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05/05 -- Israel: Army starts calling up reservists for planned expansion to Gaza offensive; The Childbirth / "Great Replacement" Double Con
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Thomas L. Knapp
May 5, 2025, 6:29:47 AMMay 5
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 05/05/25
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Presented by the Liberty International
https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Israel: Army starts calling up reservists for planned expansion to Gaza offensive
2) Romania: Simion set to secure decisive win in first round of presidential redo
3) Mexico: Sheinbaum says she rejected Trump’s plan to send US troops across the border
4) Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign movies
5) Russia: Putin “hopes” there will be no “need” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
6) Missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war
7) CO: Sheriff Calls Out Trump Admin Over “Intimidating” Police to Work With ICE
8) UK: Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations
9) Buffett to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by end of the year
10) TX: Abbott signs bill to advance government takeover of private schools
11) US court halts ruling ordering Voice of America employees back to work
12) Portugal: Regime to expel some 18,000 migrants ahead of snap national election
13) Bitcoiners blast Arizona governor’s “ignorance” after Bitcoin bill veto
14) World may be “post-herd immunity” to measles, top US scientist says
15) Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports
16) Elon Musk Wins Vote to Establish His Own City in Starbase, Texas
17) Trump pauses trolling, says he won’t seek a third term
18) Australia: Labor Party, buoyed by anti-Trump bump, wins reelection
19) Hawaii passes first-of-its-kind bill to add 11% hotel tax for tourists
20) Trump order targeting law firm is illegal, federal judge rules
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Childbirth / “Great Replacement” Double Con
22) Cops Are Already Unleashed. Trump Is Telling Them to Run Wild.
23) “Twin Deficits”: A Tale of Fiscal Folly, Not Trade Failure
24) Fighting Oligarchy: The Idle Rich and the Vampire Economy
25) The great deliverable of Trump’s first 100 days? Revenge.
26) Support For Israel The #1 Threat To Free Speech In Our Society Today
27) Regulatory Tyranny Makes Both the Private and Public Sector Inefficient
28) Agorism for Palestine
29) Why water feuds seldom dissolve accords
30) Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.
31) Trump’s Border Militarization Scheme Threatens the Rule of Law
32) Liberalism as the Shining City on a Hill
33) Will the World Speak up Against Israel’s Likely Attack on Humanitarian Activists?
34) Reagan Was Criticized for Diplomacy, Too
35) The Trump GOP’s attacks on universities advance the left’s agenda
36) So Much for Free Speech Under Trump
37) Trump must ink trade deals ASAP to avoid downward economic AND political spiral
38) Living with the aftermath
39) Free Trade and Economic Freedom
40) The Blogger Who Hates America
41) How AOC Can Make Oversight Great Again
42) Judge Dread
43) How Russia’s naval rearmament has gone unnoticed
44) Don’t let Texas criminalize free political speech in the name of AI regulation
45) Yep, it’s Fetterman’s brain that triggered the Left’s [sic] hit piece
46) The State & Child Rape
47) Immigrants and Radicals Have the Same Free Speech Rights as Everyone Else
48) Baseball, Rule of Law, and the “Torpedo Bat”
49) Why Everyone Should Be Preparing For May Day 2028
50) Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Failure Built on Lies
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Good Fight, 05/03/25
52) Fountainhead Forum, episode 304
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 292
54) The Anarchist Experience, episode 526
55) Nonzero, 05/03/25
56) LPA Live, episode 15
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2640
58) Soho Forum Debate: Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
59) The Fifth Column, episode 503
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 793
61) Serious Trouble, 05/02/25
62) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 05/02/25
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 632
64) Politics Politics Politics, 05/02/25
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/02/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Israel: Army starts calling up reservists for planned expansion to Gaza offensive
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The Israeli military has begun calling up tens of thousands of reservists to ‘intensify and expand’ its operations in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was ‘increasing the pressure’ with the aim of returning hostages held in Gaza and defeating Hamas militants. Critics say the recent military offensive, after a ceasefire broke down, has failed to guarantee the release of captives, and question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objectives in the conflict. Under the plan, the military said it would operate in new areas and ‘destroy all infrastructure’ above and below ground. Israeli media report that the Israeli security cabinet has approved the renewed military expansion in Gaza.” (05/05/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2e44y44gjo
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2) Romania: Simion set to secure decisive win in first round of presidential redo
Source: SFGate
“Hard-right nationalist George Simion is set to secure a decisive win in the first round of Romania’s presidential election redo, incomplete electoral data indicated Sunday, months after an annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades. Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, is far outpacing all other candidates in the polls with 40.1% of the vote, official electoral data shows after 90% of votes were counted. Far behind in second place is the governing coalition’s joint candidate, Crin Antonescu, with 21.1%, and in third place Bucharest mayor, Nicusor Dan with 19.4% — but that gap is widely expected to narrow as votes from larger cities are counted.” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/romanians-vote-in-a-presidential-redo-after-20308976.php
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3) Mexico: Sheinbaum says she rejected Trump’s plan to send US troops across the border
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump proposed sending American troops into Mexico to help her administration fight drug trafficking but that she rejected it. Her remarks to supporters in eastern Mexico came in response to a Wall Street Journal article published the day before, describing a tense phone call last month in which Trump reportedly pressured her to accept a bigger role for the U.S. military in combating drug cartels in Mexico. … Sheinbaum’s hardline stance Saturday signaled that U.S. pressure for unilateral military intervention would put her and Trump on a collision course after months of cooperation on immigration and trade.” (05/04/25)
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5386456/mexico-president-rejected-trumps-plan-us-troops-across-border
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4) Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign movies
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump on Sunday extended his trade war to the cinema. Trump, in an evening post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he has instructed the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative to place a 100% tariff on films that are produced outside the United States and imported into America. … It’s not at all clear how such a tariff would be imposed. Films are intellectual property, not goods, so they represent a kind of service that is not currently subject to tariffs. However, the USTR notes that some services can be subject to certain non-tariff trade barriers, such as regulations and tax incentives. Those could disadvantage American filmmaking.” (05/04/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/media/movies-tariff-trump
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5) Russia: Putin “hopes” there will be no “need” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
Source: Associated Press
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen and that he hopes it will not. In comments aired Sunday in a film by Russian state television about his quarter of a century in power, Putin said Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a ‘logical conclusion.’ Responding to a question about Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, Putin said: ‘There has been no need to use those (nuclear) weapons … and I hope they will not be required.’ ‘We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires,’ he said.” (05/04/25)
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6) Missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war
Source: NBC News
“A missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Sunday briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport after an impact left a plume of smoke and caused panic among passengers. The Houthi rebels have been striking Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians. The attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport came hours before top Israeli Cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip. The army meanwhile began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in Gaza, officials said. The missile launch Sunday set off air raid sirens in multiple parts of Israel. A plume of smoke was visible at the airport, according to footage shared by Israeli media. Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover.” (05/04/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/missile-yemen-airport-israel-expand-gaza-war-rcna204682
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7) CO: Sheriff Calls Out Trump Admin Over “Intimidating” Police to Work With ICE
Source: Newsweek
“A Colorado sheriff accused President Donald Trump’s administration of using ‘intimidation’ to force police to work with federal immigration authorities. On April 28, Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions ‘that obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.’ ‘This executive order is an attempt to federalize, by intimidation, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office to do the current administration’s bidding on their political cause of the day,’ San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said in a statement on Friday. … ‘Although I am Sheriff of this great county for only another 30 days, I want to assure our local residents that during my short remaining tenure, I will follow Colorado law and not permit the federal government to use my office for political purposes.'” (05/04/25)
https://www.newsweek.com/sheriff-trump-admin-intimidating-police-ice-collaboration-2067799
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8) UK: Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations
Source: Sky News [UK]
“Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but ‘significant’ terrorism investigations. In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men — four of whom are Iranian nationals — as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody. The Met said the arrests related to a ‘suspected plot to target a specific premises.’ … Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.” (05/04/25)
https://news.sky.com/story/eight-men-arrested-in-connection-with-suspected-terrorist-plot-13361274
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9) Buffett to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by end of the year
Source: Fox Business
“Warren Buffett said on Saturday that he plans to step down by the end of this year as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The billionaire investor named Greg Abel, who is vice chairman, as his replacement. … Buffett, 94, said he would ‘hang around’ the conglomerate after retiring as CEO, according to CNBC. He said he has no plans to sell his shares in Berkshire Hathaway, which are expected to be donated after his death.” (05/03/25)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/warren-buffett-step-down-ceo-berkshire-hathaway-end-year
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10) TX: Abbott signs bill to advance government takeover of private schools
Source: CBS News
“Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the $1 billion controversial school choice bill into law, allowing for taxpayer money to be used to help qualifying students pay for private school tuition. … As part of the $1 billion bill, most students who attend an accredited private school will receive $10,000 per year. Students with disabilities will receive up to $30,000 per year, and home-schooled students will get $2,000 a year.” (05/03/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-gov-greg-abbott-sign-controversial-school-choice-bill-law/
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11) US court halts ruling ordering Voice of America employees back to work
Source: Reuters
“A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a ruling, opens new tab that had ordered the Trump administration to return more than 1,000 Voice of America employees back to work. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on April 22 ordered the administration to ‘take all necessary steps’ to restore employees and contractors to their positions at the U.S. news service and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts and some grants. The appeals court in a 2-1 decision suggested Lamberth lacked jurisdiction to order the employees to return to work and to require the restoration of $15 million in grants for Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.” (05/04/25)
https://archive.is/y5bhX
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12) Portugal: Regime to expel some 18,000 migrants ahead of snap national election
Source: euronews [EU]
“Portugal’s caretaker government announced plans on Saturday to expel about 18,000 foreigners living in the country without legal permits or authorisation. António Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, said the centre-right government will issue approximately 18,000 notifications to illegal migrants asking them to leave. According to Amaro, officials will begin next week by asking some 4,500 undocumented migrants to leave voluntarily within 20 days. The announcement comes in the build-up to the country’s early general election, scheduled to be held on 18 May.” (05/04/25)
https://www.euronews.com/2025/05/04/portugal-to-expel-some-18000-foreigners-ahead-of-snap-national-election
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13) Bitcoiners blast Arizona governor’s “ignorance” after Bitcoin bill veto
Source: Bitcoin.com
“Bitcoiners and United States government officials have criticized Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’[s] decision to veto a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves. ‘This will age poorly,” Casa co-founder and cypherpunk Jameson Lopp said in a May 3 X post. Bitcoin entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said, ‘Imagine the ignorance of a politician to believe they can make investment decisions.’ … Wendy Rogers, who co-sponsored the bill with State Representative Jeff Weninger, also voiced her disappointment. ‘Politicians don’t understand that Bitcoin doesn’t need Arizona. Arizona needs Bitcoin,’ Rogers said.” (05/04/25)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/arizona-governor-katie-hobbs-veto-bitcoin-bill-bitcoiners-react
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14) World may be “post-herd immunity” to measles, top US scientist says
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A leading immunologist warned of a ‘post-herd-immunity world,’ as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada. The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma. ‘We’re living in a post-herd-immunity world. I think the measles outbreak proves that,’ said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/03/measles-post-herd-immunity
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15) Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports
Source: SFGate
“Iran’s defense ministry Sunday unveiled the country’s latest solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reported, against a backdrop of threats from the United States over its nuclear program. TV showed the ‘Qassem Basir’ ballistic missile during an interview with Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh. He said it includes improvements in both guidance and maneuverability to overcome layers of defense and easily bypass anti-ballistic defense systems. The missile was most recently tested on April 17. TV described the missile as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range. It also said the missile can identify and strike a designated target among multiple ones without GPS guidance and with pinpoint accuracy.” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/iran-unveils-new-solid-fueled-ballistic-missile-20309544.php
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16) Elon Musk Wins Vote to Establish His Own City in Starbase, Texas
Source: Bloomberg
“Voters in South Texas delivered Elon Musk a decisive victory, overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure to establish Starbase, Texas, as its own city. By a margin of 173 to 4, residents of the far-flung community surrounding SpaceX’s rocket-launch site and headquarters voted resoundingly in favor of the incorporation effort, according to preliminary results posted on the county election website from the early voting period. Final totals were not immediately available. At the same time, voters also approved the city’s first elected officials, all three of whom are current or former SpaceX employees and ran unopposed. Virtually all of the inhabitants within the 1.45-square mile territory are Musk’s employees at the massive manufacturing facility that dominates the beachfront town, or their family members.” (05/04/25)
https://archive.is/rfj6i
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17) Trump pauses trolling, says he won’t seek a third term
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“US President Donald Trump has denied that he is considering a third presidential term, a move which experts agree is banned under the US Constitution. ‘I’ll be an eight-year president, I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important,’ Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker in an interview that aired on Sunday. Trump, 78, has previously said that he was ‘not joking’ about wanting to serve a third, or even fourth, term as US president. He later said his statements were meant to troll the ‘fake news media’. His company, The Trump Organization, has been selling ‘Trump 2028’ hats, fuelling armchair speculation that he may seek to remain in office after his second term ends in January 2029. In the interview, recorded from his residence in Florida on Friday, Trump said that he has had ‘many requests’ from people asking that he consider seeking to remain in office.” (05/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9l3399wvno
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18) Australia: Labor Party, buoyed by anti-Trump bump, wins reelection
Source: Washington Post
“Australia’s center-left government convincingly won reelection Saturday in a remarkable turnaround driven partly by anger over President Donald Trump’s disruptive trade war and its impact on the close U.S. military ally. Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to win a second term in more than two decades as his Labor Party dramatically increased its parliamentary majority. It marked a stunning comeback for the progressive leader, who trailed in the polls two months ago. In a jubilant victory speech, the 62-year-old struck a tone of unity while also alluding to his opponent’s failed embrace of Trump-like policies.” (05/03/25)
https://archive.is/pX4PG
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19) Hawaii passes first-of-its-kind bill to add 11% hotel tax for tourists
Source: SFGate
“A trip to Hawaii is about to get even more expensive for travelers in an attempt to preserve the islands’ future. Hawaii lawmakers have passed a first-of-its-kind bill to raise the tax on hotel stays and other vacation rentals, specifically to fund efforts to fight climate change. Senate Bill 1396 was unanimously passed in the Senate on April 25. On May 2, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill. Gov. Josh Green is expected to sign the bill. ‘Our residents and communities deserve to be protected,’ state Rep. Adrian K. Tam said at Friday’s adjournment. ‘As we continue to invite visitors to Hawaii to share the beauty of this land, this bill is a huge step in ensuring adequate funding is set aside to steward and protect our delicate ecosystems for visitors, our constituents and communities for generations to come.'” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-hotel-tax-bill-passes-20308594.php
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20) Trump order targeting law firm is illegal, federal judge rules
Source: Axios
“A federal judge found President Trump’s executive order targeting law firm Perkins Coie to be illegal, per the court ruling Friday. The ruling, which bars the administration from enforcing the executive order, is the first time a court has permanently prohibited Trump from using his presidential power against a law firm he perceives to have threatened him politically. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the law firm, one of the largest in the nation, in a 102-page opinion saying the executive order sends ‘the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.'” (05/03/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-perkins-coie-order-illegal-judge-ruling
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Childbirth / “Great Replacement” Double Con
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“If subsidizing kids got the job done, we wouldn’t be seeing the birthrate decline we’re seeing — and there’s no particular reason to believe that boosting the subsidies even higher will change the fact that in ever more prosperous societies, people choose to have ever fewer children. And if that whole program that sounds like a bad fit with Trump’s policy of trying to deport millions of foreign-born residents … it is. If you want a higher birth rate, throwing out the people who have kids makes zero sense. Unless, that is, you couple the ‘demographic decline’ panic with a ‘Great Replacement’ theory positing that people who come to the United States and have kids are being ‘imported’ for the express purpose of changing American politics and culture in particular and negative ways.” (05/03/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19532
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22) Cops Are Already Unleashed. Trump Is Telling Them to Run Wild.
Source: The Intercept
by Radley Balko
“During his run in presidential politics, Trump has praised and encouraged police brutality. He has applauded violent crackdowns on protests, especially by authoritarian regimes. He believes in projecting strength, and believes strong leaders demonstrate strength with violence. This is why he has often suggested that police officers will attack his enemies if called upon, and why the Capitol Police who defended Congress from his supporters received so much of his wrath. Yet you can’t unleash something that has never been restrained in the first place. And in the U.S., the police have never been restrained.” (05/02/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/02/trump-police-executive-order/
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23) “Twin Deficits”: A Tale of Fiscal Folly, Not Trade Failure
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Irresponsible government spending is caused by the fiscal recklessness of Congress and the White House, not by foreigners making attractive offers of imported goods to Americans.” (05/02/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/twin-deficits-a-tale-of-fiscal-folly-not-trade-failure/
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24) Fighting Oligarchy: The Idle Rich and the Vampire Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato
“The question of whether the United States is an oligarchy has come to the fore, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez draw major crowds around the country to their Fighting Oligarchy Tour. Their message of combatting the outsized influence of rich and powerful corporate interests has resonated with thousands of Americans. But even as it is clear to so many that something is amiss, the idea of oligarchy can seem ill-defined and opaque. What is oligarchy in concrete terms and how would we know if we were living under one? To answer these questions requires an understanding of the relationship between the state and capital — and between both and the social body.” (05/02/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/02/fighting-oligarchy-the-idle-rich-and-the-vampire-economy/
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25) The great deliverable of Trump’s first 100 days? Revenge.
Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“The best show in Washington this week, free to watch, was the White House’s briefing for ‘new media.’ On three separate days, Karoline Leavitt chased her ordinary press conference with one for conservative influencers and streamers. Some of the questions were about Ukraine negotiations, and family-friendly policies the president might support. Some other questions focused on vengeance. … Revenge has been the great deliverable of the president’s first 100 days in office. No modern president had worked so quickly to knock out the foundations from left-wing [sic] institutions, which the influencers appreciated. A year after he said he’d be ‘too busy for retribution,’ at a time when his campaign worried that voters didn’t want him to focus on retribution, he had done plenty.” (05/02/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/02/2025/the-great-deliverable-of-trumps-first-100-days-revenge
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26) Support For Israel The #1 Threat To Free Speech In Our Society Today
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The empire’s war on free speech continues as a New Jersey judge rules that Khalil may take to the federal courts to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him for criticizing the state of Israel. Khalil’s wife, a US citizen, gave birth to their son last week without her husband by her side after the Department of Homeland Security denied the family’s request to let him attend the birth. Mahmoud Khalil has become the face of the western empire’s frenetic attempts to silence all criticism of Israel throughout the western world. I have said it before and I will say it here again: there is no greater threat to free speech in our society today than Israel and its western backers.” (05/03/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/05/02/new-issue-of-johnstone-support-for-israel-is-the-1-threat-to-free-speech-in-our-society-today/
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27) Regulatory Tyranny Makes Both the Private and Public Sector Inefficient
Source: The UnPopulist
by Francis Fukuyama
“As we suffer through the DOGE attack on the American government, we are being made all too aware of the right-wing critique of the ‘deep state.’ This critique has been around since the 1930s, and was re-inserted into the culture by Ronald Reagan in 1986 when he said, ‘the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’’ It has been vastly amplified by Donald Trump and echoed now by Elon Musk: according to them, we are being ruled by ‘unelected bureaucrats’ who have escaped the control of democratically-elected leaders and are implementing a left-wing agenda. The attack on the federal bureaucracy was not, however, a fever dream that came only from conservatives.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/regulatory-tyranny-makes-both-the
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28) Agorism for Palestine
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Logan Marie Glitterbomb
“Lately I’ve been getting some very interesting social media ads. While I normally ignore social media ads (even going as far as to habitually block most of them), these two had me intrigued, so I took note of the brands so I could research more about them later. Turns out I’m really glad I eventually looked into them because they were both Palestinian-owned businesses that donate profits to Palestine.” (05/03/25)
https://c4ss.org/content/60382
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29) Why water feuds seldom dissolve accords
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Hot disputes between nations over cross-border water have lately spouted like geysers. In January, President Donald Trump said he wanted to end agreements with Canada on sharing the Great Lakes. And after months of fraught discussions, he just settled with Mexico on allocations of river flows under a 1940s accord. In recent days, India suspended a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan after an attack in disputed territory; their decades-long agreement was obsolete anyway because of climate change and population changes. And next year, a 30-year pact on South Asia’s other major riparian system, the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, will expire if not rapidly renegotiated. Are these examples of contention and divergence over fresh water now the norm in the world? ‘Contrary to popular belief,’ stated the Stockholm International Water Institute, ‘water scarcity has so far tended to unleash cooperation rather than conflict.'” (05/02/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0502/Why-water-feuds-seldom-dissolve-accords
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30) Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.
Source: The Atlantic
by Juliette Kayyem
“Stock markets plunged for days after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on imports from around the world. The sell-off ebbed only when he suspended most, but not all, of the new measures for 90 days. The ticker tape is just one indicator of an economy, and other signs are growing more and more ominous — including at the Port of Los Angeles, where high tariffs on China are crushing maritime traffic. ‘Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,’ Eugene Seroka, the executive director of the port, said on April 24. Trump views tariffs as essential to rebuilding the manufacturing economy that the United States once had. But his erratic tariff announcements have badly disrupted the economy that the country has today, and that pain is already being felt in the world of logistics.” (05/03/25)
https://archive.is/GJ9AP
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31) Trump’s Border Militarization Scheme Threatens the Rule of Law
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Elizabeth Goitein & Joseph Nunn
“U.S. President Donald Trump has turned a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land that spans three states on the southern border into a ‘military installation’ to ‘address the emergency’ he previously declared over unlawful immigration and drug trafficking. Trump’s memo authorizing this action seems designed to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally bars federal armed forces from conducting domestic law enforcement. The apparent plan is to let the military act as a de facto border police force, with soldiers apprehending, searching, and detaining people who cross the border unlawfully. This move could have alarming implications for democratic freedoms. Moreover, it continues a pattern of the president stretching his emergency powers past their limits to usurp the role of Congress and bypass legal rights. He has misused a law meant to address economic emergencies to set tariffs on every country in the world.” (05/03/25)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-turning-border-military-zone-evades-congress-and-threatens-rights
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32) Liberalism as the Shining City on a Hill
Source: Quillette
by Megan Gafford
“For almost 300 years, America has cultivated the metaphor of a shining city on a hill to describe how a righteous society is a beacon for a better life – but the same light casts that city under a glare, exposing its defects. The image comes from Jesus speaking to his followers in the Book of Matthew (5:14), ‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.’ … The image of a shining city on a hill encapsulates the optimistic vision that free, open societies will thrive and spread as the world converts to liberal democracy. But it comes with a warning: The same torch that beckons the huddled masses toward Lady Liberty also illuminates the shame of liberal democracies that betray their values.” (05/03/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/05/03/liberalism-as-the-shining-city-on-a-hill-benny-morris/
-----
33) Will the World Speak up Against Israel’s Likely Attack on Humanitarian Activists?
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin
“In the early hours of May 2, the quiet of night was shattered aboard the Conscience, a civilian vessel anchored in international waters, 17 kilometers off the coast of Malta. Aboard were 18 crew members and passengers, jolted from sleep by the sound of two explosions. Flames and smoke filled the air. The ship had just been struck—by what the crew members say were drone attacks. The very day of the attack, more passengers from 21 countries were waiting in Malta to be ferried out to join the Conscience. Among those slated to join the ship were world-renowned environmentalist Greta Thunberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, and longtime CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry. The Conscience is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of international activists that has been challenging Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza since 2008.” (05/02/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/freedom-flotilla-attack
-----
34) Reagan Was Criticized for Diplomacy, Too
Source: The American Conservative
by Branko Marcetic
“The 40th president faced the same arguments, almost beat for beat, that Trump is hearing now for his efforts in Ukraine.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/reagan-was-criticized-for-diplomacy-too/
-----
35) The Trump GOP’s attacks on universities advance the left’s agenda
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Even academics are educable, so universities might emerge from their current travails improved — more willing to include intellectual diversity on campuses, or at least be more circumspect about impeding it. This is the good news. The bad news: Republicans rejoicing about breaking academia to the saddle and bridle of federal government supervision demonstrate that we have two parties barely distinguishable in their shared enthusiasm for muscular statism. As ‘conservatives’ mount sustained attacks on left-dominated educational institutions, they advance the left’s perennial agenda — the permeation of everything with politics.” (05/02/25)
https://archive.is/ldqZf
-----
36) So Much for Free Speech Under Trump
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“After riding a wave of criticism of Democrats for suppressing freedom of speech, President Trump has just put the quietus on Amazon, which had the audacity to contemplate including the price of Trump’s tariffs in its shopping carts. Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling Amazon’s plan a ‘hostile and political act.’ According to an article in Aljazeera, Trump telephoned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure. … Alas, following the lead of major law firms and universities that have incurred Trump’s wrath, Amazon quickly capitulated, announcing that it would not share the tariff information with its buyers. … What was wrong with what Amazon was contemplating? Nothing. Nothing at all. Amazon was simply going to inform Amazon buyers of the truth about what Trump’s tariffs were costing them. If that isn’t an exercise of freedom of speech, I don’t know what is.” (05/02/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/05/02/so-much-for-free-speech-under-trump/
-----
37) Trump must ink trade deals ASAP to avoid downward economic AND political spiral
Source: New York Post
by staff
“It’s clear that President Donald Trump’s tariff gambit has prompted numerous nations to step up with deals; his negotiators need to grab them, fast, to avoid a political and economic spiral down. If the Trump team haggles for too long, the damage from delaying will be far worse than settling for slightly less-than-perfect trade terms. Keep in mind, these nations’ leaders will have to sell the deals to their own citizens, and legislatures. Anything too onerous can backfire, forcing a return to the talks — and prolonging the economic chaos and pain. Immediate trade deals, on the other hand, can lower tariffs and other trade barriers to US exports, boosting a key part of the economy and convincing markets that Trump’s not seeking a global trade war.” (05/03/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/05/03/opinion/trump-needs-to-ink-trade-deals-pass-tax-cuts-to-avoid-economic-pain/
-----
38) Living with the aftermath
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“The various news outlets are babbling about a half-ton half-century-old Soviet spacecraft is going to fall from the sky sometime this month. No one knows exactly when or where it will fall – given the orbit, population, and the ratio of water to land on this planet, it will most likely fall unobserved and without serious impact somewhere in the oceans. But until then, the media will play ambulance chaser and freak as many people as possible. But it should remind us that the negative effects of governments – failed or obliterated – often live on long after those governments have disappeared. Or lost jurisdiction over areas they once controlled.” (05/02/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/05/02/living-with-the-aftermath/
-----
39) Free Trade and Economic Freedom
Source: EconLog
by Meg Tuszysnki
“Donald Trump’s trade policies are rightly being derided as economically damaging. According to the Tax Foundation, the average American may experience a $1300 reduction in after-tax income this year if proposed tariffs go into effect. GDP is expected to decline by between 0.8% and 1% this year, depending on how other nations respond. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has warned that we may be facing the twin evils of creeping inflation and rising unemployment in the near future. Yet the narrative that Trump is imposing tariffs on a nation previously committed to free trade is false.” (05/02/25)
https://www.econlib.org/free-trade-and-economic-freedom/
-----
40) The Blogger Who Hates America
Source: Persuasion
by Cathy Young
“Curtis Yarvin’s popularity keeps growing. His intellectual rigor, not so much.” (05/02/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-blogger-who-hates-america
-----
41) How AOC Can Make Oversight Great Again
Source: The American Prospect
by Kiren Gopal
“In April 1994, former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) convened a landmark series of ‘Big Tobacco’ hearings. CEOs like William Campbell of Philip Morris testified under oath that ‘nicotine is not addictive.’ The hearings drew considerable public attention and helped catalyze legal action, leading to a historic settlement where tobacco companies agreed to pay over $200 billion. … That hearing was held in a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but Waxman would go on to chair the House Oversight Committee, serving as the top watchdog of the Bush administration. In the time since, Democrats have failed to use the political theater and drama of congressional oversight to produce enough ‘nicotine is not addictive’ moments that clarify for the American people who stands against corporate greed and deception. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could fix that.” (05/02/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-02-how-aoc-can-make-oversight-great-again/
-----
42) Judge Dread
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“The Trump administration is lawless — and particularly so in the matter of immigration, where it has ignored court rulings and trampled over due process, exiling U.S. citizen children and infamously sending a man off to a Salvadoran gulag in plain contravention of the law, with President Trump citing doctored photos of MS-13 gang tattoos on the deportee’s hands to vindicate himself. To push back against such lawlessness (and I will here assume that this is what Judge Dugan is up to) is good and necessary and patriotic. It also is far from anything that falls under the properly understood professional duties of a Milwaukee judge and it may be, at times, a crime.” (05/02/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/judge-hannah-dugan-civil-disobedience-immigration-trump-chaos/
-----
43) How Russia’s naval rearmament has gone unnoticed
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ian Proud
“Despite being half the size of Britain, economically, laboring under sanctions and the tight fiscal constraints of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s naval yards have built new vessels non-stop for the past decade. Since 2011, Russia has taken delivery of 27 submarines, 6 frigates, 9 corvettes, 16 small missile ships, and other logistic support vessels. Many more are under construction and will arrive by the end of this decade. As the Russians say, ‘quantity has a quality all of its own.’ … The Royal Navy, on the other hand, has continued to shrink in the teeth of defense cuts, and each new efficiency drive makes it smaller.” (05/02/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russian-navy-build-up/
-----
44) Don’t let Texas criminalize free political speech in the name of AI regulation
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Johbn Coleman
“Texans aren’t exactly shy about speaking their minds — whether it’s at city hall, in the town square, or all over social media. But a slate of bills now moving through the Texas Legislature threatens to make that proud tradition a criminal offense. In the name of regulating artificial intelligence, lawmakers are proposing bills that could turn political memes, commentary and satire into crimes.” (05/02/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/dont-let-texas-criminalize-free-political-speech-name-ai-regulation
-----
45) Yep, it’s Fetterman’s brain that triggered the Left’s [sic] hit piece
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“In 2022, when John Fetterman had a stroke while he was running for his Senate seat, the Democrats and their media allies were insistent that to even question his fitness to serve was ableist and unacceptable. My, how times have changed. This week, New York magazine, as reliable a Democrat organ as there is, ran a scathing hit piece on Fetterman in which current and former staffers all but suggest that not only should he not be Pennsylvania’s senior senator, he belongs in an assisted living facility. The piece has no ‘gotcha’ moment that would make any fair person say that Fetterman needs to step aside — you know, the kind former President Biden provided daily. … why, one wonders, two years after waiving away similar behavior is a liberal news outlet suddenly parading the senator’s alleged diminished capacities? What changed?” (05/02/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-you-have-brain-you-see-through-fetterman-hit-piece
-----
46) The State & Child Rape
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Four billion bucks: That’s what Los Angeles County has confirmed it will pay ‘to settle nearly 7,000 claims of ‘horrific’ child sexual abuse related to their juvenile facilities and foster care homes over a period of decades,’ according to a BBC report. ‘Survivors say they were abused and mistreated by staff in institutions meant to protect them — with many of the claims linked to MacLaren Children’s Center, a shelter that permanently closed in 2003.’ A lawyer for the plaintiffs offered the perfectly apt cliché, of foxes and hen house: ‘they were raping boys and raping girls.’ Meanwhile, something odd’s going on with the ‘children in cages’ issue.” (05/02/52)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/05/02/state-child-rape/
-----
47) Immigrants and Radicals Have the Same Free Speech Rights as Everyone Else
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Can foreigners legally residing in the United States be tossed out of the country for engaging in controversial or even vile speech? Court cases suggest the answer is ‘no’ and uphold the idea that free speech is a right adhering not only to Americans but also to those just visiting. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts allowed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s deportation proceedings aimed at noncitizen anti-Israel college radicals to proceed on the grounds that the government is targeting protected speech in such a way that it chills the willingness of foreign university students and faculty at schools in this country to speak out about controversial issues.” (05/02/25)
https://reason.com/2025/05/02/immigrants-and-radicals-have-the-same-free-speech-rights-as-everyone-else/
-----
48) Baseball, Rule of Law, and the “Torpedo Bat”
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrea Martinez & Jesus Maria Alvarado Andrade
“We were born in Venezuela, so naturally, we like baseball. As Venezuelans, we share this passion with the United States. In addition to being Venezuelan, we are also husband and wife — one an economist, the other a lawyer. We often find ourselves in intense discussions on various topics—perhaps because one of us leans more libertarian and the other more conservative, in the American sense. Despite our disagreements, we’ve reached a fundamental point of consensus: baseball is the best sport to illustrate the political ideal of the Rule of Law — and, by extension, the principles of a free-market economy.” (05/02/25)
https://fee.org/articles/baseball-rule-of-law-and-the-torpedo-bat/
-----
49) Why Everyone Should Be Preparing For May Day 2028
Source: In These Times
by J Patrick Patterson
“UAW President Shawn Fain sure seems serious. As he wrote for In These Times in 2024: If we’re to ‘build enough collective power to win universal healthcare and the right to retire with dignity, then we need to spend the next four years getting prepared.’ Fain first announced the idea in fall 2023, after the UAW’s historic Stand-Up Strike won substantial gains from the Big Three automakers. The UAW has previously aligned their contracts with the Big Three to expire together, but this time, the UAW is also asking unions from sectors across the country to join and, as Fain put it, ’flex our collective muscles.’ The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the American Postal Workers Union and other major unions have publicly supported the effort. Sounds difficult? Yep!” (05/01/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/big-idea-shawn-fain-may-day-2028
-----
50) Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Failure Built on Lies
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen
“Numerous records from law-enforcement agencies confirm that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. … But demagogues need scapegoats, and Trump relentlessly, grossly vilified immigrants as invaders, criminals, and threats to national security. I remember grandmotherly ladies at the GOP convention holding signs demanding ‘Mass Deportation Now.’ It was a little shocking (even in this awful time). They wouldn’t have held those signs aloft with a clear conscience if they had not been deceived into believing that many if not most immigrants were rapists and murderers.” (05/02/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-immigration-policy-is-a-failure-built-on-lies
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Good Fight, 05/03/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Kevin Mitchell on Free Will.” (05/03/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/kevin-mitchell-on-free-will
-----
52) Fountainhead Forum, episode 304
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Alex Krainer on World War One and the events leading up to World War Two.” (05/03/25)
https://rumble.com/v6sw34n-ff-304-alex-krainer-on-world-war-one-and-the-events-leading-up-to-world-war.html
-----
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 292
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Retrocausality and why you should always swallow unidentified pills.” (05/03/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-292-hour-1-retrocausality
-----
54) The Anarchist Experience, episode 526
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, MC, and KS discuss whether or not the leftist media is responsible for how much power Trump has, do we want a leftist God-Emperor in office in the future, whether or not we are already labeled terrorists or could be deported because of it, and is accelerationism the only path to prevent it.” (05/03/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/05/03/the-anarchist-experience-526/
-----
55) Nonzero, 05/03/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Trump Doubles Down on the Law of the Jungle | NonZero World feat. Robert Wright.” (05/03/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68642
-----
56) LPA Live, episode 15
Source: LP Alliance
“The Reckoning w/ LNC Chair Steven Nekhaila.” (05/03/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUzfs5nTHVs
-----
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2640
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Public Health: Enemy of the Public, Enemy of Health.” (05/03/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2640-public-health-enemy-of-the-public-enemy-of-health/
-----
58) Soho Forum Debate: Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
Source: Reason
“Eric Brakey and Andrew Heaton debate whether libertarians should prioritize building local liberty-focused societies like the Free State Project or focus on reforming the federal government.” (05/02/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/05/02/should-libertarians-prioritize-their-own-communities/
-----
59) The Fifth Column, episode 503
Source: The Fifth Column
“Mea Minima Culpa.” (05/02/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/503-mea-minima-culpa
-----
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 793
Source: Libertarian Institute
“US Backs Israel’s Starvation of Gaza.” (05/02/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-793-us-backs-israels-starvation-of-gaza
-----
61) Serious Trouble, 05/02/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“The Trump administration continues to struggle in removal cases; Judge Hannah Dugan is arrested; the DOJ accidentally tells a court its case against congestion pricing is weak.” (05/02/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/please-forget-my-oopsie
-----
62) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 05/02/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Arrests Hit by Major Legal Setback as Stephen Miller Seethes.” (05/02/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/194754/trump-arrests-hit-major-legal-setback-stephen-miller-seethes
-----
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 632
Source: Freakonomics
“When Did We All Start Watching Documentaries?” (05/02/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-did-we-all-start-watching-documentaries/
-----
64) Politics Politics Politics, 05/02/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Worst State Party Draft! Will May Be the Most Pivotal Month of Trump’s Presidency? (with Evan Scrimshaw and Ryan Jakubowski).” (05/02/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/worst-state-party-draft-will-may
-----
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/02/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Hegseth Threatens Iran Over Yemen, US-Iran Talks Postponed, Waltz Moved to UN, and More.” (05/02/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXLPhYIa10I
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https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Israel: Army starts calling up reservists for planned expansion to Gaza offensive
2) Romania: Simion set to secure decisive win in first round of presidential redo
3) Mexico: Sheinbaum says she rejected Trump’s plan to send US troops across the border
4) Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign movies
5) Russia: Putin “hopes” there will be no “need” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
6) Missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war
7) CO: Sheriff Calls Out Trump Admin Over “Intimidating” Police to Work With ICE
8) UK: Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations
9) Buffett to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by end of the year
10) TX: Abbott signs bill to advance government takeover of private schools
11) US court halts ruling ordering Voice of America employees back to work
12) Portugal: Regime to expel some 18,000 migrants ahead of snap national election
13) Bitcoiners blast Arizona governor’s “ignorance” after Bitcoin bill veto
14) World may be “post-herd immunity” to measles, top US scientist says
15) Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports
16) Elon Musk Wins Vote to Establish His Own City in Starbase, Texas
17) Trump pauses trolling, says he won’t seek a third term
18) Australia: Labor Party, buoyed by anti-Trump bump, wins reelection
19) Hawaii passes first-of-its-kind bill to add 11% hotel tax for tourists
20) Trump order targeting law firm is illegal, federal judge rules
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Childbirth / “Great Replacement” Double Con
22) Cops Are Already Unleashed. Trump Is Telling Them to Run Wild.
23) “Twin Deficits”: A Tale of Fiscal Folly, Not Trade Failure
24) Fighting Oligarchy: The Idle Rich and the Vampire Economy
25) The great deliverable of Trump’s first 100 days? Revenge.
26) Support For Israel The #1 Threat To Free Speech In Our Society Today
27) Regulatory Tyranny Makes Both the Private and Public Sector Inefficient
28) Agorism for Palestine
29) Why water feuds seldom dissolve accords
30) Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.
31) Trump’s Border Militarization Scheme Threatens the Rule of Law
32) Liberalism as the Shining City on a Hill
33) Will the World Speak up Against Israel’s Likely Attack on Humanitarian Activists?
34) Reagan Was Criticized for Diplomacy, Too
35) The Trump GOP’s attacks on universities advance the left’s agenda
36) So Much for Free Speech Under Trump
37) Trump must ink trade deals ASAP to avoid downward economic AND political spiral
38) Living with the aftermath
39) Free Trade and Economic Freedom
40) The Blogger Who Hates America
41) How AOC Can Make Oversight Great Again
42) Judge Dread
43) How Russia’s naval rearmament has gone unnoticed
44) Don’t let Texas criminalize free political speech in the name of AI regulation
45) Yep, it’s Fetterman’s brain that triggered the Left’s [sic] hit piece
46) The State & Child Rape
47) Immigrants and Radicals Have the Same Free Speech Rights as Everyone Else
48) Baseball, Rule of Law, and the “Torpedo Bat”
49) Why Everyone Should Be Preparing For May Day 2028
50) Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Failure Built on Lies
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) The Good Fight, 05/03/25
52) Fountainhead Forum, episode 304
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 292
54) The Anarchist Experience, episode 526
55) Nonzero, 05/03/25
56) LPA Live, episode 15
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2640
58) Soho Forum Debate: Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
59) The Fifth Column, episode 503
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 793
61) Serious Trouble, 05/02/25
62) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 05/02/25
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 632
64) Politics Politics Politics, 05/02/25
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/02/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Israel: Army starts calling up reservists for planned expansion to Gaza offensive
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The Israeli military has begun calling up tens of thousands of reservists to ‘intensify and expand’ its operations in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was ‘increasing the pressure’ with the aim of returning hostages held in Gaza and defeating Hamas militants. Critics say the recent military offensive, after a ceasefire broke down, has failed to guarantee the release of captives, and question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objectives in the conflict. Under the plan, the military said it would operate in new areas and ‘destroy all infrastructure’ above and below ground. Israeli media report that the Israeli security cabinet has approved the renewed military expansion in Gaza.” (05/05/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2e44y44gjo
-----
2) Romania: Simion set to secure decisive win in first round of presidential redo
Source: SFGate
“Hard-right nationalist George Simion is set to secure a decisive win in the first round of Romania’s presidential election redo, incomplete electoral data indicated Sunday, months after an annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades. Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, is far outpacing all other candidates in the polls with 40.1% of the vote, official electoral data shows after 90% of votes were counted. Far behind in second place is the governing coalition’s joint candidate, Crin Antonescu, with 21.1%, and in third place Bucharest mayor, Nicusor Dan with 19.4% — but that gap is widely expected to narrow as votes from larger cities are counted.” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/romanians-vote-in-a-presidential-redo-after-20308976.php
-----
3) Mexico: Sheinbaum says she rejected Trump’s plan to send US troops across the border
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump proposed sending American troops into Mexico to help her administration fight drug trafficking but that she rejected it. Her remarks to supporters in eastern Mexico came in response to a Wall Street Journal article published the day before, describing a tense phone call last month in which Trump reportedly pressured her to accept a bigger role for the U.S. military in combating drug cartels in Mexico. … Sheinbaum’s hardline stance Saturday signaled that U.S. pressure for unilateral military intervention would put her and Trump on a collision course after months of cooperation on immigration and trade.” (05/04/25)
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5386456/mexico-president-rejected-trumps-plan-us-troops-across-border
-----
4) Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign movies
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump on Sunday extended his trade war to the cinema. Trump, in an evening post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he has instructed the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative to place a 100% tariff on films that are produced outside the United States and imported into America. … It’s not at all clear how such a tariff would be imposed. Films are intellectual property, not goods, so they represent a kind of service that is not currently subject to tariffs. However, the USTR notes that some services can be subject to certain non-tariff trade barriers, such as regulations and tax incentives. Those could disadvantage American filmmaking.” (05/04/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/media/movies-tariff-trump
-----
5) Russia: Putin “hopes” there will be no “need” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
Source: Associated Press
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen and that he hopes it will not. In comments aired Sunday in a film by Russian state television about his quarter of a century in power, Putin said Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a ‘logical conclusion.’ Responding to a question about Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, Putin said: ‘There has been no need to use those (nuclear) weapons … and I hope they will not be required.’ ‘We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires,’ he said.” (05/04/25)
-----
6) Missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war
Source: NBC News
“A missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Sunday briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport after an impact left a plume of smoke and caused panic among passengers. The Houthi rebels have been striking Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians. The attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport came hours before top Israeli Cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip. The army meanwhile began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in Gaza, officials said. The missile launch Sunday set off air raid sirens in multiple parts of Israel. A plume of smoke was visible at the airport, according to footage shared by Israeli media. Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover.” (05/04/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/missile-yemen-airport-israel-expand-gaza-war-rcna204682
-----
7) CO: Sheriff Calls Out Trump Admin Over “Intimidating” Police to Work With ICE
Source: Newsweek
“A Colorado sheriff accused President Donald Trump’s administration of using ‘intimidation’ to force police to work with federal immigration authorities. On April 28, Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions ‘that obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.’ ‘This executive order is an attempt to federalize, by intimidation, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office to do the current administration’s bidding on their political cause of the day,’ San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said in a statement on Friday. … ‘Although I am Sheriff of this great county for only another 30 days, I want to assure our local residents that during my short remaining tenure, I will follow Colorado law and not permit the federal government to use my office for political purposes.'” (05/04/25)
https://www.newsweek.com/sheriff-trump-admin-intimidating-police-ice-collaboration-2067799
-----
8) UK: Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations
Source: Sky News [UK]
“Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but ‘significant’ terrorism investigations. In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men — four of whom are Iranian nationals — as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody. The Met said the arrests related to a ‘suspected plot to target a specific premises.’ … Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.” (05/04/25)
https://news.sky.com/story/eight-men-arrested-in-connection-with-suspected-terrorist-plot-13361274
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9) Buffett to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by end of the year
Source: Fox Business
“Warren Buffett said on Saturday that he plans to step down by the end of this year as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The billionaire investor named Greg Abel, who is vice chairman, as his replacement. … Buffett, 94, said he would ‘hang around’ the conglomerate after retiring as CEO, according to CNBC. He said he has no plans to sell his shares in Berkshire Hathaway, which are expected to be donated after his death.” (05/03/25)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/warren-buffett-step-down-ceo-berkshire-hathaway-end-year
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10) TX: Abbott signs bill to advance government takeover of private schools
Source: CBS News
“Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the $1 billion controversial school choice bill into law, allowing for taxpayer money to be used to help qualifying students pay for private school tuition. … As part of the $1 billion bill, most students who attend an accredited private school will receive $10,000 per year. Students with disabilities will receive up to $30,000 per year, and home-schooled students will get $2,000 a year.” (05/03/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-gov-greg-abbott-sign-controversial-school-choice-bill-law/
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11) US court halts ruling ordering Voice of America employees back to work
Source: Reuters
“A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a ruling, opens new tab that had ordered the Trump administration to return more than 1,000 Voice of America employees back to work. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on April 22 ordered the administration to ‘take all necessary steps’ to restore employees and contractors to their positions at the U.S. news service and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts and some grants. The appeals court in a 2-1 decision suggested Lamberth lacked jurisdiction to order the employees to return to work and to require the restoration of $15 million in grants for Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.” (05/04/25)
https://archive.is/y5bhX
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12) Portugal: Regime to expel some 18,000 migrants ahead of snap national election
Source: euronews [EU]
“Portugal’s caretaker government announced plans on Saturday to expel about 18,000 foreigners living in the country without legal permits or authorisation. António Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, said the centre-right government will issue approximately 18,000 notifications to illegal migrants asking them to leave. According to Amaro, officials will begin next week by asking some 4,500 undocumented migrants to leave voluntarily within 20 days. The announcement comes in the build-up to the country’s early general election, scheduled to be held on 18 May.” (05/04/25)
https://www.euronews.com/2025/05/04/portugal-to-expel-some-18000-foreigners-ahead-of-snap-national-election
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13) Bitcoiners blast Arizona governor’s “ignorance” after Bitcoin bill veto
Source: Bitcoin.com
“Bitcoiners and United States government officials have criticized Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’[s] decision to veto a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves. ‘This will age poorly,” Casa co-founder and cypherpunk Jameson Lopp said in a May 3 X post. Bitcoin entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said, ‘Imagine the ignorance of a politician to believe they can make investment decisions.’ … Wendy Rogers, who co-sponsored the bill with State Representative Jeff Weninger, also voiced her disappointment. ‘Politicians don’t understand that Bitcoin doesn’t need Arizona. Arizona needs Bitcoin,’ Rogers said.” (05/04/25)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/arizona-governor-katie-hobbs-veto-bitcoin-bill-bitcoiners-react
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14) World may be “post-herd immunity” to measles, top US scientist says
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A leading immunologist warned of a ‘post-herd-immunity world,’ as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada. The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma. ‘We’re living in a post-herd-immunity world. I think the measles outbreak proves that,’ said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/03/measles-post-herd-immunity
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15) Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports
Source: SFGate
“Iran’s defense ministry Sunday unveiled the country’s latest solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reported, against a backdrop of threats from the United States over its nuclear program. TV showed the ‘Qassem Basir’ ballistic missile during an interview with Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh. He said it includes improvements in both guidance and maneuverability to overcome layers of defense and easily bypass anti-ballistic defense systems. The missile was most recently tested on April 17. TV described the missile as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range. It also said the missile can identify and strike a designated target among multiple ones without GPS guidance and with pinpoint accuracy.” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/iran-unveils-new-solid-fueled-ballistic-missile-20309544.php
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16) Elon Musk Wins Vote to Establish His Own City in Starbase, Texas
Source: Bloomberg
“Voters in South Texas delivered Elon Musk a decisive victory, overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure to establish Starbase, Texas, as its own city. By a margin of 173 to 4, residents of the far-flung community surrounding SpaceX’s rocket-launch site and headquarters voted resoundingly in favor of the incorporation effort, according to preliminary results posted on the county election website from the early voting period. Final totals were not immediately available. At the same time, voters also approved the city’s first elected officials, all three of whom are current or former SpaceX employees and ran unopposed. Virtually all of the inhabitants within the 1.45-square mile territory are Musk’s employees at the massive manufacturing facility that dominates the beachfront town, or their family members.” (05/04/25)
https://archive.is/rfj6i
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17) Trump pauses trolling, says he won’t seek a third term
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“US President Donald Trump has denied that he is considering a third presidential term, a move which experts agree is banned under the US Constitution. ‘I’ll be an eight-year president, I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important,’ Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker in an interview that aired on Sunday. Trump, 78, has previously said that he was ‘not joking’ about wanting to serve a third, or even fourth, term as US president. He later said his statements were meant to troll the ‘fake news media’. His company, The Trump Organization, has been selling ‘Trump 2028’ hats, fuelling armchair speculation that he may seek to remain in office after his second term ends in January 2029. In the interview, recorded from his residence in Florida on Friday, Trump said that he has had ‘many requests’ from people asking that he consider seeking to remain in office.” (05/04/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9l3399wvno
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18) Australia: Labor Party, buoyed by anti-Trump bump, wins reelection
Source: Washington Post
“Australia’s center-left government convincingly won reelection Saturday in a remarkable turnaround driven partly by anger over President Donald Trump’s disruptive trade war and its impact on the close U.S. military ally. Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to win a second term in more than two decades as his Labor Party dramatically increased its parliamentary majority. It marked a stunning comeback for the progressive leader, who trailed in the polls two months ago. In a jubilant victory speech, the 62-year-old struck a tone of unity while also alluding to his opponent’s failed embrace of Trump-like policies.” (05/03/25)
https://archive.is/pX4PG
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19) Hawaii passes first-of-its-kind bill to add 11% hotel tax for tourists
Source: SFGate
“A trip to Hawaii is about to get even more expensive for travelers in an attempt to preserve the islands’ future. Hawaii lawmakers have passed a first-of-its-kind bill to raise the tax on hotel stays and other vacation rentals, specifically to fund efforts to fight climate change. Senate Bill 1396 was unanimously passed in the Senate on April 25. On May 2, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill. Gov. Josh Green is expected to sign the bill. ‘Our residents and communities deserve to be protected,’ state Rep. Adrian K. Tam said at Friday’s adjournment. ‘As we continue to invite visitors to Hawaii to share the beauty of this land, this bill is a huge step in ensuring adequate funding is set aside to steward and protect our delicate ecosystems for visitors, our constituents and communities for generations to come.'” (05/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-hotel-tax-bill-passes-20308594.php
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20) Trump order targeting law firm is illegal, federal judge rules
Source: Axios
“A federal judge found President Trump’s executive order targeting law firm Perkins Coie to be illegal, per the court ruling Friday. The ruling, which bars the administration from enforcing the executive order, is the first time a court has permanently prohibited Trump from using his presidential power against a law firm he perceives to have threatened him politically. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the law firm, one of the largest in the nation, in a 102-page opinion saying the executive order sends ‘the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.'” (05/03/25)
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-perkins-coie-order-illegal-judge-ruling
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Childbirth / “Great Replacement” Double Con
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“If subsidizing kids got the job done, we wouldn’t be seeing the birthrate decline we’re seeing — and there’s no particular reason to believe that boosting the subsidies even higher will change the fact that in ever more prosperous societies, people choose to have ever fewer children. And if that whole program that sounds like a bad fit with Trump’s policy of trying to deport millions of foreign-born residents … it is. If you want a higher birth rate, throwing out the people who have kids makes zero sense. Unless, that is, you couple the ‘demographic decline’ panic with a ‘Great Replacement’ theory positing that people who come to the United States and have kids are being ‘imported’ for the express purpose of changing American politics and culture in particular and negative ways.” (05/03/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19532
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22) Cops Are Already Unleashed. Trump Is Telling Them to Run Wild.
Source: The Intercept
by Radley Balko
“During his run in presidential politics, Trump has praised and encouraged police brutality. He has applauded violent crackdowns on protests, especially by authoritarian regimes. He believes in projecting strength, and believes strong leaders demonstrate strength with violence. This is why he has often suggested that police officers will attack his enemies if called upon, and why the Capitol Police who defended Congress from his supporters received so much of his wrath. Yet you can’t unleash something that has never been restrained in the first place. And in the U.S., the police have never been restrained.” (05/02/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/02/trump-police-executive-order/
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23) “Twin Deficits”: A Tale of Fiscal Folly, Not Trade Failure
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Irresponsible government spending is caused by the fiscal recklessness of Congress and the White House, not by foreigners making attractive offers of imported goods to Americans.” (05/02/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/twin-deficits-a-tale-of-fiscal-folly-not-trade-failure/
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24) Fighting Oligarchy: The Idle Rich and the Vampire Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato
“The question of whether the United States is an oligarchy has come to the fore, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez draw major crowds around the country to their Fighting Oligarchy Tour. Their message of combatting the outsized influence of rich and powerful corporate interests has resonated with thousands of Americans. But even as it is clear to so many that something is amiss, the idea of oligarchy can seem ill-defined and opaque. What is oligarchy in concrete terms and how would we know if we were living under one? To answer these questions requires an understanding of the relationship between the state and capital — and between both and the social body.” (05/02/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/02/fighting-oligarchy-the-idle-rich-and-the-vampire-economy/
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25) The great deliverable of Trump’s first 100 days? Revenge.
Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“The best show in Washington this week, free to watch, was the White House’s briefing for ‘new media.’ On three separate days, Karoline Leavitt chased her ordinary press conference with one for conservative influencers and streamers. Some of the questions were about Ukraine negotiations, and family-friendly policies the president might support. Some other questions focused on vengeance. … Revenge has been the great deliverable of the president’s first 100 days in office. No modern president had worked so quickly to knock out the foundations from left-wing [sic] institutions, which the influencers appreciated. A year after he said he’d be ‘too busy for retribution,’ at a time when his campaign worried that voters didn’t want him to focus on retribution, he had done plenty.” (05/02/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/02/2025/the-great-deliverable-of-trumps-first-100-days-revenge
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26) Support For Israel The #1 Threat To Free Speech In Our Society Today
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The empire’s war on free speech continues as a New Jersey judge rules that Khalil may take to the federal courts to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him for criticizing the state of Israel. Khalil’s wife, a US citizen, gave birth to their son last week without her husband by her side after the Department of Homeland Security denied the family’s request to let him attend the birth. Mahmoud Khalil has become the face of the western empire’s frenetic attempts to silence all criticism of Israel throughout the western world. I have said it before and I will say it here again: there is no greater threat to free speech in our society today than Israel and its western backers.” (05/03/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/05/02/new-issue-of-johnstone-support-for-israel-is-the-1-threat-to-free-speech-in-our-society-today/
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27) Regulatory Tyranny Makes Both the Private and Public Sector Inefficient
Source: The UnPopulist
by Francis Fukuyama
“As we suffer through the DOGE attack on the American government, we are being made all too aware of the right-wing critique of the ‘deep state.’ This critique has been around since the 1930s, and was re-inserted into the culture by Ronald Reagan in 1986 when he said, ‘the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’’ It has been vastly amplified by Donald Trump and echoed now by Elon Musk: according to them, we are being ruled by ‘unelected bureaucrats’ who have escaped the control of democratically-elected leaders and are implementing a left-wing agenda. The attack on the federal bureaucracy was not, however, a fever dream that came only from conservatives.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/regulatory-tyranny-makes-both-the
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28) Agorism for Palestine
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Logan Marie Glitterbomb
“Lately I’ve been getting some very interesting social media ads. While I normally ignore social media ads (even going as far as to habitually block most of them), these two had me intrigued, so I took note of the brands so I could research more about them later. Turns out I’m really glad I eventually looked into them because they were both Palestinian-owned businesses that donate profits to Palestine.” (05/03/25)
https://c4ss.org/content/60382
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29) Why water feuds seldom dissolve accords
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Hot disputes between nations over cross-border water have lately spouted like geysers. In January, President Donald Trump said he wanted to end agreements with Canada on sharing the Great Lakes. And after months of fraught discussions, he just settled with Mexico on allocations of river flows under a 1940s accord. In recent days, India suspended a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan after an attack in disputed territory; their decades-long agreement was obsolete anyway because of climate change and population changes. And next year, a 30-year pact on South Asia’s other major riparian system, the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, will expire if not rapidly renegotiated. Are these examples of contention and divergence over fresh water now the norm in the world? ‘Contrary to popular belief,’ stated the Stockholm International Water Institute, ‘water scarcity has so far tended to unleash cooperation rather than conflict.'” (05/02/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0502/Why-water-feuds-seldom-dissolve-accords
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30) Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.
Source: The Atlantic
by Juliette Kayyem
“Stock markets plunged for days after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on imports from around the world. The sell-off ebbed only when he suspended most, but not all, of the new measures for 90 days. The ticker tape is just one indicator of an economy, and other signs are growing more and more ominous — including at the Port of Los Angeles, where high tariffs on China are crushing maritime traffic. ‘Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,’ Eugene Seroka, the executive director of the port, said on April 24. Trump views tariffs as essential to rebuilding the manufacturing economy that the United States once had. But his erratic tariff announcements have badly disrupted the economy that the country has today, and that pain is already being felt in the world of logistics.” (05/03/25)
https://archive.is/GJ9AP
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31) Trump’s Border Militarization Scheme Threatens the Rule of Law
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Elizabeth Goitein & Joseph Nunn
“U.S. President Donald Trump has turned a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land that spans three states on the southern border into a ‘military installation’ to ‘address the emergency’ he previously declared over unlawful immigration and drug trafficking. Trump’s memo authorizing this action seems designed to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally bars federal armed forces from conducting domestic law enforcement. The apparent plan is to let the military act as a de facto border police force, with soldiers apprehending, searching, and detaining people who cross the border unlawfully. This move could have alarming implications for democratic freedoms. Moreover, it continues a pattern of the president stretching his emergency powers past their limits to usurp the role of Congress and bypass legal rights. He has misused a law meant to address economic emergencies to set tariffs on every country in the world.” (05/03/25)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-turning-border-military-zone-evades-congress-and-threatens-rights
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32) Liberalism as the Shining City on a Hill
Source: Quillette
by Megan Gafford
“For almost 300 years, America has cultivated the metaphor of a shining city on a hill to describe how a righteous society is a beacon for a better life – but the same light casts that city under a glare, exposing its defects. The image comes from Jesus speaking to his followers in the Book of Matthew (5:14), ‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.’ … The image of a shining city on a hill encapsulates the optimistic vision that free, open societies will thrive and spread as the world converts to liberal democracy. But it comes with a warning: The same torch that beckons the huddled masses toward Lady Liberty also illuminates the shame of liberal democracies that betray their values.” (05/03/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/05/03/liberalism-as-the-shining-city-on-a-hill-benny-morris/
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33) Will the World Speak up Against Israel’s Likely Attack on Humanitarian Activists?
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin
“In the early hours of May 2, the quiet of night was shattered aboard the Conscience, a civilian vessel anchored in international waters, 17 kilometers off the coast of Malta. Aboard were 18 crew members and passengers, jolted from sleep by the sound of two explosions. Flames and smoke filled the air. The ship had just been struck—by what the crew members say were drone attacks. The very day of the attack, more passengers from 21 countries were waiting in Malta to be ferried out to join the Conscience. Among those slated to join the ship were world-renowned environmentalist Greta Thunberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, and longtime CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry. The Conscience is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of international activists that has been challenging Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza since 2008.” (05/02/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/freedom-flotilla-attack
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34) Reagan Was Criticized for Diplomacy, Too
Source: The American Conservative
by Branko Marcetic
“The 40th president faced the same arguments, almost beat for beat, that Trump is hearing now for his efforts in Ukraine.” (05/03/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/reagan-was-criticized-for-diplomacy-too/
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35) The Trump GOP’s attacks on universities advance the left’s agenda
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Even academics are educable, so universities might emerge from their current travails improved — more willing to include intellectual diversity on campuses, or at least be more circumspect about impeding it. This is the good news. The bad news: Republicans rejoicing about breaking academia to the saddle and bridle of federal government supervision demonstrate that we have two parties barely distinguishable in their shared enthusiasm for muscular statism. As ‘conservatives’ mount sustained attacks on left-dominated educational institutions, they advance the left’s perennial agenda — the permeation of everything with politics.” (05/02/25)
https://archive.is/ldqZf
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36) So Much for Free Speech Under Trump
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“After riding a wave of criticism of Democrats for suppressing freedom of speech, President Trump has just put the quietus on Amazon, which had the audacity to contemplate including the price of Trump’s tariffs in its shopping carts. Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling Amazon’s plan a ‘hostile and political act.’ According to an article in Aljazeera, Trump telephoned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure. … Alas, following the lead of major law firms and universities that have incurred Trump’s wrath, Amazon quickly capitulated, announcing that it would not share the tariff information with its buyers. … What was wrong with what Amazon was contemplating? Nothing. Nothing at all. Amazon was simply going to inform Amazon buyers of the truth about what Trump’s tariffs were costing them. If that isn’t an exercise of freedom of speech, I don’t know what is.” (05/02/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/05/02/so-much-for-free-speech-under-trump/
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37) Trump must ink trade deals ASAP to avoid downward economic AND political spiral
Source: New York Post
by staff
“It’s clear that President Donald Trump’s tariff gambit has prompted numerous nations to step up with deals; his negotiators need to grab them, fast, to avoid a political and economic spiral down. If the Trump team haggles for too long, the damage from delaying will be far worse than settling for slightly less-than-perfect trade terms. Keep in mind, these nations’ leaders will have to sell the deals to their own citizens, and legislatures. Anything too onerous can backfire, forcing a return to the talks — and prolonging the economic chaos and pain. Immediate trade deals, on the other hand, can lower tariffs and other trade barriers to US exports, boosting a key part of the economy and convincing markets that Trump’s not seeking a global trade war.” (05/03/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/05/03/opinion/trump-needs-to-ink-trade-deals-pass-tax-cuts-to-avoid-economic-pain/
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38) Living with the aftermath
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“The various news outlets are babbling about a half-ton half-century-old Soviet spacecraft is going to fall from the sky sometime this month. No one knows exactly when or where it will fall – given the orbit, population, and the ratio of water to land on this planet, it will most likely fall unobserved and without serious impact somewhere in the oceans. But until then, the media will play ambulance chaser and freak as many people as possible. But it should remind us that the negative effects of governments – failed or obliterated – often live on long after those governments have disappeared. Or lost jurisdiction over areas they once controlled.” (05/02/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/05/02/living-with-the-aftermath/
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39) Free Trade and Economic Freedom
Source: EconLog
by Meg Tuszysnki
“Donald Trump’s trade policies are rightly being derided as economically damaging. According to the Tax Foundation, the average American may experience a $1300 reduction in after-tax income this year if proposed tariffs go into effect. GDP is expected to decline by between 0.8% and 1% this year, depending on how other nations respond. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has warned that we may be facing the twin evils of creeping inflation and rising unemployment in the near future. Yet the narrative that Trump is imposing tariffs on a nation previously committed to free trade is false.” (05/02/25)
https://www.econlib.org/free-trade-and-economic-freedom/
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40) The Blogger Who Hates America
Source: Persuasion
by Cathy Young
“Curtis Yarvin’s popularity keeps growing. His intellectual rigor, not so much.” (05/02/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-blogger-who-hates-america
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41) How AOC Can Make Oversight Great Again
Source: The American Prospect
by Kiren Gopal
“In April 1994, former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) convened a landmark series of ‘Big Tobacco’ hearings. CEOs like William Campbell of Philip Morris testified under oath that ‘nicotine is not addictive.’ The hearings drew considerable public attention and helped catalyze legal action, leading to a historic settlement where tobacco companies agreed to pay over $200 billion. … That hearing was held in a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but Waxman would go on to chair the House Oversight Committee, serving as the top watchdog of the Bush administration. In the time since, Democrats have failed to use the political theater and drama of congressional oversight to produce enough ‘nicotine is not addictive’ moments that clarify for the American people who stands against corporate greed and deception. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could fix that.” (05/02/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-02-how-aoc-can-make-oversight-great-again/
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42) Judge Dread
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“The Trump administration is lawless — and particularly so in the matter of immigration, where it has ignored court rulings and trampled over due process, exiling U.S. citizen children and infamously sending a man off to a Salvadoran gulag in plain contravention of the law, with President Trump citing doctored photos of MS-13 gang tattoos on the deportee’s hands to vindicate himself. To push back against such lawlessness (and I will here assume that this is what Judge Dugan is up to) is good and necessary and patriotic. It also is far from anything that falls under the properly understood professional duties of a Milwaukee judge and it may be, at times, a crime.” (05/02/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/judge-hannah-dugan-civil-disobedience-immigration-trump-chaos/
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43) How Russia’s naval rearmament has gone unnoticed
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ian Proud
“Despite being half the size of Britain, economically, laboring under sanctions and the tight fiscal constraints of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s naval yards have built new vessels non-stop for the past decade. Since 2011, Russia has taken delivery of 27 submarines, 6 frigates, 9 corvettes, 16 small missile ships, and other logistic support vessels. Many more are under construction and will arrive by the end of this decade. As the Russians say, ‘quantity has a quality all of its own.’ … The Royal Navy, on the other hand, has continued to shrink in the teeth of defense cuts, and each new efficiency drive makes it smaller.” (05/02/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russian-navy-build-up/
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44) Don’t let Texas criminalize free political speech in the name of AI regulation
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Johbn Coleman
“Texans aren’t exactly shy about speaking their minds — whether it’s at city hall, in the town square, or all over social media. But a slate of bills now moving through the Texas Legislature threatens to make that proud tradition a criminal offense. In the name of regulating artificial intelligence, lawmakers are proposing bills that could turn political memes, commentary and satire into crimes.” (05/02/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/dont-let-texas-criminalize-free-political-speech-name-ai-regulation
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45) Yep, it’s Fetterman’s brain that triggered the Left’s [sic] hit piece
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“In 2022, when John Fetterman had a stroke while he was running for his Senate seat, the Democrats and their media allies were insistent that to even question his fitness to serve was ableist and unacceptable. My, how times have changed. This week, New York magazine, as reliable a Democrat organ as there is, ran a scathing hit piece on Fetterman in which current and former staffers all but suggest that not only should he not be Pennsylvania’s senior senator, he belongs in an assisted living facility. The piece has no ‘gotcha’ moment that would make any fair person say that Fetterman needs to step aside — you know, the kind former President Biden provided daily. … why, one wonders, two years after waiving away similar behavior is a liberal news outlet suddenly parading the senator’s alleged diminished capacities? What changed?” (05/02/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-you-have-brain-you-see-through-fetterman-hit-piece
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46) The State & Child Rape
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Four billion bucks: That’s what Los Angeles County has confirmed it will pay ‘to settle nearly 7,000 claims of ‘horrific’ child sexual abuse related to their juvenile facilities and foster care homes over a period of decades,’ according to a BBC report. ‘Survivors say they were abused and mistreated by staff in institutions meant to protect them — with many of the claims linked to MacLaren Children’s Center, a shelter that permanently closed in 2003.’ A lawyer for the plaintiffs offered the perfectly apt cliché, of foxes and hen house: ‘they were raping boys and raping girls.’ Meanwhile, something odd’s going on with the ‘children in cages’ issue.” (05/02/52)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/05/02/state-child-rape/
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47) Immigrants and Radicals Have the Same Free Speech Rights as Everyone Else
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Can foreigners legally residing in the United States be tossed out of the country for engaging in controversial or even vile speech? Court cases suggest the answer is ‘no’ and uphold the idea that free speech is a right adhering not only to Americans but also to those just visiting. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts allowed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s deportation proceedings aimed at noncitizen anti-Israel college radicals to proceed on the grounds that the government is targeting protected speech in such a way that it chills the willingness of foreign university students and faculty at schools in this country to speak out about controversial issues.” (05/02/25)
https://reason.com/2025/05/02/immigrants-and-radicals-have-the-same-free-speech-rights-as-everyone-else/
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48) Baseball, Rule of Law, and the “Torpedo Bat”
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrea Martinez & Jesus Maria Alvarado Andrade
“We were born in Venezuela, so naturally, we like baseball. As Venezuelans, we share this passion with the United States. In addition to being Venezuelan, we are also husband and wife — one an economist, the other a lawyer. We often find ourselves in intense discussions on various topics—perhaps because one of us leans more libertarian and the other more conservative, in the American sense. Despite our disagreements, we’ve reached a fundamental point of consensus: baseball is the best sport to illustrate the political ideal of the Rule of Law — and, by extension, the principles of a free-market economy.” (05/02/25)
https://fee.org/articles/baseball-rule-of-law-and-the-torpedo-bat/
-----
49) Why Everyone Should Be Preparing For May Day 2028
Source: In These Times
by J Patrick Patterson
“UAW President Shawn Fain sure seems serious. As he wrote for In These Times in 2024: If we’re to ‘build enough collective power to win universal healthcare and the right to retire with dignity, then we need to spend the next four years getting prepared.’ Fain first announced the idea in fall 2023, after the UAW’s historic Stand-Up Strike won substantial gains from the Big Three automakers. The UAW has previously aligned their contracts with the Big Three to expire together, but this time, the UAW is also asking unions from sectors across the country to join and, as Fain put it, ’flex our collective muscles.’ The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the American Postal Workers Union and other major unions have publicly supported the effort. Sounds difficult? Yep!” (05/01/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/big-idea-shawn-fain-may-day-2028
-----
50) Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Failure Built on Lies
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen
“Numerous records from law-enforcement agencies confirm that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. … But demagogues need scapegoats, and Trump relentlessly, grossly vilified immigrants as invaders, criminals, and threats to national security. I remember grandmotherly ladies at the GOP convention holding signs demanding ‘Mass Deportation Now.’ It was a little shocking (even in this awful time). They wouldn’t have held those signs aloft with a clear conscience if they had not been deceived into believing that many if not most immigrants were rapists and murderers.” (05/02/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-immigration-policy-is-a-failure-built-on-lies
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) The Good Fight, 05/03/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Kevin Mitchell on Free Will.” (05/03/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/kevin-mitchell-on-free-will
-----
52) Fountainhead Forum, episode 304
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Alex Krainer on World War One and the events leading up to World War Two.” (05/03/25)
https://rumble.com/v6sw34n-ff-304-alex-krainer-on-world-war-one-and-the-events-leading-up-to-world-war.html
-----
53) Unattended Baggage, episode 292
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Retrocausality and why you should always swallow unidentified pills.” (05/03/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-292-hour-1-retrocausality
-----
54) The Anarchist Experience, episode 526
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, MC, and KS discuss whether or not the leftist media is responsible for how much power Trump has, do we want a leftist God-Emperor in office in the future, whether or not we are already labeled terrorists or could be deported because of it, and is accelerationism the only path to prevent it.” (05/03/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/05/03/the-anarchist-experience-526/
-----
55) Nonzero, 05/03/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Trump Doubles Down on the Law of the Jungle | NonZero World feat. Robert Wright.” (05/03/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68642
-----
56) LPA Live, episode 15
Source: LP Alliance
“The Reckoning w/ LNC Chair Steven Nekhaila.” (05/03/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUzfs5nTHVs
-----
57) The Tom Woods Show, episode 2640
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Public Health: Enemy of the Public, Enemy of Health.” (05/03/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2640-public-health-enemy-of-the-public-enemy-of-health/
-----
58) Soho Forum Debate: Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
Source: Reason
“Eric Brakey and Andrew Heaton debate whether libertarians should prioritize building local liberty-focused societies like the Free State Project or focus on reforming the federal government.” (05/02/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/05/02/should-libertarians-prioritize-their-own-communities/
-----
59) The Fifth Column, episode 503
Source: The Fifth Column
“Mea Minima Culpa.” (05/02/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/503-mea-minima-culpa
-----
60) Conflicts of Interest, episode 793
Source: Libertarian Institute
“US Backs Israel’s Starvation of Gaza.” (05/02/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-793-us-backs-israels-starvation-of-gaza
-----
61) Serious Trouble, 05/02/25
Source: Serious Trouble
“The Trump administration continues to struggle in removal cases; Judge Hannah Dugan is arrested; the DOJ accidentally tells a court its case against congestion pricing is weak.” (05/02/25)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/please-forget-my-oopsie
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62) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 05/02/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Arrests Hit by Major Legal Setback as Stephen Miller Seethes.” (05/02/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/194754/trump-arrests-hit-major-legal-setback-stephen-miller-seethes
-----
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 632
Source: Freakonomics
“When Did We All Start Watching Documentaries?” (05/02/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-did-we-all-start-watching-documentaries/
-----
64) Politics Politics Politics, 05/02/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Worst State Party Draft! Will May Be the Most Pivotal Month of Trump’s Presidency? (with Evan Scrimshaw and Ryan Jakubowski).” (05/02/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/worst-state-party-draft-will-may
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65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/02/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Hegseth Threatens Iran Over Yemen, US-Iran Talks Postponed, Waltz Moved to UN, and More.” (05/02/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXLPhYIa10I
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