04/27 -- Iranian regime offers US regime new trade deal to reopen Strait, delay nuclear talks; The Perils of Goal‑Free War
5 views
Skip to first unread message
Thomas L. Knapp
Apr 27, 2026, 6:15:42 AM (4 days ago) Apr 27
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 04/27/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
More News, More Commentary, More Audio/Video at Our Web Edition!
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Iranian regime offers US regime new trade deal to reopen Strait, delay nuclear talks
2) Cole Allen manifesto: “Friendly Federal Assassin” wanted to kill Trump officials
3) Palestine: Abbas loyalists sweep elections, including some seats in Gaza
4) VA: Supreme Court considers whether to block voter-approved US House gerrymander
5) At least 16 dead in strikes across Ukraine and Russia on Chernobyl anniversary
6) US regime publicly confesses to two more maritime murders
7) Tunisia: Regime suspends rights group as crackdown widens
8) Occupied Ireland: Car bomb explodes outside police station after vehicle hijacked
9) Researcher breaks 15-bit elliptic curve key in “largest quantum attack,” wins 1 Bitcoin bounty from Project Eleven
10) Judge rejects DOJ bid to delay Anthropic appeal in Pentagon dispute
11) Mali: Explosions and gunfire as armed groups launch co-ordinated attacks
12) It pleaseth the US Crown to let Venezuelan regime pay abducted Venezuelan politician’s legal fees
13) In Dead of Night, GOP Sets Vote on Trump Fed Pick
14) Tibetans-in-exile vote for new government as future without Dalai Lama looms
15) Colombia: Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwest as violence persists
16) South Korea: Prosecutors seek 30 years for Yoon over drone plot
17) Israel: Netanyahu orders army to “vigorously attack” Hezbollah in Lebanon
18) Judge orders Trump, DOJ to justify why president’s frivolous $10 billion IRS lawsuit should proceed
19) CA: Two small earthquakes strike near San Francisco Zoo
20) China’s DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Perils of Goal‑Free War
22) Note to Those So Inclined: Please Stop Trying to Kill Donald Trump
23) Yes, The Right Has an Omnicause
24) Trump lived by the conspiracy theory — now he pays the price
25) The Power of Wealth
26) Breaking Up “Big Medicine” Won’t Fix What Washington Broke
27) Incredible Claims
28) There Is No Winning in Iran
29) Congress Has Become Almost Totally Irrelevant
30) Only Liberal Societies Can Handle Alien Life
31) Why fighting federal-benefit fraud must top the Republican agenda
32) The Cadaver Synod of Pope Donald
33) Scandinavia’s U-turn on book reading
34) Reggio Meets Axolotls
35) Twitter Files, Southern Poverty Law Center Edition: Hate Inflation?
36) We Can’t Agree on Inequality — Here’s Why
37) Turns Out, “Unite the Right” Charlottesville Rally was Underwritten by the Left [sic]
38) Government Cannot Make Us Healthy
39) Who is responsible when an AI weapon pulls the trigger?
40) An All-American Retort to Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon
41) Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs
42) Our Anti-Rich Tax System
43) Has Iran Learned the North Korea Lesson: Nukes Are Essential To Deter the US?
44) What We Want and How to Get It
45) Left’s war on SCOTUS just hit a terrifying new low
46) Congress Still Has a Chance To Curb Section 702 Surveillance Abuses
47) The Pontiff and the Postliberals
48) He Wrote an Op-Ed. Then Police Tracked Him
49) Blame John Roberts for This Anti-Democratic Redistricting War
50) How the Iran War Makes China Look Good
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 338
52) System Update, 04/25/26
53) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2755
54) TAC Right Now, 04/24/26
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 04/24/26
56) The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 04/24/26
57) Serious Trouble, 04/24/26
58) The Evil Within, episode 8
59) Soho Forum Debate: Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 04/24/26
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
TRY STARLINK: YOU GET A FREE MONTH AND SO DO WE!
https://starlink.com/residential?referral=RC-DF-8980236-19330-50
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION (2nd edition), by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883853117
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE "YOUR" CONGRESS/SENATE MEMBERS?
https://congressionalindependence.deathbutt.org/
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iranian regime offers US regime new trade deal to reopen Strait, delay nuclear talks
Source: Financial Express [Bangladesh]
“Iran has put forward a fresh proposal to the United States that focuses on easing tensions at sea first, while pushing nuclear talks to a later stage, Axios reported. According to reports, Tehran is offering a deal that would help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and reduce conflict, but only if discussions on its nuclear programme are postponed for now. Trump said negotiations would continue over phone calls after Iran declined direct talks with American negotiators amid tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is heading to Russia and is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss the status of ongoing negotiations.” (04/27/26)
https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/iran-us-israel-war-live-updates-trump-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-negotiations-oil-price-today/4219087/
-----
2) Cole Allen manifesto: “Friendly Federal Assassin” wanted to kill Trump officials
Source: Lynnwood Times
“In a manifesto attributed to Cole Allen, the 31-year-old suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, he identifies as a ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ who had a ‘real opportunity’ [to] kill ‘Administration officials.’ Allen remains in federal custody. ‘What my representatives do reflects on me,’ Allen allegedly wrote in a manifesto released by the New York Post on Sunday. ‘And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ Allen, of Torrance, California, was arrested at the scene Saturday night after he allegedly charged a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives.” (04/26/26)
https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2026/04/26/allen-manifesto/
-----
3) Palestine: Abbas loyalists sweep elections, including some seats in Gaza
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the besieged Gaza Strip. … Saturday’s ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006, and the first Palestinian polls since Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory began in October 2023. The vote in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah was a largely symbolic ‘pilot’ election, Palestinian Authority officials said, intended to show that Gaza was an inseparable part of a future [sic] Palestinian state. Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, did not formally nominate candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah’s victory was widely expected.” (04/26/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/26/abbas-loyalists-sweep-palestine-elections-in-occupied-west-bank-gaza-city
-----
4) VA: Supreme Court considers whether to block voter-approved US House gerrymander
Source: Associated Press
“The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a Republican challenge to the redrawn congressional map that was approved by voters last week and could net Democrats four additional U.S. House seats. The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless.” (04/27/26)
https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-congress-virginia-court-trump-8b6faf14a1786a3f90cb2d3941e41103
-----
5) At least 16 dead in strikes across Ukraine and Russia on Chernobyl anniversary
Source: CBS News
“Strikes across Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory and Russia killed at least 16 people, authorities said, as the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted fresh warnings about the risks posed by attacks near the plant during Russia’s more than four-year invasion of its neighbor. The death toll from Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro rose to nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday. One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in [formerly Ukrainian, now Russian] Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday.” (04/26/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russian-attacks-chernobyl-anniversary/
-----
6) US regime publicly confesses to two more maritime murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military launched a strike Friday on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, [murdering] two people, according to U.S. Southern Command. No U.S. military forces were harmed in the operation, it said in a statement on X late Friday. U.S. Southern Command shared a video showing a boat floating in the water before an explosion left it in flames. It said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.” (04/25/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-strike-alleged-drug-boat-kills-2-eastern-pacific-military/
-----
7) Tunisia: Regime suspends rights group as crackdown widens
Source: ABC News
“Authorities in Tunisia have ordered a one-month suspension of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, one of the oldest rights groups in Africa and the Arab world and part of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, in the latest move raising concerns over a widening crackdown on civil society. The league confirmed the suspension in a statement late Friday, warning that the decision amounted to ‘a serious and arbitrary violation of freedom of association’ and ‘a direct assault’ on one of Tunisia’s key democratic gains. President Kais Saied has often cited foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to Tunisia, using it to fuel a populist narrative and accuse his political opponents and social justice activists of being foreign agents and stirring unrest at home.” (04/25/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/tunisia-suspends-africas-oldest-rights-group-crackdown-widens-132372339
-----
8) Occupied Ireland: Car bomb explodes outside police station after vehicle hijacked
Source: Reuters
“A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Dunmurry area of south Belfast late on Saturday after a delivery vehicle was hijacked and the driver forced to take it to the site, [British-occupied] Ireland police said on Sunday. The attack is the latest in a series of sporadic attempts by militant groups that continue to target police officers, decades after a peace deal largely ended sectarian violence in the region. … The car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast shortly after 10:50 p.m. (2150 GMT) on Saturday and a gas cylinder device was placed in the trunk, police said. The man was ordered to drive the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told a news conference. The vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station, prompting police to activate an alarm and evacuate nearby homes, Singleton said.” (04/26/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/car-explodes-outside-police-station-northern-ireland-belfast-telegraph-reports-2026-04-26/
-----
9) Researcher breaks 15-bit elliptic curve key in “largest quantum attack,” wins 1 Bitcoin bounty from Project Eleven
Source: The Block
“Independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli derived a 15-bit elliptic curve key using a publicly accessible quantum computer, in what Project Eleven called the ‘largest quantum attack’ on elliptic curve cryptography to date, albeit at a scale far below that used in real-world cryptographic systems. Project Eleven, a post-quantum security startup, awarded a 1 BTC bounty, currently worth over $78,000, to Lelli as part of its ‘Q-Day Prize.’ The bounty program was launched last year by the project to break elliptic-curve keys ranging from 1 to 25 bits before April 5 this year. … Bitcoin uses 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography to secure wallets, which is far larger than the 15-bit key broken in this demonstration.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theblock.co/post/398792/researcher-breaks-15-bit-elliptic-curve-key-wins-1-bitcoin-bounty-project-eleven
-----
10) Judge rejects DOJ bid to delay Anthropic appeal in Pentagon dispute
Source: Politico
“A federal judge in California has denied the government’s request to pause its appeal of a March ruling that temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic as a supply chain risk. Justice Department lawyers argued earlier this week that the appeal should be put on hold until judges at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hand down a ruling in another case regarding Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin denied that request on Thursday, noting that the D.C. case was brought pursuant to a different statute. … Due to a quirk in federal law, Anthropic was forced in March to file lawsuits in both Northern California and the D.C. Circuit when it challenged the government’s action designating it a supply chain risk. On April 8, a three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit rejected Anthropic’s request to pause the designation, creating a court split.” (04/24/26)
https://archive.is/ptUyL
-----
11) Mali: Explosions and gunfire as armed groups launch co-ordinated attacks
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Explosions and sustained gunfire have been reported in Mali’s capital, Bamako, as armed groups launched co-ordinated attacks across the country. Mali’s military said on Saturday evening that efforts to repel the attacks were under way, and some militants had already fled. Fighting has also been reported around Kati, home to a major military base outside the capital, as well as in Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sevare and Mopti. One analyst described it as the largest jihadist attack in years. Mali has for years been plagued by insurgencies by groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist movement in the country’s north.” (04/26/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyx7nnrkqdo
-----
12) It pleaseth the US Crown to let Venezuelan regime pay abducted Venezuelan politician’s legal fees
Source: United Press International
“Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores can pay their attorneys with money from the Venezuelan government, ending a monthlong legal standoff. Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys wrote a joint letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein filed Friday night saying that the Department of Treasury would amend a license allowing payments to the Maduros’ lawyers without violating U.S. sanctions laws. … On March 26, Maduro’s attorney argued that the case against them should be dismissed because they were unable to pay their attorney fees. The sanctions disallowed them from accessing funds from the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors had argued that they could use personal funds, but the Maduros argued they didn’t have any.” (04/25/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/25/latam-venezuelan-government-maduros-legal-fees/6151777133053/
-----
13) In Dead of Night, GOP Sets Vote on Trump Fed Pick
Source: Common Dreams
“In the late hours of Friday night, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee scheduled a vote to advance President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, shortly after the Justice Department announced it was dropping its criminal probe into the current head of the central bank, Jerome Powell. The committee vote will take place on April 29, putting megarich financier Kevin Warsh on track for full Senate confirmation by the time Powell’s term as Fed chair ends on May 15. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the banking panel, said in a statement early Saturday morning that ‘either the Republican majority is fooled easily or they are hoping to fool the American people’, arguing that the Justice Department only agreed to drop its widely condemned probe of Powell—for now, at least—to clear the way for Warsh’s confirmation.” (04/25/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/kevin-warsh-confirmation-vote
-----
14) Tibetans-in-exile vote for new government as future without Dalai Lama looms
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Tibetans outside Chinese control vote on Sunday for a government-in-exile, an election of heightened significance as they brace for an inevitable, eventual, future without their revered spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) — condemned by China as ‘nothing but a separatist political group’ — is a key institution for the exiles, especially after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011. … Polling is due to take place in 27 countries — but not China. The 91,000 registered voters including Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia’s megacities and refugees in Australia, Europe and North America. … The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions, and five representing the diaspora.” (04/26/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260426-exiled-tibetans-elect-government-vote-condemned-china
-----
15) Colombia: Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwest as violence persists
Source: SFGate
“An explosive device killed 13 people traveling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country’s army chief described as a ‘terrorist act’ that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the region escalates. Octavio Guzmán, the governor of the region of Cauca, said on X that the device was set off while the bus was traveling along the Panamerican Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. Five children were among the injured, Cauca Health Secretary Carolina Camargo told Noticias Caracol, a TV news program.” (04/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/authorities-in-southwest-colombia-are-on-alert-22225895.php
-----
16) South Korea: Prosecutors seek 30 years for Yoon over drone plot
Source: United Press International
“South Korean prosecutors on Friday sought a 30-year prison sentence for jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol, alleging he ordered military drones to infiltrate North Korea in a bid to provoke tensions ahead of his short-lived martial law declaration in 2024. A special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk said Yoon and senior defense officials orchestrated the drone incursions through military command channels to trigger a North Korean response and create a security crisis as justification for emergency rule. The team charged Yoon, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung with offenses including aiding an enemy state and abuse of power.” (04/24/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/04/24/korea-Yoon-Suk-Yeol-30-years-drone-plot-special-prosecutors-sentence/7251777021499/
-----
17) Israel: Netanyahu orders army to “vigorously attack” Hezbollah in Lebanon
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to ‘vigorously attack Hezbollah targets’ in Lebanon, two days after a ceasefire was extended by three weeks. Fresh Israeli attacks followed the directive, which came after at least six people were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday. Further cross-border exchanges between the two sides have strained the truce agreement, highlighting the precarity of the ceasefire. The agreement, which has seen a reduction in fire rather than a complete halt, was extended on Thursday after talks between the countries’ envoys in Washington. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes on a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, according to Agence-France-Presse.” (04/26/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yv1nvd4gjo
-----
18) Judge orders Trump, DOJ to justify why president’s frivolous $10 billion IRS lawsuit should proceed
Source: ABC News
“A federal judge is raising concerns about whether Donald Trump’s attempt to sue the IRS for $10 billion can proceed, signaling she could throw out the case because the president oversees the government entities he is suing. Judge Kathleen Williams raised the issue in an order on Friday denying a request to delay the case amid possible settlement talks. She noted that Trump and the defendants — the Treasury Department and IRS — may not be ‘sufficiently adverse’ to one another for the case to proceed. … Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department in January related to the unauthorized disclosure of tax information during Trump’s first term. A government contractor with the IRS pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the tax information of Donald Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.” (04/24/26)
https://abcnews.com/Politics/judge-orders-trump-doj-justify-presidents-10b-irs/story?id=132365447
-----
19) CA: Two small earthquakes strike near San Francisco Zoo
Source: SFGate
“The United States Geological Survey reports a preliminary magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck near San Francisco Zoo, CA on Saturday. The quake hit at 4:39 p.m. at a depth of 6.96 kilometers. This was followed by a preliminary magnitude 2.7 earthquake in the same area. That quake hit at 4:41 p.m. at a depth of 6.87 kilometers. There was no initial word on damage or injury resulting from the quake. More information on this earthquake is available on the USGS event page.” (04/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/earthquakes-san-francisco-zoo-22226225.php
-----
20) China’s DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies
Source: CNBC
“Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features. The release comes more than a year after the Hangzhou-based company introduced its R1 reasoning model, which rocked global tech markets due to its surprising performance and cost efficiency. Similar to DeepSeek’s previous model releases, the latest upgrade is open-source, allowing developers to download the code, run it locally and modify it in most cases. … DeepSeek also said that V4 has been optimized for use with popular agent tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenClaw.” (04/24/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/deepseek-v4-llm-preview-open-source-ai-competition-china.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Perils of Goal‑Free War
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“When the goal of a war is not clear, it makes any negotiation for achieving a face-saving solution very difficult, especially when the opponent has the strategic advantage. The history of American war has always involved starting and stopping them with an eye toward the election calendar. Unfortunately, the sophisticated Iranians are aware of this fact. They have every incentive to appear reasonable in any negotiations, but stall in an American election year. They understand that Trump and the Republicans will get ever more desperate and be willing to make ever greater concessions to get rid of the martial tar baby as an election nears, in which the Trump administration has already made Republican prospects dim.” (04/25/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/25/perils-goal-free-war/
-----
22) Note to Those So Inclined: Please Stop Trying to Kill Donald Trump
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I’m no pacifist. I fully support violence in immediate self-defense of one’s own life or the lives of innocent others, and you won’t find me shedding any tears for those who, having overseen and ordered non-defensive violence, eventually pay the ultimate price for their misdeeds. BUT! When considering an attempt to kill someone, even if the target arguably deserves to die, the likely consequences of one’s own actions are worth considering. If Donald Trump — or any other president — dies at the hands of an assassin, two such consequences follow as night follows day. First, that president becomes a martyr. His party and/or movement become stronger, not weaker. … Second, the regime that president led opportunistically uses the assassination to expand its police and surveillance powers, and clamp down on dissent. Especially the varieties of dissent associated with the assassin’s persona.” (04/26/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20555
-----
23) Yes, The Right Has an Omnicause
Source: Persuasion
by Virginia Karnstein
“I first encountered the term ‘omnicause’ in a 2024 article by Hadley Freeman. As Freeman puts it, ‘The Omnicause is, simply, every cause you must care about if you’re A Good Progressive rolled into one, because everything in the world is connected.’ Thus, ‘trans rights are connected to Palestinian rights are connected to environmental concerns, and any self-respecting progressive who cares about one has to care about the other two … According to The Omnicause, they’re all magically connected. It’s the fatberg of causes, and the fat gluing them all together is Western narcissism.’ Freeman defines the omnicause as specifically a progressive thing. I disagree. The right — and I have my own personal experience to back this up — is more than capable of having an omnicause, and what we saw from President Trump’s awkward interaction with DoorDash Grandma was an assumption that the MAGA fatberg would hold strong.” (04/24/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-the-right-has-an-omnicause
-----
24) Trump lived by the conspiracy theory — now he pays the price
Source: The Hill
by Matt Lewis
“A truism of life — right up there with ‘don’t read the comments’ — is that what goes around comes around. Put another way, if you live by the sword, you will eventually die by the sword. For more than a decade, these maxims didn’t seem to apply to President Trump — a man who once strongly suggested that Barack Obama had not been born in America, that the 2020 election was stolen, and that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats, just to name a few of his whoppers. … Trump is finally discovering what it’s like to be on the losing end of a conspiracy theory. Trump’s failure to release Epstein files was probably the inflection point. But more recently, the conspiratorial thinking about Trump has metastasized.” (04/24/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5845079-trump-lived-by-the-conspiracy-theory-now-he-pays-the-price/
-----
25) The Power of Wealth
Source: Liberalism.org
by Matt Zwolinski
“In every political system, wealthy and powerful people will try to write the rules to favor themselves. Liberal democracies should use a range of policy tools to resist elite capture.” (04/24/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-power-of-wealth
-----
26) Breaking Up “Big Medicine” Won’t Fix What Washington Broke
Source: Town Hall
by Sally C Pipes
“Washington is gearing up to crack down on ‘Big Medicine,’ with populist Sens. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] and Josh Hawley, [R-MO] leading the charge. Over the past decade, America’s healthcare system has become increasingly consolidated, leaving patients with higher prices, fewer choices, and more bureaucratic frustration. But before lawmakers swing a scythe through the healthcare sector, they should ask how it became so consolidated in the first place. Insurance and hospital behemoths didn’t emerge by accident. They’re the predictable result of federal health policy — especially the Affordable Care Act — which has made size a prerequisite for survival. Obamacare’s rules have made it far harder for smaller insurers and independent healthcare providers to compete — while giving larger firms a decisive advantage. The law’s many mandates increase costs, complexity, and financial risk, all of which are easier to absorb at scale.” (04/25/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/sallycpipes/2026/04/25/breaking-up-big-medicine-wont-fix-what-washington-broke-n2674800
-----
27) Incredible Claims
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“It is increasingly clear to me that our systems and institutions — of government and technology, of religion and journalism, of justice and enforcement, of economy, of enterprise, even of entertainment — are run on abuse and for the sake of abusers. This convinces me that we are dealing with a culture of abuse, a collective spiritual alignment with abuse know as supremacy — the belief that only some people matter. It’s a sickness that is systemic and social and spiritual more than it is individual, which suggests to me that the remedy will need to be systemic and social and spiritual as well. How to heal from this systemic, social, and spiritual sickness?” (04/25/26)
https://www.the-reframe.com/incredible-claims
-----
28) There Is No Winning in Iran
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“There is no victory coming in Iran. There are better and worse possible outcomes. There is no victory coming in Iran because it is an illegal war that will leave our constitutional mechanism, already running rough, further out of balance for a generation, with the presidential warmaking power now entirely untethered from Congress. There is no upside to that. Repairing the damage would take a generation of work by better men and women than we currently have in Washington. On top of this, the Trump administration has effectively conceded sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, a privilege Iran did not previously enjoy regarding the international strait, which is partly in the territorial waters of Oman. … In this war, the United States will lose no battles, but Iran has, in effect, gained territory.” (04/24/26)
https://archive.is/MN3wl
-----
29) Congress Has Become Almost Totally Irrelevant
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“More than three weeks ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to Democratic terms to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), except for its immigration enforcement agencies. That bill has still not become a law, prolonging the longest shutdown of any government agency in history. Nobody has even thought about the DHS shutdown for a while, because President Trump signed executive orders to first pay airport security agents on March 27, and then all other agency personnel on April 3, under the guise of emergency action. It should be said plainly: This is illegal, it has always been illegal, and the precedent it sets pushes Congress, the branch of government with the power of the purse, into total irrelevance.” (04/24/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/24/congress-has-become-almost-totally-irrelevant/
-----
30) Only Liberal Societies Can Handle Alien Life
Source: The UnPopulist
by Kenneth Silber
“Its existence will raise confusing and difficult questions for earthlings that authoritarians won’t have the credibility to negotiate.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/only-liberal-societies-can-handle
-----
31) Why fighting federal-benefit fraud must top the Republican agenda
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Expect the fight against fraud to dominate the Republican agenda in Congress and on the campaign trail in the months ahead: It’s past time to stop the theft of tens and even hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars from programs meant to help the sick, needy and otherwise vulnerable. Wednesday saw Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) unveil the Protecting American Taxpayers Act, a major package of legislation produced by the DOGE Caucus, a group of senators aiming to continue the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, the executive branch agency spearheaded by Elon Musk that targeted fraud and waste.” (04/25/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/25/opinion/why-fighting-federal-benefit-fraud-must-top-the-republican-agenda/
-----
32) The Cadaver Synod of Pope Donald
Source: CounterPunch
by Jerry Long
“At this very moment the President is at the peak of his cognitive powers. He will not get saner at 80, and the odds are pick ‘em that when he does shuffle off this mortal coil he will attempt to take all of us – and the copper wiring from the coil – with him. Yet Trump’s defenders sicken me more than Trump. They constantly claim deeper perspectives for his actions, as though the Trump Presidency were an inverse Picture Of Dorian Gray, and locked away in the Oval Office was a pristine portrait growing more fair with each act of indecency. But the moral leper behind the Resolute Desk is the reality, and no tacky amount of gold or cheap bordello flourishes can camouflage its pustules.” (04/24/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/24/the-cadaver-synod-of-pope-donald/
-----
33) Scandinavia’s U-turn on book reading
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Amid a spate of cellphone and social media bans for young people around the world, there’s a parallel, quieter shift taking place in education. It is away from the ubiquity of digital technology and back to the analog tools of paper, pen, and pencils. And, in an interesting twist, this change is being led by the Scandinavian nations that pioneered the shift to ed tech learning more than a decade ago. Today, they are grappling with restoring – or, rather, redefining – what contributes to meaningful and enduring education.” (04/24/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0424/Scandinavia-s-U-turn-on-book-reading
-----
34) Reggio Meets Axolotls
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kelsy Achtenberg
“Before we can improve school, we have to ask a deeper question: What is school actually for? For us at The Innovation School, that question didn’t lead to a packaged curriculum or a scripted program. It led us to a philosophy that has shaped how we see children, learning, and the role of a teacher. That philosophy is the Reggio Emilia approach. It began after World War II in a small town in Italy, when a community led by educator Loris Malaguzzi set out to reimagine what education could be. After the destruction of the war, they wanted a system that wasn’t built on compliance or rigidity. They wanted one built on curiosity, real-life experiences, and human potential.” (04/24/26)
https://fee.org/articles/reggio-meets-axolotls/
-----
35) Twitter Files, Southern Poverty Law Center Edition: Hate Inflation?
Source: Racket News
by Matt Taibbi
“The SPLC was just indicted for one kind of fraud. Twitter was investigating another. When you get paid big bucks to find hate, you won’t NOT find it.” (04/24/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-southern-poverty-law
-----
36) We Can’t Agree on Inequality — Here’s Why
Source: EconLog
by Maurizio Bovi
“Centuries of argument have left a stubborn question unresolved: how much economic inequality is acceptable? Unlike inequalities rooted in race, gender, or disability — which typically attract broad moral condemnation — economic inequality in income, consumption, and wealth remains fiercely contested. That contestation does not result from a flaw in the debate; it is the debate’s defining feature.” (04/24/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/boviinequality
-----
37) Turns Out, “Unite the Right” Charlottesville Rally was Underwritten by the Left [sic]
Source: Batya Ungar-Sargon
by Batya Ungar-Sargon
“An explosive new indictment was handed down against the Southern Poverty Law Center this week, accusing the storied civil rights organization of 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and money laundering. The Department of Justice is alleging that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million from donors to leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, Unite the Right, and the Nazi Party, among other extremist organizations. … Paying millions of dollars to Nazis and Klansmen would be bad enough. But the indictment alleges that the SPLC went beyond that, actually underwriting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, providing material support and supervision to what the Left turned into the symbol of Right-wing hate.” [editor’s note: Ungar-Sargon does have a little credibility on Charlottesville — on the “right” she was one of the few who didn’t try to perpetrate the “Charlottesville Hoax” Hoax – TLK] (04/26/26)
https://www.batya-us.com/p/for-years-the-left-used-the-unite
-----
38) Government Cannot Make Us Healthy
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Mollie Engelhart
“[T]he truth is, the government was never going to save us. It was never designed to move faster than the people. It responds to pressure, to markets, and to what we tolerate and what we demand. Right now, we are still funding the very system we say we want to change. The only real power we have is how we spend our money, our time, and our energy, and that power has to be exercised consistently. It is easy to vote one day in November. It is hard to change how we spend our money every single day. It is hard to change how we eat every single day. It is hard to choose, over and over again, to support something different when the system is designed to make the alternative less convenient.” (04/24/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/government-cannot-make-us-healthy/
-----
39) Who is responsible when an AI weapon pulls the trigger?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Muhammad Saad
“In 1863, Francis Lieber, the Prussian-American jurist commissioned by Abraham Lincoln to codify the laws of land warfare, wrote that no soldier may kill an enemy ‘who has laid down his arms.’ War, however brutal, must remain an act performed by a morally responsible agent who can account for what he has done and to whom it has been done. The Lieber Code was imperfect. Its application was racially selective and its humanitarian ambitions frequently betrayed in practice. But its foundational premise survived two world wars, the drafting of the Geneva Conventions and the development of every weapons system from the machine gun to the precision-guided munition. Its premise is that lethal force requires a human being who can be identified, interrogated, and held to account. Today, AI-powered targeting systems fundamentally break this premise.” (04/24/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ai-weapons/
-----
40) An All-American Retort to Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“Israel’s bombing of Lebanon has reportedly killed more than a thousand civilians this year. Israel also drove out more than a half million civilians from southern Lebanon as part of an effort to commandeer that territory. Israel’s bombing has been so indiscriminate that even President Donald Trump objected. … I have the same recommendation now that I had in a 1987 USA Today piece opposing deployment of the U.S. Navy to the Persian Gulf: ‘This is not our war, and there is no profit in U.S. intervention.’ GTFO remains the best Middle East policy for America.” (04/24/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/an-all-american-retort-to-israels-invasion-of-lebanon
-----
41) Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the most frustrating things about Israel apologists is how they constantly pretend to believe things they don’t really believe in order to push Israeli PR. There’s a tweet going around by a rabbi named Elchanan Poupko that says ‘I had never met a Zionist who does not care also for the lives of innocent Palestinians. I have never met an anti-zionist who does care for the lives of israelis. That is the difference between us.’ This person does not believe his own claim. He is knowingly lying about what he thinks is true about Zionists. A Penn State survey published in Israeli media last year found that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza. Nearly half, 47 percent, said the IDF should kill all inhabitants of any city they capture — that’s inhabitants, not combatants.” (04/25/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/25/israel-apologists-lie-about-their-feelings-and-beliefs-and-other-notes/
-----
42) Our Anti-Rich Tax System
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“I suspect that, considering how most commentators talk about the matter, many people think the U.S. tax system favors the rich, the public’s favorite scapegoat. But according to Adam N. Michel, the Cato Institute’s director of tax policy studies, ‘We actually have one of the most progressive income taxes in the developed world.’ … The average tax rate on upper-tier earners is as high as 33.4 percent. ‘[A]s a share of adjusted gross income (AGI), the top half of income earners paid 97.1 percent of federal income taxes.’ That leaves less than 3 percent for the rest.” (04/24/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-who-pays-federal-taxes
-----
43) Has Iran Learned the North Korea Lesson: Nukes Are Essential To Deter the US?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The contrast between Washington’s caution in dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea and the flagrant U.S. coercion of Iran, which possesses no such weapons, could hardly be more striking. It has not gone unnoticed. Pyongyang’s successful defiance of the United States regarding the nuclear issue could well produce an important lesson for Iran’s leaders. Pyongyang has covertly built a small arsenal of approximately 50 nuclear warheads and an increasingly sophisticated fleet of ballistic missiles to deliver them. U.S. and other leaders now treat North Korea with caution and restraint, however grudgingly. Conversely, an Iran without nuclear weapons is being pounded severely. Iranian leaders would be obtuse not to at least try to acquire (through construction or purchase) a modest deterrent similar to North Korea’s.” (04/24/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/04/23/has-iran-learned-the-north-korea-lesson-nukes-are-essential-to-deter-the-us/
-----
44) What We Want and How to Get It
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“British-American philosopher Mick Jagger put it best: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ A universal verity. But what about a sadder situation? ‘You must always get what you don’t want.’ Only the deepest pessimist thinks this pertains to our lives, our ‘lived experience’ in even these our mixed-up times. But it does apply to one huge domain of life: our representation in Congress.” (04/24/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/24/what-we-want/
-----
45) Left’s war on SCOTUS just hit a terrifying new low
Source: Fox News
by John Yoo
“Last week, The New York Times divulged a fresh trove of confidential internal memoranda between the Supreme Court justices. The documents allegedly show that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues have abused the Court’s technical procedures to block the agenda of Democratic presidents and to favor Republicans. While this accusation can only succeed by ignoring the broader context of the Court’s work, it heralds the latest progressive attack on the Court as a stabilizing institution in our national politics.” (04/25/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/john-yoo-lefts-war-supreme-court-hit-terrifying-new-low
-----
46) Congress Still Has a Chance To Curb Section 702 Surveillance Abuses
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, President Donald Trump’s reversal from opponent to supporter of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) seemed certain to guarantee renewal of the law. That’s not what happened. Instead, Section 702 of the controversial spying legislation won only a temporary extension, to April 30, as civil libertarians and surveillance-state supporters from both major parties continue to battle. Hopefully, the outcome is the long-deserved demise of surveillance practices that threaten the privacy of Americans.” (04/24/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/24/congress-still-has-a-chance-to-curb-section-702-surveillance-abuses/
-----
47) The Pontiff and the Postliberals
Source: Law & Liberty
by James M Patterson
“There is a deep irony in [Sohrab] Ahmari’s position. He is distressed by the American right’s hostility to Pope Leo. But he has aligned himself with the Catholic sub-group that is least able to reconcile itself to the pope’s anti-war position. Modern popes have for some time been deeply critical of militant global powers, and great powers tend to push back against those critiques. But the patriotic, pro-inclusion thinkers Ahmari despises (like Murray, Neuhaus, and Novak) warmly welcomed the Church’s move away from forms of authoritarian nationalism that repeatedly led to state oppression and war. Ahmari and the postliberals are the ones actively trying to reinvigorate those forms of political theology, despite ample empirical evidence that they tend to breed violence and hatred.” (04/24/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-pontiff-and-the-postliberals/
-----
48) He Wrote an Op-Ed. Then Police Tracked Him
Source: The Daily Economy
by Patrick Carroll
“A legal case in Kansas shows how surveillance technology can distort policing priorities. When authorities can monitor anyone cheaply, the temptation to target critics increases.” (04/24/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/he-wrote-an-op-ed-then-police-tracked-him/
-----
49) Blame John Roberts for This Anti-Democratic Redistricting War
Source: Common Dreams
by Miles Mogulescu
“In the short run, Democrats’ victory in gerrymandering Virginia to create four new blue Congressional districts is a good thing. It will restore balance to the critical 2026 House elections to offset Republicans’ Texas gerrymandering which created four new red districts. President Donald Trump was technically right when the night before the Virginia vote he told a conference of supporters, ‘I don’t know if you know what gerrymandering is but it’s not good.’ Of course what Trump really meant is that gerrymandering is bad when it disenfranchises Republicans but good when it disenfranchises Democrats. Here’s what we do know: partisan gerrymandering is an affront to democracy by letting politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.” (04/26/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/john-roberts-gerrymandering
-----
50) How the Iran War Makes China Look Good
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The foundation of international trust has cracked, and partnerships have been broken. The world can no longer trust the United States. The bond between Europe and the U.S. has been frayed. And the hard-won emerging trust between Iran and its Gulf neighbors, which had held the hope of a safer region, has been badly wounded. There are only losers in this war: the Gulf states, Ukraine, America, and, of course, the Iranian people. An important long-term geopolitical loss suffered by the U.S. is the accelerated erosion of its hegemony and the continued transfer of trust to China.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-the-iran-war-makes-china-look-good/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 338
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Which button will YOU press?” (04/25/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-338-which-button-will-you
-----
52) System Update, 04/25/26
Source: System Update
“LIVE Q&A with Glenn Greenwald: the Iran War, Tucker’s Trump Apology, SPLC Indictment, Cuba, and More.” (04/25/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/live-q-and-a-with-glenn-greenwald
-----
53) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2755
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Judge Napolitano: Trump Is Not of Sound Mind.” (04/24/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2755-judge-napolitano-trump-is-not-of-sound-mind/
-----
54) TAC Right Now, 04/24/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Iran, Epstein, and Trump’s Political Fiasco.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-iran-epstein-and-trumps-political-fiasco/
-----
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 04/24/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Larken Rose (Author; Activist) comes on the program to provide an update on what he has been doing, geopolitics, The Activation Tour — Prescott, AZ with Derrick Broze — Friday, May 1, 6-10 PM (where he is a speaker), etc.” (04/24/26)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/394594-2026-04-22-2026-04-23-ernest-hancock-and-larken-rose-author-activist.htm
-----
56) The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 04/24/26
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Greg Lukianoff On Free Speech Fights.” (04/24/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/greg-lukianoff-on-free-speech-fights
-----
57) Serious Trouble, 04/24/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Laura Loomer and Kash Patel lose their defamation suits, but Patel has filed a new one; a former Capitol police officer sues The Blaze for accusing her of being the pipe bomber; SPLC is indicted.” (04/24/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/this-episode-contains-no-administrative
-----
58) The Evil Within, episode 8
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Monetary System.” (04/24/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9J6vxNr_o
-----
59) Soho Forum Debate: Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
Source: Reason
“Fordham Law School professor Zephyr Teachout and the Manhattan Institute’s John Ketcham debate the resolution, ‘Mayor Zohran Mamdani is likely to fulfill his campaign pledge to make New York City more affordable for most residents.'” (04/24/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/24/can-zohran-mamdani-make-nyc-affordable/
-----
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 04/24/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Our interactions with others are based on one of two things: persuasion or force. If you want to make persuasion your superpower, you need to hear the message of my guest Joshua Bandoch. He’s the author of ‘How To Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion.'” (04/24/26)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-ei4ur-1aa939f
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
More News, More Commentary, More Audio/Video at Our Web Edition!
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Iranian regime offers US regime new trade deal to reopen Strait, delay nuclear talks
2) Cole Allen manifesto: “Friendly Federal Assassin” wanted to kill Trump officials
3) Palestine: Abbas loyalists sweep elections, including some seats in Gaza
4) VA: Supreme Court considers whether to block voter-approved US House gerrymander
5) At least 16 dead in strikes across Ukraine and Russia on Chernobyl anniversary
6) US regime publicly confesses to two more maritime murders
7) Tunisia: Regime suspends rights group as crackdown widens
8) Occupied Ireland: Car bomb explodes outside police station after vehicle hijacked
9) Researcher breaks 15-bit elliptic curve key in “largest quantum attack,” wins 1 Bitcoin bounty from Project Eleven
10) Judge rejects DOJ bid to delay Anthropic appeal in Pentagon dispute
11) Mali: Explosions and gunfire as armed groups launch co-ordinated attacks
12) It pleaseth the US Crown to let Venezuelan regime pay abducted Venezuelan politician’s legal fees
13) In Dead of Night, GOP Sets Vote on Trump Fed Pick
14) Tibetans-in-exile vote for new government as future without Dalai Lama looms
15) Colombia: Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwest as violence persists
16) South Korea: Prosecutors seek 30 years for Yoon over drone plot
17) Israel: Netanyahu orders army to “vigorously attack” Hezbollah in Lebanon
18) Judge orders Trump, DOJ to justify why president’s frivolous $10 billion IRS lawsuit should proceed
19) CA: Two small earthquakes strike near San Francisco Zoo
20) China’s DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Perils of Goal‑Free War
22) Note to Those So Inclined: Please Stop Trying to Kill Donald Trump
23) Yes, The Right Has an Omnicause
24) Trump lived by the conspiracy theory — now he pays the price
25) The Power of Wealth
26) Breaking Up “Big Medicine” Won’t Fix What Washington Broke
27) Incredible Claims
28) There Is No Winning in Iran
29) Congress Has Become Almost Totally Irrelevant
30) Only Liberal Societies Can Handle Alien Life
31) Why fighting federal-benefit fraud must top the Republican agenda
32) The Cadaver Synod of Pope Donald
33) Scandinavia’s U-turn on book reading
34) Reggio Meets Axolotls
35) Twitter Files, Southern Poverty Law Center Edition: Hate Inflation?
36) We Can’t Agree on Inequality — Here’s Why
37) Turns Out, “Unite the Right” Charlottesville Rally was Underwritten by the Left [sic]
38) Government Cannot Make Us Healthy
39) Who is responsible when an AI weapon pulls the trigger?
40) An All-American Retort to Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon
41) Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs
42) Our Anti-Rich Tax System
43) Has Iran Learned the North Korea Lesson: Nukes Are Essential To Deter the US?
44) What We Want and How to Get It
45) Left’s war on SCOTUS just hit a terrifying new low
46) Congress Still Has a Chance To Curb Section 702 Surveillance Abuses
47) The Pontiff and the Postliberals
48) He Wrote an Op-Ed. Then Police Tracked Him
49) Blame John Roberts for This Anti-Democratic Redistricting War
50) How the Iran War Makes China Look Good
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 338
52) System Update, 04/25/26
53) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2755
54) TAC Right Now, 04/24/26
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 04/24/26
56) The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 04/24/26
57) Serious Trouble, 04/24/26
58) The Evil Within, episode 8
59) Soho Forum Debate: Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 04/24/26
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
TRY STARLINK: YOU GET A FREE MONTH AND SO DO WE!
https://starlink.com/residential?referral=RC-DF-8980236-19330-50
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION (2nd edition), by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883853117
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE "YOUR" CONGRESS/SENATE MEMBERS?
https://congressionalindependence.deathbutt.org/
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iranian regime offers US regime new trade deal to reopen Strait, delay nuclear talks
Source: Financial Express [Bangladesh]
“Iran has put forward a fresh proposal to the United States that focuses on easing tensions at sea first, while pushing nuclear talks to a later stage, Axios reported. According to reports, Tehran is offering a deal that would help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and reduce conflict, but only if discussions on its nuclear programme are postponed for now. Trump said negotiations would continue over phone calls after Iran declined direct talks with American negotiators amid tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is heading to Russia and is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss the status of ongoing negotiations.” (04/27/26)
https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/iran-us-israel-war-live-updates-trump-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-negotiations-oil-price-today/4219087/
-----
2) Cole Allen manifesto: “Friendly Federal Assassin” wanted to kill Trump officials
Source: Lynnwood Times
“In a manifesto attributed to Cole Allen, the 31-year-old suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, he identifies as a ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ who had a ‘real opportunity’ [to] kill ‘Administration officials.’ Allen remains in federal custody. ‘What my representatives do reflects on me,’ Allen allegedly wrote in a manifesto released by the New York Post on Sunday. ‘And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ Allen, of Torrance, California, was arrested at the scene Saturday night after he allegedly charged a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives.” (04/26/26)
https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2026/04/26/allen-manifesto/
-----
3) Palestine: Abbas loyalists sweep elections, including some seats in Gaza
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the besieged Gaza Strip. … Saturday’s ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006, and the first Palestinian polls since Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory began in October 2023. The vote in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah was a largely symbolic ‘pilot’ election, Palestinian Authority officials said, intended to show that Gaza was an inseparable part of a future [sic] Palestinian state. Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, did not formally nominate candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah’s victory was widely expected.” (04/26/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/26/abbas-loyalists-sweep-palestine-elections-in-occupied-west-bank-gaza-city
-----
4) VA: Supreme Court considers whether to block voter-approved US House gerrymander
Source: Associated Press
“The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a Republican challenge to the redrawn congressional map that was approved by voters last week and could net Democrats four additional U.S. House seats. The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless.” (04/27/26)
https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-congress-virginia-court-trump-8b6faf14a1786a3f90cb2d3941e41103
-----
5) At least 16 dead in strikes across Ukraine and Russia on Chernobyl anniversary
Source: CBS News
“Strikes across Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory and Russia killed at least 16 people, authorities said, as the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted fresh warnings about the risks posed by attacks near the plant during Russia’s more than four-year invasion of its neighbor. The death toll from Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro rose to nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday. One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in [formerly Ukrainian, now Russian] Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday.” (04/26/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russian-attacks-chernobyl-anniversary/
-----
6) US regime publicly confesses to two more maritime murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military launched a strike Friday on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, [murdering] two people, according to U.S. Southern Command. No U.S. military forces were harmed in the operation, it said in a statement on X late Friday. U.S. Southern Command shared a video showing a boat floating in the water before an explosion left it in flames. It said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.” (04/25/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-strike-alleged-drug-boat-kills-2-eastern-pacific-military/
-----
7) Tunisia: Regime suspends rights group as crackdown widens
Source: ABC News
“Authorities in Tunisia have ordered a one-month suspension of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, one of the oldest rights groups in Africa and the Arab world and part of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, in the latest move raising concerns over a widening crackdown on civil society. The league confirmed the suspension in a statement late Friday, warning that the decision amounted to ‘a serious and arbitrary violation of freedom of association’ and ‘a direct assault’ on one of Tunisia’s key democratic gains. President Kais Saied has often cited foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to Tunisia, using it to fuel a populist narrative and accuse his political opponents and social justice activists of being foreign agents and stirring unrest at home.” (04/25/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/tunisia-suspends-africas-oldest-rights-group-crackdown-widens-132372339
-----
8) Occupied Ireland: Car bomb explodes outside police station after vehicle hijacked
Source: Reuters
“A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Dunmurry area of south Belfast late on Saturday after a delivery vehicle was hijacked and the driver forced to take it to the site, [British-occupied] Ireland police said on Sunday. The attack is the latest in a series of sporadic attempts by militant groups that continue to target police officers, decades after a peace deal largely ended sectarian violence in the region. … The car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast shortly after 10:50 p.m. (2150 GMT) on Saturday and a gas cylinder device was placed in the trunk, police said. The man was ordered to drive the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told a news conference. The vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station, prompting police to activate an alarm and evacuate nearby homes, Singleton said.” (04/26/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/car-explodes-outside-police-station-northern-ireland-belfast-telegraph-reports-2026-04-26/
-----
9) Researcher breaks 15-bit elliptic curve key in “largest quantum attack,” wins 1 Bitcoin bounty from Project Eleven
Source: The Block
“Independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli derived a 15-bit elliptic curve key using a publicly accessible quantum computer, in what Project Eleven called the ‘largest quantum attack’ on elliptic curve cryptography to date, albeit at a scale far below that used in real-world cryptographic systems. Project Eleven, a post-quantum security startup, awarded a 1 BTC bounty, currently worth over $78,000, to Lelli as part of its ‘Q-Day Prize.’ The bounty program was launched last year by the project to break elliptic-curve keys ranging from 1 to 25 bits before April 5 this year. … Bitcoin uses 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography to secure wallets, which is far larger than the 15-bit key broken in this demonstration.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theblock.co/post/398792/researcher-breaks-15-bit-elliptic-curve-key-wins-1-bitcoin-bounty-project-eleven
-----
10) Judge rejects DOJ bid to delay Anthropic appeal in Pentagon dispute
Source: Politico
“A federal judge in California has denied the government’s request to pause its appeal of a March ruling that temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic as a supply chain risk. Justice Department lawyers argued earlier this week that the appeal should be put on hold until judges at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hand down a ruling in another case regarding Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin denied that request on Thursday, noting that the D.C. case was brought pursuant to a different statute. … Due to a quirk in federal law, Anthropic was forced in March to file lawsuits in both Northern California and the D.C. Circuit when it challenged the government’s action designating it a supply chain risk. On April 8, a three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit rejected Anthropic’s request to pause the designation, creating a court split.” (04/24/26)
https://archive.is/ptUyL
-----
11) Mali: Explosions and gunfire as armed groups launch co-ordinated attacks
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Explosions and sustained gunfire have been reported in Mali’s capital, Bamako, as armed groups launched co-ordinated attacks across the country. Mali’s military said on Saturday evening that efforts to repel the attacks were under way, and some militants had already fled. Fighting has also been reported around Kati, home to a major military base outside the capital, as well as in Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sevare and Mopti. One analyst described it as the largest jihadist attack in years. Mali has for years been plagued by insurgencies by groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist movement in the country’s north.” (04/26/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyx7nnrkqdo
-----
12) It pleaseth the US Crown to let Venezuelan regime pay abducted Venezuelan politician’s legal fees
Source: United Press International
“Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores can pay their attorneys with money from the Venezuelan government, ending a monthlong legal standoff. Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys wrote a joint letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein filed Friday night saying that the Department of Treasury would amend a license allowing payments to the Maduros’ lawyers without violating U.S. sanctions laws. … On March 26, Maduro’s attorney argued that the case against them should be dismissed because they were unable to pay their attorney fees. The sanctions disallowed them from accessing funds from the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors had argued that they could use personal funds, but the Maduros argued they didn’t have any.” (04/25/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/25/latam-venezuelan-government-maduros-legal-fees/6151777133053/
-----
13) In Dead of Night, GOP Sets Vote on Trump Fed Pick
Source: Common Dreams
“In the late hours of Friday night, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee scheduled a vote to advance President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, shortly after the Justice Department announced it was dropping its criminal probe into the current head of the central bank, Jerome Powell. The committee vote will take place on April 29, putting megarich financier Kevin Warsh on track for full Senate confirmation by the time Powell’s term as Fed chair ends on May 15. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the banking panel, said in a statement early Saturday morning that ‘either the Republican majority is fooled easily or they are hoping to fool the American people’, arguing that the Justice Department only agreed to drop its widely condemned probe of Powell—for now, at least—to clear the way for Warsh’s confirmation.” (04/25/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/kevin-warsh-confirmation-vote
-----
14) Tibetans-in-exile vote for new government as future without Dalai Lama looms
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Tibetans outside Chinese control vote on Sunday for a government-in-exile, an election of heightened significance as they brace for an inevitable, eventual, future without their revered spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) — condemned by China as ‘nothing but a separatist political group’ — is a key institution for the exiles, especially after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011. … Polling is due to take place in 27 countries — but not China. The 91,000 registered voters including Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia’s megacities and refugees in Australia, Europe and North America. … The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions, and five representing the diaspora.” (04/26/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260426-exiled-tibetans-elect-government-vote-condemned-china
-----
15) Colombia: Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwest as violence persists
Source: SFGate
“An explosive device killed 13 people traveling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country’s army chief described as a ‘terrorist act’ that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the region escalates. Octavio Guzmán, the governor of the region of Cauca, said on X that the device was set off while the bus was traveling along the Panamerican Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. Five children were among the injured, Cauca Health Secretary Carolina Camargo told Noticias Caracol, a TV news program.” (04/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/authorities-in-southwest-colombia-are-on-alert-22225895.php
-----
16) South Korea: Prosecutors seek 30 years for Yoon over drone plot
Source: United Press International
“South Korean prosecutors on Friday sought a 30-year prison sentence for jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol, alleging he ordered military drones to infiltrate North Korea in a bid to provoke tensions ahead of his short-lived martial law declaration in 2024. A special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk said Yoon and senior defense officials orchestrated the drone incursions through military command channels to trigger a North Korean response and create a security crisis as justification for emergency rule. The team charged Yoon, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung with offenses including aiding an enemy state and abuse of power.” (04/24/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/04/24/korea-Yoon-Suk-Yeol-30-years-drone-plot-special-prosecutors-sentence/7251777021499/
-----
17) Israel: Netanyahu orders army to “vigorously attack” Hezbollah in Lebanon
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to ‘vigorously attack Hezbollah targets’ in Lebanon, two days after a ceasefire was extended by three weeks. Fresh Israeli attacks followed the directive, which came after at least six people were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday. Further cross-border exchanges between the two sides have strained the truce agreement, highlighting the precarity of the ceasefire. The agreement, which has seen a reduction in fire rather than a complete halt, was extended on Thursday after talks between the countries’ envoys in Washington. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes on a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, according to Agence-France-Presse.” (04/26/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yv1nvd4gjo
-----
18) Judge orders Trump, DOJ to justify why president’s frivolous $10 billion IRS lawsuit should proceed
Source: ABC News
“A federal judge is raising concerns about whether Donald Trump’s attempt to sue the IRS for $10 billion can proceed, signaling she could throw out the case because the president oversees the government entities he is suing. Judge Kathleen Williams raised the issue in an order on Friday denying a request to delay the case amid possible settlement talks. She noted that Trump and the defendants — the Treasury Department and IRS — may not be ‘sufficiently adverse’ to one another for the case to proceed. … Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department in January related to the unauthorized disclosure of tax information during Trump’s first term. A government contractor with the IRS pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the tax information of Donald Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.” (04/24/26)
https://abcnews.com/Politics/judge-orders-trump-doj-justify-presidents-10b-irs/story?id=132365447
-----
19) CA: Two small earthquakes strike near San Francisco Zoo
Source: SFGate
“The United States Geological Survey reports a preliminary magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck near San Francisco Zoo, CA on Saturday. The quake hit at 4:39 p.m. at a depth of 6.96 kilometers. This was followed by a preliminary magnitude 2.7 earthquake in the same area. That quake hit at 4:41 p.m. at a depth of 6.87 kilometers. There was no initial word on damage or injury resulting from the quake. More information on this earthquake is available on the USGS event page.” (04/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/earthquakes-san-francisco-zoo-22226225.php
-----
20) China’s DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies
Source: CNBC
“Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features. The release comes more than a year after the Hangzhou-based company introduced its R1 reasoning model, which rocked global tech markets due to its surprising performance and cost efficiency. Similar to DeepSeek’s previous model releases, the latest upgrade is open-source, allowing developers to download the code, run it locally and modify it in most cases. … DeepSeek also said that V4 has been optimized for use with popular agent tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenClaw.” (04/24/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/deepseek-v4-llm-preview-open-source-ai-competition-china.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Perils of Goal‑Free War
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“When the goal of a war is not clear, it makes any negotiation for achieving a face-saving solution very difficult, especially when the opponent has the strategic advantage. The history of American war has always involved starting and stopping them with an eye toward the election calendar. Unfortunately, the sophisticated Iranians are aware of this fact. They have every incentive to appear reasonable in any negotiations, but stall in an American election year. They understand that Trump and the Republicans will get ever more desperate and be willing to make ever greater concessions to get rid of the martial tar baby as an election nears, in which the Trump administration has already made Republican prospects dim.” (04/25/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/25/perils-goal-free-war/
-----
22) Note to Those So Inclined: Please Stop Trying to Kill Donald Trump
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I’m no pacifist. I fully support violence in immediate self-defense of one’s own life or the lives of innocent others, and you won’t find me shedding any tears for those who, having overseen and ordered non-defensive violence, eventually pay the ultimate price for their misdeeds. BUT! When considering an attempt to kill someone, even if the target arguably deserves to die, the likely consequences of one’s own actions are worth considering. If Donald Trump — or any other president — dies at the hands of an assassin, two such consequences follow as night follows day. First, that president becomes a martyr. His party and/or movement become stronger, not weaker. … Second, the regime that president led opportunistically uses the assassination to expand its police and surveillance powers, and clamp down on dissent. Especially the varieties of dissent associated with the assassin’s persona.” (04/26/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20555
-----
23) Yes, The Right Has an Omnicause
Source: Persuasion
by Virginia Karnstein
“I first encountered the term ‘omnicause’ in a 2024 article by Hadley Freeman. As Freeman puts it, ‘The Omnicause is, simply, every cause you must care about if you’re A Good Progressive rolled into one, because everything in the world is connected.’ Thus, ‘trans rights are connected to Palestinian rights are connected to environmental concerns, and any self-respecting progressive who cares about one has to care about the other two … According to The Omnicause, they’re all magically connected. It’s the fatberg of causes, and the fat gluing them all together is Western narcissism.’ Freeman defines the omnicause as specifically a progressive thing. I disagree. The right — and I have my own personal experience to back this up — is more than capable of having an omnicause, and what we saw from President Trump’s awkward interaction with DoorDash Grandma was an assumption that the MAGA fatberg would hold strong.” (04/24/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-the-right-has-an-omnicause
-----
24) Trump lived by the conspiracy theory — now he pays the price
Source: The Hill
by Matt Lewis
“A truism of life — right up there with ‘don’t read the comments’ — is that what goes around comes around. Put another way, if you live by the sword, you will eventually die by the sword. For more than a decade, these maxims didn’t seem to apply to President Trump — a man who once strongly suggested that Barack Obama had not been born in America, that the 2020 election was stolen, and that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats, just to name a few of his whoppers. … Trump is finally discovering what it’s like to be on the losing end of a conspiracy theory. Trump’s failure to release Epstein files was probably the inflection point. But more recently, the conspiratorial thinking about Trump has metastasized.” (04/24/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5845079-trump-lived-by-the-conspiracy-theory-now-he-pays-the-price/
-----
25) The Power of Wealth
Source: Liberalism.org
by Matt Zwolinski
“In every political system, wealthy and powerful people will try to write the rules to favor themselves. Liberal democracies should use a range of policy tools to resist elite capture.” (04/24/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-power-of-wealth
-----
26) Breaking Up “Big Medicine” Won’t Fix What Washington Broke
Source: Town Hall
by Sally C Pipes
“Washington is gearing up to crack down on ‘Big Medicine,’ with populist Sens. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] and Josh Hawley, [R-MO] leading the charge. Over the past decade, America’s healthcare system has become increasingly consolidated, leaving patients with higher prices, fewer choices, and more bureaucratic frustration. But before lawmakers swing a scythe through the healthcare sector, they should ask how it became so consolidated in the first place. Insurance and hospital behemoths didn’t emerge by accident. They’re the predictable result of federal health policy — especially the Affordable Care Act — which has made size a prerequisite for survival. Obamacare’s rules have made it far harder for smaller insurers and independent healthcare providers to compete — while giving larger firms a decisive advantage. The law’s many mandates increase costs, complexity, and financial risk, all of which are easier to absorb at scale.” (04/25/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/sallycpipes/2026/04/25/breaking-up-big-medicine-wont-fix-what-washington-broke-n2674800
-----
27) Incredible Claims
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon
“It is increasingly clear to me that our systems and institutions — of government and technology, of religion and journalism, of justice and enforcement, of economy, of enterprise, even of entertainment — are run on abuse and for the sake of abusers. This convinces me that we are dealing with a culture of abuse, a collective spiritual alignment with abuse know as supremacy — the belief that only some people matter. It’s a sickness that is systemic and social and spiritual more than it is individual, which suggests to me that the remedy will need to be systemic and social and spiritual as well. How to heal from this systemic, social, and spiritual sickness?” (04/25/26)
https://www.the-reframe.com/incredible-claims
-----
28) There Is No Winning in Iran
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“There is no victory coming in Iran. There are better and worse possible outcomes. There is no victory coming in Iran because it is an illegal war that will leave our constitutional mechanism, already running rough, further out of balance for a generation, with the presidential warmaking power now entirely untethered from Congress. There is no upside to that. Repairing the damage would take a generation of work by better men and women than we currently have in Washington. On top of this, the Trump administration has effectively conceded sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, a privilege Iran did not previously enjoy regarding the international strait, which is partly in the territorial waters of Oman. … In this war, the United States will lose no battles, but Iran has, in effect, gained territory.” (04/24/26)
https://archive.is/MN3wl
-----
29) Congress Has Become Almost Totally Irrelevant
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“More than three weeks ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to Democratic terms to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), except for its immigration enforcement agencies. That bill has still not become a law, prolonging the longest shutdown of any government agency in history. Nobody has even thought about the DHS shutdown for a while, because President Trump signed executive orders to first pay airport security agents on March 27, and then all other agency personnel on April 3, under the guise of emergency action. It should be said plainly: This is illegal, it has always been illegal, and the precedent it sets pushes Congress, the branch of government with the power of the purse, into total irrelevance.” (04/24/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/24/congress-has-become-almost-totally-irrelevant/
-----
30) Only Liberal Societies Can Handle Alien Life
Source: The UnPopulist
by Kenneth Silber
“Its existence will raise confusing and difficult questions for earthlings that authoritarians won’t have the credibility to negotiate.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/only-liberal-societies-can-handle
-----
31) Why fighting federal-benefit fraud must top the Republican agenda
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Expect the fight against fraud to dominate the Republican agenda in Congress and on the campaign trail in the months ahead: It’s past time to stop the theft of tens and even hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars from programs meant to help the sick, needy and otherwise vulnerable. Wednesday saw Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) unveil the Protecting American Taxpayers Act, a major package of legislation produced by the DOGE Caucus, a group of senators aiming to continue the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, the executive branch agency spearheaded by Elon Musk that targeted fraud and waste.” (04/25/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/25/opinion/why-fighting-federal-benefit-fraud-must-top-the-republican-agenda/
-----
32) The Cadaver Synod of Pope Donald
Source: CounterPunch
by Jerry Long
“At this very moment the President is at the peak of his cognitive powers. He will not get saner at 80, and the odds are pick ‘em that when he does shuffle off this mortal coil he will attempt to take all of us – and the copper wiring from the coil – with him. Yet Trump’s defenders sicken me more than Trump. They constantly claim deeper perspectives for his actions, as though the Trump Presidency were an inverse Picture Of Dorian Gray, and locked away in the Oval Office was a pristine portrait growing more fair with each act of indecency. But the moral leper behind the Resolute Desk is the reality, and no tacky amount of gold or cheap bordello flourishes can camouflage its pustules.” (04/24/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/24/the-cadaver-synod-of-pope-donald/
-----
33) Scandinavia’s U-turn on book reading
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Amid a spate of cellphone and social media bans for young people around the world, there’s a parallel, quieter shift taking place in education. It is away from the ubiquity of digital technology and back to the analog tools of paper, pen, and pencils. And, in an interesting twist, this change is being led by the Scandinavian nations that pioneered the shift to ed tech learning more than a decade ago. Today, they are grappling with restoring – or, rather, redefining – what contributes to meaningful and enduring education.” (04/24/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0424/Scandinavia-s-U-turn-on-book-reading
-----
34) Reggio Meets Axolotls
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kelsy Achtenberg
“Before we can improve school, we have to ask a deeper question: What is school actually for? For us at The Innovation School, that question didn’t lead to a packaged curriculum or a scripted program. It led us to a philosophy that has shaped how we see children, learning, and the role of a teacher. That philosophy is the Reggio Emilia approach. It began after World War II in a small town in Italy, when a community led by educator Loris Malaguzzi set out to reimagine what education could be. After the destruction of the war, they wanted a system that wasn’t built on compliance or rigidity. They wanted one built on curiosity, real-life experiences, and human potential.” (04/24/26)
https://fee.org/articles/reggio-meets-axolotls/
-----
35) Twitter Files, Southern Poverty Law Center Edition: Hate Inflation?
Source: Racket News
by Matt Taibbi
“The SPLC was just indicted for one kind of fraud. Twitter was investigating another. When you get paid big bucks to find hate, you won’t NOT find it.” (04/24/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-southern-poverty-law
-----
36) We Can’t Agree on Inequality — Here’s Why
Source: EconLog
by Maurizio Bovi
“Centuries of argument have left a stubborn question unresolved: how much economic inequality is acceptable? Unlike inequalities rooted in race, gender, or disability — which typically attract broad moral condemnation — economic inequality in income, consumption, and wealth remains fiercely contested. That contestation does not result from a flaw in the debate; it is the debate’s defining feature.” (04/24/26)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2026/boviinequality
-----
37) Turns Out, “Unite the Right” Charlottesville Rally was Underwritten by the Left [sic]
Source: Batya Ungar-Sargon
by Batya Ungar-Sargon
“An explosive new indictment was handed down against the Southern Poverty Law Center this week, accusing the storied civil rights organization of 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and money laundering. The Department of Justice is alleging that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million from donors to leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, Unite the Right, and the Nazi Party, among other extremist organizations. … Paying millions of dollars to Nazis and Klansmen would be bad enough. But the indictment alleges that the SPLC went beyond that, actually underwriting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, providing material support and supervision to what the Left turned into the symbol of Right-wing hate.” [editor’s note: Ungar-Sargon does have a little credibility on Charlottesville — on the “right” she was one of the few who didn’t try to perpetrate the “Charlottesville Hoax” Hoax – TLK] (04/26/26)
https://www.batya-us.com/p/for-years-the-left-used-the-unite
-----
38) Government Cannot Make Us Healthy
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Mollie Engelhart
“[T]he truth is, the government was never going to save us. It was never designed to move faster than the people. It responds to pressure, to markets, and to what we tolerate and what we demand. Right now, we are still funding the very system we say we want to change. The only real power we have is how we spend our money, our time, and our energy, and that power has to be exercised consistently. It is easy to vote one day in November. It is hard to change how we spend our money every single day. It is hard to change how we eat every single day. It is hard to choose, over and over again, to support something different when the system is designed to make the alternative less convenient.” (04/24/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/government-cannot-make-us-healthy/
-----
39) Who is responsible when an AI weapon pulls the trigger?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Muhammad Saad
“In 1863, Francis Lieber, the Prussian-American jurist commissioned by Abraham Lincoln to codify the laws of land warfare, wrote that no soldier may kill an enemy ‘who has laid down his arms.’ War, however brutal, must remain an act performed by a morally responsible agent who can account for what he has done and to whom it has been done. The Lieber Code was imperfect. Its application was racially selective and its humanitarian ambitions frequently betrayed in practice. But its foundational premise survived two world wars, the drafting of the Geneva Conventions and the development of every weapons system from the machine gun to the precision-guided munition. Its premise is that lethal force requires a human being who can be identified, interrogated, and held to account. Today, AI-powered targeting systems fundamentally break this premise.” (04/24/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ai-weapons/
-----
40) An All-American Retort to Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“Israel’s bombing of Lebanon has reportedly killed more than a thousand civilians this year. Israel also drove out more than a half million civilians from southern Lebanon as part of an effort to commandeer that territory. Israel’s bombing has been so indiscriminate that even President Donald Trump objected. … I have the same recommendation now that I had in a 1987 USA Today piece opposing deployment of the U.S. Navy to the Persian Gulf: ‘This is not our war, and there is no profit in U.S. intervention.’ GTFO remains the best Middle East policy for America.” (04/24/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/an-all-american-retort-to-israels-invasion-of-lebanon
-----
41) Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One of the most frustrating things about Israel apologists is how they constantly pretend to believe things they don’t really believe in order to push Israeli PR. There’s a tweet going around by a rabbi named Elchanan Poupko that says ‘I had never met a Zionist who does not care also for the lives of innocent Palestinians. I have never met an anti-zionist who does care for the lives of israelis. That is the difference between us.’ This person does not believe his own claim. He is knowingly lying about what he thinks is true about Zionists. A Penn State survey published in Israeli media last year found that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza. Nearly half, 47 percent, said the IDF should kill all inhabitants of any city they capture — that’s inhabitants, not combatants.” (04/25/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/25/israel-apologists-lie-about-their-feelings-and-beliefs-and-other-notes/
-----
42) Our Anti-Rich Tax System
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“I suspect that, considering how most commentators talk about the matter, many people think the U.S. tax system favors the rich, the public’s favorite scapegoat. But according to Adam N. Michel, the Cato Institute’s director of tax policy studies, ‘We actually have one of the most progressive income taxes in the developed world.’ … The average tax rate on upper-tier earners is as high as 33.4 percent. ‘[A]s a share of adjusted gross income (AGI), the top half of income earners paid 97.1 percent of federal income taxes.’ That leaves less than 3 percent for the rest.” (04/24/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-who-pays-federal-taxes
-----
43) Has Iran Learned the North Korea Lesson: Nukes Are Essential To Deter the US?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The contrast between Washington’s caution in dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea and the flagrant U.S. coercion of Iran, which possesses no such weapons, could hardly be more striking. It has not gone unnoticed. Pyongyang’s successful defiance of the United States regarding the nuclear issue could well produce an important lesson for Iran’s leaders. Pyongyang has covertly built a small arsenal of approximately 50 nuclear warheads and an increasingly sophisticated fleet of ballistic missiles to deliver them. U.S. and other leaders now treat North Korea with caution and restraint, however grudgingly. Conversely, an Iran without nuclear weapons is being pounded severely. Iranian leaders would be obtuse not to at least try to acquire (through construction or purchase) a modest deterrent similar to North Korea’s.” (04/24/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/04/23/has-iran-learned-the-north-korea-lesson-nukes-are-essential-to-deter-the-us/
-----
44) What We Want and How to Get It
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“British-American philosopher Mick Jagger put it best: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ A universal verity. But what about a sadder situation? ‘You must always get what you don’t want.’ Only the deepest pessimist thinks this pertains to our lives, our ‘lived experience’ in even these our mixed-up times. But it does apply to one huge domain of life: our representation in Congress.” (04/24/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/24/what-we-want/
-----
45) Left’s war on SCOTUS just hit a terrifying new low
Source: Fox News
by John Yoo
“Last week, The New York Times divulged a fresh trove of confidential internal memoranda between the Supreme Court justices. The documents allegedly show that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues have abused the Court’s technical procedures to block the agenda of Democratic presidents and to favor Republicans. While this accusation can only succeed by ignoring the broader context of the Court’s work, it heralds the latest progressive attack on the Court as a stabilizing institution in our national politics.” (04/25/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/john-yoo-lefts-war-supreme-court-hit-terrifying-new-low
-----
46) Congress Still Has a Chance To Curb Section 702 Surveillance Abuses
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, President Donald Trump’s reversal from opponent to supporter of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) seemed certain to guarantee renewal of the law. That’s not what happened. Instead, Section 702 of the controversial spying legislation won only a temporary extension, to April 30, as civil libertarians and surveillance-state supporters from both major parties continue to battle. Hopefully, the outcome is the long-deserved demise of surveillance practices that threaten the privacy of Americans.” (04/24/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/24/congress-still-has-a-chance-to-curb-section-702-surveillance-abuses/
-----
47) The Pontiff and the Postliberals
Source: Law & Liberty
by James M Patterson
“There is a deep irony in [Sohrab] Ahmari’s position. He is distressed by the American right’s hostility to Pope Leo. But he has aligned himself with the Catholic sub-group that is least able to reconcile itself to the pope’s anti-war position. Modern popes have for some time been deeply critical of militant global powers, and great powers tend to push back against those critiques. But the patriotic, pro-inclusion thinkers Ahmari despises (like Murray, Neuhaus, and Novak) warmly welcomed the Church’s move away from forms of authoritarian nationalism that repeatedly led to state oppression and war. Ahmari and the postliberals are the ones actively trying to reinvigorate those forms of political theology, despite ample empirical evidence that they tend to breed violence and hatred.” (04/24/26)
https://lawliberty.org/the-pontiff-and-the-postliberals/
-----
48) He Wrote an Op-Ed. Then Police Tracked Him
Source: The Daily Economy
by Patrick Carroll
“A legal case in Kansas shows how surveillance technology can distort policing priorities. When authorities can monitor anyone cheaply, the temptation to target critics increases.” (04/24/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/he-wrote-an-op-ed-then-police-tracked-him/
-----
49) Blame John Roberts for This Anti-Democratic Redistricting War
Source: Common Dreams
by Miles Mogulescu
“In the short run, Democrats’ victory in gerrymandering Virginia to create four new blue Congressional districts is a good thing. It will restore balance to the critical 2026 House elections to offset Republicans’ Texas gerrymandering which created four new red districts. President Donald Trump was technically right when the night before the Virginia vote he told a conference of supporters, ‘I don’t know if you know what gerrymandering is but it’s not good.’ Of course what Trump really meant is that gerrymandering is bad when it disenfranchises Republicans but good when it disenfranchises Democrats. Here’s what we do know: partisan gerrymandering is an affront to democracy by letting politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.” (04/26/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/john-roberts-gerrymandering
-----
50) How the Iran War Makes China Look Good
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“The foundation of international trust has cracked, and partnerships have been broken. The world can no longer trust the United States. The bond between Europe and the U.S. has been frayed. And the hard-won emerging trust between Iran and its Gulf neighbors, which had held the hope of a safer region, has been badly wounded. There are only losers in this war: the Gulf states, Ukraine, America, and, of course, the Iranian people. An important long-term geopolitical loss suffered by the U.S. is the accelerated erosion of its hegemony and the continued transfer of trust to China.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-the-iran-war-makes-china-look-good/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Unattended Baggage, episode 338
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Which button will YOU press?” (04/25/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-338-which-button-will-you
-----
52) System Update, 04/25/26
Source: System Update
“LIVE Q&A with Glenn Greenwald: the Iran War, Tucker’s Trump Apology, SPLC Indictment, Cuba, and More.” (04/25/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/live-q-and-a-with-glenn-greenwald
-----
53) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2755
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Judge Napolitano: Trump Is Not of Sound Mind.” (04/24/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2755-judge-napolitano-trump-is-not-of-sound-mind/
-----
54) TAC Right Now, 04/24/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Iran, Epstein, and Trump’s Political Fiasco.” (04/24/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-iran-epstein-and-trumps-political-fiasco/
-----
55) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 04/24/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Larken Rose (Author; Activist) comes on the program to provide an update on what he has been doing, geopolitics, The Activation Tour — Prescott, AZ with Derrick Broze — Friday, May 1, 6-10 PM (where he is a speaker), etc.” (04/24/26)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/394594-2026-04-22-2026-04-23-ernest-hancock-and-larken-rose-author-activist.htm
-----
56) The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 04/24/26
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Greg Lukianoff On Free Speech Fights.” (04/24/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/greg-lukianoff-on-free-speech-fights
-----
57) Serious Trouble, 04/24/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Laura Loomer and Kash Patel lose their defamation suits, but Patel has filed a new one; a former Capitol police officer sues The Blaze for accusing her of being the pipe bomber; SPLC is indicted.” (04/24/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/this-episode-contains-no-administrative
-----
58) The Evil Within, episode 8
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Monetary System.” (04/24/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9J6vxNr_o
-----
59) Soho Forum Debate: Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
Source: Reason
“Fordham Law School professor Zephyr Teachout and the Manhattan Institute’s John Ketcham debate the resolution, ‘Mayor Zohran Mamdani is likely to fulfill his campaign pledge to make New York City more affordable for most residents.'” (04/24/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/24/can-zohran-mamdani-make-nyc-affordable/
-----
60) The Bryan Hyde Show, 04/24/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Our interactions with others are based on one of two things: persuasion or force. If you want to make persuasion your superpower, you need to hear the message of my guest Joshua Bandoch. He’s the author of ‘How To Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion.'” (04/24/26)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-ei4ur-1aa939f
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/freedom-news-daily
Support the Liberty International (tax deductible)
https://liberty-intl.org/join-the-movement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages