
-----
64) The Climate Realism Show, episode 170
Source: Heartland Institute
“COVID Was the Test Run… Climate Lockdowns Are the Goal (Guest: Matthew Wielicki).” (08/22/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/climate-lockdowns-exposed-matthew-wielicki/
-----
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/22/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“IDF Database Suggests 83% of Gaza Dead Are Civilians, Putin’s Conditions for Peace Deal, and More.” (08/22/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nil1rgwrbYg
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages