08/05 -- Appellate court upholds conviction of political prisoner Ian Freeman; Secession
7 views
Skip to first unread message
Thomas L. Knapp
Aug 5, 2025, 6:46:53 AMAug 5
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 08/05/25
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Appellate court upholds conviction of political prisoner Ian Freeman
2) Brazil: Supreme Court orders house arrest for Bolsonaro
3) US regime: No disaster prep aid to states, cities without loyalty oath to foreign power
4) Bondi escalates Epstein distraction op with grand jury move
5) Argentina: Milei vetoes pension boost
6) Israel: Regime votes to fire attorney general
7) Haiti: Nine, including Irish missionary, kidnapped in raid on orphanage
8) US fighter jets intercept aviators to keep them from seeing Trump cheat at golf
9) TX: Abbott threatens Democrats with bribery charges for stalling vote
10) Loni Anderson, 1945-2025
11) Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war
12) Palestine: Johnson to visit illegal West Bank squat
13) Eurostar passengers face delays and cancellations due to French rail issue
14) Iran: Regime founds new Supreme National Defense Council
15) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars
16) BP makes largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
17) South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs
18) Thousands of US Boeing workers strike over pay and conditions
19) TN: Regime employees set to kill inmate without turning off his implanted defibrillator
20) Filipino, Indian navies hold first joint drill in disputed South China Sea
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Secession
22) The Constitution, Foreign Wars, and the Tenth Amendment
23) The Cost of Building Progress
24) Choosing Congressional Irrelevance
25) Voluntary Support versus Coerced Support
26) A “truce” over free speech in Iran?
27) Wall Street Isn’t Daycare: Interns Meet the Real World
28) The US Economy Is Stumbling Badly
29) Russiagate lies being exposed, and everybody is watching – even the Dems
30) When Anti-Star Trek Meets Brazil
31) The Nightmare in Gaza: On Creating a Cover for Genocide
32) Federal Court Appears Receptive to Arguments Against Unilateral Presidential Tariff Power
33) Dare To Hope
34) Trump is Getting Desperate
35) “Responsibility to Protect” is a Trap
36) The Hiroshima Exhibition the World Wasn’t Allowed to See
37) Watching Ivory Towers Crumble
38) UK as China’s Thumb Puppet
39) The Collapse of Regime Media
40) Misusing the Children: The UK Online Safety Act, Privacy and Censorship
41) In a Just World, Trump and Netanyahu Will Someday Share a Prison Cell
42) Milei’s welcome to Netanyahu will open Pandora’s Box in Argentina
43) How the West Bank Is Being Annexed to Israel, with Tacit US Support
44) Progress helps us withstand nature’s fury
45) Greece’s hard lesson for NYC: Beware leaders who promise the world
46) What if the Colluders Were the Accusers?
47) Jeffrey Epstein is a Mirror of American Power
48) Never Again Should a Sole Superpower Anchor the Liberal International Order
49) The Illusion of VA Choice
50) Origins of Medical Harm
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 08/04/25
52) Rising, 08/04/25
53) Finding Freedom, 08/04/25
54) Conflicts of Interest, episode 825
55) TechTank, season 5, episode 25
56) EconTalk, 08/04/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/04/25
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/03/25
59) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 08/03/25
60) The Brian Nichols Show, 08/03/25
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION, by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947660853
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
ONE IDENTITY FOR ALL YOUR CRYPTO
https://fioprotocol.io/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHOP ONLINE, COLLECT A REBATE IN BITCOIN!
https://www.lolli.com/share/MZB4cCpheL
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Appellate court upholds conviction of political prisoner Ian Freeman
Source: New Hampshire Union Leader
“An appellate court has affirmed Ian Freeman’s federal conviction and jail sentence for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business with bitcoin ATMs. In February 2024, Freeman was ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution [sic] to 29 victims [sic] and forfeit other assets seized during an investigation into a money laundering scheme and other internet fraud. … Freeman was sentenced to eight years in prison …” [editor’s note: We try to only run very “fresh” stories at RRND/FND, but I somehow missed this one over the weekend and only discovered it today. It’s important enough for US to run, “fresh” or not. It’s also important enough for you to visit freeiannow.org and sign the petition seeking his release – TLK] (08/01/25)
https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/appellate-court-affirms-freemans-conviction-sentence-in-bitcoin-money-laundering-scheme/article_97441455-b54d-4919-baa1-75dd2f9c6952.amp.html
-----
2) Brazil: Supreme Court orders house arrest for Bolsonaro
Source: Associated Press
“Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the house arrest for former President Jair Bolsonaro, on trial for allegedly masterminding a coup plot to remain in office despite his defeat in the 2022 election — a case that has gripped the South American country as it faces a trade war with the Trump administration. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro before the top court, said in his decision that the 70-year-old former president had violated precautionary measures imposed on him by spreading content through his three lawmaker sons. Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement that he will appeal the decision. … Monday’s order followed one from the top court last month that ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle monitor and imposed a curfew on his activities while the proceedings are underway.” (08/05/25)
https://apnews.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-house-arrest-coup-plot-trial-26e2be9eee08b7e6b9f006f0c5b706e9
-----
3) US regime: No disaster prep aid to states, cities without loyalty oath to foreign power
Source: Reuters
“The Trump administration said states and cities will not receive funding to prepare for natural disasters if they choose to boycott Israeli companies, according to an agency statement. States must certify that they will not cut off ‘commercial relations specifically with Israeli companie’ to receive the money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the agency’s terms, opens new tab for grantees. The condition applies to at least $1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search and rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems, among other expenses, according to 11 agency grant notices reviewed by Reuters. … FEMA will require major cities to agree to the Israel policy to receive a cut of $553.5 million set aside to prevent terrorism in dense areas, according to a grant notice posted Friday.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/7FfsX
-----
4) Bondi escalates Epstein distraction op with grand jury move
Source: CBS News
“Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a grand jury investigation into the intelligence regarding President Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election. She has directed Justice Department staff to begin legal proceedings and ordered a federal prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury about the matter to secure a potential indictment, according to a source familiar with Bondi’s efforts. It is unclear what the charges would be and who would be charged. The directive follows a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in mid-July. The Justice Department confirmed it had received the referral.” [editor’s note: I agree that there should be lots of grand juries investigating all past presidents/administrations and their actions. But the reason for this one isn’t hard to figure out – TLK] (08/04/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-russiagate-trump-grand-jury-investigation/
-----
5) Argentina: Milei vetoes pension boost
Source: Reuters
“Argentine President Javier Milei on Monday vetoed a pension boost and a bill strengthening protections for people with disabilities, which lawmakers had passed in July, saying that they put fiscal balance at risk. The decision to veto the bills had already been announced by Milei last month, although Congress — where the libertarian [sic] president does not have a majority — can still overturn the vetoes. The vetoes come less than three months before Argentina’s mid-term elections, seen as a gauge of approval for the Milei administration, which has managed to reduce triple-digit annual inflation but whose austerity policies have had a social impact.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/XtNKm
-----
6) Israel: Regime votes to fire attorney general
Source: CNN
“The Israeli government voted unanimously on Monday to fire the country’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. ‘The government has just unanimously approved the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin to immediately terminate the tenure of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara,’ according to Levin’s spokesperson. Baharav-Miara has often been criticised by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused her of abusing her authority to undermine the government’s policies and destabilize Israel’s rule of law. Right-wing Israeli politicians have long called for her dismissal. Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Monday to stop Baharav-Miara’s firing.” (08/04/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/middleeast/israel-attorney-general-government-fire-vote-latam-intl
-----
7) Haiti: Nine, including Irish missionary, kidnapped in raid on orphanage
Source: Irish Star
“An Irish missionary is among nine people who have been kidnapped from an orphanage in Haiti. Gena Heraty, from Westport in Mayo, is the director of the Sainte-Helene orphanage in the commune of Kenscoff, which is 10km southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Kenscoff Mayor Masillon Jean said Ms Heraty, seven other employees and a three-year-old child were taken from the orphanage.” (08/04/25)
https://www.irishstar.com/news/ireland-news/irish-missionary-among-nine-kidnapped-35673267
-----
8) US fighter jets intercept aviators to keep them from seeing Trump cheat at golf
Source: WION [India]
“A civilian aircraft was intercepted by the US fighter jets on Sunday (August 3) after it entered President Donald Trump’s golf club in New Jersey — an area with restricted airspace. Fox News reported that the incident occurred around 12:50 p.m. (local time), when the pilot flew into a temporary flight restriction (TFR) zone over Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, according to a statement from the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). It was the second such incursion of the day and one of five unauthorised entries into the restricted airspace over this weekend, the news channel said. As per his schedule, Trump was at the club when this happened.” (08/04/25)
https://www.wionews.com/world/us-fighter-jets-intercept-aircraft-that-breached-trump-s-golf-club-1754306654655
-----
9) TX: Abbott threatens Democrats with bribery charges for stalling vote
BBC News [UK State Media]
“Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened to file bribery charges against Democratic legislators who fled the state to prevent a vote on a controversial redistricting plan that would significantly favour Republicans. At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable when 51 Democratic lawmakers left the state. The proposed congressional map, unveiled last week by Texas Republicans, would create more Republican seats in the US House of Representatives where they hold a slim majority currently. Abbott warned that lawmakers who refuse to return to vote on the map could face second-degree felony charges. ‘It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature,’ Abbott said on Fox News on Monday.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93dkwnx94ro
-----
10) Loni Anderson, 1945-2025
Source: New York Times
“Loni Anderson, who played the platinum blonde receptionist on the screwball comedy ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ in the late 1970s and early ’80s and later became a tabloid mainstay during her contentious divorce from the actor Burt Reynolds, died on Sunday at a hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79. Her death, just days before her 80th birthday, was confirmed by Cheryl J. Kagan, her publicist, who cited an unspecified prolonged illness. … Over the decades, Ms. Anderson amassed more than 60 acting credits. … She continued working well into her 70s.” (08/03/25)
https://archive.is/SjPsk
-----
11) Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have written to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. ‘It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,’ the officials said. ‘Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,’ they wrote. Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled. Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkznje8nz8o
-----
12) Palestine: Johnson to visit illegal West Bank squat
Source: Axios
“House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to visit a [squat] in the occupied West Bank on Monday as part of a private visit to Israel organized by a pro-Israel advocacy group, according to two Israeli officials. While many Republican Congress members have visited West Bank [squats], it is highly unusual visit for a speaker of the house to do so. … Johnson traveled to Israel on Sunday with Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), who heads the Friends of Judea and Samaria caucus in Congress, which supports Israeli [squats] and advocates for annexation of the West Bank.” (08/04/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/04/israel-west-bank-gaza-speaker-johnson-visit
-----
13) Eurostar passengers face delays and cancellations due to French rail issue
BBC News [UK State Media]
“Passengers on several Eurostar trains are facing delays and cancellations after a power supply issue on a rail line in northern France led to its closure. The Eurostar website shows at least nine services on Monday between London and Paris have been cancelled, while a further 15 services have been delayed. The problem started at about 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Monday and disruptions are expected to continue until the end of the day, with trains being diverted to run on slower lines. Eurostar has advised passengers to postpone their journeys if possible. Some services between Brussels and Paris and between Amsterdam and Paris have also been cancelled, delayed or faced other disruptions due to the rail closure, which happened on the high-speed line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq58z7w00vqo
-----
14) Iran: Regime founds new Supreme National Defense Council
Source: ABC News
“Iran founded a new defense council after attacks in June by Israel and the U.S., Iranian state media reported Monday. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest security body, made the decision to establish the Supreme National Defense Council, which will be headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian, the report said. The council will handle defensive plans and improve the capabilities of Iran’s armed forces. Members will include the speaker of Parliament, the head of the judiciary and the chiefs of military branches and related ministries, the report said. The defense, intelligence and foreign ministries are expected to be council members, although the report did not provide those details.” (08/04/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-founds-new-supreme-national-defense-council-after-124336193
-----
15) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars
Source: SFGate
“Scientists say they have at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America in a decade-long epidemic. Sea stars – often known as starfish – typically have five arms and some species sport up to 24 arms. They range in color from solid orange to tapestries of orange, purple, brown and green. Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. … The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.” (08/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/scientists-say-they-have-solved-the-mystery-of-20801000.php
-----
16) BP makes largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“BP has made its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years after drilling a successful well in a field off the coast of Brazil, in a boost to the energy giant as it refocuses on fossil fuels. The Bumerangue field lies in the Santos Basin, about 400km from Rio de Janeiro, and spans more than 300 sq km, an area roughly five times the size of Manhattan. … The find was the company’s biggest since the 1999 discovery of Shah Deniz, a giant gasfield in the Caspian Sea that holds about 35tn cubic feet of gas, according to a BP spokesperson. Bumerangue is believed to contain a mix of gas, condensate and oil.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/Q2qOC
-----
17) South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A white South African farm worker accused of killing two black women says he was forced to feed their bodies to pigs, according to lawyers. Adrian de Wet is one of three men facing murder charges after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province last year. Their bodies were then alleged to have been given to pigs in an apparent attempt to dispose of the evidence. Mr De Wet, 20, turned state witness when the trial started on Monday and says farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier shot and killed the two women. Ms Makgato and Ms Ndlovu were searching for soon-to-expire dairy products which had been left for pigs when they were killed.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gemjql1r5o
-----
18) Thousands of US Boeing workers strike over pay and conditions
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Boeing workers who build fighter jets went on strike Monday at midnight Central Daylight Time. About 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday. … The vote followed members’ rejection last week of an earlier proposal from the troubled aerospace giant, which had included a 20% wage increase over four years.” (08/04/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250804-enough-is-enough-thousands-boeing-workers-strike-pay-work-conditions
-----
19) TN: Regime employees set to kill inmate without turning off his implanted defibrillator
Source: SFGate
“Tennessee is set to execute an inmate Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, as uncertainty lingers about whether the device will shock his heart when a lethal drug takes effect. Barring a late reprieve requested from the governor or the courts, Byron Black’s execution will go forward after a legal back-and-forth over whether the state would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black’s about ICDs or pacemakers. Black’s attorneys said they haven’t found a comparable case, either. The execution would be Tennessee’s second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by the Tennessee Department of Correction.” (08/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/tennessee-set-to-execute-inmate-without-turning-20801495.php
-----
20) Filipino, Indian navies hold first joint drill in disputed South China Sea
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“India and the Philippines have staged their first joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea. The two-day joint military deployment that kicked off on Sunday is likely to anger China, which claims nearly the entire key waterway and has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian countries. Philippine Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr said on Monday that the joint sail took place inside his country’s exclusive economic zone. ‘We did not experience any untoward incidents, but there are still those shadowing us – as we had already expected,’ Brawner told reporters, without naming China. In past joint patrols with other foreign navies, Chinese navy and coastguard ships have kept watch from a distance, according to the Philippine military.” (08/04/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/4/philippines-india-hold-first-joint-naval-drill-in-disputed-south-china-sea
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Secession
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Arguments for the right of a region, Catalonia or Scotland, to secede are often put as a right to self-determination. That, in my view, is to confuse groups with persons. Catalans are persons; ‘The Catalans’ are not. A Catalan has rights, the collective does not. If the Spanish government violates the rights of a Catalan by taxing or drafting him those would still be violations of his rights if done by a Catalonian government. The arguments for and against secession that interest me have to do not with whether peoples have a right to self-determination but whether making secession easier will make the world a better or a worse place for the persons who live in it. To answer that question, I begin with a short, but I think relevant, digression.” (08/04/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/secession
-----
22) The Constitution, Foreign Wars, and the Tenth Amendment
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley
“When a sitting U.S. president decides to commit tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to foreign conflicts, ordinary citizens seldom ask whether such largesse has a constitutional basis. Yet America was founded on the principle that the federal government is one of limited and enumerated powers. Those powers were carefully listed in Article I of the Constitution, and the Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not delegated to the United States to the states or to the people. The Constitution demands that any action taken by the federal governmen — including funding and arming foreign belligerents — be supported by an enumerated power. President Donald Trump’s decisions in 2025 to dramatically increase arms shipments to Ukraine and to release large bombs and precision munitions to Israel, despite accusations that Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide, are therefore more than just foreign‐policy controversies. They challenge the constitutional structure itself.” (08/04/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-constitution-foreign-wars-and-the-tenth-amendment
-----
23) The Cost of Building Progress
Source: EconLog
by Matt Zwolinski
“In 1961, Vera Coking and her husband purchased a home in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They paid $20,000 for the modest three-story house, or about $215,000 in 2025 dollars. Coking was looking for a summertime home, not an investment. But if she had been looking to make money, she would have been hard pressed to do better. Twenty years later, Coking received an offer of one million dollars from Bob Guccione of Penthouse who wanted the land for a casino he was developing. She turned it down. Then, in 1993, another casino developer tried to buy the land to use as a limousine parking lot. Once again, Coking refused the offer. This time, however, the developer refused to take ‘no’ for an answer. Since a voluntary exchange wasn’t going to work, the developer went to the state instead.” (08/04/25)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2025/zwolinskibuilding.html
-----
24) Choosing Congressional Irrelevance
Source: Law & Liberty
by Philip A Wallach
“Legislators have responded to the whirlwind of activity in the first half-year of Donald Trump’s second presidential administration with an overwhelming sense of passivity. Trump’s Democratic opponents, who find themselves narrowly in the minority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, have done little to slow things down, even if they’ve offered record-long speeches in both chambers. Republicans, meanwhile, have made supporting the president their top priority, acquiescing to his initiatives even when they seem to directly impinge on the legislature’s constitutional prerogatives. Americans can be forgiven for thinking Congress has become about as useful as a human appendix — prone to inflammation and perhaps best removed entirely.” (08/04/25)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/choosing-congressional-irrelevance/
-----
25) Voluntary Support versus Coerced Support
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced that it is shutting down. That’s the entity that receives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal government and then uses the loot to fund ‘public’ (i.e., government) radio and television stations across the U.S., including the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Why is the CPB shutting down? Because the federal government, under the Trump administration, is terminating the flow of federal taxpayer dollars into its coffers. But wait a minute! Can’t the CPB get funding voluntarily from donors? It could, but obviously people don’t wish to donate money to fund this operation. If they did, the CPB wouldn’t be shutting down.” (08/04/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/08/04/voluntary-support-versus-coerced-support/
-----
26) A “truce” over free speech in Iran?
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In June, facing a military defeat, the leaders of Iran muted their rhetoric and agreed to a truce with Israel, ending the ’12-day war.’ A month later, a government largely controlled by ruling Muslim clerics has signaled another kind of truce – this time with its own people, and within a period of just 10 days. On July 20, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Cabinet sought to fast-track a sweeping internet censorship bill. Parliament passed it July 27. But, following public backlash, Mr. Pezeshkian abruptly withdrew it three days later. The bill was ‘not designed to fight lies, but rather to eliminate independent narratives, restrict freedom of expression,’ and target critics, wrote formerly jailed journalist Alireza Rajaei. The rapid about-face signals that the government is learning to acknowledge the power of popular sentiment. And what popular sentiment wants is freedom of expression: the ability to access and share information and viewpoints in real time.” (08/04/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0804/A-truce-over-free-speech-in-Iran
-----
27) Wall Street Isn’t Daycare: Interns Meet the Real World
Source: Wall Street Journal
by Peter C Earle
“In recent years, a chorus of complaints has emerged from Millennial and Gen-Z interns and junior analysts about the allegedly intolerable conditions at top investment banks. The grievances — ranging from long hours and high stress to inconsistent team dynamics and alleged workplace ‘toxicity’ — have generated headlines and sparked conversations about labor conditions and culture in high finance. But beneath the noise lies a deeper misunderstanding about the nature of elite private institutions, the purpose of internships, and the reality of competition in a modern, highly-financialized economy.” (08/04/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/wall-street-isnt-daycare-interns-meet-the-real-world/
-----
28) The US Economy Is Stumbling Badly
Source: Washington Monthly
by Robert J Shapiro
“Everyone who has ever used a dating app knows the disappointment when an online picture doesn’t match reality. Sometimes, economic reports suffer from a similar gap. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the second quarter. That sounds like good news, but the underlying data tell us that the U.S. economy is stumbling — and that’s before President Donald Trump doubled down last week on his destructive tariffs.” (08/04/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/04/the-u-s-economy-is-stumbling/
-----
29) Russiagate lies being exposed, and everybody is watching – even the Dems
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as ‘Russian disinformation’ the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous ‘years-long coup’ against President Trump, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) ‘very closely’ (32%) or ‘somewhat closely’ (33%), repudiating the calculated media silence about the Obama administration’s fake narratives and manipulation of intelligence to frame Trump as a Kremlin stooge to cover up Clinton’s wrongdoing. The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in ‘manipulating intelligence’, with 37% saying ‘very likely’ and 17% saying ‘somewhat likely.'” (08/03/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/03/opinion/miranda-devine-russiagate-lies-are-being-exposed-and-everybody-is-watching-even-the-dems/
-----
30) When Anti-Star Trek Meets Brazil
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
“I’m very sympathetic to the concept of post-scarcity, and reducing the need for human labor wherever it’s feasible; but it requires that 1) the new labor-saving technologies be free and open source, and 2) that all the efficiencies be passed onto either consumers, or workers through shorter hours for the same pay, and not enclosed for rents. When the decisions of what new technologies to adopt and how to integrate them into the production process are made in the fundamentally irrational atmosphere of an absentee-owned, hierarchically organized organization, the outcome is just the opposite of post-scarcity.” (08/04/25)
https://c4ss.org/content/60605
-----
31) The Nightmare in Gaza: On Creating a Cover for Genocide
Source: TomDispatch
by Aviva Chomsky
“In July 2025, the Massachusetts legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to make it the 38th state to follow the federal government, 45 other countries (almost all of them in the global North), and more than 50 U.S. local governments in adopting a strange definition of antisemitism. In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of 35 mostly European countries, drafted what it called a working definition of antisemitism. The Alliance had been founded in 1998 to promote Holocaust education and, in its own words, ‘to strengthen governmental cooperation to work towards a world without genocide.’ All too sadly, right now, its definition is being used to do the opposite: it’s helping to criminalize opposition to genocide.” (08/03/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-nightmare-in-gaza/
-----
32) Federal Court Appears Receptive to Arguments Against Unilateral Presidential Tariff Power
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Everybody with a brain knows that tariffs are taxes. And they know that tariffs imposed on goods imported to the United States are largely paid by American businesses and consumers. The big question is whether tariffs unilaterally imposed by President Donald Trump under creative interpretations of emergency executive powers will withstand a federal court challenge. So far, the signs are promising for those hoping that a law intended to rein in the power of the presidency will not be read to permit the president to set trade policy of his own accord.” (08/04/25)
https://reason.com/2025/08/04/federal-court-appears-receptive-to-arguments-against-unilateral-presidential-tariff-power/
-----
33) Dare To Hope
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At least 100,000 Australians, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, marched for Gaza across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the pouring rain at a demonstration on Sunday. It wasn’t that long ago when I sincerely wondered if we’d ever see Assange’s face again, let alone in public, let alone in Sydney, let alone heading up what had to be one of the largest pro-Palestine rallies ever held in Australia. Dare to be encouraged. The light is breaking through. … The western political/media class is fuming with outrage about images of Israeli hostages who are severely emaciated, which just says so much about how dehumanized Palestinians are in western society. Everyone stop caring about hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians, it turns out two Israeli hostages are starving in the same way for the same reason.” (08/04/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/08/04/dare-to-hope/
-----
34) Trump is Getting Desperate
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Last week’s big non-Epstein news was Friday’s very bad jobs report and Donald Trump’s immediate reaction — which was not to rethink his policies but to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What will he do when his tariffs and deportations start showing up in inflation numbers? … official economic data are basically starting to confirm what mainstream economists have been saying all along. Erratic policy that creates uncertainty depresses growth and job creation; tariffs raise prices. Trump has been betting that he’s smarter than economists warning about the downsides of his policies. After all, they’re all at Marxist institutions like … Goldman Sachs. And he may try to order the statistical agencies to report better news. But nobody will believe it.” (08/04/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-is-getting-desperate-and-dangerous
-----
35) “Responsibility to Protect” is a Trap
Source: The Realist Review
by Chris Mott
“Israel would undoubtedly behave in an at least somewhat more normal fashion without endless American support. Already having a regional nuclear monopoly, the state’s existence is hardly as under threat as its many partisans in the media presume. But its offensive projection ability abroad is aided by American defense and logistical support. As Israel further wreaks havoc across the Middle East on an ever expanding list of countries which face direct attack, it is the United States that could (and should) pull the plug on outside support for this chaos. But it should not do it in a way that validates the standard neoconservative and liberal interventionist talking points about the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine.” (08/04/25)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/responsibility-to-protect-is-a-trap
-----
36) The Hiroshima Exhibition the World Wasn’t Allowed to See
Source: Foreign Policy
by Julian E Zelizer
“Attacks on a Smithsonian show about the atomic bomb created a template for weaponizing the teaching of history.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/kxJF2
-----
37) Watching Ivory Towers Crumble
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Jerod Hollyfield
“Before I began my career as an English and media professor, I knew the system I was about to enter was already showing signs of decay. So, when Christopher Rufo announced the release of The Manhattan Statement on Higher Education in mid-July, I should have been overjoyed. Signed by a who’s who of conservative public figures, including Drs. Jordan B. Peterson, Victor Davis Hanson, Gad Saad, and Nashville’s own Carol Swain, the intended blueprint for President Trump’s higher education agenda aims to quell activism, uproot DEI initiatives, and lead to institutions of higher learning that ‘advance truth over ideology, with rigorous standards of academic conduct, controls for academic fraud, and merit-based decision-making throughout the enterprise.’ Yet, I’ve found myself uneasy. To its credit, The Manhattan Statement serves as a much needed articulation of the issues that initiated higher education’s largely self-inflicted crises.” (08/04/25)
https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/watching-ivory-towers-crumble/
-----
38) UK as China’s Thumb Puppet
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“British police do some good things. In 2023, officers were credited with reducing the number of phone snatchings by punks on mopeds. Great. Let’s have more of that, less of telling victims of totalitarian dictatorship to shut up for their own good. The UK police wanted expatriate Hongkonger Carmen Lau, a pro-democracy activist and former Hong Kong politician who has been living in Britain since 2021, to stay out of trouble with China. So in March, London bobbies asked her to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ obliging her to avoid public gatherings and ‘cease any activity likely to put you at risk.’ What activity? Not hang gliding.” (08/04/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/04/uk-as-chinas-thumb-puppet/
-----
39) The Collapse of Regime Media
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“The mainstream media has lost the trust of the American people, and it is dying.” (08/04/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/the-collapse-of-regime-media?
-----
40) Misusing the Children: The UK Online Safety Act, Privacy and Censorship
Source: CounterPunch
by Binoy Kampmark
“The United Kingdom can always be relied upon to supply us with the eccentric, the admirably dotty, and the odd extreme bit of adventure in policy. Lately, those mad protectors and censors with their shields of false virtue and hollow intellect have decided to launch an assault on the users of the Internet. In this, they are joining the platoons of hysteria from such countries as Australia, where age verification restrictions on platforms are all the rage. It’s all about the children, and when adults start meddling with children, all sorts of trouble arise.” (08/04/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/04/misusing-the-children-the-uk-online-safety-act-privacy-and-censorship/
-----
41) In a Just World, Trump and Netanyahu Will Someday Share a Prison Cell
Source: Common Dreams
by Peter Dreier
“Israel has become a global pariah: ‘increasingly isolated,’ the New York Times recently reported. Polls in the United States and around the world reveal growing opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, particularly since Israel has no obvious plan to end its war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself, and his right-wing government partners, to blame. He doesn’t give a damn about Palestinian lives or the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. He primarily cares about expanding his power and staying out of prison on corruption charges. He thinks that extending the war in Gaza will help him do that. Sound familiar?” (08/04/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/in-a-just-world-trump-and-netanyahu-will-someday-share-a-prison-cell
-----
42) Milei’s welcome to Netanyahu will open Pandora’s Box in Argentina
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Buenos Aires this September, he’ll test more than Argentina’s hospitality — he’ll force a reckoning with the President Javier Milei’s gamble: Is Argentina’s fervent alignment with Israel a strategic masterstroke or a geopolitical liability?” (08/04/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/milei-netanyahu-argentia/
-----
43) How the West Bank Is Being Annexed to Israel, with Tacit US Support
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“Behind the fog of war and the obliteration of Gaza, Israel’s far-right cabinet has escalated the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.” (08/04/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2025/08/03/how-the-west-bank-is-being-annexed-to-israel-with-tacit-us-support/
-----
44) Progress helps us withstand nature’s fury
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrea Martinez
“In the past days, the world has been shaken — literally — by several natural disasters: the devastating floods in Texas in June 2025 … the 5.7 and 5.8 magnitude tremors that struck Guatemala on July 8 and 29, respectively; a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Alaska that triggered tsunami warnings throughout the North Pacific; and, most recently, a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia on July 29 — one of the strongest in recorded history …. It’s natural to feel that disasters are becoming more frequent. But that impression might reflect our improved ability to detect, report, and record these events — and the fact that, in our 24/7 global news cycle, we now hear about incidents in distant countries almost instantly — rather than an actual surge in their number. What we can say with confidence is: despite a growing global population, people today are more likely to survive disasters than a century ago.” (08/03/25)
https://fee.org/articles/progress-helps-us-withstand-natures-fury/
-----
45) Greece’s hard lesson for NYC: Beware leaders who promise the world
Source: Fox News
by Angelos Stergiou
“A young, promising politician emerged from seemingly nowhere to turn New York politics upside down. Zohran Mamdani swept to the NYC democratic mayoral primary nomination in a blitz of optimism, hope and general good vibrations. Media deemed his victory one of the greatest political upsets of modern time. To us Greeks, the surprise might not have been that unexpected. In the swirling currents of early 21st century politics, few figures have captured the imagination of the electorate quite like Alexis Tsipras, the former prime minister of Greece. A charismatic leader, Tsipras rose to power in January 2015 with the promise of radical change, embodying a vision that resonated with many disillusioned citizens. His leftist agenda, tinged with socialist-communist ideals, painted a picture of a fairer, more equitable society. However, as history has shown, charm and promise do not always translate into effective governance.” (08/04/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/greeces-hard-lesson-nyc-beware-leaders-who-promise-world
-----
46) What if the Colluders Were the Accusers?
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“For years, we were told of a Trump-Russia plot. Now, declassified memos show the real conspiracy was waged by the Clinton campaign and the CIA to subvert a democracy they claimed to be saving.” (08/03/25)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/what-if-the-colluders-were-the-accusers
-----
47) Jeffrey Epstein is a Mirror of American Power
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Western culture is defined by violent conquest and towering social hierarchies. So, it really isn’t all that shocking that nearly every western social hierarchy seems to become a den of rampant child abuse. Where I live, in central Pennsylvania, this hideous truth exists all around me. While the Catholic Church turned nearly every diocese in the state into a glorified hunting ground for pedophile priests, Penn State University afforded this exact same luxury to assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in exchange for a few winning football seasons. In both of these cases, the actual predators were relatively few in number …. an immense amount of power in a small number of hands affords a select few the ability to destroy lives recreationally while an obedient society enables them to do so.” (08/03/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/08/jeffrey-epstein-is-mirror-of-american.html
-----
48) Never Again Should a Sole Superpower Anchor the Liberal International Order
Source: The UnPopulist
by Shikha Dalmia
“The first step toward a new liberal international order is calling it not a rules-based — but a principles-based — liberal order. The semantic difference matters when trying to forge a coalition whose members could have different interests at any given moment. A rules-based order connotes that they must accept limits on advancing their interests based on pre-set rules. These rules might be agreed upon mutually, but they nevertheless signify restrictions. Principles, on the other hand, refer to one’s own independently chosen normative commitments. Entering arrangements that advance them therefore represents not a loss of autonomy but staying true to one’s own values. Interests can diverge based on time and circumstances—principles don’t.” (08/03/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/never-again-should-a-sole-superpower
-----
49) The Illusion of VA Choice
Source: The American Prospect
by Suzanne Gordon
“At his confirmation hearing in January of 2025, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, assured the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee of his commitment to provide specialized, high-quality medical care for the roughly nine million veterans enrolled in the nation’s largest and only truly integrated public health care system, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). But Collins, a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, also explained that his mandate from President Trump is to make it ‘easier for veterans to get their health care when and where it’s most convenient for them,’ by giving them greater choice between in-house and outsourced care. To do this, he planned to lean on the network of 1.7 million private-sector providers who are part of the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP), created by the VA MISSION Act of 2018.” (08/04/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-08-04-illusion-of-choice-va-health-care/
-----
50) Origins of Medical Harm
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Marks
“Analysis and debate about the ongoing healthcare crisis emphasize misdirected funding rather than considering how to revitalize the ethics of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath clarifies the priorities essential for the mindset of a physician. Despite its primary warning, first, do no harm, damage done to patients is rampant. Resolution of this tragic dynamic appears insoluble. When decisions are made by any medical organization with financial interests, the primary impetus of the Oath is lost; the AMA’s control over payment schedules reinforces and exemplifies a corrupt institutional flaw. The harm done by the business of medicine needs to be evaluated and controlled.” (08/03/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/origins-of-medical-harm/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 08/04/25
Source: Reason
"The New York Times Doesn't Understand Men." (08/04/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/08/04/the-new-york-times-doesnt-understand-men/
-----
52) Rising, 08/04/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on fallout of Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad.” (08/04/25)
https://thehill.com/video/sydney-sweeney-confirmed-as-republican-jeans-ad-still-triggering-woke-robby-soave%c2%a0-rising/10950011/
-----
53) Finding Freedom, 08/04/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Eyes Wide Open: Faith and National Security in the Age of AI with Brendan Steinhauser.” (08/04/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/eyes-wide-open-faith-and-national-security-in-the-age-of-ai-with-brendan-steinhauser
-----
54) Conflicts of Interest, episode 825
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Netanyahu Wants ‘Decisive Military Victory’ in Gaza.” (08/04/25)
https://rumble.com/v6x4fn6-netanyahu-wants-decisive-military-victory-in-gaza-coi-825.html
-----
55) TechTank, season 5, episode 25
Source: Brookings Institution
“Measuring [b]lack women’s trust in AI.” (08/04/25)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/measuring-black-womens-trust-in-ai
-----
56) EconTalk, 08/04/25
Source: EconTalk
“Let Me Be Forgotten (with Lowry Pressly).” (08/04/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/let-me-be-forgotten-with-lowry-pressly/
-----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/04/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel Preparing To Escalate in Gaza, US Strikes Al-Shabaab in Somalia in Major Battle, and More.” (08/04/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxCpKIFOnPY
-----
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/03/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s talk about the uncomfortable Libertarian relationship to the Nasty Nazi, and how to avoid it.” (08/03/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd47B9t7ZFQ
-----
59) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 08/03/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Fight Everywhere or Lose Everything! (w/ David Pepper).” (08/03/25)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-everywhere-or-lose-everything-w-david-pepper/id1772157676?i=1000720476287
-----
60) The Brian Nichols Show, 08/03/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“The $11 Million Lesson Ryan Trahan Just Taught the World.” (08/03/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/the-brian-nichols-show-the-11-million-lesson-ryan-trahan-just-taught-the-world
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
https://news.rationalreview.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Freedom News:
1) Appellate court upholds conviction of political prisoner Ian Freeman
2) Brazil: Supreme Court orders house arrest for Bolsonaro
3) US regime: No disaster prep aid to states, cities without loyalty oath to foreign power
4) Bondi escalates Epstein distraction op with grand jury move
5) Argentina: Milei vetoes pension boost
6) Israel: Regime votes to fire attorney general
7) Haiti: Nine, including Irish missionary, kidnapped in raid on orphanage
8) US fighter jets intercept aviators to keep them from seeing Trump cheat at golf
9) TX: Abbott threatens Democrats with bribery charges for stalling vote
10) Loni Anderson, 1945-2025
11) Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war
12) Palestine: Johnson to visit illegal West Bank squat
13) Eurostar passengers face delays and cancellations due to French rail issue
14) Iran: Regime founds new Supreme National Defense Council
15) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars
16) BP makes largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
17) South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs
18) Thousands of US Boeing workers strike over pay and conditions
19) TN: Regime employees set to kill inmate without turning off his implanted defibrillator
20) Filipino, Indian navies hold first joint drill in disputed South China Sea
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Secession
22) The Constitution, Foreign Wars, and the Tenth Amendment
23) The Cost of Building Progress
24) Choosing Congressional Irrelevance
25) Voluntary Support versus Coerced Support
26) A “truce” over free speech in Iran?
27) Wall Street Isn’t Daycare: Interns Meet the Real World
28) The US Economy Is Stumbling Badly
29) Russiagate lies being exposed, and everybody is watching – even the Dems
30) When Anti-Star Trek Meets Brazil
31) The Nightmare in Gaza: On Creating a Cover for Genocide
32) Federal Court Appears Receptive to Arguments Against Unilateral Presidential Tariff Power
33) Dare To Hope
34) Trump is Getting Desperate
35) “Responsibility to Protect” is a Trap
36) The Hiroshima Exhibition the World Wasn’t Allowed to See
37) Watching Ivory Towers Crumble
38) UK as China’s Thumb Puppet
39) The Collapse of Regime Media
40) Misusing the Children: The UK Online Safety Act, Privacy and Censorship
41) In a Just World, Trump and Netanyahu Will Someday Share a Prison Cell
42) Milei’s welcome to Netanyahu will open Pandora’s Box in Argentina
43) How the West Bank Is Being Annexed to Israel, with Tacit US Support
44) Progress helps us withstand nature’s fury
45) Greece’s hard lesson for NYC: Beware leaders who promise the world
46) What if the Colluders Were the Accusers?
47) Jeffrey Epstein is a Mirror of American Power
48) Never Again Should a Sole Superpower Anchor the Liberal International Order
49) The Illusion of VA Choice
50) Origins of Medical Harm
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 08/04/25
52) Rising, 08/04/25
53) Finding Freedom, 08/04/25
54) Conflicts of Interest, episode 825
55) TechTank, season 5, episode 25
56) EconTalk, 08/04/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/04/25
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/03/25
59) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 08/03/25
60) The Brian Nichols Show, 08/03/25
vvvvv SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS vvvvv
THE CONSTITUTION OF NON-STATE GOVERNMENT: FIELD GUIDE TO TEXAS SECESSION, by TL Hulsey
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947660853
Tyranny Demands AN ACT OF SELF-DEFENSE: A NOVEL BY ERNE LEWIS
https://tinyurl.com/actofselfdefense
ONE IDENTITY FOR ALL YOUR CRYPTO
https://fioprotocol.io/
SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III REVOLUTIONARY FRIEND BY WENDY MCELROY
https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-Revolutionary-Friend-ebook/dp/B0DP7B6127
SHOP ONLINE, COLLECT A REBATE IN BITCOIN!
https://www.lolli.com/share/MZB4cCpheL
^^^^^ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ^^^^^
_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Appellate court upholds conviction of political prisoner Ian Freeman
Source: New Hampshire Union Leader
“An appellate court has affirmed Ian Freeman’s federal conviction and jail sentence for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business with bitcoin ATMs. In February 2024, Freeman was ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution [sic] to 29 victims [sic] and forfeit other assets seized during an investigation into a money laundering scheme and other internet fraud. … Freeman was sentenced to eight years in prison …” [editor’s note: We try to only run very “fresh” stories at RRND/FND, but I somehow missed this one over the weekend and only discovered it today. It’s important enough for US to run, “fresh” or not. It’s also important enough for you to visit freeiannow.org and sign the petition seeking his release – TLK] (08/01/25)
https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/appellate-court-affirms-freemans-conviction-sentence-in-bitcoin-money-laundering-scheme/article_97441455-b54d-4919-baa1-75dd2f9c6952.amp.html
-----
2) Brazil: Supreme Court orders house arrest for Bolsonaro
Source: Associated Press
“Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the house arrest for former President Jair Bolsonaro, on trial for allegedly masterminding a coup plot to remain in office despite his defeat in the 2022 election — a case that has gripped the South American country as it faces a trade war with the Trump administration. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro before the top court, said in his decision that the 70-year-old former president had violated precautionary measures imposed on him by spreading content through his three lawmaker sons. Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement that he will appeal the decision. … Monday’s order followed one from the top court last month that ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle monitor and imposed a curfew on his activities while the proceedings are underway.” (08/05/25)
https://apnews.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-house-arrest-coup-plot-trial-26e2be9eee08b7e6b9f006f0c5b706e9
-----
3) US regime: No disaster prep aid to states, cities without loyalty oath to foreign power
Source: Reuters
“The Trump administration said states and cities will not receive funding to prepare for natural disasters if they choose to boycott Israeli companies, according to an agency statement. States must certify that they will not cut off ‘commercial relations specifically with Israeli companie’ to receive the money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the agency’s terms, opens new tab for grantees. The condition applies to at least $1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search and rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems, among other expenses, according to 11 agency grant notices reviewed by Reuters. … FEMA will require major cities to agree to the Israel policy to receive a cut of $553.5 million set aside to prevent terrorism in dense areas, according to a grant notice posted Friday.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/7FfsX
-----
4) Bondi escalates Epstein distraction op with grand jury move
Source: CBS News
“Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a grand jury investigation into the intelligence regarding President Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election. She has directed Justice Department staff to begin legal proceedings and ordered a federal prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury about the matter to secure a potential indictment, according to a source familiar with Bondi’s efforts. It is unclear what the charges would be and who would be charged. The directive follows a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in mid-July. The Justice Department confirmed it had received the referral.” [editor’s note: I agree that there should be lots of grand juries investigating all past presidents/administrations and their actions. But the reason for this one isn’t hard to figure out – TLK] (08/04/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-russiagate-trump-grand-jury-investigation/
-----
5) Argentina: Milei vetoes pension boost
Source: Reuters
“Argentine President Javier Milei on Monday vetoed a pension boost and a bill strengthening protections for people with disabilities, which lawmakers had passed in July, saying that they put fiscal balance at risk. The decision to veto the bills had already been announced by Milei last month, although Congress — where the libertarian [sic] president does not have a majority — can still overturn the vetoes. The vetoes come less than three months before Argentina’s mid-term elections, seen as a gauge of approval for the Milei administration, which has managed to reduce triple-digit annual inflation but whose austerity policies have had a social impact.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/XtNKm
-----
6) Israel: Regime votes to fire attorney general
Source: CNN
“The Israeli government voted unanimously on Monday to fire the country’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. ‘The government has just unanimously approved the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin to immediately terminate the tenure of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara,’ according to Levin’s spokesperson. Baharav-Miara has often been criticised by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused her of abusing her authority to undermine the government’s policies and destabilize Israel’s rule of law. Right-wing Israeli politicians have long called for her dismissal. Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Monday to stop Baharav-Miara’s firing.” (08/04/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/middleeast/israel-attorney-general-government-fire-vote-latam-intl
-----
7) Haiti: Nine, including Irish missionary, kidnapped in raid on orphanage
Source: Irish Star
“An Irish missionary is among nine people who have been kidnapped from an orphanage in Haiti. Gena Heraty, from Westport in Mayo, is the director of the Sainte-Helene orphanage in the commune of Kenscoff, which is 10km southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Kenscoff Mayor Masillon Jean said Ms Heraty, seven other employees and a three-year-old child were taken from the orphanage.” (08/04/25)
https://www.irishstar.com/news/ireland-news/irish-missionary-among-nine-kidnapped-35673267
-----
8) US fighter jets intercept aviators to keep them from seeing Trump cheat at golf
Source: WION [India]
“A civilian aircraft was intercepted by the US fighter jets on Sunday (August 3) after it entered President Donald Trump’s golf club in New Jersey — an area with restricted airspace. Fox News reported that the incident occurred around 12:50 p.m. (local time), when the pilot flew into a temporary flight restriction (TFR) zone over Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, according to a statement from the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). It was the second such incursion of the day and one of five unauthorised entries into the restricted airspace over this weekend, the news channel said. As per his schedule, Trump was at the club when this happened.” (08/04/25)
https://www.wionews.com/world/us-fighter-jets-intercept-aircraft-that-breached-trump-s-golf-club-1754306654655
-----
9) TX: Abbott threatens Democrats with bribery charges for stalling vote
BBC News [UK State Media]
“Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened to file bribery charges against Democratic legislators who fled the state to prevent a vote on a controversial redistricting plan that would significantly favour Republicans. At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable when 51 Democratic lawmakers left the state. The proposed congressional map, unveiled last week by Texas Republicans, would create more Republican seats in the US House of Representatives where they hold a slim majority currently. Abbott warned that lawmakers who refuse to return to vote on the map could face second-degree felony charges. ‘It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature,’ Abbott said on Fox News on Monday.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93dkwnx94ro
-----
10) Loni Anderson, 1945-2025
Source: New York Times
“Loni Anderson, who played the platinum blonde receptionist on the screwball comedy ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ in the late 1970s and early ’80s and later became a tabloid mainstay during her contentious divorce from the actor Burt Reynolds, died on Sunday at a hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79. Her death, just days before her 80th birthday, was confirmed by Cheryl J. Kagan, her publicist, who cited an unspecified prolonged illness. … Over the decades, Ms. Anderson amassed more than 60 acting credits. … She continued working well into her 70s.” (08/03/25)
https://archive.is/SjPsk
-----
11) Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have written to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. ‘It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,’ the officials said. ‘Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,’ they wrote. Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled. Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkznje8nz8o
-----
12) Palestine: Johnson to visit illegal West Bank squat
Source: Axios
“House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to visit a [squat] in the occupied West Bank on Monday as part of a private visit to Israel organized by a pro-Israel advocacy group, according to two Israeli officials. While many Republican Congress members have visited West Bank [squats], it is highly unusual visit for a speaker of the house to do so. … Johnson traveled to Israel on Sunday with Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), who heads the Friends of Judea and Samaria caucus in Congress, which supports Israeli [squats] and advocates for annexation of the West Bank.” (08/04/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/04/israel-west-bank-gaza-speaker-johnson-visit
-----
13) Eurostar passengers face delays and cancellations due to French rail issue
BBC News [UK State Media]
“Passengers on several Eurostar trains are facing delays and cancellations after a power supply issue on a rail line in northern France led to its closure. The Eurostar website shows at least nine services on Monday between London and Paris have been cancelled, while a further 15 services have been delayed. The problem started at about 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Monday and disruptions are expected to continue until the end of the day, with trains being diverted to run on slower lines. Eurostar has advised passengers to postpone their journeys if possible. Some services between Brussels and Paris and between Amsterdam and Paris have also been cancelled, delayed or faced other disruptions due to the rail closure, which happened on the high-speed line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq58z7w00vqo
-----
14) Iran: Regime founds new Supreme National Defense Council
Source: ABC News
“Iran founded a new defense council after attacks in June by Israel and the U.S., Iranian state media reported Monday. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest security body, made the decision to establish the Supreme National Defense Council, which will be headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian, the report said. The council will handle defensive plans and improve the capabilities of Iran’s armed forces. Members will include the speaker of Parliament, the head of the judiciary and the chiefs of military branches and related ministries, the report said. The defense, intelligence and foreign ministries are expected to be council members, although the report did not provide those details.” (08/04/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-founds-new-supreme-national-defense-council-after-124336193
-----
15) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars
Source: SFGate
“Scientists say they have at last solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America in a decade-long epidemic. Sea stars – often known as starfish – typically have five arms and some species sport up to 24 arms. They range in color from solid orange to tapestries of orange, purple, brown and green. Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. … The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.” (08/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/scientists-say-they-have-solved-the-mystery-of-20801000.php
-----
16) BP makes largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“BP has made its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years after drilling a successful well in a field off the coast of Brazil, in a boost to the energy giant as it refocuses on fossil fuels. The Bumerangue field lies in the Santos Basin, about 400km from Rio de Janeiro, and spans more than 300 sq km, an area roughly five times the size of Manhattan. … The find was the company’s biggest since the 1999 discovery of Shah Deniz, a giant gasfield in the Caspian Sea that holds about 35tn cubic feet of gas, according to a BP spokesperson. Bumerangue is believed to contain a mix of gas, condensate and oil.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/Q2qOC
-----
17) South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A white South African farm worker accused of killing two black women says he was forced to feed their bodies to pigs, according to lawyers. Adrian de Wet is one of three men facing murder charges after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province last year. Their bodies were then alleged to have been given to pigs in an apparent attempt to dispose of the evidence. Mr De Wet, 20, turned state witness when the trial started on Monday and says farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier shot and killed the two women. Ms Makgato and Ms Ndlovu were searching for soon-to-expire dairy products which had been left for pigs when they were killed.” (08/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gemjql1r5o
-----
18) Thousands of US Boeing workers strike over pay and conditions
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Boeing workers who build fighter jets went on strike Monday at midnight Central Daylight Time. About 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday. … The vote followed members’ rejection last week of an earlier proposal from the troubled aerospace giant, which had included a 20% wage increase over four years.” (08/04/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250804-enough-is-enough-thousands-boeing-workers-strike-pay-work-conditions
-----
19) TN: Regime employees set to kill inmate without turning off his implanted defibrillator
Source: SFGate
“Tennessee is set to execute an inmate Tuesday without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, as uncertainty lingers about whether the device will shock his heart when a lethal drug takes effect. Barring a late reprieve requested from the governor or the courts, Byron Black’s execution will go forward after a legal back-and-forth over whether the state would need to turn off his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it’s unaware of any other cases in which an inmate was making similar claims to Black’s about ICDs or pacemakers. Black’s attorneys said they haven’t found a comparable case, either. The execution would be Tennessee’s second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by the Tennessee Department of Correction.” (08/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/tennessee-set-to-execute-inmate-without-turning-20801495.php
-----
20) Filipino, Indian navies hold first joint drill in disputed South China Sea
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“India and the Philippines have staged their first joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea. The two-day joint military deployment that kicked off on Sunday is likely to anger China, which claims nearly the entire key waterway and has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian countries. Philippine Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr said on Monday that the joint sail took place inside his country’s exclusive economic zone. ‘We did not experience any untoward incidents, but there are still those shadowing us – as we had already expected,’ Brawner told reporters, without naming China. In past joint patrols with other foreign navies, Chinese navy and coastguard ships have kept watch from a distance, according to the Philippine military.” (08/04/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/4/philippines-india-hold-first-joint-naval-drill-in-disputed-south-china-sea
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Secession
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Arguments for the right of a region, Catalonia or Scotland, to secede are often put as a right to self-determination. That, in my view, is to confuse groups with persons. Catalans are persons; ‘The Catalans’ are not. A Catalan has rights, the collective does not. If the Spanish government violates the rights of a Catalan by taxing or drafting him those would still be violations of his rights if done by a Catalonian government. The arguments for and against secession that interest me have to do not with whether peoples have a right to self-determination but whether making secession easier will make the world a better or a worse place for the persons who live in it. To answer that question, I begin with a short, but I think relevant, digression.” (08/04/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/secession
-----
22) The Constitution, Foreign Wars, and the Tenth Amendment
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley
“When a sitting U.S. president decides to commit tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to foreign conflicts, ordinary citizens seldom ask whether such largesse has a constitutional basis. Yet America was founded on the principle that the federal government is one of limited and enumerated powers. Those powers were carefully listed in Article I of the Constitution, and the Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not delegated to the United States to the states or to the people. The Constitution demands that any action taken by the federal governmen — including funding and arming foreign belligerents — be supported by an enumerated power. President Donald Trump’s decisions in 2025 to dramatically increase arms shipments to Ukraine and to release large bombs and precision munitions to Israel, despite accusations that Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide, are therefore more than just foreign‐policy controversies. They challenge the constitutional structure itself.” (08/04/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-constitution-foreign-wars-and-the-tenth-amendment
-----
23) The Cost of Building Progress
Source: EconLog
by Matt Zwolinski
“In 1961, Vera Coking and her husband purchased a home in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They paid $20,000 for the modest three-story house, or about $215,000 in 2025 dollars. Coking was looking for a summertime home, not an investment. But if she had been looking to make money, she would have been hard pressed to do better. Twenty years later, Coking received an offer of one million dollars from Bob Guccione of Penthouse who wanted the land for a casino he was developing. She turned it down. Then, in 1993, another casino developer tried to buy the land to use as a limousine parking lot. Once again, Coking refused the offer. This time, however, the developer refused to take ‘no’ for an answer. Since a voluntary exchange wasn’t going to work, the developer went to the state instead.” (08/04/25)
https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2025/zwolinskibuilding.html
-----
24) Choosing Congressional Irrelevance
Source: Law & Liberty
by Philip A Wallach
“Legislators have responded to the whirlwind of activity in the first half-year of Donald Trump’s second presidential administration with an overwhelming sense of passivity. Trump’s Democratic opponents, who find themselves narrowly in the minority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, have done little to slow things down, even if they’ve offered record-long speeches in both chambers. Republicans, meanwhile, have made supporting the president their top priority, acquiescing to his initiatives even when they seem to directly impinge on the legislature’s constitutional prerogatives. Americans can be forgiven for thinking Congress has become about as useful as a human appendix — prone to inflammation and perhaps best removed entirely.” (08/04/25)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/choosing-congressional-irrelevance/
-----
25) Voluntary Support versus Coerced Support
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced that it is shutting down. That’s the entity that receives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal government and then uses the loot to fund ‘public’ (i.e., government) radio and television stations across the U.S., including the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Why is the CPB shutting down? Because the federal government, under the Trump administration, is terminating the flow of federal taxpayer dollars into its coffers. But wait a minute! Can’t the CPB get funding voluntarily from donors? It could, but obviously people don’t wish to donate money to fund this operation. If they did, the CPB wouldn’t be shutting down.” (08/04/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/08/04/voluntary-support-versus-coerced-support/
-----
26) A “truce” over free speech in Iran?
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In June, facing a military defeat, the leaders of Iran muted their rhetoric and agreed to a truce with Israel, ending the ’12-day war.’ A month later, a government largely controlled by ruling Muslim clerics has signaled another kind of truce – this time with its own people, and within a period of just 10 days. On July 20, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Cabinet sought to fast-track a sweeping internet censorship bill. Parliament passed it July 27. But, following public backlash, Mr. Pezeshkian abruptly withdrew it three days later. The bill was ‘not designed to fight lies, but rather to eliminate independent narratives, restrict freedom of expression,’ and target critics, wrote formerly jailed journalist Alireza Rajaei. The rapid about-face signals that the government is learning to acknowledge the power of popular sentiment. And what popular sentiment wants is freedom of expression: the ability to access and share information and viewpoints in real time.” (08/04/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0804/A-truce-over-free-speech-in-Iran
-----
27) Wall Street Isn’t Daycare: Interns Meet the Real World
Source: Wall Street Journal
by Peter C Earle
“In recent years, a chorus of complaints has emerged from Millennial and Gen-Z interns and junior analysts about the allegedly intolerable conditions at top investment banks. The grievances — ranging from long hours and high stress to inconsistent team dynamics and alleged workplace ‘toxicity’ — have generated headlines and sparked conversations about labor conditions and culture in high finance. But beneath the noise lies a deeper misunderstanding about the nature of elite private institutions, the purpose of internships, and the reality of competition in a modern, highly-financialized economy.” (08/04/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/wall-street-isnt-daycare-interns-meet-the-real-world/
-----
28) The US Economy Is Stumbling Badly
Source: Washington Monthly
by Robert J Shapiro
“Everyone who has ever used a dating app knows the disappointment when an online picture doesn’t match reality. Sometimes, economic reports suffer from a similar gap. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the second quarter. That sounds like good news, but the underlying data tell us that the U.S. economy is stumbling — and that’s before President Donald Trump doubled down last week on his destructive tariffs.” (08/04/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/04/the-u-s-economy-is-stumbling/
-----
29) Russiagate lies being exposed, and everybody is watching – even the Dems
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as ‘Russian disinformation’ the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous ‘years-long coup’ against President Trump, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) ‘very closely’ (32%) or ‘somewhat closely’ (33%), repudiating the calculated media silence about the Obama administration’s fake narratives and manipulation of intelligence to frame Trump as a Kremlin stooge to cover up Clinton’s wrongdoing. The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in ‘manipulating intelligence’, with 37% saying ‘very likely’ and 17% saying ‘somewhat likely.'” (08/03/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/03/opinion/miranda-devine-russiagate-lies-are-being-exposed-and-everybody-is-watching-even-the-dems/
-----
30) When Anti-Star Trek Meets Brazil
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
“I’m very sympathetic to the concept of post-scarcity, and reducing the need for human labor wherever it’s feasible; but it requires that 1) the new labor-saving technologies be free and open source, and 2) that all the efficiencies be passed onto either consumers, or workers through shorter hours for the same pay, and not enclosed for rents. When the decisions of what new technologies to adopt and how to integrate them into the production process are made in the fundamentally irrational atmosphere of an absentee-owned, hierarchically organized organization, the outcome is just the opposite of post-scarcity.” (08/04/25)
https://c4ss.org/content/60605
-----
31) The Nightmare in Gaza: On Creating a Cover for Genocide
Source: TomDispatch
by Aviva Chomsky
“In July 2025, the Massachusetts legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to make it the 38th state to follow the federal government, 45 other countries (almost all of them in the global North), and more than 50 U.S. local governments in adopting a strange definition of antisemitism. In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of 35 mostly European countries, drafted what it called a working definition of antisemitism. The Alliance had been founded in 1998 to promote Holocaust education and, in its own words, ‘to strengthen governmental cooperation to work towards a world without genocide.’ All too sadly, right now, its definition is being used to do the opposite: it’s helping to criminalize opposition to genocide.” (08/03/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-nightmare-in-gaza/
-----
32) Federal Court Appears Receptive to Arguments Against Unilateral Presidential Tariff Power
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Everybody with a brain knows that tariffs are taxes. And they know that tariffs imposed on goods imported to the United States are largely paid by American businesses and consumers. The big question is whether tariffs unilaterally imposed by President Donald Trump under creative interpretations of emergency executive powers will withstand a federal court challenge. So far, the signs are promising for those hoping that a law intended to rein in the power of the presidency will not be read to permit the president to set trade policy of his own accord.” (08/04/25)
https://reason.com/2025/08/04/federal-court-appears-receptive-to-arguments-against-unilateral-presidential-tariff-power/
-----
33) Dare To Hope
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At least 100,000 Australians, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, marched for Gaza across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the pouring rain at a demonstration on Sunday. It wasn’t that long ago when I sincerely wondered if we’d ever see Assange’s face again, let alone in public, let alone in Sydney, let alone heading up what had to be one of the largest pro-Palestine rallies ever held in Australia. Dare to be encouraged. The light is breaking through. … The western political/media class is fuming with outrage about images of Israeli hostages who are severely emaciated, which just says so much about how dehumanized Palestinians are in western society. Everyone stop caring about hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians, it turns out two Israeli hostages are starving in the same way for the same reason.” (08/04/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/08/04/dare-to-hope/
-----
34) Trump is Getting Desperate
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“Last week’s big non-Epstein news was Friday’s very bad jobs report and Donald Trump’s immediate reaction — which was not to rethink his policies but to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What will he do when his tariffs and deportations start showing up in inflation numbers? … official economic data are basically starting to confirm what mainstream economists have been saying all along. Erratic policy that creates uncertainty depresses growth and job creation; tariffs raise prices. Trump has been betting that he’s smarter than economists warning about the downsides of his policies. After all, they’re all at Marxist institutions like … Goldman Sachs. And he may try to order the statistical agencies to report better news. But nobody will believe it.” (08/04/25)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-is-getting-desperate-and-dangerous
-----
35) “Responsibility to Protect” is a Trap
Source: The Realist Review
by Chris Mott
“Israel would undoubtedly behave in an at least somewhat more normal fashion without endless American support. Already having a regional nuclear monopoly, the state’s existence is hardly as under threat as its many partisans in the media presume. But its offensive projection ability abroad is aided by American defense and logistical support. As Israel further wreaks havoc across the Middle East on an ever expanding list of countries which face direct attack, it is the United States that could (and should) pull the plug on outside support for this chaos. But it should not do it in a way that validates the standard neoconservative and liberal interventionist talking points about the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine.” (08/04/25)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/responsibility-to-protect-is-a-trap
-----
36) The Hiroshima Exhibition the World Wasn’t Allowed to See
Source: Foreign Policy
by Julian E Zelizer
“Attacks on a Smithsonian show about the atomic bomb created a template for weaponizing the teaching of history.” (08/04/25)
https://archive.is/kxJF2
-----
37) Watching Ivory Towers Crumble
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Jerod Hollyfield
“Before I began my career as an English and media professor, I knew the system I was about to enter was already showing signs of decay. So, when Christopher Rufo announced the release of The Manhattan Statement on Higher Education in mid-July, I should have been overjoyed. Signed by a who’s who of conservative public figures, including Drs. Jordan B. Peterson, Victor Davis Hanson, Gad Saad, and Nashville’s own Carol Swain, the intended blueprint for President Trump’s higher education agenda aims to quell activism, uproot DEI initiatives, and lead to institutions of higher learning that ‘advance truth over ideology, with rigorous standards of academic conduct, controls for academic fraud, and merit-based decision-making throughout the enterprise.’ Yet, I’ve found myself uneasy. To its credit, The Manhattan Statement serves as a much needed articulation of the issues that initiated higher education’s largely self-inflicted crises.” (08/04/25)
https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/watching-ivory-towers-crumble/
-----
38) UK as China’s Thumb Puppet
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“British police do some good things. In 2023, officers were credited with reducing the number of phone snatchings by punks on mopeds. Great. Let’s have more of that, less of telling victims of totalitarian dictatorship to shut up for their own good. The UK police wanted expatriate Hongkonger Carmen Lau, a pro-democracy activist and former Hong Kong politician who has been living in Britain since 2021, to stay out of trouble with China. So in March, London bobbies asked her to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ obliging her to avoid public gatherings and ‘cease any activity likely to put you at risk.’ What activity? Not hang gliding.” (08/04/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/04/uk-as-chinas-thumb-puppet/
-----
39) The Collapse of Regime Media
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“The mainstream media has lost the trust of the American people, and it is dying.” (08/04/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/the-collapse-of-regime-media?
-----
40) Misusing the Children: The UK Online Safety Act, Privacy and Censorship
Source: CounterPunch
by Binoy Kampmark
“The United Kingdom can always be relied upon to supply us with the eccentric, the admirably dotty, and the odd extreme bit of adventure in policy. Lately, those mad protectors and censors with their shields of false virtue and hollow intellect have decided to launch an assault on the users of the Internet. In this, they are joining the platoons of hysteria from such countries as Australia, where age verification restrictions on platforms are all the rage. It’s all about the children, and when adults start meddling with children, all sorts of trouble arise.” (08/04/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/04/misusing-the-children-the-uk-online-safety-act-privacy-and-censorship/
-----
41) In a Just World, Trump and Netanyahu Will Someday Share a Prison Cell
Source: Common Dreams
by Peter Dreier
“Israel has become a global pariah: ‘increasingly isolated,’ the New York Times recently reported. Polls in the United States and around the world reveal growing opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, particularly since Israel has no obvious plan to end its war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself, and his right-wing government partners, to blame. He doesn’t give a damn about Palestinian lives or the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. He primarily cares about expanding his power and staying out of prison on corruption charges. He thinks that extending the war in Gaza will help him do that. Sound familiar?” (08/04/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/in-a-just-world-trump-and-netanyahu-will-someday-share-a-prison-cell
-----
42) Milei’s welcome to Netanyahu will open Pandora’s Box in Argentina
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Buenos Aires this September, he’ll test more than Argentina’s hospitality — he’ll force a reckoning with the President Javier Milei’s gamble: Is Argentina’s fervent alignment with Israel a strategic masterstroke or a geopolitical liability?” (08/04/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/milei-netanyahu-argentia/
-----
43) How the West Bank Is Being Annexed to Israel, with Tacit US Support
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“Behind the fog of war and the obliteration of Gaza, Israel’s far-right cabinet has escalated the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.” (08/04/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2025/08/03/how-the-west-bank-is-being-annexed-to-israel-with-tacit-us-support/
-----
44) Progress helps us withstand nature’s fury
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrea Martinez
“In the past days, the world has been shaken — literally — by several natural disasters: the devastating floods in Texas in June 2025 … the 5.7 and 5.8 magnitude tremors that struck Guatemala on July 8 and 29, respectively; a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Alaska that triggered tsunami warnings throughout the North Pacific; and, most recently, a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia on July 29 — one of the strongest in recorded history …. It’s natural to feel that disasters are becoming more frequent. But that impression might reflect our improved ability to detect, report, and record these events — and the fact that, in our 24/7 global news cycle, we now hear about incidents in distant countries almost instantly — rather than an actual surge in their number. What we can say with confidence is: despite a growing global population, people today are more likely to survive disasters than a century ago.” (08/03/25)
https://fee.org/articles/progress-helps-us-withstand-natures-fury/
-----
45) Greece’s hard lesson for NYC: Beware leaders who promise the world
Source: Fox News
by Angelos Stergiou
“A young, promising politician emerged from seemingly nowhere to turn New York politics upside down. Zohran Mamdani swept to the NYC democratic mayoral primary nomination in a blitz of optimism, hope and general good vibrations. Media deemed his victory one of the greatest political upsets of modern time. To us Greeks, the surprise might not have been that unexpected. In the swirling currents of early 21st century politics, few figures have captured the imagination of the electorate quite like Alexis Tsipras, the former prime minister of Greece. A charismatic leader, Tsipras rose to power in January 2015 with the promise of radical change, embodying a vision that resonated with many disillusioned citizens. His leftist agenda, tinged with socialist-communist ideals, painted a picture of a fairer, more equitable society. However, as history has shown, charm and promise do not always translate into effective governance.” (08/04/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/greeces-hard-lesson-nyc-beware-leaders-who-promise-world
-----
46) What if the Colluders Were the Accusers?
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“For years, we were told of a Trump-Russia plot. Now, declassified memos show the real conspiracy was waged by the Clinton campaign and the CIA to subvert a democracy they claimed to be saving.” (08/03/25)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/what-if-the-colluders-were-the-accusers
-----
47) Jeffrey Epstein is a Mirror of American Power
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Western culture is defined by violent conquest and towering social hierarchies. So, it really isn’t all that shocking that nearly every western social hierarchy seems to become a den of rampant child abuse. Where I live, in central Pennsylvania, this hideous truth exists all around me. While the Catholic Church turned nearly every diocese in the state into a glorified hunting ground for pedophile priests, Penn State University afforded this exact same luxury to assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in exchange for a few winning football seasons. In both of these cases, the actual predators were relatively few in number …. an immense amount of power in a small number of hands affords a select few the ability to destroy lives recreationally while an obedient society enables them to do so.” (08/03/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/08/jeffrey-epstein-is-mirror-of-american.html
-----
48) Never Again Should a Sole Superpower Anchor the Liberal International Order
Source: The UnPopulist
by Shikha Dalmia
“The first step toward a new liberal international order is calling it not a rules-based — but a principles-based — liberal order. The semantic difference matters when trying to forge a coalition whose members could have different interests at any given moment. A rules-based order connotes that they must accept limits on advancing their interests based on pre-set rules. These rules might be agreed upon mutually, but they nevertheless signify restrictions. Principles, on the other hand, refer to one’s own independently chosen normative commitments. Entering arrangements that advance them therefore represents not a loss of autonomy but staying true to one’s own values. Interests can diverge based on time and circumstances—principles don’t.” (08/03/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/never-again-should-a-sole-superpower
-----
49) The Illusion of VA Choice
Source: The American Prospect
by Suzanne Gordon
“At his confirmation hearing in January of 2025, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, assured the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee of his commitment to provide specialized, high-quality medical care for the roughly nine million veterans enrolled in the nation’s largest and only truly integrated public health care system, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). But Collins, a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, also explained that his mandate from President Trump is to make it ‘easier for veterans to get their health care when and where it’s most convenient for them,’ by giving them greater choice between in-house and outsourced care. To do this, he planned to lean on the network of 1.7 million private-sector providers who are part of the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP), created by the VA MISSION Act of 2018.” (08/04/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-08-04-illusion-of-choice-va-health-care/
-----
50) Origins of Medical Harm
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Marks
“Analysis and debate about the ongoing healthcare crisis emphasize misdirected funding rather than considering how to revitalize the ethics of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath clarifies the priorities essential for the mindset of a physician. Despite its primary warning, first, do no harm, damage done to patients is rampant. Resolution of this tragic dynamic appears insoluble. When decisions are made by any medical organization with financial interests, the primary impetus of the Oath is lost; the AMA’s control over payment schedules reinforces and exemplifies a corrupt institutional flaw. The harm done by the business of medicine needs to be evaluated and controlled.” (08/03/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/origins-of-medical-harm/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 08/04/25
Source: Reason
"The New York Times Doesn't Understand Men." (08/04/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/08/04/the-new-york-times-doesnt-understand-men/
-----
52) Rising, 08/04/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on fallout of Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad.” (08/04/25)
https://thehill.com/video/sydney-sweeney-confirmed-as-republican-jeans-ad-still-triggering-woke-robby-soave%c2%a0-rising/10950011/
-----
53) Finding Freedom, 08/04/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Eyes Wide Open: Faith and National Security in the Age of AI with Brendan Steinhauser.” (08/04/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/eyes-wide-open-faith-and-national-security-in-the-age-of-ai-with-brendan-steinhauser
-----
54) Conflicts of Interest, episode 825
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Netanyahu Wants ‘Decisive Military Victory’ in Gaza.” (08/04/25)
https://rumble.com/v6x4fn6-netanyahu-wants-decisive-military-victory-in-gaza-coi-825.html
-----
55) TechTank, season 5, episode 25
Source: Brookings Institution
“Measuring [b]lack women’s trust in AI.” (08/04/25)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/measuring-black-womens-trust-in-ai
-----
56) EconTalk, 08/04/25
Source: EconTalk
“Let Me Be Forgotten (with Lowry Pressly).” (08/04/25)
https://www.econtalk.org/let-me-be-forgotten-with-lowry-pressly/
-----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/04/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel Preparing To Escalate in Gaza, US Strikes Al-Shabaab in Somalia in Major Battle, and More.” (08/04/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxCpKIFOnPY
-----
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 08/03/25
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s talk about the uncomfortable Libertarian relationship to the Nasty Nazi, and how to avoid it.” (08/03/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd47B9t7ZFQ
-----
59) How to Fix It with John Avlon, 08/03/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Fight Everywhere or Lose Everything! (w/ David Pepper).” (08/03/25)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-everywhere-or-lose-everything-w-david-pepper/id1772157676?i=1000720476287
-----
60) The Brian Nichols Show, 08/03/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“The $11 Million Lesson Ryan Trahan Just Taught the World.” (08/03/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/the-brian-nichols-show-the-11-million-lesson-ryan-trahan-just-taught-the-world
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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