03/17 -- Trump wields 1798 law to deport nearly 300 despite judge's order; Schumer's Surrender: Much Ado About Nothing Surprising
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Thomas L. Knapp
Mar 17, 2025, 10:28:24 AM (2 days ago) Mar 17
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 03/17/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump wields 1798 law to deport nearly 300 despite judge’s order
2) Congo: M23 Rebels to Attend Angola Peace Talks
3) Russia: Regime demands “ironclad” guarantees in peace treaty with Ukraine
4) Yemen: Dozens reported killed after Trump orders “decisive” strikes against Houthis
5) Congress, Trump kick spending can down the road again
6) US Regime Places Visa Curbs on Thai Officials Over Uyghur Deportations
7) Rubio: South African ambassador “no longer welcome” in US
8) Arlington Cemetery strips content on black and female veterans from website
9) Russian, Ukrainian forces trade overnight aerial attacks after Putin sets out conditions for ceasefire
10) Palestine: Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say
11) Starmer: Military planning for Ukraine peace to begin
12) NYC: Adams says four of his top deputies have resigned
13) Starbucks ordered to pay $50 million to customer burned by hot drink
14) Serbia: An estimated 100k join antigovernment protest in Belgrade
15) NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
16) FL: Miami Beach mayor seeks to evict cinema for screening No Other Land
17) Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if ceasefire deal is implemented
18) US Snail to shed 10,000 jobs over next month
19) Trader Joe’s recalls 61.5K products over “laceration hazard”
20) Gold hits all-time high, crossing $3,000 on tariff fears
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Schumer’s Surrender: Much Ado About Nothing Surprising
22) Trump Claims Dictatorial Powers on Immigration. Everyone Should Be Scared.
23) Canada Has a Trade War Within Its Borders Too
24) Ludwig von Mises and the Berlin Batman
25) The redeem team
26) A reminder that Kamala Harris was a terrible candidate
27) Canada Is an Ally, Not an Enemy
28) The Return Of The McCarthyite Chill
29) Armenia redefines peace as within
30) Our Hamiltonian Moment
31) Here’s why real diversity should focus on class, not race
32) “A Horrifying Escalation”: How Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Could Galvanize Trump Opposition
33) Why Are So Many US Leaders Staying Silent as Musk and Trump Entrench [sic] Their Power?
34) The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is an affront to free speech
35) Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is The Only Option
36) Trump Destroyed America’s Relationship with Canada
37) The Trump/Johnson/Thune budget victory
38) Tariff Smartness in Australia
39) How the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is like the human appendix
40) Homeschooling Families Shouldn’t Fear School Choice Policies
41) The Fault Line in Democratic Politics
42) DOGE: Efficiency Requires Elimination
43) Trump Is Unleashing a Chaos Economy
44) Howard Lutnick Doesn’t Get To Decide What You Buy
45) The Department of Education Has Finally Flunked Out
46) Tariff Turmoil: The Economic Risks of a Global Trade War
47) Ukraine Agrees to a Ceasefire. Could it Really Happen?
48) On My Husband’s Unconstitutional Arrest
49) How a “Plan 2028” Could Bring Labor and Social Movements Together
50) Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Quillette Podcast, episode 276
52) Low Key WAL with Harry Price, 03/15/25
53) The Anarchist Experience, episode 519
54) Thomas Eddlem on The Scott Horton Show
55) The Good Fight, 03/15/25
56) The Fifth Column, episode 495
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2618
58) The Libertarian Angle, 03/14/25
59) The New Abnormal, 03/14/25
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 770
61) Freakonomics Radio, episode 626
62) Nonzero, 03/14/25
63) Serious Trouble, 03/14/25
64) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 03/14/25
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/14/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump wields 1798 law to deport nearly 300 despite judge’s order
Source: USA Today
“President Donald Trump’s administration deported nearly 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act despite a federal judge blocking the flights under the 1798 law last wielded during World War II. Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg’s order Saturday came after Trump issued a proclamation, which he had signed the day before, targeting Tren de Aragua members for immediate deportations under the 18th century law. … Despite Boasberg’s order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday that alleged Tren De Aragua gang members were arrested over the weekend at Trump’s direction and had already been deported to El Salvador.” (03/16/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/15/judge-blocks-trump-alien-enemies-act/82408225007/
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2) Congo: M23 Rebels to Attend Angola Peace Talks
Source: US News & World Report
“Rwandan-backed M23 rebels said on Monday they would send a delegation to peace talks with Democratic Republic of Congo’s government expected to begin on Tuesday in Angola’s capital. ‘The five-member delegation is expected to leave for Luanda on Monday for dialogue at the request of Angolan authorities,’ Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for the AFC rebel alliance that includes the M23, said in a post on X. On Sunday, President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said Kinshasa would also send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government’s long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group.” (03/17/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-03-17/congo-m23-rebels-say-they-will-send-delegation-to-angola-peace-talks
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3) Russia: Regime demands “ironclad” guarantees in peace treaty with Ukraine
Source: Reuters
“Russia will seek ‘ironclad’ guarantees in any peace deal on Ukraine that NATO nations will exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, a Russian deputy foreign minister said in remarks published on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trumpis trying to win President Vladimir Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week and which Putin says needs to meet crucial conditions to be acceptable. Trump is expected to speak with his Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday after returning from what he described as a ‘positive’ meeting with Putin in Moscow.” (03/17/25)
https://archive.is/YX8Jn
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4) Yemen: Dozens reported killed after Trump orders “decisive” strikes against Houthis
Source: CNN
“Dozens of people have been reported killed after US President Donald Trump ordered ‘decisive’ military action against Houthi rebels [sic] in Yemen, opening a new salvo against the Iran-backed group that has targeted shipping lanes in the Red Sea. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the US would deploy ‘overwhelming lethal force’ against the Houthis ‘until we have achieved our objective,’ signaling the start of a major operation that could last weeks and prompting the Houthis to warn of escalation. The US strikes killed at least 31 people and injured 101 others in Yemen, mostly women and children, the Houthi-run health ministry said.” (03/16/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/15/politics/trump-houthis-military-action/index.html
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5) Congress, Trump kick spending can down the road again
Source: NBC News
“President Donald Trump on Saturday signed into law a six-month funding bill, averting a government shutdown. In a post on X, White House Spokesperson Harrison Fields said Trump signed the bill and thanked Democrats who joined Republicans to approve the continuing measure. Trump’s signature comes after the Senate passed the bill on Friday just hours ahead of a midnight deadline. The vote was 54-46, with two Democrats joining all but one Republican in support of the measure. Earlier Friday, the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle with the help of 10 Democrats in a 62-38 vote. Sixty votes were needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.” (03/15/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-republican-funding-bill-government-shutdown-rcna196412
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6) US Regime Places Visa Curbs on Thai Officials Over Uyghur Deportations
Source: Bloomberg
“The US restricted visas to current and former Thai officials involved in the return of 40 Uyghurs to China last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. The visa curbs are part of a new policy to combat China’s efforts to pressure governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and other groups to China, the secretary of state said in a statement. Members of the Chinese minority group are subject to torture and enforced disappearances and the new visa restriction policy will apply to any government officials who deport Uyghurs back to the Asian country, he said.” (03/15/25)
https://archive.is/J2pob
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7) Rubio: South African ambassador “no longer welcome” in US
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as ‘a race-baiting politician.’ In a post on X, Rubio accused Ebrahim Rasool of hating the US and President Donald Trump, and said the ambassador ‘was no longer welcome in our great country.’ The office for South Africa’s president on Saturday called the decision ‘regrettable,’ adding that the country remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the US. The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries. While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official. In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmj8ky3rvno
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8) Arlington Cemetery strips content on black and female veterans from website
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed from its website information and educational materials about the history of black and female service members. Some of the content unpublished from the site was on veterans who had received the nation’s highest military recognition, the Medal of Honor, according to military news site Task & Purpose. The content removal is part of a larger effort by President Donald Trump to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in the military and throughout the federal government. Approximately 400,000 veterans are buried in the Army-run cemetery, which was established after the US Civil War at the home of the South’s general, Robert E. Lee. On the cemetery’s website, internal links that directed users to webpages with information about the ‘Notable Graves’ of dozens of black, Hispanic and female veterans were missing on Friday.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz03gjnxe25o
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9) Russian, Ukrainian forces trade overnight aerial attacks after Putin sets out conditions for ceasefire
Source: SFGate
“Russia and Ukraine traded heavy aerial blows overnight, with both sides on Saturday reporting more than 100 enemy drones over their respective territories. The attacks comes less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss details of the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine. Putin told a press conference on Thursday that he supported a truce in principle but set out a host of details that need to be clarified before it is agreed. Kyiv has already endorsed the truce proposal, although Ukrainian officials have publicly raised doubts as to whether Moscow will commit to such a deal.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/russia-and-ukraine-launch-aerial-attacks-amid-20223045.php
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10) Palestine: Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say
Source: Reuters
“Israeli military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and U.S. mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza. Israel’s military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by ‘terrorists’ approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect. Gaza’s Health Ministry said most of the latest deaths took place on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.” (03/16/25)
https://archive.is/SOE5a
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11) Starmer: Military planning for Ukraine peace to begin
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said military planning to protect a potential Ukraine ceasefire is moving ‘to an operational phase’ after a virtual meeting with 29 other world leaders. Military leaders will meet in London on Thursday ‘to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security,’ Sir Keir said. The meeting follows Ukraine agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire after talks with the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agrees with the idea, but set a number of pre-conditions for peace. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined Saturday’s meeting, said ‘active pressure is needed, not just talks.’ ‘The world must understand that Russia is the only obstacle preventing peace,’ he said.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ymrz8d21yo
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12) NYC: Adams says four of his top deputies have resigned
Source: United Press International
“Four New York City deputy managers resigned over May Eric Adams'[s] cooperation with the federal government in deporting migrants despite being a sanctuary city, his office confirmed Monday. The top city officials met remotely with the Democrat on Friday and Sunday at his mayoral residence, Politico, WNBC-TV and CNN reported. Adams is running for re-election in a June primary. Planning to depart are First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker, Adams'[s] office confirmed.” (03/15/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/15/NY-Mayor-Adams-top-deputies-resign/1471739827214/
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13) Starbucks ordered to pay $50 million to customer burned by hot drink
Source: Fox News
“Coffee giant Starbucks has been ordered to pay a California drive-through customer $50 million after an unsecured hot drink spilled on him, causing burns. Michael Garcia underwent skin grafts and other procedures on his genitals after he was handed a takeout tray of venti-sized drinks at a drive-through on Feb. 8, 2020. His lawyers successfully argued that a barista failed to wedge one of those drinks into the tray and when Garcia took it into his possession, the scorching hot drink spilled out, causing severe burns. He suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorney. The lawsuit accused Starbucks of breaching its duty of care. A Los Angeles County jury agreed and awarded the massive payout.” (03/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/starbucks-ordered-pay-50m-customer-burned-hot-drink
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14) Serbia: An estimated 100k join antigovernment protest in Belgrade
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least 100,000 people descended on Belgrade for a mass rally seen as a culmination of months-long protests against Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and his government. Large crowds of flag-waving protesters clogged the downtown area of the capital on Saturday despite occasional rain, with people hardly able to move. Following apparent sporadic incidents between protesters and the police, university students – who have been leading the peaceful protests for the past four months – abruptly called for an end to the demonstration, saying they could no longer guarantee safety at the rally. Most of the protesters dispersed, but thousands remained on the streets as tensions surged. Police said the crowd reached 107,000 at the peak of the protest. Serbian independent media described the rally as the biggest ever in the country, saying the numbers were much higher.” (03/16/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/3/16/an-estimated-100000-join-antigovernment-rally-in-serbias-belgrade
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15) NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
Source: SFGate
“Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The four newcomers — representing the U.S., Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June. Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/nasa-s-stuck-astronauts-welcome-their-newly-20224071.php
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16) FL: Miami Beach mayor seeks to evict cinema for screening No Other Land
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner has sought to evict an art house cinema from city property for screening Oscar-winning No Other Land, a film about the Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He also wants to halt future grant payments to the non-profit O Cinema in South Beach, Fla. City commissioners are expected to vote on legislation introduced by Meiner next week, according to a resolution document made public on Thursday. Meiner has described the movie as one-sided propaganda and an attack on Jewish people, while the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and other civil rights advocates have condemned his actions as being against free speech. The film’s co-directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, dismiss allegations that it is antisemitic.” (03/14/25)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/miami-beach-no-other-land-1.7483517?cmp=rss
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17) Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if ceasefire deal is implemented
Source: SFGate
“Hamas said Saturday it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements their ceasefire agreement, calling it an ‘exceptional deal’ aimed at getting the truce back on track. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in Gaza including local journalists, medics and a watchdog said. A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire’s second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Israel also would need to stop barring the entry of humanitarian aid and withdraw from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Israel has said it won’t withdraw there, citing the need to combat weapons smuggling. Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/hamas-says-it-will-only-release-american-israeli-20223017.php
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18) US Snail to shed 10,000 jobs over next month
Source: United Press International
“The United States Postal Service is expected to cut 10,000 jobs from its workforce over the next 30 days, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy confirmed this week. The positions will be eliminated through a voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy, who is in the process of finding a successor, said he also signed a deal to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to identify ‘further efficiencies’ within the USPS. … The agency’s financial struggles are well-documented, but it has so far remained immune to major federal government cuts, including mass firings carried out by DOGE across several other federal agencies.” (03/14/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/14/postal-service-cuts-10000-jobs-doge-efficiency-congress-louis-dejoy/5271741965055/
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19) Trader Joe’s recalls 61.5K products over “laceration hazard”
Source: New York Post
“Trader Joe’s is recalling certain bottles of imported mineral water over the possibility that the glass containers may shatter. The recall impacts bottles of Gerolsteiner Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, an imported German mineral water. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the bottles were sold at around $3 a pop. In a Mar. 12 announcement, the grocery chain said that certain lot codes of the product ‘may have the potential for cracked/damaged bottles’. The affected products have lot codes of lot number 11/28/2024 L or 11/27/2024 L. ‘The issue was identified by research related to bottle breakage during production and potentially affects 1% of bottles in the lot codes above,’ the chain explained. ‘If you have bottles with either lot code, please do not use them. We urge you to dispose of them carefully and go to any Trader Joe’s for a full refund.'” (03/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/15/business/trader-joes-recalls-61-5k-products-over-laceration-hazard/
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20) Gold hits all-time high, crossing $3,000 on tariff fears
Source: Axios
“Gold hit a new all-time high Friday, breaking $3,000 for the first time ever, as investors search for tariff safe-havens. … The yellow metal is up about 10% since President Trump won the election last November, outperforming most other asset classes. … The new record for gold comes just a few hours after the biggest U.S. stocks entered correction territory, 10% off their all-time highs set less than a month ago.” (03/14/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/14/gold-all-time-high-3000
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Schumer’s Surrender: Much Ado About Nothing Surprising
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The Democrats objecting to Schumer’s surrender don’t, for the most part, offer any attractive alternative to the GOP program. Like the Republicans, they’re fine with insane levels of government spending, continuing deficits, increasing debt, and onerous taxation. The whole thing is half Off-Off Broadway theater and half what Freud called ‘the narcissism of small differences,’ wherein similar people with similar ideas lose their minds over trivial disagreements. For those of us who aren’t in the tank for either party, it’s less complicated. First, if a government function is ‘non-essential,’ why is government doing it in the first place? Second, if we’re going to bother putting ourselves through the recurring ritual of electing supposed representatives to guard whatever we perceive as our interests, shouldn’t we expect those representatives to actually fight for those interests?” (03/15/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19436
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22) Trump Claims Dictatorial Powers on Immigration. Everyone Should Be Scared.
Source: US News & World Report
by David J Bier & Ilya Somin
“During his campaign for president, Donald Trump said he’d only be a dictator on ‘Day One,’ when he would ‘close the border’ to nearly all immigrants. True to his word, when Trump entered office, he signed executive orders that sought to rewrite the Constitution and explicitly override the law to restrict immigration. But those executive orders didn’t expire on Day Two. The president is still exercising dictatorial powers on immigration, and it isn’t yet clear that anyone will stop him. Several court decisions have sought to rein him in, and the Supreme Court should also intervene, if necessary. Whatever one thinks of immigration, any limits must be imposed lawfully.” [editor’s note: Absent a constitutional amendment, all such limits are unlawful – TLK] (03/14/25)
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-14/trump-alien-enemies-act-birthright-citizenship
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23) Canada Has a Trade War Within Its Borders Too
Source: Independent Institute
by Denny Han
“The Trump administration’s tariffs are a disaster for both the Canadian and U.S. economies. As of writing this, the administration has flipped-flopped on implementing them. However, the outcome is nearly as detrimental as imposing tariffs due to the uncertainty that has emerged in our long-standing alliance with America’s neighbor. Canadian businesses have pulled American products off their shelves en masse and American businesses are unable to plan for the long term if they don’t know which inputs they’re able to buy abroad. The silver lining, however, is that this may be the push Canada needs to make long-awaited reforms on internal trade barriers. Discussions of removing internal trade barriers have surged in the last few months since Trump won the election and subsequently took office. Former Prime Minister Trudeau recently announced that Canada’s Premiers have agreed to further remove internal trade barriers by June 1, 2025. ” (03/14/25)
https://blog.independent.org/2025/03/14/canada-trade-war-borders
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24) Ludwig von Mises and the Berlin Batman
Source: EconLog
by Art Carden
“Mises’s opposition to totalitarian socialism of the right (Naziism) and totalitarian socialism of the left (communism) was so complete that he ended up being the subject of a 1998 issue of The Batman Chronicles titled ‘The Berlin Batman.’ It features a short story asking, ‘What if Bruce Wayne had actually been a Jewish artist named ‘Baruch Wane’ in 1930s Berlin?’ When Baruch Wane heard that the Nazi Kommisar had to meet a train because they had seized the books and library of Ludwig von Mises, he worked to stop them (perhaps he delayed them and did not stop them). Still, it correctly explained that Mises was anti-Nazi and correctly portrayed Mises’s Human Action as a volume that repudiated totalitarian doctrines and embraced liberty.” (03/15/25)
https://www.econlib.org/ludwig-von-mises-and-the-berlin-batman/
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25) The redeem team
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“Collectively, they spent 155 years in prison. Now they counsel other people facing their own long sentences. A conversation with five ‘peer advocates’ at the New Orleans public defender’s office.” (03/15/25)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-redeem-team
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26) A reminder that Kamala Harris was a terrible candidate
Source: Washington Examiner
by Byron York
“Recently, a video circulated of former Vice President Kamala Harris engaging in her trademark word salad during an appearance at an AI conference in Las Vegas. Harris was saying something about nacho cheese Doritos, but beyond that, the point was not clear. The most striking effect of the video was to see and hear Harris again after her virtual disappearance from the public scene in the last 4 1/2 months. During the presidential campaign, we saw and heard her every day, and these days … mostly nothing. But we will soon learn a bit more about the Harris candidacy from book-length accounts of the 2024 campaign. One that is coming on April 1 is called FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, two reporters who have often focused on Democrats.” (03/13/25)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3346975/reminder-kamala-harris-terrible-candidate-2024-campaign/
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27) Canada Is an Ally, Not an Enemy
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Victimizing Americans with … abundant goods provided at reasonable prices.” (03/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/canada-united-states-tariffs-trump-nato/
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28) The Return Of The McCarthyite Chill
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Every noncitizen in the US now has to watch what they say about foreign policy — or else. You may have just arrived from Putin’s Russia, and are now being told by Trump: don’t think you now have free speech just because you’re in America. The US government is monitoring your every word and can deport you if you say the wrong thing. You have to wait until you’re a citizen to be free. If the law seems McCarthyite, that’s because it was passed in 1952 and aimed specifically at Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe suspected of communist sympathies.” (03/14/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-return-of-the-mccarthyite-chill-8ca
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29) Armenia redefines peace as within
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“After multiple territorial wars over more than 35 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan, two small countries ringed by big powers, announced March 13 that they had agreed on a draft peace agreement. That alone prompted praise across a conflict-riddled Eurasian continent. Yet a portion of praise went to only Armenia, population 3 million, for something else. Following the country’s latest military defeat in 2023, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan not only offered concessions to Azerbaijan but also launched a campaign at home to lift the national identity beyond ethnicity, a trait that exudes exclusivity and lies at the heart of many wars. The ‘Real Armenia,’ he said in a February speech, resides in all citizens living within the country’s recognized borders – ethnic minorities included – as ‘the source of the legal order,’ along with spiritual values that bring harmony and happiness.” (03/14/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0314/Armenia-redefines-peace-as-within
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30) Our Hamiltonian Moment
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama
“At the moment, everyone worried about what the Trump administration is doing to America is focused on constraining executive power. This is absolutely the right emphasis now: Trump is an authoritarian who aspires to be a king who can run the United States through executive orders. Our checks and balances need to be preserved and strengthened. But there is a good chance that the Trump project will ultimately fail, and opportunities to rebuild the American government will emerge. Indeed, the only way that Trumpism can be displaced is for his opponents to offer something better.” (03/14/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/our-hamiltonian-moment
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31) Here’s why real diversity should focus on class, not race
Source: New York Post
by Richard D Kahlenberg
“I’ve spent my career as a center-left thinker and writer, working with people like former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to help promote school integration and Keith Ellison and the late John Lewis to strengthen organized labor. So why did I agree to join a conservative group, Students for Fair Admissions, in its lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina in cases that enabled the Supreme Court to bring an end to racial preferences in 2023? As I outline in my new book, Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, I testified as an expert witness that racial and economic diversity benefits students, but there is a much better way to accomplish these goals than through racial preferences.” (03/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/15/opinion/real-diversity-should-focus-on-class-not-race/
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32) “A Horrifying Escalation”: How Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Could Galvanize Trump Opposition
Source: The Bulwark
by Adrian Carrasquillo
“Trump supporters have made no secret that they welcome a debate over Khalil. They’ve argued that the administration had lawful powers to initiate his deportation while playing up his alleged sympathy for Hamas. They’ve taunted Democrats who’ve come to his defense, arguing that they’re taking the wrong side of a 70-30 issue for the public. But for those defending Khalil, the issue is not just about political debates in the present but precedents set for the future. Immigration groups are seizing on the Khalil case to plead with Americans to recognize the threat in an administration that can target someone undocumented one week, a green card holder the next, and U.S. citizens in the future — on everything from birthright citizenship to accidental detention to racial profiling.” (03/14/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/mahmoud-khalil-immigration-detention-first-amendment-free-speech-rights
-----
33) Why Are So Many US Leaders Staying Silent as Musk and Trump Entrench [sic] Their Power?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“There are reasons why influential or knowledgeable Americans are staying silent as the worsening fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice. Start with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They despise President Donald Trump as he does them. Rich and comfortable former President George W. Bush is very proud of his administration’s funding of AIDS medicines saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump, driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S. assistance (including programs to lessen the health toll on people afflicted by tuberculosis and malaria).” [editor’s note: Ralph seems have gone over senility edge at last – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-leaders-silent-trump
-----
34) The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is an affront to free speech
Source: spiked
by Wendy Kaminer
“Sadly, this needs to be said – the First Amendment protects the right to engage in anti-American and pro-Hamas speech and to protest against government policy in the Middle East, extravagantly and even with anti-Semitic fervour. To suggest otherwise is to engage in right-wing wokeism, conditioning speech rights on inoffensiveness.” (03/15/25)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/15/the-arrest-of-mahmoud-khalil-is-an-affront-to-free-speech/
-----
35) Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is The Only Option
Source: The Intercept
by Jessica Washington
“Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., capitulated to President Donald Trump and the GOP over the budget this week, sacrificing one of Democrats’ last pieces of leverage as Trump bulldozes the federal government and jails activists. Schumer defended voting yes on the GOP budget that would neuter the legislative branch, arguing that he had no choice but to give in or face a government shutdown. He’s not the first to make that kind of decision. Leaders of businesses, universities, and nations across the globe face the same question: Should they fight Trump, or hope that by giving him what he wants he’ll somehow do less harm? Far too often, these leaders have chosen appeasement over resistance — and, in return, gotten nothing.” (03/15/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/15/appeasing-trump-doesnt-work/
-----
36) Trump Destroyed America’s Relationship with Canada
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“Living on the other side of the longest undefended border in the world from their superpower neighbor has created a paradox in Canadians’ national identity. Canadians are not Americans. They are different in ways that are central to their sense of who they are. At the same time, the two countries’ respective cultures, sports, music, movies, television, literature, economies, and militaries are so integrated as to be inseparable. For longer than living memory, Canadians have seen the U.S. as more than the closest of allies. America has been Canada’s closest partner and friend. Donald Trump has destroyed that in less than two months.” (03/14/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-destroyed-americas-relationship-with-canada/
-----
37) The Trump/Johnson/Thune budget victory
Source: Fox News
by Newt Gingrich
“The passage of the continuing resolution to keep the government open was a remarkable example of the revolutionary movement through which we are living. Traditionally, a continuing resolution requires a bipartisan agreement to get through the Senate. Republican leaders meet with Democratic leaders to discuss it. And the continuing resolution becomes far more expensive – and gains a lot more ideological language. After the 2024 election, many supposed experts said that President Donald Trump would have a hard time getting legislation through the extraordinarily narrow House Republican majority – or past the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. The House Republicans have been in turmoil for a decade.” [editor’s note: It is amusing to see Gingrich celebrate the continuance of Biden’s spending levels, in order not to shut down the bloated government – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-trump-johnson-thune-budget-victory
-----
38) Tariff Smartness in Australia
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“One way to view retaliatory tariffs is as follows: Trump shoots foreign citizens and American citizens in their feet with his tariffs. The targeted nation retaliates by shooting its own citizens and American citizens in their feet with retaliatory tariffs. Thus, we have tariff dumbness on both sides. What should a nation do when Trump hits them with tariffs? Nothing. It should not retaliate with retaliatory tariffs. The smart thing is to do is nothing. … Therefore, congratulations to public officials in Australia, who have been among the nations that Trump has hit with tariffs.” (03/14/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/03/14/tariff-smartness-in-australia/
-----
39) How the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is like the human appendix
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“The CPB’s Public Broadcasting Service, launched 55 years ago, at least increased many Americans’ network television choices from three (CBS, NBC, ABC) to four. Thirty years ago, however, PBS improvidently adopted the slogan ‘If PBS doesn’t do it, who will?’ Today, the antecedent of ‘it’ can be almost anything, and the ‘who’ will be many of the hundreds of channels available even on smartphones in scores of millions of Americans’ pockets. … The federal subsidy is about 15 percent of the funding for all public broadcasting. If the viewers, listeners and others who volunteer the other 85 percent enjoy the CPB’s offerings as much as they say, surely they will provide the other 15 percent. They should know that government’s share is a regressive transfer of wealth: The average American household income is less than that of the average income of PBS viewers and listeners to the CPB’s NPR.” (03/14/25)
https://archive.is/2JREb
-----
40) Homeschooling Families Shouldn’t Fear School Choice Policies
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald
“This deregulatory trend in homeschooling has occurred as school-choice policies expand nationwide, enabling more families to apply a portion of state-allocated education funding toward the learning environment that works best for their children — including, in some places, homeschooling programs and curricula. While homeschoolers should always be on the lookout for regulatory threats, and should fight back against regulation, as my FEE colleague Nasiyah Isra-Ul recently urged, data suggest that homeschooling families should not fear the expansion of school-choice policies.” (03/14/25)
https://fee.org/articles/homeschooling-families-shouldnt-fear-school-choice-policies/
-----
41) The Fault Line in Democratic Politics
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“After Kamala Harris’s loss last year, professional Democrats with moderate politics prepared for their favorite quadrennial sport: recrimination. They wanted to ‘take back’ the party from the self-imagined villains they oppose. They wrote manifestos and donor memos and positioned themselves against ‘the groups.’ Just a couple weeks ago, they organized a retreat where they condemned ‘ideological purity tests’ as their path to a brighter future. I’m struck by how irrelevant that all sounds, less than two months into Donald Trump’s second term. It feels like these people are arguing about proper salad fork etiquette while their house is on fire. … is the party in opposition to Donald Trump going to oppose anything?” [editor’s note: It’s fun to watch “progressives” oppose the continuation of “government” under the same “budget” Biden had, simply because the CR is supported by Trump – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-15-fault-line-democratic-politics-schumer-AOC-fight/
-----
42) DOGE: Efficiency Requires Elimination
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Fail to ‘eliminate’ many of the non-essential programs or goals and you’ll end up with a host of inefficiency baked in, not least because the federal government currently has so many competing aims.” (03/14/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/doge-efficiency-requires-elimination
-----
43) Trump Is Unleashing a Chaos Economy
Source: The Atlantic
by Jerusalem Demsas
“Chaos is Trump’s calling card, but few could have expected how quickly the president would ricochet all over the place on the size, nature, and timing of — not to mention the justifications for — one of his signature policies. Before markets can adjust to one pronouncement, the world’s smartphones buzz in unison announcing that the wealthiest nation in the world, whose dollars hold up the global financial system, is hurtling in another direction once again.” (03/14/25)
https://archive.is/eFrK0
-----
44) Howard Lutnick Doesn’t Get To Decide What You Buy
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm
“Every day, thousands of transactions take place in which Americans and Canadians consent to exchange currency for goods.
“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick thinks there is someone they forgot to ask. ‘We don’t want to buy 60 percent of our aluminum from Canada,’ Lutnick explained during an interview with Fox News on Thursday. ‘We want to bring [aluminum production] to America.’ Lutnick’s phrasing there is pretty telling. There is no ‘royal we’ in the marketplace — that Canadian aluminum is not being bought by the federal government, but by private American businesses, which are making deals with private companies on the other side of the border. There is, indeed, no reason to think about those transactions in a nationalist way at all. The economy is not a World Cup match. When Canadian companies exchange their aluminum for American companies’ money, both sides win.” (03/14/25)
https://reason.com/2025/03/14/howard-lutnick-doesnt-get-to-decide-what-you-buy/
-----
45) The Department of Education Has Finally Flunked Out
Source: Town Hall
by Michael Reagan
“We’ve all seen the outrageous stats for the Department of Education. Until Donald Trump’s White House hit man Elon Musk sicced his Department of Government Efficiency on it, the Education Department had an annual budget of between $238 and $268 billion and employed about 4,100 bureaucrats. This week, the department my father tried to kill in its infancy 45 years ago laid off about 2,000 Education Department employees. What will happen to all the billions the doomed department spends each year still must be figured out by DOGE. … Liberals are making the Education Department sound like it’s indispensable to America’s present and future. But everyone in D.C. has always known that despite its huge budget, it doesn’t run classrooms or teach kids a thing.” (03/15/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2025/03/15/the-department-of-education-has-finally-flunked-out-n2653837
-----
46) Tariff Turmoil: The Economic Risks of a Global Trade War
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii
“Trump continues to claim that tariffs are taxes paid by foreign countries. The reality, however, tells a different story: they’re taxes on Americans. Research shows his proposed trade barriers could hike household expenses by $2,600 to $3,900 annually, while pushing consumer prices up by as much as 2.8 percent. Unsurprisingly, low- and middle-income families would suffer the most, making tariffs a regressive and harmful policy. Perhaps one of Trump’s most bizarre assertions is that tariffs could reduce grocery prices. In reality, they would do the opposite.” (03/14/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/trumps-new-tariffs-endanger-us-citizens-and-businesses/
-----
47) Ukraine Agrees to a Ceasefire. Could it Really Happen?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“Russia is more likely to accept the ceasefire if the immediate negotiations come with key assurances. If when the Trump administration briefs Russia, they present a lightly worded 30-day ceasefire with only the promise of immediate negotiations, the odds go down that Russia will accept; if they present the ceasefire with the promise of negotiations that are limited by certain guarantees, the odds go up.” (03/14/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2025/03/13/ukraine-agrees-to-a-ceasefire-could-it-really-happen/
-----
48) On My Husband’s Unconstitutional Arrest
Source: CounterPunch
byt Noor Abdalla
“My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.” (03/14/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/14/on-my-husbands-unconstitutional-arrest/
-----
49) How a “Plan 2028” Could Bring Labor and Social Movements Together
Source: In These Times
by Stephanie Luce
“The Trump Administration has come in with brute force, attacking working people and institutions from all angles. Its ’flood the zone’ strategy has left many feeling confused and powerless. But the MAGA forces are not unstoppable. Strong coalitions among labor and social movement organizations offer one of the best hopes for blocking the rise of white Christian nationalist forces and countering authoritarianism with progressive power. In fall 2023, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain called for unions around the country to align their contracts to expire on May 1, 2028, to join the UAW in their next round of bargaining with the Big 3. This was in part a call for class solidarity, to bring workers together across unions, labor and social movements and geography. It was also an acknowledgment that some of the biggest demands that UAW members have — strong pensions and healthcare — cannot be won alone.” (03/14/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/plan-2028-labor-social-movements-strikes-may-day
-----
50) Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Donald Trump wants to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). It’s a bad idea if your standard is freedom, free enterprise, and free markets. That’s not Trump’s standard, but we already knew that. A sovereign wealth fund is a government-run investment program. Where does the money come from? In the private sector, people save money (defer consumption) and let entrepreneurs and capital owners (perhaps including themselves) use it to produce goods and services that serve consumers sooner or later. … Governments with SWFs typically used budget surpluses to get them going. We might ask why those governments didn’t cut taxes and spending instead. After all, the government had taken in more money than it required to cover its spending. If you look at this from the politicians’ and bureaucrats’ point of view, the answer is obvious. They like using other people’s coerced money for social engineering.” (03/14/25)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/tgif-say-no-to-sovereign-wealth-fund.html
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Quillette Podcast, episode 276
Source: Quillette
“Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.” (03/15/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/03/15/podcast-276-on-book-banning/
-----
52) Low Key WAL with Harry Price, 03/15/25
Source: We Are Libertarians
“From AI Debates to MAR10 Day – Oh, and a Streamer Scandal.” (03/15/25)
https://wearelibertarians.com/lkw-from-ai-debates-to-mar10-day-oh-and-a-streamer-scandal/
-----
53) The Anarchist Experience, episode 519
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, MC, and KS discuss citizenship, when you might want to deport someone, and this HEADLINE: What Are the Goals of Trump’s Tariffs?” (03/15/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/03/15/the-anarchist-experience-519/
-----
54) Thomas Eddlem on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Thomas Eddlem on the Plutocratic War on the American Working Class.” (03/15/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/3-7-25-thomas-eddlem-on-the-plutocratic-war-on-the-american-working-class/
-----
55) The Good Fight, 03/15/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss Ukraine, China, and what to expect in the coming months.” (03/15/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/fukuyama-5
-----
56) The Fifth Column, episode 495
Source: The Fifth Column
“Cranks, Conspiracies, Campuses, and Ceasefires.” (03/14/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/495-cranks-conspiracies-campuses
-----
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2618
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“About Those ‘Moderate Rebels’ in Syria.” (03/14/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2618-about-those-moderate-rebels-in-syria/
-----
58) The Libertarian Angle, 03/14/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Donald Trump’s Assault on Freedom of Speech.” (03/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJisyeBkkTo
-----
59) The New Abnormal, 03/14/25
Source: The Daily Beast
“Trump Is Playing Russian Roulette.” (03/14/25)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-is-playing-russian-roulette/id1508202790?i=1000699125127
-----
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 770
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Will Putin Accept the Ceasefire?” (03/14/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-770-will-putin-accept-the-ceasefire/
-----
61) Freakonomics Radio, episode 626
Source: Freakonomics
“Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System.” (03/14/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ten-myths-about-the-u-s-tax-system/
-----
62) Nonzero, 03/14/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Another DeepSeek Moment? (Connor Echols & Robert Wright).” (03/14/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68494
-----
63) Serious Trouble, 03/14/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“At Least Everyone Knows How to Pronounce It Now.” (03/14/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/at-least-everyone-knows-how-to-pronounce
-----
64) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 03/14/25
Source: The New Republic
“Fiasco for Musk as He Craters in New Polls and DOGE Cuts Lose in Court.” (03/14/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/192747/fiasco-musk-craters-new-polls-doge-cuts-lose-court
-----
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/14/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“DOJ Sends ‘Antisemitism Task Force’ to US Cities, Putin Open to Ceasefire With Conditions, and More.” (03/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moI0f4IIVHg
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump wields 1798 law to deport nearly 300 despite judge’s order
2) Congo: M23 Rebels to Attend Angola Peace Talks
3) Russia: Regime demands “ironclad” guarantees in peace treaty with Ukraine
4) Yemen: Dozens reported killed after Trump orders “decisive” strikes against Houthis
5) Congress, Trump kick spending can down the road again
6) US Regime Places Visa Curbs on Thai Officials Over Uyghur Deportations
7) Rubio: South African ambassador “no longer welcome” in US
8) Arlington Cemetery strips content on black and female veterans from website
9) Russian, Ukrainian forces trade overnight aerial attacks after Putin sets out conditions for ceasefire
10) Palestine: Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say
11) Starmer: Military planning for Ukraine peace to begin
12) NYC: Adams says four of his top deputies have resigned
13) Starbucks ordered to pay $50 million to customer burned by hot drink
14) Serbia: An estimated 100k join antigovernment protest in Belgrade
15) NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
16) FL: Miami Beach mayor seeks to evict cinema for screening No Other Land
17) Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if ceasefire deal is implemented
18) US Snail to shed 10,000 jobs over next month
19) Trader Joe’s recalls 61.5K products over “laceration hazard”
20) Gold hits all-time high, crossing $3,000 on tariff fears
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Schumer’s Surrender: Much Ado About Nothing Surprising
22) Trump Claims Dictatorial Powers on Immigration. Everyone Should Be Scared.
23) Canada Has a Trade War Within Its Borders Too
24) Ludwig von Mises and the Berlin Batman
25) The redeem team
26) A reminder that Kamala Harris was a terrible candidate
27) Canada Is an Ally, Not an Enemy
28) The Return Of The McCarthyite Chill
29) Armenia redefines peace as within
30) Our Hamiltonian Moment
31) Here’s why real diversity should focus on class, not race
32) “A Horrifying Escalation”: How Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Could Galvanize Trump Opposition
33) Why Are So Many US Leaders Staying Silent as Musk and Trump Entrench [sic] Their Power?
34) The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is an affront to free speech
35) Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is The Only Option
36) Trump Destroyed America’s Relationship with Canada
37) The Trump/Johnson/Thune budget victory
38) Tariff Smartness in Australia
39) How the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is like the human appendix
40) Homeschooling Families Shouldn’t Fear School Choice Policies
41) The Fault Line in Democratic Politics
42) DOGE: Efficiency Requires Elimination
43) Trump Is Unleashing a Chaos Economy
44) Howard Lutnick Doesn’t Get To Decide What You Buy
45) The Department of Education Has Finally Flunked Out
46) Tariff Turmoil: The Economic Risks of a Global Trade War
47) Ukraine Agrees to a Ceasefire. Could it Really Happen?
48) On My Husband’s Unconstitutional Arrest
49) How a “Plan 2028” Could Bring Labor and Social Movements Together
50) Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Quillette Podcast, episode 276
52) Low Key WAL with Harry Price, 03/15/25
53) The Anarchist Experience, episode 519
54) Thomas Eddlem on The Scott Horton Show
55) The Good Fight, 03/15/25
56) The Fifth Column, episode 495
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2618
58) The Libertarian Angle, 03/14/25
59) The New Abnormal, 03/14/25
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 770
61) Freakonomics Radio, episode 626
62) Nonzero, 03/14/25
63) Serious Trouble, 03/14/25
64) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 03/14/25
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/14/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump wields 1798 law to deport nearly 300 despite judge’s order
Source: USA Today
“President Donald Trump’s administration deported nearly 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act despite a federal judge blocking the flights under the 1798 law last wielded during World War II. Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg’s order Saturday came after Trump issued a proclamation, which he had signed the day before, targeting Tren de Aragua members for immediate deportations under the 18th century law. … Despite Boasberg’s order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday that alleged Tren De Aragua gang members were arrested over the weekend at Trump’s direction and had already been deported to El Salvador.” (03/16/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/15/judge-blocks-trump-alien-enemies-act/82408225007/
-----
2) Congo: M23 Rebels to Attend Angola Peace Talks
Source: US News & World Report
“Rwandan-backed M23 rebels said on Monday they would send a delegation to peace talks with Democratic Republic of Congo’s government expected to begin on Tuesday in Angola’s capital. ‘The five-member delegation is expected to leave for Luanda on Monday for dialogue at the request of Angolan authorities,’ Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for the AFC rebel alliance that includes the M23, said in a post on X. On Sunday, President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said Kinshasa would also send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government’s long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group.” (03/17/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-03-17/congo-m23-rebels-say-they-will-send-delegation-to-angola-peace-talks
-----
3) Russia: Regime demands “ironclad” guarantees in peace treaty with Ukraine
Source: Reuters
“Russia will seek ‘ironclad’ guarantees in any peace deal on Ukraine that NATO nations will exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, a Russian deputy foreign minister said in remarks published on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trumpis trying to win President Vladimir Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week and which Putin says needs to meet crucial conditions to be acceptable. Trump is expected to speak with his Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday after returning from what he described as a ‘positive’ meeting with Putin in Moscow.” (03/17/25)
https://archive.is/YX8Jn
-----
4) Yemen: Dozens reported killed after Trump orders “decisive” strikes against Houthis
Source: CNN
“Dozens of people have been reported killed after US President Donald Trump ordered ‘decisive’ military action against Houthi rebels [sic] in Yemen, opening a new salvo against the Iran-backed group that has targeted shipping lanes in the Red Sea. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the US would deploy ‘overwhelming lethal force’ against the Houthis ‘until we have achieved our objective,’ signaling the start of a major operation that could last weeks and prompting the Houthis to warn of escalation. The US strikes killed at least 31 people and injured 101 others in Yemen, mostly women and children, the Houthi-run health ministry said.” (03/16/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/15/politics/trump-houthis-military-action/index.html
-----
5) Congress, Trump kick spending can down the road again
Source: NBC News
“President Donald Trump on Saturday signed into law a six-month funding bill, averting a government shutdown. In a post on X, White House Spokesperson Harrison Fields said Trump signed the bill and thanked Democrats who joined Republicans to approve the continuing measure. Trump’s signature comes after the Senate passed the bill on Friday just hours ahead of a midnight deadline. The vote was 54-46, with two Democrats joining all but one Republican in support of the measure. Earlier Friday, the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle with the help of 10 Democrats in a 62-38 vote. Sixty votes were needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.” (03/15/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-republican-funding-bill-government-shutdown-rcna196412
-----
6) US Regime Places Visa Curbs on Thai Officials Over Uyghur Deportations
Source: Bloomberg
“The US restricted visas to current and former Thai officials involved in the return of 40 Uyghurs to China last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. The visa curbs are part of a new policy to combat China’s efforts to pressure governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and other groups to China, the secretary of state said in a statement. Members of the Chinese minority group are subject to torture and enforced disappearances and the new visa restriction policy will apply to any government officials who deport Uyghurs back to the Asian country, he said.” (03/15/25)
https://archive.is/J2pob
-----
7) Rubio: South African ambassador “no longer welcome” in US
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as ‘a race-baiting politician.’ In a post on X, Rubio accused Ebrahim Rasool of hating the US and President Donald Trump, and said the ambassador ‘was no longer welcome in our great country.’ The office for South Africa’s president on Saturday called the decision ‘regrettable,’ adding that the country remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the US. The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries. While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official. In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmj8ky3rvno
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8) Arlington Cemetery strips content on black and female veterans from website
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed from its website information and educational materials about the history of black and female service members. Some of the content unpublished from the site was on veterans who had received the nation’s highest military recognition, the Medal of Honor, according to military news site Task & Purpose. The content removal is part of a larger effort by President Donald Trump to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in the military and throughout the federal government. Approximately 400,000 veterans are buried in the Army-run cemetery, which was established after the US Civil War at the home of the South’s general, Robert E. Lee. On the cemetery’s website, internal links that directed users to webpages with information about the ‘Notable Graves’ of dozens of black, Hispanic and female veterans were missing on Friday.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz03gjnxe25o
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9) Russian, Ukrainian forces trade overnight aerial attacks after Putin sets out conditions for ceasefire
Source: SFGate
“Russia and Ukraine traded heavy aerial blows overnight, with both sides on Saturday reporting more than 100 enemy drones over their respective territories. The attacks comes less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss details of the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine. Putin told a press conference on Thursday that he supported a truce in principle but set out a host of details that need to be clarified before it is agreed. Kyiv has already endorsed the truce proposal, although Ukrainian officials have publicly raised doubts as to whether Moscow will commit to such a deal.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/russia-and-ukraine-launch-aerial-attacks-amid-20223045.php
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10) Palestine: Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say
Source: Reuters
“Israeli military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and U.S. mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza. Israel’s military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by ‘terrorists’ approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect. Gaza’s Health Ministry said most of the latest deaths took place on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.” (03/16/25)
https://archive.is/SOE5a
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11) Starmer: Military planning for Ukraine peace to begin
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said military planning to protect a potential Ukraine ceasefire is moving ‘to an operational phase’ after a virtual meeting with 29 other world leaders. Military leaders will meet in London on Thursday ‘to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security,’ Sir Keir said. The meeting follows Ukraine agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire after talks with the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agrees with the idea, but set a number of pre-conditions for peace. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined Saturday’s meeting, said ‘active pressure is needed, not just talks.’ ‘The world must understand that Russia is the only obstacle preventing peace,’ he said.” (03/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ymrz8d21yo
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12) NYC: Adams says four of his top deputies have resigned
Source: United Press International
“Four New York City deputy managers resigned over May Eric Adams'[s] cooperation with the federal government in deporting migrants despite being a sanctuary city, his office confirmed Monday. The top city officials met remotely with the Democrat on Friday and Sunday at his mayoral residence, Politico, WNBC-TV and CNN reported. Adams is running for re-election in a June primary. Planning to depart are First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker, Adams'[s] office confirmed.” (03/15/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/15/NY-Mayor-Adams-top-deputies-resign/1471739827214/
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13) Starbucks ordered to pay $50 million to customer burned by hot drink
Source: Fox News
“Coffee giant Starbucks has been ordered to pay a California drive-through customer $50 million after an unsecured hot drink spilled on him, causing burns. Michael Garcia underwent skin grafts and other procedures on his genitals after he was handed a takeout tray of venti-sized drinks at a drive-through on Feb. 8, 2020. His lawyers successfully argued that a barista failed to wedge one of those drinks into the tray and when Garcia took it into his possession, the scorching hot drink spilled out, causing severe burns. He suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorney. The lawsuit accused Starbucks of breaching its duty of care. A Los Angeles County jury agreed and awarded the massive payout.” (03/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/starbucks-ordered-pay-50m-customer-burned-hot-drink
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14) Serbia: An estimated 100k join antigovernment protest in Belgrade
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least 100,000 people descended on Belgrade for a mass rally seen as a culmination of months-long protests against Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and his government. Large crowds of flag-waving protesters clogged the downtown area of the capital on Saturday despite occasional rain, with people hardly able to move. Following apparent sporadic incidents between protesters and the police, university students – who have been leading the peaceful protests for the past four months – abruptly called for an end to the demonstration, saying they could no longer guarantee safety at the rally. Most of the protesters dispersed, but thousands remained on the streets as tensions surged. Police said the crowd reached 107,000 at the peak of the protest. Serbian independent media described the rally as the biggest ever in the country, saying the numbers were much higher.” (03/16/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/3/16/an-estimated-100000-join-antigovernment-rally-in-serbias-belgrade
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15) NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
Source: SFGate
“Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The four newcomers — representing the U.S., Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June. Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/nasa-s-stuck-astronauts-welcome-their-newly-20224071.php
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16) FL: Miami Beach mayor seeks to evict cinema for screening No Other Land
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner has sought to evict an art house cinema from city property for screening Oscar-winning No Other Land, a film about the Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He also wants to halt future grant payments to the non-profit O Cinema in South Beach, Fla. City commissioners are expected to vote on legislation introduced by Meiner next week, according to a resolution document made public on Thursday. Meiner has described the movie as one-sided propaganda and an attack on Jewish people, while the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and other civil rights advocates have condemned his actions as being against free speech. The film’s co-directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, dismiss allegations that it is antisemitic.” (03/14/25)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/miami-beach-no-other-land-1.7483517?cmp=rss
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17) Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if ceasefire deal is implemented
Source: SFGate
“Hamas said Saturday it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements their ceasefire agreement, calling it an ‘exceptional deal’ aimed at getting the truce back on track. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in Gaza including local journalists, medics and a watchdog said. A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire’s second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Israel also would need to stop barring the entry of humanitarian aid and withdraw from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Israel has said it won’t withdraw there, citing the need to combat weapons smuggling. Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.” (03/15/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/hamas-says-it-will-only-release-american-israeli-20223017.php
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18) US Snail to shed 10,000 jobs over next month
Source: United Press International
“The United States Postal Service is expected to cut 10,000 jobs from its workforce over the next 30 days, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy confirmed this week. The positions will be eliminated through a voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy, who is in the process of finding a successor, said he also signed a deal to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to identify ‘further efficiencies’ within the USPS. … The agency’s financial struggles are well-documented, but it has so far remained immune to major federal government cuts, including mass firings carried out by DOGE across several other federal agencies.” (03/14/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/14/postal-service-cuts-10000-jobs-doge-efficiency-congress-louis-dejoy/5271741965055/
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19) Trader Joe’s recalls 61.5K products over “laceration hazard”
Source: New York Post
“Trader Joe’s is recalling certain bottles of imported mineral water over the possibility that the glass containers may shatter. The recall impacts bottles of Gerolsteiner Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, an imported German mineral water. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the bottles were sold at around $3 a pop. In a Mar. 12 announcement, the grocery chain said that certain lot codes of the product ‘may have the potential for cracked/damaged bottles’. The affected products have lot codes of lot number 11/28/2024 L or 11/27/2024 L. ‘The issue was identified by research related to bottle breakage during production and potentially affects 1% of bottles in the lot codes above,’ the chain explained. ‘If you have bottles with either lot code, please do not use them. We urge you to dispose of them carefully and go to any Trader Joe’s for a full refund.'” (03/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/15/business/trader-joes-recalls-61-5k-products-over-laceration-hazard/
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20) Gold hits all-time high, crossing $3,000 on tariff fears
Source: Axios
“Gold hit a new all-time high Friday, breaking $3,000 for the first time ever, as investors search for tariff safe-havens. … The yellow metal is up about 10% since President Trump won the election last November, outperforming most other asset classes. … The new record for gold comes just a few hours after the biggest U.S. stocks entered correction territory, 10% off their all-time highs set less than a month ago.” (03/14/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/14/gold-all-time-high-3000
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Schumer’s Surrender: Much Ado About Nothing Surprising
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The Democrats objecting to Schumer’s surrender don’t, for the most part, offer any attractive alternative to the GOP program. Like the Republicans, they’re fine with insane levels of government spending, continuing deficits, increasing debt, and onerous taxation. The whole thing is half Off-Off Broadway theater and half what Freud called ‘the narcissism of small differences,’ wherein similar people with similar ideas lose their minds over trivial disagreements. For those of us who aren’t in the tank for either party, it’s less complicated. First, if a government function is ‘non-essential,’ why is government doing it in the first place? Second, if we’re going to bother putting ourselves through the recurring ritual of electing supposed representatives to guard whatever we perceive as our interests, shouldn’t we expect those representatives to actually fight for those interests?” (03/15/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19436
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22) Trump Claims Dictatorial Powers on Immigration. Everyone Should Be Scared.
Source: US News & World Report
by David J Bier & Ilya Somin
“During his campaign for president, Donald Trump said he’d only be a dictator on ‘Day One,’ when he would ‘close the border’ to nearly all immigrants. True to his word, when Trump entered office, he signed executive orders that sought to rewrite the Constitution and explicitly override the law to restrict immigration. But those executive orders didn’t expire on Day Two. The president is still exercising dictatorial powers on immigration, and it isn’t yet clear that anyone will stop him. Several court decisions have sought to rein him in, and the Supreme Court should also intervene, if necessary. Whatever one thinks of immigration, any limits must be imposed lawfully.” [editor’s note: Absent a constitutional amendment, all such limits are unlawful – TLK] (03/14/25)
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-14/trump-alien-enemies-act-birthright-citizenship
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23) Canada Has a Trade War Within Its Borders Too
Source: Independent Institute
by Denny Han
“The Trump administration’s tariffs are a disaster for both the Canadian and U.S. economies. As of writing this, the administration has flipped-flopped on implementing them. However, the outcome is nearly as detrimental as imposing tariffs due to the uncertainty that has emerged in our long-standing alliance with America’s neighbor. Canadian businesses have pulled American products off their shelves en masse and American businesses are unable to plan for the long term if they don’t know which inputs they’re able to buy abroad. The silver lining, however, is that this may be the push Canada needs to make long-awaited reforms on internal trade barriers. Discussions of removing internal trade barriers have surged in the last few months since Trump won the election and subsequently took office. Former Prime Minister Trudeau recently announced that Canada’s Premiers have agreed to further remove internal trade barriers by June 1, 2025. ” (03/14/25)
https://blog.independent.org/2025/03/14/canada-trade-war-borders
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24) Ludwig von Mises and the Berlin Batman
Source: EconLog
by Art Carden
“Mises’s opposition to totalitarian socialism of the right (Naziism) and totalitarian socialism of the left (communism) was so complete that he ended up being the subject of a 1998 issue of The Batman Chronicles titled ‘The Berlin Batman.’ It features a short story asking, ‘What if Bruce Wayne had actually been a Jewish artist named ‘Baruch Wane’ in 1930s Berlin?’ When Baruch Wane heard that the Nazi Kommisar had to meet a train because they had seized the books and library of Ludwig von Mises, he worked to stop them (perhaps he delayed them and did not stop them). Still, it correctly explained that Mises was anti-Nazi and correctly portrayed Mises’s Human Action as a volume that repudiated totalitarian doctrines and embraced liberty.” (03/15/25)
https://www.econlib.org/ludwig-von-mises-and-the-berlin-batman/
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25) The redeem team
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“Collectively, they spent 155 years in prison. Now they counsel other people facing their own long sentences. A conversation with five ‘peer advocates’ at the New Orleans public defender’s office.” (03/15/25)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-redeem-team
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26) A reminder that Kamala Harris was a terrible candidate
Source: Washington Examiner
by Byron York
“Recently, a video circulated of former Vice President Kamala Harris engaging in her trademark word salad during an appearance at an AI conference in Las Vegas. Harris was saying something about nacho cheese Doritos, but beyond that, the point was not clear. The most striking effect of the video was to see and hear Harris again after her virtual disappearance from the public scene in the last 4 1/2 months. During the presidential campaign, we saw and heard her every day, and these days … mostly nothing. But we will soon learn a bit more about the Harris candidacy from book-length accounts of the 2024 campaign. One that is coming on April 1 is called FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, two reporters who have often focused on Democrats.” (03/13/25)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3346975/reminder-kamala-harris-terrible-candidate-2024-campaign/
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27) Canada Is an Ally, Not an Enemy
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Victimizing Americans with … abundant goods provided at reasonable prices.” (03/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/canada-united-states-tariffs-trump-nato/
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28) The Return Of The McCarthyite Chill
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Every noncitizen in the US now has to watch what they say about foreign policy — or else. You may have just arrived from Putin’s Russia, and are now being told by Trump: don’t think you now have free speech just because you’re in America. The US government is monitoring your every word and can deport you if you say the wrong thing. You have to wait until you’re a citizen to be free. If the law seems McCarthyite, that’s because it was passed in 1952 and aimed specifically at Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe suspected of communist sympathies.” (03/14/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-return-of-the-mccarthyite-chill-8ca
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29) Armenia redefines peace as within
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“After multiple territorial wars over more than 35 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan, two small countries ringed by big powers, announced March 13 that they had agreed on a draft peace agreement. That alone prompted praise across a conflict-riddled Eurasian continent. Yet a portion of praise went to only Armenia, population 3 million, for something else. Following the country’s latest military defeat in 2023, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan not only offered concessions to Azerbaijan but also launched a campaign at home to lift the national identity beyond ethnicity, a trait that exudes exclusivity and lies at the heart of many wars. The ‘Real Armenia,’ he said in a February speech, resides in all citizens living within the country’s recognized borders – ethnic minorities included – as ‘the source of the legal order,’ along with spiritual values that bring harmony and happiness.” (03/14/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0314/Armenia-redefines-peace-as-within
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30) Our Hamiltonian Moment
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama
“At the moment, everyone worried about what the Trump administration is doing to America is focused on constraining executive power. This is absolutely the right emphasis now: Trump is an authoritarian who aspires to be a king who can run the United States through executive orders. Our checks and balances need to be preserved and strengthened. But there is a good chance that the Trump project will ultimately fail, and opportunities to rebuild the American government will emerge. Indeed, the only way that Trumpism can be displaced is for his opponents to offer something better.” (03/14/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/our-hamiltonian-moment
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31) Here’s why real diversity should focus on class, not race
Source: New York Post
by Richard D Kahlenberg
“I’ve spent my career as a center-left thinker and writer, working with people like former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to help promote school integration and Keith Ellison and the late John Lewis to strengthen organized labor. So why did I agree to join a conservative group, Students for Fair Admissions, in its lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina in cases that enabled the Supreme Court to bring an end to racial preferences in 2023? As I outline in my new book, Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, I testified as an expert witness that racial and economic diversity benefits students, but there is a much better way to accomplish these goals than through racial preferences.” (03/15/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/03/15/opinion/real-diversity-should-focus-on-class-not-race/
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32) “A Horrifying Escalation”: How Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Could Galvanize Trump Opposition
Source: The Bulwark
by Adrian Carrasquillo
“Trump supporters have made no secret that they welcome a debate over Khalil. They’ve argued that the administration had lawful powers to initiate his deportation while playing up his alleged sympathy for Hamas. They’ve taunted Democrats who’ve come to his defense, arguing that they’re taking the wrong side of a 70-30 issue for the public. But for those defending Khalil, the issue is not just about political debates in the present but precedents set for the future. Immigration groups are seizing on the Khalil case to plead with Americans to recognize the threat in an administration that can target someone undocumented one week, a green card holder the next, and U.S. citizens in the future — on everything from birthright citizenship to accidental detention to racial profiling.” (03/14/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/mahmoud-khalil-immigration-detention-first-amendment-free-speech-rights
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33) Why Are So Many US Leaders Staying Silent as Musk and Trump Entrench [sic] Their Power?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“There are reasons why influential or knowledgeable Americans are staying silent as the worsening fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice. Start with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They despise President Donald Trump as he does them. Rich and comfortable former President George W. Bush is very proud of his administration’s funding of AIDS medicines saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump, driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S. assistance (including programs to lessen the health toll on people afflicted by tuberculosis and malaria).” [editor’s note: Ralph seems have gone over senility edge at last – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-leaders-silent-trump
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34) The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is an affront to free speech
Source: spiked
by Wendy Kaminer
“Sadly, this needs to be said – the First Amendment protects the right to engage in anti-American and pro-Hamas speech and to protest against government policy in the Middle East, extravagantly and even with anti-Semitic fervour. To suggest otherwise is to engage in right-wing wokeism, conditioning speech rights on inoffensiveness.” (03/15/25)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/15/the-arrest-of-mahmoud-khalil-is-an-affront-to-free-speech/
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35) Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is The Only Option
Source: The Intercept
by Jessica Washington
“Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., capitulated to President Donald Trump and the GOP over the budget this week, sacrificing one of Democrats’ last pieces of leverage as Trump bulldozes the federal government and jails activists. Schumer defended voting yes on the GOP budget that would neuter the legislative branch, arguing that he had no choice but to give in or face a government shutdown. He’s not the first to make that kind of decision. Leaders of businesses, universities, and nations across the globe face the same question: Should they fight Trump, or hope that by giving him what he wants he’ll somehow do less harm? Far too often, these leaders have chosen appeasement over resistance — and, in return, gotten nothing.” (03/15/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/15/appeasing-trump-doesnt-work/
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36) Trump Destroyed America’s Relationship with Canada
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“Living on the other side of the longest undefended border in the world from their superpower neighbor has created a paradox in Canadians’ national identity. Canadians are not Americans. They are different in ways that are central to their sense of who they are. At the same time, the two countries’ respective cultures, sports, music, movies, television, literature, economies, and militaries are so integrated as to be inseparable. For longer than living memory, Canadians have seen the U.S. as more than the closest of allies. America has been Canada’s closest partner and friend. Donald Trump has destroyed that in less than two months.” (03/14/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-destroyed-americas-relationship-with-canada/
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37) The Trump/Johnson/Thune budget victory
Source: Fox News
by Newt Gingrich
“The passage of the continuing resolution to keep the government open was a remarkable example of the revolutionary movement through which we are living. Traditionally, a continuing resolution requires a bipartisan agreement to get through the Senate. Republican leaders meet with Democratic leaders to discuss it. And the continuing resolution becomes far more expensive – and gains a lot more ideological language. After the 2024 election, many supposed experts said that President Donald Trump would have a hard time getting legislation through the extraordinarily narrow House Republican majority – or past the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. The House Republicans have been in turmoil for a decade.” [editor’s note: It is amusing to see Gingrich celebrate the continuance of Biden’s spending levels, in order not to shut down the bloated government – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-trump-johnson-thune-budget-victory
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38) Tariff Smartness in Australia
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“One way to view retaliatory tariffs is as follows: Trump shoots foreign citizens and American citizens in their feet with his tariffs. The targeted nation retaliates by shooting its own citizens and American citizens in their feet with retaliatory tariffs. Thus, we have tariff dumbness on both sides. What should a nation do when Trump hits them with tariffs? Nothing. It should not retaliate with retaliatory tariffs. The smart thing is to do is nothing. … Therefore, congratulations to public officials in Australia, who have been among the nations that Trump has hit with tariffs.” (03/14/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/03/14/tariff-smartness-in-australia/
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39) How the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is like the human appendix
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“The CPB’s Public Broadcasting Service, launched 55 years ago, at least increased many Americans’ network television choices from three (CBS, NBC, ABC) to four. Thirty years ago, however, PBS improvidently adopted the slogan ‘If PBS doesn’t do it, who will?’ Today, the antecedent of ‘it’ can be almost anything, and the ‘who’ will be many of the hundreds of channels available even on smartphones in scores of millions of Americans’ pockets. … The federal subsidy is about 15 percent of the funding for all public broadcasting. If the viewers, listeners and others who volunteer the other 85 percent enjoy the CPB’s offerings as much as they say, surely they will provide the other 15 percent. They should know that government’s share is a regressive transfer of wealth: The average American household income is less than that of the average income of PBS viewers and listeners to the CPB’s NPR.” (03/14/25)
https://archive.is/2JREb
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40) Homeschooling Families Shouldn’t Fear School Choice Policies
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald
“This deregulatory trend in homeschooling has occurred as school-choice policies expand nationwide, enabling more families to apply a portion of state-allocated education funding toward the learning environment that works best for their children — including, in some places, homeschooling programs and curricula. While homeschoolers should always be on the lookout for regulatory threats, and should fight back against regulation, as my FEE colleague Nasiyah Isra-Ul recently urged, data suggest that homeschooling families should not fear the expansion of school-choice policies.” (03/14/25)
https://fee.org/articles/homeschooling-families-shouldnt-fear-school-choice-policies/
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41) The Fault Line in Democratic Politics
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“After Kamala Harris’s loss last year, professional Democrats with moderate politics prepared for their favorite quadrennial sport: recrimination. They wanted to ‘take back’ the party from the self-imagined villains they oppose. They wrote manifestos and donor memos and positioned themselves against ‘the groups.’ Just a couple weeks ago, they organized a retreat where they condemned ‘ideological purity tests’ as their path to a brighter future. I’m struck by how irrelevant that all sounds, less than two months into Donald Trump’s second term. It feels like these people are arguing about proper salad fork etiquette while their house is on fire. … is the party in opposition to Donald Trump going to oppose anything?” [editor’s note: It’s fun to watch “progressives” oppose the continuation of “government” under the same “budget” Biden had, simply because the CR is supported by Trump – SAT] (03/15/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-15-fault-line-democratic-politics-schumer-AOC-fight/
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42) DOGE: Efficiency Requires Elimination
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Fail to ‘eliminate’ many of the non-essential programs or goals and you’ll end up with a host of inefficiency baked in, not least because the federal government currently has so many competing aims.” (03/14/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/doge-efficiency-requires-elimination
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43) Trump Is Unleashing a Chaos Economy
Source: The Atlantic
by Jerusalem Demsas
“Chaos is Trump’s calling card, but few could have expected how quickly the president would ricochet all over the place on the size, nature, and timing of — not to mention the justifications for — one of his signature policies. Before markets can adjust to one pronouncement, the world’s smartphones buzz in unison announcing that the wealthiest nation in the world, whose dollars hold up the global financial system, is hurtling in another direction once again.” (03/14/25)
https://archive.is/eFrK0
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44) Howard Lutnick Doesn’t Get To Decide What You Buy
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm
“Every day, thousands of transactions take place in which Americans and Canadians consent to exchange currency for goods.
“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick thinks there is someone they forgot to ask. ‘We don’t want to buy 60 percent of our aluminum from Canada,’ Lutnick explained during an interview with Fox News on Thursday. ‘We want to bring [aluminum production] to America.’ Lutnick’s phrasing there is pretty telling. There is no ‘royal we’ in the marketplace — that Canadian aluminum is not being bought by the federal government, but by private American businesses, which are making deals with private companies on the other side of the border. There is, indeed, no reason to think about those transactions in a nationalist way at all. The economy is not a World Cup match. When Canadian companies exchange their aluminum for American companies’ money, both sides win.” (03/14/25)
https://reason.com/2025/03/14/howard-lutnick-doesnt-get-to-decide-what-you-buy/
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45) The Department of Education Has Finally Flunked Out
Source: Town Hall
by Michael Reagan
“We’ve all seen the outrageous stats for the Department of Education. Until Donald Trump’s White House hit man Elon Musk sicced his Department of Government Efficiency on it, the Education Department had an annual budget of between $238 and $268 billion and employed about 4,100 bureaucrats. This week, the department my father tried to kill in its infancy 45 years ago laid off about 2,000 Education Department employees. What will happen to all the billions the doomed department spends each year still must be figured out by DOGE. … Liberals are making the Education Department sound like it’s indispensable to America’s present and future. But everyone in D.C. has always known that despite its huge budget, it doesn’t run classrooms or teach kids a thing.” (03/15/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2025/03/15/the-department-of-education-has-finally-flunked-out-n2653837
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46) Tariff Turmoil: The Economic Risks of a Global Trade War
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii
“Trump continues to claim that tariffs are taxes paid by foreign countries. The reality, however, tells a different story: they’re taxes on Americans. Research shows his proposed trade barriers could hike household expenses by $2,600 to $3,900 annually, while pushing consumer prices up by as much as 2.8 percent. Unsurprisingly, low- and middle-income families would suffer the most, making tariffs a regressive and harmful policy. Perhaps one of Trump’s most bizarre assertions is that tariffs could reduce grocery prices. In reality, they would do the opposite.” (03/14/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/trumps-new-tariffs-endanger-us-citizens-and-businesses/
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47) Ukraine Agrees to a Ceasefire. Could it Really Happen?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider
“Russia is more likely to accept the ceasefire if the immediate negotiations come with key assurances. If when the Trump administration briefs Russia, they present a lightly worded 30-day ceasefire with only the promise of immediate negotiations, the odds go down that Russia will accept; if they present the ceasefire with the promise of negotiations that are limited by certain guarantees, the odds go up.” (03/14/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2025/03/13/ukraine-agrees-to-a-ceasefire-could-it-really-happen/
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48) On My Husband’s Unconstitutional Arrest
Source: CounterPunch
byt Noor Abdalla
“My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.” (03/14/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/14/on-my-husbands-unconstitutional-arrest/
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49) How a “Plan 2028” Could Bring Labor and Social Movements Together
Source: In These Times
by Stephanie Luce
“The Trump Administration has come in with brute force, attacking working people and institutions from all angles. Its ’flood the zone’ strategy has left many feeling confused and powerless. But the MAGA forces are not unstoppable. Strong coalitions among labor and social movement organizations offer one of the best hopes for blocking the rise of white Christian nationalist forces and countering authoritarianism with progressive power. In fall 2023, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain called for unions around the country to align their contracts to expire on May 1, 2028, to join the UAW in their next round of bargaining with the Big 3. This was in part a call for class solidarity, to bring workers together across unions, labor and social movements and geography. It was also an acknowledgment that some of the biggest demands that UAW members have — strong pensions and healthcare — cannot be won alone.” (03/14/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/plan-2028-labor-social-movements-strikes-may-day
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50) Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Donald Trump wants to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). It’s a bad idea if your standard is freedom, free enterprise, and free markets. That’s not Trump’s standard, but we already knew that. A sovereign wealth fund is a government-run investment program. Where does the money come from? In the private sector, people save money (defer consumption) and let entrepreneurs and capital owners (perhaps including themselves) use it to produce goods and services that serve consumers sooner or later. … Governments with SWFs typically used budget surpluses to get them going. We might ask why those governments didn’t cut taxes and spending instead. After all, the government had taken in more money than it required to cover its spending. If you look at this from the politicians’ and bureaucrats’ point of view, the answer is obvious. They like using other people’s coerced money for social engineering.” (03/14/25)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/tgif-say-no-to-sovereign-wealth-fund.html
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Quillette Podcast, episode 276
Source: Quillette
“Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.” (03/15/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/03/15/podcast-276-on-book-banning/
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52) Low Key WAL with Harry Price, 03/15/25
Source: We Are Libertarians
“From AI Debates to MAR10 Day – Oh, and a Streamer Scandal.” (03/15/25)
https://wearelibertarians.com/lkw-from-ai-debates-to-mar10-day-oh-and-a-streamer-scandal/
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53) The Anarchist Experience, episode 519
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, MC, and KS discuss citizenship, when you might want to deport someone, and this HEADLINE: What Are the Goals of Trump’s Tariffs?” (03/15/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/03/15/the-anarchist-experience-519/
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54) Thomas Eddlem on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Thomas Eddlem on the Plutocratic War on the American Working Class.” (03/15/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/3-7-25-thomas-eddlem-on-the-plutocratic-war-on-the-american-working-class/
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55) The Good Fight, 03/15/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss Ukraine, China, and what to expect in the coming months.” (03/15/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/fukuyama-5
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56) The Fifth Column, episode 495
Source: The Fifth Column
“Cranks, Conspiracies, Campuses, and Ceasefires.” (03/14/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/495-cranks-conspiracies-campuses
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57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2618
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“About Those ‘Moderate Rebels’ in Syria.” (03/14/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2618-about-those-moderate-rebels-in-syria/
-----
58) The Libertarian Angle, 03/14/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Donald Trump’s Assault on Freedom of Speech.” (03/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJisyeBkkTo
-----
59) The New Abnormal, 03/14/25
Source: The Daily Beast
“Trump Is Playing Russian Roulette.” (03/14/25)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-is-playing-russian-roulette/id1508202790?i=1000699125127
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60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 770
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Will Putin Accept the Ceasefire?” (03/14/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-770-will-putin-accept-the-ceasefire/
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61) Freakonomics Radio, episode 626
Source: Freakonomics
“Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System.” (03/14/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ten-myths-about-the-u-s-tax-system/
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62) Nonzero, 03/14/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Another DeepSeek Moment? (Connor Echols & Robert Wright).” (03/14/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68494
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63) Serious Trouble, 03/14/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“At Least Everyone Knows How to Pronounce It Now.” (03/14/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/at-least-everyone-knows-how-to-pronounce
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64) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 03/14/25
Source: The New Republic
“Fiasco for Musk as He Craters in New Polls and DOGE Cuts Lose in Court.” (03/14/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/192747/fiasco-musk-craters-new-polls-doge-cuts-lose-court
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65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/14/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“DOJ Sends ‘Antisemitism Task Force’ to US Cities, Putin Open to Ceasefire With Conditions, and More.” (03/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moI0f4IIVHg
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