03/18 -- US forces use "deep penetrator" bombs as Iranian regime vows "decisive" response to Larijani killing; Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
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Thomas L. Knapp
Mar 18, 2026, 6:20:24 AM (3 days ago) Mar 18
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 03/18/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US forces use “deep penetrator” bombs as Iranian regime vows “decisive” response to Larijani killing
2) US SEC Declares “Most Crypto Assets” Not Securities, Including Staking, Airdrops and Bitcoin Mining
3) Ukraine: Zelenskyy claims missile shortage due to Iran war
4) Comer formally subpoenas Pam Bondi over Epstein investigation
5) Report: Trump Tariffs Have Cost Automakers (And Their Customers) $35 Billion So Far
6) UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
7) Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
8) US warship believed to be carrying Marine ground troops to Middle East tracked off Singapore
9) White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
10) Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
11) Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
12) SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California
13) IL: Lobby for foreign power makes $22 million election meddling investment
14) UT: Mother who wrote book about grief found guilty of poisoning husband
15) Australia: Central bank hikes rates to a near 1-year high as Iran war raises inflation risks
16) US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
17) MI: Coast Guard rescues snowmobile operator stranded on ice
18) Nigeria: At least 23 dead, more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings
19) Cuba: Latest blackout underscores deepening economic crisis
20) Paul Ehrlich, 1932-2026
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
22) Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
23) Libertarianism’s Moral Lessons
24) Censoring Iran war news sets a dangerous precedent
25) Trump’s War Psychology
26) Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
27) Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
28) The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
29) This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
30) The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
31) What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
32) Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
33) Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
34) Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
35) A Theory About the Estrangement Crisis
36) Ending the Trump-Netanyahu War in the Middle East
37) How the Iran war might shape a new world order
38) Ÿnsect Repellent
39) The Reckoning We Owe Generation Covid
40) “Axis of cope”: What happens when they learn all the wrong lessons?
41) States Substitute for Corrupt Feds on Antitrust
42) Can Immigration Address America’s Fiscal Nightmare? It Depends
43) Entrepreneurial capitalism — the greatest deal in all of history
44) History, immigration and the blame game
45) Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit gets riskier by the day
46) Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
47) Just Get Out! Now!
48) Why are liberal students at liberal schools terrified to talk about Israel?
49) “We’ll All Go Down to Jail”
50) Jürgen Habermas: A voice of reason and humanity
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 03/17/26
52) Cato Daily Podcast, 03/17/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/17/26
54) Law & Liberty Podcast, 03/17/26
55) SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
56) Freedom Works Radio with Paul Molloy, 03/17/26
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/17/26
58) LPA Solidarity Stream 15
59) Pink Flame of Liberty, 03/16/26
60) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 03/16/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US forces use “deep penetrator” bombs as Iranian regime vows “decisive” response to Larijani killing
Source: Newsweek
“The U.S. dropped several 5,000-pound ‘deep penetrator’ bombs on the Iranian coast looking out onto the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said, as the threat of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels keeps the vital waterway effectively shut for tankers carrying oil and gas. The U.S. military said the munitions targeted protected Iranian sites housing anti-ship cruise missiles posing a danger to international shipping in the strait. … Iran has vowed a ‘decisive’ response to the killing of Tehran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, and targeted Israel with new missile strikes. … Israel launched fresh attacks on the Lebanese capital Beirut, and ordered parts of southern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of operations against the Iran-backed political and militant group, Hezbollah.” (03/18/26)
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-war-live-latest-updates-ali-larijani-killed-tehran-retaliates-us-fores-weapons-strait-hormuz-11694515
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2) US SEC Declares “Most Crypto Assets” Not Securities, Including Staking, Airdrops and Bitcoin Mining
Source: decrypt
“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued broad guidance towards the crypto industry on Tuesday, with SEC Chair Paul Atkins declaring that ‘most crypto assets’ would not be considered securities. The guidance provides distinctions between which types of assets do not meet the definition of securities and what would make an asset meet that definition as an investment contract. It also notes that protocol mining (as on Bitcoin) and staking, along with crypto airdrops — or tokens sent to a protocol’s users and contributors — do not meet that definition. … The taxonomy included in the SEC’s implementation divides digital assets into five groups: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Digital securities are the only type of digital asset that the SEC says fall squarely within its regulatory remit, according to a fact sheet.” (03/17/26)
https://decrypt.co/361446/sec-most-crypto-assets-not-securities-staking-airdrops-bitcoin-mining
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3) Ukraine: Zelenskyy claims missile shortage due to Iran war
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will face a deficit of missiles it is using to fight Russia due to the war in the Middle East. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Ukrainian president said Russia’s Vladimir Putin wanted a ‘long war’ between the US, Israel and Iran because it would weaken Kyiv, with US resources being directed elsewhere. … ‘For Putin, a long war in Iran is a plus,’ he said. ‘In addition to energy prices, it means the depletion of US reserves, and the depletion of air defence manufacturers. So we [Ukraine] have a depletion of resources.'” (03/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8r813x66jo
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4) Comer formally subpoenas Pam Bondi over Epstein investigation
Source: The Hill
“The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Epstein files. The committee voted earlier this month to subpoena Bondi, following a motion from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who said it was unclear whether the Justice Department had turned over all records related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that were required under a law mandating their release. … The Justice Department has faced numerous accusations that it failed to meet the letter of the law in sharing the files related to Epstein, including various deadlines.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5787966-comer-subpoenas-pam-bondi-epstein-files
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5) Report: Trump Tariffs Have Cost Automakers (And Their Customers) $35 Billion So Far
Source: AOL
“The Trump Administration’s global economic policy, particularly its penchant for using tariffs as a bargaining chip, has had massive ramifications on the highly-globalized automotive industry. According to an analysis of the automaker financial reports by Automotive News, the Trump tariff plan has already cost automakers some $35.4 billion since the start of 2025. The news come via analysis of the latest data from car companies, which include data for the full-year costs of 2025 as well as projections for 2026 through mid-March where applicable. … that financial strain also comes at the same time as Trump’s massive rework of emissions and climate regulations, which saw automakers walk back their EV initiatives. AN reports those actions have also cost automakers around $70 billion thus far.” (03/17/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-administration-tariffs-cost-automakers-153600239.html
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6) UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up plans to give regional leaders a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy of England. Setting out her intention of creating ‘investment-led growth,’ the chancellor promised ‘a genuine break with the past’ that would shift spending power away from Westminster. … Reeves set out plans to reform regulation to ‘shift the balance of power towards workers, consumers, bill-payers and renters.’ Her lecture was titled The Active and Strategic State, and restated the approach she calls ‘securonomics.'” (03/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/17/rachel-reeves-plans-regional-national-tax-revenues-mais-lecture
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7) Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
Source: The Hill
“A top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on social media platform X that he was resigning effective Tuesday. He appears to be the first major Trump administration official to resign over the war. ‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ Kent wrote. Kent shared a letter addressed to President Trump stating that while he supports ‘the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020’ and 2024, he disagreed with the president’s decision to launch the Iran operation.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5787478-trump-aide-joe-kent-resigns-iran-war
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8) US warship believed to be carrying Marine ground troops to Middle East tracked off Singapore
Source: CNN
“A US Navy warship believed to be carrying thousands of Marines and sailors to the Middle East is nearing the Malacca Strait off Singapore as it makes its way to the region, maritime tracking data showed Tuesday. The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli was approaching Singapore, at the southwestern edge of the South China Sea, Tuesday morning, according to AIS tracking data seen by CNN. US Navy ships often move with AIS transponders turned off. Revealing their positions while transiting areas with heavy maritime traffic, like the waters around Singapore, enables safer operations. The Tripoli is believed to be carrying troops from the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), a rapid-response force of 2,200 personnel, after the Pentagon ordered the unit to deploy, according to three officials familiar with the plans.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/17/middleeast/uss-tripoli-marines-middle-east-iran-intl
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9) White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
Source: US News & World Report
“The Trump administration is seeking other sources of fertilizer amid the ongoing Iran war’s shipping constraints, including from Venezuela and possibly Morocco, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Tuesday. … Fertilizer supplies have shrunk as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cut off critical nitrogen fertilizer supplies from the Gulf to the world’s farmers, sending prices spiking by more than one-third in recent weeks.” (03/17/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-03-17/white-house-says-us-seeking-fertilizer-from-venezuela-morocco
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10) Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
Source: CNBC
“Amazon said Tuesday it’s starting one-hour and three-hour deliveries in parts of the U.S., as the company continues to look for ways to satisfy impatient consumers. The company said three-hour delivery is available in about 2,000 cities and towns in the U.S., while one-hour delivery is available in hundreds of those areas. … More than 90,000 products are eligible for delivery in three hours or less, including pantry items, cleaning supplies, over-the-counter medications, clothing and toys. Amazon said it expects to bring the service, which started via small-scale tests late last year, to more areas of the country in the coming months.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/amazon-rolls-out-1-hour-3-hour-delivery-in-latest-fast-shipping-test.html
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11) Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s agenda. Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy’s changes violated federal law. Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy’s appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump’s administration. The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).” [editor’s note: Ince again the Pharma minions gather to block sanity – SAT] (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4zrrxlqq4o
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12) SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California
Source: Spaceflight Now
“SpaceX crossed the threshold of having more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit simultaneously for the first time. The milestone comes less than seven years after launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019. Coincidently, the Monday night launch also coincided with the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard’s launch of the first liquid-propelled rocket, which was fueled by gasoline. A century later, SpaceX’s Monday night launch of a Falcon 9 rocket was the 615th flight of this kerosene-fueled rocket. Liftoff of the mission that put SpaceX over the 10,000-satellite threshold, dubbed Starlink Group 17-24, happened at 10:19:09 p.m. PDT (1:19:09 a.m. EDT / 0619:09 UTC on Tuesday, Mar. 17).” (03/17/26)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/03/16/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-25-starlink-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-california/
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13) IL: Lobby for foreign power makes $22 million election meddling investment
Source: Politico
“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is making a nearly $22 million bet in Illinois that its money, if not its policy views, can still hold sway in Democratic politics. In three of the four Illinois House races it’s targeting, AIPAC appears to be using shell PACs to largely conceal where that money is coming from rather than spend from its main super PAC vehicle, United Democracy Project. Like in other recent contests, their ads focus on anything but Israel. … Tuesday’s primary will be the first test of AIPAC’s political muscle in the 2026 primary season after amassing nearly $100 million in its warchest, even as polls show more and more Democrats have negative views of Israel — and of the group itself.” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/pmroE
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14) UT: Mother who wrote book about grief found guilty of poisoning husband
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A mother who published a children’s book about grief after the sudden death of her husband has been found guilty of his murder. A jury found that Kouri Richins, from Utah, killed her husband in March 2022 by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink. The jury deliberated on the case for about three hours before reaching its verdict on Monday. During the trial, the court heard how Richins, 35, had racked up millions of dollars in debt, taken out life insurance policies on her husband and was having an extramarital affair. Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses, including the woman who said she sold the drugs used to kill Eric Richins.” (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxg1nx2r61o
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15) Australia: Central bank hikes rates to a near 1-year high as Iran war raises inflation risks
Source: CNBC
“Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time, pushing them to their highest since April 2025 at 4.1%, amid sticky inflation. The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia’s inflation stays above the central bank’s upper limit of 3%, with the war in the Middle East risking a further rise in prices. … Inflation in the country was at 3.6% for the quarter ended December. On monthly basis, inflation was at 3.8% in January, marginally surpassing expectations of 3.7%.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/australia-central-bank-interest-rates-rise.html
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16) US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
Source: Reuters
“An appeal containing fake case citations that misrepresent the law can be dismissed as frivolous, a U.S. federal appeals court panel said in a decision sanctioning two attorneys who submitted filings that bore hallmarks of artificial intelligence ‘hallucinations.’ The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its order on Friday that attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli ‘sullied the reputation of our bar, which now must litigate under the cloud of their conduct.’ The court said it found more than two dozen fake citations and misrepresentations of fact in the appeal, which involved an incident at a fireworks show hosted by the city of Athens, Tennessee. … The two attorneys must reimburse Athens for its legal work on the appeal, and also must individually pay $15,000 each to the appeals court as a punitive sanction, according to the order.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/mEdzu
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17) MI: Coast Guard rescues snowmobile operator stranded on ice
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US Coast Guard and local first responders worked together to rescue a snowmobile operator who became stranded on ice near Mackinac Island, Michigan. An aerial rescue was first attempted but blizzard conditions prevented local or Coast Guard helicopter teams from taking flight. Timelapse video shows the Coast Guard instead cautiously manoeuvring a vessel to the edge of the ice and safely deploying a rescue team. The snowmobiler was experiencing mild hypothermia at the time of the rescue, but was reported to be in stable condition. Officials said the operator had previously been advised by the fire department not to go out due to conditions described as ‘worse than a whiteout.'” (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cev7r8n4mkmo
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18) Nigeria: At least 23 dead, more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings
Source: CBS News
“At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings Monday night that targeted Maiduguri city in northeastern Nigeria, police said Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the conflict-battered city in recent history. Residents and emergency services earlier told The Associated Press that three explosions were reported in crowded places in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, including in a major market and at the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-least-23-dead-more-than-100-wounded-in-suspected-suicide-bombings-in-nigeria-police-say/
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19) Cuba: Latest blackout underscores deepening economic crisis
Source: SFGate
“Large parts of Cuba were without power on Tuesday after its third blackout in four months underscored the island’s deepening energy and economic crises and rising political tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump. Electricity was slowly being restored to hospitals and some of the island’s 11 million residents, but officials warned that its crumbling power network could fail again. Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to daily outages and an increase in significant blackouts. The government blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. Trump was asked during a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with the prime minister of Ireland about the U.S. seeking regime change in Cuba but deferred to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.” (03/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/cuba-s-latest-blackout-underscores-its-deepening-22081499.php
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20) Paul Ehrlich, 1932-2026
Source: New York Times
“Paul R. Ehrlich, an eminent ecologist and population scientist whose best-selling book, ‘The Population Bomb,’ was celebrated as a prescient warning of a coming age of food shortages and famine … died on Friday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93. … In 1980, Julian Simon, an economist at the University of Maryland, challenged Dr. Ehrlich and two of his colleagues with what Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, called ‘one of the great revelatory bets.’ Convinced that the growing population would make natural resources ever more scarce and thus drive up costs, Dr. Ehrlich accepted Mr. Simon’s challenge, betting that the prices of five key metals would rise in the 1980s. Mr. Simon believed that innovation would drive prices down. In 1990, Dr. Ehrlich and his colleagues conceded defeat and sent Mr. Simon a check for $576.07 — an amount that represented the decline in the metals’ prices after accounting for inflation.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/2qzRf
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I doubt the Iranian regime WANTED the US and Israeli regimes to escalate the region’s long-standing tension, constant low-intensity fighting, and occasional flare-ups to full-on war for the second time in less than a year … but now that it’s happened, the Iranians seem intent on extracting a real price for the blunder instead of negotiating another lull or, as some keep putting it, giving Donald Trump an excuse to ‘declare victory’ and take an ‘off-ramp’ back to the status quo ante. Can you blame them? … Getting out won’t be quite so smart and easy. We’re seeing.” (03/17/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20452
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22) Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Source: The Intercept
by Natasha Lennard
Even in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were ‘North Texas Antifa Cell operatives’ — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility. Last week, a jury found eight of the defendants guilty of terrorism charges for simply being present and wearing black at the protest. The government scored a resounding victory: A few of the protesters, none of whom had fired any weapons, were acquitted of attempted murder charges, but the Justice Department won on almost all the other charges. … If that can be sold to juries as the work of an organized terrorist cell, deserving of up to 15 years in prison, then Trump’s fantasy of rounding up and imprisoning leftists en masse becomes a reality.” (03/17/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/
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23) Libertarianism’s Moral Lessons
Source: Law & Liberty
by Julia R Cartwright
“What distinguishes [Leonard] Read from many contemporary libertarians is his insistence that liberty is not merely an efficient social or political technology but a moral imperative. This is exemplified in his reflections on security and dependence. ‘True security is an outgrowth of freedom, not an alternative to it,’ he writes in an essay on the welfare state, warning that being made dependent on political favor is ‘a move away from true security.’ In other words, security does not come from concentrating power in benevolent hands but from preserving the conditions under which individuals bear responsibility for their own choices.” (03/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/libertarianisms-moral-lessons/
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24) Censoring Iran war news sets a dangerous precedent
Source: Expression
by Aaron Terr
“The law is clear that the First Amendment bars the government from dictating news coverage or punishing outlets for publishing what the president claims is ‘false.’ The American people are entitled to uncensored news about what their government and military are doing. No matter who occupies the White House, war does not justify the government erecting barriers between the people and the press. To the contrary, the life-and-death stakes of war make public scrutiny and accountability more important than ever. … The law is also clear that broadcast licensees which operate under the public interest standard are shielded from [Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan] Carr’s threats.” (03/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/censoring-iran-war-news-sets-a-dangerous
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25) Trump’s War Psychology
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen
“Two weeks after the start of the war in Iran, the picture is coming into focus. Why would a president who promised countless times not to start new wars, particularly ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East, have leapt into this conflict? As always in the age of Trump, it’s necessary to separate the president’s motives and mindset from the old ways we used to decide questions of war and peace, tariffs, sanctions, immigration, taxes, and other matters. Before venturing into Trump’s mind, let’s consider the shape of the discussion. People who imagine that we are still operating in a normal world are making arguments in favor of military action as if we were engaged in a national debate.” (03/17/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-war-psychology-iran
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26) Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane
“Jeffrey Epstein was not only a rapist and a child predator, but also — wait for it — a White supremacist. While some speculate that the Epstein issue is just a distraction from President Trump’s virulent and endless racism, others feel that the video the president posted at the beginning of Black History Month of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was meant to divert attention from the growing Epstein fallout. Well, as it turns out, the two crises are not as far apart as you might imagine. Bombshell articles in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and at MS Now pulled the covers off Jeffrey Epstein’s noxious racism.” [editor’s note: I will leave it to the reader to decipher this mess of lies and context drops – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Probably a good idea, SAT … I suspect they’ll do a better job than your note indicates you did – TLK] (03/17/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/donald-trumps-racism-mirrors-jeffrey-epsteins/
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27) Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
Source: Racket News
by Ryan Lovelace
“Bettors traded more than $529 million in forecasts of when the U.S. would next strike Iran in a market opened last year on Polymarket, the self-described world’s largest prediction market. Bets on Polymarket are made with cryptocurrency, and each trade is countered by another user, so not exactly versus ‘the house.’ By contrast, $133.8 million was bet on last month’s Super Bowl across Nevada’s 186 sportsbooks, representing a 10-year low, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. … But betting big on war is not exactly a new phenomenon and the outcomes are far from guaranteed, as America’s enemies found out the hard way 250 years ago. Over drinks at Brooke’s in London on Christmas Day, 1776, legend has it British Gen. John Burgoyne bet a colleague 50 guineas he would return by the following Christmas having squashed the American patriots’ rebellion.” (03/17/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/warriors-casino-the-people-making
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28) The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“This war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. … by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in ‘reckless driving’ all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and even Qatar.” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/rLUpD
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29) This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. The invasion of Lebanon. The explosions carpeting Tehran. The hollowed-out moonscape of Gaza. The horrific pogroms in the West Bank. The child amputees. The smell of rotting corpses. The assassinated doctors and journalists. The blackened sky and the poisoned water. The nonstop deluge of brain-melting propaganda. The aggressive promotion of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. The erosion of free speech rights throughout the western world. The corrupt warmongering politicians. The legions of online hasbara trolls. The soaring fuel prices. Money which could pay for social services buying bombs for Israel instead. All the death, destruction, instability and suffering that’s being visited upon countless civilians throughout west Asia. This is Zionism.” (03/17/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/03/17/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-you-give-zionists-everything-they-want/
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30) The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“The Iran war is a regional war in a way that previous reckless U.S. interventions were not, and it is having global effects. The Iran war is already wider and more damaging to international peace and security in its first three weeks than the Iraq war was in its early years. If it is allowed to continue for several more months, the damage to regional security will be severe. The damage to the interests of many of our treaty allies will also be significant, and the entire global economy will suffer. This was an entirely avoidable disaster, and the U.S. and Israel are responsible for causing it.” (03/17/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-iran-wars-terrible-effects
----
31) What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I’m not one of those people tapping their foot saying, ‘When is the war going to end? It’s been dragging on and is a disaster!’ No, those people are idiots actively hoping the United States is damaged because of who the President of the United States is. Nor do I think the Iranian regime didn’t deserve to be wiped out; those who used to be in charge (and alive) were evil and them no longer existing is a great thing for humanity. But what comes next isn’t up to us, it’s up to the people of Iran to act. And there is still an open question about what it is they want, so we have to consider the possibility that most of them simply don’t want to be ‘free.'” (03/17/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/03/17/what-if-iranians-dont-want-to-be-free-n2672942
----
32) Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“It is supremely ironic that President Donald Trump, who in 2016 gained a reputation as a staunch opponent of regime-change wars, is 10 years later placing a huge political bet on achieving success with multiple U.S. crusades of that nature. He has already launched regime-change military campaigns against Venezuela and Iran. Some comments by Trump indicate that he is contemplating a campaign to oust the entrenched communist regime in Cuba. It’s a massive gamble for the president and the Republican Party. If Trump can carry off the strategy, and pro-U.S. successor governments replace repressive and hostile systems in all three countries, his historical legacy would be impressive in the eyes of many. … A failure to achieve such transformational outcomes at low cost in American blood and treasure, though, would likely prove politically disastrous for Trump and his supporters. The early indicators are not especially encouraging for the administration’s strategy.” (03/17/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-risks-it-all-on-regime-change-abroad/
----
33) Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
Source: Common Dreams
by Leonardo Flores
“I’m traveling to Cuba for the first time on March 21 to be in Havana with the Nuestra América Convoy, in which people from dozens of countries representing a variety of organizations will break the blockade, bringing much-needed supplies to the island. CODEPINK is bringing 6,300 pounds of medical equipment and medicine with help from Global Health Partners and others. These supplies will be given to clinics, hospitals, and maternity centers as Cuba deals with the latest horrifying crime against humanity perpetrated by the United States. The US is blockading oil, seizing and chasing away Cuba-bound tankers in the Caribbean. No oil whatsoever has entered the island since early December. Trump characterized Cuba as an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat,’ paving the way for more unilateral coercive measures (so-called sanctions).” (03/17/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cuban-blockade
----
34) Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“At what point must we be frank about the fact that Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb author who died last week at the age of 93, was not simply wrong about almost everything he ever wrote or said or thought, but positively and culpably dishonest? If ever there were an intellectual grave that deserves pissing on posthaste, it is Paul Ehrlich’s. So let us commence. Ehrlich was an intellectual fraud, something he had in common with many of the celebrated pseudoscientists, quacks, and cranks who became intellectual heroes to our era’s progressives, from Sigmund Freud to Noam Chomsky, Rachel Carson, Margaret Sanger, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. until about five minutes ago. (Right-wingers don’t go around reading books by crackpots — they put them into the Cabinet.)” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/gLhO3
----
35) A Theory About the Estrangement Crisis
Source: Persuasion
by Leonora Barclay
“Don’t helicopter parent your kids. It may cause them to make a dramatic break later in life.” (03/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/a-theory-about-the-estrangement-crisis
----
36) Ending the Trump-Netanyahu War in the Middle East
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“The Israel-US war on Iran is engulfing the entire Middle East and could escalate to global war. The economic consequences are already severe and could become catastrophic. The Strait of Hormuz carries approximately one-fifth of all oil traded globally, and 30 percent of the world’s LNG. A sustained closure of the Strait would trigger an energy shock without modern precedent. The conflict is likely to spiral out of control because the US and Israel are dead set on hegemony in the Arab world and West Asia – one that combines Israeli territorial expansion with American-backed regime control across the region. The ultimate goal is a Greater Israel that absorbs all historic Palestine, combined with compliant Arab and Islamic governments stripped of genuine sovereignty, including on choices as to how and where they export their oil and gas. This is delusional.” (03/17/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/jeffrey_sachs/2026/03/16/ending-the-trump-netanyahu-war-in-the-middle-east
----
37) How the Iran war might shape a new world order
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“More than material weapons might sway the war in Iran. As both Washington and Tehran are finding out, allies that would come to your assistance probably prefer to first share your values and not just mutual interests. On Saturday, President Donald Trump put out a call to seven countries to send ships to defend the vital oil-shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. The response has been largely halting – at best, hesitant. The international uncertainty over the legal premise for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran is probably a hindrance to those nations in risking their military to protect petroleum flows. ‘This is not our war; we did not start it,’ said Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister. For Iran, two of its most powerful partners, China and Russia, are largely playing a minor role in the conflict, focusing mainly on crisis management or diplomacy.” (03/16/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0316/How-the-Iran-war-might-shape-a-new-world-order
----
38) Ÿnsect Repellent
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“You vill eat ze bugs! Sorry, Klaus. Not interested. … as if to prove that Schwab’s Great Reset of our diet will not be driven by cartoonish elitists, Ÿnsect — Europe’s largest insect farm — has officially gone bankrupt.” (03/17/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/03/16/ynsect-repellent/
----
39) The Reckoning We Owe Generation Covid
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jennifer Sey
“[N]early everyone was complicit. Politicians, media, educators — they all went along with the hysteria. Now, they want to sweep it under the rug, pretending it never happened. Everyone failed. But we cannot forget.” (03/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-reckoning-we-owe-generation-covid/
----
40) “Axis of cope”: What happens when they learn all the wrong lessons?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jake Werner
“Now that things haven’t gone quite as planned, watch Washington hawks dial it up more, this time against China.” (03/17/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/axis-of-authoritarians/
----
41) States Substitute for Corrupt Feds on Antitrust
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“On Monday, the monopolization trial against Live Nation picked up where it left off a week earlier, with Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Entertainment, the nation’s second-largest live concert promoter, under direct questioning. But there was a different lawyer in the lead plaintiff’s chair: Jeffrey Kessler, a superstar private litigator who successfully prosecuted cases against NASCAR and the NCAA, was seated in place of David Dahlquist, the Justice Department’s lead trial attorney. The reason for the swap is that DOJ settled their claims against Live Nation on March 9, and pressured many of the 39 states (and the District of Columbia) in the case, particularly the Republican ones, to go along with them. But in the end, only seven states did so …. The other 32 … failed to come to agreement after forced settlement talks from the judge.” (03/17/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/03/17/state-attorneys-general-feds-antitrust-live-nation-ticketmaster-warner-bros-paramount/
----
42) Can Immigration Address America’s Fiscal Nightmare? It Depends
Source: The Daily Economy
by John Phelan
“High-skilled workers tend to strengthen government budgets, while low-skilled immigration can add fiscal pressure. The composition of immigration matters as much as the number.” (03/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/can-immigration-address-americas-fiscal-nightmare-it-depends/
----
43) Entrepreneurial capitalism — the greatest deal in all of history
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“Facebook, the online social network, has more than 2 billion global users. Because those users do not pay for the service, its benefits are hard to measure. We report the results of a series of three non-hypothetical auction experiments where winners are paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for up to one year. Though the populations sampled and the auction design differ across the experiments, we consistently find the average Facebook user would require more than $1000 to deactivate their account for one year. OK, so the value users gain from Facebook is $1k a year, there are 2 billion of them, that’s two thousand billion, or $2 trillion in value a year. Of which Zucks has 10%, that $200 billion. Pretty good deal for us, really. But that’s not right, not at all. For Zucks’ money is a one off capital sum, the consumer benefit is an annual one.” (03/17/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/entrepreneurial-capitalism-the-greatest-deal-in-all-of-history
----
44) History, immigration and the blame game
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Today, we are bombarded with claims that the lands of the Fifty States (i.e., the United States) are ‘stolen lands.’ And demands that the only option is to give the ‘LandBack.’ (An organization based in South Dakota, demanding that the Black Hills be returned to the ‘Great Sioux Nation’ (a/k/a the Seven Council Fires, consisting of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people.) … Obviously, as lovers of liberty, we understand that going around stealing people’s land is a heinous act …. But we detect just a few problems with the proposed solution of returning hundreds of millions of acres of land to the descendants (and presumably heirs) of millions of people who owned that land from 400 to 150 or so years ago. And forcing more millions of people who live on that land (and think they own it) to go someplace else – where back where they came from or somewhere else.” (03/16/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/03/16/history-immigration-and-the-blame-game/
----
45) Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit gets riskier by the day
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy
“Next time your flight’s delayed or canceled, or you’re stuck in an endless TSA line, thank a congressional Democrat. Senate Dems have decided to make a show of their support for lawless immigration by inflicting pain on American travelers. They’ve blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, even though their stunt doesn’t affect the budget of the agency Democrats really want to hurt, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. … It’s bad enough congressional Democrats are taking their anger at immigration enforcement out on American travelers. What’s yet worse is they’re doing it in a time of war. Do we want less secure airports — or unhappy, unpaid agents — at a moment when terrorist attacks are more likely?” [editor’s note: TSA should be abolished. The “you wouldn’t give us what we wanted, so we started a war, now you should because DANGER” con is old and tired – TLK] (03/16/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/opinion/chuck-schumers-shutdown-gambit-gets-riskier-by-the-day/
----
46) Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“I hate the term ‘hallucinations’ for when AIs say false things. It’s perfectly calculated to mislead the reader — to make them think AIs are crazy, or maybe just have incomprehensible failure modes. AIs say false things for the same reason you do. At least, I did. In school, I would take multiple choice tests. When I didn’t know the answer to a question, I would guess. Schoolchild urban legend said that ‘C’ was the best bet, so I would fill in bubble C. … So the interesting question isn’t why AIs hallucinate: during training, guessing correctly is rewarded, guessing incorrectly isn’t punished, so the rational strategy is to always guess (and increase your chance of being right from 0 to 0.001%). Since AIs in normal consumer use follow the strategies they learned during training, they guess there too.” (03/16/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/shameless-guesses-not-hallucinations
----
47) Just Get Out! Now!
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Trump’s repeated promises to not start new wars, especially in the Middle East, have turned out to be empty, and Republicans are set for a crippling defeat in the upcoming midterm elections. Iran had been warning for months – since the last US/Israeli surprise attack in June – that if they were attacked again they would not hold back on US bases in the region and that they would close the Straits of Hormuz. Trump and Netanyahu attacked anyway, and Iran has done what it said it would do. Now the Strait of Hormuz is closed, oil is about to go out of control, and the global economy – along with the US dollar – seems about to implode.” (03/16/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/just-get-out-now
----
48) Why are liberal students at liberal schools terrified to talk about Israel?
Source: Expression
by Chapin Lenthall-Cleary
“At moderate schools, those where the average student is close to the middle politically, a lot of issues are difficult for both sides to discuss. At hyper-liberal schools, those where the average student is strongly liberal, every issue is easy for liberal students to discuss — except for one: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. … One generally assumes people are more comfortable sharing their views when surrounded by others who think the same way. So then why are liberal students at very liberal schools scared to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” (03/16/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/why-in-the-world-are-liberal-students
----
49) “We’ll All Go Down to Jail”
Source: In These Times
by Sarah Lazare
“With thousands of supporters behind them, roughly 100 faith leaders sang, ’Before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail — everybody’s got a right to live,’ as they blocked a key road to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. It was an act of civil disobedience against federal immigration agents outside the busy Terminal 1 drop-off. Some of the faith leaders held signs showing photos of abducted members of Unite Here Local 17, which represents food service workers at the airport. It was late morning on January 23, and the crowd — including striking workers and union members, some of whom work at the airport — stayed outside in subzero temperatures to cheer on the faith leaders. Supporters passed around hand warmers and snacks to help sustain the crowd.’ (03/16/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/minnesota-rises-with-civil-disobedience-and-mass-protest-sarah-lazare
----
50) Jürgen Habermas: A voice of reason and humanity
Source: spiked
by James Heartfield
“The great German political philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, died last week at the age of 96, at home in Starnberg, Bavaria. Born in 1929, he lived through one of Germany’s most tumultuous eras. He was a member of the Hitler Youth as a boy and was sent, as a 15-year-old, to the western front to man anti-aircraft defences in the final months of the Second World War. After the war, he became a left-wing student firebrand while studying philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn – from the last of which, he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1954.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/KcG8A
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 03/17/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Iran Closes the Strait of Hormuz.” (03/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86FwmddQLi8
----
52) Cato Daily Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Who’s Watching the $170 Billion?” (03/17/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/whos-watching-the-170-billion
----
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“‘Empire Of Lies,’ With Guest Charles Goyette.” (03/17/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1qKVmQZbYwwxB
----
54) Law & Liberty Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Law & Liberty senior writer John O. McGinnis joins the podcast this week to discuss his new book, Why Democracy Needs the Rich.” (03/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/democracys-patrons/
----
55) SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“James talks to John C. A. Manley about the writers who inspired his own resistance fiction and the line between resistance fiction and predictive programming.” (03/17/26)
https://corbettreport.com/resistance-fiction-solutionswatch/
----
56) Freedom Works Radio with Paul Molloy, 03/17/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Kelley Vlahos, Quincy Institute ‘The Ill-Conceived Iran Conflict.'” (03/17/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-03-17_zfw03092026.mp3
----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/17/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Over 200 US Troops Wounded in Iran War, Relatives of Airman Killed in Iraq Criticize War, and More.” (03/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEJ-g4XrQuU
----
58) LPA Solidarity Stream 15
Source: LP Alliance
“Hype Tech: What the World’s Getting Wrong About LLMs.” (03/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxwM1p3mXEo
-----
59) Pink Flame of Liberty, 03/16/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s watch the LNC Ex Comm Meeting 3/16/26 brought to you by FREEDOM CALLS.” (03/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jabJtFlQQBY
----
60) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 03/16/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“The Age of Revelation, a Conversation w/Buck Johnson.” (03/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-age-of-revelation-a-conversation-w-buck-johnson/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) US forces use “deep penetrator” bombs as Iranian regime vows “decisive” response to Larijani killing
2) US SEC Declares “Most Crypto Assets” Not Securities, Including Staking, Airdrops and Bitcoin Mining
3) Ukraine: Zelenskyy claims missile shortage due to Iran war
4) Comer formally subpoenas Pam Bondi over Epstein investigation
5) Report: Trump Tariffs Have Cost Automakers (And Their Customers) $35 Billion So Far
6) UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
7) Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
8) US warship believed to be carrying Marine ground troops to Middle East tracked off Singapore
9) White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
10) Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
11) Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
12) SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California
13) IL: Lobby for foreign power makes $22 million election meddling investment
14) UT: Mother who wrote book about grief found guilty of poisoning husband
15) Australia: Central bank hikes rates to a near 1-year high as Iran war raises inflation risks
16) US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
17) MI: Coast Guard rescues snowmobile operator stranded on ice
18) Nigeria: At least 23 dead, more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings
19) Cuba: Latest blackout underscores deepening economic crisis
20) Paul Ehrlich, 1932-2026
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
22) Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
23) Libertarianism’s Moral Lessons
24) Censoring Iran war news sets a dangerous precedent
25) Trump’s War Psychology
26) Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
27) Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
28) The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
29) This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
30) The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
31) What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
32) Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
33) Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
34) Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
35) A Theory About the Estrangement Crisis
36) Ending the Trump-Netanyahu War in the Middle East
37) How the Iran war might shape a new world order
38) Ÿnsect Repellent
39) The Reckoning We Owe Generation Covid
40) “Axis of cope”: What happens when they learn all the wrong lessons?
41) States Substitute for Corrupt Feds on Antitrust
42) Can Immigration Address America’s Fiscal Nightmare? It Depends
43) Entrepreneurial capitalism — the greatest deal in all of history
44) History, immigration and the blame game
45) Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit gets riskier by the day
46) Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
47) Just Get Out! Now!
48) Why are liberal students at liberal schools terrified to talk about Israel?
49) “We’ll All Go Down to Jail”
50) Jürgen Habermas: A voice of reason and humanity
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 03/17/26
52) Cato Daily Podcast, 03/17/26
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/17/26
54) Law & Liberty Podcast, 03/17/26
55) SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
56) Freedom Works Radio with Paul Molloy, 03/17/26
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/17/26
58) LPA Solidarity Stream 15
59) Pink Flame of Liberty, 03/16/26
60) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 03/16/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) US forces use “deep penetrator” bombs as Iranian regime vows “decisive” response to Larijani killing
Source: Newsweek
“The U.S. dropped several 5,000-pound ‘deep penetrator’ bombs on the Iranian coast looking out onto the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said, as the threat of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels keeps the vital waterway effectively shut for tankers carrying oil and gas. The U.S. military said the munitions targeted protected Iranian sites housing anti-ship cruise missiles posing a danger to international shipping in the strait. … Iran has vowed a ‘decisive’ response to the killing of Tehran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, and targeted Israel with new missile strikes. … Israel launched fresh attacks on the Lebanese capital Beirut, and ordered parts of southern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of operations against the Iran-backed political and militant group, Hezbollah.” (03/18/26)
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-war-live-latest-updates-ali-larijani-killed-tehran-retaliates-us-fores-weapons-strait-hormuz-11694515
-----
2) US SEC Declares “Most Crypto Assets” Not Securities, Including Staking, Airdrops and Bitcoin Mining
Source: decrypt
“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued broad guidance towards the crypto industry on Tuesday, with SEC Chair Paul Atkins declaring that ‘most crypto assets’ would not be considered securities. The guidance provides distinctions between which types of assets do not meet the definition of securities and what would make an asset meet that definition as an investment contract. It also notes that protocol mining (as on Bitcoin) and staking, along with crypto airdrops — or tokens sent to a protocol’s users and contributors — do not meet that definition. … The taxonomy included in the SEC’s implementation divides digital assets into five groups: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Digital securities are the only type of digital asset that the SEC says fall squarely within its regulatory remit, according to a fact sheet.” (03/17/26)
https://decrypt.co/361446/sec-most-crypto-assets-not-securities-staking-airdrops-bitcoin-mining
-----
3) Ukraine: Zelenskyy claims missile shortage due to Iran war
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will face a deficit of missiles it is using to fight Russia due to the war in the Middle East. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Ukrainian president said Russia’s Vladimir Putin wanted a ‘long war’ between the US, Israel and Iran because it would weaken Kyiv, with US resources being directed elsewhere. … ‘For Putin, a long war in Iran is a plus,’ he said. ‘In addition to energy prices, it means the depletion of US reserves, and the depletion of air defence manufacturers. So we [Ukraine] have a depletion of resources.'” (03/18/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8r813x66jo
-----
4) Comer formally subpoenas Pam Bondi over Epstein investigation
Source: The Hill
“The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Epstein files. The committee voted earlier this month to subpoena Bondi, following a motion from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who said it was unclear whether the Justice Department had turned over all records related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that were required under a law mandating their release. … The Justice Department has faced numerous accusations that it failed to meet the letter of the law in sharing the files related to Epstein, including various deadlines.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5787966-comer-subpoenas-pam-bondi-epstein-files
-----
5) Report: Trump Tariffs Have Cost Automakers (And Their Customers) $35 Billion So Far
Source: AOL
“The Trump Administration’s global economic policy, particularly its penchant for using tariffs as a bargaining chip, has had massive ramifications on the highly-globalized automotive industry. According to an analysis of the automaker financial reports by Automotive News, the Trump tariff plan has already cost automakers some $35.4 billion since the start of 2025. The news come via analysis of the latest data from car companies, which include data for the full-year costs of 2025 as well as projections for 2026 through mid-March where applicable. … that financial strain also comes at the same time as Trump’s massive rework of emissions and climate regulations, which saw automakers walk back their EV initiatives. AN reports those actions have also cost automakers around $70 billion thus far.” (03/17/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-administration-tariffs-cost-automakers-153600239.html
-----
6) UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up plans to give regional leaders a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy of England. Setting out her intention of creating ‘investment-led growth,’ the chancellor promised ‘a genuine break with the past’ that would shift spending power away from Westminster. … Reeves set out plans to reform regulation to ‘shift the balance of power towards workers, consumers, bill-payers and renters.’ Her lecture was titled The Active and Strategic State, and restated the approach she calls ‘securonomics.'” (03/17/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/17/rachel-reeves-plans-regional-national-tax-revenues-mais-lecture
----
7) Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
Source: The Hill
“A top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on social media platform X that he was resigning effective Tuesday. He appears to be the first major Trump administration official to resign over the war. ‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ Kent wrote. Kent shared a letter addressed to President Trump stating that while he supports ‘the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020’ and 2024, he disagreed with the president’s decision to launch the Iran operation.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5787478-trump-aide-joe-kent-resigns-iran-war
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8) US warship believed to be carrying Marine ground troops to Middle East tracked off Singapore
Source: CNN
“A US Navy warship believed to be carrying thousands of Marines and sailors to the Middle East is nearing the Malacca Strait off Singapore as it makes its way to the region, maritime tracking data showed Tuesday. The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli was approaching Singapore, at the southwestern edge of the South China Sea, Tuesday morning, according to AIS tracking data seen by CNN. US Navy ships often move with AIS transponders turned off. Revealing their positions while transiting areas with heavy maritime traffic, like the waters around Singapore, enables safer operations. The Tripoli is believed to be carrying troops from the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), a rapid-response force of 2,200 personnel, after the Pentagon ordered the unit to deploy, according to three officials familiar with the plans.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/17/middleeast/uss-tripoli-marines-middle-east-iran-intl
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9) White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
Source: US News & World Report
“The Trump administration is seeking other sources of fertilizer amid the ongoing Iran war’s shipping constraints, including from Venezuela and possibly Morocco, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Tuesday. … Fertilizer supplies have shrunk as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cut off critical nitrogen fertilizer supplies from the Gulf to the world’s farmers, sending prices spiking by more than one-third in recent weeks.” (03/17/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-03-17/white-house-says-us-seeking-fertilizer-from-venezuela-morocco
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10) Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
Source: CNBC
“Amazon said Tuesday it’s starting one-hour and three-hour deliveries in parts of the U.S., as the company continues to look for ways to satisfy impatient consumers. The company said three-hour delivery is available in about 2,000 cities and towns in the U.S., while one-hour delivery is available in hundreds of those areas. … More than 90,000 products are eligible for delivery in three hours or less, including pantry items, cleaning supplies, over-the-counter medications, clothing and toys. Amazon said it expects to bring the service, which started via small-scale tests late last year, to more areas of the country in the coming months.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/amazon-rolls-out-1-hour-3-hour-delivery-in-latest-fast-shipping-test.html
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11) Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s agenda. Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy’s changes violated federal law. Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy’s appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump’s administration. The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).” [editor’s note: Ince again the Pharma minions gather to block sanity – SAT] (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4zrrxlqq4o
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12) SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California
Source: Spaceflight Now
“SpaceX crossed the threshold of having more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit simultaneously for the first time. The milestone comes less than seven years after launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019. Coincidently, the Monday night launch also coincided with the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard’s launch of the first liquid-propelled rocket, which was fueled by gasoline. A century later, SpaceX’s Monday night launch of a Falcon 9 rocket was the 615th flight of this kerosene-fueled rocket. Liftoff of the mission that put SpaceX over the 10,000-satellite threshold, dubbed Starlink Group 17-24, happened at 10:19:09 p.m. PDT (1:19:09 a.m. EDT / 0619:09 UTC on Tuesday, Mar. 17).” (03/17/26)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/03/16/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-25-starlink-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-california/
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13) IL: Lobby for foreign power makes $22 million election meddling investment
Source: Politico
“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is making a nearly $22 million bet in Illinois that its money, if not its policy views, can still hold sway in Democratic politics. In three of the four Illinois House races it’s targeting, AIPAC appears to be using shell PACs to largely conceal where that money is coming from rather than spend from its main super PAC vehicle, United Democracy Project. Like in other recent contests, their ads focus on anything but Israel. … Tuesday’s primary will be the first test of AIPAC’s political muscle in the 2026 primary season after amassing nearly $100 million in its warchest, even as polls show more and more Democrats have negative views of Israel — and of the group itself.” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/pmroE
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14) UT: Mother who wrote book about grief found guilty of poisoning husband
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A mother who published a children’s book about grief after the sudden death of her husband has been found guilty of his murder. A jury found that Kouri Richins, from Utah, killed her husband in March 2022 by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink. The jury deliberated on the case for about three hours before reaching its verdict on Monday. During the trial, the court heard how Richins, 35, had racked up millions of dollars in debt, taken out life insurance policies on her husband and was having an extramarital affair. Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses, including the woman who said she sold the drugs used to kill Eric Richins.” (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxg1nx2r61o
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15) Australia: Central bank hikes rates to a near 1-year high as Iran war raises inflation risks
Source: CNBC
“Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time, pushing them to their highest since April 2025 at 4.1%, amid sticky inflation. The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia’s inflation stays above the central bank’s upper limit of 3%, with the war in the Middle East risking a further rise in prices. … Inflation in the country was at 3.6% for the quarter ended December. On monthly basis, inflation was at 3.8% in January, marginally surpassing expectations of 3.7%.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/australia-central-bank-interest-rates-rise.html
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16) US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
Source: Reuters
“An appeal containing fake case citations that misrepresent the law can be dismissed as frivolous, a U.S. federal appeals court panel said in a decision sanctioning two attorneys who submitted filings that bore hallmarks of artificial intelligence ‘hallucinations.’ The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its order on Friday that attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli ‘sullied the reputation of our bar, which now must litigate under the cloud of their conduct.’ The court said it found more than two dozen fake citations and misrepresentations of fact in the appeal, which involved an incident at a fireworks show hosted by the city of Athens, Tennessee. … The two attorneys must reimburse Athens for its legal work on the appeal, and also must individually pay $15,000 each to the appeals court as a punitive sanction, according to the order.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/mEdzu
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17) MI: Coast Guard rescues snowmobile operator stranded on ice
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US Coast Guard and local first responders worked together to rescue a snowmobile operator who became stranded on ice near Mackinac Island, Michigan. An aerial rescue was first attempted but blizzard conditions prevented local or Coast Guard helicopter teams from taking flight. Timelapse video shows the Coast Guard instead cautiously manoeuvring a vessel to the edge of the ice and safely deploying a rescue team. The snowmobiler was experiencing mild hypothermia at the time of the rescue, but was reported to be in stable condition. Officials said the operator had previously been advised by the fire department not to go out due to conditions described as ‘worse than a whiteout.'” (03/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cev7r8n4mkmo
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18) Nigeria: At least 23 dead, more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings
Source: CBS News
“At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings Monday night that targeted Maiduguri city in northeastern Nigeria, police said Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the conflict-battered city in recent history. Residents and emergency services earlier told The Associated Press that three explosions were reported in crowded places in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, including in a major market and at the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-least-23-dead-more-than-100-wounded-in-suspected-suicide-bombings-in-nigeria-police-say/
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19) Cuba: Latest blackout underscores deepening economic crisis
Source: SFGate
“Large parts of Cuba were without power on Tuesday after its third blackout in four months underscored the island’s deepening energy and economic crises and rising political tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump. Electricity was slowly being restored to hospitals and some of the island’s 11 million residents, but officials warned that its crumbling power network could fail again. Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to daily outages and an increase in significant blackouts. The government blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. Trump was asked during a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with the prime minister of Ireland about the U.S. seeking regime change in Cuba but deferred to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.” (03/17/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/cuba-s-latest-blackout-underscores-its-deepening-22081499.php
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20) Paul Ehrlich, 1932-2026
Source: New York Times
“Paul R. Ehrlich, an eminent ecologist and population scientist whose best-selling book, ‘The Population Bomb,’ was celebrated as a prescient warning of a coming age of food shortages and famine … died on Friday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93. … In 1980, Julian Simon, an economist at the University of Maryland, challenged Dr. Ehrlich and two of his colleagues with what Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, called ‘one of the great revelatory bets.’ Convinced that the growing population would make natural resources ever more scarce and thus drive up costs, Dr. Ehrlich accepted Mr. Simon’s challenge, betting that the prices of five key metals would rise in the 1980s. Mr. Simon believed that innovation would drive prices down. In 1990, Dr. Ehrlich and his colleagues conceded defeat and sent Mr. Simon a check for $576.07 — an amount that represented the decline in the metals’ prices after accounting for inflation.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/2qzRf
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“I doubt the Iranian regime WANTED the US and Israeli regimes to escalate the region’s long-standing tension, constant low-intensity fighting, and occasional flare-ups to full-on war for the second time in less than a year … but now that it’s happened, the Iranians seem intent on extracting a real price for the blunder instead of negotiating another lull or, as some keep putting it, giving Donald Trump an excuse to ‘declare victory’ and take an ‘off-ramp’ back to the status quo ante. Can you blame them? … Getting out won’t be quite so smart and easy. We’re seeing.” (03/17/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20452
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22) Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Source: The Intercept
by Natasha Lennard
Even in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were ‘North Texas Antifa Cell operatives’ — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility. Last week, a jury found eight of the defendants guilty of terrorism charges for simply being present and wearing black at the protest. The government scored a resounding victory: A few of the protesters, none of whom had fired any weapons, were acquitted of attempted murder charges, but the Justice Department won on almost all the other charges. … If that can be sold to juries as the work of an organized terrorist cell, deserving of up to 15 years in prison, then Trump’s fantasy of rounding up and imprisoning leftists en masse becomes a reality.” (03/17/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/
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23) Libertarianism’s Moral Lessons
Source: Law & Liberty
by Julia R Cartwright
“What distinguishes [Leonard] Read from many contemporary libertarians is his insistence that liberty is not merely an efficient social or political technology but a moral imperative. This is exemplified in his reflections on security and dependence. ‘True security is an outgrowth of freedom, not an alternative to it,’ he writes in an essay on the welfare state, warning that being made dependent on political favor is ‘a move away from true security.’ In other words, security does not come from concentrating power in benevolent hands but from preserving the conditions under which individuals bear responsibility for their own choices.” (03/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/libertarianisms-moral-lessons/
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24) Censoring Iran war news sets a dangerous precedent
Source: Expression
by Aaron Terr
“The law is clear that the First Amendment bars the government from dictating news coverage or punishing outlets for publishing what the president claims is ‘false.’ The American people are entitled to uncensored news about what their government and military are doing. No matter who occupies the White House, war does not justify the government erecting barriers between the people and the press. To the contrary, the life-and-death stakes of war make public scrutiny and accountability more important than ever. … The law is also clear that broadcast licensees which operate under the public interest standard are shielded from [Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan] Carr’s threats.” (03/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/censoring-iran-war-news-sets-a-dangerous
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25) Trump’s War Psychology
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen
“Two weeks after the start of the war in Iran, the picture is coming into focus. Why would a president who promised countless times not to start new wars, particularly ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East, have leapt into this conflict? As always in the age of Trump, it’s necessary to separate the president’s motives and mindset from the old ways we used to decide questions of war and peace, tariffs, sanctions, immigration, taxes, and other matters. Before venturing into Trump’s mind, let’s consider the shape of the discussion. People who imagine that we are still operating in a normal world are making arguments in favor of military action as if we were engaged in a national debate.” (03/17/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-war-psychology-iran
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26) Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane
“Jeffrey Epstein was not only a rapist and a child predator, but also — wait for it — a White supremacist. While some speculate that the Epstein issue is just a distraction from President Trump’s virulent and endless racism, others feel that the video the president posted at the beginning of Black History Month of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was meant to divert attention from the growing Epstein fallout. Well, as it turns out, the two crises are not as far apart as you might imagine. Bombshell articles in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and at MS Now pulled the covers off Jeffrey Epstein’s noxious racism.” [editor’s note: I will leave it to the reader to decipher this mess of lies and context drops – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Probably a good idea, SAT … I suspect they’ll do a better job than your note indicates you did – TLK] (03/17/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/donald-trumps-racism-mirrors-jeffrey-epsteins/
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27) Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
Source: Racket News
by Ryan Lovelace
“Bettors traded more than $529 million in forecasts of when the U.S. would next strike Iran in a market opened last year on Polymarket, the self-described world’s largest prediction market. Bets on Polymarket are made with cryptocurrency, and each trade is countered by another user, so not exactly versus ‘the house.’ By contrast, $133.8 million was bet on last month’s Super Bowl across Nevada’s 186 sportsbooks, representing a 10-year low, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. … But betting big on war is not exactly a new phenomenon and the outcomes are far from guaranteed, as America’s enemies found out the hard way 250 years ago. Over drinks at Brooke’s in London on Christmas Day, 1776, legend has it British Gen. John Burgoyne bet a colleague 50 guineas he would return by the following Christmas having squashed the American patriots’ rebellion.” (03/17/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/warriors-casino-the-people-making
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28) The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“This war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. … by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in ‘reckless driving’ all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and even Qatar.” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/rLUpD
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29) This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. The invasion of Lebanon. The explosions carpeting Tehran. The hollowed-out moonscape of Gaza. The horrific pogroms in the West Bank. The child amputees. The smell of rotting corpses. The assassinated doctors and journalists. The blackened sky and the poisoned water. The nonstop deluge of brain-melting propaganda. The aggressive promotion of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. The erosion of free speech rights throughout the western world. The corrupt warmongering politicians. The legions of online hasbara trolls. The soaring fuel prices. Money which could pay for social services buying bombs for Israel instead. All the death, destruction, instability and suffering that’s being visited upon countless civilians throughout west Asia. This is Zionism.” (03/17/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/03/17/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-you-give-zionists-everything-they-want/
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30) The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“The Iran war is a regional war in a way that previous reckless U.S. interventions were not, and it is having global effects. The Iran war is already wider and more damaging to international peace and security in its first three weeks than the Iraq war was in its early years. If it is allowed to continue for several more months, the damage to regional security will be severe. The damage to the interests of many of our treaty allies will also be significant, and the entire global economy will suffer. This was an entirely avoidable disaster, and the U.S. and Israel are responsible for causing it.” (03/17/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-iran-wars-terrible-effects
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31) What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I’m not one of those people tapping their foot saying, ‘When is the war going to end? It’s been dragging on and is a disaster!’ No, those people are idiots actively hoping the United States is damaged because of who the President of the United States is. Nor do I think the Iranian regime didn’t deserve to be wiped out; those who used to be in charge (and alive) were evil and them no longer existing is a great thing for humanity. But what comes next isn’t up to us, it’s up to the people of Iran to act. And there is still an open question about what it is they want, so we have to consider the possibility that most of them simply don’t want to be ‘free.'” (03/17/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/03/17/what-if-iranians-dont-want-to-be-free-n2672942
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32) Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“It is supremely ironic that President Donald Trump, who in 2016 gained a reputation as a staunch opponent of regime-change wars, is 10 years later placing a huge political bet on achieving success with multiple U.S. crusades of that nature. He has already launched regime-change military campaigns against Venezuela and Iran. Some comments by Trump indicate that he is contemplating a campaign to oust the entrenched communist regime in Cuba. It’s a massive gamble for the president and the Republican Party. If Trump can carry off the strategy, and pro-U.S. successor governments replace repressive and hostile systems in all three countries, his historical legacy would be impressive in the eyes of many. … A failure to achieve such transformational outcomes at low cost in American blood and treasure, though, would likely prove politically disastrous for Trump and his supporters. The early indicators are not especially encouraging for the administration’s strategy.” (03/17/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-risks-it-all-on-regime-change-abroad/
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33) Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
Source: Common Dreams
by Leonardo Flores
“I’m traveling to Cuba for the first time on March 21 to be in Havana with the Nuestra América Convoy, in which people from dozens of countries representing a variety of organizations will break the blockade, bringing much-needed supplies to the island. CODEPINK is bringing 6,300 pounds of medical equipment and medicine with help from Global Health Partners and others. These supplies will be given to clinics, hospitals, and maternity centers as Cuba deals with the latest horrifying crime against humanity perpetrated by the United States. The US is blockading oil, seizing and chasing away Cuba-bound tankers in the Caribbean. No oil whatsoever has entered the island since early December. Trump characterized Cuba as an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat,’ paving the way for more unilateral coercive measures (so-called sanctions).” (03/17/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cuban-blockade
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34) Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“At what point must we be frank about the fact that Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb author who died last week at the age of 93, was not simply wrong about almost everything he ever wrote or said or thought, but positively and culpably dishonest? If ever there were an intellectual grave that deserves pissing on posthaste, it is Paul Ehrlich’s. So let us commence. Ehrlich was an intellectual fraud, something he had in common with many of the celebrated pseudoscientists, quacks, and cranks who became intellectual heroes to our era’s progressives, from Sigmund Freud to Noam Chomsky, Rachel Carson, Margaret Sanger, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. until about five minutes ago. (Right-wingers don’t go around reading books by crackpots — they put them into the Cabinet.)” (03/17/26)
https://archive.is/gLhO3
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35) A Theory About the Estrangement Crisis
Source: Persuasion
by Leonora Barclay
“Don’t helicopter parent your kids. It may cause them to make a dramatic break later in life.” (03/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/a-theory-about-the-estrangement-crisis
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36) Ending the Trump-Netanyahu War in the Middle East
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“The Israel-US war on Iran is engulfing the entire Middle East and could escalate to global war. The economic consequences are already severe and could become catastrophic. The Strait of Hormuz carries approximately one-fifth of all oil traded globally, and 30 percent of the world’s LNG. A sustained closure of the Strait would trigger an energy shock without modern precedent. The conflict is likely to spiral out of control because the US and Israel are dead set on hegemony in the Arab world and West Asia – one that combines Israeli territorial expansion with American-backed regime control across the region. The ultimate goal is a Greater Israel that absorbs all historic Palestine, combined with compliant Arab and Islamic governments stripped of genuine sovereignty, including on choices as to how and where they export their oil and gas. This is delusional.” (03/17/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/jeffrey_sachs/2026/03/16/ending-the-trump-netanyahu-war-in-the-middle-east
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37) How the Iran war might shape a new world order
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“More than material weapons might sway the war in Iran. As both Washington and Tehran are finding out, allies that would come to your assistance probably prefer to first share your values and not just mutual interests. On Saturday, President Donald Trump put out a call to seven countries to send ships to defend the vital oil-shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. The response has been largely halting – at best, hesitant. The international uncertainty over the legal premise for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran is probably a hindrance to those nations in risking their military to protect petroleum flows. ‘This is not our war; we did not start it,’ said Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister. For Iran, two of its most powerful partners, China and Russia, are largely playing a minor role in the conflict, focusing mainly on crisis management or diplomacy.” (03/16/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0316/How-the-Iran-war-might-shape-a-new-world-order
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38) Ÿnsect Repellent
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“You vill eat ze bugs! Sorry, Klaus. Not interested. … as if to prove that Schwab’s Great Reset of our diet will not be driven by cartoonish elitists, Ÿnsect — Europe’s largest insect farm — has officially gone bankrupt.” (03/17/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/03/16/ynsect-repellent/
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39) The Reckoning We Owe Generation Covid
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jennifer Sey
“[N]early everyone was complicit. Politicians, media, educators — they all went along with the hysteria. Now, they want to sweep it under the rug, pretending it never happened. Everyone failed. But we cannot forget.” (03/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-reckoning-we-owe-generation-covid/
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40) “Axis of cope”: What happens when they learn all the wrong lessons?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jake Werner
“Now that things haven’t gone quite as planned, watch Washington hawks dial it up more, this time against China.” (03/17/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/axis-of-authoritarians/
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41) States Substitute for Corrupt Feds on Antitrust
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“On Monday, the monopolization trial against Live Nation picked up where it left off a week earlier, with Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Entertainment, the nation’s second-largest live concert promoter, under direct questioning. But there was a different lawyer in the lead plaintiff’s chair: Jeffrey Kessler, a superstar private litigator who successfully prosecuted cases against NASCAR and the NCAA, was seated in place of David Dahlquist, the Justice Department’s lead trial attorney. The reason for the swap is that DOJ settled their claims against Live Nation on March 9, and pressured many of the 39 states (and the District of Columbia) in the case, particularly the Republican ones, to go along with them. But in the end, only seven states did so …. The other 32 … failed to come to agreement after forced settlement talks from the judge.” (03/17/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/03/17/state-attorneys-general-feds-antitrust-live-nation-ticketmaster-warner-bros-paramount/
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42) Can Immigration Address America’s Fiscal Nightmare? It Depends
Source: The Daily Economy
by John Phelan
“High-skilled workers tend to strengthen government budgets, while low-skilled immigration can add fiscal pressure. The composition of immigration matters as much as the number.” (03/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/can-immigration-address-americas-fiscal-nightmare-it-depends/
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43) Entrepreneurial capitalism — the greatest deal in all of history
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“Facebook, the online social network, has more than 2 billion global users. Because those users do not pay for the service, its benefits are hard to measure. We report the results of a series of three non-hypothetical auction experiments where winners are paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for up to one year. Though the populations sampled and the auction design differ across the experiments, we consistently find the average Facebook user would require more than $1000 to deactivate their account for one year. OK, so the value users gain from Facebook is $1k a year, there are 2 billion of them, that’s two thousand billion, or $2 trillion in value a year. Of which Zucks has 10%, that $200 billion. Pretty good deal for us, really. But that’s not right, not at all. For Zucks’ money is a one off capital sum, the consumer benefit is an annual one.” (03/17/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/entrepreneurial-capitalism-the-greatest-deal-in-all-of-history
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44) History, immigration and the blame game
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Today, we are bombarded with claims that the lands of the Fifty States (i.e., the United States) are ‘stolen lands.’ And demands that the only option is to give the ‘LandBack.’ (An organization based in South Dakota, demanding that the Black Hills be returned to the ‘Great Sioux Nation’ (a/k/a the Seven Council Fires, consisting of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people.) … Obviously, as lovers of liberty, we understand that going around stealing people’s land is a heinous act …. But we detect just a few problems with the proposed solution of returning hundreds of millions of acres of land to the descendants (and presumably heirs) of millions of people who owned that land from 400 to 150 or so years ago. And forcing more millions of people who live on that land (and think they own it) to go someplace else – where back where they came from or somewhere else.” (03/16/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/03/16/history-immigration-and-the-blame-game/
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45) Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit gets riskier by the day
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy
“Next time your flight’s delayed or canceled, or you’re stuck in an endless TSA line, thank a congressional Democrat. Senate Dems have decided to make a show of their support for lawless immigration by inflicting pain on American travelers. They’ve blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, even though their stunt doesn’t affect the budget of the agency Democrats really want to hurt, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. … It’s bad enough congressional Democrats are taking their anger at immigration enforcement out on American travelers. What’s yet worse is they’re doing it in a time of war. Do we want less secure airports — or unhappy, unpaid agents — at a moment when terrorist attacks are more likely?” [editor’s note: TSA should be abolished. The “you wouldn’t give us what we wanted, so we started a war, now you should because DANGER” con is old and tired – TLK] (03/16/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/opinion/chuck-schumers-shutdown-gambit-gets-riskier-by-the-day/
----
46) Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“I hate the term ‘hallucinations’ for when AIs say false things. It’s perfectly calculated to mislead the reader — to make them think AIs are crazy, or maybe just have incomprehensible failure modes. AIs say false things for the same reason you do. At least, I did. In school, I would take multiple choice tests. When I didn’t know the answer to a question, I would guess. Schoolchild urban legend said that ‘C’ was the best bet, so I would fill in bubble C. … So the interesting question isn’t why AIs hallucinate: during training, guessing correctly is rewarded, guessing incorrectly isn’t punished, so the rational strategy is to always guess (and increase your chance of being right from 0 to 0.001%). Since AIs in normal consumer use follow the strategies they learned during training, they guess there too.” (03/16/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/shameless-guesses-not-hallucinations
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47) Just Get Out! Now!
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Trump’s repeated promises to not start new wars, especially in the Middle East, have turned out to be empty, and Republicans are set for a crippling defeat in the upcoming midterm elections. Iran had been warning for months – since the last US/Israeli surprise attack in June – that if they were attacked again they would not hold back on US bases in the region and that they would close the Straits of Hormuz. Trump and Netanyahu attacked anyway, and Iran has done what it said it would do. Now the Strait of Hormuz is closed, oil is about to go out of control, and the global economy – along with the US dollar – seems about to implode.” (03/16/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/just-get-out-now
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48) Why are liberal students at liberal schools terrified to talk about Israel?
Source: Expression
by Chapin Lenthall-Cleary
“At moderate schools, those where the average student is close to the middle politically, a lot of issues are difficult for both sides to discuss. At hyper-liberal schools, those where the average student is strongly liberal, every issue is easy for liberal students to discuss — except for one: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. … One generally assumes people are more comfortable sharing their views when surrounded by others who think the same way. So then why are liberal students at very liberal schools scared to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” (03/16/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/why-in-the-world-are-liberal-students
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49) “We’ll All Go Down to Jail”
Source: In These Times
by Sarah Lazare
“With thousands of supporters behind them, roughly 100 faith leaders sang, ’Before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail — everybody’s got a right to live,’ as they blocked a key road to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. It was an act of civil disobedience against federal immigration agents outside the busy Terminal 1 drop-off. Some of the faith leaders held signs showing photos of abducted members of Unite Here Local 17, which represents food service workers at the airport. It was late morning on January 23, and the crowd — including striking workers and union members, some of whom work at the airport — stayed outside in subzero temperatures to cheer on the faith leaders. Supporters passed around hand warmers and snacks to help sustain the crowd.’ (03/16/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/minnesota-rises-with-civil-disobedience-and-mass-protest-sarah-lazare
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50) Jürgen Habermas: A voice of reason and humanity
Source: spiked
by James Heartfield
“The great German political philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, died last week at the age of 96, at home in Starnberg, Bavaria. Born in 1929, he lived through one of Germany’s most tumultuous eras. He was a member of the Hitler Youth as a boy and was sent, as a 15-year-old, to the western front to man anti-aircraft defences in the final months of the Second World War. After the war, he became a left-wing student firebrand while studying philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn – from the last of which, he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1954.” (03/16/26)
https://archive.is/KcG8A
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 03/17/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Iran Closes the Strait of Hormuz.” (03/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86FwmddQLi8
----
52) Cato Daily Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Who’s Watching the $170 Billion?” (03/17/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/whos-watching-the-170-billion
----
53) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“‘Empire Of Lies,’ With Guest Charles Goyette.” (03/17/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1qKVmQZbYwwxB
----
54) Law & Liberty Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Law & Liberty senior writer John O. McGinnis joins the podcast this week to discuss his new book, Why Democracy Needs the Rich.” (03/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/democracys-patrons/
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55) SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“James talks to John C. A. Manley about the writers who inspired his own resistance fiction and the line between resistance fiction and predictive programming.” (03/17/26)
https://corbettreport.com/resistance-fiction-solutionswatch/
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56) Freedom Works Radio with Paul Molloy, 03/17/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Kelley Vlahos, Quincy Institute ‘The Ill-Conceived Iran Conflict.'” (03/17/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-03-17_zfw03092026.mp3
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/17/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Over 200 US Troops Wounded in Iran War, Relatives of Airman Killed in Iraq Criticize War, and More.” (03/17/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEJ-g4XrQuU
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58) LPA Solidarity Stream 15
Source: LP Alliance
“Hype Tech: What the World’s Getting Wrong About LLMs.” (03/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxwM1p3mXEo
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59) Pink Flame of Liberty, 03/16/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Let’s watch the LNC Ex Comm Meeting 3/16/26 brought to you by FREEDOM CALLS.” (03/16/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jabJtFlQQBY
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60) Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 03/16/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“The Age of Revelation, a Conversation w/Buck Johnson.” (03/16/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-age-of-revelation-a-conversation-w-buck-johnson/
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