10/14 -- French regime airlifts Madagascar's embattled president to safety as his regime collapses; Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk
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Thomas L. Knapp
Oct 14, 2025, 6:27:42 AM (13 days ago) Oct 14
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 10/14/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) French regime airlifts Madagascar’s embattled president to safety as his regime collapses
2) Bitcoin Slips Under $112k, ETH, DOGE Drop 6% as Trump refreshes trade war idiocy
3) Palestine: Hamas launches attempts to re-impose rule over Gaza’s population
4) CA: Newsom signs latest unconstitutional victim disarmament “law”
5) Ukraine war: Russian attack on Kharkiv cuts power to 30,000, regime officials say
6) TX: “Fat troops” fallout continues as Guardsmen sent home from Chicago occupation mission over fitness concerns
7) Prominent news outlets reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline
8) MA: Small plane crash on I-195 during rush hour kills two, injures commuter
9) Political Prisoner José Daniel Ferrer Leaves Cuba for US Exile
10) IN: Sanchez released from custody a week after parking fight arrest and stabbing
11) Ecuador: Protesters clash with police amid nationwide strike over fuel prices
12) First Brands founder resigns amid accounting scandal and billions in missing funds
13) Nobel economics prize goes to three researchers for explaining innovation-driven economic growth
14) CA: Regime enacts new Internet censorship measures
15) CA: Tech nabobs call for military occupation of San Francisco
16) Graham: Jack Smith investigators need to “pay big” for January 6 phone records probe
17) China: Regime Abducts Dozens of Underground Church Pastors in Crackdown
18) AK: Dozens Rescued in Remote Villages in Storm That Swept Away Homes
19) Popular vitamin D supplement may have an unexpected effect
20) France: Macron unveils new regime ahead of budget deadline
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk
22) Albert Jay Nock, Radical Individualism, and the Remnant
23) They Seriously Expected Parades & Trophies For Pausing A Genocide
24) Truth and witnesses are dangerous to tyrants, so keep filming
25) Universal Childcare: Real Problem, Wrong Solution
26) The Pieces of Trump’s Peace
27) The Great Stablecoin Heist of 2025?
28) It Turns Out, Americans Don’t Want a Police State
29) An American Century of Carnage: Measuring Violence in a Single Superpower World
30) Memes for Zombies
31) What Thatcher and Milei Have in Common
32) Looking East
33) Rug Pulled Out from under Antonyuk
34) American Soybean Farmers Sold Out; Argentine Counterparts Bailed Out
35) Constitutional Reform in Jamaica: Sentiment or Substance?
36) Quantum Vibe, 10/13/25
37) Is Rubio finally powerful enough to topple Venezuela’s regime?
38) The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism
39) From the Republic of Letters to the Industrial Revolution
40) How Massive a Mistake?
41) The Fourth Branch: How Conscience and Civic Vigilance May Save the Republic
42) How Trump Is Making China Great
43) Can Trump Revive the Strategic Arms Control System He Helped Wreck?
44) Is it America’s fate to decline and fall? Here’s what history says.
45) Unleash US mining now to face down China’s deadly trade threats
46) The Crime of Human Virtue
47) Don’t believe the GOP’s “principled” opposition to Prop. 50
48) Beware of Queerintelpro: A Public Service Announcement from Your Friendly Neighborhood Gender Extremist
49) The Ad Campaign for Capitalism
50) Unconstitutional “Laws” Don’t Exist
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 10/13/25
52) Rising, 10/13/25
53) Finding Freedom, 10/13/25
54) The Mona Charen Show, 10/13/25
55) EconTalk, 10/13/25
56) The Dispatch Podcast, 10/13/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/13/25
58) Has Liberalism’s Very Success in Delivering Human Flourishing Doomed It?
59) Free Talk Live, 10/12/25
60) Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/12/25
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
THANK YOU to subscribing contributor MB and long-time supporter CS! Their support yesterday, totaling $35, brings our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5:30am on Tuesday) to $522.50!
We're nearly 10% of the way to our $5,501 goal ... which means we're nearly 20% of the way to our $5,501 goal. Supporter GL's "matching funds" pledge means we only have to raise $2,750.50 from our other readers.
But we DO have to raise that $2,750.50, and 25% of that doesn't seem like an insuperable mini-goal for tomorrow morning. It would take donations of $165.13 to get us there ($687.63). Please support the freedom movement's daily newspaper at:
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Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) French regime airlifts Madagascar’s embattled president to safety as his regime collapses
Source: Business Insider Africa
“Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina was airlifted out of the country by France amidst escalating unrest. The dramatic evacuation, reportedly carried out on a French military aircraft, follows mass demonstrations demanding Rajoelina’s resignation and marks the latest in a wave of youth-driven uprisings shaking governments across Africa. Rajoelina confirmed in a late-night address posted on the presidency’s social media accounts that he had left the country, citing threats to his life. ‘I left to go to a secure location to protect my life,’ he said. The president vowed not to ‘allow Madagascar to be destroyed,’ but did not disclose his location and has so far ignored growing calls to step down. … Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, the leader of Madagascar’s parliamentary opposition, told reporters that Rajoelina left after key army units defected to join demonstrators demanding his resignation.” (10/14/25)
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/france-airlifts-madagascars-embattled-president-to-safety-as-his-regime-collapses/819bb4f
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2) Bitcoin Slips Under $112k, ETH, DOGE Drop 6% as Trump refreshes trade war idiocy
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin fell below $112,000 during trading Tuesday afternoon Hong Kong time as China’s retaliatory trade measures sent a fresh wave of risk-off sentiment across global markets. Bloomberg reported earlier Tuesday that China sanctioned U.S. units of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean in a move that reignited fears that the trade conflict with Washington could spiral, just days after both sides signaled restraint. … Stocks in Asia tumbled, equity futures in the U.S. and Europe followed, and crypto traders were again forced to de-risk after a brief weekend bounce. … Crypto again tracked risk. Bitcoin fell 3% to $111,869, Ethereum dropped 4% to around $4,000, and BNB slid more than 10% after outperforming last week. XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin all fell between 5% and 6% in the past 24 hours.” (10/14/25)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/10/14/bitcoin-slips-under-usd112k-eth-doge-drop-6-as-china-hits-back-on-u-s-tariffs
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3) Palestine: Hamas launches attempts to re-impose rule over Gaza’s population
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Hamas has started deploying armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza in an apparent attempt to reassert authority in the devastated Palestinian territory after the ceasefire deal agreed with Israel last week. Images showed dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza during the release of Israeli hostages on Monday morning and there were reports of shootings and executions elsewhere in the territory. Telegram channels associated with Hamas said ‘collaborators and traitors’ had been targeted, a reference to Israel-backed militia in the territory, while Hamas gunmen also engaged in bloody clashes with a powerful local family in Gaza City over the weekend.” [editor’s note: The October 7 attack was a play to bring in Israel as “worse cop” when Hamas had trouble suppressing a Palestinian uprising against its misrule in Gaza; hopefully they’ve been weakened enough to be disposed of by their victims – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/hamas-deploys-armed-fighters-and-police-across-parts-of-gaza
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4) CA: Newsom signs latest unconstitutional victim disarmament “law”
Source: Desert Sun
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law banning sales of one of the most popular types of handgun in the U.S. Assembly Bill 1127, authored by State Rep. Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and state Rep. Catherine Stefani, D-San Francisco, received the governor’s signature on Friday, Oct. 10. The law bans new sales of ‘semi-automatic handguns that can be easily converted to a fully automatic machine gun with the use of a simple ‘switch,” according to a statement from Gabriel’s office. It covers handguns manufactured by Glock, as well as similarly designed pistols, that use a ‘cruciform trigger bar,’ which lawmakers said makes them easily convertible to fully automatic fire. … Second Amendment proponents said they planned to challenge AB 1127 in court.” (10/13/25)
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/nation/california/2025/10/13/newsom-signs-law-banning-glock-pistols-in-california/86672838007/
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5) Ukraine war: Russian attack on Kharkiv cuts power to 30,000, regime officials say
Source: Reuters
“Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with guided bombs on Monday, knocking out power to 30,000 customers in three districts, local officials said. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian forces used guided bombs to attack Nemyshlianskyi and Slobidskyi districts in the southeast and Shevchenkivskyi district in the north of the city. Mayor Ihor Terekhov, interviewed on local television, said the three bombs damaged a hospital and hit power transmission lines. Nearly 30,000 customers had been hit by power cuts. He said four people had been injured, most by flying glass, with some patients being transferred to different wards.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/lQEV4
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6) TX: “Fat troops” fallout continues as Guardsmen sent home from Chicago occupation mission over fitness concerns
Source: San Antonio Express-News
“Some Texas National Guard soldiers deployed to Chicago have been sent home for failing to meet fitness standards after an ABC News photo of heavyset troops went viral. ‘A small group’ of the 200 National Guard soldiers sent to Illinois last week have been replaced for not being ‘in compliance’ with its validation process, the Texas Military Department confirmed to military news site Task & Purpose over the weekend. The switch comes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he was tired of seeing ‘fat troops’ who give the military ‘a bad look’ in a speech to hundreds of military commanders on Sept. 30. After the speech, Hegseth mandated that active-duty troops take two physical fitness tests each year and work out every day. Hegseth praised the Texas National Guard replacements in a social media post.” (10/13/25)
https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/guardsmen-chicago-fat-troops-21098324.php
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7) Prominent news outlets reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline
Source: Washington Post
“Journalists working at The Washington Post, the New York Times and other major news publications will not sign the Defense Department’s restrictive new press policy by Tuesday’s afternoon deadline. The Atlantic, CNN and the Guardian, along with the trade publication Breaking Defense, have also said they will not sign the new agreement. Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said the policy runs counter to the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press. … The policy says reporters cannot obtain or solicit any information the Defense Department does not explicitly authorize. Any media representatives who do not sign by Tuesday at 5 p.m. will have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials and clear out of the Pentagon facilities.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/wGuxj
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8) MA: Small plane crash on I-195 during rush hour kills two, injures commuter
Source: New York Post
“A small plane crashed in a fireball on I-195 during rush hour in Massachusetts early Monday — killing both people on board and injuring a passing commuter in a near-totaled car. The plane careened toward the highway in Dartmouth around 8:15 a.m., forcing motorists to slam on their brakes or try to speed out of the way as it fell. … As the plane hit the ground, a silver sedan was thrown from the road and ended up in the median grass with its right side crumpled.” (10/13/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/13/us-news/small-plane-crashes-on-i-95-during-massachusetts-rush-hour-killing-2/
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9) Political Prisoner José Daniel Ferrer Leaves Cuba for US Exile
Source: US News & World Report
“Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer left the island Monday for exile in the U.S. at the request of the U.S. government, Cuban and U.S. authorities confirmed. … Ferrer gained international acclaim as part of a group of 75 opposition figures imprisoned and put on trial in 2003. Negotiations with the Catholic Church, Spain and then-president Raúl Castro led to their freedom between 2010 and 2011 — on the condition of leaving the island. Ferrer refused and instead founded the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a leading political opposition organization not legally recognized by the government. When thousands took to the streets in 2021 to protest food shortages and power outages and call for the end of the Communist government, he was imprisoned once again even though he was already on house arrest at the time.” (10/13/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-13/cuban-dissident-jose-daniel-ferrer-leaves-island-for-us-exile-after-imprisonment
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10) IN: Sanchez released from custody a week after parking fight arrest and stabbing
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Former NFL quarterback and sports analyst Mark Sanchez was released from custody Sunday, about a week after police said he was stabbed during a fight with a truck driver outside an Indiana hotel. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Sanchez’s release. He faces a felony battery charge, along with several misdemeanor charges, for what prosecutors have said was a fight over parking.” (10/13/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/13/mark-sanchez-released-from-custody/
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11) Ecuador: Protesters clash with police amid nationwide strike over fuel prices
Source: ABC News
“Crowds protesting a spike in fuel prices spilled into the streets of Ecuador’s capital of Quito Sunday, burning tires, blocking roads and facing off against police officers who responded with volleys of tear gas. It was the latest confrontation in a series of nationwide demonstrations testing President Daniel Noboa. … Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization called the strikes 21 days ago in response to the removal of a fuel subsidy that raised the price of diesel from $1.80 per gallon to $2.80.” (10/12/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/protesters-clash-police-ecuador-amid-nationwide-strike-fuel-126457591
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12) First Brands founder resigns amid accounting scandal and billions in missing funds
Source: Seattle Times
“The founder and CEO of First Brands resigned Monday, weeks after the auto parts supplier filed for bankruptcy protection amid an accounting scandal that has left lenders scrambling for more than $2 billion in missing funds. Patrick James, who founded the company in 2013, will be replaced on an interim basis by Charles Moore, who was appointed as chief restructuring officer last month to sort out the company’s financial and potential legal troubles and prepare it for a possible sale. … Raistone Capital filed an emergency motion last week requesting the appointment of an independent examiner, saying that First Brands-appointed ‘independent’ directors were insufficient considering the amount of money — as much as $2.3 billion — that had ‘simply vanished.’” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/BKYfi
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13) Nobel economics prize goes to three researchers for explaining innovation-driven economic growth
Source: NBC News
“Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for ‘having explained innovation-driven economic growth.’ Mokyr is from Northwestern University, Aghion from the College de France and the London School of Economics, and Howitt from Brown University. The Nobel committee said Mokyr ‘demonstrated that if innovations are to succeed one another in a self-generating process, we not only need to know that something works, but we also need to have scientific explanations for why.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/nobel-economics-prize-goes-3-researchers-explaining-innovation-driven-rcna237262
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14) CA: Regime enacts new Internet censorship measures
Source: Engadget
“California has become the latest state to age-gate app stores and operating systems. AB 1043 is one of several internet regulation bills that Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday, including ones related to social media warning labels, chatbots and deepfake pornography. … Unlike with legislation in Utah and Texas, children will still be able to download apps without their parents’ consent. The law doesn’t require people to upload photo IDs either. Instead, the idea is that a parent will enter their child’s age while setting up a device for them — so it’s more of an age gate than age verification. … In addition, SB 243 prohibits chatbots from being marketed as health care professionals. … Newsom also signed a bill concerning deepfake pornography into law. AB 621 includes steeper potential penalties for ‘third parties who knowingly facilitate or aid in the distribution of nonconsensual sexually explicit material.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.engadget.com/california-enacts-age-gate-law-for-app-stores-172802711.html
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15) CA: Tech nabobs call for military occupation of San Francisco
Source: CBS News
“Another tech giant has joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in calling for National Guard troops to be deployed in San Francisco. Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized the city this week, saying he supports federal intervention to combat crime. … Benioff recently told The New York Times that President Trump should send in the National Guard to fight crime. Musk supported Benioff over the weekend on X, formerly Twitter, describing downtown San Francisco as a ‘drug zombie apocalypse’ and saying federal intervention is needed.” (10/12/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-crime-debate-tech-leaders-demand-national-guard/
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16) Graham: Jack Smith investigators need to “pay big” for January 6 phone records probe
Source: Fox News
“Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blasted former Special Counsel Jack Smith over revelations that investigators accessed private communications of multiple GOP lawmakers during the Jan. 6 probe, declaring that those responsible ‘need to pay, and pay big.’ ‘We’re not going to let this go …’ Graham told Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on ‘Sunday Night in America.’ ‘When Jack Smith was looking at my phone records and that of other senators, I think he broke the law and I think it needs to be held accountable, and I think those who brought this about need to pay and pay big.’ The South Carolina lawmaker accused Smith of politicizing the probe and vowed to ‘do everything under [his] power’ to ‘find out what happened.'” [editor’s note: What happened is that the same goons Graham usually loves used the same methods on him that they always use on the lowly serfs. The nerve! – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jack-smith-investigators-need-pay-big-jan-6-phone-records-probe-warns-sen-graham
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17) China: Regime Abducts Dozens of Underground Church Pastors in Crackdown
Source: US News & World Report
“Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-U.S. tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called on Sunday for the pastors’ immediate release. … The crackdown comes a month after new rules from China’s top religion regulator banned unauthorised online preaching or religious training by clergy, as well as ‘foreign collusion.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-13/china-detains-dozens-of-underground-church-pastors-in-crackdown
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18) AK: Dozens Rescued in Remote Villages in Storm That Swept Away Homes
Source: New York Times
“Emergency crews rescued dozens of people in western Alaska on Sunday as flooding from the remnants of Typhoon Halong battered remote coastal communities and tore houses off their foundations, officials said. The Coast Guard and the Alaska National Guard, along with state law enforcement officers, used C-130 planes and Blackhawk helicopters to assist the low-lying villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. … No fatalities were reported on Sunday evening, but three people were unaccounted for in Kwigillingok and there were reports of people missing in Kipnuk, officials said.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/5tmTU
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19) Popular vitamin D supplement may have an unexpected effect
Source: Fox News
“Vitamin D is known to be essential to many aspects of human health, but a new study suggests that taking a certain form of it can have a negative effect. The more potent and longer-lasting form, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced naturally when the body is exposed to sunlight and is also found in animal products, while vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) comes from plant or fungal sources, per the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from the University of Surrey in the U.K. found that taking vitamin D2 can cause reduced levels of vitamin D3 in the body. They made this determination by analyzing 11 randomized controlled trials including 655 adults, which showed that people taking vitamin D2 supplements had less vitamin D3 than those who did not take D2, according to a university press release.” (10/13/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/popular-vitamin-d-supplement-may-have-unexpected-effect-experts-warn
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20) France: Macron unveils new regime ahead of budget deadline
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a new government after holding marathon talks with newly re-appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ahead of a fast-approaching deadline to present next year’s budget to parliament. In Lecornu’s new cabinet, Jean-Noel Barrot remains as foreign minister, while outgoing Labour Minister Catherine Vautrin takes on the defence portfolio, according to a lineup published by the president’s office on Sunday. Roland Lescure, a Macron loyalist, will serve as economy minister. There were also new faces.” (10/12/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/12/frances-macron-unveils-new-government-ahead-of-budget-deadline
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk
Source: Reason
by Matthew Petti
“The kids these days have a lot of silly euphemisms. Porn becomes corn. Sex becomes seggs. Nipples are nip nops and a picture of an eggplant can stand in for a penis. Killing someone becomes unaliving them, and people kermit sewerslide instead of committing suicide. Everything slightly risqué or unpleasant becomes baby talk. But not because teens are overgrown infants — it’s a bottom-up response to top-down censorship.” (10/13/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/13/algorithmic-censorship-changes-the-way-we-talk
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22) Albert Jay Nock, Radical Individualism, and the Remnant
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley
“Nock’s political ideas developed out of the reform movements he encountered in New York. Early on he embraced Henry George’s single‑tax proposal, denouncing the privileges that accompany land monopoly. He co-founded The Freeman with Francis Neilson to promote free trade and individual liberty, and although the journal never achieved a large circulation, it earned a reputation for its fearless criticism. Nock’s scepticism toward politics deepened when he read the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, who distinguished between the ‘economic means’ of satisfying wants through production and exchange and the ‘political means’ of acquiring wealth produced by others. For Nock this contrast illuminated the difference between government, understood as a voluntary association that secures natural rights and leaves citizens free, and state, which institutionalizes the political means and lives off confiscation. The distinction became the organizing principle of his later work.” (10/13/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/albert-jay-nock-radical-individualism-and-the-remnant
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23) They Seriously Expected Parades & Trophies For Pausing A Genocide
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I’ve seen a lot of empire loyalists going ‘Why aren’t the Free Palestine people cheering about the ceasefire?’ If you saw a man beating a child into a coma, would you cheer after the beating stopped? No, your first reaction would be horror at what happened and your second would be fear that he’ll attack the kid again. And then at some point you’d start wondering why the guy isn’t in jail. They actually expected a bunch of parades and trophies for pausing a genocide. They thought they’d get applause and adoration and then everything would go back to how it was pre-2023. That’s adorable. That’s precious. Not gonna happen, but it’s cute that they thought it would.” (10/13/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/13/they-seriously-expected-parades-and-trophies-for-pausing-a-genocide-and-other-notes/
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24) Truth and witnesses are dangerous to tyrants, so keep filming
Source: The Hill
by Svante Myrick
“Trump has told police and ICE agents that they can do ‘whatever the hell [they] want.’ And news reports suggest that ICE agents are getting even more aggressive. … It may well be that the Trump regime’s strategy is to use official violence to provoke responses they can use to justify even greater repression …. that’s why nonviolent resistance is so important. And why it’s essential to shred official lies. That’s presumably why ICE agents have been violently attacking and detaining photographers, journalists and people using their cell phones to show the world what Trump has unleashed. And that’s presumably why the Department of Homeland Security has falsely claimed that it’s illegal ‘violence’ to record ICE raids. One more lie, one more assault on Americans’ First Amendment freedoms. Courts have repeatedly ruled that it is legal for people to film law enforcement activity.” (10/13/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5550137-protect-first-amendment-trump/
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25) Universal Childcare: Real Problem, Wrong Solution
Source: The Daily Economy
by Anna Claire Flowers & Edward Timmons
“Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced in September that New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to guarantee free childcare for its residents beginning November 1. While the governor’s intentions may be admirable, her approach misdiagnoses the cause of rising childcare costs and other childcare-related challenges facing American families. Rather than serving as a model for other states or the federal government to follow, New Mexico’s plan is a trial run in the wrong direction.” (10/13/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/universal-childcare-real-problem-wrong-solution/
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26) The Pieces of Trump’s Peace
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“What did Donald Trump do differently to obtain at least temporary calm in the Middle East compared to the failed efforts of past administrations, foreign powers, and the United Nations? Let us count ten different approaches: 1) Trump curtailed a considerable amount of Iranian oil income and its dispersal. He stopped, for the near future, the [non-existent] Iranian effort to build a bomb. Trump also allowed Israel to destroy [sic] Tehran’s air defenses, humiliate it militarily, and eliminate many of its top military officers and nuclear physicists. Thus, Israel’s half-century-long [fake] worries about Iranian nukes were addressed. At the same time, its stature as a military power soared to an all-time high — even if it became more isolated politically.” (10/13/25)
https://amgreatness.com/2025/10/13/the-pieces-of-trumps-peace/
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27) The Great Stablecoin Heist of 2025?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Paul H Kupiec
“Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the power to ‘coin money and regulate the value thereof.’ The Supreme Court has ruled that this power is exclusive and that Congress ‘may constitutionally secure the benefit of it to the people by appropriate legislation, and to that end may restrain, by suitable enactments, the circulation of any notes, not issued under its own authority,” including taxing the circulation of such notes. The GENIUS Act of 2025 creates a new electronic pseudo-currency — payment stablecoins. Stablecoins are instruments that can be used to make payments at distance over the Internet and circumvent the need and expense of using banks and their payment systems. In many respects, the GENIUS Act stablecoins resemble banknotes issued by state-chartered banks that circulated as currency until the 1860s.” (10/13/25)
https://lawliberty.org/the-great-stablecoin-heist-of-2025/
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28) It Turns Out, Americans Don’t Want a Police State
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin
“Donald Trump and his chief attack dog Stephen Miller have bitten off more than they can chew. Their invasion of American cities is based on obvious lies (e.g., ‘war ravaged Portland’), has antagonized voters, outraged judges, and triggered public opposition from two Republican governors — a rare act of defiance that may trigger more defections. A strong majority of Americans do not approve of deploying military troops at home. ‘Some 58% of Americans — including seven in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans — think the president should send armed troops only to face external threats,’ according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. …In addition to public opposition and courts’ stinging rebukes, Republican governors have begun to slam Trump publicly, a rare sign of dissention within the GOP.” (10/13/25)
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/it-turns-out-americans-dont-want
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29) An American Century of Carnage: Measuring Violence in a Single Superpower World
Source: TomDispatch
by John Dower
“On February 17, 1941, almost 10 months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Life magazine carried a lengthy essay by its publisher, Henry Luce, entitled ‘The American Century.’ The son of Presbyterian missionaries, born in China in 1898 and raised there until the age of 15, Luce essentially transposed the certainty of religious dogma into the certainty of a nationalistic mission couched in the name of internationalism. Luce acknowledged that the United States could not police the whole world or attempt to impose democratic institutions on all of mankind. Nonetheless, ‘the world of the 20th Century,’ he wrote, ‘if it is to come to life in any nobility of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an American Century.'” (10/13/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/an-american-century-of-carnage/
-----
30) Memes for Zombies
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“To apply reason, truth, and history to every stupid meme that comes your way is to tilt at windmills. Yet generations of zombie hordes are being educated by their smartphones. Or is it that their smartphones are turning them into zombies?” (10/13/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/memes-for-zombies
-----
31) What Thatcher and Milei Have in Common
Source: Town Hall
by Rainer Zitelmann
“There are so many similarities between Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Javier Milei, president of Argentina since 2023, that comparing them seems almost unavoidable. Nevertheless, it is a subject that many Argentines, perhaps understandably, are reluctant to entertain. In honor of what would have been Thatcher’s 100th birthday on October 13, 2025, I reached out to market-oriented economists in several countries for their assessments of Thatcher’s historical significance. One economist from Argentina – a friend of both Milei and myself – and whose name I will not mention here, asked for understanding as to his hesitance to comment: ‘While I do admire Margaret Thatcher in many respects (her determination to implement structural reforms, her courage to confront entrenched interests, and her role in revitalizing the British economy), for an Argentine, it is difficult to forget what happened during the Malvinas/Falklands War.'” (10/13/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/rainerzitelmann/2025/10/13/what-thatcher-and-milei-have-in-common-n2663832
-----
32) Looking East
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“Global investors are turning their interest toward Asia, amid a wider realignment of foreign direct investment (FDI), trade flows, and investor confidence. A quiet but profound reorientation of global capital is underway, as Goldman Sachs’s global wealth division estimates investors have poured more than $100 billion into Asian assets this year. The region’s markets are attracting inflows once dominated by the United States and Europe. This is not the cyclical rush of hot money that typically follows rising yields or a commodity boom; it reflects a strategic diversification away from Western concentration and the recognition that Asia’s capital markets — especially in Japan, India, and Southeast Asia — are becoming the structural center of gravity for global investment.” (10/13/25)
https://fee.org/articles/looking-east/
-----
33) Rug Pulled Out from under Antonyuk
Source: Independent Institute
by Stephen P Halbrook
“My last post discussed how the Second Circuit in Antonyuk v. James (2024) relied on a fake North Carolina citation to a non-existent law as the supposed Founding-era analogue to uphold New York’s ‘sensitive place’ restrictions where firearms may not be possessed. (It also cited a 1786 Virginia law as an analogue, but admitted that it had a ‘terror’ element.) On September 10, in Koons v. Attorney General New Jersey, the Third Circuit followed the Second Circuit off the cliff by making the same error. The fake ‘law’ cited was the ‘N.C. Statute of Northampton (1792),’ which was actually nothing but a privately published Collection of English statutes that one François-Xavier Martin thought applied in North Carolina.” (10/13/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/10/13/rug-pulled-out-from-under-antonyuk/
-----
34) American Soybean Farmers Sold Out; Argentine Counterparts Bailed Out
Source: CounterPunch
by Seth Sandronsky
“We begin with the Trump administration’s decision to provide a $20 billion ‘swap line’ (currency exchanges between central banks) with the government of Argentina. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessemer is the point man for the White House on this financial and political issue. The Latin American country is in financial distress over its issuance of foreign bonds since President Javier Milei slashed public spending to spur economic growth. … In the meantime, the Milei government cut the export tax on soybeans. Chinese buyers jumped at this opportunity, reportedly purchasing some 20 shiploads of soybeans from Argentina. … What will the White House do to relieve the pain from the decline of demand from China for American agricultural products? Well, the president is considering a $10-$15 billion bailout for agriculture commodity producers.” (10/13/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/13/american-soybean-farmers-sold-out-argentine-counterparts-bailed-out/
-----
35) Constitutional Reform in Jamaica: Sentiment or Substance?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lipton Matthews
“Jamaica is currently in the midst of constitutional reform, a process being hailed as a watershed moment in the island’s history. Much of the public debate has been consumed by two proposals: the desire to become a republic and the replacement of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court. These ideas are being advanced with great fanfare, yet they are driven more by sentiment than by sober reasoning. They are products of anti-colonial rhetoric rather than serious engagement with the principles that should guide a modern constitution.” (10/13/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/constitutional-reform-jamaica-sentiment-or-substance
-----
36) Quantum Vibe, 10/13/25
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (10/13/25)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2556
-----
37) Is Rubio finally powerful enough to topple Venezuela’s regime?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Lee Schlenker
“It appears that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is emerging victorious in the internal Trump administration battle over the direction of U.S. policy toward Venezuela. The New York Times reported on Oct. 6 that White House special envoy Richard Grenell — who, after meeting President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas this January inked deportation agreements, won the release of American prisoners, and secured energy licenses for U.S. and European oil majors — was told by President Donald Trump to stop all diplomatic outreach toward the resource-rich South American nation. The news comes as some Trump officials, particularly Rubio, have pushed the president to escalate tensions, which he has done by dispatching a major naval deployment to the Southern Caribbean in an alleged counternarcotics operation, killing over 20 alleged drug traffickers in at least four strikes against go-fast boats since early September.” (10/13/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/rubio-venezeula/
-----
38) The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan
“Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, worries that the United States could become a dictatorship. At a press conference on Wednesday, he warned that ‘a Marxist ideology [is] taking over the Democrat party’ and could soon be ‘turning us into a Communist country.’ On Thursday, as he fielded calls on C-SPAN, Johnson invoked the language of The Communist Manifesto: ‘What if the socialists take over the Senate, and Democrat socialists are in charge, and they want to grow government and take over the means of production?’ Johnson isn’t wrong to fear dictatorship in this country. He’s just wrong about where that threat is coming from. It’s coming from his own party. And he’s paving the way.” (10/13/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/speaker-mike-johnson-abetting-trump-authoritarianism
-----
39) From the Republic of Letters to the Industrial Revolution
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“The main Nobel laureate in economics announced this morning is Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University. In his 2016 book, A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton University Press), Mokyr explored why economic growth started in the West (Northern Europe and its offshoots) at a rate that the world had never seen before. The explanation is not as simple as a straight connection from technological innovations to economic growth. In human history, episodes of scientific or technological advances were not typically followed by significant changes in the generalized poverty of ordinary people, including famously in China. To translate into economic growth, Mokyr explained, scientific discoveries need to be accompanied by a culture of growth, which in turn is generated by intellectual and economic entrepreneurship in open societies with fragmented political power.” (10/13/25)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/from-the-republic-of-letters-to-the
-----
40) How Massive a Mistake?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“When the Heritage Foundation published Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, the volumes were large-sized — around 8.5 x 11 inches, like a textbook. When Democrats produced oversized pseudo-replicas of the 900-page policy blueprint as visual props to mock Republicans during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, they made the tomes much, much larger, as if hauled off a monastery shelf. Why? Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow on August 19, and Pennsylvania Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta on August 20 — and others each night — sought to symbolize its ‘weighty’ and ‘extreme’ nature. … That is how seriously Democrats said they were taking Project 2025. So when Donald Trump got elected, and the document’s author, Russ Vought, took on his current position as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget … you might think that Democrats would be very careful dealing with anything Vought touched.” (10/13/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/13/how-massive-a-mistake/
-----
41) The Fourth Branch: How Conscience and Civic Vigilance May Save the Republic
Source: Common Dreams
by Martina Moneke
“With the executive overreaching and the judiciary acquiescent, the Republic’s immune system strains under political and institutional dysfunction. The legislative branch, meanwhile, toggles between paralysis and performative outrage, its constitutional authority weakened by partisan spectacle. When the formal organs falter, the Republic depends on the dispersed actors of the ‘fourth branch’ — a novel, emergent moral network, tasked with upholding civic and constitutional integrity. Ordinary citizens, lower courts, military officers, advocacy groups, and artists together make up this fourth branch of government, sustaining the body politic when power itself becomes a vector of disease.” [editor’s note: Seems like that would be the “fifth branch” since the unelected bureaucracy already holds slot #4 – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Sixth — don’t forget the court stenographer “mainstream media” – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ordinary-people-save-democracy
-----
42) How Trump Is Making China Great
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Six months ago Donald Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs — huge tariffs imposed on just about every nation. As everyone noted, this announcement suddenly brought average tariffs back to 1934 levels. Less widely noted was the fact that the long decline in tariff rates over the previous 90 years had been achieved through many rounds of international negotiations, in which the U.S. and other nations solemnly agreed not to backtrack on past tariff reductions. So Liberation Day was, among other things, a massive betrayal of the world’s trust. Now Trump is learning, to his obvious shock, that other nations can also play trade hardball. … There is, however, one big difference between Trump’s trade policy and China’s. Namely, the Chinese appear to know what they’re doing.” (10/13/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-trump-is-making-china-great
-----
43) Can Trump Revive the Strategic Arms Control System He Helped Wreck?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“For the first time in several years, there is some positive movement between Russia and the United States on strategic arms control. In late September 2025, Vladimir Putin proposed that Moscow and Washington agree to extend the New Start Treaty – which is set to expire automatically in February 2026 – for one year. That crucial treaty caps the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) at 1,550 for each side. President Donald Trump responded that Putin’s suggestion ‘sounds like a good idea to me.’ The Kremlin stated that Trump’s reaction ‘gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.’ Granted, extending such a crucial agreement merely for a year is a very modest gesture of cooperation, but it reverses an increasingly ominous trend in bilateral relations on arms control.” (10/13/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2025/10/12/can-trump-revive-the-strategic-arms-control-system-he-helped-wreck/
-----
44) Is it America’s fate to decline and fall? Here’s what history says.
Source: Washington Post
by Johan Norberg
“It is always hard to disentangle the causes of cultural decline. In 1984, a German historian compiled 210 explanations historians had suggested for Rome’s fall, from lead poisoning and barbarian invasions to Christianity, moral decline and gout. After studying dynamic civilizations such as Athens, Rome, Abbasid Baghdad, Song China, Renaissance Italy and the Dutch Republic, I can attest that there is no single explanation. Each golden age had its own character and its own downfall.” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/Qwgq8
-----
45) Unleash US mining now to face down China’s deadly trade threats
Source: New York Post
by staff
“President Donald Trump’s renewed trade-war threats to China can only be the beginning of America’s answer [sic] to Beijing’s rare-earths power-play: Washington needs to reverse the Clinton-era clampdown on US mining, which leaves our country needlessly dependent on the goodwill of the Chinese Communist Party for crucial raw materials. Beijing is moving to restrict export of rare earths and hi-tech products made from them, including batteries, semiconductors and advanced magnet-based technologies. Trump rightly calls that a threat to throttle the entire global economy. Yet China only has this power because we allow [sic] it. The United States and its allies have ample supplies of everything China seems to monopolize; it’s simply a matter of restoring a US mining industry that actually led the world as recently as the early 1990s.” (10/12/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/12/opinion/unleash-us-mining-now-to-face-down-chinas-deadly-trade-threats/
-----
46) The Crime of Human Virtue
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Sometimes it really is as simple as good vs. evil. This is one of those times. Human virtue is our great crime against the fascist project; it’s also our great weapon against it.” (10/12/25)
https://www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of-human-virtue
-----
47) Don’t believe the GOP’s “principled” opposition to Prop. 50
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“One of the funniest types of people I meet in political circles is the person who takes all sorts of cheap partisan positions, then suddenly invokes some Deep Principle on a matter – as if any of us believe that person to be motivated by a consistent political philosophy. As confirmation of their cynicism, you’ll find the ‘principle’ always aligns with their partisan interest. You’ll see many office-holding Republicans take that transparent tack these days, as they declare the evils of Proposition 50, the temporary mid-decade redistricting proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot. Pick almost any state GOP official and you’ll find some overheated statement about why the Democrats’ hastily drawn proposed new maps rig congressional races and undermine the initiative that created an independent redistricting commission for Congress. And they won’t be wrong. But [there] are some points you won’t hear from them …” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/Bf2Wl
-----
48) Beware of Queerintelpro: A Public Service Announcement from Your Friendly Neighborhood Gender Extremist
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“The GOP has declared war against trans people in this country in nearly every manner conceivable. For five straight years these police state bulls have broken the last year’s record for the sheer volume of bloated, big government, anti-trans legislation they’ve pushed forward. Sadly, 2025 is looking likely to break the record again …. The first, passed just days after that orange child molester crept back into the Oval Office, set the tone by proclaiming that transgender people simply do not exist and that the federal government officially rejects our existence by declaring there to be only two immutable gender identities defined exclusively by government documents taken at birth, a position flatly rejected by every major medical and scientific body on the planet.” (10/12/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/10/beware-of-queerintelpro-public-service.html
-----
49) The Ad Campaign for Capitalism
Source: The American Prospect
by David Sirota & Jared Jacang Maher
“In 1971, future United States Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell was alarmed. The forces he believed were threatening corporate America (consumer advocates, labor unions, environmentalists, and left-wing radicals) appeared to be gaining momentum. At the center of this movement was a 37-year-old legal crusader named Ralph Nader, whose name had become synonymous with holding corporations accountable. Nader wasn’t just a thorn in the side of big business; he was a bona fide celebrity. Whether he was suing General Motors for concealing auto defects or exposing deceptive advertising practices, Nader dominated headlines, shining a spotlight on corporate misconduct and government corruption. Nader’s crusade for corporate accountability was capturing the public imagination.” [editor’s note: While shorting the stocks of companies he was about to attack – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-10-13-lewis-powell-memo-nader-chamber-commerce-master-plan/
-----
50) Unconstitutional “Laws” Don’t Exist
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“The American Revolution kicked off in 1761 with a single principle from James Otis Jr.: an unconstitutional law is NO LAW AT ALL. Any government act exceeding its legitimate authority is void the moment it is passed. It has no more legal power than a law passed by a foreign government. Call it what it is: usurpation, a theft of power. And stolen power is not to be obeyed, it is to be resisted.” (10/12/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/10/12/unconstitutional-laws-dont-exist/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 10/13/25
Source: Reason
“Source: Reason
"Trump's Art of the Deal for Peace in the Middle East." (10/13/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/10/13/trumps-art-of-the-deal-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/” (10/13/25)
-----
52) Rising, 10/13/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Marjorie Taylor Greene continuing to break apart from the Trump administration’s agenda, this time on the topic of immigration and tariffs.” (10/13/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5552616-rising-october-13-2025/
-----
53) Finding Freedom, 10/13/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Education, Civil Rights and the Future of School Choice with Shaka Mitchell.” (10/13/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/education-civil-rights-and-the-future-of-school-choice-with-shaka-mitchell
-----
54) The Mona Charen Show, 10/13/25
Source: The Bulwark
“The Biggest Mistake Liberals Keep Making (w/ Bill Galston).” (10/13/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N8I4c6s55M
-----
55) EconTalk, 10/13/25
Source: EconTalk
“The Magic of Tokyo (with Joe McReynolds).” (10/13/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-magic-of-tokyo-with-joe-mcreynolds/
-----
56) The Dispatch Podcast, 10/13/25
Source: The Dispatch
“The Future of Television Journalism | Interview: Sam Feist.” (10/13/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/the-future-of-television-journalism-interview-sam-feist/
-----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/13/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Hundreds of Bodies Dug Out of Gaza Rubble After Ceasefire, Trump Heads to Israel, and More.” (10/13/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1c8D9kRUu0
-----
58) Has Liberalism’s Very Success in Delivering Human Flourishing Doomed It?
Source: The UnPopulist
“Steven Pinker and Derek Thompson Discuss at LibCon2025.” (10/12/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/has-liberalisms-very-success-in-delivering
-----
59) Free Talk Live, 10/12/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“What scares you about scary movies? :: Israel Gaza peace deal fake? :: Free bus rides actually expensive :: Trump trying to ban trannies from owning guns :: Was the Charlie Kirk shooting all faked and AI? :: Methods for relieving stress :: 2025-10-12 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley.” (10/12/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-10-12
-----
60) Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/12/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“LNC ExComm Meeting — NM Litigation.” (10/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xm4NkxEzBA
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) French regime airlifts Madagascar’s embattled president to safety as his regime collapses
2) Bitcoin Slips Under $112k, ETH, DOGE Drop 6% as Trump refreshes trade war idiocy
3) Palestine: Hamas launches attempts to re-impose rule over Gaza’s population
4) CA: Newsom signs latest unconstitutional victim disarmament “law”
5) Ukraine war: Russian attack on Kharkiv cuts power to 30,000, regime officials say
6) TX: “Fat troops” fallout continues as Guardsmen sent home from Chicago occupation mission over fitness concerns
7) Prominent news outlets reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline
8) MA: Small plane crash on I-195 during rush hour kills two, injures commuter
9) Political Prisoner José Daniel Ferrer Leaves Cuba for US Exile
10) IN: Sanchez released from custody a week after parking fight arrest and stabbing
11) Ecuador: Protesters clash with police amid nationwide strike over fuel prices
12) First Brands founder resigns amid accounting scandal and billions in missing funds
13) Nobel economics prize goes to three researchers for explaining innovation-driven economic growth
14) CA: Regime enacts new Internet censorship measures
15) CA: Tech nabobs call for military occupation of San Francisco
16) Graham: Jack Smith investigators need to “pay big” for January 6 phone records probe
17) China: Regime Abducts Dozens of Underground Church Pastors in Crackdown
18) AK: Dozens Rescued in Remote Villages in Storm That Swept Away Homes
19) Popular vitamin D supplement may have an unexpected effect
20) France: Macron unveils new regime ahead of budget deadline
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk
22) Albert Jay Nock, Radical Individualism, and the Remnant
23) They Seriously Expected Parades & Trophies For Pausing A Genocide
24) Truth and witnesses are dangerous to tyrants, so keep filming
25) Universal Childcare: Real Problem, Wrong Solution
26) The Pieces of Trump’s Peace
27) The Great Stablecoin Heist of 2025?
28) It Turns Out, Americans Don’t Want a Police State
29) An American Century of Carnage: Measuring Violence in a Single Superpower World
30) Memes for Zombies
31) What Thatcher and Milei Have in Common
32) Looking East
33) Rug Pulled Out from under Antonyuk
34) American Soybean Farmers Sold Out; Argentine Counterparts Bailed Out
35) Constitutional Reform in Jamaica: Sentiment or Substance?
36) Quantum Vibe, 10/13/25
37) Is Rubio finally powerful enough to topple Venezuela’s regime?
38) The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism
39) From the Republic of Letters to the Industrial Revolution
40) How Massive a Mistake?
41) The Fourth Branch: How Conscience and Civic Vigilance May Save the Republic
42) How Trump Is Making China Great
43) Can Trump Revive the Strategic Arms Control System He Helped Wreck?
44) Is it America’s fate to decline and fall? Here’s what history says.
45) Unleash US mining now to face down China’s deadly trade threats
46) The Crime of Human Virtue
47) Don’t believe the GOP’s “principled” opposition to Prop. 50
48) Beware of Queerintelpro: A Public Service Announcement from Your Friendly Neighborhood Gender Extremist
49) The Ad Campaign for Capitalism
50) Unconstitutional “Laws” Don’t Exist
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 10/13/25
52) Rising, 10/13/25
53) Finding Freedom, 10/13/25
54) The Mona Charen Show, 10/13/25
55) EconTalk, 10/13/25
56) The Dispatch Podcast, 10/13/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/13/25
58) Has Liberalism’s Very Success in Delivering Human Flourishing Doomed It?
59) Free Talk Live, 10/12/25
60) Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/12/25
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1) French regime airlifts Madagascar’s embattled president to safety as his regime collapses
Source: Business Insider Africa
“Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina was airlifted out of the country by France amidst escalating unrest. The dramatic evacuation, reportedly carried out on a French military aircraft, follows mass demonstrations demanding Rajoelina’s resignation and marks the latest in a wave of youth-driven uprisings shaking governments across Africa. Rajoelina confirmed in a late-night address posted on the presidency’s social media accounts that he had left the country, citing threats to his life. ‘I left to go to a secure location to protect my life,’ he said. The president vowed not to ‘allow Madagascar to be destroyed,’ but did not disclose his location and has so far ignored growing calls to step down. … Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, the leader of Madagascar’s parliamentary opposition, told reporters that Rajoelina left after key army units defected to join demonstrators demanding his resignation.” (10/14/25)
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/france-airlifts-madagascars-embattled-president-to-safety-as-his-regime-collapses/819bb4f
-----
2) Bitcoin Slips Under $112k, ETH, DOGE Drop 6% as Trump refreshes trade war idiocy
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin fell below $112,000 during trading Tuesday afternoon Hong Kong time as China’s retaliatory trade measures sent a fresh wave of risk-off sentiment across global markets. Bloomberg reported earlier Tuesday that China sanctioned U.S. units of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean in a move that reignited fears that the trade conflict with Washington could spiral, just days after both sides signaled restraint. … Stocks in Asia tumbled, equity futures in the U.S. and Europe followed, and crypto traders were again forced to de-risk after a brief weekend bounce. … Crypto again tracked risk. Bitcoin fell 3% to $111,869, Ethereum dropped 4% to around $4,000, and BNB slid more than 10% after outperforming last week. XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin all fell between 5% and 6% in the past 24 hours.” (10/14/25)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/10/14/bitcoin-slips-under-usd112k-eth-doge-drop-6-as-china-hits-back-on-u-s-tariffs
-----
3) Palestine: Hamas launches attempts to re-impose rule over Gaza’s population
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Hamas has started deploying armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza in an apparent attempt to reassert authority in the devastated Palestinian territory after the ceasefire deal agreed with Israel last week. Images showed dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza during the release of Israeli hostages on Monday morning and there were reports of shootings and executions elsewhere in the territory. Telegram channels associated with Hamas said ‘collaborators and traitors’ had been targeted, a reference to Israel-backed militia in the territory, while Hamas gunmen also engaged in bloody clashes with a powerful local family in Gaza City over the weekend.” [editor’s note: The October 7 attack was a play to bring in Israel as “worse cop” when Hamas had trouble suppressing a Palestinian uprising against its misrule in Gaza; hopefully they’ve been weakened enough to be disposed of by their victims – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/hamas-deploys-armed-fighters-and-police-across-parts-of-gaza
-----
4) CA: Newsom signs latest unconstitutional victim disarmament “law”
Source: Desert Sun
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law banning sales of one of the most popular types of handgun in the U.S. Assembly Bill 1127, authored by State Rep. Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and state Rep. Catherine Stefani, D-San Francisco, received the governor’s signature on Friday, Oct. 10. The law bans new sales of ‘semi-automatic handguns that can be easily converted to a fully automatic machine gun with the use of a simple ‘switch,” according to a statement from Gabriel’s office. It covers handguns manufactured by Glock, as well as similarly designed pistols, that use a ‘cruciform trigger bar,’ which lawmakers said makes them easily convertible to fully automatic fire. … Second Amendment proponents said they planned to challenge AB 1127 in court.” (10/13/25)
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/nation/california/2025/10/13/newsom-signs-law-banning-glock-pistols-in-california/86672838007/
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5) Ukraine war: Russian attack on Kharkiv cuts power to 30,000, regime officials say
Source: Reuters
“Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with guided bombs on Monday, knocking out power to 30,000 customers in three districts, local officials said. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian forces used guided bombs to attack Nemyshlianskyi and Slobidskyi districts in the southeast and Shevchenkivskyi district in the north of the city. Mayor Ihor Terekhov, interviewed on local television, said the three bombs damaged a hospital and hit power transmission lines. Nearly 30,000 customers had been hit by power cuts. He said four people had been injured, most by flying glass, with some patients being transferred to different wards.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/lQEV4
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6) TX: “Fat troops” fallout continues as Guardsmen sent home from Chicago occupation mission over fitness concerns
Source: San Antonio Express-News
“Some Texas National Guard soldiers deployed to Chicago have been sent home for failing to meet fitness standards after an ABC News photo of heavyset troops went viral. ‘A small group’ of the 200 National Guard soldiers sent to Illinois last week have been replaced for not being ‘in compliance’ with its validation process, the Texas Military Department confirmed to military news site Task & Purpose over the weekend. The switch comes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he was tired of seeing ‘fat troops’ who give the military ‘a bad look’ in a speech to hundreds of military commanders on Sept. 30. After the speech, Hegseth mandated that active-duty troops take two physical fitness tests each year and work out every day. Hegseth praised the Texas National Guard replacements in a social media post.” (10/13/25)
https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/guardsmen-chicago-fat-troops-21098324.php
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7) Prominent news outlets reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline
Source: Washington Post
“Journalists working at The Washington Post, the New York Times and other major news publications will not sign the Defense Department’s restrictive new press policy by Tuesday’s afternoon deadline. The Atlantic, CNN and the Guardian, along with the trade publication Breaking Defense, have also said they will not sign the new agreement. Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said the policy runs counter to the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press. … The policy says reporters cannot obtain or solicit any information the Defense Department does not explicitly authorize. Any media representatives who do not sign by Tuesday at 5 p.m. will have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials and clear out of the Pentagon facilities.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/wGuxj
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8) MA: Small plane crash on I-195 during rush hour kills two, injures commuter
Source: New York Post
“A small plane crashed in a fireball on I-195 during rush hour in Massachusetts early Monday — killing both people on board and injuring a passing commuter in a near-totaled car. The plane careened toward the highway in Dartmouth around 8:15 a.m., forcing motorists to slam on their brakes or try to speed out of the way as it fell. … As the plane hit the ground, a silver sedan was thrown from the road and ended up in the median grass with its right side crumpled.” (10/13/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/13/us-news/small-plane-crashes-on-i-95-during-massachusetts-rush-hour-killing-2/
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9) Political Prisoner José Daniel Ferrer Leaves Cuba for US Exile
Source: US News & World Report
“Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer left the island Monday for exile in the U.S. at the request of the U.S. government, Cuban and U.S. authorities confirmed. … Ferrer gained international acclaim as part of a group of 75 opposition figures imprisoned and put on trial in 2003. Negotiations with the Catholic Church, Spain and then-president Raúl Castro led to their freedom between 2010 and 2011 — on the condition of leaving the island. Ferrer refused and instead founded the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a leading political opposition organization not legally recognized by the government. When thousands took to the streets in 2021 to protest food shortages and power outages and call for the end of the Communist government, he was imprisoned once again even though he was already on house arrest at the time.” (10/13/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-13/cuban-dissident-jose-daniel-ferrer-leaves-island-for-us-exile-after-imprisonment
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10) IN: Sanchez released from custody a week after parking fight arrest and stabbing
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Former NFL quarterback and sports analyst Mark Sanchez was released from custody Sunday, about a week after police said he was stabbed during a fight with a truck driver outside an Indiana hotel. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Sanchez’s release. He faces a felony battery charge, along with several misdemeanor charges, for what prosecutors have said was a fight over parking.” (10/13/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/13/mark-sanchez-released-from-custody/
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11) Ecuador: Protesters clash with police amid nationwide strike over fuel prices
Source: ABC News
“Crowds protesting a spike in fuel prices spilled into the streets of Ecuador’s capital of Quito Sunday, burning tires, blocking roads and facing off against police officers who responded with volleys of tear gas. It was the latest confrontation in a series of nationwide demonstrations testing President Daniel Noboa. … Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization called the strikes 21 days ago in response to the removal of a fuel subsidy that raised the price of diesel from $1.80 per gallon to $2.80.” (10/12/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/protesters-clash-police-ecuador-amid-nationwide-strike-fuel-126457591
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12) First Brands founder resigns amid accounting scandal and billions in missing funds
Source: Seattle Times
“The founder and CEO of First Brands resigned Monday, weeks after the auto parts supplier filed for bankruptcy protection amid an accounting scandal that has left lenders scrambling for more than $2 billion in missing funds. Patrick James, who founded the company in 2013, will be replaced on an interim basis by Charles Moore, who was appointed as chief restructuring officer last month to sort out the company’s financial and potential legal troubles and prepare it for a possible sale. … Raistone Capital filed an emergency motion last week requesting the appointment of an independent examiner, saying that First Brands-appointed ‘independent’ directors were insufficient considering the amount of money — as much as $2.3 billion — that had ‘simply vanished.’” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/BKYfi
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13) Nobel economics prize goes to three researchers for explaining innovation-driven economic growth
Source: NBC News
“Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for ‘having explained innovation-driven economic growth.’ Mokyr is from Northwestern University, Aghion from the College de France and the London School of Economics, and Howitt from Brown University. The Nobel committee said Mokyr ‘demonstrated that if innovations are to succeed one another in a self-generating process, we not only need to know that something works, but we also need to have scientific explanations for why.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/nobel-economics-prize-goes-3-researchers-explaining-innovation-driven-rcna237262
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14) CA: Regime enacts new Internet censorship measures
Source: Engadget
“California has become the latest state to age-gate app stores and operating systems. AB 1043 is one of several internet regulation bills that Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday, including ones related to social media warning labels, chatbots and deepfake pornography. … Unlike with legislation in Utah and Texas, children will still be able to download apps without their parents’ consent. The law doesn’t require people to upload photo IDs either. Instead, the idea is that a parent will enter their child’s age while setting up a device for them — so it’s more of an age gate than age verification. … In addition, SB 243 prohibits chatbots from being marketed as health care professionals. … Newsom also signed a bill concerning deepfake pornography into law. AB 621 includes steeper potential penalties for ‘third parties who knowingly facilitate or aid in the distribution of nonconsensual sexually explicit material.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.engadget.com/california-enacts-age-gate-law-for-app-stores-172802711.html
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15) CA: Tech nabobs call for military occupation of San Francisco
Source: CBS News
“Another tech giant has joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in calling for National Guard troops to be deployed in San Francisco. Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized the city this week, saying he supports federal intervention to combat crime. … Benioff recently told The New York Times that President Trump should send in the National Guard to fight crime. Musk supported Benioff over the weekend on X, formerly Twitter, describing downtown San Francisco as a ‘drug zombie apocalypse’ and saying federal intervention is needed.” (10/12/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-crime-debate-tech-leaders-demand-national-guard/
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16) Graham: Jack Smith investigators need to “pay big” for January 6 phone records probe
Source: Fox News
“Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blasted former Special Counsel Jack Smith over revelations that investigators accessed private communications of multiple GOP lawmakers during the Jan. 6 probe, declaring that those responsible ‘need to pay, and pay big.’ ‘We’re not going to let this go …’ Graham told Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on ‘Sunday Night in America.’ ‘When Jack Smith was looking at my phone records and that of other senators, I think he broke the law and I think it needs to be held accountable, and I think those who brought this about need to pay and pay big.’ The South Carolina lawmaker accused Smith of politicizing the probe and vowed to ‘do everything under [his] power’ to ‘find out what happened.'” [editor’s note: What happened is that the same goons Graham usually loves used the same methods on him that they always use on the lowly serfs. The nerve! – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jack-smith-investigators-need-pay-big-jan-6-phone-records-probe-warns-sen-graham
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17) China: Regime Abducts Dozens of Underground Church Pastors in Crackdown
Source: US News & World Report
“Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-U.S. tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called on Sunday for the pastors’ immediate release. … The crackdown comes a month after new rules from China’s top religion regulator banned unauthorised online preaching or religious training by clergy, as well as ‘foreign collusion.'” (10/13/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-13/china-detains-dozens-of-underground-church-pastors-in-crackdown
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18) AK: Dozens Rescued in Remote Villages in Storm That Swept Away Homes
Source: New York Times
“Emergency crews rescued dozens of people in western Alaska on Sunday as flooding from the remnants of Typhoon Halong battered remote coastal communities and tore houses off their foundations, officials said. The Coast Guard and the Alaska National Guard, along with state law enforcement officers, used C-130 planes and Blackhawk helicopters to assist the low-lying villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. … No fatalities were reported on Sunday evening, but three people were unaccounted for in Kwigillingok and there were reports of people missing in Kipnuk, officials said.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/5tmTU
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19) Popular vitamin D supplement may have an unexpected effect
Source: Fox News
“Vitamin D is known to be essential to many aspects of human health, but a new study suggests that taking a certain form of it can have a negative effect. The more potent and longer-lasting form, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced naturally when the body is exposed to sunlight and is also found in animal products, while vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) comes from plant or fungal sources, per the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from the University of Surrey in the U.K. found that taking vitamin D2 can cause reduced levels of vitamin D3 in the body. They made this determination by analyzing 11 randomized controlled trials including 655 adults, which showed that people taking vitamin D2 supplements had less vitamin D3 than those who did not take D2, according to a university press release.” (10/13/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/popular-vitamin-d-supplement-may-have-unexpected-effect-experts-warn
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20) France: Macron unveils new regime ahead of budget deadline
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a new government after holding marathon talks with newly re-appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ahead of a fast-approaching deadline to present next year’s budget to parliament. In Lecornu’s new cabinet, Jean-Noel Barrot remains as foreign minister, while outgoing Labour Minister Catherine Vautrin takes on the defence portfolio, according to a lineup published by the president’s office on Sunday. Roland Lescure, a Macron loyalist, will serve as economy minister. There were also new faces.” (10/12/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/12/frances-macron-unveils-new-government-ahead-of-budget-deadline
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk
Source: Reason
by Matthew Petti
“The kids these days have a lot of silly euphemisms. Porn becomes corn. Sex becomes seggs. Nipples are nip nops and a picture of an eggplant can stand in for a penis. Killing someone becomes unaliving them, and people kermit sewerslide instead of committing suicide. Everything slightly risqué or unpleasant becomes baby talk. But not because teens are overgrown infants — it’s a bottom-up response to top-down censorship.” (10/13/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/13/algorithmic-censorship-changes-the-way-we-talk
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22) Albert Jay Nock, Radical Individualism, and the Remnant
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley
“Nock’s political ideas developed out of the reform movements he encountered in New York. Early on he embraced Henry George’s single‑tax proposal, denouncing the privileges that accompany land monopoly. He co-founded The Freeman with Francis Neilson to promote free trade and individual liberty, and although the journal never achieved a large circulation, it earned a reputation for its fearless criticism. Nock’s scepticism toward politics deepened when he read the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, who distinguished between the ‘economic means’ of satisfying wants through production and exchange and the ‘political means’ of acquiring wealth produced by others. For Nock this contrast illuminated the difference between government, understood as a voluntary association that secures natural rights and leaves citizens free, and state, which institutionalizes the political means and lives off confiscation. The distinction became the organizing principle of his later work.” (10/13/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/albert-jay-nock-radical-individualism-and-the-remnant
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23) They Seriously Expected Parades & Trophies For Pausing A Genocide
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I’ve seen a lot of empire loyalists going ‘Why aren’t the Free Palestine people cheering about the ceasefire?’ If you saw a man beating a child into a coma, would you cheer after the beating stopped? No, your first reaction would be horror at what happened and your second would be fear that he’ll attack the kid again. And then at some point you’d start wondering why the guy isn’t in jail. They actually expected a bunch of parades and trophies for pausing a genocide. They thought they’d get applause and adoration and then everything would go back to how it was pre-2023. That’s adorable. That’s precious. Not gonna happen, but it’s cute that they thought it would.” (10/13/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/13/they-seriously-expected-parades-and-trophies-for-pausing-a-genocide-and-other-notes/
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24) Truth and witnesses are dangerous to tyrants, so keep filming
Source: The Hill
by Svante Myrick
“Trump has told police and ICE agents that they can do ‘whatever the hell [they] want.’ And news reports suggest that ICE agents are getting even more aggressive. … It may well be that the Trump regime’s strategy is to use official violence to provoke responses they can use to justify even greater repression …. that’s why nonviolent resistance is so important. And why it’s essential to shred official lies. That’s presumably why ICE agents have been violently attacking and detaining photographers, journalists and people using their cell phones to show the world what Trump has unleashed. And that’s presumably why the Department of Homeland Security has falsely claimed that it’s illegal ‘violence’ to record ICE raids. One more lie, one more assault on Americans’ First Amendment freedoms. Courts have repeatedly ruled that it is legal for people to film law enforcement activity.” (10/13/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5550137-protect-first-amendment-trump/
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25) Universal Childcare: Real Problem, Wrong Solution
Source: The Daily Economy
by Anna Claire Flowers & Edward Timmons
“Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced in September that New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to guarantee free childcare for its residents beginning November 1. While the governor’s intentions may be admirable, her approach misdiagnoses the cause of rising childcare costs and other childcare-related challenges facing American families. Rather than serving as a model for other states or the federal government to follow, New Mexico’s plan is a trial run in the wrong direction.” (10/13/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/universal-childcare-real-problem-wrong-solution/
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26) The Pieces of Trump’s Peace
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“What did Donald Trump do differently to obtain at least temporary calm in the Middle East compared to the failed efforts of past administrations, foreign powers, and the United Nations? Let us count ten different approaches: 1) Trump curtailed a considerable amount of Iranian oil income and its dispersal. He stopped, for the near future, the [non-existent] Iranian effort to build a bomb. Trump also allowed Israel to destroy [sic] Tehran’s air defenses, humiliate it militarily, and eliminate many of its top military officers and nuclear physicists. Thus, Israel’s half-century-long [fake] worries about Iranian nukes were addressed. At the same time, its stature as a military power soared to an all-time high — even if it became more isolated politically.” (10/13/25)
https://amgreatness.com/2025/10/13/the-pieces-of-trumps-peace/
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27) The Great Stablecoin Heist of 2025?
Source: Law & Liberty
by Paul H Kupiec
“Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the power to ‘coin money and regulate the value thereof.’ The Supreme Court has ruled that this power is exclusive and that Congress ‘may constitutionally secure the benefit of it to the people by appropriate legislation, and to that end may restrain, by suitable enactments, the circulation of any notes, not issued under its own authority,” including taxing the circulation of such notes. The GENIUS Act of 2025 creates a new electronic pseudo-currency — payment stablecoins. Stablecoins are instruments that can be used to make payments at distance over the Internet and circumvent the need and expense of using banks and their payment systems. In many respects, the GENIUS Act stablecoins resemble banknotes issued by state-chartered banks that circulated as currency until the 1860s.” (10/13/25)
https://lawliberty.org/the-great-stablecoin-heist-of-2025/
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28) It Turns Out, Americans Don’t Want a Police State
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin
“Donald Trump and his chief attack dog Stephen Miller have bitten off more than they can chew. Their invasion of American cities is based on obvious lies (e.g., ‘war ravaged Portland’), has antagonized voters, outraged judges, and triggered public opposition from two Republican governors — a rare act of defiance that may trigger more defections. A strong majority of Americans do not approve of deploying military troops at home. ‘Some 58% of Americans — including seven in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans — think the president should send armed troops only to face external threats,’ according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. …In addition to public opposition and courts’ stinging rebukes, Republican governors have begun to slam Trump publicly, a rare sign of dissention within the GOP.” (10/13/25)
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/it-turns-out-americans-dont-want
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29) An American Century of Carnage: Measuring Violence in a Single Superpower World
Source: TomDispatch
by John Dower
“On February 17, 1941, almost 10 months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Life magazine carried a lengthy essay by its publisher, Henry Luce, entitled ‘The American Century.’ The son of Presbyterian missionaries, born in China in 1898 and raised there until the age of 15, Luce essentially transposed the certainty of religious dogma into the certainty of a nationalistic mission couched in the name of internationalism. Luce acknowledged that the United States could not police the whole world or attempt to impose democratic institutions on all of mankind. Nonetheless, ‘the world of the 20th Century,’ he wrote, ‘if it is to come to life in any nobility of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an American Century.'” (10/13/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/an-american-century-of-carnage/
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30) Memes for Zombies
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“To apply reason, truth, and history to every stupid meme that comes your way is to tilt at windmills. Yet generations of zombie hordes are being educated by their smartphones. Or is it that their smartphones are turning them into zombies?” (10/13/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/memes-for-zombies
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31) What Thatcher and Milei Have in Common
Source: Town Hall
by Rainer Zitelmann
“There are so many similarities between Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Javier Milei, president of Argentina since 2023, that comparing them seems almost unavoidable. Nevertheless, it is a subject that many Argentines, perhaps understandably, are reluctant to entertain. In honor of what would have been Thatcher’s 100th birthday on October 13, 2025, I reached out to market-oriented economists in several countries for their assessments of Thatcher’s historical significance. One economist from Argentina – a friend of both Milei and myself – and whose name I will not mention here, asked for understanding as to his hesitance to comment: ‘While I do admire Margaret Thatcher in many respects (her determination to implement structural reforms, her courage to confront entrenched interests, and her role in revitalizing the British economy), for an Argentine, it is difficult to forget what happened during the Malvinas/Falklands War.'” (10/13/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/rainerzitelmann/2025/10/13/what-thatcher-and-milei-have-in-common-n2663832
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32) Looking East
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“Global investors are turning their interest toward Asia, amid a wider realignment of foreign direct investment (FDI), trade flows, and investor confidence. A quiet but profound reorientation of global capital is underway, as Goldman Sachs’s global wealth division estimates investors have poured more than $100 billion into Asian assets this year. The region’s markets are attracting inflows once dominated by the United States and Europe. This is not the cyclical rush of hot money that typically follows rising yields or a commodity boom; it reflects a strategic diversification away from Western concentration and the recognition that Asia’s capital markets — especially in Japan, India, and Southeast Asia — are becoming the structural center of gravity for global investment.” (10/13/25)
https://fee.org/articles/looking-east/
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33) Rug Pulled Out from under Antonyuk
Source: Independent Institute
by Stephen P Halbrook
“My last post discussed how the Second Circuit in Antonyuk v. James (2024) relied on a fake North Carolina citation to a non-existent law as the supposed Founding-era analogue to uphold New York’s ‘sensitive place’ restrictions where firearms may not be possessed. (It also cited a 1786 Virginia law as an analogue, but admitted that it had a ‘terror’ element.) On September 10, in Koons v. Attorney General New Jersey, the Third Circuit followed the Second Circuit off the cliff by making the same error. The fake ‘law’ cited was the ‘N.C. Statute of Northampton (1792),’ which was actually nothing but a privately published Collection of English statutes that one François-Xavier Martin thought applied in North Carolina.” (10/13/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/10/13/rug-pulled-out-from-under-antonyuk/
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34) American Soybean Farmers Sold Out; Argentine Counterparts Bailed Out
Source: CounterPunch
by Seth Sandronsky
“We begin with the Trump administration’s decision to provide a $20 billion ‘swap line’ (currency exchanges between central banks) with the government of Argentina. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessemer is the point man for the White House on this financial and political issue. The Latin American country is in financial distress over its issuance of foreign bonds since President Javier Milei slashed public spending to spur economic growth. … In the meantime, the Milei government cut the export tax on soybeans. Chinese buyers jumped at this opportunity, reportedly purchasing some 20 shiploads of soybeans from Argentina. … What will the White House do to relieve the pain from the decline of demand from China for American agricultural products? Well, the president is considering a $10-$15 billion bailout for agriculture commodity producers.” (10/13/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/13/american-soybean-farmers-sold-out-argentine-counterparts-bailed-out/
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35) Constitutional Reform in Jamaica: Sentiment or Substance?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lipton Matthews
“Jamaica is currently in the midst of constitutional reform, a process being hailed as a watershed moment in the island’s history. Much of the public debate has been consumed by two proposals: the desire to become a republic and the replacement of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court. These ideas are being advanced with great fanfare, yet they are driven more by sentiment than by sober reasoning. They are products of anti-colonial rhetoric rather than serious engagement with the principles that should guide a modern constitution.” (10/13/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/constitutional-reform-jamaica-sentiment-or-substance
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36) Quantum Vibe, 10/13/25
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (10/13/25)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2556
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37) Is Rubio finally powerful enough to topple Venezuela’s regime?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Lee Schlenker
“It appears that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is emerging victorious in the internal Trump administration battle over the direction of U.S. policy toward Venezuela. The New York Times reported on Oct. 6 that White House special envoy Richard Grenell — who, after meeting President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas this January inked deportation agreements, won the release of American prisoners, and secured energy licenses for U.S. and European oil majors — was told by President Donald Trump to stop all diplomatic outreach toward the resource-rich South American nation. The news comes as some Trump officials, particularly Rubio, have pushed the president to escalate tensions, which he has done by dispatching a major naval deployment to the Southern Caribbean in an alleged counternarcotics operation, killing over 20 alleged drug traffickers in at least four strikes against go-fast boats since early September.” (10/13/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/rubio-venezeula/
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38) The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Saletan
“Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, worries that the United States could become a dictatorship. At a press conference on Wednesday, he warned that ‘a Marxist ideology [is] taking over the Democrat party’ and could soon be ‘turning us into a Communist country.’ On Thursday, as he fielded calls on C-SPAN, Johnson invoked the language of The Communist Manifesto: ‘What if the socialists take over the Senate, and Democrat socialists are in charge, and they want to grow government and take over the means of production?’ Johnson isn’t wrong to fear dictatorship in this country. He’s just wrong about where that threat is coming from. It’s coming from his own party. And he’s paving the way.” (10/13/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/speaker-mike-johnson-abetting-trump-authoritarianism
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39) From the Republic of Letters to the Industrial Revolution
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“The main Nobel laureate in economics announced this morning is Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University. In his 2016 book, A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton University Press), Mokyr explored why economic growth started in the West (Northern Europe and its offshoots) at a rate that the world had never seen before. The explanation is not as simple as a straight connection from technological innovations to economic growth. In human history, episodes of scientific or technological advances were not typically followed by significant changes in the generalized poverty of ordinary people, including famously in China. To translate into economic growth, Mokyr explained, scientific discoveries need to be accompanied by a culture of growth, which in turn is generated by intellectual and economic entrepreneurship in open societies with fragmented political power.” (10/13/25)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/from-the-republic-of-letters-to-the
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40) How Massive a Mistake?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“When the Heritage Foundation published Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, the volumes were large-sized — around 8.5 x 11 inches, like a textbook. When Democrats produced oversized pseudo-replicas of the 900-page policy blueprint as visual props to mock Republicans during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, they made the tomes much, much larger, as if hauled off a monastery shelf. Why? Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow on August 19, and Pennsylvania Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta on August 20 — and others each night — sought to symbolize its ‘weighty’ and ‘extreme’ nature. … That is how seriously Democrats said they were taking Project 2025. So when Donald Trump got elected, and the document’s author, Russ Vought, took on his current position as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget … you might think that Democrats would be very careful dealing with anything Vought touched.” (10/13/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/13/how-massive-a-mistake/
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41) The Fourth Branch: How Conscience and Civic Vigilance May Save the Republic
Source: Common Dreams
by Martina Moneke
“With the executive overreaching and the judiciary acquiescent, the Republic’s immune system strains under political and institutional dysfunction. The legislative branch, meanwhile, toggles between paralysis and performative outrage, its constitutional authority weakened by partisan spectacle. When the formal organs falter, the Republic depends on the dispersed actors of the ‘fourth branch’ — a novel, emergent moral network, tasked with upholding civic and constitutional integrity. Ordinary citizens, lower courts, military officers, advocacy groups, and artists together make up this fourth branch of government, sustaining the body politic when power itself becomes a vector of disease.” [editor’s note: Seems like that would be the “fifth branch” since the unelected bureaucracy already holds slot #4 – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Sixth — don’t forget the court stenographer “mainstream media” – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ordinary-people-save-democracy
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42) How Trump Is Making China Great
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Six months ago Donald Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs — huge tariffs imposed on just about every nation. As everyone noted, this announcement suddenly brought average tariffs back to 1934 levels. Less widely noted was the fact that the long decline in tariff rates over the previous 90 years had been achieved through many rounds of international negotiations, in which the U.S. and other nations solemnly agreed not to backtrack on past tariff reductions. So Liberation Day was, among other things, a massive betrayal of the world’s trust. Now Trump is learning, to his obvious shock, that other nations can also play trade hardball. … There is, however, one big difference between Trump’s trade policy and China’s. Namely, the Chinese appear to know what they’re doing.” (10/13/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-trump-is-making-china-great
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43) Can Trump Revive the Strategic Arms Control System He Helped Wreck?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“For the first time in several years, there is some positive movement between Russia and the United States on strategic arms control. In late September 2025, Vladimir Putin proposed that Moscow and Washington agree to extend the New Start Treaty – which is set to expire automatically in February 2026 – for one year. That crucial treaty caps the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) at 1,550 for each side. President Donald Trump responded that Putin’s suggestion ‘sounds like a good idea to me.’ The Kremlin stated that Trump’s reaction ‘gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.’ Granted, extending such a crucial agreement merely for a year is a very modest gesture of cooperation, but it reverses an increasingly ominous trend in bilateral relations on arms control.” (10/13/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2025/10/12/can-trump-revive-the-strategic-arms-control-system-he-helped-wreck/
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44) Is it America’s fate to decline and fall? Here’s what history says.
Source: Washington Post
by Johan Norberg
“It is always hard to disentangle the causes of cultural decline. In 1984, a German historian compiled 210 explanations historians had suggested for Rome’s fall, from lead poisoning and barbarian invasions to Christianity, moral decline and gout. After studying dynamic civilizations such as Athens, Rome, Abbasid Baghdad, Song China, Renaissance Italy and the Dutch Republic, I can attest that there is no single explanation. Each golden age had its own character and its own downfall.” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/Qwgq8
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45) Unleash US mining now to face down China’s deadly trade threats
Source: New York Post
by staff
“President Donald Trump’s renewed trade-war threats to China can only be the beginning of America’s answer [sic] to Beijing’s rare-earths power-play: Washington needs to reverse the Clinton-era clampdown on US mining, which leaves our country needlessly dependent on the goodwill of the Chinese Communist Party for crucial raw materials. Beijing is moving to restrict export of rare earths and hi-tech products made from them, including batteries, semiconductors and advanced magnet-based technologies. Trump rightly calls that a threat to throttle the entire global economy. Yet China only has this power because we allow [sic] it. The United States and its allies have ample supplies of everything China seems to monopolize; it’s simply a matter of restoring a US mining industry that actually led the world as recently as the early 1990s.” (10/12/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/12/opinion/unleash-us-mining-now-to-face-down-chinas-deadly-trade-threats/
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46) The Crime of Human Virtue
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“Sometimes it really is as simple as good vs. evil. This is one of those times. Human virtue is our great crime against the fascist project; it’s also our great weapon against it.” (10/12/25)
https://www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of-human-virtue
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47) Don’t believe the GOP’s “principled” opposition to Prop. 50
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“One of the funniest types of people I meet in political circles is the person who takes all sorts of cheap partisan positions, then suddenly invokes some Deep Principle on a matter – as if any of us believe that person to be motivated by a consistent political philosophy. As confirmation of their cynicism, you’ll find the ‘principle’ always aligns with their partisan interest. You’ll see many office-holding Republicans take that transparent tack these days, as they declare the evils of Proposition 50, the temporary mid-decade redistricting proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot. Pick almost any state GOP official and you’ll find some overheated statement about why the Democrats’ hastily drawn proposed new maps rig congressional races and undermine the initiative that created an independent redistricting commission for Congress. And they won’t be wrong. But [there] are some points you won’t hear from them …” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/Bf2Wl
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48) Beware of Queerintelpro: A Public Service Announcement from Your Friendly Neighborhood Gender Extremist
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“The GOP has declared war against trans people in this country in nearly every manner conceivable. For five straight years these police state bulls have broken the last year’s record for the sheer volume of bloated, big government, anti-trans legislation they’ve pushed forward. Sadly, 2025 is looking likely to break the record again …. The first, passed just days after that orange child molester crept back into the Oval Office, set the tone by proclaiming that transgender people simply do not exist and that the federal government officially rejects our existence by declaring there to be only two immutable gender identities defined exclusively by government documents taken at birth, a position flatly rejected by every major medical and scientific body on the planet.” (10/12/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/10/beware-of-queerintelpro-public-service.html
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49) The Ad Campaign for Capitalism
Source: The American Prospect
by David Sirota & Jared Jacang Maher
“In 1971, future United States Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell was alarmed. The forces he believed were threatening corporate America (consumer advocates, labor unions, environmentalists, and left-wing radicals) appeared to be gaining momentum. At the center of this movement was a 37-year-old legal crusader named Ralph Nader, whose name had become synonymous with holding corporations accountable. Nader wasn’t just a thorn in the side of big business; he was a bona fide celebrity. Whether he was suing General Motors for concealing auto defects or exposing deceptive advertising practices, Nader dominated headlines, shining a spotlight on corporate misconduct and government corruption. Nader’s crusade for corporate accountability was capturing the public imagination.” [editor’s note: While shorting the stocks of companies he was about to attack – TLK] (10/13/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-10-13-lewis-powell-memo-nader-chamber-commerce-master-plan/
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50) Unconstitutional “Laws” Don’t Exist
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“The American Revolution kicked off in 1761 with a single principle from James Otis Jr.: an unconstitutional law is NO LAW AT ALL. Any government act exceeding its legitimate authority is void the moment it is passed. It has no more legal power than a law passed by a foreign government. Call it what it is: usurpation, a theft of power. And stolen power is not to be obeyed, it is to be resisted.” (10/12/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/10/12/unconstitutional-laws-dont-exist/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 10/13/25
Source: Reason
“Source: Reason
"Trump's Art of the Deal for Peace in the Middle East." (10/13/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/10/13/trumps-art-of-the-deal-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/” (10/13/25)
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52) Rising, 10/13/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Marjorie Taylor Greene continuing to break apart from the Trump administration’s agenda, this time on the topic of immigration and tariffs.” (10/13/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5552616-rising-october-13-2025/
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53) Finding Freedom, 10/13/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Education, Civil Rights and the Future of School Choice with Shaka Mitchell.” (10/13/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/education-civil-rights-and-the-future-of-school-choice-with-shaka-mitchell
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54) The Mona Charen Show, 10/13/25
Source: The Bulwark
“The Biggest Mistake Liberals Keep Making (w/ Bill Galston).” (10/13/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N8I4c6s55M
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55) EconTalk, 10/13/25
Source: EconTalk
“The Magic of Tokyo (with Joe McReynolds).” (10/13/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-magic-of-tokyo-with-joe-mcreynolds/
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56) The Dispatch Podcast, 10/13/25
Source: The Dispatch
“The Future of Television Journalism | Interview: Sam Feist.” (10/13/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/the-future-of-television-journalism-interview-sam-feist/
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/13/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Hundreds of Bodies Dug Out of Gaza Rubble After Ceasefire, Trump Heads to Israel, and More.” (10/13/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1c8D9kRUu0
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58) Has Liberalism’s Very Success in Delivering Human Flourishing Doomed It?
Source: The UnPopulist
“Steven Pinker and Derek Thompson Discuss at LibCon2025.” (10/12/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/has-liberalisms-very-success-in-delivering
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59) Free Talk Live, 10/12/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“What scares you about scary movies? :: Israel Gaza peace deal fake? :: Free bus rides actually expensive :: Trump trying to ban trannies from owning guns :: Was the Charlie Kirk shooting all faked and AI? :: Methods for relieving stress :: 2025-10-12 Hosts: Bonnie, Rich E Rich, Riley.” (10/12/25)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2025-10-12
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60) Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/12/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“LNC ExComm Meeting — NM Litigation.” (10/12/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xm4NkxEzBA
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