03/02 -- Lebanon: 31 dead in Israeli attacks; Two Wrongs Don't Make a Reich
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Thomas L. Knapp
Mar 2, 2026, 6:20:45 AM (2 days ago) Mar 2
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 03/02/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Lebanon: 31 dead in Israeli attacks
2) Pentagon Announces FIrst US Deaths in Trump’s Latest Military Misadventure
3) Myanmar: Junta pardons 10,000 prisoners
4) Khanna calls on Trump, Lutnick to testify on Epstein relationships
5) US DOJ sues to obtain voter rolls from another five states
6) India: Modi holds taks with Canada’s Carney
7) Global smartphone shipments to hit decade low in 2026
8) FCC approves the merger of cable giants Cox and Charter
9) Japan: Epstein links bring down another politician
10) Mexico: Regime hands over body of “El Mencho” to his family
11) Bettors Make Huge Profits From Suspiciously Timed Wagers on Iran War
12) Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported
13) UK: Green Party wins by-election in blow to Labour, Starmer
14) OPEC+ to raise oil output slightly even as US war on Iran disrupts shipments
15) Pakistan: At least 22 killed as protesters try to storm US Consulate
16) OpenAI reaches deal with Pentagon after Trump drops Anthropic
17) Brazil: Bolsonaro supporters rally across country against Lula
18) Iran: Regime forms interim council to oversee transition after Khamenei’s killing
19) TX: Suspect in shooting wore “Property of Allah” clothing & Iranian flag emblem
20) SD: Homeowner shoots intruder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Reich
22) Trump Starts His Criminal War of Aggression
23) Trump Starts a Major Regime-Change War with Iran, Serving Neoconservatism and Israel
24) How does this war with Iran end? Or does it?
25) Justice Thomas’s Pathetic Tariff-Case Dissent
26) Fuck Everyone Who Made This War Possible
27) Response to Sunstein
28) My Day of Jury Duty
29) Norway’s model of athletic joy … and success
30) Queer Requiem for Another Black Assimilation Month
31) Why Is There a Birth Dearth?
32) Who Has the Courage to Fix Britain’s Debt Crisis?
33) The Conversation Black Parents Perfected, And All Families Now Need
34) Trump Seeks to Extend Domestic Spying Powers He Once Condemned
35) A Failure of Vision
36) JD Vance’s Doomed Quest to Balance the Budget
37) Trump strikes Iran; precedent and history are on his side
38) How US Unpredictability Is Forcing Long‑Overdue Autonomy
39) We will never grow out of our tech adolescence if we let it become autocratic
40) Why Trump’s tariffs are a losing game
41) States Can Block the Paramount-Warner Deal
42) A Small Nonprofit Did What the FDA Would Not
43) The Last War for Israel?
44) Fight Government Corruption With Deregulation
45) California is the fraud capital of America, and we will expose it
46) Are AI Companies Working on the Right Things?
47) The Darkened Republic: On the Consequences of Collectivised Despair
48) Nuclear Power Needs Realism, Freedom
49) Trump & Netanyahu Launch Illegal & Reckless War Against Iran
50) The Fatal Costs of the Philippines-Taiwan War Scenario
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Pink Flame of Liberty, 02/28/26
52) The Evil Within, Part 3
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 330
54) Fountainhead Forum, episode 430
55) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/28/26
56) The Good Fight, 02/28/26
57) Larry Johnson on The Scott Horton Show
58) Friday Philosophy, 02/27/26)
59) Healthcare News Podcast, episode 607
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 02/27/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Lebanon: 31 dead in Israeli attacks
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Israel’s military vowed to intensify its attacks on the country and make Hezbollah pay a ‘heavy price’ after launching several strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah holds sway. The escalation came as Lebanese authorities, who have been trying to spare the country from any repercussions of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, said Hezbollah’s rocket fire gave Israel “excuses” to ramp up its attacks. Hezbollah’s attack on Israel overnight was the first time the Lebanese movement claimed responsibility for an operation against Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two.” (03/02/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260302-israel-hits-lebanon-after-hezbollah-fire-expanding-iran-war
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2) Pentagon Announces FIrst US Deaths in Trump’s Latest Military Misadventure
Source: New York Times
“Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five have been seriously wounded, the Pentagon said in announcing the first American troops to die in President Trump’s war with Iran. United States Central Command did not say where the troops were killed. Two military officials said that an Army base housing American troops in Kuwait was one of the many American bases in the region that had been hit in retaliatory Iranian strikes. … Since the joint U.S. and Israel military strikes began Saturday morning, Iran has launched hundreds of retaliatory missiles at a wide swath of American and Israeli targets in the region, as well as at Arab countries it considers allies of the United States.” (03/01/26)
https://archive.is/DLeIc
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2) Myanmar: Junta pardons 10,000 prisoners
Source: ABC News
“The head of Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 10,000 prisoners and reduced the sentences of others to mark a holiday, state-run media reported Monday. There was no sign former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then, would be freed. The amnesty comes two weeks before parliament is set to convene for its first session in more than five years following the recent election that critics said was neither free nor fair. State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 10,162 prisoners, including 7,337 convicted under a counterterrorism law, on Peasants’ Day, a national holiday honoring farmers.” (03/02/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/myanmars-military-government-pardons-10000-prisoners-parliament-opens-130667932
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3) Khanna calls on Trump, Lutnick to testify on Epstein relationships
Source: NBC News
“Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called on both President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify about their relationships with Jeffery Epstein, telling NBC News’[s] ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday that said he’s working with a Republican colleague to subpoena Lutnick. Khanna, a member of the House Oversight Committee, referenced former President Bill Clinton’s testimony before the committee last week, saying Clinton ‘set a precedent’ for high-profile figures to testify. ‘A new Clinton rule that means that Donald Trump should do the same — answer the questions. Howard Lutnick should do the same,’ Khanna told ‘Meet the Press.'” (03/01/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ro-khanna-trump-howard-lutnick-testify-epstein-subpoena-rcna261199
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4) US DOJ sues to obtain voter rolls from another five states
Source: United Press International
“The Justice Department has sued another five states, including three led by Republicans, for their unredacted voter registration lists, amid the Trump administration’s the information ahead of November’s midterms. The Trump administration has now sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for voter information, heightening Democrats’ concerns that it is seeking to meddle in the elections. The five states sued Thursday were Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey. The litigation effort has so far disproportionately targeted Democratic-led states, with Utah, Oklahoma and West Virginia among the few GOP-led states sued for their voter registration lists. Attorney General Pam Bondi argues she is charged by Congress with authority to request the sensitive election data under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, though courts have ruled against the government in the three cases that have reached decisions: California in mid-January and Michigan and Oregon earlier this month.” (02/27/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/27/DOJ-sues-voter-rolls/2951772177350/
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6) India: Modi holds taks with Canada’s Carney
Source: mint [India]
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House in the national capital, focusing on strengthening cooperation and partnership between the two countries. … Carney arrived in India on Friday for a visit he hopes will reset ties and double trade, offsetting the damage from his country’s fracturing relations with the United States.” (03/02/26)
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/pm-modi-holds-bilateral-talks-with-canadian-pm-carney-reviews-progress-in-india-canada-ties-reset-11772432861808.html
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7) Global smartphone shipments to hit decade low in 2026
Source: Newsbytes.PH [Philippines]
“The global smartphone market is projected to contract sharply in 2026, with shipments expected to fall 12.9% year-on-year to 1.1 billion units, according to the latest forecast from research firm IDC. If realized, the decline would mark the steepest annual drop on record and push worldwide smartphone shipments to their lowest level in more than a decade. IDC said the revised outlook represents a significant downgrade from its November forecast as a worsening memory-component shortage ripples across the consumer electronics supply chain.” (03/01/26)
https://newsbytes.ph/2026/03/01/global-smartphone-shipments-to-hit-decade-low-in-2026/
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8) FCC approves the merger of cable giants Cox and Charter
Source: Engadget
“The Federal Communications Commission has given the go ahead for two of the US’ biggest cable providers, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, to merge. Charter announced its intention to acquire Cox for $34.5 billion in May 2025, with specific plans to inherit Cox’s managed IT, commercial fiber and cloud businesses, while folding the company’s residential cable service into a subsidiary.” (02/27/26)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/fcc-approves-the-merger-of-cable-giants-cox-and-charter-230258865.html
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9) Japan: Epstein links bring down another politician
Source: Reuters
“Japan will not reappoint businessman Joichi Ito to a government committee on an entrepreneurship project when his term ends this month, over ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Sankei newspaper said on Monday. The decision comes after the release of millions of new Epstein documents by the U.S. Justice Department that revived scrutiny of Ito’s ties with Epstein and his current roles in Japanese government and academic circles.” (03/02/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/joichi-ito-linked-with-epstein-leave-japan-government-panel-sankei-says-2026-03-02/
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10) Mexico: Regime hands over body of “El Mencho” to his family
Source: CBS News
“Mexican authorities returned the body of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho,’ to his family after he was killed by the Mexican army last week, officials said on Saturday. In a brief note on X, the Attorney General’s Office said that it handed over the body of El Mencho after completing all the necessary procedural protocols. … The killing of the country’s most powerful drug lord was met with a wave of retaliatory violence in some 20 states. More than 70 people were killed. The violence has fueled fears that the bloodshed could hurt tourism ahead of the FIFA World Cup later this year.” (02/28/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/mexican-authorities-hand-body-el-mencho-family-130633371
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11) Bettors Make Huge Profits From Suspiciously Timed Wagers on Iran War
Source: Common Dreams
“Bettors on the prediction platform Polymarket made a killing with suspiciously timed wagers that the United States would attack Iran by February 28, the day President Donald Trump announced a bombing campaign against the Middle East nation. Bloomberg reported that six accounts on Polymarket, all newly created this month, ‘made around $1 million in profit’ by betting on the timing of the US attack on Iran. The accounts, according to Bloomberg, ‘had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur’, and ‘some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran.’ One account with the name Magamyman raked in over $515,000 by betting roughly $87,000 that ‘the US strikes Iran by February 28, 2026.'” (03/01/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/insane-this-is-legal-bettors-make-huge-profits-from-suspiciously-timed-wagers-on-iran-war
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12) Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported
Source: NBC 4 New York
“A federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the ‘American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.’ U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further. The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day.” (02/28/26)
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/federal-judge-extends-order-protecting-refugees-minnesota/6470621/
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13) UK: Green Party wins by-election in blow to Labour, Starmer
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“A candidate for the United Kingdom’s left-wing Green Party has comfortably won a closely-watched election for a vacant parliamentary seat, delivering an embarrassing defeat for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in one of its former strongholds. Results announced Friday showed the Greens’ Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old councillor and plumber, had won 40.7 percent of the vote in the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester that has been considered a secure Labour seat for almost a century. In an outcome that analysts said pointed to the fracturing of the UK’s traditional two-party politics, the hard-right candidate for the populist, anti-immigration Reform finished in second place.” (02/27/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/27/green-party-wins-uk-by-election-in-blow-to-labour-pm-starmer
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14) OPEC+ to raise oil output slightly even as US war on Iran disrupts shipments
Source: Reuters
“OPEC+ has agreed in principle to a modest oil output increase on Sunday, five OPEC+ sources said, after the U.S.-Israeli war on OPEC+ member Iran and Tehran’s retaliation led to shipment disruptions in the Middle East. OPEC+ has a history of raising oil output to cushion disruptions but analysts said the group currently has little spare capacity to add to supply, except for its leader Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who will also struggle to export oil until navigation in the Gulf returns to normal.” (03/01/26)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-debates-oil-output-boost-us-war-iran-disrupts-shipments-2026-03-01/
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15) Pakistan: At least 22 killed as protesters try to storm US Consulate
Source: SFGate
“Violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and in the country’s north left at least 22 people dead and more than 120 others injured as demonstrators supportive of the Iranian government attempted to storm a U.S. Consulate on Sunday, authorities said. In the north of the country, demonstrators attacked U.N. and government offices. The violence came after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Police and officials at a hospital in Karachi said that at least 50 people were also wounded in the clashes and some of them were in critical condition.” (03/01/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/at-least-6-killed-as-shiites-storm-us-consulate-21948592.php
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16) OpenAI reaches deal with Pentagon after Trump drops Anthropic
Source: United Press International
“OpenAI announced it secured a deal to provide artificial intelligence services to the Defense Department hours after the Trump administration directed all federal agencies to stop using those provided by Anthropic. OpenAI is the San Francisco-based tech research company founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others behind applications including ChatGPT and DALL-E. … Contract negotiations [sic] between the tech company and the Defense Department soured after the Trump administration demanded it be allowed to use the AI system for ‘all lawful purposes.'” [editor’s note: Demanding that an already in force contract be nullified to let you do anything you want is not “negotiation.” It’s just breaking the contract – TLK] (02/28/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/28/openai-defense/8601772310881/
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17) Brazil: Bolsonaro supporters rally across country against Lula
Source: ABC News
“Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrated in cities across the South American nation on Sunday, as organizers hoped to build momentum for a right-wing victory in the upcoming presidential elections. Protesters draped in yellow and green – the colors of the national flag — took to the streets in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the capital Brasilia to voice their opposition to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who faces a tough reelection bid in October. … Bolsonaro is in prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula.” (03/01/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/supporters-brazils-bolsonaro-rally-brazil-lula-130659628
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18) Iran: Regime forms interim council to oversee transition after Khamenei’s killing
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran has announced the formation of a three-member transitional council to handle the state duties following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, member of a powerful constitutional watchdog, was appointed on Sunday to the temporary council, whose other two members are President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei. … According to Article 111 of the Iranian Constitution, the transitional council will govern the country until an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts chooses a new supreme leader after almost 37 years of rule by Khamenei. His killing on Saturday by the joint United States and Israeli forces has raised crucial questions about Iran’s future.” (03/01/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/iran-to-form-interim-council-to-oversee-transition-after-khameneis-killing
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19) TX: Suspect in shooting wore “Property of Allah” clothing & Iranian flag emblem
Source: SFGate
“The gunman who killed two people at a bar in Texas early Sunday in a mass shooting that left 14 others wounded was wearing a sweatshirt that said ‘Property of Allah,’ and another shirt with an Iranian flag design, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The shooter has been identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, the law enforcement official and another person familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The shooting erupted a day after Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as a potential act of terrorism. Diagne was originally from Senegal, according to multiple people briefed on the investigation. One of the people told the AP that Diagne came to the U.S. in 2006 and was a naturalized U.S. citizen.” (03/01/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/3-dead-14-injured-after-shooting-at-a-bar-in-21948671.php
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20) SD: Homeowner shoots intruder
Source: News Center 1
“A resident shot a home intruder early Saturday morning. Authorities say the man tried to break into a residence in the 600 block of Saint James Street [in Rapid City, South Dakota]. Police responded to the home at around 3:25 a.m. after reports of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found a man with a single gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital, where he received treatment for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.” (02/28/26)
https://www.newscenter1.tv/news/local/resident-shoots-attempted-home-intruder
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Reich
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“So, imagine if you will, that it’s 1933. Armed with these ideas about ‘citizens’ and ‘aliens,’ enraged over the mess he’s inherited from his predecessors and by the nightmarish conditions his country has endured, Hitler explains that he will target ‘illegal alien criminals’ and anyone who chooses to ‘block the removal of criminal aliens.’ … I can almost see the eye-rolling and hear the shouting: ‘Please Sciabarra. Not the Hitler Analogy. Spare us!’ Let me assure you: I do not believe that Donald J. Trump is Adolf Hitler or that the United States is a full-blown fascist dictatorship. Yet. But insofar as Trump draws from the same crude collectivist well of racism as an antidote to palpable fear of contemporary conditions, the ominous parallels exist.” (02/28/26)
https://notablog.net/2026/02/28/two-wrongs-dont-make-a-reich/
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22) Trump Starts His Criminal War of Aggression
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Trump and Netanyahu are responsible for everything that happens next. They own this war and its consequences. Every life lost in Iran and throughout the region as a result of this war is their doing. They are war criminals, and they should be held accountable for the death and destruction they have chosen to cause. They have set the region on fire on a whim.” (02/28/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/trump-starts-his-criminal-war-of
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23) Trump Starts a Major Regime-Change War with Iran, Serving Neoconservatism and Israel
Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald
“It is hard to overstate what a massive fraud Donald Trump, his campaign and his political movement are. For more than a decade, Trump has ranted and raved against the evils of regime-change wars and neoconservative dogma, only to launch a new war that most perfectly encapsulates and aggressively advances both. … This new war against Iran is as pure a continuation of the bipartisan DC posture of endless war that has, more than any single cause, destroyed American prosperity, standing, and future over the last six decades at least.”
(02/28/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/trump-starts-a-major-regime-change
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24) How does this war with Iran end? Or does it?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“Now that President Trump has launched an illegal, unprovoked war of choice on Iran, the next question inevitably becomes: how does this end? Or, what are some off ramps Trump can take to end it before the situation turns out of control? There are three broad scenarios; the first and most likely is that Trump continues this until he gets some sort of regime implosion and then declares victory, while also washing his hands of whatever follows. This has been very clear in internal conversations: no one wants to take responsibility for the aftermath.” (02/28/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-iran-war-end/
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25) Justice Thomas’s Pathetic Tariff-Case Dissent
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“I’ll grant that at the founding, rulers thought that importation was a privilege, not a right. Who cares? We know better now. Besides, to regular people in those days, the smuggler of goods was a hero. The villain was the meddlesome customs official. He, not the smuggler, was likely be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail. I’ll give Thomas this: he and his clerks were certainly able to find many legal citations to back his claim. I’ll tell you what that means. It means that legal scholar John Hasnas is right. His paper ‘The Myth of the Rule of Law’ demonstrates that the legal system in America is like ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ where ‘you can get anything you want.'” (02/27/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-justice-thomass-pathetic-tariff
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26) Fuck Everyone Who Made This War Possible
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The US and Israel have launched their long-planned attack on Iran. President Trump said in a speech that the US military is engaged in ‘major combat operations’ intended to cripple Iran’s military and topple the Iranian government. Iran has reportedly been retaliating with missile strikes on Israel and US military bases in the region. This is going to get ugly, folks. I don’t even know what to write about this one, honestly. What am I supposed to say? ‘Hey everybody, they’re lying to us about this war?’ Everyone already knows that. Even the people who support this war know all the justifications for it are lies.” (03/01/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/03/01/fuck-everyone-who-made-this-war-possible/
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27) Response to Sunstein
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“According to Cass, we are now allies. I am as willing to argue with my allies as with my opponents, perhaps more willing; allies are more likely to have enough in common with me to be willing to be listen to my arguments. Hence this post.” (02/28/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/response-to-sunstein
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28) My Day of Jury Duty
Source: Yascha Mounk
by Yascha Mounk
“What a deeply ordinary day in a deeply ordinary court taught me about American democracy.” (02/28/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/my-day-of-jury-duty
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29) Norway’s model of athletic joy … and success
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Fresh off a record 18 gold medals at the February Winter Olympics, Norway heads into the March Winter Paralympics holding the most cumulative golds in the history of those games (140). But its international sports successes are not confined just to those performed on snow and ice, both of which are plentiful in Norway. The country of just 5.6 million people also fields winning athletes in soccer, tennis, golf – and even Olympic beach volleyball. This record is all the more notable for Norwegians’ unconventional approach to developing high-caliber athletes: When introducing children to sports, schools, parents, and local sports clubs seek to build on their innate joy in the fun and friendship of physical activity. Youthful curiosity and interest in exploring a variety of sports are encouraged, through high school and up to college age. National guidelines forbid competitive teams, scorekeeping, or ranking for children below age 12.” (02/27/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0227/Norway-s-model-of-athletic-joy-and-success
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30) Queer Requiem for Another Black Assimilation Month
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“If it’s February, then some liberal white dude is probably telling you about Black history and he’s probably totally missing the point, going on about how far someone else’s people have come and how far the nation that brought them here in chains has come along with them. If it’s March, then this pale-faced genderfuck bitch is probably just waking from a seasonal depression coma to chase liberal white dudes off her stoop with a broom and apologize to the neighborhood for the inconvenience.” (02/28/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/02/queer-requiem-for-another-black.html
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31) Why Is There a Birth Dearth?
Source: Town Hall
by John C Goodman
“It is the most significant economic and sociological challenge we face. It’s worldwide. It has been worsening for decades. And there is no reason to expect the trend to change. People are not having as many children as they used to. Almost all the developed countries are below the ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1 children per woman of childbearing age. (The U.S. number is 1.6.) Overall, two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries below the replacement rate. If a country is below the replacement rate, its population will eventually peak and begin to decline.” [editor’s note: “Worsening” implies that it’s necessarily negative. It isn’t – TLK] (02/28/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2026/02/28/why-is-there-a-birth-dearth-n2671784
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32) Who Has the Courage to Fix Britain’s Debt Crisis?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Anne Strickland
“Britain’s national debt is now rising by more than £500 million a day. Every single day. It’s the kind of figure that should prompt a national emergency, but instead it’s been met with the kind of collective shrug that suggests we’ve all decided it’s someone else’s problem. Future Chancellor, future Parliament, future generation. Someone will sort it eventually, surely? Half a billion pounds doesn’t really sound like a real number to most people though. It’s too big, too abstract. So let’s translate it into something that matters.” (02/27/26)
https://fee.org/articles/who-has-the-courage-to-fix-britains-debt-crisis/
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33) The Conversation Black Parents Perfected, And All Families Now Need
Source: Common Dreams
by Alvin Thomas & Conial Caldwell
“It is 1955 and the hot Mississippi sun is blazing overhead. Miles away in Chicago a Black mother is having a conversation with her 14-year-old son. She tries to impress upon him the often subtle but dangerous realities of what it means to be Black in America, and how one misinterpretation, one lie, could result in his death. That boy is Emmett Till, and in her memoir, Death of Innocence, Mamie Till-Mobley reflects on ‘The Talk’ she delivered to her son before his historically tragic trip to Mississippi. This version of The Talk dates back to American chattel slavery and has been passed down for generations in Black families, shaped by ongoing racial violence and unequal treatment.” (02/28/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ice-violence-children
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34) Trump Seeks to Extend Domestic Spying Powers He Once Condemned
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“In an April 10, 2024 post on Truth Social, then-candidate for president Trump urged Republicans in Congress to ‘KILL FISA,’ referring to the U.S. law establishing procedures for foreign surveillance. ‘IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!’ Yet now that he has entered the White House for a second term, Trump is seeking to extend those spying powers he once denounced. As POLTICO reported last week, the Trump administration, in an effort led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, is quietly pressing Congress to approve a ‘clean’ extension of Section 702 surveillance authorities, potentially through 2027.” (02/27/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-seeks-to-extend-domestic-spying-powers-he-once-condemned/
-----
35) A Failure of Vision
Source: Law & Liberty
by John C Pinheiro
“A new book proposing a synthesis of Hamilton and Jefferson fails to escape the follies of progressive cliches.” (02/27/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-failure-of-vision/
-----
36) JD Vance’s Doomed Quest to Balance the Budget
Source; The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Trump’s incoherent State of the Union address on Tuesday featured his usual stroke-victim diction and his patented blend of stupidity and dishonesty. Fact-checking his claims is laborious, because he speaks almost exclusively in simpleton’s superlatives, and it also is pointless, inasmuch as the people who most need to know the facts are not much inclined to listen to them, being, as they are, members of an especially tawdry and shameful cult. … but it may be that the dumbest and most dishonest claim of the night was that J.D. Vance’s newly announced fraud commission will, if it does its job, produce a ‘balanced budget overnight.'” (02/27/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-vance-budget-immigrants-border-fraud/
-----
37) Trump strikes Iran; precedent and history are on his side
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“With the launch of attacks on Iran, some have already declared the strikes unconstitutional. That includes the immediate condemnation of Rep. Thomas Massie. The precedent, however, favors the president in this action, though the attack triggers obligations of notice and consultation with Congress. I am highly sympathetic to those who criticize the failure to seek declarations of war from Congress before carrying out such operations. Indeed, I have represented members of Congress in opposing such wars. We lost. The courts have allowed presidents to order such attacks unilaterally.” (02/28/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-trump-strikes-iran-precedent-history-his-side
-----
38) How US Unpredictability Is Forcing Long‑Overdue Autonomy
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“For decades, France has been urging Europe to become more independent of the United States in the security arena. But most Europeans paid no heed to this useful proposal. They grew fat and happy under the U.S. security umbrella during the Cold War, and especially after the Soviet threat receded. Most European nations spent too little on their own defense, instead using the savings to compete with U.S. companies and run expansive social welfare programs. The European Union added another layer to Europe’s already overregulated economies. Although the Biden and Trump administrations have successfully pressured those countries to increase defense spending incrementally, they need even greater funding increases if they want to achieve greater independence from the now clearly unreliable United States.” (02/27/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/27/west-europe-us-unreliable-ally-strategic-autonomy/
-----
39) We will never grow out of our tech adolescence if we let it become autocratic
Source: hypertext
by Nicole Schneidman
“If AI is not deliberately designed to advance democracy, it can empower authoritarians. We should not assume they will only be in China.” (02/27/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/we-will-never-grow-out-of-our-tech
-----
40) Why Trump’s tariffs are a losing game
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that the White House’s widespread “emergency” tariffs were illegal, President Donald Trump moved to install 10% across-the-board tariffs under a different alleged authority. He later said he would raise that rate to 15% and delivered a combative response in the State of the Union. The trade war isn’t ending. It’s just changing ZIP codes. What won’t change is the propaganda coming from the White House, which insists that Americans don’t pay the costs. Consider what follows as a guide to the fallacy-filled arguments that you’ll soon hear more of.” (02/27/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/27/veronique-de-rugy-why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-losing-game/
-----
41) States Can Block the Paramount-Warner Deal
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“What started as a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery became an unconditional surrender Thursday. Netflix had a deal in place for a couple of months, but Paramount, under the direction of MAGA heir David Ellison, made a hostile takeover bid, and this week upped its offer from $30 to $31 a share for all of WBD, including its cable channels. The total purchase comes to $111 billion, and on Thursday the WBD board pronounced the offer superior to Netflix’s, giving the streamer four days to match it. Netflix, whose CEO was at the White House on Thursday (what was he told?), barely needed an hour, dropping its effort. So what many see as a worst-case scenario is realized: the Ellison family wresting control of two major movie studios, CBS, HBO, CNN, and secondarily TikTok. There are certainly echoes of media-political consolidation as we see in dictatorships the world over.” (02/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/27/states-can-block-paramount-warner-deal/
-----
42) A Small Nonprofit Did What the FDA Would Not
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Natalya Murakhver
“There is a question that has haunted me since the moment I watched institutions fail children during the pandemic: Who will ask the hard questions if the agencies charged with asking them refuse to? I have spent the past six years trying to answer that question through film, through advocacy, through lawsuits, through grassroots organizing. Now, Restore Childhood is trying to answer it through science.” (02/27/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-small-nonprofit-did-what-the-fda-would-not/
-----
43) The Last War for Israel?
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Another war of choice against Iran is the final gasp of a country that is losing America.” (02/27/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-last-war-for-israel-a25
-----
44) Fight Government Corruption With Deregulation
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“At the moment, corruption investigations and trials of political figures are taking place in jurisdictions around the U.S. including Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C. These aren’t isolated scandals; the latest edition of an international corruption index finds corruption worsening globally, with the United States earning its worst score to date. Given that corruption involves government officials peddling favors for compensation, it shouldn’t be surprising that evidence suggests the solution lies in reducing the power and role of the state.” (02/27/26)
-----
45) California is the fraud capital of America, and we will expose it
Source: New York Post
by Kevin Kiley
“The rampant fraud uncovered in the state of Minnesota has shocked America and ended the political career of Gov. Tim Walz. Yet as I told Attorney General Pam Bondi at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, the fraud in Minnesota pales in comparison to what taxpayers have suffered in California. California is undoubtedly the Fraud Capital of America. Here’s what we already know: The state allowed an estimated $32 billion in unemployment fraud during the COVID years, far more than any state, after ignoring ‘repeated warnings’. Perhaps more stunningly, the state auditor recently found unemployment fraud is still costing the state billions. Incidentally, in part because of this staggering fraud, California was forced to take out a $20 billion loan from the federal government to shore up its unemployment benefits. The state then defaulted on the loan – the only state to do so – triggering an automatic tax increase on employers.” (02/27/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/27/opinion/california-is-fraud-central/
-----
46) Are AI Companies Working on the Right Things?
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer
“Anyone who is more than a casual user of Microsoft Word understands that there are fundamental bugs in the core of the program that have existed since almost the very first version and have never been fixed in almost 30 years. … Everyone knows these problems exist. Presumably they are fixable with some amount of effort. But they are not fixed. Instead, release after new release in Word trumpets new niche functionality without ever focusing on the core functionality. … My fear is that AI companies are doing the same thing. New features and capabilities of the major AI models are impressive. But at their core, at least for researching and writing, they still have the critical, fatal flaw of hallucinations.” (02/27/26)
https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2026/02/are-ai-companies-working-on-the-right-things.html
-----
47) The Darkened Republic: On the Consequences of Collectivised Despair
Source: Students For Liberty
by Thiago Freitas
“From Prague to Hanoi, from Warsaw to Addis Ababa, the twentieth century bore witness to the same grim experiment repeated across continents: the centralisation of economic life, the suppression of prices, the abolition of private enterprise in the name of collective salvation. And in nearly every case, the experiment eventually ended, sometimes through the convulsions of revolution, sometimes through the quieter capitulation of reform. The queues shortened; the lights came back on; the paperwork of survival gave way, slowly, to something resembling ordinary commerce. And Cuba? Well, Cuba alone remains: a living museum of twentieth-century ideology, where the exhibits still breathe and queue for bread. What was elsewhere a painful chapter has here become the entire book, its pages still being written in darkness.” (02/27/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/the-darkened-republic-on-the-consequences-of-collectivised-despair/
-----
48) Nuclear Power Needs Realism, Freedom
Source: The Daily Economy
by Robert L Bradley Jr.
“Decades of subsidies, regulation, and unmet promises have left nuclear power costly and uncompetitive.” (02/27/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/nuclear-power-needs-realism-freedom/
-----
49) Trump & Netanyahu Launch Illegal & Reckless War Against Iran
Source: In These Times
by Jake Johnson
“President Donald Trump announced in the early hours of Saturday morning that the United States has launched a massive military operation aimed at toppling the Iranian government as blasts were reported in Tehran, including near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is taking part in the assault. Unnamed Israeli security sources told Channel 12 that Israel and the Trump administration are ’going all in’ against Iran as Trump instructed Iranians to ’stay sheltered’, warning that ‘bombs will be dropping everywhere’. People were seen seeking cover in Tehran as the United States and Israeli bombs began to fall.” (02/28/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-netanyahu-war-iran
-----
50) The Fatal Costs of the Philippines-Taiwan War Scenario
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“In August 2025, President Marcos Jr. said that ‘a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming into the conflict.’ Pushing for preparation, the government has boosted US-Philippine military cooperation, military modernization, joint military exercises and the installation of US mid-range missile systems and anti-ship missile launchers. These measures are said to foster Philippine prosperity and security. But how would a major military conflict in the Taiwan Straits, with the active support of Manila’s military logistics, affect the economic futures of the Philippines?” (02/27/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2026/02/26/the-fatal-costs-of-the-philippines-taiwan-war-scenario/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Pink Flame of Liberty, 02/28/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Libertarian Party — McArdle Lawyers Up and Hays should resign.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlR3ShDfx8
-----
52) The Evil Within, Part 3
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Drug War.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOJ_R4GjwcU
-----
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 330
Source: Unattended Baggage
“The United States of Israel attacks Iran because Epstein, Trump promises to tell the truth about aliens because Epstein, Pentagon warns of demons, Clintons testify about Pizzagate … I mean Epstein …” (02/28/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-330-mission-distracted
-----
54) Fountainhead Forum, episode 430
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Hrvoje Morić on crime and safety in Mexico after the death of ‘El Mencho.'” (02/28/26)
https://rumble.com/v76d0eu-ff-430-ff-102-hrvoje-mori-on-crime-and-safety-in-mexico-after-the-death-of-.html
-----
55) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/28/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Special Report: US and Israel Launch War Against Iran.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKk8-s5iXQ
-----
56) The Good Fight, 02/28/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Danielle Allen on Why Technocratic Liberalism Failed.” (02/28/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/danielle-allen
-----
57) Larry Johnson on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviewed Larry Johnson hours before the joint US-Israeli air campaign on Iran commenced. In the interview, Johnson presciently explained why he was virtually certain this was coming. He and Scott then debunked all the ridiculous lies this insane operation is built on and reflected on the complete lack of a clear endgame.” (02/28/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/2-27-26-larry-johnson-predicts-trumps-war-on-iran-and-exposes-the-lies-its-built-on/
-----
58) Friday Philosophy, 02/27/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“Does Democracy Require Conformity and Equality?” (02/27/26)
https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/does-democracy-require-conformity-and-equality
-----
59) Healthcare News Podcast, episode 607
Source: Heartland Institute
“Breaking Down Trump’s Healthcare Plan.” (02/27/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/breaking-down-trumps-healthcare-plan/
-----
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 02/27/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center ‘SCOTUS Rules Trump’s Tariffs Illegal.'” (02/27/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-02-27_zfw002232026.mp3
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Lebanon: 31 dead in Israeli attacks
2) Pentagon Announces FIrst US Deaths in Trump’s Latest Military Misadventure
3) Myanmar: Junta pardons 10,000 prisoners
4) Khanna calls on Trump, Lutnick to testify on Epstein relationships
5) US DOJ sues to obtain voter rolls from another five states
6) India: Modi holds taks with Canada’s Carney
7) Global smartphone shipments to hit decade low in 2026
8) FCC approves the merger of cable giants Cox and Charter
9) Japan: Epstein links bring down another politician
10) Mexico: Regime hands over body of “El Mencho” to his family
11) Bettors Make Huge Profits From Suspiciously Timed Wagers on Iran War
12) Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported
13) UK: Green Party wins by-election in blow to Labour, Starmer
14) OPEC+ to raise oil output slightly even as US war on Iran disrupts shipments
15) Pakistan: At least 22 killed as protesters try to storm US Consulate
16) OpenAI reaches deal with Pentagon after Trump drops Anthropic
17) Brazil: Bolsonaro supporters rally across country against Lula
18) Iran: Regime forms interim council to oversee transition after Khamenei’s killing
19) TX: Suspect in shooting wore “Property of Allah” clothing & Iranian flag emblem
20) SD: Homeowner shoots intruder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Reich
22) Trump Starts His Criminal War of Aggression
23) Trump Starts a Major Regime-Change War with Iran, Serving Neoconservatism and Israel
24) How does this war with Iran end? Or does it?
25) Justice Thomas’s Pathetic Tariff-Case Dissent
26) Fuck Everyone Who Made This War Possible
27) Response to Sunstein
28) My Day of Jury Duty
29) Norway’s model of athletic joy … and success
30) Queer Requiem for Another Black Assimilation Month
31) Why Is There a Birth Dearth?
32) Who Has the Courage to Fix Britain’s Debt Crisis?
33) The Conversation Black Parents Perfected, And All Families Now Need
34) Trump Seeks to Extend Domestic Spying Powers He Once Condemned
35) A Failure of Vision
36) JD Vance’s Doomed Quest to Balance the Budget
37) Trump strikes Iran; precedent and history are on his side
38) How US Unpredictability Is Forcing Long‑Overdue Autonomy
39) We will never grow out of our tech adolescence if we let it become autocratic
40) Why Trump’s tariffs are a losing game
41) States Can Block the Paramount-Warner Deal
42) A Small Nonprofit Did What the FDA Would Not
43) The Last War for Israel?
44) Fight Government Corruption With Deregulation
45) California is the fraud capital of America, and we will expose it
46) Are AI Companies Working on the Right Things?
47) The Darkened Republic: On the Consequences of Collectivised Despair
48) Nuclear Power Needs Realism, Freedom
49) Trump & Netanyahu Launch Illegal & Reckless War Against Iran
50) The Fatal Costs of the Philippines-Taiwan War Scenario
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Pink Flame of Liberty, 02/28/26
52) The Evil Within, Part 3
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 330
54) Fountainhead Forum, episode 430
55) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/28/26
56) The Good Fight, 02/28/26
57) Larry Johnson on The Scott Horton Show
58) Friday Philosophy, 02/27/26)
59) Healthcare News Podcast, episode 607
60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 02/27/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Lebanon: 31 dead in Israeli attacks
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Israel’s military vowed to intensify its attacks on the country and make Hezbollah pay a ‘heavy price’ after launching several strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah holds sway. The escalation came as Lebanese authorities, who have been trying to spare the country from any repercussions of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, said Hezbollah’s rocket fire gave Israel “excuses” to ramp up its attacks. Hezbollah’s attack on Israel overnight was the first time the Lebanese movement claimed responsibility for an operation against Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two.” (03/02/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260302-israel-hits-lebanon-after-hezbollah-fire-expanding-iran-war
-----
2) Pentagon Announces FIrst US Deaths in Trump’s Latest Military Misadventure
Source: New York Times
“Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five have been seriously wounded, the Pentagon said in announcing the first American troops to die in President Trump’s war with Iran. United States Central Command did not say where the troops were killed. Two military officials said that an Army base housing American troops in Kuwait was one of the many American bases in the region that had been hit in retaliatory Iranian strikes. … Since the joint U.S. and Israel military strikes began Saturday morning, Iran has launched hundreds of retaliatory missiles at a wide swath of American and Israeli targets in the region, as well as at Arab countries it considers allies of the United States.” (03/01/26)
https://archive.is/DLeIc
-----
2) Myanmar: Junta pardons 10,000 prisoners
Source: ABC News
“The head of Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 10,000 prisoners and reduced the sentences of others to mark a holiday, state-run media reported Monday. There was no sign former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then, would be freed. The amnesty comes two weeks before parliament is set to convene for its first session in more than five years following the recent election that critics said was neither free nor fair. State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 10,162 prisoners, including 7,337 convicted under a counterterrorism law, on Peasants’ Day, a national holiday honoring farmers.” (03/02/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/myanmars-military-government-pardons-10000-prisoners-parliament-opens-130667932
-----
3) Khanna calls on Trump, Lutnick to testify on Epstein relationships
Source: NBC News
“Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called on both President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify about their relationships with Jeffery Epstein, telling NBC News’[s] ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday that said he’s working with a Republican colleague to subpoena Lutnick. Khanna, a member of the House Oversight Committee, referenced former President Bill Clinton’s testimony before the committee last week, saying Clinton ‘set a precedent’ for high-profile figures to testify. ‘A new Clinton rule that means that Donald Trump should do the same — answer the questions. Howard Lutnick should do the same,’ Khanna told ‘Meet the Press.'” (03/01/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ro-khanna-trump-howard-lutnick-testify-epstein-subpoena-rcna261199
-----
4) US DOJ sues to obtain voter rolls from another five states
Source: United Press International
“The Justice Department has sued another five states, including three led by Republicans, for their unredacted voter registration lists, amid the Trump administration’s the information ahead of November’s midterms. The Trump administration has now sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for voter information, heightening Democrats’ concerns that it is seeking to meddle in the elections. The five states sued Thursday were Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey. The litigation effort has so far disproportionately targeted Democratic-led states, with Utah, Oklahoma and West Virginia among the few GOP-led states sued for their voter registration lists. Attorney General Pam Bondi argues she is charged by Congress with authority to request the sensitive election data under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, though courts have ruled against the government in the three cases that have reached decisions: California in mid-January and Michigan and Oregon earlier this month.” (02/27/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/27/DOJ-sues-voter-rolls/2951772177350/
-----
6) India: Modi holds taks with Canada’s Carney
Source: mint [India]
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House in the national capital, focusing on strengthening cooperation and partnership between the two countries. … Carney arrived in India on Friday for a visit he hopes will reset ties and double trade, offsetting the damage from his country’s fracturing relations with the United States.” (03/02/26)
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/pm-modi-holds-bilateral-talks-with-canadian-pm-carney-reviews-progress-in-india-canada-ties-reset-11772432861808.html
-----
7) Global smartphone shipments to hit decade low in 2026
Source: Newsbytes.PH [Philippines]
“The global smartphone market is projected to contract sharply in 2026, with shipments expected to fall 12.9% year-on-year to 1.1 billion units, according to the latest forecast from research firm IDC. If realized, the decline would mark the steepest annual drop on record and push worldwide smartphone shipments to their lowest level in more than a decade. IDC said the revised outlook represents a significant downgrade from its November forecast as a worsening memory-component shortage ripples across the consumer electronics supply chain.” (03/01/26)
https://newsbytes.ph/2026/03/01/global-smartphone-shipments-to-hit-decade-low-in-2026/
-----
8) FCC approves the merger of cable giants Cox and Charter
Source: Engadget
“The Federal Communications Commission has given the go ahead for two of the US’ biggest cable providers, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, to merge. Charter announced its intention to acquire Cox for $34.5 billion in May 2025, with specific plans to inherit Cox’s managed IT, commercial fiber and cloud businesses, while folding the company’s residential cable service into a subsidiary.” (02/27/26)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/fcc-approves-the-merger-of-cable-giants-cox-and-charter-230258865.html
-----
9) Japan: Epstein links bring down another politician
Source: Reuters
“Japan will not reappoint businessman Joichi Ito to a government committee on an entrepreneurship project when his term ends this month, over ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Sankei newspaper said on Monday. The decision comes after the release of millions of new Epstein documents by the U.S. Justice Department that revived scrutiny of Ito’s ties with Epstein and his current roles in Japanese government and academic circles.” (03/02/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/joichi-ito-linked-with-epstein-leave-japan-government-panel-sankei-says-2026-03-02/
-----
10) Mexico: Regime hands over body of “El Mencho” to his family
Source: CBS News
“Mexican authorities returned the body of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho,’ to his family after he was killed by the Mexican army last week, officials said on Saturday. In a brief note on X, the Attorney General’s Office said that it handed over the body of El Mencho after completing all the necessary procedural protocols. … The killing of the country’s most powerful drug lord was met with a wave of retaliatory violence in some 20 states. More than 70 people were killed. The violence has fueled fears that the bloodshed could hurt tourism ahead of the FIFA World Cup later this year.” (02/28/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/mexican-authorities-hand-body-el-mencho-family-130633371
-----
11) Bettors Make Huge Profits From Suspiciously Timed Wagers on Iran War
Source: Common Dreams
“Bettors on the prediction platform Polymarket made a killing with suspiciously timed wagers that the United States would attack Iran by February 28, the day President Donald Trump announced a bombing campaign against the Middle East nation. Bloomberg reported that six accounts on Polymarket, all newly created this month, ‘made around $1 million in profit’ by betting on the timing of the US attack on Iran. The accounts, according to Bloomberg, ‘had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur’, and ‘some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran.’ One account with the name Magamyman raked in over $515,000 by betting roughly $87,000 that ‘the US strikes Iran by February 28, 2026.'” (03/01/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/insane-this-is-legal-bettors-make-huge-profits-from-suspiciously-timed-wagers-on-iran-war
-----
12) Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported
Source: NBC 4 New York
“A federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the ‘American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.’ U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further. The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day.” (02/28/26)
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/federal-judge-extends-order-protecting-refugees-minnesota/6470621/
-----
13) UK: Green Party wins by-election in blow to Labour, Starmer
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“A candidate for the United Kingdom’s left-wing Green Party has comfortably won a closely-watched election for a vacant parliamentary seat, delivering an embarrassing defeat for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in one of its former strongholds. Results announced Friday showed the Greens’ Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old councillor and plumber, had won 40.7 percent of the vote in the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester that has been considered a secure Labour seat for almost a century. In an outcome that analysts said pointed to the fracturing of the UK’s traditional two-party politics, the hard-right candidate for the populist, anti-immigration Reform finished in second place.” (02/27/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/27/green-party-wins-uk-by-election-in-blow-to-labour-pm-starmer
-----
14) OPEC+ to raise oil output slightly even as US war on Iran disrupts shipments
Source: Reuters
“OPEC+ has agreed in principle to a modest oil output increase on Sunday, five OPEC+ sources said, after the U.S.-Israeli war on OPEC+ member Iran and Tehran’s retaliation led to shipment disruptions in the Middle East. OPEC+ has a history of raising oil output to cushion disruptions but analysts said the group currently has little spare capacity to add to supply, except for its leader Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who will also struggle to export oil until navigation in the Gulf returns to normal.” (03/01/26)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-debates-oil-output-boost-us-war-iran-disrupts-shipments-2026-03-01/
-----
15) Pakistan: At least 22 killed as protesters try to storm US Consulate
Source: SFGate
“Violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and in the country’s north left at least 22 people dead and more than 120 others injured as demonstrators supportive of the Iranian government attempted to storm a U.S. Consulate on Sunday, authorities said. In the north of the country, demonstrators attacked U.N. and government offices. The violence came after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Police and officials at a hospital in Karachi said that at least 50 people were also wounded in the clashes and some of them were in critical condition.” (03/01/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/at-least-6-killed-as-shiites-storm-us-consulate-21948592.php
-----
16) OpenAI reaches deal with Pentagon after Trump drops Anthropic
Source: United Press International
“OpenAI announced it secured a deal to provide artificial intelligence services to the Defense Department hours after the Trump administration directed all federal agencies to stop using those provided by Anthropic. OpenAI is the San Francisco-based tech research company founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others behind applications including ChatGPT and DALL-E. … Contract negotiations [sic] between the tech company and the Defense Department soured after the Trump administration demanded it be allowed to use the AI system for ‘all lawful purposes.'” [editor’s note: Demanding that an already in force contract be nullified to let you do anything you want is not “negotiation.” It’s just breaking the contract – TLK] (02/28/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/28/openai-defense/8601772310881/
-----
17) Brazil: Bolsonaro supporters rally across country against Lula
Source: ABC News
“Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrated in cities across the South American nation on Sunday, as organizers hoped to build momentum for a right-wing victory in the upcoming presidential elections. Protesters draped in yellow and green – the colors of the national flag — took to the streets in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the capital Brasilia to voice their opposition to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who faces a tough reelection bid in October. … Bolsonaro is in prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula.” (03/01/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/supporters-brazils-bolsonaro-rally-brazil-lula-130659628
-----
18) Iran: Regime forms interim council to oversee transition after Khamenei’s killing
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran has announced the formation of a three-member transitional council to handle the state duties following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, member of a powerful constitutional watchdog, was appointed on Sunday to the temporary council, whose other two members are President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei. … According to Article 111 of the Iranian Constitution, the transitional council will govern the country until an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts chooses a new supreme leader after almost 37 years of rule by Khamenei. His killing on Saturday by the joint United States and Israeli forces has raised crucial questions about Iran’s future.” (03/01/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/iran-to-form-interim-council-to-oversee-transition-after-khameneis-killing
-----
19) TX: Suspect in shooting wore “Property of Allah” clothing & Iranian flag emblem
Source: SFGate
“The gunman who killed two people at a bar in Texas early Sunday in a mass shooting that left 14 others wounded was wearing a sweatshirt that said ‘Property of Allah,’ and another shirt with an Iranian flag design, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The shooter has been identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, the law enforcement official and another person familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The shooting erupted a day after Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as a potential act of terrorism. Diagne was originally from Senegal, according to multiple people briefed on the investigation. One of the people told the AP that Diagne came to the U.S. in 2006 and was a naturalized U.S. citizen.” (03/01/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/3-dead-14-injured-after-shooting-at-a-bar-in-21948671.php
-----
20) SD: Homeowner shoots intruder
Source: News Center 1
“A resident shot a home intruder early Saturday morning. Authorities say the man tried to break into a residence in the 600 block of Saint James Street [in Rapid City, South Dakota]. Police responded to the home at around 3:25 a.m. after reports of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found a man with a single gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital, where he received treatment for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.” (02/28/26)
https://www.newscenter1.tv/news/local/resident-shoots-attempted-home-intruder
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Reich
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“So, imagine if you will, that it’s 1933. Armed with these ideas about ‘citizens’ and ‘aliens,’ enraged over the mess he’s inherited from his predecessors and by the nightmarish conditions his country has endured, Hitler explains that he will target ‘illegal alien criminals’ and anyone who chooses to ‘block the removal of criminal aliens.’ … I can almost see the eye-rolling and hear the shouting: ‘Please Sciabarra. Not the Hitler Analogy. Spare us!’ Let me assure you: I do not believe that Donald J. Trump is Adolf Hitler or that the United States is a full-blown fascist dictatorship. Yet. But insofar as Trump draws from the same crude collectivist well of racism as an antidote to palpable fear of contemporary conditions, the ominous parallels exist.” (02/28/26)
https://notablog.net/2026/02/28/two-wrongs-dont-make-a-reich/
-----
22) Trump Starts His Criminal War of Aggression
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Trump and Netanyahu are responsible for everything that happens next. They own this war and its consequences. Every life lost in Iran and throughout the region as a result of this war is their doing. They are war criminals, and they should be held accountable for the death and destruction they have chosen to cause. They have set the region on fire on a whim.” (02/28/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/trump-starts-his-criminal-war-of
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23) Trump Starts a Major Regime-Change War with Iran, Serving Neoconservatism and Israel
Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald
“It is hard to overstate what a massive fraud Donald Trump, his campaign and his political movement are. For more than a decade, Trump has ranted and raved against the evils of regime-change wars and neoconservative dogma, only to launch a new war that most perfectly encapsulates and aggressively advances both. … This new war against Iran is as pure a continuation of the bipartisan DC posture of endless war that has, more than any single cause, destroyed American prosperity, standing, and future over the last six decades at least.”
(02/28/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/trump-starts-a-major-regime-change
-----
24) How does this war with Iran end? Or does it?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“Now that President Trump has launched an illegal, unprovoked war of choice on Iran, the next question inevitably becomes: how does this end? Or, what are some off ramps Trump can take to end it before the situation turns out of control? There are three broad scenarios; the first and most likely is that Trump continues this until he gets some sort of regime implosion and then declares victory, while also washing his hands of whatever follows. This has been very clear in internal conversations: no one wants to take responsibility for the aftermath.” (02/28/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-iran-war-end/
-----
25) Justice Thomas’s Pathetic Tariff-Case Dissent
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“I’ll grant that at the founding, rulers thought that importation was a privilege, not a right. Who cares? We know better now. Besides, to regular people in those days, the smuggler of goods was a hero. The villain was the meddlesome customs official. He, not the smuggler, was likely be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail. I’ll give Thomas this: he and his clerks were certainly able to find many legal citations to back his claim. I’ll tell you what that means. It means that legal scholar John Hasnas is right. His paper ‘The Myth of the Rule of Law’ demonstrates that the legal system in America is like ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ where ‘you can get anything you want.'” (02/27/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-justice-thomass-pathetic-tariff
-----
26) Fuck Everyone Who Made This War Possible
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The US and Israel have launched their long-planned attack on Iran. President Trump said in a speech that the US military is engaged in ‘major combat operations’ intended to cripple Iran’s military and topple the Iranian government. Iran has reportedly been retaliating with missile strikes on Israel and US military bases in the region. This is going to get ugly, folks. I don’t even know what to write about this one, honestly. What am I supposed to say? ‘Hey everybody, they’re lying to us about this war?’ Everyone already knows that. Even the people who support this war know all the justifications for it are lies.” (03/01/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/03/01/fuck-everyone-who-made-this-war-possible/
-----
27) Response to Sunstein
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“According to Cass, we are now allies. I am as willing to argue with my allies as with my opponents, perhaps more willing; allies are more likely to have enough in common with me to be willing to be listen to my arguments. Hence this post.” (02/28/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/response-to-sunstein
-----
28) My Day of Jury Duty
Source: Yascha Mounk
by Yascha Mounk
“What a deeply ordinary day in a deeply ordinary court taught me about American democracy.” (02/28/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/my-day-of-jury-duty
-----
29) Norway’s model of athletic joy … and success
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Fresh off a record 18 gold medals at the February Winter Olympics, Norway heads into the March Winter Paralympics holding the most cumulative golds in the history of those games (140). But its international sports successes are not confined just to those performed on snow and ice, both of which are plentiful in Norway. The country of just 5.6 million people also fields winning athletes in soccer, tennis, golf – and even Olympic beach volleyball. This record is all the more notable for Norwegians’ unconventional approach to developing high-caliber athletes: When introducing children to sports, schools, parents, and local sports clubs seek to build on their innate joy in the fun and friendship of physical activity. Youthful curiosity and interest in exploring a variety of sports are encouraged, through high school and up to college age. National guidelines forbid competitive teams, scorekeeping, or ranking for children below age 12.” (02/27/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0227/Norway-s-model-of-athletic-joy-and-success
-----
30) Queer Requiem for Another Black Assimilation Month
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“If it’s February, then some liberal white dude is probably telling you about Black history and he’s probably totally missing the point, going on about how far someone else’s people have come and how far the nation that brought them here in chains has come along with them. If it’s March, then this pale-faced genderfuck bitch is probably just waking from a seasonal depression coma to chase liberal white dudes off her stoop with a broom and apologize to the neighborhood for the inconvenience.” (02/28/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/02/queer-requiem-for-another-black.html
-----
31) Why Is There a Birth Dearth?
Source: Town Hall
by John C Goodman
“It is the most significant economic and sociological challenge we face. It’s worldwide. It has been worsening for decades. And there is no reason to expect the trend to change. People are not having as many children as they used to. Almost all the developed countries are below the ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1 children per woman of childbearing age. (The U.S. number is 1.6.) Overall, two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries below the replacement rate. If a country is below the replacement rate, its population will eventually peak and begin to decline.” [editor’s note: “Worsening” implies that it’s necessarily negative. It isn’t – TLK] (02/28/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2026/02/28/why-is-there-a-birth-dearth-n2671784
-----
32) Who Has the Courage to Fix Britain’s Debt Crisis?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Anne Strickland
“Britain’s national debt is now rising by more than £500 million a day. Every single day. It’s the kind of figure that should prompt a national emergency, but instead it’s been met with the kind of collective shrug that suggests we’ve all decided it’s someone else’s problem. Future Chancellor, future Parliament, future generation. Someone will sort it eventually, surely? Half a billion pounds doesn’t really sound like a real number to most people though. It’s too big, too abstract. So let’s translate it into something that matters.” (02/27/26)
https://fee.org/articles/who-has-the-courage-to-fix-britains-debt-crisis/
-----
33) The Conversation Black Parents Perfected, And All Families Now Need
Source: Common Dreams
by Alvin Thomas & Conial Caldwell
“It is 1955 and the hot Mississippi sun is blazing overhead. Miles away in Chicago a Black mother is having a conversation with her 14-year-old son. She tries to impress upon him the often subtle but dangerous realities of what it means to be Black in America, and how one misinterpretation, one lie, could result in his death. That boy is Emmett Till, and in her memoir, Death of Innocence, Mamie Till-Mobley reflects on ‘The Talk’ she delivered to her son before his historically tragic trip to Mississippi. This version of The Talk dates back to American chattel slavery and has been passed down for generations in Black families, shaped by ongoing racial violence and unequal treatment.” (02/28/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ice-violence-children
-----
34) Trump Seeks to Extend Domestic Spying Powers He Once Condemned
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“In an April 10, 2024 post on Truth Social, then-candidate for president Trump urged Republicans in Congress to ‘KILL FISA,’ referring to the U.S. law establishing procedures for foreign surveillance. ‘IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!’ Yet now that he has entered the White House for a second term, Trump is seeking to extend those spying powers he once denounced. As POLTICO reported last week, the Trump administration, in an effort led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, is quietly pressing Congress to approve a ‘clean’ extension of Section 702 surveillance authorities, potentially through 2027.” (02/27/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-seeks-to-extend-domestic-spying-powers-he-once-condemned/
-----
35) A Failure of Vision
Source: Law & Liberty
by John C Pinheiro
“A new book proposing a synthesis of Hamilton and Jefferson fails to escape the follies of progressive cliches.” (02/27/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-failure-of-vision/
-----
36) JD Vance’s Doomed Quest to Balance the Budget
Source; The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Trump’s incoherent State of the Union address on Tuesday featured his usual stroke-victim diction and his patented blend of stupidity and dishonesty. Fact-checking his claims is laborious, because he speaks almost exclusively in simpleton’s superlatives, and it also is pointless, inasmuch as the people who most need to know the facts are not much inclined to listen to them, being, as they are, members of an especially tawdry and shameful cult. … but it may be that the dumbest and most dishonest claim of the night was that J.D. Vance’s newly announced fraud commission will, if it does its job, produce a ‘balanced budget overnight.'” (02/27/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-vance-budget-immigrants-border-fraud/
-----
37) Trump strikes Iran; precedent and history are on his side
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“With the launch of attacks on Iran, some have already declared the strikes unconstitutional. That includes the immediate condemnation of Rep. Thomas Massie. The precedent, however, favors the president in this action, though the attack triggers obligations of notice and consultation with Congress. I am highly sympathetic to those who criticize the failure to seek declarations of war from Congress before carrying out such operations. Indeed, I have represented members of Congress in opposing such wars. We lost. The courts have allowed presidents to order such attacks unilaterally.” (02/28/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-trump-strikes-iran-precedent-history-his-side
-----
38) How US Unpredictability Is Forcing Long‑Overdue Autonomy
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“For decades, France has been urging Europe to become more independent of the United States in the security arena. But most Europeans paid no heed to this useful proposal. They grew fat and happy under the U.S. security umbrella during the Cold War, and especially after the Soviet threat receded. Most European nations spent too little on their own defense, instead using the savings to compete with U.S. companies and run expansive social welfare programs. The European Union added another layer to Europe’s already overregulated economies. Although the Biden and Trump administrations have successfully pressured those countries to increase defense spending incrementally, they need even greater funding increases if they want to achieve greater independence from the now clearly unreliable United States.” (02/27/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/27/west-europe-us-unreliable-ally-strategic-autonomy/
-----
39) We will never grow out of our tech adolescence if we let it become autocratic
Source: hypertext
by Nicole Schneidman
“If AI is not deliberately designed to advance democracy, it can empower authoritarians. We should not assume they will only be in China.” (02/27/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/we-will-never-grow-out-of-our-tech
-----
40) Why Trump’s tariffs are a losing game
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that the White House’s widespread “emergency” tariffs were illegal, President Donald Trump moved to install 10% across-the-board tariffs under a different alleged authority. He later said he would raise that rate to 15% and delivered a combative response in the State of the Union. The trade war isn’t ending. It’s just changing ZIP codes. What won’t change is the propaganda coming from the White House, which insists that Americans don’t pay the costs. Consider what follows as a guide to the fallacy-filled arguments that you’ll soon hear more of.” (02/27/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/27/veronique-de-rugy-why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-losing-game/
-----
41) States Can Block the Paramount-Warner Deal
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“What started as a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery became an unconditional surrender Thursday. Netflix had a deal in place for a couple of months, but Paramount, under the direction of MAGA heir David Ellison, made a hostile takeover bid, and this week upped its offer from $30 to $31 a share for all of WBD, including its cable channels. The total purchase comes to $111 billion, and on Thursday the WBD board pronounced the offer superior to Netflix’s, giving the streamer four days to match it. Netflix, whose CEO was at the White House on Thursday (what was he told?), barely needed an hour, dropping its effort. So what many see as a worst-case scenario is realized: the Ellison family wresting control of two major movie studios, CBS, HBO, CNN, and secondarily TikTok. There are certainly echoes of media-political consolidation as we see in dictatorships the world over.” (02/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/27/states-can-block-paramount-warner-deal/
-----
42) A Small Nonprofit Did What the FDA Would Not
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Natalya Murakhver
“There is a question that has haunted me since the moment I watched institutions fail children during the pandemic: Who will ask the hard questions if the agencies charged with asking them refuse to? I have spent the past six years trying to answer that question through film, through advocacy, through lawsuits, through grassroots organizing. Now, Restore Childhood is trying to answer it through science.” (02/27/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-small-nonprofit-did-what-the-fda-would-not/
-----
43) The Last War for Israel?
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Another war of choice against Iran is the final gasp of a country that is losing America.” (02/27/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-last-war-for-israel-a25
-----
44) Fight Government Corruption With Deregulation
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“At the moment, corruption investigations and trials of political figures are taking place in jurisdictions around the U.S. including Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C. These aren’t isolated scandals; the latest edition of an international corruption index finds corruption worsening globally, with the United States earning its worst score to date. Given that corruption involves government officials peddling favors for compensation, it shouldn’t be surprising that evidence suggests the solution lies in reducing the power and role of the state.” (02/27/26)
-----
45) California is the fraud capital of America, and we will expose it
Source: New York Post
by Kevin Kiley
“The rampant fraud uncovered in the state of Minnesota has shocked America and ended the political career of Gov. Tim Walz. Yet as I told Attorney General Pam Bondi at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, the fraud in Minnesota pales in comparison to what taxpayers have suffered in California. California is undoubtedly the Fraud Capital of America. Here’s what we already know: The state allowed an estimated $32 billion in unemployment fraud during the COVID years, far more than any state, after ignoring ‘repeated warnings’. Perhaps more stunningly, the state auditor recently found unemployment fraud is still costing the state billions. Incidentally, in part because of this staggering fraud, California was forced to take out a $20 billion loan from the federal government to shore up its unemployment benefits. The state then defaulted on the loan – the only state to do so – triggering an automatic tax increase on employers.” (02/27/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/27/opinion/california-is-fraud-central/
-----
46) Are AI Companies Working on the Right Things?
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer
“Anyone who is more than a casual user of Microsoft Word understands that there are fundamental bugs in the core of the program that have existed since almost the very first version and have never been fixed in almost 30 years. … Everyone knows these problems exist. Presumably they are fixable with some amount of effort. But they are not fixed. Instead, release after new release in Word trumpets new niche functionality without ever focusing on the core functionality. … My fear is that AI companies are doing the same thing. New features and capabilities of the major AI models are impressive. But at their core, at least for researching and writing, they still have the critical, fatal flaw of hallucinations.” (02/27/26)
https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2026/02/are-ai-companies-working-on-the-right-things.html
-----
47) The Darkened Republic: On the Consequences of Collectivised Despair
Source: Students For Liberty
by Thiago Freitas
“From Prague to Hanoi, from Warsaw to Addis Ababa, the twentieth century bore witness to the same grim experiment repeated across continents: the centralisation of economic life, the suppression of prices, the abolition of private enterprise in the name of collective salvation. And in nearly every case, the experiment eventually ended, sometimes through the convulsions of revolution, sometimes through the quieter capitulation of reform. The queues shortened; the lights came back on; the paperwork of survival gave way, slowly, to something resembling ordinary commerce. And Cuba? Well, Cuba alone remains: a living museum of twentieth-century ideology, where the exhibits still breathe and queue for bread. What was elsewhere a painful chapter has here become the entire book, its pages still being written in darkness.” (02/27/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/the-darkened-republic-on-the-consequences-of-collectivised-despair/
-----
48) Nuclear Power Needs Realism, Freedom
Source: The Daily Economy
by Robert L Bradley Jr.
“Decades of subsidies, regulation, and unmet promises have left nuclear power costly and uncompetitive.” (02/27/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/nuclear-power-needs-realism-freedom/
-----
49) Trump & Netanyahu Launch Illegal & Reckless War Against Iran
Source: In These Times
by Jake Johnson
“President Donald Trump announced in the early hours of Saturday morning that the United States has launched a massive military operation aimed at toppling the Iranian government as blasts were reported in Tehran, including near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is taking part in the assault. Unnamed Israeli security sources told Channel 12 that Israel and the Trump administration are ’going all in’ against Iran as Trump instructed Iranians to ’stay sheltered’, warning that ‘bombs will be dropping everywhere’. People were seen seeking cover in Tehran as the United States and Israeli bombs began to fall.” (02/28/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-netanyahu-war-iran
-----
50) The Fatal Costs of the Philippines-Taiwan War Scenario
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“In August 2025, President Marcos Jr. said that ‘a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming into the conflict.’ Pushing for preparation, the government has boosted US-Philippine military cooperation, military modernization, joint military exercises and the installation of US mid-range missile systems and anti-ship missile launchers. These measures are said to foster Philippine prosperity and security. But how would a major military conflict in the Taiwan Straits, with the active support of Manila’s military logistics, affect the economic futures of the Philippines?” (02/27/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2026/02/26/the-fatal-costs-of-the-philippines-taiwan-war-scenario/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Pink Flame of Liberty, 02/28/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Libertarian Party — McArdle Lawyers Up and Hays should resign.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlR3ShDfx8
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52) The Evil Within, Part 3
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Drug War.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOJ_R4GjwcU
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53) Unattended Baggage, episode 330
Source: Unattended Baggage
“The United States of Israel attacks Iran because Epstein, Trump promises to tell the truth about aliens because Epstein, Pentagon warns of demons, Clintons testify about Pizzagate … I mean Epstein …” (02/28/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-330-mission-distracted
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54) Fountainhead Forum, episode 430
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Hrvoje Morić on crime and safety in Mexico after the death of ‘El Mencho.'” (02/28/26)
https://rumble.com/v76d0eu-ff-430-ff-102-hrvoje-mori-on-crime-and-safety-in-mexico-after-the-death-of-.html
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55) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 02/28/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Special Report: US and Israel Launch War Against Iran.” (02/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKk8-s5iXQ
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56) The Good Fight, 02/28/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Danielle Allen on Why Technocratic Liberalism Failed.” (02/28/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/danielle-allen
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57) Larry Johnson on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviewed Larry Johnson hours before the joint US-Israeli air campaign on Iran commenced. In the interview, Johnson presciently explained why he was virtually certain this was coming. He and Scott then debunked all the ridiculous lies this insane operation is built on and reflected on the complete lack of a clear endgame.” (02/28/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/2-27-26-larry-johnson-predicts-trumps-war-on-iran-and-exposes-the-lies-its-built-on/
-----
58) Friday Philosophy, 02/27/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“Does Democracy Require Conformity and Equality?” (02/27/26)
https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/does-democracy-require-conformity-and-equality
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59) Healthcare News Podcast, episode 607
Source: Heartland Institute
“Breaking Down Trump’s Healthcare Plan.” (02/27/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/breaking-down-trumps-healthcare-plan/
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60) Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 02/27/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center ‘SCOTUS Rules Trump’s Tariffs Illegal.'” (02/27/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-02-27_zfw002232026.mp3
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