07/20 -- US regime's bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed; Tehran regime retaliates against the Gulf states; The Most Damaging Mental Disorder: Gerontocracy is Just a Symptom
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 20, 2026, 6:09:36 AM (7 days ago) Jul 20
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 07/20/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US regime’s bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed; Tehran regime retaliates against the Gulf states
2) Ukraine: Regime forces fire 400 drones toward Moscow as Zelenskyy grapples with protests
3) UK: Burnham becomes seventh prime minister in a decade
4) TX: Protests continue over ICE gang’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
5) Hungary: Magyar proposes Polgár as next president
6) Germany: Conservative parliamentary leader resigns over surrogacy debate
7) US regime lifts TikTok ban on federal devices
8) MN: Gubernatorial candidate is a registered voter … in Texas
9) UK: Chinese firm seeks damages over nationalization of British Steel
10) CO: ICE gang concentration camp contractor accused of shooting protester while driving to workfare shift
11) CA: Pelosi charged with hit-and-run
12) Tanzanian-flagged tanker from Yemen hijacked by suspected Somali pirates
13) FL: “Manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested on rape, sex trafficking charges in Florida
14) Brazil: Top court denies Bolsonaro home visit by Argentina’s Milei
15) Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US
16) France: Regime orders Internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site
17) China: Regime dismisses Trump election interference accusations as “entirely fabricated,” threatens countermeasures
18) Russia: Pro-Kremlin blogger who turned on Putin is arrested as regime steps up crackdown
19) Anthropic employees donate $3 million to buy AI regulators
20) US regime seeks extradition of Cox Communications heir from Spain over unapproved political positions
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Most Damaging Mental Disorder: Gerontocracy is Just a Symptom
22) America’s Manufactured Menaces
23) Calling Cartels “Narcoterrorists” Turns Drug Enforcement Into War Making
24) The Case for a Managed US Exit from NATO
25) Who Is Really in Charge of Public Health?
26) The Case for an African Renaissance
27) Conspiracy Theorists Think Trump’s Speech Paves the Path to the Insurrection Act
28) For many in the media and judiciary, Trump and the GOP are guilty until proven innocent
29) Trump Delivered the Crazy, the Democrats Delivered … Tweets
30) Orwell, Spain and the totalitarian left
31) The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall
32) An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility
33) They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century
34) Labor Unions Hate Robots — and It’s Stopping Democrats From Delivering on Affordability
35) A Flattering AI Scam
36) The Kids Are All Right
37) America Is in Trouble and Running Out of Time
38) Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence?
39) Why the government makes our streets a little uglier
40) Immigrants Build America’s Most Valuable Companies
41) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
42) Emily Feng’s Seditious Material and the new West’s love of censorship
43) A Brief History of Trump’s Failures to Bring Peace
44) Cicero’s Life in the Arena
45) The New American Industrial Revolution Runs on Data Centers
46) How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
47) Mykhailo Fedorov Ukraine Ukraine’s defense minister walked into Zelensky corruption buzzsaw
48) Auberon Herbert and the “Social Entity”
49) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
50) Politicians Should Stop Hiding Behind the ‘Two-State Solution’ Fantasy
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 348
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/18/26
53) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/18/26
54) The Good Fight Club, 07/18/26
55) Sal and Mark, episode 12
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/17/26
57) Rising, 07/17/26
58) Soho Forum Debate: Are the Epstein Files a Moral Panic?
59) Freakonomics Radio, episode 617
60) Serious Trouble, 07/17/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US regime’s bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed; Tehran regime retaliates against the Gulf states
Source: Associated Press
“The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, hitting around a northwestern city believed to be home to underground missile bases. Iran responded by launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait. … As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.” (07/20/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-20-2026-8b37952906cbec6351fdcc47a0fa6297
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2) Ukraine: Regime forces fire 400 drones toward Moscow as Zelenskyy grapples with protests
Source: WRAL News
“Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on the Russian capital, the city’s mayor said Monday. The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold ‘key talks’ on Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war. Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia. Days of street protests in favor of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy’s decision.” (07/20/26)
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/f42ba-ukraine-fires-400-drones-toward-moscow-as-zelenskyy-grapples-with-protests/
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3) UK: Burnham becomes seventh prime minister in a decade
Source: The Hill
“Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and new leader of the Labour Party, is taking the final steps on Monday to succeed Keir Starmer and become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade. The affable Burnham returned to Parliament in June by winning a risky special election and was sworn in as a member on July 12, hours after the unpopular Starmer announced his resignation to end a tenure of just two years in office. Starmer will travel the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to formally tell King Charles III that he is resigning. Soon after, the 56-year-old Burnham will go to the palace and Charles will ask him to form a government. That is when he will officially become prime minister, a moment known as ‘kissing hands.'” (07/20/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-the-latest-andy-burnham-becomes-seventh-british-prime-minister-in-a-decade/
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4) TX: Protests continue over ICE gang’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Hundreds of protesters have rallied in Houston in the US state of Texas to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man [murdered] by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent this month. … Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was [murdered] by an ICE agent on July 7 while he was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston. The protests came amid mounting scrutiny of United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. … After the shooting in Houston, ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had used his vehicle to try to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defence. But witnesses contradicted ICE’s version of events, and a statement issued on Thursday by the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas made no mention of any collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle nor did it explicitly state that the officer feared for his life.” (07/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/protests-in-houston-continue-after-ice-killing-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo
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5) Hungary: Magyar proposes Polgár as next president
Source: euronews [UK]
“Péter Magyar, the prime minister, has invited Judit Polgár, the most successful female chess player the world has ever seen, to become Hungary’s president. … On Saturday evening, President Tamás Sulyok announced that he would sign the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law. His mandate will end on the day after the law is promulgated, meaning that from midnight on Sunday he is no longer Hungary’s president. For one month, the office will be held by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ágnes Forsthoffer.” (07/20/26)
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/20/hungarys-pm-peter-magyar-it-would-be-great-honour-if-judit-polgar-accepted-the-presidency
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6) Germany: Conservative parliamentary leader resigns over surrogacy debate
Source: Politico
“Jens Spahn, a senior lawmaker with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Christian Democrats, resigned from his post as the party’s parliamentary leader on Saturday amid controversy over his use of a surrogate to have a child. Spahn came under growing pressure to step down after he revealed earlier this week that he and his husband had become parents using a surrogate mother in the United States, despite the practice being banned in Germany. … Although surrogacy itself is illegal in Germany, there is no penalty for bringing up a child born through a surrogate mother abroad. But Spahn, a former health minister, faced accusations of hypocrisy as Germany’s Christian Democrats are firmly opposed to surrogacy, a position the party reaffirmed earlier this year. Spahn himself had also in the past expressed skepticism about legalising the practice.” (07/18/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-conservative-parliamentary-leader-resigns-over-surrogacy-debate-jens-spahn/
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7) US regime lifts TikTok ban on federal devices
Source: Engadget
“The US Department of Justice has announced that federal employees can now download and install TikTok on electronics provided by the government, explaining that its current version doesn’t pose the risks the previous one did. In 2022, TikTok was outlawed on almost all devices issues by the US federal government due to [fake] national security concerns. … it’s still up to individual agencies to decide whether or not to allow their employees to download TikTok on federal phones.” (07/18/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2218069/us-government-lifts-tiktok-ban-federal-devices/
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8) MN: Gubernatorial candidate is a registered voter … in Texas
Source: Seattle Times
“Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leader of the election denial movement who was endorsed by President Donald Trump for Minnesota governor this week, acknowledged that he is not registered to vote in the state he seeks to lead. … In Minnesota, voters are allowed to register to vote on Election Day. Lindell, who is registered in Texas, said he was not concerned that he was not yet registered in his home state, something first reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune. Lindell said he was registered to vote in Texas when he moved there for one year in 2024, soon after he married his current wife, Kendra. He said he returned to Minnesota, where he was born and raised, the following year, because he wanted to run for governor.” (07/18/26)
https://archive.is/xeXwi
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9) UK: Chinese firm seeks damages over nationalization of British Steel
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“A Chinese steel giant demanded compensation from the United Kingdom government on Sunday, claiming thetakeover of its subsidiary, British Steel, was ‘outright robbery.’ The UK government took operational control of British Steel last year, after owner Jingye Group warned that Britain’s last factory capable of making steel from scratch was no longer financially viable. … The company noted that nationalization could cost UK taxpayers more than 1.5 billion pounds ($2.02 billion, €1.76 billion) by 2028. Jingye said it had begun a procedure under bilateral investment agreements to seek damages, without expanding further.” (07/19/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/china-firm-seeks-damages-over-state-control-of-british-steel/a-78024119
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10) CO: ICE gang concentration camp contractor accused of shooting protester while driving to workfare shift
Source: Independent [UK]
“An off-duty employee of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement [concentration camp] in Aurora, Colorado, was arrested on Thursday after allegedly shooting a protester. … Brandon Booth, 42, an employee of the government contractor GEO Group, was allegedly waiting in his vehicle with coworkers near the privately run Aurora ICE Processing Center on Thursday night after protesters impeded their ability to start work at the 1,500-bed detention center. Two women who had been part of a protest near the facility earlier that evening approached the group, took pictures of their vehicles and engaged in a ‘verbal confrontation,’ according to a statement from the Aurora Police Department. ‘At that point, Booth retrieved his personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in their direction, striking one of the women on her lower body,’ the department said. ‘Booth then got into his vehicle and drove out of the area before he was detained.'” (07/18/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-shooting-aurora-colorado-brandon-booth-b3017494.html
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11) CA: Pelosi charged with hit-and-run
Source: SFGate
“Hit-and-run charges were officially announced Friday afternoon against Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, after a car crash over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley filed a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge against Pelosi, 86, Friday, after he allegedly hit an unoccupied parked Tesla on July 3. Pelosi allegedly drove away from the scene after the crash, according to charging documents obtained by SFGATE. Pelosi was driving down a residential road near his home when he allegedly struck the car in Yountville and kept driving until his car broke down and police came to the scene, according to the New York Times.” (07/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/paul-pelosi-hit-and-run-22350057.php
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12) Tanzanian-flagged tanker from Yemen hijacked by suspected Somali pirates
Source: ABC News
“A Tanzanian-flagged tanker was hijacked by suspected Somali pirates off Yemen’s coast, security sources and local officials familiar with the incident said Sunday. The commercial tanker has since been moved to waters off Somalia’s northeastern Bari region, according local officials. The MT ASANA, a general tanker, was seized on Friday after departing from Mukalla, Yemen, according to the sources. The vessel is now being held off the coast of Caluula in the semiautonomous state of Puntland’s Bari region.” (07/19/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/tanzanian-flagged-tanker-yemen-hijacked-suspected-somali-pirates-134887935
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13) FL: “Manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested on rape, sex trafficking charges in Florida
Source: New York Post
“‘Manosphere’ influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Florida Saturday in connection to rape and sex trafficking charges in the UK. … The Tates, who have both British and American citizenship, have faced legal troubles for years, and were nabbed because of a host of new sex crime charges handed down overseas. … The Tates’ attorney, Joe McBryde, disputed the charges and told The Post the arrest should not have occurred until their trials in Romania and a defamation case in Florida concluded. ‘This is like Keir Starmer’s last day in office; it’s obvious that this little petty bastard has nothing better to do than persecute these two guys he wishes he could act like, walk like and talk like,’ he said.” (07/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/18/us-news/andrew-and-tristan-tate-arrested-by-u-s-marshals-in-florida/
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14) Brazil: Top court denies Bolsonaro home visit by Argentina’s Milei
Source: United Press International
“Brazil’s top court on Saturday denied a request from former President Jair Bolsonaro to be visited by Argentinian President Javier Milei while under house arrest. The attempted visit by Milei, a political ally of the far-right Bolsonaro, was part of a campaign to drum up political support for the son of the former president, who is running against leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for a coup attempt but has been in his home in Brasilia since March due to his health condition. He was already barred from participating in national politics as part of his sentence. But Bolsonaro was placed under further restrictions on Friday for breaching conditions of his house arrest, after he wrote a political letter supporting his son’s candidature for president.” (07/18/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/07/18/latam-bolsonaro-milei/7271784410855/
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15) Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“One of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, 38, is the leader of the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a group of artists, journalists and intellectuals who have campaigned for freedom of speech and democracy in the communist country. He was arrested in 2021 during Cuba’s largest anti-government protests in decades and spent five years in the maximum-security Guanajay prison near Havana. His whereabouts have been unclear in recent days as Cuban authorities held him in an unknown location while the US approved a parole request. Emerging from the airport in Miami, the 38-year-old was greeted by supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem as he held up his forefinger and thumb in the shape of the letter L to represent ‘Libertad – meaning freedom, a recognised anti-government symbol.” (07/19/26)
https://archive.is/UYbEV
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16) France: Regime orders Internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France said Friday it was blocking access to the online prediction market Polymarket, as punters continued to make bets despite a ban already in place. The national gaming authority ANJ said Friday that Polymarket’s webpage would be blocked on French territory, which adds to a November 2024 ban on financial transactions to the site. Polymarket is one of a number of online prediction markets which allow people to bet on the outcome of future events.” (07/17/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260717-france-orders-internet-service-providers-to-block-access-to-polymarket
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17) China: Regime dismisses Trump election interference accusations as “entirely fabricated,” threatens countermeasures
Source: Fox News
“China pushed back Friday after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of ‘working to influence the results’ of the 2020 presidential election, describing his accusation as ‘entirely fabricated.’ Trump said in a primetime speech Thursday night that ‘in mid 2018, China was working to influence the results of the U.S. midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself.’ … China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Friday said ‘the relevant allegations by the U.S. are entirely fabricated and aimed at vilifying China.’ ‘We have no interest in interfering in US elections and have never done so,’ Jian said. … He added that ‘China reserves the right to take reciprocal countermeasures.'” (07/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/china-dismisses-trump-election-interference-accusations-entirely-fabricated-threatens-countermeasures
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18) Russia: Pro-Kremlin blogger who turned on Putin is arrested as regime steps up crackdown
Source: NBC News
“A former loyalist blogger turned fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been detained and accused of spreading false information about the armed forces, state media reported Friday. The news came just as a court hearing was being held for another Kremlin critic and opposition politician, Boris Nadezhdin, in a sign of an intensified response to mounting internal dissent over the war in Ukraine and its impact on Russian life. The blogger, Ilya Remeslo, stunned many in Russia when he published a scathing manifesto against the Russian leader that went viral in March. He was detained in St. Petersburg early Friday and could face up to 10 years in prison, state news agency Tass reported, citing law enforcement sources. The charge he faces is a common one for opponents of the war in Ukraine and has been used to jail numerous dissidents since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.” (07/17/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/ilya-remeslo-arrested-kremlin-crackdown-putin-critic-nadezhdin-court-rcna587962
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19) Anthropic employees donate $3 million to buy AI regulators
Source: SFGate
“Employees from three major Bay Area artificial intelligence companies donated more than $3 million to a political action committee supporting AI regulation, according to new campaign finance records. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was the top donor to Public First in the last quarter, giving the pro-AI safety [sic] super PAC a $1 million donation to fund candidates who share his company’s vision for safe [sic] AI development. Amodei was joined by five other Anthropic employees, who donated more than $2 million combined, plus a Google DeepMind engineer and a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, who donated $250,000 and $5,000, respectively.” (07/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/dario-amodei-donation-22348647.php
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20) US regime seeks extradition of Cox Communications heir from Spain over unapproved political positions
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The United States is seeking the extradition of James ‘Fergie’ Chambers from Spain, having accused the wealthy donor to Palestinian and other causes of financing ‘terrorism’. Authorities in Ibiza detained Chambers last Friday on an international arrest warrant, after the US alleged he has provided material support to Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza but is designated a ‘terror organisation’ by Washington. … Heir to the family that owns telecom giant Cox Communications, Chambers has donated more than $1m to pro-Palestine causes and humanitarian projects in Gaza.” (07/17/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/17/us-seeks-extradition-of-wealthy-pro-palestine-donor-from-spain
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Most Damaging Mental Disorder: Gerontocracy is Just a Symptom
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“You won’t find archomania listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but you should. While it often manifests in the same ways as other manias (kleptomania, an irresistible urge to steal; oniomani, a compulsion to shop; etc.), archomania is a distinct disorder. Its symptoms include a compulsive urge to rule others, distress at the prospect of not being allowed to rule others, and a narcissistic belief in one’s unique qualifications to exercise such power. The colloquial term for an archomaniac is: Politician. Gerontocracy is just the result of coddling and empowering archomaniacs. Their hair grays, their gaits slow, their minds wander … but the compulsion remains, as does the grip on power seized back when muscles were stronger and hands less arthritic.” (07/19/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20766
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22) America’s Manufactured Menaces
Source: The American Conservative
by Bruce Fein
“The American Empire is the safest country in history. Among other things, we sport more than the 5,000 nuclear warheads shielded from outside inspection; a multitrillion-dollar military-industrial-security complex; nonstop surveillance of the entire population; special forces in 70–80 countries; NATO and defense pacts with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines; a de facto alliance with Israel; and pioneering AI to optimize the lethality of weapons. Nobody goes to bed in the United States fearing an invasion or military attack. Yet we are poised to hike Pentagon spending to $1.5 trillion annually, excluding the VA budget, which approaches $500 billion. … Since the American Empire confronts zero existential threats, we summon them into being to justify a national security state that crushes liberty and the march of the mind while exalting force of arms. Thus, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has decreed that ‘antifa’—i.e., antifascism—is a global, terrorist threat.” (07/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americas-manufactured-menaces/
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23) Calling Cartels “Narcoterrorists” Turns Drug Enforcement Into War Making
Source: Reason
by Niko Vorobyov
“Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against ‘narcoterrorists,’ treating drug smuggling as an ‘armed attack’ and blurring the line between criminal enforcement and war. His administration has described foreign drug cartels and other criminal gangs as ‘non-state armed groups’ or ‘unlawful combatants,’ a term introduced during the Bush era to deny suspected terrorists protections afforded under the Geneva Conventions. In August of last year, Trump signed a secret directive authorizing military strikes on narco-terrorists. By September, U.S. forces were bombing alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. In December, the administration followed with an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction …. The narco-terrorist label keeps expanding. In May, the State Department added the PCC and Red Command to its terrorism blacklist, designating them as foreign terrorist organizations. But what has that accomplished for drug control?”
https://reason.com/2026/07/19/calling-cartels-narcoterrorists-turns-drug-enforcement-into-war-making/
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24) The Case for a Managed US Exit from NATO
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“[I]f Europeans spend more on defense, it doesn’t necessarily mean the United States will cut back its mammoth defense budget. Instead, Trump has outrageously proposed ballooning it by more than 50 percent. In light of this reality, his browbeating of allies on defense spending may seem to relieve allies’ snookering of the United States, but it doesn’t help the United States address its gaping budget deficits and spiraling national debt. A better alternative would be for Trump to announce a gradual U.S. withdrawal from NATO over a two-year period. The European Union now has a GDP about 8.5 times that of its principal rival—a Russia that has been severely weakened by the bloody, drawn-out quagmire against the surprisingly resilient Ukraine. There has never been a better time to pull the plug on a Cold-War-era alliance.” (07/17/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/17/trump-withdraw-nato/
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25) Who Is Really in Charge of Public Health?
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Maryanne Demasi
“200-page policy report argues that global public health is no longer being driven by the needs of countries, but by financial incentives. At the centre of that argument is Professor Ramesh Thakur—a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and principal writer of Kofi Annan’s UN reform report. He spent years inside the system helping shape it. Now, he argues that in public health, global authority has gone too far. Thakur says decisions have shifted away from national governments and towards international institutions—particularly the World Health Organization.” (07/18/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/who-is-really-in-charge-of-public-health/
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26) The Case for an African Renaissance
Source: The American Spectator
by Lawrence M Mead
“Lipton Matthews is an independent scholar, author of many notable essays and reviews. Born and first educated in Jamaica, Busting African Delusions is his most ambitious work. In it he argues that Africa is losing its chance to succeed China as the. workshop of the world. That is because it declines to pursue growth and wealth as it could and should. Africa is attracting foreign investment from China and elsewhere because of its relatively low wages and the incentives it offers to investors. Kenya, for instance, has created a special economic zone in Tatu City, and industrial parks are sprouting across the continent. To Matthews, however, African leaders and entrepreneurs seldom reach out as they could to appeal to foreign investors seeking new opportunities. Mostly, Africa looks backward, not ahead.” (07/18/26)
https://spectator.org/the-case-for-an-african-renaissance/
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27) Conspiracy Theorists Think Trump’s Speech Paves the Path to the Insurrection Act
Source: Wired
by David Gilbert
“Election deniers have spent years promoting the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. They believe Donald Trump’s speech finally proves them right.” (07/17/26)
https://archive.is/ynGRB
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28) For many in the media and judiciary, Trump and the GOP are guilty until proven innocent
Source: The Hill
by Douglas MacKinnon
“Several recent stories in the news underscore that, when it comes to the American judicial system and the mainstream media, President Trump and various Republicans are going to be continually painted in the worst light possible. These partisan portrayals create an advantage for the Democratic Party and all of its policies, grievances, grudges and campaigns.” (07/18/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5974835-media-bias-trump-gop/
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29) Trump Delivered the Crazy, the Democrats Delivered … Tweets
Source: The Nation
by Elie Mystal
“I know that the opposition party traditionally responds only after the State of the Union address. But that’s been a tradition only since 1966 (of course, it was the Republicans who started it, when Lyndon Johnson was president). There’s no reason Democrats shouldn’t demand equal time from the television networks and respond to Trump’s lies as soon as he’s done spewing them. … Of course, mounting a response would require the Democrats to be an organized political party with a self-preservation instinct and an ability to think creatively about how best to combat rising authoritarianism. And, well, ‘lmao @ Dems,’ as the kids say.” (07/17/26)
https://archive.is/Q3CCV
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30) Orwell, Spain and the totalitarian left
Source: spiked
by Michael Crowley
“The Spanish Civil War began 90 years ago. On 18 July 1936, General Francisco Franco, alongside fellow general Emilio Mola, led a right-wing military revolt against the democratically elected Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. … George Orwell arrived in Spain in December 1936. He was prevented from joining the International Brigades, and instead joined up with a militia organised by the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). It was a decision that would change the course of his thinking and creative output. He travelled to Spain as an ardent anti-fascist and returned as a determined anti-Communist, or more precisely, an anti-Stalinist.” (07/19/26)
https://archive.is/Y1GBQ
-----
31) The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Kent Ingle
“The American education establishment is currently having a collective meltdown. If you watch the headlines closely, you can see the panic setting in across the country. This is the unmistakable sound of a broken progressive machine collapsing under the weight of its own arrogance. The radical left has engineered our educational system to prioritize ideological compliance over human formation. Reality is finally catching up with them, and the collapse is starting where the crusade began. The war on merit.” (07/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressive-education-machine-collapsing-let-it-fall
-----
32) An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility
Source: Persuasion
by Damon Silvers & Matt Scherer
“The AI boom is already the largest capital investment project in history, running a price tag greater than the Manhattan Project, Interstate Highway System, and Apollo program combined. Estimates of the total cost of the data center buildout run as high as $7 trillion. The issue is not whether AI will transform our economy and society—maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But the conversation around AI’s long-term impact misses the more urgent question: whether AI companies can increase revenues and profits fast enough to pay their bills.” (07/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/an-ai-crash-is-a-real-possibility
-----
33) They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“So it seems the United States is looking at a reinvigorated COINTELPRO for the 2020s, this time with police drones and AI-assisted mass surveillance. As Americans become more and more hostile toward US warmongering, more and more fed up with the state of Israel, more and more convinced that their government doesn’t care about them, and more and more discontented with what unbridled capitalism is doing to their bank accounts, their society, and their world, their rulers are responding with the iron fist of tyranny. And what makes all this especially threatening is that you know whatever measures they roll out while the Republicans are running things will remain in place when the Democrats are in power, because as we have discussed here many times before, it is the Democratic Party’s job to prevent leftward movement in the United States.” (07/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/18/theyre-launching-a-new-cointelpro-for-the-21st-century/
-----
34) Labor Unions Hate Robots — and It’s Stopping Democrats From Delivering on Affordability
Source: Reason
by Peter Suderman
“Democrats have a union problem. They have tied their political fortunes to unions, public and private, in ways that exacerbate intraparty conflict while stymieing both progressive and moderate goals. That’s not just a problem for the party. Democratic deference to unions creates economic hurdles for much of the country—almost everyone who isn’t in a union, and even some people who are—because today’s unions function as roadblocks to the future. To understand the party’s problem, consider that the two most powerful words in Democratic politics in 2026 are abundance and affordability. Both represent rival party factions.” (for publication 08/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/18/labor-unions-hate-robots/
-----
35) A Flattering AI Scam
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“I receive a flattering email. The sender is very impressed with my work. She runs an elite reading group, would like to include one of my books. I, of course, respond that she is welcome to do so. At the second or third round of the exchange she mentions a small financial contribution by the featured author to help cover the costs of the project. … I think this is the third I have received in the past year. Considered as a scam, it makes sense only if targeting multiple authors, since it does not seem likely to get much money from any single author. Targeting multiple authors requires multiple versions of the emails, since they contain moderately detailed references to the author’s work, hardly likely to be worth the cost of hiring someone to compose them. Unless they are written by an AI.” (07/18/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/a-flattering-ai-scam
-----
36) The Kids Are All Right
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“All is not yet lost in a country where the children rise up as one to evade mandatory age-check barriers to social media. Reclaim the Net reports the finding that, as judged by looking at 408 Australian teens, some 85 percent ‘of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still merrily logging on three months after the ban supposedly cut them off from the world.’ Maybe not merrily. Perhaps only sturdily or insouciantly. Anyway, rightly. Good job, guys. The ban is failing because kids know how to draw a mustache on their faces or borrow somebody else’s login.” (07/17/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/17/the-kids-are-all-right/
-----
37) America Is in Trouble and Running Out of Time
Source: Townhall
by Les Rubin
“The numbers are mathematical, not political. Unless the United States begins restoring fiscal discipline, future generations will inherit a nation burdened by debt, weakened by chronic overspending, and headed to a bankruptcy that could be prevented. Washington is run by professional politicians, not statesmen, whose focus is on the next election, not the next generation. They have operated under a simple formula. Promise more benefits, avoid difficult decisions, and borrow the difference.” (07/17/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/les-rubin/2026/07/17/america-is-in-trouble-and-running-out-of-time-n2679507
-----
38) Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence?
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by John Coleman
“The internet is one of the main places where we read, learn, ask questions, and share ideas. It serves as a library, bookstore, classroom, and town square all at once. For decades, most people have been able to use those online spaces without first proving who they are. That may be changing. Legislatures across the United States are passing laws requiring online platforms and other digital services to determine users’ ages before granting access. … At first glance, these laws seem to ask a simple question: How old are you? But answering it isn’t so simple. Is checking a box enough? Can a company estimate your age from a selfie? Should it rely on information from your device or app store? Or must you verify your age by uploading a government-issued ID? What begins as age assurance can result in identity verification.” (07/17/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/can-government-require-id-you-use-artificial-intelligence
-----
39) Why the government makes our streets a little uglier
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Viggo Terling
"You would be forgiven, while walking down the street, for not stopping at every lamppost to read the hastily printed notices fastened to our street furniture. When you walk into a pub, restaurant, nail salon or shop, you would also be forgiven for completely ignoring the hastily printed letter from the council regarding planning application number 26/03570/FULL, for example. When erected on street furniture, the ink usually runs, and the notices collect dust, soot, cigarette stubs and chewing gum. Rather ugly indeed. What are these eminently ignorable wastes of fine British fir? They are planning notices. ... There is no need for physical planning notices. They do not help anyone, and they make our public realm messier and uglier." (07/18/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/why-the-government-makes-our-streets-a-little-uglier
-----
40) Immigrants Build America’s Most Valuable Companies
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Visa holders founded half of today’s Fortune 500 companies and a majority of billion-dollar startups. Current restrictions damage that competitive advantage and choke off future growth.” (07/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/immigrants-build-americas-most-valuable-companies/
-----
41) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
Source: Informed Comment
by Tom Engelhardt
“[G]ive Donald Trump credit. People deal with him as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
https://www.juancole.com/2026/07/americas-imperial-korea.html
-----
42) Emily Feng’s Seditious Material and the new West’s love of censorship
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kym Robinson
“Hong Kong police have recently arrested book sellers for having copies of Emily Feng’s, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom. Freelance journalists and three others have been arrested related to the book and for the act of selling, ‘seditious material.’ … ‘Seditious Material,’ is the title that sounds less than harmful for many Westerners who may view China as a land known of having less freedoms, where independent thinking and writing, are prohibited or heavily guided. … time and time again we are told that Western values celebrates individual rights. Self ownership, which includes free speech. Transfer those two words, Seditious and Material and press it into those which may suddenly draw an ire of concern for a newly conditioned Western reader, one who may feel freedom of speech has conditions.” (07/17/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/emily-fengs-seditious-material-and-the-new-wests-love-of-censorship/
-----
43) A Brief History of Trump’s Failures to Bring Peace
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Campaigning for the White House in 2024, retired game show host Donald Trump insisted that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office—maybe before. He repeated that boast more than 50 times—it clearly was not a one-off remark. The war rages on, of course, and we have a pretty good idea of who is going to put a stop to that war: the Ukrainians. How are the great peacemaker’s other projects going?” (07/17/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/donald-trump-international-peacemaker/
-----
44) Cicero’s Life in the Arena
Source: Law & Liberty
by Tyler Syck
“With the exception of the Caesars, no ancient Roman political figure is as famous as Marcus Tullius Cicero. Like the Caesars, the myth of Cicero has taken on a life of its own: the philosopher-statesman who, until his final breath, withstood the forces of totalitarianism in defense of the republic. Certainly, there is a great deal of truth to this story. Cicero’s literary output is prodigious, and his defense of the Roman republic against Caesarism should remain an example to us all. However, as with most myths, the truth of the man is far richer and far more complicated.” (07/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/ciceros-life-in-the-arena/
-----
45) The New American Industrial Revolution Runs on Data Centers
Source: American Greatness
by Jordan Schachtel
“merican technological infrastructure is the building block for our modern lives. Data centers are not some side issue or a fringe zoning dispute; they account for a significant part of the physical foundation of the American economy. They are the functional infrastructure that can put the United States in a position to reindustrialize and onshore our economy, while allowing us to have the tools we need to compete with China. The loudest forces working to stop that buildout fall into exactly two categories: people who are simply misinformed about what these facilities actually do, and people who are being actively used, wittingly or not, to psyop American communities into fighting against their own country’s interests.” (07/17/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/17/the-new-american-industrial-revolution-runs-on-data-centers/
-----
46) How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson
“The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, passed and signed in 2022, went into effect on May 1. It demands a lot. By 2032, every shred of single-use packaging and single-use plastic food service ware sold in the state has to be recyclable or compostable. The law covers not just items made and consumed in California, but also those imported from outside the state. Because California is a massive market, many companies don’t produce one package for California and another for the other 49 states. Instead, they use a single design for everyone. That’s why the 17 states and other critics argue that California’s regulations have increasingly become national regulations.” (07/17/26)
https://fee.org/articles/how-californias-plastic-ban-could-change-what-every-american-buys/
-----
47) Mykhailo Fedorov Ukraine Ukraine’s defense minister walked into Zelensky corruption buzzsaw
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Mark Episkopos
“Mykhailo Fedorov advanced a successful drone program in part by bucking the patronage system, which, protected by the president, likely led to his sacking.” (07/17/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/mykhailo-fedorov-ukraine-zelensky/
-----
48) Auberon Herbert and the “Social Entity”
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“In his magazine debate over socialism, the late-Victorian individualist Auberon Herbert saw in the presentation of his opponent, J. A. Hobson, ‘an attempt to reduce the individual to nothingness, and on the ruins of the individual to exalt and glorify ‘the social organism.’ … Herbert asked: ‘[Is] there any solid reality in this view of the social entity, or must we treat it as a mere literary creation?’ He opted for the latter because, in fact, it is individuals all the way down.'” (07/17/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-auberon-herbert-and-the-social
-----
49) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
Source: Informed Comment
by Tom Engelhardt
“People deal with [Donald Trump] as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
https://www.juancole.com/2026/07/americas-imperial-korea.html
-----
50) Politicians Should Stop Hiding Behind the ‘Two-State Solution’ Fantasy
Source: Antiwar.com
by Norman Solomon
“Creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel seemed feasible when President Bill Clinton hosted the signing of the Oslo accords at the White House in September 1993. The goal was reaffirmed in 2011 when 90 percent of the Senate co-sponsored a resolution supporting ‘a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ But today, the two-state scenario is far-fetched to the point of delusion if not evasion. For politicians, it has become a box to check. According to data from the American Jewish Congress, every Democrat and most Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee currently say they support ‘the two-state solution.’ Whatever the rhetoric, ending Israeli control over Palestinians in the territories occupied since 1967 is not on the table.” (07/17/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/solomon/2026/07/16/politicians-should-stop-hiding-behind-the-two-state-solution-fantasy/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 348
Source: Unattended Baggage
“This is fine.” (07/18/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-348-this-is-fine
-----
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/18/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s Examine the JC Filings: Appeal of the Disaffiliation of the Libertarian Partyof NH.” (07/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5otXvYwK8
-----
53) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/18/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“What’s Going on in Right-Wing Media? w/ Howard Polskin/Gen Z is Tired of War w/ Ionnis Vlahos.” (07/18/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/polskin-vlahos7-18-26/
-----
54) The Good Fight Club, 07/18/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Refounding Liberalism, Gen Z’s Political Instincts, and a Watergate Ghost Story.” (07/18/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-good-fight-club-18
-----
55) Sal and Mark, episode 12
Source: Free Talk Live
“Mark is back from Costa Rica and jumping straight into one of the most important conversations in crypto. Denny (@patriotsounds) from RuneBond.com joins Sal and Mark to break down THORChain, the permissionless, fully decentralized cross chain swap protocol that no government can touch. They cover how it works, what bond providers and node operators actually do, why Monero is coming to ThorChain soon and why that is a game changer, and how anyone can start using it today without ever touching the Rune token.” (07/17/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/samep12
-----
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Pay Attention: What the Treasury Secretary Says About the Future of Gold | Featuring Philip Patrick.” (07/17/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MJgNNpjYAAGL
-----
57) Rising, 07/17/26
Source: The Hill
“President Trump delivered an address to the nation Thursday night alleging that hundreds of millions of American voters have had their data compromised by China.” (07/17/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5962180-rising-july-17-2026/
-----
58) Soho Forum Debate: Are the Epstein Files a Moral Panic?
Source: Reason
“Journalist Michael Tracey and professor Marcella Szablewicz debate the Epstein scandal and the public reaction to the files.” (07/17/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/17/are-the-epstein-files-a-moral-panic/
-----
59) Freakonomics Radio, episode 617
Source: Freakonomics
“Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin? (Update).” (07/17/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-you-really-allergic-to-penicillin-update/
-----
60) Serious Trouble, 07/17/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Stretching the Limits of the Courts.” (07/17/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/stretching-the-limits-of-the-courts
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US regime’s bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed; Tehran regime retaliates against the Gulf states
2) Ukraine: Regime forces fire 400 drones toward Moscow as Zelenskyy grapples with protests
3) UK: Burnham becomes seventh prime minister in a decade
4) TX: Protests continue over ICE gang’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
5) Hungary: Magyar proposes Polgár as next president
6) Germany: Conservative parliamentary leader resigns over surrogacy debate
7) US regime lifts TikTok ban on federal devices
8) MN: Gubernatorial candidate is a registered voter … in Texas
9) UK: Chinese firm seeks damages over nationalization of British Steel
10) CO: ICE gang concentration camp contractor accused of shooting protester while driving to workfare shift
11) CA: Pelosi charged with hit-and-run
12) Tanzanian-flagged tanker from Yemen hijacked by suspected Somali pirates
13) FL: “Manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested on rape, sex trafficking charges in Florida
14) Brazil: Top court denies Bolsonaro home visit by Argentina’s Milei
15) Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US
16) France: Regime orders Internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site
17) China: Regime dismisses Trump election interference accusations as “entirely fabricated,” threatens countermeasures
18) Russia: Pro-Kremlin blogger who turned on Putin is arrested as regime steps up crackdown
19) Anthropic employees donate $3 million to buy AI regulators
20) US regime seeks extradition of Cox Communications heir from Spain over unapproved political positions
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Most Damaging Mental Disorder: Gerontocracy is Just a Symptom
22) America’s Manufactured Menaces
23) Calling Cartels “Narcoterrorists” Turns Drug Enforcement Into War Making
24) The Case for a Managed US Exit from NATO
25) Who Is Really in Charge of Public Health?
26) The Case for an African Renaissance
27) Conspiracy Theorists Think Trump’s Speech Paves the Path to the Insurrection Act
28) For many in the media and judiciary, Trump and the GOP are guilty until proven innocent
29) Trump Delivered the Crazy, the Democrats Delivered … Tweets
30) Orwell, Spain and the totalitarian left
31) The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall
32) An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility
33) They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century
34) Labor Unions Hate Robots — and It’s Stopping Democrats From Delivering on Affordability
35) A Flattering AI Scam
36) The Kids Are All Right
37) America Is in Trouble and Running Out of Time
38) Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence?
39) Why the government makes our streets a little uglier
40) Immigrants Build America’s Most Valuable Companies
41) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
42) Emily Feng’s Seditious Material and the new West’s love of censorship
43) A Brief History of Trump’s Failures to Bring Peace
44) Cicero’s Life in the Arena
45) The New American Industrial Revolution Runs on Data Centers
46) How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
47) Mykhailo Fedorov Ukraine Ukraine’s defense minister walked into Zelensky corruption buzzsaw
48) Auberon Herbert and the “Social Entity”
49) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
50) Politicians Should Stop Hiding Behind the ‘Two-State Solution’ Fantasy
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 348
52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/18/26
53) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/18/26
54) The Good Fight Club, 07/18/26
55) Sal and Mark, episode 12
56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/17/26
57) Rising, 07/17/26
58) Soho Forum Debate: Are the Epstein Files a Moral Panic?
59) Freakonomics Radio, episode 617
60) Serious Trouble, 07/17/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US regime’s bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed; Tehran regime retaliates against the Gulf states
Source: Associated Press
“The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, hitting around a northwestern city believed to be home to underground missile bases. Iran responded by launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait. … As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.” (07/20/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-20-2026-8b37952906cbec6351fdcc47a0fa6297
-----
2) Ukraine: Regime forces fire 400 drones toward Moscow as Zelenskyy grapples with protests
Source: WRAL News
“Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on the Russian capital, the city’s mayor said Monday. The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold ‘key talks’ on Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war. Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia. Days of street protests in favor of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy’s decision.” (07/20/26)
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/f42ba-ukraine-fires-400-drones-toward-moscow-as-zelenskyy-grapples-with-protests/
-----
3) UK: Burnham becomes seventh prime minister in a decade
Source: The Hill
“Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and new leader of the Labour Party, is taking the final steps on Monday to succeed Keir Starmer and become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade. The affable Burnham returned to Parliament in June by winning a risky special election and was sworn in as a member on July 12, hours after the unpopular Starmer announced his resignation to end a tenure of just two years in office. Starmer will travel the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to formally tell King Charles III that he is resigning. Soon after, the 56-year-old Burnham will go to the palace and Charles will ask him to form a government. That is when he will officially become prime minister, a moment known as ‘kissing hands.'” (07/20/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-the-latest-andy-burnham-becomes-seventh-british-prime-minister-in-a-decade/
-----
4) TX: Protests continue over ICE gang’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Hundreds of protesters have rallied in Houston in the US state of Texas to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man [murdered] by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent this month. … Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was [murdered] by an ICE agent on July 7 while he was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston. The protests came amid mounting scrutiny of United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. … After the shooting in Houston, ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had used his vehicle to try to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defence. But witnesses contradicted ICE’s version of events, and a statement issued on Thursday by the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas made no mention of any collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle nor did it explicitly state that the officer feared for his life.” (07/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/protests-in-houston-continue-after-ice-killing-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo
-----
5) Hungary: Magyar proposes Polgár as next president
Source: euronews [UK]
“Péter Magyar, the prime minister, has invited Judit Polgár, the most successful female chess player the world has ever seen, to become Hungary’s president. … On Saturday evening, President Tamás Sulyok announced that he would sign the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law. His mandate will end on the day after the law is promulgated, meaning that from midnight on Sunday he is no longer Hungary’s president. For one month, the office will be held by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ágnes Forsthoffer.” (07/20/26)
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/20/hungarys-pm-peter-magyar-it-would-be-great-honour-if-judit-polgar-accepted-the-presidency
-----
6) Germany: Conservative parliamentary leader resigns over surrogacy debate
Source: Politico
“Jens Spahn, a senior lawmaker with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Christian Democrats, resigned from his post as the party’s parliamentary leader on Saturday amid controversy over his use of a surrogate to have a child. Spahn came under growing pressure to step down after he revealed earlier this week that he and his husband had become parents using a surrogate mother in the United States, despite the practice being banned in Germany. … Although surrogacy itself is illegal in Germany, there is no penalty for bringing up a child born through a surrogate mother abroad. But Spahn, a former health minister, faced accusations of hypocrisy as Germany’s Christian Democrats are firmly opposed to surrogacy, a position the party reaffirmed earlier this year. Spahn himself had also in the past expressed skepticism about legalising the practice.” (07/18/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-conservative-parliamentary-leader-resigns-over-surrogacy-debate-jens-spahn/
-----
7) US regime lifts TikTok ban on federal devices
Source: Engadget
“The US Department of Justice has announced that federal employees can now download and install TikTok on electronics provided by the government, explaining that its current version doesn’t pose the risks the previous one did. In 2022, TikTok was outlawed on almost all devices issues by the US federal government due to [fake] national security concerns. … it’s still up to individual agencies to decide whether or not to allow their employees to download TikTok on federal phones.” (07/18/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2218069/us-government-lifts-tiktok-ban-federal-devices/
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8) MN: Gubernatorial candidate is a registered voter … in Texas
Source: Seattle Times
“Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leader of the election denial movement who was endorsed by President Donald Trump for Minnesota governor this week, acknowledged that he is not registered to vote in the state he seeks to lead. … In Minnesota, voters are allowed to register to vote on Election Day. Lindell, who is registered in Texas, said he was not concerned that he was not yet registered in his home state, something first reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune. Lindell said he was registered to vote in Texas when he moved there for one year in 2024, soon after he married his current wife, Kendra. He said he returned to Minnesota, where he was born and raised, the following year, because he wanted to run for governor.” (07/18/26)
https://archive.is/xeXwi
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9) UK: Chinese firm seeks damages over nationalization of British Steel
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“A Chinese steel giant demanded compensation from the United Kingdom government on Sunday, claiming thetakeover of its subsidiary, British Steel, was ‘outright robbery.’ The UK government took operational control of British Steel last year, after owner Jingye Group warned that Britain’s last factory capable of making steel from scratch was no longer financially viable. … The company noted that nationalization could cost UK taxpayers more than 1.5 billion pounds ($2.02 billion, €1.76 billion) by 2028. Jingye said it had begun a procedure under bilateral investment agreements to seek damages, without expanding further.” (07/19/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/china-firm-seeks-damages-over-state-control-of-british-steel/a-78024119
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10) CO: ICE gang concentration camp contractor accused of shooting protester while driving to workfare shift
Source: Independent [UK]
“An off-duty employee of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement [concentration camp] in Aurora, Colorado, was arrested on Thursday after allegedly shooting a protester. … Brandon Booth, 42, an employee of the government contractor GEO Group, was allegedly waiting in his vehicle with coworkers near the privately run Aurora ICE Processing Center on Thursday night after protesters impeded their ability to start work at the 1,500-bed detention center. Two women who had been part of a protest near the facility earlier that evening approached the group, took pictures of their vehicles and engaged in a ‘verbal confrontation,’ according to a statement from the Aurora Police Department. ‘At that point, Booth retrieved his personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in their direction, striking one of the women on her lower body,’ the department said. ‘Booth then got into his vehicle and drove out of the area before he was detained.'” (07/18/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-shooting-aurora-colorado-brandon-booth-b3017494.html
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11) CA: Pelosi charged with hit-and-run
Source: SFGate
“Hit-and-run charges were officially announced Friday afternoon against Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, after a car crash over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley filed a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge against Pelosi, 86, Friday, after he allegedly hit an unoccupied parked Tesla on July 3. Pelosi allegedly drove away from the scene after the crash, according to charging documents obtained by SFGATE. Pelosi was driving down a residential road near his home when he allegedly struck the car in Yountville and kept driving until his car broke down and police came to the scene, according to the New York Times.” (07/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/paul-pelosi-hit-and-run-22350057.php
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12) Tanzanian-flagged tanker from Yemen hijacked by suspected Somali pirates
Source: ABC News
“A Tanzanian-flagged tanker was hijacked by suspected Somali pirates off Yemen’s coast, security sources and local officials familiar with the incident said Sunday. The commercial tanker has since been moved to waters off Somalia’s northeastern Bari region, according local officials. The MT ASANA, a general tanker, was seized on Friday after departing from Mukalla, Yemen, according to the sources. The vessel is now being held off the coast of Caluula in the semiautonomous state of Puntland’s Bari region.” (07/19/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/tanzanian-flagged-tanker-yemen-hijacked-suspected-somali-pirates-134887935
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13) FL: “Manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested on rape, sex trafficking charges in Florida
Source: New York Post
“‘Manosphere’ influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Florida Saturday in connection to rape and sex trafficking charges in the UK. … The Tates, who have both British and American citizenship, have faced legal troubles for years, and were nabbed because of a host of new sex crime charges handed down overseas. … The Tates’ attorney, Joe McBryde, disputed the charges and told The Post the arrest should not have occurred until their trials in Romania and a defamation case in Florida concluded. ‘This is like Keir Starmer’s last day in office; it’s obvious that this little petty bastard has nothing better to do than persecute these two guys he wishes he could act like, walk like and talk like,’ he said.” (07/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/18/us-news/andrew-and-tristan-tate-arrested-by-u-s-marshals-in-florida/
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14) Brazil: Top court denies Bolsonaro home visit by Argentina’s Milei
Source: United Press International
“Brazil’s top court on Saturday denied a request from former President Jair Bolsonaro to be visited by Argentinian President Javier Milei while under house arrest. The attempted visit by Milei, a political ally of the far-right Bolsonaro, was part of a campaign to drum up political support for the son of the former president, who is running against leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for a coup attempt but has been in his home in Brasilia since March due to his health condition. He was already barred from participating in national politics as part of his sentence. But Bolsonaro was placed under further restrictions on Friday for breaching conditions of his house arrest, after he wrote a political letter supporting his son’s candidature for president.” (07/18/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/07/18/latam-bolsonaro-milei/7271784410855/
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15) Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“One of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, 38, is the leader of the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a group of artists, journalists and intellectuals who have campaigned for freedom of speech and democracy in the communist country. He was arrested in 2021 during Cuba’s largest anti-government protests in decades and spent five years in the maximum-security Guanajay prison near Havana. His whereabouts have been unclear in recent days as Cuban authorities held him in an unknown location while the US approved a parole request. Emerging from the airport in Miami, the 38-year-old was greeted by supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem as he held up his forefinger and thumb in the shape of the letter L to represent ‘Libertad – meaning freedom, a recognised anti-government symbol.” (07/19/26)
https://archive.is/UYbEV
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16) France: Regime orders Internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France said Friday it was blocking access to the online prediction market Polymarket, as punters continued to make bets despite a ban already in place. The national gaming authority ANJ said Friday that Polymarket’s webpage would be blocked on French territory, which adds to a November 2024 ban on financial transactions to the site. Polymarket is one of a number of online prediction markets which allow people to bet on the outcome of future events.” (07/17/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260717-france-orders-internet-service-providers-to-block-access-to-polymarket
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17) China: Regime dismisses Trump election interference accusations as “entirely fabricated,” threatens countermeasures
Source: Fox News
“China pushed back Friday after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of ‘working to influence the results’ of the 2020 presidential election, describing his accusation as ‘entirely fabricated.’ Trump said in a primetime speech Thursday night that ‘in mid 2018, China was working to influence the results of the U.S. midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself.’ … China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Friday said ‘the relevant allegations by the U.S. are entirely fabricated and aimed at vilifying China.’ ‘We have no interest in interfering in US elections and have never done so,’ Jian said. … He added that ‘China reserves the right to take reciprocal countermeasures.'” (07/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/china-dismisses-trump-election-interference-accusations-entirely-fabricated-threatens-countermeasures
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18) Russia: Pro-Kremlin blogger who turned on Putin is arrested as regime steps up crackdown
Source: NBC News
“A former loyalist blogger turned fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been detained and accused of spreading false information about the armed forces, state media reported Friday. The news came just as a court hearing was being held for another Kremlin critic and opposition politician, Boris Nadezhdin, in a sign of an intensified response to mounting internal dissent over the war in Ukraine and its impact on Russian life. The blogger, Ilya Remeslo, stunned many in Russia when he published a scathing manifesto against the Russian leader that went viral in March. He was detained in St. Petersburg early Friday and could face up to 10 years in prison, state news agency Tass reported, citing law enforcement sources. The charge he faces is a common one for opponents of the war in Ukraine and has been used to jail numerous dissidents since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.” (07/17/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/ilya-remeslo-arrested-kremlin-crackdown-putin-critic-nadezhdin-court-rcna587962
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19) Anthropic employees donate $3 million to buy AI regulators
Source: SFGate
“Employees from three major Bay Area artificial intelligence companies donated more than $3 million to a political action committee supporting AI regulation, according to new campaign finance records. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was the top donor to Public First in the last quarter, giving the pro-AI safety [sic] super PAC a $1 million donation to fund candidates who share his company’s vision for safe [sic] AI development. Amodei was joined by five other Anthropic employees, who donated more than $2 million combined, plus a Google DeepMind engineer and a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, who donated $250,000 and $5,000, respectively.” (07/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/dario-amodei-donation-22348647.php
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20) US regime seeks extradition of Cox Communications heir from Spain over unapproved political positions
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The United States is seeking the extradition of James ‘Fergie’ Chambers from Spain, having accused the wealthy donor to Palestinian and other causes of financing ‘terrorism’. Authorities in Ibiza detained Chambers last Friday on an international arrest warrant, after the US alleged he has provided material support to Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza but is designated a ‘terror organisation’ by Washington. … Heir to the family that owns telecom giant Cox Communications, Chambers has donated more than $1m to pro-Palestine causes and humanitarian projects in Gaza.” (07/17/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/17/us-seeks-extradition-of-wealthy-pro-palestine-donor-from-spain
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Most Damaging Mental Disorder: Gerontocracy is Just a Symptom
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“You won’t find archomania listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but you should. While it often manifests in the same ways as other manias (kleptomania, an irresistible urge to steal; oniomani, a compulsion to shop; etc.), archomania is a distinct disorder. Its symptoms include a compulsive urge to rule others, distress at the prospect of not being allowed to rule others, and a narcissistic belief in one’s unique qualifications to exercise such power. The colloquial term for an archomaniac is: Politician. Gerontocracy is just the result of coddling and empowering archomaniacs. Their hair grays, their gaits slow, their minds wander … but the compulsion remains, as does the grip on power seized back when muscles were stronger and hands less arthritic.” (07/19/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20766
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22) America’s Manufactured Menaces
Source: The American Conservative
by Bruce Fein
“The American Empire is the safest country in history. Among other things, we sport more than the 5,000 nuclear warheads shielded from outside inspection; a multitrillion-dollar military-industrial-security complex; nonstop surveillance of the entire population; special forces in 70–80 countries; NATO and defense pacts with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines; a de facto alliance with Israel; and pioneering AI to optimize the lethality of weapons. Nobody goes to bed in the United States fearing an invasion or military attack. Yet we are poised to hike Pentagon spending to $1.5 trillion annually, excluding the VA budget, which approaches $500 billion. … Since the American Empire confronts zero existential threats, we summon them into being to justify a national security state that crushes liberty and the march of the mind while exalting force of arms. Thus, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has decreed that ‘antifa’—i.e., antifascism—is a global, terrorist threat.” (07/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americas-manufactured-menaces/
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23) Calling Cartels “Narcoterrorists” Turns Drug Enforcement Into War Making
Source: Reason
by Niko Vorobyov
“Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against ‘narcoterrorists,’ treating drug smuggling as an ‘armed attack’ and blurring the line between criminal enforcement and war. His administration has described foreign drug cartels and other criminal gangs as ‘non-state armed groups’ or ‘unlawful combatants,’ a term introduced during the Bush era to deny suspected terrorists protections afforded under the Geneva Conventions. In August of last year, Trump signed a secret directive authorizing military strikes on narco-terrorists. By September, U.S. forces were bombing alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. In December, the administration followed with an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction …. The narco-terrorist label keeps expanding. In May, the State Department added the PCC and Red Command to its terrorism blacklist, designating them as foreign terrorist organizations. But what has that accomplished for drug control?”
https://reason.com/2026/07/19/calling-cartels-narcoterrorists-turns-drug-enforcement-into-war-making/
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24) The Case for a Managed US Exit from NATO
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“[I]f Europeans spend more on defense, it doesn’t necessarily mean the United States will cut back its mammoth defense budget. Instead, Trump has outrageously proposed ballooning it by more than 50 percent. In light of this reality, his browbeating of allies on defense spending may seem to relieve allies’ snookering of the United States, but it doesn’t help the United States address its gaping budget deficits and spiraling national debt. A better alternative would be for Trump to announce a gradual U.S. withdrawal from NATO over a two-year period. The European Union now has a GDP about 8.5 times that of its principal rival—a Russia that has been severely weakened by the bloody, drawn-out quagmire against the surprisingly resilient Ukraine. There has never been a better time to pull the plug on a Cold-War-era alliance.” (07/17/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/17/trump-withdraw-nato/
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25) Who Is Really in Charge of Public Health?
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Maryanne Demasi
“200-page policy report argues that global public health is no longer being driven by the needs of countries, but by financial incentives. At the centre of that argument is Professor Ramesh Thakur—a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and principal writer of Kofi Annan’s UN reform report. He spent years inside the system helping shape it. Now, he argues that in public health, global authority has gone too far. Thakur says decisions have shifted away from national governments and towards international institutions—particularly the World Health Organization.” (07/18/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/who-is-really-in-charge-of-public-health/
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26) The Case for an African Renaissance
Source: The American Spectator
by Lawrence M Mead
“Lipton Matthews is an independent scholar, author of many notable essays and reviews. Born and first educated in Jamaica, Busting African Delusions is his most ambitious work. In it he argues that Africa is losing its chance to succeed China as the. workshop of the world. That is because it declines to pursue growth and wealth as it could and should. Africa is attracting foreign investment from China and elsewhere because of its relatively low wages and the incentives it offers to investors. Kenya, for instance, has created a special economic zone in Tatu City, and industrial parks are sprouting across the continent. To Matthews, however, African leaders and entrepreneurs seldom reach out as they could to appeal to foreign investors seeking new opportunities. Mostly, Africa looks backward, not ahead.” (07/18/26)
https://spectator.org/the-case-for-an-african-renaissance/
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27) Conspiracy Theorists Think Trump’s Speech Paves the Path to the Insurrection Act
Source: Wired
by David Gilbert
“Election deniers have spent years promoting the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. They believe Donald Trump’s speech finally proves them right.” (07/17/26)
https://archive.is/ynGRB
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28) For many in the media and judiciary, Trump and the GOP are guilty until proven innocent
Source: The Hill
by Douglas MacKinnon
“Several recent stories in the news underscore that, when it comes to the American judicial system and the mainstream media, President Trump and various Republicans are going to be continually painted in the worst light possible. These partisan portrayals create an advantage for the Democratic Party and all of its policies, grievances, grudges and campaigns.” (07/18/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5974835-media-bias-trump-gop/
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29) Trump Delivered the Crazy, the Democrats Delivered … Tweets
Source: The Nation
by Elie Mystal
“I know that the opposition party traditionally responds only after the State of the Union address. But that’s been a tradition only since 1966 (of course, it was the Republicans who started it, when Lyndon Johnson was president). There’s no reason Democrats shouldn’t demand equal time from the television networks and respond to Trump’s lies as soon as he’s done spewing them. … Of course, mounting a response would require the Democrats to be an organized political party with a self-preservation instinct and an ability to think creatively about how best to combat rising authoritarianism. And, well, ‘lmao @ Dems,’ as the kids say.” (07/17/26)
https://archive.is/Q3CCV
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30) Orwell, Spain and the totalitarian left
Source: spiked
by Michael Crowley
“The Spanish Civil War began 90 years ago. On 18 July 1936, General Francisco Franco, alongside fellow general Emilio Mola, led a right-wing military revolt against the democratically elected Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. … George Orwell arrived in Spain in December 1936. He was prevented from joining the International Brigades, and instead joined up with a militia organised by the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). It was a decision that would change the course of his thinking and creative output. He travelled to Spain as an ardent anti-fascist and returned as a determined anti-Communist, or more precisely, an anti-Stalinist.” (07/19/26)
https://archive.is/Y1GBQ
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31) The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Kent Ingle
“The American education establishment is currently having a collective meltdown. If you watch the headlines closely, you can see the panic setting in across the country. This is the unmistakable sound of a broken progressive machine collapsing under the weight of its own arrogance. The radical left has engineered our educational system to prioritize ideological compliance over human formation. Reality is finally catching up with them, and the collapse is starting where the crusade began. The war on merit.” (07/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressive-education-machine-collapsing-let-it-fall
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32) An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility
Source: Persuasion
by Damon Silvers & Matt Scherer
“The AI boom is already the largest capital investment project in history, running a price tag greater than the Manhattan Project, Interstate Highway System, and Apollo program combined. Estimates of the total cost of the data center buildout run as high as $7 trillion. The issue is not whether AI will transform our economy and society—maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But the conversation around AI’s long-term impact misses the more urgent question: whether AI companies can increase revenues and profits fast enough to pay their bills.” (07/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/an-ai-crash-is-a-real-possibility
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33) They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone
“So it seems the United States is looking at a reinvigorated COINTELPRO for the 2020s, this time with police drones and AI-assisted mass surveillance. As Americans become more and more hostile toward US warmongering, more and more fed up with the state of Israel, more and more convinced that their government doesn’t care about them, and more and more discontented with what unbridled capitalism is doing to their bank accounts, their society, and their world, their rulers are responding with the iron fist of tyranny. And what makes all this especially threatening is that you know whatever measures they roll out while the Republicans are running things will remain in place when the Democrats are in power, because as we have discussed here many times before, it is the Democratic Party’s job to prevent leftward movement in the United States.” (07/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/18/theyre-launching-a-new-cointelpro-for-the-21st-century/
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34) Labor Unions Hate Robots — and It’s Stopping Democrats From Delivering on Affordability
Source: Reason
by Peter Suderman
“Democrats have a union problem. They have tied their political fortunes to unions, public and private, in ways that exacerbate intraparty conflict while stymieing both progressive and moderate goals. That’s not just a problem for the party. Democratic deference to unions creates economic hurdles for much of the country—almost everyone who isn’t in a union, and even some people who are—because today’s unions function as roadblocks to the future. To understand the party’s problem, consider that the two most powerful words in Democratic politics in 2026 are abundance and affordability. Both represent rival party factions.” (for publication 08/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/18/labor-unions-hate-robots/
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35) A Flattering AI Scam
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“I receive a flattering email. The sender is very impressed with my work. She runs an elite reading group, would like to include one of my books. I, of course, respond that she is welcome to do so. At the second or third round of the exchange she mentions a small financial contribution by the featured author to help cover the costs of the project. … I think this is the third I have received in the past year. Considered as a scam, it makes sense only if targeting multiple authors, since it does not seem likely to get much money from any single author. Targeting multiple authors requires multiple versions of the emails, since they contain moderately detailed references to the author’s work, hardly likely to be worth the cost of hiring someone to compose them. Unless they are written by an AI.” (07/18/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/a-flattering-ai-scam
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36) The Kids Are All Right
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“All is not yet lost in a country where the children rise up as one to evade mandatory age-check barriers to social media. Reclaim the Net reports the finding that, as judged by looking at 408 Australian teens, some 85 percent ‘of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still merrily logging on three months after the ban supposedly cut them off from the world.’ Maybe not merrily. Perhaps only sturdily or insouciantly. Anyway, rightly. Good job, guys. The ban is failing because kids know how to draw a mustache on their faces or borrow somebody else’s login.” (07/17/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/17/the-kids-are-all-right/
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37) America Is in Trouble and Running Out of Time
Source: Townhall
by Les Rubin
“The numbers are mathematical, not political. Unless the United States begins restoring fiscal discipline, future generations will inherit a nation burdened by debt, weakened by chronic overspending, and headed to a bankruptcy that could be prevented. Washington is run by professional politicians, not statesmen, whose focus is on the next election, not the next generation. They have operated under a simple formula. Promise more benefits, avoid difficult decisions, and borrow the difference.” (07/17/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/les-rubin/2026/07/17/america-is-in-trouble-and-running-out-of-time-n2679507
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38) Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence?
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by John Coleman
“The internet is one of the main places where we read, learn, ask questions, and share ideas. It serves as a library, bookstore, classroom, and town square all at once. For decades, most people have been able to use those online spaces without first proving who they are. That may be changing. Legislatures across the United States are passing laws requiring online platforms and other digital services to determine users’ ages before granting access. … At first glance, these laws seem to ask a simple question: How old are you? But answering it isn’t so simple. Is checking a box enough? Can a company estimate your age from a selfie? Should it rely on information from your device or app store? Or must you verify your age by uploading a government-issued ID? What begins as age assurance can result in identity verification.” (07/17/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/can-government-require-id-you-use-artificial-intelligence
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39) Why the government makes our streets a little uglier
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Viggo Terling
"You would be forgiven, while walking down the street, for not stopping at every lamppost to read the hastily printed notices fastened to our street furniture. When you walk into a pub, restaurant, nail salon or shop, you would also be forgiven for completely ignoring the hastily printed letter from the council regarding planning application number 26/03570/FULL, for example. When erected on street furniture, the ink usually runs, and the notices collect dust, soot, cigarette stubs and chewing gum. Rather ugly indeed. What are these eminently ignorable wastes of fine British fir? They are planning notices. ... There is no need for physical planning notices. They do not help anyone, and they make our public realm messier and uglier." (07/18/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/why-the-government-makes-our-streets-a-little-uglier
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40) Immigrants Build America’s Most Valuable Companies
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Visa holders founded half of today’s Fortune 500 companies and a majority of billion-dollar startups. Current restrictions damage that competitive advantage and choke off future growth.” (07/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/immigrants-build-americas-most-valuable-companies/
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41) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
Source: Informed Comment
by Tom Engelhardt
“[G]ive Donald Trump credit. People deal with him as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
https://www.juancole.com/2026/07/americas-imperial-korea.html
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42) Emily Feng’s Seditious Material and the new West’s love of censorship
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kym Robinson
“Hong Kong police have recently arrested book sellers for having copies of Emily Feng’s, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom. Freelance journalists and three others have been arrested related to the book and for the act of selling, ‘seditious material.’ … ‘Seditious Material,’ is the title that sounds less than harmful for many Westerners who may view China as a land known of having less freedoms, where independent thinking and writing, are prohibited or heavily guided. … time and time again we are told that Western values celebrates individual rights. Self ownership, which includes free speech. Transfer those two words, Seditious and Material and press it into those which may suddenly draw an ire of concern for a newly conditioned Western reader, one who may feel freedom of speech has conditions.” (07/17/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/emily-fengs-seditious-material-and-the-new-wests-love-of-censorship/
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43) A Brief History of Trump’s Failures to Bring Peace
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Campaigning for the White House in 2024, retired game show host Donald Trump insisted that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office—maybe before. He repeated that boast more than 50 times—it clearly was not a one-off remark. The war rages on, of course, and we have a pretty good idea of who is going to put a stop to that war: the Ukrainians. How are the great peacemaker’s other projects going?” (07/17/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/donald-trump-international-peacemaker/
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44) Cicero’s Life in the Arena
Source: Law & Liberty
by Tyler Syck
“With the exception of the Caesars, no ancient Roman political figure is as famous as Marcus Tullius Cicero. Like the Caesars, the myth of Cicero has taken on a life of its own: the philosopher-statesman who, until his final breath, withstood the forces of totalitarianism in defense of the republic. Certainly, there is a great deal of truth to this story. Cicero’s literary output is prodigious, and his defense of the Roman republic against Caesarism should remain an example to us all. However, as with most myths, the truth of the man is far richer and far more complicated.” (07/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/ciceros-life-in-the-arena/
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45) The New American Industrial Revolution Runs on Data Centers
Source: American Greatness
by Jordan Schachtel
“merican technological infrastructure is the building block for our modern lives. Data centers are not some side issue or a fringe zoning dispute; they account for a significant part of the physical foundation of the American economy. They are the functional infrastructure that can put the United States in a position to reindustrialize and onshore our economy, while allowing us to have the tools we need to compete with China. The loudest forces working to stop that buildout fall into exactly two categories: people who are simply misinformed about what these facilities actually do, and people who are being actively used, wittingly or not, to psyop American communities into fighting against their own country’s interests.” (07/17/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/17/the-new-american-industrial-revolution-runs-on-data-centers/
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46) How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson
“The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, passed and signed in 2022, went into effect on May 1. It demands a lot. By 2032, every shred of single-use packaging and single-use plastic food service ware sold in the state has to be recyclable or compostable. The law covers not just items made and consumed in California, but also those imported from outside the state. Because California is a massive market, many companies don’t produce one package for California and another for the other 49 states. Instead, they use a single design for everyone. That’s why the 17 states and other critics argue that California’s regulations have increasingly become national regulations.” (07/17/26)
https://fee.org/articles/how-californias-plastic-ban-could-change-what-every-american-buys/
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47) Mykhailo Fedorov Ukraine Ukraine’s defense minister walked into Zelensky corruption buzzsaw
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Mark Episkopos
“Mykhailo Fedorov advanced a successful drone program in part by bucking the patronage system, which, protected by the president, likely led to his sacking.” (07/17/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/mykhailo-fedorov-ukraine-zelensky/
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48) Auberon Herbert and the “Social Entity”
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“In his magazine debate over socialism, the late-Victorian individualist Auberon Herbert saw in the presentation of his opponent, J. A. Hobson, ‘an attempt to reduce the individual to nothingness, and on the ruins of the individual to exalt and glorify ‘the social organism.’ … Herbert asked: ‘[Is] there any solid reality in this view of the social entity, or must we treat it as a mere literary creation?’ He opted for the latter because, in fact, it is individuals all the way down.'” (07/17/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-auberon-herbert-and-the-social
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49) America’s Imperial Wars, from Korea to Iran
Source: Informed Comment
by Tom Engelhardt
“People deal with [Donald Trump] as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
https://www.juancole.com/2026/07/americas-imperial-korea.html
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50) Politicians Should Stop Hiding Behind the ‘Two-State Solution’ Fantasy
Source: Antiwar.com
by Norman Solomon
“Creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel seemed feasible when President Bill Clinton hosted the signing of the Oslo accords at the White House in September 1993. The goal was reaffirmed in 2011 when 90 percent of the Senate co-sponsored a resolution supporting ‘a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ But today, the two-state scenario is far-fetched to the point of delusion if not evasion. For politicians, it has become a box to check. According to data from the American Jewish Congress, every Democrat and most Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee currently say they support ‘the two-state solution.’ Whatever the rhetoric, ending Israeli control over Palestinians in the territories occupied since 1967 is not on the table.” (07/17/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/solomon/2026/07/16/politicians-should-stop-hiding-behind-the-two-state-solution-fantasy/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 348
Source: Unattended Baggage
“This is fine.” (07/18/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-348-this-is-fine
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52) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/18/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s Examine the JC Filings: Appeal of the Disaffiliation of the Libertarian Partyof NH.” (07/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5otXvYwK8
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53) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/18/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“What’s Going on in Right-Wing Media? w/ Howard Polskin/Gen Z is Tired of War w/ Ionnis Vlahos.” (07/18/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/polskin-vlahos7-18-26/
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54) The Good Fight Club, 07/18/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Refounding Liberalism, Gen Z’s Political Instincts, and a Watergate Ghost Story.” (07/18/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-good-fight-club-18
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55) Sal and Mark, episode 12
Source: Free Talk Live
“Mark is back from Costa Rica and jumping straight into one of the most important conversations in crypto. Denny (@patriotsounds) from RuneBond.com joins Sal and Mark to break down THORChain, the permissionless, fully decentralized cross chain swap protocol that no government can touch. They cover how it works, what bond providers and node operators actually do, why Monero is coming to ThorChain soon and why that is a game changer, and how anyone can start using it today without ever touching the Rune token.” (07/17/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/samep12
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56) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Pay Attention: What the Treasury Secretary Says About the Future of Gold | Featuring Philip Patrick.” (07/17/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MJgNNpjYAAGL
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57) Rising, 07/17/26
Source: The Hill
“President Trump delivered an address to the nation Thursday night alleging that hundreds of millions of American voters have had their data compromised by China.” (07/17/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5962180-rising-july-17-2026/
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58) Soho Forum Debate: Are the Epstein Files a Moral Panic?
Source: Reason
“Journalist Michael Tracey and professor Marcella Szablewicz debate the Epstein scandal and the public reaction to the files.” (07/17/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/17/are-the-epstein-files-a-moral-panic/
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59) Freakonomics Radio, episode 617
Source: Freakonomics
“Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin? (Update).” (07/17/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-you-really-allergic-to-penicillin-update/
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60) Serious Trouble, 07/17/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Stretching the Limits of the Courts.” (07/17/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/stretching-the-limits-of-the-courts
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