11/19 -- Lebanon: Israeli forces murder 13 in attack on refugee camp; Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state
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Thomas L. Knapp
Nov 19, 2025, 6:21:33 AM (2 days ago) Nov 19
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 11/19/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
0) "Hump Day" Fundraiser Update: Help Us Over The Hump!
1) Lebanon: Israeli forces murder 13 in attack on refugee camp
2) US Senate sends bill to release Epstein files to Trump
3) NATO scrambles fighter jets as Russia launches combined attack on Ukraine
4) Labor Department: US jobless benefits rolls in mid-October were the highest since August
5) Trump hosts Saudi terror kingpin in White House meeting
6) Toyota to boost hybrid car production in $900 million US investment
7) Russia: Pols Approve Tax Hike
8) Study: Daily orange juice has “therapeutic potential” for genes and heart health
9) Feds reduce troop presence in Portland, Chicago occupations
10) Summers quits public roles amid Epstein emails: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions”
11) Australia: Prisoner sues for his “human right” to eat Vegemite
12) CA: LA County sheriff investigating new sex battery claim against Combs
13) Germany: Entertainment duo Kessler twins die by assisted suicide at age 89 on same day
14) France: Regime posthumously promotes Dreyfus
15) Tanzania: Hassan says election violence could hurt access to international funding
16) Cloudflare Outage Disrupts X, ChatGPT and Other Parts of the Internet
17) As Trump Issues New Threats to Mexico & Colombia, Dems Push to End Unauthorized Aggression
18) UK: MI5 spy service warns pols that Chinese spies are posing as headhunters
19) As Trump presses for its closure, Education Department offloads some work to other agencies
20) Fed Governor Waller backs December rate cut as support for weakening labor market
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state
22) Trump Tariff Check Proposal: Bad Math, Not a “Dividend”
23) Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of “White-Collar Bloodbath?”
24) If Soldiers Become Cops, Americans Will Have Even Less Legal Redress Against Abusive Law Enforcement
25) Is Blackrock To Blame For The Housing Crisis?
26) This scam is why even Lincoln would have wanted to ditch the penny
27) Legal Nonsense to Justify Non-Judicial Killings
28) Vendor capture and the limits of fast government reform
29) Creating a New East Wing of Heaven, While Sending the Rest of Us to Hell in a Handbasket
30) Tit-for-Tat in Politics
31) Beware false affordable-housing fixes: New Connecticut law hides socialist wishlist
32) How the Internet Made the Far-Right
33) Peaceful Protest (Not Polarization) Is the Recipe for Saving Our Democracy
34) Vietnam and the US at the Negotiating Table
35) Trump gives a lesson in how not to handle a scandal
36) An Act of Contrition
37) Why every “affordable” promise from Democrats ends up costing you more
38) The Forgotten Classical Liberal Who Fought Jim Crow and Championed Immigration
39) We Must Resist Trump’s War Agenda At Home And Abroad
40) Why Israel’s defenders want US aid to stop
41) Poem: Treasure
42) Constitutional Defects
43) Europe’s Bleak Future
44) Trumpty Dumpty and the Venezuelan boat strikes
45) Want Lower Prices? More “Affordability”? Move to a Red State
46) Housing Affordability — Where Everyone Is Wrong
47) The real Trump proposals are as ridiculous as the fake 15-year car loan
48) Tocqueville versus the Groypers
49) Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement
50) The Politics of Price Controls
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Cato Podcast, 11/18/25
52) Rising, 11/18/25
53) Pod Save America, 11/18/25
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/18/25
55) The Climate Realism Show, episode 182
56) The Good Fight, 11/18/25
57) Advisory Opinions, 11/18/25
58) SolutionsWatch, 11/18/25
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/18/25
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/18/25
61) Quillette Podcast, episode 312
62) LPA Spotlight, episode 3
63) Finding Freedom, 11/17/25
64) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 11/17/25
65) My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, 11/17/25
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0) "Hump Day" Fundraiser Update: Help Us Over The Hump!
THANK YOU to long-time supporters PD and SZ! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $70, bring our year-end Fundraiser total (as of 5am on Wednesday) to $1,260.84!
Here's the hump we need to get over: We're a little more than halfway through the fundraiser period, but only 45% of the way to our goal. Making it to $1,375.25 TODAY -- with donations of at least $114.41 -- would put us at the halfway mark.
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Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Lebanon: Israeli forces murder 13 in attack on refugee camp
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. … The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army.” (11/19/25)
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/19/g-s1-98349/israeli-airstrike-palestinian-refugee-camp-lebanon
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2) US Senate sends bill to release Epstein files to Trump
Source: Axios
“The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending it to President Trump’s desk. Trump said Monday he would sign the bill, but the files still may not be released any time soon. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Monday evening, just hours after it cleared the House via a nearly unanimous vote — and before the bill had even technically been sent over. In a stunning reversal, Trump this week supported the legislation after opposing the effort for months. But his recent directive of DOJ to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton, officials at JP Morgan Chase and others may cause the files to never see the light of day.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/D4yox
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3) NATO scrambles fighter jets as Russia launches combined attack on Ukraine
Source: CNN
“NATO scrambled fighter jets in Polish and Romanian airspace as Russia carried out a massive and deadly attack using ballistic and cruise missiles and hundreds of drones across Ukraine into Wednesday. Romania defense ministry claimed a Russian drone entered its airspace during the attack. It comes as Russia said it shot down four US-made ATACMS long-range missiles ‘deep within’ its territory yesterday, that Ukraine claimed it fired. … Many regions of Ukraine were left without power Wednesday after strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.” (11/19/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/europe/poland-fighter-jets-russia-ukraine-intl-hnk
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4) Labor Department: US jobless benefits rolls in mid-October were the highest since August
Source: Reuters
“The number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits stood at a two-month high in mid-October at the time when the Labor Department would have been conducting its survey of U.S. households for the monthly employment report that has been held up by the recently ended government shutdown. Continued claims for jobless benefits — those receiving benefits beyond an initial week of relief — rose to 1.957 million in the week ended October 18, updated figures posted to a Labor Department website showed on Tuesday. That was up 10,000 from the prior week and was the highest since early August. It was up notably from the 1.916 million level in the week ended September 13, the last week of data to have been reported prior to the start of the shutdown on October 1.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/C6251
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5) Trump hosts Saudi terror kingpin in White House meeting
Source: Washington Post
“Saudi [terror kingpin] Mohammed bin Salman arrived to a grand welcome from President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, greeted at the South Portico with an honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters, a remarkable turnaround for the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia who had been branded a pariah in 2018 after the CIA concluded that he had approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The arrival, filled with more pomp than any world leader thus far in Trump’s second term, was a measure of the U.S. president’s affection for the Saudi [terror kingpin] and his rehabilitation following the killing. … The leaders are expected to sign deals ranging from weapons sales to agreements around artificial intelligence and critical minerals, according to White House officials.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/gfvbQ
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6) Toyota to boost hybrid car production in $900 million US investment
Source: United Press International
“Toyota said it plans to invest nearly a billion dollars in U.S. manufacturing across five southern states to grow its hybrid model line. On Tuesday, Japan-based Toyota Motor announced it will invest around $912 million as part of separate plans to invest up to $10 billion in the United States by 2030. … The Japanese automaker currently holds more than 51% market share in hybrid vehicle manufacturing, and the new finance boost in its American facilities is largely intended to build upon that.” (11/18/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/11/18/Japan-us-Toyota-investment-hybrid-car/6741763476493/
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7) Russia: Pols Approve Tax Hike
Source: US News & World Report
“Russian lawmakers endorsed new tax hikes on Tuesday as Moscow looks for new revenue sources to boost its economy during its nearly four-year war with Ukraine. Legislators in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved the key second reading of a bill that will raise value-added tax from 20% to 22%. The changes are expected to add as much as 1 trillion rubles (about $12.3 billion) to the state budget. The new legislation also lowers the threshold for businesses required to collect VAT from 60 million rubles (about $739,000) in annual sales revenue to 10 million rubles (about $123,000). The changes, which will be introduced in stages up to 2028, are designed to stop firms from dividing their operations to avoid taxes. But they are also expected to hit many small businesses that were previously exempt.” [editor’s note: Tax hikes don’t boost economies; they boost governments at the expense of economies – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2025-11-18/russian-lawmakers-approve-tax-hike-bill-to-boost-economy-as-the-war-with-ukraine-nears-4-years
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8) Study: Daily orange juice has “therapeutic potential” for genes and heart health
Source: Fox News
“A daily glass of orange juice might do more than deliver vitamin C. It may influence gene activity in ways that support heart health, according to new research. In a small but detailed study, 20 healthy adults drank about two cups of 100% orange juice every day for two months. Researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, North Carolina State University and the University of California, Davis, tracked changes in more than 1,700 genes within participants’ immune cells, finding broad shifts in genetic activity tied to blood pressure, fat metabolism and inflammation — all key factors in cardiovascular health. The findings highlight how citrus flavonoids — plant compounds also found in berries, tea and cocoa that act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatories — may influence the body at a molecular level. The research was published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research in late October.” (11/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/daily-orange-juice-has-therapeutic-potential-genes-heart-health-study-finds
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9) Feds reduce troop presence in Portland, Chicago occupations
Source: Seattle Times
“Hundreds of National Guard troops deployed to Chicago and Portland are being sent home, and those who will remain will continue to stay off the streets amid court battles over their domestic mission by the Trump administration, a defense official said Monday. The withdrawal of soldiers — sent from California and Texas — is part of a larger change to troop deployments after President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown in various cities with Democratic leadership. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue and requested anonymity. U.S. Northern Command said in a statement Sunday it was ‘shifting and/or rightsizing’ units in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, although it said there would be a ‘constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city.'” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/8NDJ0
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10) Summers quits public roles amid Epstein emails: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions”
Source: mint [India]
“Former US Treasury Secretary and former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers announced on Monday that he would be ‘stepping back from public commitments’ following the release of communication documents between him and the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Summers, a current Harvard University Professor, stated that while he will ‘continu[e] to fulfill my teaching obligations,’ the withdrawal from public roles is ‘one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.’ … The documents revealed that Summers and Epstein continued to exchange messages until July 5, 2019 — just one day before Epstein’s arrest on new sex-trafficking charges.” (11/18/25)
https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/exharvard-president-larry-summers-quits-public-roles-amid-epstein-scandal-i-am-deeply-ashamed-of-my-actions-11763472892373.html
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11) Australia: Prisoner sues for his “human right” to eat Vegemite
Source: ABC News
“A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a court suit that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breaches his human right to ‘enjoy his culture as an Australian.’ Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, according to documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. But inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are going without.” [editor’s note: I suspect Vegemite is an acquired taste. After giving it a try, I decided I don’t really want to acquire it – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australian-prisoner-sues-eat-vegemite-127619232
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12) CA: LA County sheriff investigating new sex battery claim against Combs
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions. … A male music producer and publicist said he was asked to come to a photo shoot in 2020 at a Los Angeles warehouse, where Combs exposed himself while masturbating and told the accuser to assist, according to NBC News, citing a police report. Combs then tossed a dirty shirt at the man, the producer said. The accuser, whose name is redacted in the police report, said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. He came forward to police in Largo, Florida, this September, shortly after Combs was convicted on other charges.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/18/diddy-new-sex-battery-claims/
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13) Germany: Entertainment duo Kessler twins die by assisted suicide at age 89 on same day
Source: New York Post
“The Kessler twins, who were best known for their postwar entertainment in the ’50s and ’60s, have died by joint assisted suicide. Alice and Ellen Kessler died at age 89 at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, Germany, on Monday. The sisters ‘no longer wanted to live’ and they ‘had chosen to end their lives together’, as reported by the German newspaper Bild. According to CNN, Alice and Ellen were assisted by advocacy organization the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS). The DGHS provides people with access to lawyers and doctors and other tools. The organization told CNN that the twins contacted the DGHS over a year ago and became members. ‘The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date,’ DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel told CNN. However, Wetzel noted that she wasn’t aware of why each woman chose this method.” (11/18/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/18/entertainment/dancing-duo-the-kessler-twins-die-by-assisted-suicide-at-age-89/
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14) France: Regime posthumously promotes Dreyfus
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France Tuesday promoted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general as an act of reparation in a notorious case of anti-Semitism that has caused outrage for generations. … Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attache. … Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank. … Only in 1906, after many twists, did the high court of appeal overturn the original verdict, exonerating Dreyfus. He was reinstated with the rank of major and decorated with a Legion d’Honneur award. He served during World War I and died in 1935, aged 76.” (11/18/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251118-france-promotes-jewish-soldier-dreyfus-130-years-after-scandal
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15) Tanzania: Hassan says election violence could hurt access to international funding
Source: SFGate
“Tanzania’s president on Tuesday said her government may lose access to the international funding that largely keeps the nation afloat after the worst election violence in the country’s history. ‘We have to look for funds internally using our God-given resources,’ President Samia Suluhu Hassan said. The East African nation’s Oct. 29 elections were marked by three days of protests during which the opposition asserts that more than 2,000 people died. Hundreds of others were arrested and charged with treason. The president later asked for some to be released. Hassan was declared the winner with over 97% of the vote after competitors from the two main opposition parties were barred from running. On Monday, she announced her new cabinet, which includes her daughter and son-in-law. On Tuesday, Hassan urged it to find local money to fund development projects.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/tanzania-s-leader-says-election-violence-could-21194734.php
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16) Cloudflare Outage Disrupts X, ChatGPT and Other Parts of the Internet
Source: New York Times
“Cloudflare, a company that helps websites secure and manage their internet traffic, experienced issues with its global network, the company said early Tuesday, disrupting service for many websites and apps.
‘Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,’ the company posted in a status update shortly before 7 a.m. ‘We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem.’ In an update about 20 minutes later, it said disruptions had begun to ease, but said it was continuing to investigate the issue. … The outage hit nearly a month after Amazon Web Services experienced problems with its service, disrupting a wide range of online services for hours.” [editor’s note: Rational Review News Digest was down for several hours due to the Cloudflare problems, but it remains the best CDN/caching solution I’ve found – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/W356P
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17) As Trump Issues New Threats to Mexico & Colombia, Dems Push to End Unauthorized Aggression
Source: Common Dreams
“As Democrats in the US House of Representatives introduced their latest measure to stop President Donald Trump from continuing his attacks against alleged drug cartels without approval from Congress, the president said he wouldn’t ‘rule out’ deploying US ground troops in Venezuela, and warned he could escalate attacks across Latin America, with possible strikes in Mexico and Colombia as well. Shortly after the Department of Defense, called the Department of War by the Trump administration, announced its 21st illegal airstrike on what they’ve claimed, without evidence, to be ‘narco-terrorist’ vessels mostly in the Caribbean (attacks that have killed at least 83 people) Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he may soon begin similar operations against drug cartels in mainland Mexico.” (11/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-strikes-colombia-mexico
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18) UK: MI5 spy service warns pols that Chinese spies are posing as headhunters
Source: Reuters
“Britain’s MI5 security service issued a new warning to lawmakers on Tuesday about attempts by Chinese agents to collect information and influence activity, its latest accusation that Beijing was trying to spy on the nation’s parliament. Lawmakers were told Chinese spies were targeting them by posing as headhunters or companies to make contact, with two individuals reaching out on LinkedIn to ‘conduct outreach at scale on behalf’ of the Chinese government. The speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament said MI5 had said the Chinese Ministry of State Security ‘was actively reaching out to individuals in our community.’ Britain’s Security Minister Dan Jarvis told parliament the alert revealed ‘a covert and calculated attempt’ by Beijing to interfere in UK politics and said the government would launch a counterespionage plan to address the threat.” (11/18/25)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-security-service-warns-lawmakers-chinese-spy-risk-2025-11-18/
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19) As Trump presses for its closure, Education Department offloads some work to other agencies
Source: SFGate
“The U.S. Education Department is handing off some of its biggest grant programs to other federal agencies as the Trump administration accelerates its plan to shut down the department. It represents a major step forward for the administration’s dismantling of the department, which has mainly involved cutting jobs since President Donald Trump called for its elimination with an executive action in March. Six new agreements signed by the Education Department will effectively move billions of dollars in grant programs to other agencies. Most notable is one that will put the Department of Labor over some of the largest federal funding streams for K-12 schools, including Title I money for schools serving low-income communities. Department officials said the programs will continue to be funded at levels set by Congress.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/education-department-offloads-some-work-to-other-21194739.php
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20) Fed Governor Waller backs December rate cut as support for weakening labor market
Source: CNBC
“Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Monday voiced support for another interest rate cut at the central bank’s December meeting, saying he’s grown concerned over the labor market and the sharp slowdown in hiring. In an increasingly divided Fed, Waller’s comments put him squarely in the camp of those looking to ease monetary policy to head off further danger in the jobs picture. Others, including multiple regional presidents, have expressed opposition in recent days to more cuts as they view inflation as a persistent economic threat that could be reignited by additional easing.” (11/17/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/17/fed-governor-waller-backs-december-rate-cut-as-support-for-weakening-labor-market.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state
Source: Orange County Register
by the editorial board
“Justin Raimondo tried to warn us. The co-founder of Antiwar.com devoted his life to warning Americans and particularly the American right against the relentless pull of the military-industrial complex and the bipartisan-established warfare-welfare state. Raimondo would’ve turned 74 today. He passed away on June 27, 2019 in Sebastopol, California at the age of 67 after battling lung cancer. But his legacy lives on and his message is as necessary as ever.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/BlTN3
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22) Trump Tariff Check Proposal: Bad Math, Not a “Dividend”
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“For the government to send out more than it’s raking in AND ‘begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT’ is mathematically impossible. … But more than the fiscal infeasibility of the proposal, I’m interested in Trump’s claim that those checks would constitute a ‘dividend.’ A dividend on what, precisely? Dividends are payments to shareholders in a business enterprise, distributed as a share of profits. As a ‘business enterprise,’ the last time the US government turned a “profit” by spending less than it received in tax payments was 2001. More importantly, none of us are shareholders in the US government.” (11/18/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20152
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23) Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of “White-Collar Bloodbath?”
Source: The Daily Economy
by Saul Zimet
“In recent decades, and especially since the release of OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence use has rapidly spread into almost every industry. And as AI proliferates, so do fears that a wave of mass unemployment will follow. Concerns are widespread that AI will be deployed to accomplish an ever-greater share of the labor needed throughout the economy, leaving fewer and fewer jobs available for human workers. This fear led Dario Amodei, one of the world’s leading AI technologists, to sound the alarm earlier this year about an impending ‘white-collar bloodbath.’ The Anthropic CEO told Axios that one very possible scenario within the next one to five years is that, ‘Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10 percent a year, the budget is balanced — and 20 percent of people don’t have jobs.'” (11/18/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/are-the-benefits-of-ai-worth-the-risk-of-white-collar-bloodbath/
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24) If Soldiers Become Cops, Americans Will Have Even Less Legal Redress Against Abusive Law Enforcement
Source: The UnPopulist
by Anthony Sanders
“In recent weeks, the Trump administration has ordered members of the military and the National Guard onto the streets of American cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. The purported reasons for these decisions have been to protect federal agents and federal property, but the threat of using the troops for general domestic law enforcement looms large, with President Trump repeatedly threatening to do just that. … Under American law, when members of the military violate citizens’ rights in law enforcement, it is much harder, if not impossible, for those victims to receive monetary compensation for the harms they suffer than it is when they suffer wrongs by state or local police — though it’s already hard enough in those cases. Indeed, using the military in domestic law is entirely incompatible with our nation’s current remedial legal architecture.” (11/18/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/if-soldiers-become-cops-americans
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25) Is Blackrock To Blame For The Housing Crisis?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Diyar Kasymov
“Is building more homes not enough? Recently, there have been more and more Gen-Z memes about boomers selling their overvalued houses to Blackrock instead of to young couples, and then the corporation rents the house to the couple for 2x the price. The housing crisis is not a false alarm. The median rent price went up 25 percent in just 6 years. This is a serious economic problem for America. Many young people are already being radicalized by this, as they are willing to elect socialist Zohran Mamdani — who called for abolition of private property once — as the mayor of New York City. But what can we do? Are rent controls now relevant, as globalization and financialization changed the rules of the game? Can European-style social-democrats like Mamdani, Bernie, and AOC control the markets elegantly enough to maximize supply?” (11/18/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/blackrock-blame-housing-crisis
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26) This scam is why even Lincoln would have wanted to ditch the penny
Source: USA Today
by Joel Burgess
“For at least a century, American businesses have been using charm pricing to fool us into thinking that a $9.99 meal is much cheaper than $10. One study says the practice increases sales by 24%.” (11/18/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/11/18/pennies-discontinued-price-whole-numbers/87275333007/
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27) Legal Nonsense to Justify Non-Judicial Killings
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Many years ago, when I was practicing law in Texas, I learned that there were, generally speaking, two types of lawyers …. The first type of lawyer would carefully research the issue and give his honest, independent-minded opinion as to the legality of the proposed action, even if it wasn’t what the client wanted to hear. … The second type of lawyer would instead come up with whatever legal reasoning was necessary to please the client …. When it comes to President Trump’s and the Pentagon’s extra-judicial drug-war killings in the Caribbean, there is little or no doubt that the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice falls into the second category.” (11/18/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/11/18/legal-nonsense-to-justify-non-judicial-killings/
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28) Vendor capture and the limits of fast government reform
Source: Niskanen Center
by Matthew Burton
“Last spring, as I was ending my time at the U.S. Treasury as an oversight official monitoring the IRS’s IT modernization efforts, one initiative by the Trump administration gave me hope that progress would be made after I left: trimming federal contracts with large consulting firms. … after decades of dependence on outside firms to do their work for them, many government agencies can no longer even function without them. They are suffering from something called ‘vendor capture,’ and it’s one of the most underexamined barriers to meaningful change in federal operations.” (11/18/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/vendor-capture-and-the-limits-of-fast-government-reform
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29) Creating a New East Wing of Heaven, While Sending the Rest of Us to Hell in a Handbasket
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt
“When I began TomDispatch in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, believe me, the world did not look good. But I guarantee you one thing: if you had told me then that, almost a quarter of a century later, the president of the United States would be Donald J. Trump (and had explained to me just who he was), I would have thought you an idiot first class or totally mad! Donald J. Trump as president of the United States, not just once, but twice? In what century? On what planet? You must be kidding! (And what a dreadful joke at that!) Now, of course, I would have to put all of that in the past tense (and probably add yet more exclamation points)!!” (11/18/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/trumps-greatest-skill/
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30) Tit-for-Tat in Politics
Source: EconLog
by Clifford A Bates Jr.
“Cooperation is both the most fragile and the most necessary condition of political life. It is fragile because individuals and groups often pursue short-term gains at others’ expense, yet it is essential because no political community endures without mutual accommodation and understanding. Politics, as Aristotle taught, is the art of living together — not the sum of private interests but the shared effort to sustain a common life. The enduring question is how cooperation survives amid constant temptations to betray, deceive, or act unilaterally. One answer lies in reciprocity.” (11/18/25)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/tit-for-tat-in-politics/
-----
31) Beware false affordable-housing fixes: New Connecticut law hides socialist wishlist
Source: New York Post
by Betsy McCaughey
“The Democrats’ lurch to the left is accelerating at warp speed — and Connecticut is the latest victim. The state legislature’s Democratic supermajority last week rammed through a bill that’s a thinly disguised socialist wishlist. Cynically couched as a remedy for the affordable housing crisis, its real purpose is ideological: forcing Connecticut’s 169 towns to achieve what the bill calls ‘economic diversity.’ Translation: If you’ve worked hard to own a home in a leafy suburb with quiet streets, you can’t live there unless everybody can — including those with low incomes and even the homeless. The state, through regional councils, will dictate how many people at each income level a town must house. The councils are mere middlemen, a cosmetic addition to paper over a fundamental loss of local control.” (11/17/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/beware-false-affordable-housing-laws-this-one-is-a-socialist-wishlist/
-----
32) How the Internet Made the Far-Right
Source: Persuasion
by Katherine Dee
“To understand extremist politics, you have to understand online discourse.” (11/18/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-the-internet-made-the-far-right
-----
33) Peaceful Protest (Not Polarization) Is the Recipe for Saving Our Democracy
Source: Common Dreams
by Rebecca Winter
“On a cloudy Wednesday in mid-April, Jared and Laurie Berezin, a couple in their 40s from Maynard, Massachusetts, pulled their car into the Macy’s parking lot at the Burlington Mall. Carrying a sign that said, ‘Just Say No To Harassing Immigrants, the two stood by themselves outside Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s New England Regional Headquarters. One week later, there were five people. Six weeks after that, there were 60. Earlier this month, at the 29th consecutive Wednesday protest, there were more than 700. Singing and chanting, the crowd of grandmothers, ministers, war veterans, nuclear physicists, retirees, and many others offered hope and support as a handful of immigrants arrived for their deportation hearings. Using bullhorns, they decried injustices happening inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where hundreds of immigrants, many with no criminal records, have been detained for multiple days since January.” (11/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/peaceful-protest-to-save-democracy
-----
34) Vietnam and the US at the Negotiating Table
Source: Foundation for Econic Education
by Jake Scott
“Global trade patterns are continuing to shift, and increasingly Eastward. As Gulf nations diversify and broaden their highly oil-dependent economies, ASEAN nations seem to be deepening theirs, focusing more on what they are good at while pursuing stability alongside. In this vein, Vietnam and the United States are now closing in on what may become one of the most strategically important bilateral trade agreements either has attempted in decades. … Two features of the emerging agreement stand out as especially consequential. The first is the pursuit of structured reciprocity, a model far more formal (and couched in the language favored by President Trump) than previous phases of US–Vietnam engagement. … The second is the macro-financial consultation mechanism.” (11/18/25)
https://fee.org/articles/vietnam-and-the-us-at-the-negotiating-table/
-----
35) Trump gives a lesson in how not to handle a scandal
Source: The Hill
by Bill Press
“There’s nothing Washington likes more than a scandal. Most quickly fade away. But every once in a while, there’s a scandal that takes root, that just won’t go away. President Nixon had Water-gate, President Bill Clinton had Whitewater and President Trump now has Geoffrey Epstein. But what’s unique about the Epstein-gate scandal is that this is not something Democrats laid on Trump. From the start, this scandal was entirely of Trump’s own creation. He brought it on himself. He created it, he fanned the flames, and now he can’t get out from under it. Forget the politics. Just stand back for a moment and review how Trump’s mishandled the Epstein matter. It’s been one ham-handed mistake after another. Either he or whoever is advising him on how to deal with Epstein should be fired for incompetence.” (11/18/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5610187-epstein-scandal-trump-fallout/
-----
36) An Act of Contrition
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is in a penitent mood. ‘I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,’ she said in an interview Sunday on CNN, where all normal, spiritually mature Christians such as Rep. Greene go to make their confessions. … Rep. Greene professes to put her Christian faith at the center of her life and American flourishing at the center of her politics. She has an opportunity to put those professions into action if she is sincere — as I will assume, arguendo, that she is, though I actually very much doubt it — about her regret over her contributions to ‘toxic politics.’ Rep. Greene should resign her office and return to private life. A period of penance might be good for her.” (11/18/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-penance/
-----
37) Why every “affordable” promise from Democrats ends up costing you more
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“Democrats say they will make life more affordable for Americans. What a joke. People should ask: If Democrat policies lower costs for Americans, why are all the most expensive cities in the U.S. run by Democrats? Where were these concerned politicians when their party and President Joe Biden blew up federal spending and drove inflation to 9% — the highest since Democrat Jimmy Carter was president? Show me one Democrat who backs sustainable measures that actually lower the cost of living, rather than fake fixes like freezing prices. Why is it so expensive to live in cities and states run by Democrats? Because they impose high taxes, costly labor regulations, expensive green mandates and restrictions on new building that drive construction costs higher. New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, and Honolulu are the costliest cities in the U.S. All are run by Democrat mayors and are in states with Democrat governors.” (11/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-why-every-affordable-promise-from-democrats-ends-up-costing-you-more
-----
38) The Forgotten Classical Liberal Who Fought Jim Crow and Championed Immigration
Source: Reason
by Damon Root
“A mostly forgotten figure today, [Louis] Marshall (1856-1929) was a prominent lawyer and activist who argued and won a series of significant legal victories during the Progressive Era …. Marshall was a leading reformer during the Progressive Era, but he was no Progressive. Rather, he was a classical liberal. He championed property rights and economic liberty in regulatory cases while championing the rights of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in civil rights cases.” (11/18/25)
https://reason.com/2025/11/18/the-forgotten-classical-liberal-who-fought-jim-crow-and-championed-immigration/
-----
39) We Must Resist Trump’s War Agenda At Home And Abroad
Source: CounterPunch
by Abraham Márquez
“As Donald Trump continues to ramp up his immigration raids and slash social programs, one theme is consistent through his press conferences and executive orders: class war. Not just the one enforced by ICE raids, mass kidnappings, and deportations, but one that he is aiming to invade and bomb Venezuela, Mexico, and now Colombia in the so-called ‘war on drugs.’ These attacks on the working class are part of the same imperial system, and they must be opposed with equal force, organization, and clear politics.” (11/18/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/18/we-must-resist-trumps-war-agenda-at-home-and-abroad/
-----
40) Why Israel’s defenders want US aid to stop
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols
“Laura Loomer has never been subtle about her support for Israel. Just a few months ago, she described the diminutive state as a ‘wall protecting the U.S. from mass Islamic invasion.’ So it came as something of a surprise last week when, seemingly out of nowhere, Loomer called for the U.S. to end all aid to Israel. But her logic is fairly straightforward. … In Loomer’s view, the financial support amounts to ‘golden handcuffs’ — a needless restriction on Israeli actions that also acts as a ‘constant source of agitation’ in the U.S. … It’s probably safe to say that, these days, most advocates of cutting off aid to Israel are motivated by anger at Israeli policies in Gaza. But skepticism toward aid has never been limited to Israel’s critics.” (11/18/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ending-us-aid-to-israel/
-----
41) Poem: Treasure
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The dolphins are getting Alzheimer’s from algae blooms caused by warming waters and toxic runoff / and you could see the bloodstains in Sudan from space. / The cobalt is mined by children and the music is made by robots / and the grownups are wondering
where the fireflies went. / It is an elephant with an eyepatch and a prosthetic leg. / It’s a freshly emptied bed in the nursing home. / A hand offers you pills to numb the dissonance, / but you swat it away and howl naked in the thorns. / Somewhere there’s an ibis on a piano in a junkyard in the rain. / Somewhere else there’s a small boy who has just learned the word ‘treasure’. / ‘Look! Buried treasure!’ he tells his dad. / ‘No. That’s just glass worn smooth by the sea.’ / ‘Is that treasure?’ / ‘No, that’s just a shiny candy wrapper shimmering in the sun.’…” (11/17/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/17/treasure/
-----
42) Constitutional Defects
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The 60-vote supermajority the United States Senate needs to end debate and vote on legislation is a small‑r republican measure, not a small‑d democratic one. Reasonable people can disagree over its merits, certainly, but I like the greater consensus it requires. What I don’t like is that the party in control of the Senate can at any time change the filibuster rule in any way it wishes, including ending it altogether. Rules shouldn’t be this easy to junk. Make the Senate filibuster not just a rule, but constitutional law.” (11/18/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/18/constitutional-defects/
-----
43) Europe’s Bleak Future
Source: The American Conservative
by John J Mearscheimer
“Europe is in deep trouble today, mainly because of the Ukraine war, which has played a key role in undermining what had been a largely peaceful region. Unfortunately, the situation is not likely to improve in the years ahead. In fact, Europe is likely to be less stable moving forward than it is today.” (11/18/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/mearsheimer-europes-bleak-future/
-----
44) Trumpty Dumpty and the Venezuelan boat strikes
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Terrorism is indiscriminate violence intended to sow fear, thereby advancing political objectives. Drug trafficking is for-profit commerce. ‘Narco-terrorists’ is a self-contradictory neologism coined to turn crime (drug trafficking) into war, thereby enabling lethal kinetic stuff by the war secretary. … Channeling his inner Humpty Dumpty (”When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — nothing more nor less”), Donald Trump has decided that this hypothetical fentanyl from Venezuela might be a ‘chemical weapon’ (like mustard gas or sarin?). An odd one, that Americans pay for and ingest.” (11/17/25)
https://archive.is/232VZ
-----
45) Want Lower Prices? More “Affordability”? Move to a Red State
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The buzzword of the month is ‘affordability,’ and based on the election results from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, voters think that’s declining. Democrats think they’ve found a winning issue here to win back the hearts and minds of voters after the Trump sweep last year. It’s true that people are angry about prices. Steaks and hamburgers are more expensive than ever. So are coffee and rents, and medical care. Many Americans are about to see a 10%-20% increase in their health care premiums starting in January. But who’s to blame? President Donald Trump said he would bring prices down; that hasn’t happened. His tariffs have nudged up prices on certain products like coffee and cars. But since Trump came into office in January, the inflation rate has fallen.” (11/18/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2025/11/18/want-lower-prices-more-affordability-move-to-a-red-state-n2666589
-----
46) Housing Affordability — Where Everyone Is Wrong
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer
“There is one simple answer to why housing costs rise faster than inflation and incomes — restricted supply mated with subsidized demand. In many locales the supply of housing is restricted by the government (rent control, growth limits, expensive and time-consuming permitting, etc) and in every part of the country housing is subsidized by the government (mortgage loan guarantees, tax deductibility of mortgage interest, section 8 housing vouchers, etc). The net result HAS to be rising rents and home prices. I bring this up because we are in the insane situation that both the Left and Right are proposing to attack housing affordability by …. subsidizing demand and restricting supply.” (11/17/25)
https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2025/11/housing-affordability-where-everyone-is-wrong.html
-----
47) The real Trump proposals are as ridiculous as the fake 15-year car loan
Source: Orange County Register
by Matt Fleming
“I was duped into thinking President Donald Trump was considering advocating for 15-year car loans, but when put into context it’s hard to blame me. A fake image of a White House statement circulated social media last week saying that Trump had tasked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with making ‘vehicle ownership for all a reality by introducing 15 year car loans!’ … I was one of many people to fall for it. Big if true, as they say. Of course it wasn’t, but it’s hard to tell these days. After all, the fake 15-year auto loan news came right on the heels of real announcements that Trump was considering 50-year mortgages and a $2,000 tariff refund (which he called a dividend). All of these ideas are ridiculous.” (11/17/25)
https://archive.is/4q262
-----
48) Tocqueville versus the Groypers
Source: Law & Liberty
by Samuel Gregg
“The Frenchman’s treatment of Arthur de Gobineau offers a lesson for today’s intra-conservative debates.” (11/17/25)
https://lawliberty.org/tocqueville-versus-the-groypers/
-----
49) Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“Republicans, for once, are sounding downright squeamish about onrushing massive cuts to Obamacare subsidies, with premiums on the exchanges expected to more than double on average starting next year. GOP House committee chairs are reportedly having some ‘brainstorming sessions’ about what to do, and House Speaker Mike Johnson claims that they ‘will be rolling out some of those ideas’ at some point. So far, the genius idea in the lead is Trump’s pitch to reroute subsidies from health insurance companies to the American people, so they can buy health care. … Congratulations, folks, you now get to be your own private dealmaker with the health care system, and with your purchasing power and risk pool of one household, I’m sure you’ll get the best price!” (11/18/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/18/republicans-will-never-find-health-care-replacement/
-----
50) The Politics of Price Controls
Source; Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“Aweekend NYT op-ed by Neale Mahoney and Bharat Ramamurti has caused a stir. It argues that policymakers should be open to considering price controls, given voters’ discontent about the cost of living. Price controls, the authors say, are a ‘tool’ to be used carefully. The key is to ‘design’ them to avoid the classic long-term consequences of ‘less investment’ in supply, but keep the benefits of providing ‘immediate relief’ to customers through lower prices. … Would ‘immediate relief’ via price controls really prove temporary as new supply is brought onboard? Mahoney-Ramamurti provide no historical or contemporary examples of such a bundle.” (11/17/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/politics-price-controls
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Cato Podcast, 11/18/25
Source: Cato Institute
“The Shutdown That Solved Nothing.” (11/18/25)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/shutdown-solved-nothing
-----
52) Rising, 11/18/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the several factions that are growing within the Republican Party, and how it could lead to a struggle for power after President Trump’s second term ends in 2028.” (11/18/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5610533-rising-november-18-2025/
-----
53) Pod Save America, 11/18/25
Source: Crooked Media
“Did Trump Blow It on the Epstein Files?” (11/18/25)
https://stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/9aa1e238-cbed-4305-9808-c9228fc6dd4f/episodes/90a30c67-6a76-4d6d-8d02-a49862c7b3e0/audio/128/default.mp3
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/18/25
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Another UN War? Trump To Head ‘Board Of Peace’ Governing Gaza.” (11/18/25)
https://rumble.com/v71w8pi-another-un-war-trump-to-head-board-of-peace-governing-gaza.html
-----
55) The Climate Realism Show, episode 182
Source: Heartland Institute
“Worst COP Ever?” (11/18/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/worst-cop-ever-the-climate-realism-show-182-guest-chris-martz-3/
-----
56) The Good Fight, 11/18/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“James Loxton on Democracies and Dictators.” (11/18/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/james-loxton-on-democracies-and-dictators
-----
57) Advisory Opinions, 11/18/25
Source: The Dispatch
“Did Congress Stretch the Commerce Clause Too Far? | Interview: Jonathan Karl.” (11/18/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/did-congress-stretch-the-commerce-clause-too-far-interview-jonathan-karl/
-----
58) SolutionsWatch, 11/18/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“Spoil the Vote!” (11/18/25)
https://corbettreport.com/spoil-the-vote/
-----
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/18/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Accidentally Stabs Vance in the Back as MAGA Erupts in Civil War.” (11/18/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/203333/trump-accidentally-stabs-vance-back-maga-erupts-civil-war
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/18/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“UN Places Gaza Under Control of US-Led Board, Trump Won’t Rule Out Troops to Venezuela, and More.” (11/18/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5xS6R_vgYg
-----
61) Quillette Podcast, episode 312
Source: Quillette
“Ancient Christianities: The First 500 Years.” (11/17/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/17/podcast-312-ancient-christianities-the-first-500-years/
-----
62) LPA Spotlight, episode 3
Source: LP Alliance
“Come celebrate LPAlliance’s first birthday with one of our first first movers!” (11/17/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGhjpCyEXgc
-----
63) Finding Freedom, 11/17/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Is MAHA Going to Outlast MAGA?” (11/17/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/ff-is-maha-going-to-outlast-maga
-----
64) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 11/17/25
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson – The US is Now in War Time Footing.” (11/17/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-larry-johnson-the-us-is-now-in-war-time-footing/
-----
65) My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, 11/17/25
Source: My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
“Death By Lightning: My Opinion of the Netflix Series, and Other Thoughts.” (11/17/25)
https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/death-by-lightning-my-opinion-of-the-netflix-series-and-other-thoughts/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) "Hump Day" Fundraiser Update: Help Us Over The Hump!
1) Lebanon: Israeli forces murder 13 in attack on refugee camp
2) US Senate sends bill to release Epstein files to Trump
3) NATO scrambles fighter jets as Russia launches combined attack on Ukraine
4) Labor Department: US jobless benefits rolls in mid-October were the highest since August
5) Trump hosts Saudi terror kingpin in White House meeting
6) Toyota to boost hybrid car production in $900 million US investment
7) Russia: Pols Approve Tax Hike
8) Study: Daily orange juice has “therapeutic potential” for genes and heart health
9) Feds reduce troop presence in Portland, Chicago occupations
10) Summers quits public roles amid Epstein emails: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions”
11) Australia: Prisoner sues for his “human right” to eat Vegemite
12) CA: LA County sheriff investigating new sex battery claim against Combs
13) Germany: Entertainment duo Kessler twins die by assisted suicide at age 89 on same day
14) France: Regime posthumously promotes Dreyfus
15) Tanzania: Hassan says election violence could hurt access to international funding
16) Cloudflare Outage Disrupts X, ChatGPT and Other Parts of the Internet
17) As Trump Issues New Threats to Mexico & Colombia, Dems Push to End Unauthorized Aggression
18) UK: MI5 spy service warns pols that Chinese spies are posing as headhunters
19) As Trump presses for its closure, Education Department offloads some work to other agencies
20) Fed Governor Waller backs December rate cut as support for weakening labor market
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state
22) Trump Tariff Check Proposal: Bad Math, Not a “Dividend”
23) Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of “White-Collar Bloodbath?”
24) If Soldiers Become Cops, Americans Will Have Even Less Legal Redress Against Abusive Law Enforcement
25) Is Blackrock To Blame For The Housing Crisis?
26) This scam is why even Lincoln would have wanted to ditch the penny
27) Legal Nonsense to Justify Non-Judicial Killings
28) Vendor capture and the limits of fast government reform
29) Creating a New East Wing of Heaven, While Sending the Rest of Us to Hell in a Handbasket
30) Tit-for-Tat in Politics
31) Beware false affordable-housing fixes: New Connecticut law hides socialist wishlist
32) How the Internet Made the Far-Right
33) Peaceful Protest (Not Polarization) Is the Recipe for Saving Our Democracy
34) Vietnam and the US at the Negotiating Table
35) Trump gives a lesson in how not to handle a scandal
36) An Act of Contrition
37) Why every “affordable” promise from Democrats ends up costing you more
38) The Forgotten Classical Liberal Who Fought Jim Crow and Championed Immigration
39) We Must Resist Trump’s War Agenda At Home And Abroad
40) Why Israel’s defenders want US aid to stop
41) Poem: Treasure
42) Constitutional Defects
43) Europe’s Bleak Future
44) Trumpty Dumpty and the Venezuelan boat strikes
45) Want Lower Prices? More “Affordability”? Move to a Red State
46) Housing Affordability — Where Everyone Is Wrong
47) The real Trump proposals are as ridiculous as the fake 15-year car loan
48) Tocqueville versus the Groypers
49) Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement
50) The Politics of Price Controls
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Cato Podcast, 11/18/25
52) Rising, 11/18/25
53) Pod Save America, 11/18/25
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/18/25
55) The Climate Realism Show, episode 182
56) The Good Fight, 11/18/25
57) Advisory Opinions, 11/18/25
58) SolutionsWatch, 11/18/25
59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/18/25
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/18/25
61) Quillette Podcast, episode 312
62) LPA Spotlight, episode 3
63) Finding Freedom, 11/17/25
64) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 11/17/25
65) My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, 11/17/25
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-----
1) Lebanon: Israeli forces murder 13 in attack on refugee camp
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. … The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army.” (11/19/25)
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/19/g-s1-98349/israeli-airstrike-palestinian-refugee-camp-lebanon
-----
2) US Senate sends bill to release Epstein files to Trump
Source: Axios
“The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending it to President Trump’s desk. Trump said Monday he would sign the bill, but the files still may not be released any time soon. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Monday evening, just hours after it cleared the House via a nearly unanimous vote — and before the bill had even technically been sent over. In a stunning reversal, Trump this week supported the legislation after opposing the effort for months. But his recent directive of DOJ to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton, officials at JP Morgan Chase and others may cause the files to never see the light of day.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/D4yox
-----
3) NATO scrambles fighter jets as Russia launches combined attack on Ukraine
Source: CNN
“NATO scrambled fighter jets in Polish and Romanian airspace as Russia carried out a massive and deadly attack using ballistic and cruise missiles and hundreds of drones across Ukraine into Wednesday. Romania defense ministry claimed a Russian drone entered its airspace during the attack. It comes as Russia said it shot down four US-made ATACMS long-range missiles ‘deep within’ its territory yesterday, that Ukraine claimed it fired. … Many regions of Ukraine were left without power Wednesday after strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.” (11/19/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/europe/poland-fighter-jets-russia-ukraine-intl-hnk
-----
4) Labor Department: US jobless benefits rolls in mid-October were the highest since August
Source: Reuters
“The number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits stood at a two-month high in mid-October at the time when the Labor Department would have been conducting its survey of U.S. households for the monthly employment report that has been held up by the recently ended government shutdown. Continued claims for jobless benefits — those receiving benefits beyond an initial week of relief — rose to 1.957 million in the week ended October 18, updated figures posted to a Labor Department website showed on Tuesday. That was up 10,000 from the prior week and was the highest since early August. It was up notably from the 1.916 million level in the week ended September 13, the last week of data to have been reported prior to the start of the shutdown on October 1.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/C6251
-----
5) Trump hosts Saudi terror kingpin in White House meeting
Source: Washington Post
“Saudi [terror kingpin] Mohammed bin Salman arrived to a grand welcome from President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, greeted at the South Portico with an honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters, a remarkable turnaround for the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia who had been branded a pariah in 2018 after the CIA concluded that he had approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The arrival, filled with more pomp than any world leader thus far in Trump’s second term, was a measure of the U.S. president’s affection for the Saudi [terror kingpin] and his rehabilitation following the killing. … The leaders are expected to sign deals ranging from weapons sales to agreements around artificial intelligence and critical minerals, according to White House officials.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/gfvbQ
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6) Toyota to boost hybrid car production in $900 million US investment
Source: United Press International
“Toyota said it plans to invest nearly a billion dollars in U.S. manufacturing across five southern states to grow its hybrid model line. On Tuesday, Japan-based Toyota Motor announced it will invest around $912 million as part of separate plans to invest up to $10 billion in the United States by 2030. … The Japanese automaker currently holds more than 51% market share in hybrid vehicle manufacturing, and the new finance boost in its American facilities is largely intended to build upon that.” (11/18/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/11/18/Japan-us-Toyota-investment-hybrid-car/6741763476493/
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7) Russia: Pols Approve Tax Hike
Source: US News & World Report
“Russian lawmakers endorsed new tax hikes on Tuesday as Moscow looks for new revenue sources to boost its economy during its nearly four-year war with Ukraine. Legislators in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved the key second reading of a bill that will raise value-added tax from 20% to 22%. The changes are expected to add as much as 1 trillion rubles (about $12.3 billion) to the state budget. The new legislation also lowers the threshold for businesses required to collect VAT from 60 million rubles (about $739,000) in annual sales revenue to 10 million rubles (about $123,000). The changes, which will be introduced in stages up to 2028, are designed to stop firms from dividing their operations to avoid taxes. But they are also expected to hit many small businesses that were previously exempt.” [editor’s note: Tax hikes don’t boost economies; they boost governments at the expense of economies – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2025-11-18/russian-lawmakers-approve-tax-hike-bill-to-boost-economy-as-the-war-with-ukraine-nears-4-years
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8) Study: Daily orange juice has “therapeutic potential” for genes and heart health
Source: Fox News
“A daily glass of orange juice might do more than deliver vitamin C. It may influence gene activity in ways that support heart health, according to new research. In a small but detailed study, 20 healthy adults drank about two cups of 100% orange juice every day for two months. Researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, North Carolina State University and the University of California, Davis, tracked changes in more than 1,700 genes within participants’ immune cells, finding broad shifts in genetic activity tied to blood pressure, fat metabolism and inflammation — all key factors in cardiovascular health. The findings highlight how citrus flavonoids — plant compounds also found in berries, tea and cocoa that act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatories — may influence the body at a molecular level. The research was published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research in late October.” (11/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/daily-orange-juice-has-therapeutic-potential-genes-heart-health-study-finds
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9) Feds reduce troop presence in Portland, Chicago occupations
Source: Seattle Times
“Hundreds of National Guard troops deployed to Chicago and Portland are being sent home, and those who will remain will continue to stay off the streets amid court battles over their domestic mission by the Trump administration, a defense official said Monday. The withdrawal of soldiers — sent from California and Texas — is part of a larger change to troop deployments after President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown in various cities with Democratic leadership. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue and requested anonymity. U.S. Northern Command said in a statement Sunday it was ‘shifting and/or rightsizing’ units in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, although it said there would be a ‘constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city.'” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/8NDJ0
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10) Summers quits public roles amid Epstein emails: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions”
Source: mint [India]
“Former US Treasury Secretary and former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers announced on Monday that he would be ‘stepping back from public commitments’ following the release of communication documents between him and the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Summers, a current Harvard University Professor, stated that while he will ‘continu[e] to fulfill my teaching obligations,’ the withdrawal from public roles is ‘one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.’ … The documents revealed that Summers and Epstein continued to exchange messages until July 5, 2019 — just one day before Epstein’s arrest on new sex-trafficking charges.” (11/18/25)
https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/exharvard-president-larry-summers-quits-public-roles-amid-epstein-scandal-i-am-deeply-ashamed-of-my-actions-11763472892373.html
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11) Australia: Prisoner sues for his “human right” to eat Vegemite
Source: ABC News
“A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a court suit that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breaches his human right to ‘enjoy his culture as an Australian.’ Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, according to documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. But inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are going without.” [editor’s note: I suspect Vegemite is an acquired taste. After giving it a try, I decided I don’t really want to acquire it – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australian-prisoner-sues-eat-vegemite-127619232
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12) CA: LA County sheriff investigating new sex battery claim against Combs
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions. … A male music producer and publicist said he was asked to come to a photo shoot in 2020 at a Los Angeles warehouse, where Combs exposed himself while masturbating and told the accuser to assist, according to NBC News, citing a police report. Combs then tossed a dirty shirt at the man, the producer said. The accuser, whose name is redacted in the police report, said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. He came forward to police in Largo, Florida, this September, shortly after Combs was convicted on other charges.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/18/diddy-new-sex-battery-claims/
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13) Germany: Entertainment duo Kessler twins die by assisted suicide at age 89 on same day
Source: New York Post
“The Kessler twins, who were best known for their postwar entertainment in the ’50s and ’60s, have died by joint assisted suicide. Alice and Ellen Kessler died at age 89 at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, Germany, on Monday. The sisters ‘no longer wanted to live’ and they ‘had chosen to end their lives together’, as reported by the German newspaper Bild. According to CNN, Alice and Ellen were assisted by advocacy organization the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS). The DGHS provides people with access to lawyers and doctors and other tools. The organization told CNN that the twins contacted the DGHS over a year ago and became members. ‘The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date,’ DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel told CNN. However, Wetzel noted that she wasn’t aware of why each woman chose this method.” (11/18/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/18/entertainment/dancing-duo-the-kessler-twins-die-by-assisted-suicide-at-age-89/
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14) France: Regime posthumously promotes Dreyfus
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France Tuesday promoted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general as an act of reparation in a notorious case of anti-Semitism that has caused outrage for generations. … Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attache. … Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank. … Only in 1906, after many twists, did the high court of appeal overturn the original verdict, exonerating Dreyfus. He was reinstated with the rank of major and decorated with a Legion d’Honneur award. He served during World War I and died in 1935, aged 76.” (11/18/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251118-france-promotes-jewish-soldier-dreyfus-130-years-after-scandal
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15) Tanzania: Hassan says election violence could hurt access to international funding
Source: SFGate
“Tanzania’s president on Tuesday said her government may lose access to the international funding that largely keeps the nation afloat after the worst election violence in the country’s history. ‘We have to look for funds internally using our God-given resources,’ President Samia Suluhu Hassan said. The East African nation’s Oct. 29 elections were marked by three days of protests during which the opposition asserts that more than 2,000 people died. Hundreds of others were arrested and charged with treason. The president later asked for some to be released. Hassan was declared the winner with over 97% of the vote after competitors from the two main opposition parties were barred from running. On Monday, she announced her new cabinet, which includes her daughter and son-in-law. On Tuesday, Hassan urged it to find local money to fund development projects.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/tanzania-s-leader-says-election-violence-could-21194734.php
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16) Cloudflare Outage Disrupts X, ChatGPT and Other Parts of the Internet
Source: New York Times
“Cloudflare, a company that helps websites secure and manage their internet traffic, experienced issues with its global network, the company said early Tuesday, disrupting service for many websites and apps.
‘Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,’ the company posted in a status update shortly before 7 a.m. ‘We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem.’ In an update about 20 minutes later, it said disruptions had begun to ease, but said it was continuing to investigate the issue. … The outage hit nearly a month after Amazon Web Services experienced problems with its service, disrupting a wide range of online services for hours.” [editor’s note: Rational Review News Digest was down for several hours due to the Cloudflare problems, but it remains the best CDN/caching solution I’ve found – TLK] (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/W356P
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17) As Trump Issues New Threats to Mexico & Colombia, Dems Push to End Unauthorized Aggression
Source: Common Dreams
“As Democrats in the US House of Representatives introduced their latest measure to stop President Donald Trump from continuing his attacks against alleged drug cartels without approval from Congress, the president said he wouldn’t ‘rule out’ deploying US ground troops in Venezuela, and warned he could escalate attacks across Latin America, with possible strikes in Mexico and Colombia as well. Shortly after the Department of Defense, called the Department of War by the Trump administration, announced its 21st illegal airstrike on what they’ve claimed, without evidence, to be ‘narco-terrorist’ vessels mostly in the Caribbean (attacks that have killed at least 83 people) Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he may soon begin similar operations against drug cartels in mainland Mexico.” (11/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-strikes-colombia-mexico
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18) UK: MI5 spy service warns pols that Chinese spies are posing as headhunters
Source: Reuters
“Britain’s MI5 security service issued a new warning to lawmakers on Tuesday about attempts by Chinese agents to collect information and influence activity, its latest accusation that Beijing was trying to spy on the nation’s parliament. Lawmakers were told Chinese spies were targeting them by posing as headhunters or companies to make contact, with two individuals reaching out on LinkedIn to ‘conduct outreach at scale on behalf’ of the Chinese government. The speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament said MI5 had said the Chinese Ministry of State Security ‘was actively reaching out to individuals in our community.’ Britain’s Security Minister Dan Jarvis told parliament the alert revealed ‘a covert and calculated attempt’ by Beijing to interfere in UK politics and said the government would launch a counterespionage plan to address the threat.” (11/18/25)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-security-service-warns-lawmakers-chinese-spy-risk-2025-11-18/
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19) As Trump presses for its closure, Education Department offloads some work to other agencies
Source: SFGate
“The U.S. Education Department is handing off some of its biggest grant programs to other federal agencies as the Trump administration accelerates its plan to shut down the department. It represents a major step forward for the administration’s dismantling of the department, which has mainly involved cutting jobs since President Donald Trump called for its elimination with an executive action in March. Six new agreements signed by the Education Department will effectively move billions of dollars in grant programs to other agencies. Most notable is one that will put the Department of Labor over some of the largest federal funding streams for K-12 schools, including Title I money for schools serving low-income communities. Department officials said the programs will continue to be funded at levels set by Congress.” (11/18/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/education-department-offloads-some-work-to-other-21194739.php
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20) Fed Governor Waller backs December rate cut as support for weakening labor market
Source: CNBC
“Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Monday voiced support for another interest rate cut at the central bank’s December meeting, saying he’s grown concerned over the labor market and the sharp slowdown in hiring. In an increasingly divided Fed, Waller’s comments put him squarely in the camp of those looking to ease monetary policy to head off further danger in the jobs picture. Others, including multiple regional presidents, have expressed opposition in recent days to more cuts as they view inflation as a persistent economic threat that could be reignited by additional easing.” (11/17/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/17/fed-governor-waller-backs-december-rate-cut-as-support-for-weakening-labor-market.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state
Source: Orange County Register
by the editorial board
“Justin Raimondo tried to warn us. The co-founder of Antiwar.com devoted his life to warning Americans and particularly the American right against the relentless pull of the military-industrial complex and the bipartisan-established warfare-welfare state. Raimondo would’ve turned 74 today. He passed away on June 27, 2019 in Sebastopol, California at the age of 67 after battling lung cancer. But his legacy lives on and his message is as necessary as ever.” (11/18/25)
https://archive.is/BlTN3
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22) Trump Tariff Check Proposal: Bad Math, Not a “Dividend”
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“For the government to send out more than it’s raking in AND ‘begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT’ is mathematically impossible. … But more than the fiscal infeasibility of the proposal, I’m interested in Trump’s claim that those checks would constitute a ‘dividend.’ A dividend on what, precisely? Dividends are payments to shareholders in a business enterprise, distributed as a share of profits. As a ‘business enterprise,’ the last time the US government turned a “profit” by spending less than it received in tax payments was 2001. More importantly, none of us are shareholders in the US government.” (11/18/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20152
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23) Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of “White-Collar Bloodbath?”
Source: The Daily Economy
by Saul Zimet
“In recent decades, and especially since the release of OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence use has rapidly spread into almost every industry. And as AI proliferates, so do fears that a wave of mass unemployment will follow. Concerns are widespread that AI will be deployed to accomplish an ever-greater share of the labor needed throughout the economy, leaving fewer and fewer jobs available for human workers. This fear led Dario Amodei, one of the world’s leading AI technologists, to sound the alarm earlier this year about an impending ‘white-collar bloodbath.’ The Anthropic CEO told Axios that one very possible scenario within the next one to five years is that, ‘Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10 percent a year, the budget is balanced — and 20 percent of people don’t have jobs.'” (11/18/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/are-the-benefits-of-ai-worth-the-risk-of-white-collar-bloodbath/
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24) If Soldiers Become Cops, Americans Will Have Even Less Legal Redress Against Abusive Law Enforcement
Source: The UnPopulist
by Anthony Sanders
“In recent weeks, the Trump administration has ordered members of the military and the National Guard onto the streets of American cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. The purported reasons for these decisions have been to protect federal agents and federal property, but the threat of using the troops for general domestic law enforcement looms large, with President Trump repeatedly threatening to do just that. … Under American law, when members of the military violate citizens’ rights in law enforcement, it is much harder, if not impossible, for those victims to receive monetary compensation for the harms they suffer than it is when they suffer wrongs by state or local police — though it’s already hard enough in those cases. Indeed, using the military in domestic law is entirely incompatible with our nation’s current remedial legal architecture.” (11/18/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/if-soldiers-become-cops-americans
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25) Is Blackrock To Blame For The Housing Crisis?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Diyar Kasymov
“Is building more homes not enough? Recently, there have been more and more Gen-Z memes about boomers selling their overvalued houses to Blackrock instead of to young couples, and then the corporation rents the house to the couple for 2x the price. The housing crisis is not a false alarm. The median rent price went up 25 percent in just 6 years. This is a serious economic problem for America. Many young people are already being radicalized by this, as they are willing to elect socialist Zohran Mamdani — who called for abolition of private property once — as the mayor of New York City. But what can we do? Are rent controls now relevant, as globalization and financialization changed the rules of the game? Can European-style social-democrats like Mamdani, Bernie, and AOC control the markets elegantly enough to maximize supply?” (11/18/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/blackrock-blame-housing-crisis
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26) This scam is why even Lincoln would have wanted to ditch the penny
Source: USA Today
by Joel Burgess
“For at least a century, American businesses have been using charm pricing to fool us into thinking that a $9.99 meal is much cheaper than $10. One study says the practice increases sales by 24%.” (11/18/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/11/18/pennies-discontinued-price-whole-numbers/87275333007/
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27) Legal Nonsense to Justify Non-Judicial Killings
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Many years ago, when I was practicing law in Texas, I learned that there were, generally speaking, two types of lawyers …. The first type of lawyer would carefully research the issue and give his honest, independent-minded opinion as to the legality of the proposed action, even if it wasn’t what the client wanted to hear. … The second type of lawyer would instead come up with whatever legal reasoning was necessary to please the client …. When it comes to President Trump’s and the Pentagon’s extra-judicial drug-war killings in the Caribbean, there is little or no doubt that the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice falls into the second category.” (11/18/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/11/18/legal-nonsense-to-justify-non-judicial-killings/
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28) Vendor capture and the limits of fast government reform
Source: Niskanen Center
by Matthew Burton
“Last spring, as I was ending my time at the U.S. Treasury as an oversight official monitoring the IRS’s IT modernization efforts, one initiative by the Trump administration gave me hope that progress would be made after I left: trimming federal contracts with large consulting firms. … after decades of dependence on outside firms to do their work for them, many government agencies can no longer even function without them. They are suffering from something called ‘vendor capture,’ and it’s one of the most underexamined barriers to meaningful change in federal operations.” (11/18/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/vendor-capture-and-the-limits-of-fast-government-reform
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29) Creating a New East Wing of Heaven, While Sending the Rest of Us to Hell in a Handbasket
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt
“When I began TomDispatch in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, believe me, the world did not look good. But I guarantee you one thing: if you had told me then that, almost a quarter of a century later, the president of the United States would be Donald J. Trump (and had explained to me just who he was), I would have thought you an idiot first class or totally mad! Donald J. Trump as president of the United States, not just once, but twice? In what century? On what planet? You must be kidding! (And what a dreadful joke at that!) Now, of course, I would have to put all of that in the past tense (and probably add yet more exclamation points)!!” (11/18/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/trumps-greatest-skill/
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30) Tit-for-Tat in Politics
Source: EconLog
by Clifford A Bates Jr.
“Cooperation is both the most fragile and the most necessary condition of political life. It is fragile because individuals and groups often pursue short-term gains at others’ expense, yet it is essential because no political community endures without mutual accommodation and understanding. Politics, as Aristotle taught, is the art of living together — not the sum of private interests but the shared effort to sustain a common life. The enduring question is how cooperation survives amid constant temptations to betray, deceive, or act unilaterally. One answer lies in reciprocity.” (11/18/25)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/tit-for-tat-in-politics/
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31) Beware false affordable-housing fixes: New Connecticut law hides socialist wishlist
Source: New York Post
by Betsy McCaughey
“The Democrats’ lurch to the left is accelerating at warp speed — and Connecticut is the latest victim. The state legislature’s Democratic supermajority last week rammed through a bill that’s a thinly disguised socialist wishlist. Cynically couched as a remedy for the affordable housing crisis, its real purpose is ideological: forcing Connecticut’s 169 towns to achieve what the bill calls ‘economic diversity.’ Translation: If you’ve worked hard to own a home in a leafy suburb with quiet streets, you can’t live there unless everybody can — including those with low incomes and even the homeless. The state, through regional councils, will dictate how many people at each income level a town must house. The councils are mere middlemen, a cosmetic addition to paper over a fundamental loss of local control.” (11/17/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/beware-false-affordable-housing-laws-this-one-is-a-socialist-wishlist/
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32) How the Internet Made the Far-Right
Source: Persuasion
by Katherine Dee
“To understand extremist politics, you have to understand online discourse.” (11/18/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-the-internet-made-the-far-right
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33) Peaceful Protest (Not Polarization) Is the Recipe for Saving Our Democracy
Source: Common Dreams
by Rebecca Winter
“On a cloudy Wednesday in mid-April, Jared and Laurie Berezin, a couple in their 40s from Maynard, Massachusetts, pulled their car into the Macy’s parking lot at the Burlington Mall. Carrying a sign that said, ‘Just Say No To Harassing Immigrants, the two stood by themselves outside Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s New England Regional Headquarters. One week later, there were five people. Six weeks after that, there were 60. Earlier this month, at the 29th consecutive Wednesday protest, there were more than 700. Singing and chanting, the crowd of grandmothers, ministers, war veterans, nuclear physicists, retirees, and many others offered hope and support as a handful of immigrants arrived for their deportation hearings. Using bullhorns, they decried injustices happening inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where hundreds of immigrants, many with no criminal records, have been detained for multiple days since January.” (11/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/peaceful-protest-to-save-democracy
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34) Vietnam and the US at the Negotiating Table
Source: Foundation for Econic Education
by Jake Scott
“Global trade patterns are continuing to shift, and increasingly Eastward. As Gulf nations diversify and broaden their highly oil-dependent economies, ASEAN nations seem to be deepening theirs, focusing more on what they are good at while pursuing stability alongside. In this vein, Vietnam and the United States are now closing in on what may become one of the most strategically important bilateral trade agreements either has attempted in decades. … Two features of the emerging agreement stand out as especially consequential. The first is the pursuit of structured reciprocity, a model far more formal (and couched in the language favored by President Trump) than previous phases of US–Vietnam engagement. … The second is the macro-financial consultation mechanism.” (11/18/25)
https://fee.org/articles/vietnam-and-the-us-at-the-negotiating-table/
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35) Trump gives a lesson in how not to handle a scandal
Source: The Hill
by Bill Press
“There’s nothing Washington likes more than a scandal. Most quickly fade away. But every once in a while, there’s a scandal that takes root, that just won’t go away. President Nixon had Water-gate, President Bill Clinton had Whitewater and President Trump now has Geoffrey Epstein. But what’s unique about the Epstein-gate scandal is that this is not something Democrats laid on Trump. From the start, this scandal was entirely of Trump’s own creation. He brought it on himself. He created it, he fanned the flames, and now he can’t get out from under it. Forget the politics. Just stand back for a moment and review how Trump’s mishandled the Epstein matter. It’s been one ham-handed mistake after another. Either he or whoever is advising him on how to deal with Epstein should be fired for incompetence.” (11/18/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5610187-epstein-scandal-trump-fallout/
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36) An Act of Contrition
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is in a penitent mood. ‘I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,’ she said in an interview Sunday on CNN, where all normal, spiritually mature Christians such as Rep. Greene go to make their confessions. … Rep. Greene professes to put her Christian faith at the center of her life and American flourishing at the center of her politics. She has an opportunity to put those professions into action if she is sincere — as I will assume, arguendo, that she is, though I actually very much doubt it — about her regret over her contributions to ‘toxic politics.’ Rep. Greene should resign her office and return to private life. A period of penance might be good for her.” (11/18/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-penance/
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37) Why every “affordable” promise from Democrats ends up costing you more
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“Democrats say they will make life more affordable for Americans. What a joke. People should ask: If Democrat policies lower costs for Americans, why are all the most expensive cities in the U.S. run by Democrats? Where were these concerned politicians when their party and President Joe Biden blew up federal spending and drove inflation to 9% — the highest since Democrat Jimmy Carter was president? Show me one Democrat who backs sustainable measures that actually lower the cost of living, rather than fake fixes like freezing prices. Why is it so expensive to live in cities and states run by Democrats? Because they impose high taxes, costly labor regulations, expensive green mandates and restrictions on new building that drive construction costs higher. New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, and Honolulu are the costliest cities in the U.S. All are run by Democrat mayors and are in states with Democrat governors.” (11/18/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-why-every-affordable-promise-from-democrats-ends-up-costing-you-more
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38) The Forgotten Classical Liberal Who Fought Jim Crow and Championed Immigration
Source: Reason
by Damon Root
“A mostly forgotten figure today, [Louis] Marshall (1856-1929) was a prominent lawyer and activist who argued and won a series of significant legal victories during the Progressive Era …. Marshall was a leading reformer during the Progressive Era, but he was no Progressive. Rather, he was a classical liberal. He championed property rights and economic liberty in regulatory cases while championing the rights of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in civil rights cases.” (11/18/25)
https://reason.com/2025/11/18/the-forgotten-classical-liberal-who-fought-jim-crow-and-championed-immigration/
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39) We Must Resist Trump’s War Agenda At Home And Abroad
Source: CounterPunch
by Abraham Márquez
“As Donald Trump continues to ramp up his immigration raids and slash social programs, one theme is consistent through his press conferences and executive orders: class war. Not just the one enforced by ICE raids, mass kidnappings, and deportations, but one that he is aiming to invade and bomb Venezuela, Mexico, and now Colombia in the so-called ‘war on drugs.’ These attacks on the working class are part of the same imperial system, and they must be opposed with equal force, organization, and clear politics.” (11/18/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/18/we-must-resist-trumps-war-agenda-at-home-and-abroad/
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40) Why Israel’s defenders want US aid to stop
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Connor Echols
“Laura Loomer has never been subtle about her support for Israel. Just a few months ago, she described the diminutive state as a ‘wall protecting the U.S. from mass Islamic invasion.’ So it came as something of a surprise last week when, seemingly out of nowhere, Loomer called for the U.S. to end all aid to Israel. But her logic is fairly straightforward. … In Loomer’s view, the financial support amounts to ‘golden handcuffs’ — a needless restriction on Israeli actions that also acts as a ‘constant source of agitation’ in the U.S. … It’s probably safe to say that, these days, most advocates of cutting off aid to Israel are motivated by anger at Israeli policies in Gaza. But skepticism toward aid has never been limited to Israel’s critics.” (11/18/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ending-us-aid-to-israel/
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41) Poem: Treasure
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The dolphins are getting Alzheimer’s from algae blooms caused by warming waters and toxic runoff / and you could see the bloodstains in Sudan from space. / The cobalt is mined by children and the music is made by robots / and the grownups are wondering
where the fireflies went. / It is an elephant with an eyepatch and a prosthetic leg. / It’s a freshly emptied bed in the nursing home. / A hand offers you pills to numb the dissonance, / but you swat it away and howl naked in the thorns. / Somewhere there’s an ibis on a piano in a junkyard in the rain. / Somewhere else there’s a small boy who has just learned the word ‘treasure’. / ‘Look! Buried treasure!’ he tells his dad. / ‘No. That’s just glass worn smooth by the sea.’ / ‘Is that treasure?’ / ‘No, that’s just a shiny candy wrapper shimmering in the sun.’…” (11/17/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/17/treasure/
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42) Constitutional Defects
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“The 60-vote supermajority the United States Senate needs to end debate and vote on legislation is a small‑r republican measure, not a small‑d democratic one. Reasonable people can disagree over its merits, certainly, but I like the greater consensus it requires. What I don’t like is that the party in control of the Senate can at any time change the filibuster rule in any way it wishes, including ending it altogether. Rules shouldn’t be this easy to junk. Make the Senate filibuster not just a rule, but constitutional law.” (11/18/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/18/constitutional-defects/
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43) Europe’s Bleak Future
Source: The American Conservative
by John J Mearscheimer
“Europe is in deep trouble today, mainly because of the Ukraine war, which has played a key role in undermining what had been a largely peaceful region. Unfortunately, the situation is not likely to improve in the years ahead. In fact, Europe is likely to be less stable moving forward than it is today.” (11/18/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/mearsheimer-europes-bleak-future/
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44) Trumpty Dumpty and the Venezuelan boat strikes
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Terrorism is indiscriminate violence intended to sow fear, thereby advancing political objectives. Drug trafficking is for-profit commerce. ‘Narco-terrorists’ is a self-contradictory neologism coined to turn crime (drug trafficking) into war, thereby enabling lethal kinetic stuff by the war secretary. … Channeling his inner Humpty Dumpty (”When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — nothing more nor less”), Donald Trump has decided that this hypothetical fentanyl from Venezuela might be a ‘chemical weapon’ (like mustard gas or sarin?). An odd one, that Americans pay for and ingest.” (11/17/25)
https://archive.is/232VZ
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45) Want Lower Prices? More “Affordability”? Move to a Red State
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The buzzword of the month is ‘affordability,’ and based on the election results from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, voters think that’s declining. Democrats think they’ve found a winning issue here to win back the hearts and minds of voters after the Trump sweep last year. It’s true that people are angry about prices. Steaks and hamburgers are more expensive than ever. So are coffee and rents, and medical care. Many Americans are about to see a 10%-20% increase in their health care premiums starting in January. But who’s to blame? President Donald Trump said he would bring prices down; that hasn’t happened. His tariffs have nudged up prices on certain products like coffee and cars. But since Trump came into office in January, the inflation rate has fallen.” (11/18/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2025/11/18/want-lower-prices-more-affordability-move-to-a-red-state-n2666589
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46) Housing Affordability — Where Everyone Is Wrong
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer
“There is one simple answer to why housing costs rise faster than inflation and incomes — restricted supply mated with subsidized demand. In many locales the supply of housing is restricted by the government (rent control, growth limits, expensive and time-consuming permitting, etc) and in every part of the country housing is subsidized by the government (mortgage loan guarantees, tax deductibility of mortgage interest, section 8 housing vouchers, etc). The net result HAS to be rising rents and home prices. I bring this up because we are in the insane situation that both the Left and Right are proposing to attack housing affordability by …. subsidizing demand and restricting supply.” (11/17/25)
https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2025/11/housing-affordability-where-everyone-is-wrong.html
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47) The real Trump proposals are as ridiculous as the fake 15-year car loan
Source: Orange County Register
by Matt Fleming
“I was duped into thinking President Donald Trump was considering advocating for 15-year car loans, but when put into context it’s hard to blame me. A fake image of a White House statement circulated social media last week saying that Trump had tasked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with making ‘vehicle ownership for all a reality by introducing 15 year car loans!’ … I was one of many people to fall for it. Big if true, as they say. Of course it wasn’t, but it’s hard to tell these days. After all, the fake 15-year auto loan news came right on the heels of real announcements that Trump was considering 50-year mortgages and a $2,000 tariff refund (which he called a dividend). All of these ideas are ridiculous.” (11/17/25)
https://archive.is/4q262
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48) Tocqueville versus the Groypers
Source: Law & Liberty
by Samuel Gregg
“The Frenchman’s treatment of Arthur de Gobineau offers a lesson for today’s intra-conservative debates.” (11/17/25)
https://lawliberty.org/tocqueville-versus-the-groypers/
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49) Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“Republicans, for once, are sounding downright squeamish about onrushing massive cuts to Obamacare subsidies, with premiums on the exchanges expected to more than double on average starting next year. GOP House committee chairs are reportedly having some ‘brainstorming sessions’ about what to do, and House Speaker Mike Johnson claims that they ‘will be rolling out some of those ideas’ at some point. So far, the genius idea in the lead is Trump’s pitch to reroute subsidies from health insurance companies to the American people, so they can buy health care. … Congratulations, folks, you now get to be your own private dealmaker with the health care system, and with your purchasing power and risk pool of one household, I’m sure you’ll get the best price!” (11/18/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/18/republicans-will-never-find-health-care-replacement/
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50) The Politics of Price Controls
Source; Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“Aweekend NYT op-ed by Neale Mahoney and Bharat Ramamurti has caused a stir. It argues that policymakers should be open to considering price controls, given voters’ discontent about the cost of living. Price controls, the authors say, are a ‘tool’ to be used carefully. The key is to ‘design’ them to avoid the classic long-term consequences of ‘less investment’ in supply, but keep the benefits of providing ‘immediate relief’ to customers through lower prices. … Would ‘immediate relief’ via price controls really prove temporary as new supply is brought onboard? Mahoney-Ramamurti provide no historical or contemporary examples of such a bundle.” (11/17/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/politics-price-controls
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Cato Podcast, 11/18/25
Source: Cato Institute
“The Shutdown That Solved Nothing.” (11/18/25)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/shutdown-solved-nothing
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52) Rising, 11/18/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the several factions that are growing within the Republican Party, and how it could lead to a struggle for power after President Trump’s second term ends in 2028.” (11/18/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5610533-rising-november-18-2025/
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53) Pod Save America, 11/18/25
Source: Crooked Media
“Did Trump Blow It on the Epstein Files?” (11/18/25)
https://stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/9aa1e238-cbed-4305-9808-c9228fc6dd4f/episodes/90a30c67-6a76-4d6d-8d02-a49862c7b3e0/audio/128/default.mp3
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/18/25
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Another UN War? Trump To Head ‘Board Of Peace’ Governing Gaza.” (11/18/25)
https://rumble.com/v71w8pi-another-un-war-trump-to-head-board-of-peace-governing-gaza.html
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55) The Climate Realism Show, episode 182
Source: Heartland Institute
“Worst COP Ever?” (11/18/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/worst-cop-ever-the-climate-realism-show-182-guest-chris-martz-3/
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56) The Good Fight, 11/18/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“James Loxton on Democracies and Dictators.” (11/18/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/james-loxton-on-democracies-and-dictators
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57) Advisory Opinions, 11/18/25
Source: The Dispatch
“Did Congress Stretch the Commerce Clause Too Far? | Interview: Jonathan Karl.” (11/18/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/did-congress-stretch-the-commerce-clause-too-far-interview-jonathan-karl/
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58) SolutionsWatch, 11/18/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“Spoil the Vote!” (11/18/25)
https://corbettreport.com/spoil-the-vote/
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59) The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/18/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Accidentally Stabs Vance in the Back as MAGA Erupts in Civil War.” (11/18/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/203333/trump-accidentally-stabs-vance-back-maga-erupts-civil-war
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/18/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“UN Places Gaza Under Control of US-Led Board, Trump Won’t Rule Out Troops to Venezuela, and More.” (11/18/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5xS6R_vgYg
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61) Quillette Podcast, episode 312
Source: Quillette
“Ancient Christianities: The First 500 Years.” (11/17/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/17/podcast-312-ancient-christianities-the-first-500-years/
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62) LPA Spotlight, episode 3
Source: LP Alliance
“Come celebrate LPAlliance’s first birthday with one of our first first movers!” (11/17/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGhjpCyEXgc
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63) Finding Freedom, 11/17/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Is MAHA Going to Outlast MAGA?” (11/17/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/ff-is-maha-going-to-outlast-maga
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64) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 11/17/25
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson – The US is Now in War Time Footing.” (11/17/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-larry-johnson-the-us-is-now-in-war-time-footing/
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65) My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, 11/17/25
Source: My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
“Death By Lightning: My Opinion of the Netflix Series, and Other Thoughts.” (11/17/25)
https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/death-by-lightning-my-opinion-of-the-netflix-series-and-other-thoughts/
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