09/23 -- Russia: Putin says regime will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year after treaty with US expires; America's Free Speech Culture Is Under Attack From Within
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Thomas L. Knapp
Sep 23, 2025, 6:26:15 AM (12 days ago) Sep 23
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 09/23/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Russia: Putin says regime will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year after treaty with US expires
2) Kimmel’s show returns to ABC, minus Sinclair affiliates
3) Italy: Clashes break out as thousands strike demanding action over Gaza
4) US regime ready to bail out Milei’s Argentina regime, says White House
5) Senile politician, nepo baby friend play doctor on TV
6) South Korea: Unification Church leader arrested in bribery case involving former president’s wife
7) Egypt: Sisi pardons long-time political prisoner
8) NY: No casino in Manhattan after board rejects proposed Mohegan Sun resort
9) Federal judge lifts Trump regime’s halt of nearly completed offshore wind farm project
10) Routh says he won’t testify in Trump assassination trial
11) Trump’s visa extortion scheme sparks a global race to grab top talent
12) China: Regime Showcases Electromagnetic Carrier Catapult For First Time
13) Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription tricks
14) Report: Trump may use ESPN/NFL deal to extort Disney into firing Kimmel
15) Pakistan: Blast at militant compound kills 24, police say
16) West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, lawsuit says
17) Thune whines about Senate Democrats’ absence of support for lates budgetary kicking of can down road
18) Moldova: Regime Abducts 74 Over Alleged Russia-Backed Unrest Plot Around Key Election
19) CA: Legislature passes ban on loud streaming ads
20) IL: Protesters clash with gang members at lair as shot-caller denies its closure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) America’s Free Speech Culture Is Under Attack From Within
22) Implausible Deniability at the FCC
23) The Big Government War on Airline Competition
24) Why our critics’ whataboutery over Jimmy Kimmel is wrong
25) I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
26) After the Kirk killing, mercy as mending
27) How to turn recognition of Palestine into more than just symbolism
28) Beware Today’s “Fire-Eaters”
29) “Recognizing” The Rubble Of Palestine
30) Surrendering to MAGA Isn’t Just a Broadcast Media Problem
31) Hang In There, We Are Going to Be Okay
32) Quantum Vibe, 09/22/25
33) Using Boycotts to Defend Free Speech: Bigger Than Jimmy Kimmel
34) The self-sabotage of shutting out immigrants
35) Lessons from Jimmy Kimmel: The Media Don’t Have to Be Controlled by the Rich
36) Dark Dialectics: The Red-Green-Black Axis
37) Colleges teach words are violence, creating more of the real thing
38) Smotrich’s Apocalyptic “Decisive Plan”
39) Mike Johnson can’t stop the GOP’s internal split on Israel
40) Apology Request Denied
41) Capture the Media, Control the Culture?
42) The Social Costs of Inflation
43) The Big Free Speech Chill
44) The Project for a New Israeli Century: Outsourcing Neoconservatism in an Age of Imperial Decline
45) China weaponized science against the US; we’ve figured out a key element they missed
46) What We Lose When We Can’t Talk to Each Other
47) Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
48) Basmati Fault Line
49) Mask Off, Maersk
50) Independence & Bravery
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 09/22/25
52) Rising, 09/22/25
53) Conflicts of Interest, episode 839
54) TechTank, season 5, episode 27
55) EconTalk, 09/22/25
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/22/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/22/25
58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 362
59) Radio Atlantic, 09/21/25
60) Free Talk Live, 09/21/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Russia: Putin says regime will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year after treaty with US expires
Source: Seattle Times
“Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year under the last remaining nuclear pact with the United States that expires in February, and he urged Washington to follow suit. Putin said that the termination of the 2010 New START would have negative consequences for global stability and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. … The New START, signed by then U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Its looming expiration and the lack of dialogue on anchoring a successor deal have worried arms control advocates. The pact also envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, but they have been dormant since 2020.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/SqjPq
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2) Kimmel’s show returns to ABC, minus Sinclair affiliates
Source: CNN
“‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will return to ABC on Tuesday night, the network said Monday, ending a nearly weeklong standoff over the late-night talk show. But not all of ABC’s affiliated stations will be carrying Kimmel’s comeback show. Sinclair, one of the country’s biggest owners of local TV stations, said its ABC affiliates will preempt the show ‘beginning Tuesday night.’ Sinclair said it will air news programming in the time slot instead. … The Kimmel controversy erupted last week after conservatives criticized a Kimmel monologue comment on Monday about the MAGA responses to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-returning
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3) Italy: Clashes break out as thousands strike demanding action over Gaza
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Clashes broke out on Monday after thousands of Italians took to the streets in towns and cities across their country in a day of solidarity with Palestinians co-ordinated by trade unions. Milan and Rome saw the biggest crowds and tensions spilled over around the central station in Milan where some 60 police were reported hurt. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has come under fire from political opponents for her position on Gaza, condemned the scenes in Milan as shameful. Although she has become increasingly critical of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Meloni has not gone as far as France in deciding to formally recognise a Palestinian state.” (09/22/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jz8rdypw4o
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4) US regime ready to bail out Milei’s Argentina regime, says White House
Source: The Telegraph [UK]
“America stands ready to bail out Javier Milei’s Argentina, the White House has said. Following a bout of severe market volatility in Argentina, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said ‘all options are on the table’ to support the country. The offer of an economic lifeline comes after Mr Milei, the Argentine president and ally of Donald Trump, has spent $1.1bn (£820m) of the country’s $20bn reserves to prop up the peso. Mr Bessent and the US president will meet Mr Milei in New York on Tuesday as they seek to ease fears over the plunging peso and prevent Argentina from tipping into a debt-repayment meltdown.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/5RSPS
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5) Senile politician, nepo baby friend play doctor on TV
Source: Axios
“President Trump on Monday warned pregnant women to limit the use of Tylenol, reviving a contentious debate over whether its active ingredient —acetaminophen — is linked to autism. Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made broad assertions about the cause of a condition that affects about 1 in 31 children up to age 8. They also touted a little-known drug called leucovorin as a way to decrease the symptoms of autism. … ‘With Tylenol, don’t take it, don’t take it,’ Trump said, adding that pregnant women should limit use unless it’s medically necessary and consult with their doctors about using it ‘if you can’t tough it out.'” (09/22/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/22/trump-autism-tylenol-connection-leucovorin
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6) South Korea: Unification Church leader arrested in bribery case involving former president’s wife
Source: WTOP News
“The 82-year-old leader of the Unification Church was arrested in South Korea early Tuesday as investigators probe allegations that the church bribed the wife of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol and a conservative lawmaker. Hak Ja Han, the widow of the church’s South Korean founder, Sun Myung Moon, has denied allegations that she directed church officials to bribe Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, and the lawmaker. The Seoul Central District Court approved investigators’ request for an arrest warrant for Han, saying she posed a risk of destroying evidence. … The suspicions include accepting luxury gifts through an intermediary from a Unification Church official who allegedly sought various business favors, including the church’s participation in a Cambodian development project. The official, who has been arrested, is also suspected of providing 100 million won ($71,800) in bribes to Kweon.” (09/22/25)
https://wtop.com/world/2025/09/court-in-south-korea-issues-arrest-warrant-for-unification-church-leader-in-corruption-case/
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7) Egypt: Sisi pardons long-time political prisoner
Source: CBS News
“Egypt’s president has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian national Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for the better part of the past decade after his involvement in the 2011 uprising. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued the pardon to the 43-year-old activist who has become one of the country’s most prominent political prisoners. Five others were also pardoned.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alaa-abdel-fattah-pardoned-egypt-president/
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8) NY: No casino in Manhattan after board rejects proposed Mohegan Sun resort
Source: ABC News
“There will be no casino in Manhattan after a community panel rejected a proposed Mohegan Sun resort near the United Nations headquarters. The Freedom Plaza development, which also called for hotels, retail, dining, entertainment and housing, was denied by a state-commissioned community advisory committee on a 4-2 vote Monday. Committee members, who were appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and other local politicians, cast their votes with barely any discussion, other than to thank the applicants for their time and responsiveness. In a last minute bid to gain local support, the developers announced over the weekend they would commit to making the more than 1,000 residential units proposed for the project permanently affordable.” (09/22/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/casino-manhattan-after-community-board-rejects-proposed-mohegan-125817815
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9) Federal judge lifts Trump regime’s halt of nearly completed offshore wind farm project
Source: SFGate
“A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project halted by the administration can resume, dealing President Donald Trump a setback in his ongoing effort to restrict the industry. Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut has been paused since Aug. 22 when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop work order for what it said were national security concerns. The Interior Department agency did not specify those concerns at the time. Both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts. Danish energy company Orsted and its joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables sought a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that would allow them to move forward with the project.” (09/22/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/federal-judge-lifts-trump-administration-s-halt-21061458.php
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10) Routh says he won’t testify in Trump assassination trial
Source: Fox News
“Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last year, said he would not take the stand in his own criminal case on Monday — the strongest sign yet that the defense is preparing to rest its case and kick the trial into its final phase before jury deliberation. Routh, 59, has been representing himself in the federal criminal trial. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and possession of a firearm, among other crimes. If convicted, he could face life in prison. He previously floated the possibility that he could testify on his own behalf — a risky strategy that would have waived his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination, and opened him up to cross-examination by federal prosecutors.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tony-hawk-taiwan-flashlight-trump-assassination-attempt-suspects-bizarre-defense
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11) Trump’s visa extortion scheme sparks a global race to grab top talent
Source: CNBC
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise move to raise the H-1B visa application fee to $100,000 has left companies — and major economies — scrambling to make sense of the potential implications. For some global talent hubs, particularly those in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, however, experts say it could offer a valuable opportunity. … One option being considered by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a proposal to drop visa charges for top-level professionals, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/22/h-1b-visa-what-trumps-100000-fee-means-for-top-global-talent-hubs.html
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12) China: Regime Showcases Electromagnetic Carrier Catapult For First Time
Source: Bloomberg
“China has for the first time released complete footage of a successful electromagnetic catapult launch from its latest aircraft carrier, underscoring the progress in the country’s naval capabilities. J-35 and J-15T fighters, and a KJ-600 airborne radar aircraft, can be seen taking off using the Fujian aircraft carrier’s electromagnetic catapult, according to footage released by China state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. It marked the first time that China has shown the complete takeoff sequence. Previous clips only show people cheering a successful catapult launch, without showing the actual take-off.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/Q73E4
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13) Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription tricks
Source: Yahoo! News
“Amazon goes to trial on Monday in a US government lawsuit that accuses the e-commerce giant of using tricks to enroll millions of customers in its Prime subscription service and then making it nearly impossible to cancel. The Federal Trade Commission’s complaint, filed in June 2023, alleges that Amazon knowingly used designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into signing up for the $139-per-year Prime service during checkouts. The case centers on two main allegations: that Amazon enrolled customers without clear consent through confusing checkout processes, and that it created a deliberately complex cancellation system internally nicknamed ‘Iliad’ — after Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War.” (09/22/25)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/amazon-faces-us-trial-over-061705797.html
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14) Report: Trump may use ESPN/NFL deal to extort Disney into firing Kimmel
Source: New York Post
“The Walt Disney Co. could be forced to choose between salvaging its late-night franchise and protecting a multibillion-dollar partnership with the NFL, according to a report. Well-embedded sources predicted to the news site Front Office Sports that the House of Mouse ‘may ultimately have to make a hard choice’ that ‘may not be much of a choice at all’ — which likely means jettisoning Jimmy Kimmel. The stakes are enormous. ESPN recently struck a blockbuster deal with the NFL, trading a 10% equity stake valued around $2 billion to $3 billion for the league’s NFL Network, RedZone and fantasy football assets. … Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, told FOS that Trump could seize on the opportunity to possibly sabotage the NFL-ESPN pact, saying it would be ‘political catnip’ for the president.” (09/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/business/disney-in-crisis-over-jimmy-kimmel-suspension-as-nfl-deal-looms/
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15) Pakistan: Blast at militant compound kills 24, police say
Source: ABC News
“Bomb-making material allegedly stored at a compound by Pakistani Taliban fighters exploded on Monday in the country’s restive northwest, killing at least 24 people, including militants and civilians, police said. The blast occurred in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and destroyed several nearby homes. Local police officer Zafar Khan said at least 10 civilians, including women and children, were killed, along with at least 14 militants.” (09/22/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/blast-militant-compound-northwest-pakistan-kills-24-police-125807329
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16) West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, lawsuit says
Source: Associated Press
“The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status. Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military. … The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point’s civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees.” (09/22/25)
https://apnews.com/article/west-point-lawsuit-first-amendment-professor-a4db138011c6fb9c8b445ce5a106aac2
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17) Thune whines about Senate Democrats’ absence of support for lates budgetary kicking of can down road
Source: Fox News
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to jam Senate Democrats with the GOP’s short-term funding extension, but so far they aren’t ready to play ball. Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber blocked dueling continuing resolutions (CRs) from both parties last week and have now left Washington, D.C., until Sept. 29, effectively giving lawmakers in the upper chamber only two working days before the midnight deadline on Sept. 30. … ‘They’re trying to use what they think is leverage to get a bunch of stuff done,’ Thune said. ‘It’s never going to happen.’ … Thune may have defections within his own ranks to contend with, too. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against the GOP’s bill. Only Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., crossed the aisle to support it.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/thune-slams-democrats-cold-blooded-partisan-tactics-funding-deadline-nears
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18) Moldova: Regime Abducts 74 Over Alleged Russia-Backed Unrest Plot Around Key Election
Source: US News & World Report
“Moldovan authorities said they carried out 250 raids and detained dozens on Monday as part of an investigation into an alleged Russia-backed plan to incite ‘mass riots’ and destabilize the country around a critical parliamentary election. The raids targeted more than 100 people and took place in multiple localities across the country, police said. Seventy-four people were detained for up to 72 hours, said Victor Furtuna, Moldova’s chief prosecutor from the Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases. Moldovans will vote to choose a new 101-seat legislature on Sunday, in an election many view as a choice between Moldova’s continued path toward European Union membership or closer ties with Russia. Moldova’s police said that the unrest plot was ‘coordinated from the Russian Federation, through criminal elements.’” (09/22/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-09-22/moldova-detains-74-people-over-an-alleged-russia-backed-unrest-plot-around-key-election
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19) CA: Legislature passes ban on loud streaming ads
Source: SFGate
“The California Legislature passed a bill earlier this month that could change how Californians experience streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and other platforms. Despite major pushback at the start of the year from Hollywood, Senate Bill 576 passed the Legislature with bipartisan support and, if signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would put a muzzle on commercials that air on these streaming platforms, requiring that ads play no louder than the programs they accompany. State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat from Santa Ana, who authored the bill, said he was inspired when one of his staffers said her baby was woken up — twice — because of excessively loud commercial breaks while watching a show.” [editor’s note: That “problem” can be solved by not subscribing to platforms you don’t want blasting ads … no politicians needed! – TLK]https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/california-legislature-ban-netflix-commercials-21057569.php
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20) IL: Protesters clash with gang members at lair as shot-caller denies its closure
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
“Among masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement [gang members] and fired-up protesters, Abraham Aguirre stood outside the ICE building in Broadview on Sunday with a red suitcase and dark duffel bag.
He believed his cousin was inside. … Aguirre came to the ICE facility as protests against the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ and ramped-up immigration [abductions] stretch into their second week. Speculation brewed among protesters as HuffPost reported that ICE would be vacating the Broadview facility due to protests and some questioned whether the [abductees] believed to be on the buses were being transported elsewhere. HuffPost’s story was updated Sunday night to say DHS decided to keep the facility open and operational despite an initial plan to temporarily close it. … [Gang thugs] have [abducted] almost 550 people in the Chicago operation that launched about two weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.” (09/21/25)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/09/21/immigration-ice-arrest-broadview
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) America’s Free Speech Culture Is Under Attack From Within
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The First Amendment is alive and well, which is a reassuring note about the basic legal protections for free speech. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. The world is full of countries with written protections for liberty that are frequently honored in the breach because people and politicians don’t really believe in them (cough, Canada, cough). The true foundation for free speech in the U.S. has always been a culture that supports unfettered expression, of which the First Amendment is just an extension. But less than two weeks after Charlie Kirk was murdered because an assassin apparently didn’t like what he had to say, it’s obvious that free speech culture is besieged.” (09/22/25)
https://reason.com/2025/09/22/americas-free-speech-culture-is-under-attack-from-within/
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22) Implausible Deniability at the FCC
Source: The Dispatch
by Dan Greenberg
“The extraordinary discretion long held by the FCC has now culminated in extraordinary public remarks by the president that openly threaten the corrupt exercise of power. On Thursday, Donald Trump mused aloud about the prospect of future broadcast license revocation. ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away,’ he said, explaining that ‘all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.’ Revocation decisions ‘will be up to Brendan Carr.’ Brendan Carr is too smart to concede the possibility that the FCC might be used to stifle differences of opinion. Trump, in contrast, is more honest about it.” (09/22/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/fcc-jimmy-kimmel/
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23) The Big Government War on Airline Competition
Source: The Daily Economy
by Brian Garst
“Joe Biden is out of office, but the ghost of his economic agenda still lingers. Its echoes can be heard at an activist group called the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP). Founded by a former senior advisor to Lina Khan, the progressive head of Biden’s Federal Trade Commission, the AELP claims to oppose big business consolidation in the name of protecting the American consumer. Yet as with so much ‘progressive’ economics, its preferred policies of big government interventionism would achieve the opposite of what the group claims. Consider AELP’s advocacy on one of the most consolidated industries: airlines.” (09/22/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-big-government-war-on-airline-competition/
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24) Why our critics’ whataboutery over Jimmy Kimmel is wrong
Source: Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air following backlash from the head of the Federal Communications Commission over remarks Kimmel made last week about the murder of Charlie Kirk. We have been vocal in our opposition to this, and as a result, we’ve received some criticism online. So let’s take a minute to consider some of the most common remarks and address those concerns. … We have been loud, clear, and consistent on this issue for quite some time. In fact, we opposed cancel culture then and we oppose cancel culture now.” (09/22/25)
https://expression.fire.org/p/why-our-critics-whataboutery-over
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25) I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
Source: Wired
by Steven Levy
“It should be the best of times for the tech world, supercharged by a boom in artificial intelligence. But a shadow has fallen over Silicon Valley. The community still overwhelmingly leans left. But with few exceptions, its leaders are responding to Donald Trump by either keeping quiet or actively courting the government. One indelible image of this capture is from Trump’s second inauguration, where a decisive quorum of tech’s elite, after dutifully kicking in million-dollar checks, occupied front-row seats. … It used to be that when tech’s leaders fell short of their lofty values, employees kept them honest. Google workers famously pressured their executives to fight for diversity and avoid military contracts. Implicit was the threat that the activists could easily find jobs elsewhere. Then Elon Musk came along and fired 80 percent of X’s employees, and the app didn’t collapse.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/kElGp
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26) After the Kirk killing, mercy as mending
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Americans who feel angry or hurt by President Donald Trump’s words and actions – such as his unsupported accusation that the ‘radical left’ influenced Charlie Kirk’s killer – might find some calming wisdom in the words of Mr. Kirk’s widow. At a memorial service Sunday for the slain conservative activist, Erika Kirk said she forgives ‘that young man’ charged with the Sept. 10 assassination. Such quick mercy after a crime so calculated and callous was not only for Mrs. Kirk’s peace of mind. Like others who cherish forgiveness as the essence of universal love, she explained the religious origins of her profound choice: ‘I forgive him because it was what Christ did,’ the mother of two young children stated. ‘The answer to hate is not hate.'” (09/22/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0922/After-the-Kirk-killing-mercy-as-mending
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27) How to turn recognition of Palestine into more than just symbolism
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“The New York Declaration calls not just for recognition but for ‘tangible, time-bound, irreversible steps’ toward implementing a two-state solution. It also calls for a temporary international stabilization mission under U.N. Security Council mandate, and commits to support for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders [sic], with East Jerusalem as its capital, pending agreed land swaps. Reaffirming this is crucial at a time when Israel is explicitly seeking to destroy any prospects for a Palestinian state.” [editor’s note: There are no “1967 borders,” just “1967 ceasefire lines.” Israel’s borders were set in 1948 in UNR 181 and have not since changed – TLK] (09/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/palestine-state-recognition/
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28) Beware Today’s “Fire-Eaters”
Source: The Bulwark
by Mark Hertling
“The tactics of the fire-eaters, studied closely, reveal a playbook we are beginning to recognize today. They demonized opponents, insisting that abolitionists and even moderates were not political adversaries but mortal enemies. They normalized extralegal responses, claiming secession and violence were patriotic duties when Washington failed to submit to their will. They mobilized audiences not for votes but for confrontation, turning speeches into rallies that prepared ordinary citizens to resist, with arms if necessary. They celebrated symbolic acts of violence — whether the brutal caning of Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor or the firing on Fort Sumter — as proof that their cause was righteous and that escalation into violence was justified. These tactics fed upon each other.” (09/22/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/beware-todays-fire-eaters
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29) “Recognizing” The Rubble Of Palestine
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“UK, Canada and Australia: Never fear, Palestinians! We’re here to save the day! Palestinians: You’re going to stop the genocide? UK, Canada and Australia: HAHAHAHAHA! No! Oh god no. Haha! No, we are going to give a great big Thumbs Up to the idea of your eventual statehood! Palestinians: Will you at least stop sending them weapons? UK, Canada and Australia: LOL no. … In response to the UK, Canada and Australia announcing their recognition of a Palestinian state, Benjamin Netanyahu has proclaimed that Israel will never allow such a state to exist. ‘It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,’ Netanyahu said, adding that Israel will continue expanding settlements in the West bank.” (09/22/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/09/22/recognizing-the-rubble-of-palestine/
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30) Surrendering to MAGA Isn’t Just a Broadcast Media Problem
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Masciotra
“The Fourth Estate is paralyzed, big law firms cave to Trump’s demands, and universities cut deals to save their federal funding. Even Trump-friendly Republicans are revealing how intimidation is the principal generator of obsequious submission. Indiana Governor Mike Braun recently explained his willingness to call a special legislative session to redistrict the congressional map in Republican favor, in the middle of the decade, with the self-damning admission, ‘If we try to drag our feet as a state on it, probably, we’ll have the consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should.’ ABC didn’t drag its feet. It leapt at the chance to demonstrate obedience to the thought police.” (09/22/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/09/22/paramount-cbs-and-disney-abc-cave-to-trump/
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31) Hang In There, We Are Going to Be Okay
Source: Our Future
by Sulma Arias
“That’s what I told my three daughters on our last family call. Then we all stayed silent for a minute because deep down, we all know things may get a lot worse before they get better. My girls and I hold these family calls every week by video. That’s the only way we can be together most days …. We’ve come a long way since I first came to this country on foot in the 1980s. Back then, I was twelve and was fleeing a US-funded civil war in El Salvador which had torn my family, like many families, apart. My hope and determination was to be reunited with my own sisters and rebuild our lives, together, in peace. We did build new lives, in Kansas, where all three of my daughters were born.” (09/21/25)
https://ourfuture.org/20250921/hang-in-there-we-are-going-to-be-ok
-----
32) Quantum Vibe, 09/22/25
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (09/22/25)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2553
-----
33) Using Boycotts to Defend Free Speech: Bigger Than Jimmy Kimmel
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Rogat Loeb
“How can we effectively push back on the Jimmy Kimmel suspension, and its larger threats to free speech? After Charlie Kirk’s shooting, Kimmel posted, ‘Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?’ And sent his family’s ‘love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.’ But that didn’t seem to matter, because Kimmel also dared to point out that the Trump administration was using the assassination to score political points. US President Donald Trump had already warned in July that Kimmel should be the next to be fired after Stephen Colbert. After Kimmel spoke out following the assassination, Trump Federal Communications Commission head Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of stations carrying Kimmel’s show. Nexstar and Sinclair then jumped in saying they wouldn’t air Kimmel’s episodes. And ABC-Disney caved.” (09/22/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/boycott-for-jimmy-kimmel
-----
34) The self-sabotage of shutting out immigrants
Source: Orange County Register
by Kristie De Pena
“Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics, allowing ICE agents to continue deportation raids in Southern California that target people based on their language and race. While illegal [sic] immigration is a real problem, and tightening security at the southern border is a necessary [sic] safeguard, the current administration’s combative approach is an overcorrection that undercuts one of America’s greatest advantages: our ability to attract and assimilate immigrants to fuel economic vitality and innovation.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/bTZtE
-----
35) Lessons from Jimmy Kimmel: The Media Don’t Have to Be Controlled by the Rich
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“It was, and hopefully still is, possible to build up an alternative media structure that does not rely on the goodwill of the rich. We could look to establish a system of individual tax credits, similar to what exists now with the charitable contribution tax deduction, for supporting journalism. The idea is that everyone would have a sum of money (e.g. $100) to support the journalistic outlet of their choice. This sort of tax credit system could support a vast amount of alternative media.” [editor’s note: Or they could cut everyone’s taxes by $100, said savings to be spent on whatever the taxpayer damn well pleases – TLK] (09/22/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/22/lessons-from-jimmy-kimmel-the-media-dont-have-to-be-controlled-by-the-rich/
-----
36) Dark Dialectics: The Red-Green-Black Axis
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“[T]he October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel ignited a wave of campus and street protests across the U.S., Europe, and Australia in 2023 and 2024. Progressive activists baptized in Marxist critiques of capitalism and colonialism marched arm-in-arm with sympathizers of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Amid chants blending anti-imperialist rhetoric with calls for ‘global intifada,’ figures in masks injected black bloc tactics, which amplified the chaos through vandalism and violent confrontation. Despite profound contradictions embodied in subgroups like ‘Queer Jews for Palestine,’ the apparently disparate groups coalesced around overlapping hatreds. These alliances have frayed the fabric of civil discourse on streets and quads, revealing how ressentiment and illiberal indoctrination can draw disparate forces into a shared bed whose coital fruits threaten free societies.” (09/22/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/dark-dialectics-the-red-green-black
-----
37) Colleges teach words are violence, creating more of the real thing
Source: New York Post
by Ben Appel
“We’ve been told for years that offensive words are a form of ‘violence’. College campuses, once dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, have installed ‘safe spaces’ where students retreat if an opinion strikes them as threatening. The assumption is that speech itself can wound as badly as fists, and we must protect young people. But inflating the concept of violence has had the opposite effect. By equating emotional discomfort with physical assault, universities have desensitized students to the meaning of the real thing. Now when an activist like Charlie Kirk is assassinated, too many of them shrug — or worse, celebrate. Violence has been deconstructed, reframed and stretched to cover everything from being misgendered to being shot in the neck. The result is the word itself has become meaningless.” (09/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/opinion/colleges-teach-words-are-violence-creating-more-of-the-real-thing/
-----
38) Smotrich’s Apocalyptic “Decisive Plan”
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“Bezalel Smotrich is one of political leaders of Israel’s Messianic far-right. But he is also a shrewd administrator executing a biblical ‘decisive plan’ of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, which he is incorporating into Israel.” (09/22/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2025/09/21/smotrichs-apocalyptic-decisive-plan/
-----
39) Mike Johnson can’t stop the GOP’s internal split on Israel
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Ever since Donald Trump declared that the George W. Bush administration lied about the Iraq war on a Republican presidential debate stage in 2016, and went on to win the election, GOP foreign policy debates almost immediately expanded beyond the parameters of a military first approach. It became okay to be ‘America First,’ meaning prioritizing the interests of one’s own nation above those of others, whether it be foreign funding or foreign wars, which was kryptonite to those intent on making the world safe for democracy, as neocons often claimed they were doing. So if Speaker Johnson is worried about internal debates on the direction the GOP is going on Israel and wants to nip that in the bud, he’s too late.” (09/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/mike-johnson-israel/
-----
40) Apology Request Denied
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The UK police picked the wrong elderly cancer patient to badger for exercising her right to freedom of speech. Whatever Deborah Anderson said on social media, it wasn’t harsh enough to justify clapping on the irons and hauling her away. Just a knock on the door and a polite request to Do the Right Thing. But polite in the way a mailed fist in a marshmallow glove is polite.” (09/22/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/09/22/apology-request-denied/
-----
41) Capture the Media, Control the Culture?
Source: The American Prospect
by Paul Starr
“Two developments have raised to a new level the long conservative drive to control American culture. President Trump and his aides have declared that they will use all the tools federal power gives them to silence criticism in the media, and MAGA-aligned billionaires have bought major media outlets and begun moving them to the right. The most stunning development is the decision by ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of threats by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC stations because of Kimmel’s comments about the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. President Trump then made clear this was no one-off case. He said that the major TV networks had been overwhelmingly ‘negative’ about him and suggested that ‘maybe their license should be taken away.'” (09/22/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-09-22-capture-media-control-culture-trump-kimmel/
-----
42) The Social Costs of Inflation
Source: Law & Liberty
by Allen Mendenhall
“Jeffery Degner’s book should appeal to traditionalists and free-market champions who value both sound economics and strong families.” (09/22/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-social-costs-of-inflation/
-----
43) The Big Free Speech Chill
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren
“A week before it happened, over 1,000 students at the university where Charlie Kirk was assassinated signed a petition asking that he be banned from speaking. Many others came to the event hoping to see Kirk shouted down — the heckler’s veto. One assassin exercised the ultimate stop to the exercise of free speech: a bullet into Kirk’s neck. Violence against the First Amendment exists on a scale. It only takes a little nudge to move the dial the wrong way. … There are legitimate ways to challenge speakers: engagement, or ignoring them entirely. The heckler’s veto and its worse successors not only stifle a particular idea, but public discourse in general by discouraging others from sharing controversial ideas.” (09/22/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-big-free-speech-chill/
-----
44) The Project for a New Israeli Century: Outsourcing Neoconservatism in an Age of Imperial Decline
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“In case you haven’t noticed, Israel seems to be at war with pretty much fucking everybody right now and they show little sign of slowing down anytime in the near future. In fact, if anything, the Netanyahu regime seems to be accelerating the violence to downright dizzying heights of global sadism with every new corner of the map he bombs. What began in October of 2023 as a gruesome revenge kick in the Gaza Strip over a Hamas attack that the Nakba made a forgone conclusion has rapidly evolved into a twenty-month rampage against everyone and everything that got in Bibi’s way to the maternity ward. Now, nearly 35,000 separate acts of IDF facilitated terrorism have scarred the face of seven separate sovereign nations and counting so far.” (09/21/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-project-for-new-israeli-century.html
-----
45) China weaponized science against the US; we’ve figured out a key element they missed
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Rowntree
“In April, China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, crippling American manufacturing across dozens of critical sectors. Ford temporarily shuttered production lines while European suppliers closed entire factories. In one calculated move, Beijing demonstrated its power to hobble the West. This economic warfare represents decades of strategic planning. While America slept, China cornered the market on materials essential to modern civilization. By controlling 90% of rare-earth processing capacity, it dictates prices and decides who receives supplies. The periodic table became their ultimate economic weapon. But weapons can be rendered obsolete through superior innovation. American scientists discovered that combining iron, the planet’s fourth-most abundant element, with atmospheric nitrogen makes a compound more magnetic than anything produced by China. This breakthrough doesn’t just match Chinese materials; it surpasses them.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/china-weaponized-science-against-us-weve-figured-out-key-element-missed
-----
46) What We Lose When We Can’t Talk to Each Other
Source: Persuasion
by Eboo Patel
“From her perch in a council estate (which is the British term for a housing project) Zadie Smith wrote about the friendships and feuds, the romances and reconciliations, of this motley crew of friends and neighbors, a motley crew she clearly loved. … In 2016, Smith returned to the old neighborhood. She came to tend to a family member who had an illness. One of the first things she noticed was that the playground she had immortalized in her first novel, the one which held together those children whose names were on a collision course, had a new fence around it, a fence with tall bamboo slats between the bars that blocked views from the outside in, and the inside out. She started seeing fences all around her old neighborhood, around the entire city of London, in fact.” (09/21/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-we-lose-when-we-cant-talk-to
-----
47) Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
Source: The Atlantic
by David Frum
“President Donald Trump is worried that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving too slowly to prosecute his political adversaries on fake charges. Trump has good reason to be concerned. He is carrying out his project to consolidate authoritarian power against the trend of declining public support for his administration and himself. He is like a man trying to race upward on a downward-moving escalator. If he loses the race, he will be pulled ever deeper below — and the escalator keeps moving faster against him. … As Bondi makes her daily decisions about whether to abuse her powers to please Trump, she has to begin with one big political assessment: Will Trump ultimately retain the power to reward and punish her? … Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, served 19 months in prison for his crimes during Watergate. If Trump’s hold on power loosens, Bondi could share Mitchell’s fate.” (09/21/25)
https://archive.is/LeQwp
-----
48) Basmati Fault Line
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“After nearly two decades, the European Union (EU) and India are edging closer to finalizing a free trade agreement. Talks, first launched in 2007 and repeatedly stalled — due partly to the EU bloc’s ratification and bureaucratic lethargy, and partly to India’s reluctance towards EU-wide policies — are suddenly moving with purpose. Both sides want to conclude a deal by the end of 2025, a deadline that feels ambitious but not impossible. … The impasse is not merely economic but cultural: a matter of trust, control, and sovereignty.” (09/21/25)
https://fee.org/articles/basmati-fault-line/
-----
49) Mask Off, Maersk
Source: In These Times
by Fatima Jalloh
“In a monumental victory for the Palestinian liberation movement, one of the world’s largest integrated logistics and shipping companies, A.P. Moller-Maersk (or Maersk, for short) announced it would halt its transport and business in illegal Israeli settlements, ’following a recent review of transports related to the West Bank.’ The announcement follows a number of reports released revealing their involvement in the weapons trade and genocide of the Palestinian people. This announcement marks not only an unprecedented victory for the movement but also the making of the successful ’Mask Off Maersk’ campaign that began at last year’s People’s Conference for Palestine, when the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) launched a transnational people’s arms embargo against the Copenhagen-based company. At this year’s Socialism Conference in Chicago, PYM lead organizers Roua Daas and Lea Kayali held a session discussing their progress, victories and a path forward.” (09/22/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/maersk-palestinian-youth-movement-israel-genocide
-----
50) Independence & Bravery
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Kimmel will be OK, probably. He’s famous and wealthy. He will have options no matter what way this goes, and the knowledge of that probably leant him some of the courage over the years — and it does take courage — to speak out directly against fascists. However, the attack on Kimmel — and it is an attack — is an attack on the right to say things, particularly true things, and that affects each of us. That’s the reason that they cancelled Kimmel; it wasn’t to silence him for speaking, it was establish their right to do so, and let anyone else who might be thinking about speaking to think twice and shut up, if they know what’s good for them.” (09/21/25)
https://www.the-reframe.com/independence-bravery
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 09/22/25
Source: Reason
"Free Speech Means You Can Criticize Anyone." (09/22/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/09/22/free-speech-means-you-can-criticize-anyone/
-----
52) Rising, 09/22/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the fallout from ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, and its implications for freedom of speech.” (09/22/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5515384-rising-september-22-2025/
-----
53) Conflicts of Interest, episode 839
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump to Give Israel Another $6 Billion in Weapons.” (09/22/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-839-trump-to-give-israel-another-6-billion-in-weapons
-----
54) TechTank, season 5, episode 27
Source: Brookings Institution
“FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez talks about the future of the communications landscape.” (09/22/25)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/fcc-commissioner-anna-gomez-talks-about-the-future-of-the-co
-----
55) EconTalk, 09/22/25
Source: EconTalk
“Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge.” (09/22/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/steven-pinker-on-common-knowledge/
-----
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/22/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Drug Boat Bombings Take Darker Turn as Damning New Facts Emerge.” (09/22/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/200721/trump-drug-boat-bombings-take-darker-turn-damning-new-facts-emerge
-----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/22/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Lebanon: Israeli Drone Strike Kills 4 US Citizens, Trump OKs $6 Billion in Arms for Israel, and More.” (09/22/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGDX1BXhe4
-----
58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 362
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Erik Suarez on Charlie Kirk’s death and Javier Milei’s speech at the Hispanic Gala.” (09/21/25)
https://rumble.com/v6z9dbc-ff-362-erik-suarez-on-charlie-kirks-death-and-javier-mileis-speech-at-the-h.html
-----
59) Radio Atlantic, 09/21/25
Source: The Atlantic
“A conversation with Anne Applebaum and Garry Kasparov about authoritarian forces in America.” (09/21/25)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/09/radio-atlantic-live-from-the-atlantic-festival-2026-is-the-battlefield/684291/
-----
60) Free Talk Live, 09/21/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“Hyundai factory raided by ICE :: Masked ICE no more in California :: Bad signs for the economy :: Are adult braces sexy? :: Turd’s wild career dreams :: Hamburger Helper sales rising :: The children yearn for the mines :: 1970’s inflation brought us Hamburger Helper :: Bonnie got a gun :: 8 second attention spans :: A Free Stater’s crusade against the Massachussetts government in court, win :: Don’t send your kids to hard time in government schools :: 2025-09-21 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley.” (09/21/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-09-21
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Russia: Putin says regime will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year after treaty with US expires
2) Kimmel’s show returns to ABC, minus Sinclair affiliates
3) Italy: Clashes break out as thousands strike demanding action over Gaza
4) US regime ready to bail out Milei’s Argentina regime, says White House
5) Senile politician, nepo baby friend play doctor on TV
6) South Korea: Unification Church leader arrested in bribery case involving former president’s wife
7) Egypt: Sisi pardons long-time political prisoner
8) NY: No casino in Manhattan after board rejects proposed Mohegan Sun resort
9) Federal judge lifts Trump regime’s halt of nearly completed offshore wind farm project
10) Routh says he won’t testify in Trump assassination trial
11) Trump’s visa extortion scheme sparks a global race to grab top talent
12) China: Regime Showcases Electromagnetic Carrier Catapult For First Time
13) Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription tricks
14) Report: Trump may use ESPN/NFL deal to extort Disney into firing Kimmel
15) Pakistan: Blast at militant compound kills 24, police say
16) West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, lawsuit says
17) Thune whines about Senate Democrats’ absence of support for lates budgetary kicking of can down road
18) Moldova: Regime Abducts 74 Over Alleged Russia-Backed Unrest Plot Around Key Election
19) CA: Legislature passes ban on loud streaming ads
20) IL: Protesters clash with gang members at lair as shot-caller denies its closure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) America’s Free Speech Culture Is Under Attack From Within
22) Implausible Deniability at the FCC
23) The Big Government War on Airline Competition
24) Why our critics’ whataboutery over Jimmy Kimmel is wrong
25) I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
26) After the Kirk killing, mercy as mending
27) How to turn recognition of Palestine into more than just symbolism
28) Beware Today’s “Fire-Eaters”
29) “Recognizing” The Rubble Of Palestine
30) Surrendering to MAGA Isn’t Just a Broadcast Media Problem
31) Hang In There, We Are Going to Be Okay
32) Quantum Vibe, 09/22/25
33) Using Boycotts to Defend Free Speech: Bigger Than Jimmy Kimmel
34) The self-sabotage of shutting out immigrants
35) Lessons from Jimmy Kimmel: The Media Don’t Have to Be Controlled by the Rich
36) Dark Dialectics: The Red-Green-Black Axis
37) Colleges teach words are violence, creating more of the real thing
38) Smotrich’s Apocalyptic “Decisive Plan”
39) Mike Johnson can’t stop the GOP’s internal split on Israel
40) Apology Request Denied
41) Capture the Media, Control the Culture?
42) The Social Costs of Inflation
43) The Big Free Speech Chill
44) The Project for a New Israeli Century: Outsourcing Neoconservatism in an Age of Imperial Decline
45) China weaponized science against the US; we’ve figured out a key element they missed
46) What We Lose When We Can’t Talk to Each Other
47) Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
48) Basmati Fault Line
49) Mask Off, Maersk
50) Independence & Bravery
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 09/22/25
52) Rising, 09/22/25
53) Conflicts of Interest, episode 839
54) TechTank, season 5, episode 27
55) EconTalk, 09/22/25
56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/22/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/22/25
58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 362
59) Radio Atlantic, 09/21/25
60) Free Talk Live, 09/21/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Russia: Putin says regime will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year after treaty with US expires
Source: Seattle Times
“Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year under the last remaining nuclear pact with the United States that expires in February, and he urged Washington to follow suit. Putin said that the termination of the 2010 New START would have negative consequences for global stability and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. … The New START, signed by then U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Its looming expiration and the lack of dialogue on anchoring a successor deal have worried arms control advocates. The pact also envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, but they have been dormant since 2020.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/SqjPq
-----
2) Kimmel’s show returns to ABC, minus Sinclair affiliates
Source: CNN
“‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will return to ABC on Tuesday night, the network said Monday, ending a nearly weeklong standoff over the late-night talk show. But not all of ABC’s affiliated stations will be carrying Kimmel’s comeback show. Sinclair, one of the country’s biggest owners of local TV stations, said its ABC affiliates will preempt the show ‘beginning Tuesday night.’ Sinclair said it will air news programming in the time slot instead. … The Kimmel controversy erupted last week after conservatives criticized a Kimmel monologue comment on Monday about the MAGA responses to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-returning
-----
3) Italy: Clashes break out as thousands strike demanding action over Gaza
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Clashes broke out on Monday after thousands of Italians took to the streets in towns and cities across their country in a day of solidarity with Palestinians co-ordinated by trade unions. Milan and Rome saw the biggest crowds and tensions spilled over around the central station in Milan where some 60 police were reported hurt. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has come under fire from political opponents for her position on Gaza, condemned the scenes in Milan as shameful. Although she has become increasingly critical of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Meloni has not gone as far as France in deciding to formally recognise a Palestinian state.” (09/22/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jz8rdypw4o
-----
4) US regime ready to bail out Milei’s Argentina regime, says White House
Source: The Telegraph [UK]
“America stands ready to bail out Javier Milei’s Argentina, the White House has said. Following a bout of severe market volatility in Argentina, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said ‘all options are on the table’ to support the country. The offer of an economic lifeline comes after Mr Milei, the Argentine president and ally of Donald Trump, has spent $1.1bn (£820m) of the country’s $20bn reserves to prop up the peso. Mr Bessent and the US president will meet Mr Milei in New York on Tuesday as they seek to ease fears over the plunging peso and prevent Argentina from tipping into a debt-repayment meltdown.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/5RSPS
-----
5) Senile politician, nepo baby friend play doctor on TV
Source: Axios
“President Trump on Monday warned pregnant women to limit the use of Tylenol, reviving a contentious debate over whether its active ingredient —acetaminophen — is linked to autism. Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made broad assertions about the cause of a condition that affects about 1 in 31 children up to age 8. They also touted a little-known drug called leucovorin as a way to decrease the symptoms of autism. … ‘With Tylenol, don’t take it, don’t take it,’ Trump said, adding that pregnant women should limit use unless it’s medically necessary and consult with their doctors about using it ‘if you can’t tough it out.'” (09/22/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/22/trump-autism-tylenol-connection-leucovorin
-----
6) South Korea: Unification Church leader arrested in bribery case involving former president’s wife
Source: WTOP News
“The 82-year-old leader of the Unification Church was arrested in South Korea early Tuesday as investigators probe allegations that the church bribed the wife of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol and a conservative lawmaker. Hak Ja Han, the widow of the church’s South Korean founder, Sun Myung Moon, has denied allegations that she directed church officials to bribe Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, and the lawmaker. The Seoul Central District Court approved investigators’ request for an arrest warrant for Han, saying she posed a risk of destroying evidence. … The suspicions include accepting luxury gifts through an intermediary from a Unification Church official who allegedly sought various business favors, including the church’s participation in a Cambodian development project. The official, who has been arrested, is also suspected of providing 100 million won ($71,800) in bribes to Kweon.” (09/22/25)
https://wtop.com/world/2025/09/court-in-south-korea-issues-arrest-warrant-for-unification-church-leader-in-corruption-case/
-----
7) Egypt: Sisi pardons long-time political prisoner
Source: CBS News
“Egypt’s president has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian national Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for the better part of the past decade after his involvement in the 2011 uprising. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued the pardon to the 43-year-old activist who has become one of the country’s most prominent political prisoners. Five others were also pardoned.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alaa-abdel-fattah-pardoned-egypt-president/
-----
8) NY: No casino in Manhattan after board rejects proposed Mohegan Sun resort
Source: ABC News
“There will be no casino in Manhattan after a community panel rejected a proposed Mohegan Sun resort near the United Nations headquarters. The Freedom Plaza development, which also called for hotels, retail, dining, entertainment and housing, was denied by a state-commissioned community advisory committee on a 4-2 vote Monday. Committee members, who were appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and other local politicians, cast their votes with barely any discussion, other than to thank the applicants for their time and responsiveness. In a last minute bid to gain local support, the developers announced over the weekend they would commit to making the more than 1,000 residential units proposed for the project permanently affordable.” (09/22/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/casino-manhattan-after-community-board-rejects-proposed-mohegan-125817815
-----
9) Federal judge lifts Trump regime’s halt of nearly completed offshore wind farm project
Source: SFGate
“A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project halted by the administration can resume, dealing President Donald Trump a setback in his ongoing effort to restrict the industry. Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut has been paused since Aug. 22 when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop work order for what it said were national security concerns. The Interior Department agency did not specify those concerns at the time. Both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts. Danish energy company Orsted and its joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables sought a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that would allow them to move forward with the project.” (09/22/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/federal-judge-lifts-trump-administration-s-halt-21061458.php
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10) Routh says he won’t testify in Trump assassination trial
Source: Fox News
“Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last year, said he would not take the stand in his own criminal case on Monday — the strongest sign yet that the defense is preparing to rest its case and kick the trial into its final phase before jury deliberation. Routh, 59, has been representing himself in the federal criminal trial. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and possession of a firearm, among other crimes. If convicted, he could face life in prison. He previously floated the possibility that he could testify on his own behalf — a risky strategy that would have waived his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination, and opened him up to cross-examination by federal prosecutors.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tony-hawk-taiwan-flashlight-trump-assassination-attempt-suspects-bizarre-defense
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11) Trump’s visa extortion scheme sparks a global race to grab top talent
Source: CNBC
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise move to raise the H-1B visa application fee to $100,000 has left companies — and major economies — scrambling to make sense of the potential implications. For some global talent hubs, particularly those in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, however, experts say it could offer a valuable opportunity. … One option being considered by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a proposal to drop visa charges for top-level professionals, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.” (09/22/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/22/h-1b-visa-what-trumps-100000-fee-means-for-top-global-talent-hubs.html
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12) China: Regime Showcases Electromagnetic Carrier Catapult For First Time
Source: Bloomberg
“China has for the first time released complete footage of a successful electromagnetic catapult launch from its latest aircraft carrier, underscoring the progress in the country’s naval capabilities. J-35 and J-15T fighters, and a KJ-600 airborne radar aircraft, can be seen taking off using the Fujian aircraft carrier’s electromagnetic catapult, according to footage released by China state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. It marked the first time that China has shown the complete takeoff sequence. Previous clips only show people cheering a successful catapult launch, without showing the actual take-off.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/Q73E4
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13) Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription tricks
Source: Yahoo! News
“Amazon goes to trial on Monday in a US government lawsuit that accuses the e-commerce giant of using tricks to enroll millions of customers in its Prime subscription service and then making it nearly impossible to cancel. The Federal Trade Commission’s complaint, filed in June 2023, alleges that Amazon knowingly used designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into signing up for the $139-per-year Prime service during checkouts. The case centers on two main allegations: that Amazon enrolled customers without clear consent through confusing checkout processes, and that it created a deliberately complex cancellation system internally nicknamed ‘Iliad’ — after Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War.” (09/22/25)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/amazon-faces-us-trial-over-061705797.html
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14) Report: Trump may use ESPN/NFL deal to extort Disney into firing Kimmel
Source: New York Post
“The Walt Disney Co. could be forced to choose between salvaging its late-night franchise and protecting a multibillion-dollar partnership with the NFL, according to a report. Well-embedded sources predicted to the news site Front Office Sports that the House of Mouse ‘may ultimately have to make a hard choice’ that ‘may not be much of a choice at all’ — which likely means jettisoning Jimmy Kimmel. The stakes are enormous. ESPN recently struck a blockbuster deal with the NFL, trading a 10% equity stake valued around $2 billion to $3 billion for the league’s NFL Network, RedZone and fantasy football assets. … Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, told FOS that Trump could seize on the opportunity to possibly sabotage the NFL-ESPN pact, saying it would be ‘political catnip’ for the president.” (09/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/business/disney-in-crisis-over-jimmy-kimmel-suspension-as-nfl-deal-looms/
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15) Pakistan: Blast at militant compound kills 24, police say
Source: ABC News
“Bomb-making material allegedly stored at a compound by Pakistani Taliban fighters exploded on Monday in the country’s restive northwest, killing at least 24 people, including militants and civilians, police said. The blast occurred in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and destroyed several nearby homes. Local police officer Zafar Khan said at least 10 civilians, including women and children, were killed, along with at least 14 militants.” (09/22/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/blast-militant-compound-northwest-pakistan-kills-24-police-125807329
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16) West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, lawsuit says
Source: Associated Press
“The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status. Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military. … The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point’s civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees.” (09/22/25)
https://apnews.com/article/west-point-lawsuit-first-amendment-professor-a4db138011c6fb9c8b445ce5a106aac2
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17) Thune whines about Senate Democrats’ absence of support for lates budgetary kicking of can down road
Source: Fox News
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to jam Senate Democrats with the GOP’s short-term funding extension, but so far they aren’t ready to play ball. Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber blocked dueling continuing resolutions (CRs) from both parties last week and have now left Washington, D.C., until Sept. 29, effectively giving lawmakers in the upper chamber only two working days before the midnight deadline on Sept. 30. … ‘They’re trying to use what they think is leverage to get a bunch of stuff done,’ Thune said. ‘It’s never going to happen.’ … Thune may have defections within his own ranks to contend with, too. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against the GOP’s bill. Only Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., crossed the aisle to support it.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/thune-slams-democrats-cold-blooded-partisan-tactics-funding-deadline-nears
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18) Moldova: Regime Abducts 74 Over Alleged Russia-Backed Unrest Plot Around Key Election
Source: US News & World Report
“Moldovan authorities said they carried out 250 raids and detained dozens on Monday as part of an investigation into an alleged Russia-backed plan to incite ‘mass riots’ and destabilize the country around a critical parliamentary election. The raids targeted more than 100 people and took place in multiple localities across the country, police said. Seventy-four people were detained for up to 72 hours, said Victor Furtuna, Moldova’s chief prosecutor from the Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases. Moldovans will vote to choose a new 101-seat legislature on Sunday, in an election many view as a choice between Moldova’s continued path toward European Union membership or closer ties with Russia. Moldova’s police said that the unrest plot was ‘coordinated from the Russian Federation, through criminal elements.’” (09/22/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-09-22/moldova-detains-74-people-over-an-alleged-russia-backed-unrest-plot-around-key-election
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19) CA: Legislature passes ban on loud streaming ads
Source: SFGate
“The California Legislature passed a bill earlier this month that could change how Californians experience streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and other platforms. Despite major pushback at the start of the year from Hollywood, Senate Bill 576 passed the Legislature with bipartisan support and, if signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would put a muzzle on commercials that air on these streaming platforms, requiring that ads play no louder than the programs they accompany. State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat from Santa Ana, who authored the bill, said he was inspired when one of his staffers said her baby was woken up — twice — because of excessively loud commercial breaks while watching a show.” [editor’s note: That “problem” can be solved by not subscribing to platforms you don’t want blasting ads … no politicians needed! – TLK]https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/california-legislature-ban-netflix-commercials-21057569.php
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20) IL: Protesters clash with gang members at lair as shot-caller denies its closure
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
“Among masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement [gang members] and fired-up protesters, Abraham Aguirre stood outside the ICE building in Broadview on Sunday with a red suitcase and dark duffel bag.
He believed his cousin was inside. … Aguirre came to the ICE facility as protests against the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ and ramped-up immigration [abductions] stretch into their second week. Speculation brewed among protesters as HuffPost reported that ICE would be vacating the Broadview facility due to protests and some questioned whether the [abductees] believed to be on the buses were being transported elsewhere. HuffPost’s story was updated Sunday night to say DHS decided to keep the facility open and operational despite an initial plan to temporarily close it. … [Gang thugs] have [abducted] almost 550 people in the Chicago operation that launched about two weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.” (09/21/25)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/09/21/immigration-ice-arrest-broadview
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) America’s Free Speech Culture Is Under Attack From Within
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The First Amendment is alive and well, which is a reassuring note about the basic legal protections for free speech. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. The world is full of countries with written protections for liberty that are frequently honored in the breach because people and politicians don’t really believe in them (cough, Canada, cough). The true foundation for free speech in the U.S. has always been a culture that supports unfettered expression, of which the First Amendment is just an extension. But less than two weeks after Charlie Kirk was murdered because an assassin apparently didn’t like what he had to say, it’s obvious that free speech culture is besieged.” (09/22/25)
https://reason.com/2025/09/22/americas-free-speech-culture-is-under-attack-from-within/
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22) Implausible Deniability at the FCC
Source: The Dispatch
by Dan Greenberg
“The extraordinary discretion long held by the FCC has now culminated in extraordinary public remarks by the president that openly threaten the corrupt exercise of power. On Thursday, Donald Trump mused aloud about the prospect of future broadcast license revocation. ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away,’ he said, explaining that ‘all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.’ Revocation decisions ‘will be up to Brendan Carr.’ Brendan Carr is too smart to concede the possibility that the FCC might be used to stifle differences of opinion. Trump, in contrast, is more honest about it.” (09/22/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/fcc-jimmy-kimmel/
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23) The Big Government War on Airline Competition
Source: The Daily Economy
by Brian Garst
“Joe Biden is out of office, but the ghost of his economic agenda still lingers. Its echoes can be heard at an activist group called the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP). Founded by a former senior advisor to Lina Khan, the progressive head of Biden’s Federal Trade Commission, the AELP claims to oppose big business consolidation in the name of protecting the American consumer. Yet as with so much ‘progressive’ economics, its preferred policies of big government interventionism would achieve the opposite of what the group claims. Consider AELP’s advocacy on one of the most consolidated industries: airlines.” (09/22/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-big-government-war-on-airline-competition/
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24) Why our critics’ whataboutery over Jimmy Kimmel is wrong
Source: Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air following backlash from the head of the Federal Communications Commission over remarks Kimmel made last week about the murder of Charlie Kirk. We have been vocal in our opposition to this, and as a result, we’ve received some criticism online. So let’s take a minute to consider some of the most common remarks and address those concerns. … We have been loud, clear, and consistent on this issue for quite some time. In fact, we opposed cancel culture then and we oppose cancel culture now.” (09/22/25)
https://expression.fire.org/p/why-our-critics-whataboutery-over
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25) I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
Source: Wired
by Steven Levy
“It should be the best of times for the tech world, supercharged by a boom in artificial intelligence. But a shadow has fallen over Silicon Valley. The community still overwhelmingly leans left. But with few exceptions, its leaders are responding to Donald Trump by either keeping quiet or actively courting the government. One indelible image of this capture is from Trump’s second inauguration, where a decisive quorum of tech’s elite, after dutifully kicking in million-dollar checks, occupied front-row seats. … It used to be that when tech’s leaders fell short of their lofty values, employees kept them honest. Google workers famously pressured their executives to fight for diversity and avoid military contracts. Implicit was the threat that the activists could easily find jobs elsewhere. Then Elon Musk came along and fired 80 percent of X’s employees, and the app didn’t collapse.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/kElGp
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26) After the Kirk killing, mercy as mending
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Americans who feel angry or hurt by President Donald Trump’s words and actions – such as his unsupported accusation that the ‘radical left’ influenced Charlie Kirk’s killer – might find some calming wisdom in the words of Mr. Kirk’s widow. At a memorial service Sunday for the slain conservative activist, Erika Kirk said she forgives ‘that young man’ charged with the Sept. 10 assassination. Such quick mercy after a crime so calculated and callous was not only for Mrs. Kirk’s peace of mind. Like others who cherish forgiveness as the essence of universal love, she explained the religious origins of her profound choice: ‘I forgive him because it was what Christ did,’ the mother of two young children stated. ‘The answer to hate is not hate.'” (09/22/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0922/After-the-Kirk-killing-mercy-as-mending
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27) How to turn recognition of Palestine into more than just symbolism
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“The New York Declaration calls not just for recognition but for ‘tangible, time-bound, irreversible steps’ toward implementing a two-state solution. It also calls for a temporary international stabilization mission under U.N. Security Council mandate, and commits to support for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders [sic], with East Jerusalem as its capital, pending agreed land swaps. Reaffirming this is crucial at a time when Israel is explicitly seeking to destroy any prospects for a Palestinian state.” [editor’s note: There are no “1967 borders,” just “1967 ceasefire lines.” Israel’s borders were set in 1948 in UNR 181 and have not since changed – TLK] (09/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/palestine-state-recognition/
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28) Beware Today’s “Fire-Eaters”
Source: The Bulwark
by Mark Hertling
“The tactics of the fire-eaters, studied closely, reveal a playbook we are beginning to recognize today. They demonized opponents, insisting that abolitionists and even moderates were not political adversaries but mortal enemies. They normalized extralegal responses, claiming secession and violence were patriotic duties when Washington failed to submit to their will. They mobilized audiences not for votes but for confrontation, turning speeches into rallies that prepared ordinary citizens to resist, with arms if necessary. They celebrated symbolic acts of violence — whether the brutal caning of Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor or the firing on Fort Sumter — as proof that their cause was righteous and that escalation into violence was justified. These tactics fed upon each other.” (09/22/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/beware-todays-fire-eaters
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29) “Recognizing” The Rubble Of Palestine
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“UK, Canada and Australia: Never fear, Palestinians! We’re here to save the day! Palestinians: You’re going to stop the genocide? UK, Canada and Australia: HAHAHAHAHA! No! Oh god no. Haha! No, we are going to give a great big Thumbs Up to the idea of your eventual statehood! Palestinians: Will you at least stop sending them weapons? UK, Canada and Australia: LOL no. … In response to the UK, Canada and Australia announcing their recognition of a Palestinian state, Benjamin Netanyahu has proclaimed that Israel will never allow such a state to exist. ‘It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,’ Netanyahu said, adding that Israel will continue expanding settlements in the West bank.” (09/22/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/09/22/recognizing-the-rubble-of-palestine/
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30) Surrendering to MAGA Isn’t Just a Broadcast Media Problem
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Masciotra
“The Fourth Estate is paralyzed, big law firms cave to Trump’s demands, and universities cut deals to save their federal funding. Even Trump-friendly Republicans are revealing how intimidation is the principal generator of obsequious submission. Indiana Governor Mike Braun recently explained his willingness to call a special legislative session to redistrict the congressional map in Republican favor, in the middle of the decade, with the self-damning admission, ‘If we try to drag our feet as a state on it, probably, we’ll have the consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should.’ ABC didn’t drag its feet. It leapt at the chance to demonstrate obedience to the thought police.” (09/22/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/09/22/paramount-cbs-and-disney-abc-cave-to-trump/
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31) Hang In There, We Are Going to Be Okay
Source: Our Future
by Sulma Arias
“That’s what I told my three daughters on our last family call. Then we all stayed silent for a minute because deep down, we all know things may get a lot worse before they get better. My girls and I hold these family calls every week by video. That’s the only way we can be together most days …. We’ve come a long way since I first came to this country on foot in the 1980s. Back then, I was twelve and was fleeing a US-funded civil war in El Salvador which had torn my family, like many families, apart. My hope and determination was to be reunited with my own sisters and rebuild our lives, together, in peace. We did build new lives, in Kansas, where all three of my daughters were born.” (09/21/25)
https://ourfuture.org/20250921/hang-in-there-we-are-going-to-be-ok
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32) Quantum Vibe, 09/22/25
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (09/22/25)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2553
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33) Using Boycotts to Defend Free Speech: Bigger Than Jimmy Kimmel
Source: Common Dreams
by Paul Rogat Loeb
“How can we effectively push back on the Jimmy Kimmel suspension, and its larger threats to free speech? After Charlie Kirk’s shooting, Kimmel posted, ‘Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?’ And sent his family’s ‘love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.’ But that didn’t seem to matter, because Kimmel also dared to point out that the Trump administration was using the assassination to score political points. US President Donald Trump had already warned in July that Kimmel should be the next to be fired after Stephen Colbert. After Kimmel spoke out following the assassination, Trump Federal Communications Commission head Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of stations carrying Kimmel’s show. Nexstar and Sinclair then jumped in saying they wouldn’t air Kimmel’s episodes. And ABC-Disney caved.” (09/22/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/boycott-for-jimmy-kimmel
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34) The self-sabotage of shutting out immigrants
Source: Orange County Register
by Kristie De Pena
“Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics, allowing ICE agents to continue deportation raids in Southern California that target people based on their language and race. While illegal [sic] immigration is a real problem, and tightening security at the southern border is a necessary [sic] safeguard, the current administration’s combative approach is an overcorrection that undercuts one of America’s greatest advantages: our ability to attract and assimilate immigrants to fuel economic vitality and innovation.” (09/22/25)
https://archive.is/bTZtE
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35) Lessons from Jimmy Kimmel: The Media Don’t Have to Be Controlled by the Rich
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“It was, and hopefully still is, possible to build up an alternative media structure that does not rely on the goodwill of the rich. We could look to establish a system of individual tax credits, similar to what exists now with the charitable contribution tax deduction, for supporting journalism. The idea is that everyone would have a sum of money (e.g. $100) to support the journalistic outlet of their choice. This sort of tax credit system could support a vast amount of alternative media.” [editor’s note: Or they could cut everyone’s taxes by $100, said savings to be spent on whatever the taxpayer damn well pleases – TLK] (09/22/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/22/lessons-from-jimmy-kimmel-the-media-dont-have-to-be-controlled-by-the-rich/
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36) Dark Dialectics: The Red-Green-Black Axis
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“[T]he October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel ignited a wave of campus and street protests across the U.S., Europe, and Australia in 2023 and 2024. Progressive activists baptized in Marxist critiques of capitalism and colonialism marched arm-in-arm with sympathizers of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Amid chants blending anti-imperialist rhetoric with calls for ‘global intifada,’ figures in masks injected black bloc tactics, which amplified the chaos through vandalism and violent confrontation. Despite profound contradictions embodied in subgroups like ‘Queer Jews for Palestine,’ the apparently disparate groups coalesced around overlapping hatreds. These alliances have frayed the fabric of civil discourse on streets and quads, revealing how ressentiment and illiberal indoctrination can draw disparate forces into a shared bed whose coital fruits threaten free societies.” (09/22/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/dark-dialectics-the-red-green-black
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37) Colleges teach words are violence, creating more of the real thing
Source: New York Post
by Ben Appel
“We’ve been told for years that offensive words are a form of ‘violence’. College campuses, once dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, have installed ‘safe spaces’ where students retreat if an opinion strikes them as threatening. The assumption is that speech itself can wound as badly as fists, and we must protect young people. But inflating the concept of violence has had the opposite effect. By equating emotional discomfort with physical assault, universities have desensitized students to the meaning of the real thing. Now when an activist like Charlie Kirk is assassinated, too many of them shrug — or worse, celebrate. Violence has been deconstructed, reframed and stretched to cover everything from being misgendered to being shot in the neck. The result is the word itself has become meaningless.” (09/22/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/opinion/colleges-teach-words-are-violence-creating-more-of-the-real-thing/
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38) Smotrich’s Apocalyptic “Decisive Plan”
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“Bezalel Smotrich is one of political leaders of Israel’s Messianic far-right. But he is also a shrewd administrator executing a biblical ‘decisive plan’ of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, which he is incorporating into Israel.” (09/22/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2025/09/21/smotrichs-apocalyptic-decisive-plan/
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39) Mike Johnson can’t stop the GOP’s internal split on Israel
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“Ever since Donald Trump declared that the George W. Bush administration lied about the Iraq war on a Republican presidential debate stage in 2016, and went on to win the election, GOP foreign policy debates almost immediately expanded beyond the parameters of a military first approach. It became okay to be ‘America First,’ meaning prioritizing the interests of one’s own nation above those of others, whether it be foreign funding or foreign wars, which was kryptonite to those intent on making the world safe for democracy, as neocons often claimed they were doing. So if Speaker Johnson is worried about internal debates on the direction the GOP is going on Israel and wants to nip that in the bud, he’s too late.” (09/22/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/mike-johnson-israel/
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40) Apology Request Denied
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The UK police picked the wrong elderly cancer patient to badger for exercising her right to freedom of speech. Whatever Deborah Anderson said on social media, it wasn’t harsh enough to justify clapping on the irons and hauling her away. Just a knock on the door and a polite request to Do the Right Thing. But polite in the way a mailed fist in a marshmallow glove is polite.” (09/22/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/09/22/apology-request-denied/
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41) Capture the Media, Control the Culture?
Source: The American Prospect
by Paul Starr
“Two developments have raised to a new level the long conservative drive to control American culture. President Trump and his aides have declared that they will use all the tools federal power gives them to silence criticism in the media, and MAGA-aligned billionaires have bought major media outlets and begun moving them to the right. The most stunning development is the decision by ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of threats by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC stations because of Kimmel’s comments about the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. President Trump then made clear this was no one-off case. He said that the major TV networks had been overwhelmingly ‘negative’ about him and suggested that ‘maybe their license should be taken away.'” (09/22/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-09-22-capture-media-control-culture-trump-kimmel/
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42) The Social Costs of Inflation
Source: Law & Liberty
by Allen Mendenhall
“Jeffery Degner’s book should appeal to traditionalists and free-market champions who value both sound economics and strong families.” (09/22/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-social-costs-of-inflation/
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43) The Big Free Speech Chill
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren
“A week before it happened, over 1,000 students at the university where Charlie Kirk was assassinated signed a petition asking that he be banned from speaking. Many others came to the event hoping to see Kirk shouted down — the heckler’s veto. One assassin exercised the ultimate stop to the exercise of free speech: a bullet into Kirk’s neck. Violence against the First Amendment exists on a scale. It only takes a little nudge to move the dial the wrong way. … There are legitimate ways to challenge speakers: engagement, or ignoring them entirely. The heckler’s veto and its worse successors not only stifle a particular idea, but public discourse in general by discouraging others from sharing controversial ideas.” (09/22/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-big-free-speech-chill/
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44) The Project for a New Israeli Century: Outsourcing Neoconservatism in an Age of Imperial Decline
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“In case you haven’t noticed, Israel seems to be at war with pretty much fucking everybody right now and they show little sign of slowing down anytime in the near future. In fact, if anything, the Netanyahu regime seems to be accelerating the violence to downright dizzying heights of global sadism with every new corner of the map he bombs. What began in October of 2023 as a gruesome revenge kick in the Gaza Strip over a Hamas attack that the Nakba made a forgone conclusion has rapidly evolved into a twenty-month rampage against everyone and everything that got in Bibi’s way to the maternity ward. Now, nearly 35,000 separate acts of IDF facilitated terrorism have scarred the face of seven separate sovereign nations and counting so far.” (09/21/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-project-for-new-israeli-century.html
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45) China weaponized science against the US; we’ve figured out a key element they missed
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Rowntree
“In April, China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, crippling American manufacturing across dozens of critical sectors. Ford temporarily shuttered production lines while European suppliers closed entire factories. In one calculated move, Beijing demonstrated its power to hobble the West. This economic warfare represents decades of strategic planning. While America slept, China cornered the market on materials essential to modern civilization. By controlling 90% of rare-earth processing capacity, it dictates prices and decides who receives supplies. The periodic table became their ultimate economic weapon. But weapons can be rendered obsolete through superior innovation. American scientists discovered that combining iron, the planet’s fourth-most abundant element, with atmospheric nitrogen makes a compound more magnetic than anything produced by China. This breakthrough doesn’t just match Chinese materials; it surpasses them.” (09/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/china-weaponized-science-against-us-weve-figured-out-key-element-missed
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46) What We Lose When We Can’t Talk to Each Other
Source: Persuasion
by Eboo Patel
“From her perch in a council estate (which is the British term for a housing project) Zadie Smith wrote about the friendships and feuds, the romances and reconciliations, of this motley crew of friends and neighbors, a motley crew she clearly loved. … In 2016, Smith returned to the old neighborhood. She came to tend to a family member who had an illness. One of the first things she noticed was that the playground she had immortalized in her first novel, the one which held together those children whose names were on a collision course, had a new fence around it, a fence with tall bamboo slats between the bars that blocked views from the outside in, and the inside out. She started seeing fences all around her old neighborhood, around the entire city of London, in fact.” (09/21/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-we-lose-when-we-cant-talk-to
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47) Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
Source: The Atlantic
by David Frum
“President Donald Trump is worried that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving too slowly to prosecute his political adversaries on fake charges. Trump has good reason to be concerned. He is carrying out his project to consolidate authoritarian power against the trend of declining public support for his administration and himself. He is like a man trying to race upward on a downward-moving escalator. If he loses the race, he will be pulled ever deeper below — and the escalator keeps moving faster against him. … As Bondi makes her daily decisions about whether to abuse her powers to please Trump, she has to begin with one big political assessment: Will Trump ultimately retain the power to reward and punish her? … Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, served 19 months in prison for his crimes during Watergate. If Trump’s hold on power loosens, Bondi could share Mitchell’s fate.” (09/21/25)
https://archive.is/LeQwp
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48) Basmati Fault Line
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“After nearly two decades, the European Union (EU) and India are edging closer to finalizing a free trade agreement. Talks, first launched in 2007 and repeatedly stalled — due partly to the EU bloc’s ratification and bureaucratic lethargy, and partly to India’s reluctance towards EU-wide policies — are suddenly moving with purpose. Both sides want to conclude a deal by the end of 2025, a deadline that feels ambitious but not impossible. … The impasse is not merely economic but cultural: a matter of trust, control, and sovereignty.” (09/21/25)
https://fee.org/articles/basmati-fault-line/
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49) Mask Off, Maersk
Source: In These Times
by Fatima Jalloh
“In a monumental victory for the Palestinian liberation movement, one of the world’s largest integrated logistics and shipping companies, A.P. Moller-Maersk (or Maersk, for short) announced it would halt its transport and business in illegal Israeli settlements, ’following a recent review of transports related to the West Bank.’ The announcement follows a number of reports released revealing their involvement in the weapons trade and genocide of the Palestinian people. This announcement marks not only an unprecedented victory for the movement but also the making of the successful ’Mask Off Maersk’ campaign that began at last year’s People’s Conference for Palestine, when the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) launched a transnational people’s arms embargo against the Copenhagen-based company. At this year’s Socialism Conference in Chicago, PYM lead organizers Roua Daas and Lea Kayali held a session discussing their progress, victories and a path forward.” (09/22/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/maersk-palestinian-youth-movement-israel-genocide
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50) Independence & Bravery
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Kimmel will be OK, probably. He’s famous and wealthy. He will have options no matter what way this goes, and the knowledge of that probably leant him some of the courage over the years — and it does take courage — to speak out directly against fascists. However, the attack on Kimmel — and it is an attack — is an attack on the right to say things, particularly true things, and that affects each of us. That’s the reason that they cancelled Kimmel; it wasn’t to silence him for speaking, it was establish their right to do so, and let anyone else who might be thinking about speaking to think twice and shut up, if they know what’s good for them.” (09/21/25)
https://www.the-reframe.com/independence-bravery
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 09/22/25
Source: Reason
"Free Speech Means You Can Criticize Anyone." (09/22/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/09/22/free-speech-means-you-can-criticize-anyone/
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52) Rising, 09/22/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the fallout from ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, and its implications for freedom of speech.” (09/22/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5515384-rising-september-22-2025/
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53) Conflicts of Interest, episode 839
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump to Give Israel Another $6 Billion in Weapons.” (09/22/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-839-trump-to-give-israel-another-6-billion-in-weapons
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54) TechTank, season 5, episode 27
Source: Brookings Institution
“FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez talks about the future of the communications landscape.” (09/22/25)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/fcc-commissioner-anna-gomez-talks-about-the-future-of-the-co
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55) EconTalk, 09/22/25
Source: EconTalk
“Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge.” (09/22/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/steven-pinker-on-common-knowledge/
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56) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/22/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Drug Boat Bombings Take Darker Turn as Damning New Facts Emerge.” (09/22/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/200721/trump-drug-boat-bombings-take-darker-turn-damning-new-facts-emerge
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/22/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Lebanon: Israeli Drone Strike Kills 4 US Citizens, Trump OKs $6 Billion in Arms for Israel, and More.” (09/22/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGDX1BXhe4
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58) Fountainhead Forum, episode 362
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Erik Suarez on Charlie Kirk’s death and Javier Milei’s speech at the Hispanic Gala.” (09/21/25)
https://rumble.com/v6z9dbc-ff-362-erik-suarez-on-charlie-kirks-death-and-javier-mileis-speech-at-the-h.html
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59) Radio Atlantic, 09/21/25
Source: The Atlantic
“A conversation with Anne Applebaum and Garry Kasparov about authoritarian forces in America.” (09/21/25)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/09/radio-atlantic-live-from-the-atlantic-festival-2026-is-the-battlefield/684291/
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60) Free Talk Live, 09/21/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“Hyundai factory raided by ICE :: Masked ICE no more in California :: Bad signs for the economy :: Are adult braces sexy? :: Turd’s wild career dreams :: Hamburger Helper sales rising :: The children yearn for the mines :: 1970’s inflation brought us Hamburger Helper :: Bonnie got a gun :: 8 second attention spans :: A Free Stater’s crusade against the Massachussetts government in court, win :: Don’t send your kids to hard time in government schools :: 2025-09-21 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley.” (09/21/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-09-21
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