10/13-- Palestine: Hamas releases last living Israeli hostages; If This "Shutdown" Was Mine, I’d Claim Ownership
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Thomas L. Knapp
Oct 13, 2025, 6:27:28 AMOct 13
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 10/13/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Palestine: Hamas releases last living Israeli hostages
2) Bitcoin Recovers Slightly Amid Renewed US-China Tensions
3) Madagascar: Rajoelina says a coup is underway after soldiers joined anti-regime demonstrations
4) TN: No survivors found after munitions plant blast left 18 missing
5) Trump directs Pentagon to use “all available funds” to ensure troops are paid during shutdown
6) Kremlin warns the West over “dramatic” escalation moment in Ukraine war
7) UK: Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in London
8) Two powerful quakes strike off southern Philippines, killing at least seven
9) Arctic seals & over half of bird species in trouble on latest list of threatened species
10) Estonia: Regime closes road through Russian territory due to presence of Russian troops
11) NY: Mamdani chased out of park by protester shouting “antisemite!”
12) Kaiser workers gear up for five-day strike
13) IL: Religious leaders offering communion to abductees turned away at Broadview ICE gang lair
14) Sudan: Dozens killed by paramilitary drone and artillery attacks
15) Report: Creatine could slow aging, boost brain & heart health
16) IL: Appeals court maintains block on federal military occupation of Chicago
17) Seychelles: Opposition leader Patrick Herminie wins presidential runoff
18) Afghanistan: Regime Claims 58 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Clashes; Border Closed
19) Diane Keaton, 1946-2025
20) CA: Newsom signs law banning cat declawing procedure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) If This “Shutdown” Was Mine, I’d Claim Ownership
22) Howard Homan Buffett: Rothbard’s Favorite Anti–Cold War Warrior, part 1
23) She wanted to open a hair salon. Then came Trumpish protectionism.
24) Hooked on the State
25) When Presidents Kill
26) The Peacemaker in Chief
27) It’s time to impeach Donald Trump again
28) The Administration’s Foolish War on Basic Science
29) Three women, three Nobel Peace Prize winners
30) Mexicans Must Pay to Play?
31) Forget Obamacare subsidies, it’s time to mend or END the whole thing
32) FBI Spied on Republican Lawmakers Using Surveillance Powers Many Supported
33) Thoughts On The Ceasefire News
34) What the founders would say now
35) Why Bari Weiss Matters
36) When Godzilla Breaks Windows
37) Why we need to take Trump’s Drug War very seriously
38) Fascism Can’t Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target
39) Liberty: Natural, Practical, and Divine
40) Private Chat, Back Now in Europe?
41) Why Does US Media Continue to Undercount the Gaza Death Toll?
42) Texas targets antifa because Trump said so, I guess
43) What Japan Taught Me About American Trains
44) Intellectual Property in Outer Space
45) Why America needs to tax-incentivize tradesmen, not just college graduates
46) Thirteen Windows into the Conservative Mind
47) Finance Economists Warn Against Government as Shareholder
48) The Democrats Take a Trick From the Tea Party
49) How Antimonopoly is Enduring Despite Trumpian Corruption
50) How Not to Run a Household — or a Country
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Underthrow Podcast, 10/11/25
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 313
53) The Political Orphanage, 10/10/25
54) Neon Liberalism, episode 47
55) The Good Fight, 10/11/25
56) LPALive, episode 52
57) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/10/25
58) Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, 10/10/25
59) PoliTicks, 10/10/25
60) IP … Frequently, episode 304
61) The Anarchist Experience, episode 549
62) Nonzero, 10/10/25
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 649
64) System Update, episode 529
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/10/25
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors BT, TM,and CJTS, and to long-time supporter RW! Their payments over the weekend, totaling $65, bring our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5:30am on Monday) to $487.50!
Long-time supporter GL is generously “matching funds” for half our goal of $5,501 … IF we can raise the other half ($2,750.50).
We’re 17% of the way there. My “mini-goal” for the day is to hit the 20% mark ($550.10) by tomorrow morning. That means raising $62.60 TODAY. Will you kick in?
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
We only run one formal fundraiser per year, and when we reach our goal I shut up about money COMPLETELY for the rest of the year, then MOSTLY (just the occasional “we’re reader-supported” mention) until the following October. Please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper TODAY for the maximum period of blessed silence on the subject!
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Thanks to everyone who’s supported us, and thanks in advance to those of you who are about to. Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Palestine: Hamas releases last living Israeli hostages
Source: Yahoo! News
“The remaining living hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been freed after 738 days in captivity, Israeli media reported on Monday. … Their release is to be followed later by the handover of bodies of the remaining 28 deceased hostages, a process that Israel does not expect to be completed on Monday. In exchange, Israel is set to free around 2,000 [Palestinian hostages].” (10/13/25)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/living-gaza-hostages-freed-hamas-084137876.html
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2) Bitcoin Recovers Slightly Amid Renewed US-China Tensions
Source: Barron’s
“Bitcoin recovered slightly after hitting a three-and-a-half-month low at the weekend on renewed U.S.-China trade tensions. President Trump on Friday threatened to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports from next month, hitting risk appetite. … Bitcoin rose 0.2% to $115,299 after hitting a low of $104,782 Saturday, LSEG data show. It remains well below the record high of $126,223 reached on October 6.” (10/13/25)
https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-101325/card/bitcoin-recovers-slightly-amid-renewed-u-s-china-tensions-NbeJD0mAIyInabynnSSI
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3) Madagascar: Rajoelina says a coup is underway after soldiers joined anti-regime demonstrations
Source: Associated Press
“Madagascar’s president said Sunday that an attempted coup was underway in the Indian Ocean country, just a day after members of an elite army unit joined youth-led protests against the government and called for the president to step down. President Andry Rajoelina’s office offered no details on who was behind the attempt and no signs of violence were immediately visible on the streets on Sunday, although there was a large military presence. A commander of the elite CAPSAT unit, Col. Michael Randrianirina, denied any coup had taken place, but the unit claimed to have taken control of all of Madagascar’s armed forces and said it had installed a new leader of the military, Gen. Demosthene Pikulas. ‘We responded to the people’s call,’ Randrianirina told reporters. Pikulas, who spoke alongside Randrianirina, declined to say if they had asked Rajoelina to resign, but the CAPSAT army unit appeared to be in a position of authority.” (10/12/25)
https://apnews.com/article/madagascar-protests-attempted-coup-e6dd29a429e06362efd238cfac7270d0
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4) TN: No survivors found after munitions plant blast left 18 missing
Source: Reuters
“Investigators do not expect to find any survivors at the scene of a massive blast at a Tennessee military explosives company that left 18 people missing, officials said on Saturday. The explosion, which was felt for miles, leveled a building at the 1,300-acre (5 square km) headquarters of Accurate Energetic Systems early Friday morning in Bucksnort, about an hour’s drive west of Nashville. ‘More than 300 people have been through almost every square inch of this facility, and at this time, we’ve recovered no survivors,’ Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told reporters. ‘It’s a great loss to our communities.'” (10/11/25)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-survivors-found-after-tennessee-munitions-plant-blast-authorities-say-2025-10-11/
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5) Trump directs Pentagon to use “all available funds” to ensure troops are paid during shutdown
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has directed the Defense Department to use ‘all available funds’ to ensure U.S. troops are paid Wednesday despite the government shutdown, a short-term fix that will not apply to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed. Trump said in a social media post that he was acting because ‘our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th.’ The Republican president’s directive removes one of the pressure points that could have forced Congress into action, likely ensuring that the shutdown — now in its 11th day and counting — extends into a third week and possibly beyond. But no similar action seems forthcoming for federal employees also working without pay while thousands are now being laid off during the lapse in government operations. The White House budget office started the layoffs on Friday.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/trump-directs-the-pentagon-to-use-all-available-21096091.php
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6) Kremlin warns the West over “dramatic” escalation moment in Ukraine war
Source: Reuters
“The Kremlin said on Sunday Russia was deeply concerned about the possibility of the U.S. supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, warning that the war had reached a dramatic moment with escalation from all sides. … [Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry] Peskov said that if Tomahawks were launched at Russia, Moscow would have to take into account that some versions of the missile can carry nuclear warheads. … Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that it was impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of U.S. military personnel and so any supply of such missiles to Ukraine would trigger a ‘qualitatively new stage of escalation.'” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/BxD9F
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7) UK: Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in London
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in central London a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in Gaza. The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Coalition, began along Victoria Embankment on Saturday afternoon — attendees then marched on Whitehall, where a rally was held. Images showed a sea of Palestinian flags being carried over Westminster Bridge while a small group of counter-protesters gathered nearby, with many holding Israeli flags and signs calling for the return of hostages. … The protest comes days after the prime minister said the UK government could consider pursuing more curbs on protest laws, including targeting some of the chants used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations.” (10/11/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewnwgnqj2qo
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8) Two powerful quakes strike off southern Philippines, killing at least seven
Source: SFGate
“Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck the same region in the southern Philippines hours apart on Friday with the first 7.4 magnitude temblor killing at least seven people, setting off landslides and prompting evacuations of coastal areas nearby because of a brief tsunami scare. The second one had a preliminary 6.8 magnitude and also sparked a local tsunami warning by authorities. It was caused by movement in the same fault line, the Philippine Trench, at a depth of 37 kilometers (23 miles) off Manay town in Davao Oriental province, Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology chief Teresito Bacolcol said. ‘The second one is a separate earthquake, which we call a doublet quake,’ Bacolcol told The Associated Press. ‘Both happened in the same area but have different strengths and epicenters.’ Bacolcol and other authorities expressed fears that the second nighttime earthquake could further weaken or collapse structures already undermined by the first one.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/7-6-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-offshore-from-21093628.php
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9) Arctic seals & over half of bird species in trouble on latest list of threatened species
Source: SFGate
“Arctic seals are being pushed closer to extinction by climate change, and more than half of bird species around the world are declining under pressure from deforestation and agricultural expansion, according to an annual assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. One bright spot is green sea turtles, which have recovered substantially thanks to decades of conservation efforts, the IUCN said Friday as it released its latest Red List of Threatened Species. While many animals are increasingly at risk of disappearing forever, the updated list shows how species can come back from the brink with dedicated effort, Rima Jabado, deputy chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told The Associated Press.” (10/10/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/arctic-seals-and-more-than-half-of-bird-species-21094014.php
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10) Estonia: Regime closes road through Russian territory due to presence of Russian troops
Source: Seattle Times
“Estonia has temporarily closed access for its citizens to a road they normally use that passes through a stretch of Russian territory, after the interior minister reported on a group of Russian soldiers standing there, Estonia’s public broadcaster said Sunday. Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board said in a statement Friday that the closing took place that day ‘after border guards observed a larger-than-usual unit moving on the territory of the Russian Federation.’ The Estonian border agency said that the closure of the Saatse Boot is necessary to ensure the safety of people in Estonia and to prevent possible incidents.” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/pLj9E
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11) NY: Mamdani chased out of park by protester shouting “antisemite!”
Source: New York Post
“Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was chased out of Lower Manhattan by a serial City Hall gadfly who slammed him as an ‘antisemite’ and got into a shoving match with the politician’s staffer. The enraged protester, identified by sources as Raul Rivera, 55, of the Bronx, followed Mamdani as the pol was ushered by security into his waiting SUV, video of the encounter shows. Rivera (who was arrested in June for allegedly biting a Mamdani campaign volunteer) shouted and cursed as Mamdani ignored him and climbed into the vehicle, the footage shows. Mamdani had been in Foley Square for a protest where he and other lefty pols and activists stood in support of state Attorney General Letitia James as she faces federal charges of bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution.” (10/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/11/us-news/socialist-mayoral-candidate-zohran-mamdani-chased-out-of-nyc-park-by-protester-shouting-antisemite/
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12) Kaiser workers gear up for five-day strike
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Kaiser Permanente patients with appointments next week are on notice that a wide range of medical professionals plan to stage a five-day strike, starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday. … Kaiser has not said publicly exactly how its members are likely to be affected by the work stoppage, which involves 31,000 workers in California and Hawaii who are members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. … The union’s stated reasons for this disruption are ‘stagnant wages and unsafe staffing,’ with an organizer indicating Friday that wages in the bargaining unit’s previous contract did not keep up with inflation.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/11/kaiser-workers-gear-up-for-five-day-strike-sharp-nurses-to-picket/
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13) IL: Religious leaders offering communion to abductees turned away at Broadview ICE gang lair
Source: CBS News
“Dozens took part in a movement as religious leaders attempted to give detainees inside the Broadview ICE processing facility holy communion. … The group with the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership walked about a mile to the ICE facility, in hopes of giving those inside holy communion. But to get in was a major hurdle. Saturday’s gathering remained peaceful as priests and religious leaders spoke with Illinois State troopers. The troopers were the ones who called someone inside the detention facility to see if they could give communion. A few priests had a calm conversation with the Illinois State troopers. However, they were denied entry.” (10/11/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/religious-leaders-turned-away-broadview-ice-facility/
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14) Sudan: Dozens killed by paramilitary drone and artillery attacks
Source: United Press International
“Locals said a drone and artillery attack on a refugee shelter by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in el-Fasher, Sudan, late Friday killed at least 60. Local activists said the RSF struck the Dar al-Arqam refugee camp with two drone attacks and eight artillery shells, which the RSF has denied, the BBC reported. … The attack struck the al Arqam Home that shelters displaced families in el-Fasher, Sky News reported. The city has been under siege from paramilitary forces and caught in the middle of fighting between Sudan’s military forces and paramilitaries operating in the region. The RSF is among those paramilitaries and is trying to establish a separatist government in the North Dafur region. El-Fasher is the last stronghold held by Sudan’s army in the Darfur area and has been surrounded by the RSF for 17 months.” (10/11/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/10/11/sudan-el-fasher-attack/5761760228815/
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15) Report: Creatine could slow aging, boost brain & heart health
Source: Fox News
“Creatine is often associated with hitting the gym and building muscle, but the supplement, typically taken in powder or capsule form, has recently been linked to a variety of other uses and benefits. Singer Ciara told Business Insider last month that she takes creatine not just for muscle boosting, but to support energy levels throughout the day. Actor Mark Wahlberg has also hopped onto the trend, creating his own creatine monohydrate product, while health gurus like Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman have touted its various neurological benefits. According to registered dietitian nutritionist Sam McKinney of Life Time Fitness in Minneapolis, creatine is a natural compound mostly stored in the muscles, with smaller amounts in the brain, liver and kidneys.” (10/11/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/overlooked-supplement-could-slow-aging-boost-brain-heart-health-expert-says
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16) IL: Appeals court maintains block on federal military occupation of Chicago
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
“Deployment of National Guard troops within Illinois remains blocked Saturday after the federal appeals court in Chicago met the Trump administration halfway. The administration late Friday asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the effect of a ruling handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge April Perry. She had blocked the Trump administration from ‘ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois.’ Justice Department lawyers then asked the appeals court to intervene. In a one-page order Saturday, the court halted Perry’s ruling only when it came to the federalization of the National Guard. However, it left untouched the portion of Perry’s ruling blocking deployment of the National Guard.” (10/11/25)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump/2025/10/10/trump-asks-appeals-court-to-intervene-after-judge-blocks-national-guard-deployment-to-illinois
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17) Seychelles: Opposition leader Patrick Herminie wins presidential runoff
Source: SFGate
“Opposition leader Patrick Herminie won the presidential election in Seychelles, defeating incumbent leader Wavel Ramkalawan in a runoff vote, according to official results released early Sunday. Herminie garnered 52.7% of the vote, with Ramkalawan taking 47.3%, the results showed. Herminie represents the United Seychelles party, which led the country for four decades before it lost power in 2020. It was the governing party from 1977 to 2020. Ramkalawan, of the governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party, sought a second term. … The race between the two main contenders in Seychelles’ election was decided in a runoff after there was no outright winner in the presidential vote two weeks ago.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/seychelles-votes-in-tight-runoff-election-21095683.php
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18) Afghanistan: Regime Claims 58 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Clashes; Border Closed
Source: US News & World Report
“Pakistan closed border crossings with Afghanistan on Sunday, Pakistani officials said, following exchanges of fire between the forces of the two countries overnight in which Kabul claimed to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers. Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani border posts late on Saturday, with the country’s ministry of defence saying this was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan earlier in the week. Pakistan said that it had responded with gun and artillery fire. Afghanistan said it had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers, but gave no details on how it knew of the casualty figures. It also said that 20 Afghan troops were killed or injured. There was no immediate response from Pakistan. Pakistani security officials said they had inflicted casualties on Afghan force but gave no number.” (10/12/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-12/pakistan-closes-border-with-afghanistan-following-exchanges-of-fire
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19) Diane Keaton, 1946-2025
Source: New York Times
“Diane Keaton, the vibrant, sometimes unconventional, always charmingly self-deprecating actress who won an Oscar for Woody Allen’s comedy ‘Annie Hall’ and appeared in some 100 movie and television roles, an almost equal balance of them in comedies like ‘Sleeper’ and ‘The First Wives Club’ and dramas like ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Marvin’s Room,’ has died. She was 79.” (10/11/25)
https://archive.is/I3iR5
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20) CA: Newsom signs law banning cat declawing procedure
Source: SFGate
“California just banned a common procedure on cats that some animal rights advocates have called inhumane. Assembly Bill 867 from Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat from San Jose, will prevent veterinarians from declawing cats, a procedure that typically involves amputating the bone in a cat’s toe or severing tendons used to extend the claws. Newsom signed the bill Thursday afternoon. Millions of cat owners have declawed their felines in the United States, usually to prevent the pets from destroying furniture or scratching humans.” (10/10/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/california-bans-cat-procedure-21094945.php
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) If This “Shutdown” Was Mine, I’d Claim Ownership
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“[T]here’s zero doubt whose shutdown this is. The Republicans control the White House. The Republicans control the US House of Representatives. The Republicans control the Senate, and as recently as last month, they’ve shown they’re willing to use the ‘nuclear option’ to get things done by majority, instead of super-majority, vote. The US government is (partially and cosmetically) shut down because the Republicans want it that way. The shutdown will end when the Republicans want it to end. It’s theirs. They own it. They (especially Trump) would look a lot better leaning into that ownership than they sound with their 24/7 whining about the Democrats.” (10/11/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20076
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22) Howard Homan Buffett: Rothbard’s Favorite Anti–Cold War Warrior, part 1
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy
“On June 14, the House of Representatives passed a bill to automate the already mandatory registration of every male required to do so. The Senate is currently (July 10) working on a different version of the bill that requires women to register as well. Registration is not conscription itself, of course, but it is a prerequisite and often a harbinger of one. … Unfortunately, most debates about conscription today revolve around circumstantial matters, such as reaching recruitment goals, or around peripheral social controversies, such as drafting women. It didn’t used to be this way. In the mid-20th century, a remarkable decade of philosophical and moral debate about conscription occurred inside and outside of Congress. Within the House, no voice rang clearer on this issue than the four-term Representative Howard Buffett (1903–1964), to whom the iconic libertarian Murray Rothbard looked up in admiration.” (10/10/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/howard-homan-buffett-rothbards-favorite-anti-cold-war-warrior-part-1/
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23) She wanted to open a hair salon. Then came Trumpish protectionism.
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“[Khalilah] Few graduated from beauty school in 2012 and in 2023 opened her own salon. Seeking to relocate, she invested more than $30,000 in renovating and renting a space that had previously been a barbershop. When in May this year she applied for a permit, she assumed approval would be perfunctory. In July, however, she was denied a permit for two reasons, one unintelligible, the other unconstitutional.” (10/10/25)
https://archive.is/1jk1v
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24) Hooked on the State
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Since the government partial shutdown began, we’ve been seeing panicked headlines about states being denied federal money for promised or already-started energy and infrastructure projects. Other sorts of subsidies are also in jeopardy. You’d think that not getting money from Washington was the worst thing that could happen. Oh my goodness, federalism might be breaking out! … It’s a good time to remember, or realize for the first time, that throughout the 20th century, American classical liberals, or libertarians, warned of the dangers of national funding for every sort of thing. ” (10/10/250
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/tgif-hooked-on-state.html
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25) When Presidents Kill
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano
“During the past six weeks, President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. troops to attack and destroy four speed boats in the Caribbean Sea, 1,500 miles from the United States. The president revealed that the attacks were conducted without warning, were intended not to stop but to kill all persons on the boats, and succeeded in their missions. Trump has claimed that his victims are ‘narco-terrorists’ who were planning to deliver illegal drugs to willing American buyers. He apparently believes that because these folks are presumably foreigners, they have no rights that he must honor and he may freely kill them. As far as we know, none of these nameless faceless persons was charged or convicted of any federal crime. We don’t know if any were Americans. But we do know that all were just extrajudicially executed. Can the president legally do this? In a word: NO.” (10/10/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2025/10/09/when-presidents-kill-2/
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26) The Peacemaker in Chief
Source: Town Hall
by Michael Reagan
“It was fun watching Kaitlan Collins of CNN the other day as she marveled at Donald Trump’s boundless energy and accessibility. Collins recently said Trump (unlike his sleepy and media-shy predecessor) hardly ever sleeps and is super-accessible to the press. But I doubt if Ms. Collins has suddenly decided that Trump isn’t so bad after all. The CNN anchor and the rest of the liberal mainstream news media will never forgive Trump for his New York-size ego, his unfiltered talk, his mean public persona or his great sense of humor. And the most deranged of them will never stop believing he is a fascist who’s intent on becoming a dictator, which is absurd.” (10/11/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2025/10/11/the-peacemaker-in-chief-n2664791
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27) It’s time to impeach Donald Trump again
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“In our political system, impeachment is designed as a check on executive overreach, a constitutional remedy for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ which has been understood to encompass abuses of office that threaten the foundations of a republican government. Importantly, the high crimes and misdemeanors standard doesn’t necessarily require criminal or unlawful conduct, and a president’s neglect of duty can meet the test. In Federalist No. 65, Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius, made it clear that impeachment is a specifically political process of inquest into the public conduct of public officials, that is, again, that the conduct in question need not even break the law. I’m afraid it is time to impeach Donald Trump again, this time removing him from office.” (10/11/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/its-time-to-impeach-donald-trump
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28) The Administration’s Foolish War on Basic Science
Source: The UnPopulist
by Kenneth Silber
“Cutting funding for gravitational wave studies won’t save taxpayers much but will jeopardize future scientific breakthroughs.” (10/11/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-administrations-foolish-war-on
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29) Three women, three Nobel Peace Prize winners
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, has many striking similarities to two previous winners: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Iran’s Narges Mohammadi. Yes, all three are women. Yes, all are champions for democracy inside dictatorships. And all are either in prison or in hiding. On those aspects alone, they are worthy of a Nobel and inspiring to millions of followers. Yet what really links them in a meaningful way is how they describe a mental strength that helps them stand for civic virtues such as individual freedom and democratic equality.'” (10/10/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1010/Three-women-three-Nobel-Peace-Prize-winners
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30) Mexicans Must Pay to Play?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sergio Martínez
“The Mexican federal government has announced a new 8% excise tax on violent video games. The justification? That violent games are responsible for violent behavior. Violence is indeed a heavy problem in Mexico, and organized crime has left significant parts of the country in a state of terror. But attacking video games seems a poor policy-choice that echoes the moral panics of the 1990s — when games like Mortal Kombat triggered congressional hearings and headlines about the corruption of the youth that led to the creation of the ESRB system. Such panics gain political traction even when evidence is lacking.” (10/10/25)
https://fee.org/articles/mexicans-must-pay-to-play/
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31) Forget Obamacare subsidies, it’s time to mend or END the whole thing
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Democrats shut down the government partly to force Republicans to extend COVID-era boosts in Obamacare subsidies that Dems once called ‘temporary’ but now say are needed to keep the program viable. This reveals what a true disaster Obamacare has been, as its critics warned even as Dems were ramming it into law with not a single Republican vote in 2010. Blindly tossing fresh trillions down that hole is nuts: Time to fix it — or scrap it altogether. The 10-year cost of Dems’ current demand totals almost a half-trillion dollars, to benefit primarily insurers and wealthier Americans. Under the expiration that Democrats wrote into law, 1.6 million Americans (just 0.5% of the population) would see their subsidies return to pre-COVID levels. That would leave their Obamacare plans so pricey that many would drop them altogether, especially those who could get cheaper and better coverage through their employers.” (10/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/11/opinion/forget-obamacare-subsidies-its-time-to-mend-or-end-the-whole-thing/
-----
32) FBI Spied on Republican Lawmakers Using Surveillance Powers Many Supported
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. government engaged in mass surveillance of the American people. Some of the snooping delved into the content of emails and phone calls. But much of it was of metadata — who people contact and when. While not as revealing as actual messages, it let the government build profiles on people and their affiliations. This week, lawmakers — some of whom allowed federal agencies to accumulate and exercise such power — received a lesson in how disturbing such scrutiny can be when they found out the last administration monitored their calls.” (10/10/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/10/fbi-spied-on-republican-lawmakers-using-surveillance-powers-many-supported/?nab=1
-----
33) Thoughts On The Ceasefire News
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israel continued to hammer Gaza with military explosives on Thursday despite the announcement of the first stages of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Israel always does this. When normal people get a ceasefire agreement they think ‘Good, this means we can finally stop fighting and killing!’ Whenever Israelis get a ceasefire agreement they go, ‘This means we have to hurry up and kill as many people as possible before it takes effect.’ But it does appear that the killing and abuse will at least diminish for a time, which is an objectively good thing no matter how you slice it. The first stages of the agreement reportedly entail a partial withdrawal of IDF troops, Israel’s starvation blockade officially ending, humanitarian aid being allowed into the enclave, and both Israel and Hamas releasing captives and stopping the fighting.” (10/10/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/10/thoughts-on-the-ceasefire-news/
-----
34) What the founders would say now
Source: The Atlantic
“When the American republic was founded, the Earth was no more than 75,000 years old. No contemporary thinker imagined it could possibly be older. Thus Thomas Jefferson was confident that woolly mammoths must still live in ‘the northern and western parts of America,’ places that ‘still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored and undisturbed by us.’ The idea that mammoths or any other kind of creature might have ceased to exist was, to him, inconceivable. … In trying to imagine how [the founders] would perceive the state of their republic in 2025, the risk is that we invent our own versions of Jefferson’s nonexistent beasts. The originalist fallacy that dominates the current Supreme Court — the pretense that it is possible to read the minds of the Founders and discern what they ‘really’ meant — in fact turns the Founders into ventriloquists’ dummies. We express our own prejudices by moving their lips.” (10/10/25)
https://archive.is/0Bumi
-----
35) Why Bari Weiss Matters
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“It’s fashionable to say that we are in a ‘post-liberal’ moment, or that liberal democracy has disappeared. I’ve done so myself in some contexts. But liberal democracy is, above all, an act of will; and the same essential structures that support it remain: a First Amendment, a vibrant private sector, the separation of powers, an independent judiciary. These cannot work as designed if we wage tribal war on each other, as we are. But they are still there. They can still be used for their original purpose with their authentic liberal spirit. And the truth is that the media is eminently fixable, and our job as journos is to fix it. If we already had, none of this would be happening. That’s why Bari Weiss matters at CBS, and why I am praying she pulls it off.” (10/10/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/why-bari-weiss-matters-c21
-----
36) When Godzilla Breaks Windows
Source: EconLog
by Ethan Kelley
“It’s morning in Tokyo. You’re sitting on your balcony with a cup of coffee or tea, enjoying the rising sun over the bay. Birds chirp. All is peaceful — until that peace is shattered by a giant radioactive kaiju named Godzilla. You watch in horror as the massive, irradiated monster makes landfall and begins his rampage through the city, crushing buildings and leaving devastation in his wake. As the chaos unfolds, a surreal thought floats through your mind: Well, at least Tokyo’s construction companies will be busy. There’s got to be some good in all this, right? Frédéric Bastiat would like a word with you.” (10/10/25)
https://www.econlib.org/when-godzilla-breaks-windows
-----
37) Why we need to take Trump’s Drug War very seriously
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“Donald Trump has long been a fan of using the U.S. military to wage a more vigorous war against drug cartels in Latin America. He also shows signs of using that justification as a pretext to oust regimes considered hostile to other U.S. interests. The most recent incident in the administration’s escalating antidrug campaign took place on October 3 when ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. naval forces had sunk yet another small boat off of the coast of Venezuela. It was one of four destroyed vessels and a total of 21 people killed since late September. The administration claims they were all trying to ship illegal drugs to the United States.” (10/10/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/cartels-vessels-caribbean/
-----
38) Fascism Can’t Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
The following three things can’t all be true simultaneously: 1. Many Americans are fascists 2. Fascists are an acceptable target for political violence 3. Political violence in America is morally unacceptable (at the current time) … I thought about this while following the Twitter spat between Democratic hopeful Gavin Newsom and Trump advisor Stephen Miller. Newsom called Miller fascist; Miller accused this of being a call to violence which placed ‘a target’ on him. Miller is hardly sympathetic here — he’s called people fascist himself in the past, and later suggested Newsom should be arrested for his speech (if only there were a word to describe the sort of person who supports that kind of thing …) Still, I found myself able to see things from both perspectives.” (10/10/25)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/fascism-cant-mean-both-a-specific
-----
39) Liberty: Natural, Practical, and Divine
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Dan Sanchez
“What is the best ethical framework upon which to hang the case for liberty? The libertarian debate over this question has long been cast as a contest between natural rights and utilitarianism.” (10/10/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/liberty-natural-practical-and-divine
-----
40) Private Chat, Back Now in Europe?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“We seem to have Germany — not a typo: Germany — to thank for the fact that one of the most intrusive EU gambits attacking freedom of speech is about to fail. The proposal would let governments monitor all private chat messages, via mandatory back doors, without bothering with such trivialities as warrants, probable cause, evidence. The European Union centralizes many assaults on liberty that member countries are supposed to supinely accept once enacted. But it can’t ignore individual members as proposals are still en route to becoming law. And the German government, often not exactly a beacon when it comes to free speech, has now made its opposition to this particular mode of surveillance and censorship loud and clear.” (10/10/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/10/private-chat-back-now-in-europe/
-----
41) Why Does US Media Continue to Undercount the Gaza Death Toll?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“Ben Hubbard, the long-time Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, is known for his high standards. So too is Karen DeYoung, the long-time reporter and foreign affairs editor for the Washington Post. Yet they, and their editors, share a common, recurring failure by misleading their readers about the serious undercount of Palestinian deaths during the Israeli regime’s genocidal destruction of Gaza. How so? By repeating in article after article the Hamas claim of 67,000 deaths since October 2023. The real death toll estimate is probably around 600,000.” (10/11/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/media-undercount-gaza-death
-----
42) Texas targets antifa because Trump said so, I guess
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“If Texas law enforcement tries to infiltrate every group that identifies as antifa-adjacent, it’s going to be infiltrating a lot of knitting circles, vegan clubs, and faculty groups (including a FIRE client), the vast majority of which would catch the vapors if forced to watch a video of violence, let alone contemplate performing it with their own hands. And even if they had the manpower, it would still be unlawful to target these groups simply for their beliefs. So presumably, law enforcement is going to narrow its scope to focus on a particular kind of antifa-aligned group — the kind that is actively planning to commit violent acts. But if law enforcement is capable of identifying which groups want to commit violent acts, then why bring ideology into it?” (10/10/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/texas-targets-antifa-because-trump-said-so-i-guess
-----
43) What Japan Taught Me About American Trains
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“I rode the train from New York to D.C. this week, and I have thoughts. I took the Acela, the flagship offering from Amtrak, America’s semi-nationalized, permanently beleaguered rail operator. The service spans the 225 miles that separate the sole superpower’s biggest city from its capital in a stately, none-too-rushed three hours. Plenty of time to mull the gap between this service and the trains back home. Okay, yes, I’ve only lived in Japan for one year, but that’s more than enough for Japanese rail to etch itself into my soul. As an urbanist, there’s a special joy in living in a place built for and around trains.” (10/10/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-american-trains-suck
-----
44) Intellectual Property in Outer Space
Source: Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom
by Stephan Kinsella
“Most people do not understand that IP law is domestic only, which is why it is nonsensical to say that China is ‘stealing’ western ‘IP.’ Most countries have IP protection, primarily because of Western, primarily US, IP imperialism and bullying, mostly at the behest of Big Pharma (patents) and Hollywood and the music industry/RIAA (copyright) which have forced other countries to adopt American-style IP, to their detriment.2 But any country that chooses not to have IP rights and does not protect inventions and and artistic works does not violate others’ property rights, any more than insecure property rights in North Korea violates property rights in Texas. … the same is true in outer space, since no municipal copyright or patent law applies in outer space (or on the high seas or deep sea bed).” (10/10/25)
https://c4sif.org/2025/10/intellectual-property-in-outer-space/
-----
45) Why America needs to tax-incentivize tradesmen, not just college graduates
Source: Fox News
by Mike Sarraille & Kirk Offel
“Walk onto any construction site in America, and you’ll hear the same story: We can’t find enough skilled workers. Electricians, welders, HVAC technicians, plumbers and heavy-equipment operators are in dangerously short supply, and the gap is widening. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently warned that building America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure will require an army of electricians. The demand for data centers (both cloud and AI) is expected to double year over year. Mike Rowe has been sounding the alarm for years: The most ‘essential’ jobs are the ones our culture stopped celebrating. Here’s the truth: Without skilled tradesmen, America grinds to a halt. … Yet we keep pushing young people toward four-year degrees, often leaving them with six-figure debt, while treating the trades as a second-class option.” (10/11/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/why-america-needs-tax-incentivize-tradesmen-not-just-college-graduates
-----
46) Thirteen Windows into the Conservative Mind
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey O Nelson
“Christopher Scalia’s 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) is a book about books that also functions as an extended book list. It is a collection of essay-length chapters that discuss and recommend some of his favorite novels. And it is a reliable guide to younger readers, suspicious and wearied of politicized works of culture, exhorting them to reclaim their patrimony by making great literature central to their intellectual formation.” (10/10/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/thirteen-windows-into-the-conservative-mind/
-----
47) Finance Economists Warn Against Government as Shareholder
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Nathan Miller
“President Trump first mused about a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund during his 2024 presidential campaign. Shortly after he took office, he signed an executive order instructing his Treasury and Commerce Secretaries to design such a fund. Those plans would ultimately stall, but as we summarized in August, what we’ve seen instead is a wave of ad hoc stakes and revenue shares wrested from U.S. companies like U.S. Steel, Nvidia and AMD, and most famously Intel. Trump advisers pledged to continue their interventionist tear, and just this week Trump announced the country will take a 10% stake in the Canadian mining company Trilogy Metals and fast-track permit approval for an Alaskan mining road the company stands to benefit from. A survey of top finance economists by the Kent Clark survey groups warns this strategy tends to backfire, even for the individual firm.” (10/10/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/finance-economists-warn-against-government-shareholder
-----
48) The Democrats Take a Trick From the Tea Party
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“There are at least two layers to the government shutdown now about to enter its second week. One is the standard fight between the two major parties, which has defined most government shutdowns since Bill Clinton was forced to share power with a Republican-controlled Congress in 1995. The second is a battle within the Democratic Party, with disenchanted progressives simultaneously pressuring and revolting against an ossified leadership class they perceive as constantly losing to President Donald Trump. If the latter sounds familiar, simply swap out progressives for disenchanted conservatives, Democratic leaders for the Republican establishment, and Trump for the former President Barack Obama under the Tea Party more than a decade ago — really until that rebellion was more or less brought to heel by Trump.” (10/10/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-democrats-take-a-trick-from-the-tea-party/
-----
49) How Antimonopoly is Enduring Despite Trumpian Corruption
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s meager attempt at insult comedy in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week is the kind of thing that many political observers call ‘dramatic’, when in reality it was boring deflection and obfuscation punctuated by lazy scandalmongering. But there was something interesting going on in that hearing on the other side of the panel. Four different senators asked Bondi about the antitrust division and its slide into pay-to-play corruption. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) posed questions about how Bondi’s team overruled her antitrust enforcers to approve the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks merger after pressure from MAGA lobbyists, how Live Nation has hired the same lobbyists to try to get a monopolization case thrown out, and how top antitrust deputies were fired for resisting lobbyist-infused deals.” (10/10/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-10-09-antitrust-pam-bondi-corruption-senate/
-----
50) How Not to Run a Household — or a Country
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Donald and Melania Trump are eating breakfast together …. Donald Trump to Melania: ‘How much did our family spend last year on food, clothing, furniture, and other stuff for Mar-a-Lago?’ Melania: ‘About two million dollars.’ Donald: ‘How much stuff – tangible stuff, stuff with mass, stuff you can touch – did our family sell?’ Melania: ‘Well, we sold only that used golf cart for $5,000.’ Donald: ‘This is bad. Very bad. It’s a family emergency. The people we trade with are taking advantage of our kindness. I’m so disappointed in them. They let me down. It ends now!’ Melania: ‘What do you mean?’ Donald: ‘Simple. From now on, we won’t buy any stuff – no food, no clothes, no golf carts, no anything – from anyone who doesn’t buy at least an equal amount of stuff from us. I’m tired of being ripped off!’” (10/10/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/how-not-to-run-a-household-or-a-country/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Underthrow Podcast, 10/11/25
Source: Underthrow
“How Special Economic Zones Could Lift Millions Out of Poverty.” (10/11/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhoBl6b_40
-----
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 313
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Unattended Baggage Rideshare Therapy, LLC.” (10/11/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-313-unattended-baggage-rideshare
-----
53) The Political Orphanage, 10/10/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“(Sneak Peak) From Branding to the Electric Chair.” (10/10/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/sneak-peak-from-branding-to-the-electric-chair
-----
54) Neon Liberalism, episode 47
Source: Liberal Currents
“Liberalism 101: Liberalism and Limited Government.” (10/11/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberalism-47-liberalism-101-liberalism-and-limited-government/
-----
55) The Good Fight, 10/11/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Oren Harman on the Magic of Metamorphosis.” (10/10/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/oren-harman
-----
56) LPALive, episode 52
Source: LP Alliance
“Interviewing LP Russia.” (10/10/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tJ7EYRT3E
-----
57) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/10/25
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Iain Davis (independent investigative journalist, author/blogger from the UK) comes on the show to talk about Peter Thiel ‘and group’ (which includes J.D. Vance as possibly our next president), technocracy, AI, does AI free or enslave us, Digital ID …” (10/10/25)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/385485-2025-10-09-2025-10-10-ernest-hancock-interviews-iain-davis-activist-from.htm
-----
58) Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, 10/10/25
Source: The Bulwark
“How Orwell Helps Us Remember Truth.” (10/10/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-orwell-helps-us-remember-truth
-----
59) PoliTicks, 10/10/25
Source: We Are Libertarians
“Is Katy Porter What California Deserves?” (10/10/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/politicks-is-katy-porter-what-california-deserves
-----
60) IP … Frequently, episode 304
Source: IP … Frequently
“Borders for Thee, but Not for Me.” (10/10/25)
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/ip-frequently/episodes/Ep–304—Borders-for-Thee–but-Not-for-Me-e39bsba
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61) The Anarchist Experience, episode 549
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, Lori, and Riley discuss the impact of the government shutdown, where government has the most direct impact, and Roger Ver’s proposed settlement.” (10/10/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/the-anarchist-experience-549/
-----
62) Nonzero, 10/10/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Whose Toady is Bari Weiss? | Robert Wright & Paul Bloom.” (10/10/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69061
-----
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 649
Source: Freakonomics
“Should Ohio State (and Michigan, and Clemson) Join the N.F.L.?” (10/10/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-ohio-state-and-michigan-and-clemson-join-the-n-f-l/
-----
64) System Update, episode 529
Source: System Update
“Q&A with Glenn: Is the Gaza Peace Deal Real? Why was the Nobel Peace Prize Given to Venezuela’s Opposition Leader? And More …” (10/10/25)
https://rumble.com/v705418-system-update-show-529.html
-----
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/10/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel Approves First Phase of Gaza Ceasefire, US Sending 200 Troops to Israel, and More.” (10/10/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71oFHP2J7k
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https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Palestine: Hamas releases last living Israeli hostages
2) Bitcoin Recovers Slightly Amid Renewed US-China Tensions
3) Madagascar: Rajoelina says a coup is underway after soldiers joined anti-regime demonstrations
4) TN: No survivors found after munitions plant blast left 18 missing
5) Trump directs Pentagon to use “all available funds” to ensure troops are paid during shutdown
6) Kremlin warns the West over “dramatic” escalation moment in Ukraine war
7) UK: Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in London
8) Two powerful quakes strike off southern Philippines, killing at least seven
9) Arctic seals & over half of bird species in trouble on latest list of threatened species
10) Estonia: Regime closes road through Russian territory due to presence of Russian troops
11) NY: Mamdani chased out of park by protester shouting “antisemite!”
12) Kaiser workers gear up for five-day strike
13) IL: Religious leaders offering communion to abductees turned away at Broadview ICE gang lair
14) Sudan: Dozens killed by paramilitary drone and artillery attacks
15) Report: Creatine could slow aging, boost brain & heart health
16) IL: Appeals court maintains block on federal military occupation of Chicago
17) Seychelles: Opposition leader Patrick Herminie wins presidential runoff
18) Afghanistan: Regime Claims 58 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Clashes; Border Closed
19) Diane Keaton, 1946-2025
20) CA: Newsom signs law banning cat declawing procedure
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) If This “Shutdown” Was Mine, I’d Claim Ownership
22) Howard Homan Buffett: Rothbard’s Favorite Anti–Cold War Warrior, part 1
23) She wanted to open a hair salon. Then came Trumpish protectionism.
24) Hooked on the State
25) When Presidents Kill
26) The Peacemaker in Chief
27) It’s time to impeach Donald Trump again
28) The Administration’s Foolish War on Basic Science
29) Three women, three Nobel Peace Prize winners
30) Mexicans Must Pay to Play?
31) Forget Obamacare subsidies, it’s time to mend or END the whole thing
32) FBI Spied on Republican Lawmakers Using Surveillance Powers Many Supported
33) Thoughts On The Ceasefire News
34) What the founders would say now
35) Why Bari Weiss Matters
36) When Godzilla Breaks Windows
37) Why we need to take Trump’s Drug War very seriously
38) Fascism Can’t Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target
39) Liberty: Natural, Practical, and Divine
40) Private Chat, Back Now in Europe?
41) Why Does US Media Continue to Undercount the Gaza Death Toll?
42) Texas targets antifa because Trump said so, I guess
43) What Japan Taught Me About American Trains
44) Intellectual Property in Outer Space
45) Why America needs to tax-incentivize tradesmen, not just college graduates
46) Thirteen Windows into the Conservative Mind
47) Finance Economists Warn Against Government as Shareholder
48) The Democrats Take a Trick From the Tea Party
49) How Antimonopoly is Enduring Despite Trumpian Corruption
50) How Not to Run a Household — or a Country
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Underthrow Podcast, 10/11/25
52) Unattended Baggage, episode 313
53) The Political Orphanage, 10/10/25
54) Neon Liberalism, episode 47
55) The Good Fight, 10/11/25
56) LPALive, episode 52
57) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/10/25
58) Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, 10/10/25
59) PoliTicks, 10/10/25
60) IP … Frequently, episode 304
61) The Anarchist Experience, episode 549
62) Nonzero, 10/10/25
63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 649
64) System Update, episode 529
65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/10/25
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0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors BT, TM,and CJTS, and to long-time supporter RW! Their payments over the weekend, totaling $65, bring our year-end fundraiser total (as of 5:30am on Monday) to $487.50!
Long-time supporter GL is generously “matching funds” for half our goal of $5,501 … IF we can raise the other half ($2,750.50).
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Thanks to everyone who’s supported us, and thanks in advance to those of you who are about to. Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
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Publisher
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1) Palestine: Hamas releases last living Israeli hostages
Source: Yahoo! News
“The remaining living hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been freed after 738 days in captivity, Israeli media reported on Monday. … Their release is to be followed later by the handover of bodies of the remaining 28 deceased hostages, a process that Israel does not expect to be completed on Monday. In exchange, Israel is set to free around 2,000 [Palestinian hostages].” (10/13/25)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/living-gaza-hostages-freed-hamas-084137876.html
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2) Bitcoin Recovers Slightly Amid Renewed US-China Tensions
Source: Barron’s
“Bitcoin recovered slightly after hitting a three-and-a-half-month low at the weekend on renewed U.S.-China trade tensions. President Trump on Friday threatened to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports from next month, hitting risk appetite. … Bitcoin rose 0.2% to $115,299 after hitting a low of $104,782 Saturday, LSEG data show. It remains well below the record high of $126,223 reached on October 6.” (10/13/25)
https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-101325/card/bitcoin-recovers-slightly-amid-renewed-u-s-china-tensions-NbeJD0mAIyInabynnSSI
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3) Madagascar: Rajoelina says a coup is underway after soldiers joined anti-regime demonstrations
Source: Associated Press
“Madagascar’s president said Sunday that an attempted coup was underway in the Indian Ocean country, just a day after members of an elite army unit joined youth-led protests against the government and called for the president to step down. President Andry Rajoelina’s office offered no details on who was behind the attempt and no signs of violence were immediately visible on the streets on Sunday, although there was a large military presence. A commander of the elite CAPSAT unit, Col. Michael Randrianirina, denied any coup had taken place, but the unit claimed to have taken control of all of Madagascar’s armed forces and said it had installed a new leader of the military, Gen. Demosthene Pikulas. ‘We responded to the people’s call,’ Randrianirina told reporters. Pikulas, who spoke alongside Randrianirina, declined to say if they had asked Rajoelina to resign, but the CAPSAT army unit appeared to be in a position of authority.” (10/12/25)
https://apnews.com/article/madagascar-protests-attempted-coup-e6dd29a429e06362efd238cfac7270d0
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4) TN: No survivors found after munitions plant blast left 18 missing
Source: Reuters
“Investigators do not expect to find any survivors at the scene of a massive blast at a Tennessee military explosives company that left 18 people missing, officials said on Saturday. The explosion, which was felt for miles, leveled a building at the 1,300-acre (5 square km) headquarters of Accurate Energetic Systems early Friday morning in Bucksnort, about an hour’s drive west of Nashville. ‘More than 300 people have been through almost every square inch of this facility, and at this time, we’ve recovered no survivors,’ Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told reporters. ‘It’s a great loss to our communities.'” (10/11/25)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-survivors-found-after-tennessee-munitions-plant-blast-authorities-say-2025-10-11/
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5) Trump directs Pentagon to use “all available funds” to ensure troops are paid during shutdown
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has directed the Defense Department to use ‘all available funds’ to ensure U.S. troops are paid Wednesday despite the government shutdown, a short-term fix that will not apply to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed. Trump said in a social media post that he was acting because ‘our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th.’ The Republican president’s directive removes one of the pressure points that could have forced Congress into action, likely ensuring that the shutdown — now in its 11th day and counting — extends into a third week and possibly beyond. But no similar action seems forthcoming for federal employees also working without pay while thousands are now being laid off during the lapse in government operations. The White House budget office started the layoffs on Friday.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/trump-directs-the-pentagon-to-use-all-available-21096091.php
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6) Kremlin warns the West over “dramatic” escalation moment in Ukraine war
Source: Reuters
“The Kremlin said on Sunday Russia was deeply concerned about the possibility of the U.S. supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, warning that the war had reached a dramatic moment with escalation from all sides. … [Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry] Peskov said that if Tomahawks were launched at Russia, Moscow would have to take into account that some versions of the missile can carry nuclear warheads. … Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that it was impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of U.S. military personnel and so any supply of such missiles to Ukraine would trigger a ‘qualitatively new stage of escalation.'” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/BxD9F
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7) UK: Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in London
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in central London a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in Gaza. The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Coalition, began along Victoria Embankment on Saturday afternoon — attendees then marched on Whitehall, where a rally was held. Images showed a sea of Palestinian flags being carried over Westminster Bridge while a small group of counter-protesters gathered nearby, with many holding Israeli flags and signs calling for the return of hostages. … The protest comes days after the prime minister said the UK government could consider pursuing more curbs on protest laws, including targeting some of the chants used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations.” (10/11/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewnwgnqj2qo
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8) Two powerful quakes strike off southern Philippines, killing at least seven
Source: SFGate
“Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck the same region in the southern Philippines hours apart on Friday with the first 7.4 magnitude temblor killing at least seven people, setting off landslides and prompting evacuations of coastal areas nearby because of a brief tsunami scare. The second one had a preliminary 6.8 magnitude and also sparked a local tsunami warning by authorities. It was caused by movement in the same fault line, the Philippine Trench, at a depth of 37 kilometers (23 miles) off Manay town in Davao Oriental province, Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology chief Teresito Bacolcol said. ‘The second one is a separate earthquake, which we call a doublet quake,’ Bacolcol told The Associated Press. ‘Both happened in the same area but have different strengths and epicenters.’ Bacolcol and other authorities expressed fears that the second nighttime earthquake could further weaken or collapse structures already undermined by the first one.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/7-6-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-offshore-from-21093628.php
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9) Arctic seals & over half of bird species in trouble on latest list of threatened species
Source: SFGate
“Arctic seals are being pushed closer to extinction by climate change, and more than half of bird species around the world are declining under pressure from deforestation and agricultural expansion, according to an annual assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. One bright spot is green sea turtles, which have recovered substantially thanks to decades of conservation efforts, the IUCN said Friday as it released its latest Red List of Threatened Species. While many animals are increasingly at risk of disappearing forever, the updated list shows how species can come back from the brink with dedicated effort, Rima Jabado, deputy chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told The Associated Press.” (10/10/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/arctic-seals-and-more-than-half-of-bird-species-21094014.php
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10) Estonia: Regime closes road through Russian territory due to presence of Russian troops
Source: Seattle Times
“Estonia has temporarily closed access for its citizens to a road they normally use that passes through a stretch of Russian territory, after the interior minister reported on a group of Russian soldiers standing there, Estonia’s public broadcaster said Sunday. Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board said in a statement Friday that the closing took place that day ‘after border guards observed a larger-than-usual unit moving on the territory of the Russian Federation.’ The Estonian border agency said that the closure of the Saatse Boot is necessary to ensure the safety of people in Estonia and to prevent possible incidents.” (10/12/25)
https://archive.is/pLj9E
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11) NY: Mamdani chased out of park by protester shouting “antisemite!”
Source: New York Post
“Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was chased out of Lower Manhattan by a serial City Hall gadfly who slammed him as an ‘antisemite’ and got into a shoving match with the politician’s staffer. The enraged protester, identified by sources as Raul Rivera, 55, of the Bronx, followed Mamdani as the pol was ushered by security into his waiting SUV, video of the encounter shows. Rivera (who was arrested in June for allegedly biting a Mamdani campaign volunteer) shouted and cursed as Mamdani ignored him and climbed into the vehicle, the footage shows. Mamdani had been in Foley Square for a protest where he and other lefty pols and activists stood in support of state Attorney General Letitia James as she faces federal charges of bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution.” (10/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/11/us-news/socialist-mayoral-candidate-zohran-mamdani-chased-out-of-nyc-park-by-protester-shouting-antisemite/
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12) Kaiser workers gear up for five-day strike
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Kaiser Permanente patients with appointments next week are on notice that a wide range of medical professionals plan to stage a five-day strike, starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday. … Kaiser has not said publicly exactly how its members are likely to be affected by the work stoppage, which involves 31,000 workers in California and Hawaii who are members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. … The union’s stated reasons for this disruption are ‘stagnant wages and unsafe staffing,’ with an organizer indicating Friday that wages in the bargaining unit’s previous contract did not keep up with inflation.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/11/kaiser-workers-gear-up-for-five-day-strike-sharp-nurses-to-picket/
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13) IL: Religious leaders offering communion to abductees turned away at Broadview ICE gang lair
Source: CBS News
“Dozens took part in a movement as religious leaders attempted to give detainees inside the Broadview ICE processing facility holy communion. … The group with the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership walked about a mile to the ICE facility, in hopes of giving those inside holy communion. But to get in was a major hurdle. Saturday’s gathering remained peaceful as priests and religious leaders spoke with Illinois State troopers. The troopers were the ones who called someone inside the detention facility to see if they could give communion. A few priests had a calm conversation with the Illinois State troopers. However, they were denied entry.” (10/11/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/religious-leaders-turned-away-broadview-ice-facility/
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14) Sudan: Dozens killed by paramilitary drone and artillery attacks
Source: United Press International
“Locals said a drone and artillery attack on a refugee shelter by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in el-Fasher, Sudan, late Friday killed at least 60. Local activists said the RSF struck the Dar al-Arqam refugee camp with two drone attacks and eight artillery shells, which the RSF has denied, the BBC reported. … The attack struck the al Arqam Home that shelters displaced families in el-Fasher, Sky News reported. The city has been under siege from paramilitary forces and caught in the middle of fighting between Sudan’s military forces and paramilitaries operating in the region. The RSF is among those paramilitaries and is trying to establish a separatist government in the North Dafur region. El-Fasher is the last stronghold held by Sudan’s army in the Darfur area and has been surrounded by the RSF for 17 months.” (10/11/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/10/11/sudan-el-fasher-attack/5761760228815/
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15) Report: Creatine could slow aging, boost brain & heart health
Source: Fox News
“Creatine is often associated with hitting the gym and building muscle, but the supplement, typically taken in powder or capsule form, has recently been linked to a variety of other uses and benefits. Singer Ciara told Business Insider last month that she takes creatine not just for muscle boosting, but to support energy levels throughout the day. Actor Mark Wahlberg has also hopped onto the trend, creating his own creatine monohydrate product, while health gurus like Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman have touted its various neurological benefits. According to registered dietitian nutritionist Sam McKinney of Life Time Fitness in Minneapolis, creatine is a natural compound mostly stored in the muscles, with smaller amounts in the brain, liver and kidneys.” (10/11/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/health/overlooked-supplement-could-slow-aging-boost-brain-heart-health-expert-says
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16) IL: Appeals court maintains block on federal military occupation of Chicago
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
“Deployment of National Guard troops within Illinois remains blocked Saturday after the federal appeals court in Chicago met the Trump administration halfway. The administration late Friday asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the effect of a ruling handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge April Perry. She had blocked the Trump administration from ‘ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois.’ Justice Department lawyers then asked the appeals court to intervene. In a one-page order Saturday, the court halted Perry’s ruling only when it came to the federalization of the National Guard. However, it left untouched the portion of Perry’s ruling blocking deployment of the National Guard.” (10/11/25)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump/2025/10/10/trump-asks-appeals-court-to-intervene-after-judge-blocks-national-guard-deployment-to-illinois
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17) Seychelles: Opposition leader Patrick Herminie wins presidential runoff
Source: SFGate
“Opposition leader Patrick Herminie won the presidential election in Seychelles, defeating incumbent leader Wavel Ramkalawan in a runoff vote, according to official results released early Sunday. Herminie garnered 52.7% of the vote, with Ramkalawan taking 47.3%, the results showed. Herminie represents the United Seychelles party, which led the country for four decades before it lost power in 2020. It was the governing party from 1977 to 2020. Ramkalawan, of the governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party, sought a second term. … The race between the two main contenders in Seychelles’ election was decided in a runoff after there was no outright winner in the presidential vote two weeks ago.” (10/11/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/seychelles-votes-in-tight-runoff-election-21095683.php
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18) Afghanistan: Regime Claims 58 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Clashes; Border Closed
Source: US News & World Report
“Pakistan closed border crossings with Afghanistan on Sunday, Pakistani officials said, following exchanges of fire between the forces of the two countries overnight in which Kabul claimed to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers. Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani border posts late on Saturday, with the country’s ministry of defence saying this was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan earlier in the week. Pakistan said that it had responded with gun and artillery fire. Afghanistan said it had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers, but gave no details on how it knew of the casualty figures. It also said that 20 Afghan troops were killed or injured. There was no immediate response from Pakistan. Pakistani security officials said they had inflicted casualties on Afghan force but gave no number.” (10/12/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-10-12/pakistan-closes-border-with-afghanistan-following-exchanges-of-fire
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19) Diane Keaton, 1946-2025
Source: New York Times
“Diane Keaton, the vibrant, sometimes unconventional, always charmingly self-deprecating actress who won an Oscar for Woody Allen’s comedy ‘Annie Hall’ and appeared in some 100 movie and television roles, an almost equal balance of them in comedies like ‘Sleeper’ and ‘The First Wives Club’ and dramas like ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Marvin’s Room,’ has died. She was 79.” (10/11/25)
https://archive.is/I3iR5
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20) CA: Newsom signs law banning cat declawing procedure
Source: SFGate
“California just banned a common procedure on cats that some animal rights advocates have called inhumane. Assembly Bill 867 from Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat from San Jose, will prevent veterinarians from declawing cats, a procedure that typically involves amputating the bone in a cat’s toe or severing tendons used to extend the claws. Newsom signed the bill Thursday afternoon. Millions of cat owners have declawed their felines in the United States, usually to prevent the pets from destroying furniture or scratching humans.” (10/10/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/california-bans-cat-procedure-21094945.php
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) If This “Shutdown” Was Mine, I’d Claim Ownership
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“[T]here’s zero doubt whose shutdown this is. The Republicans control the White House. The Republicans control the US House of Representatives. The Republicans control the Senate, and as recently as last month, they’ve shown they’re willing to use the ‘nuclear option’ to get things done by majority, instead of super-majority, vote. The US government is (partially and cosmetically) shut down because the Republicans want it that way. The shutdown will end when the Republicans want it to end. It’s theirs. They own it. They (especially Trump) would look a lot better leaning into that ownership than they sound with their 24/7 whining about the Democrats.” (10/11/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20076
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22) Howard Homan Buffett: Rothbard’s Favorite Anti–Cold War Warrior, part 1
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy
“On June 14, the House of Representatives passed a bill to automate the already mandatory registration of every male required to do so. The Senate is currently (July 10) working on a different version of the bill that requires women to register as well. Registration is not conscription itself, of course, but it is a prerequisite and often a harbinger of one. … Unfortunately, most debates about conscription today revolve around circumstantial matters, such as reaching recruitment goals, or around peripheral social controversies, such as drafting women. It didn’t used to be this way. In the mid-20th century, a remarkable decade of philosophical and moral debate about conscription occurred inside and outside of Congress. Within the House, no voice rang clearer on this issue than the four-term Representative Howard Buffett (1903–1964), to whom the iconic libertarian Murray Rothbard looked up in admiration.” (10/10/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/howard-homan-buffett-rothbards-favorite-anti-cold-war-warrior-part-1/
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23) She wanted to open a hair salon. Then came Trumpish protectionism.
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“[Khalilah] Few graduated from beauty school in 2012 and in 2023 opened her own salon. Seeking to relocate, she invested more than $30,000 in renovating and renting a space that had previously been a barbershop. When in May this year she applied for a permit, she assumed approval would be perfunctory. In July, however, she was denied a permit for two reasons, one unintelligible, the other unconstitutional.” (10/10/25)
https://archive.is/1jk1v
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24) Hooked on the State
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Since the government partial shutdown began, we’ve been seeing panicked headlines about states being denied federal money for promised or already-started energy and infrastructure projects. Other sorts of subsidies are also in jeopardy. You’d think that not getting money from Washington was the worst thing that could happen. Oh my goodness, federalism might be breaking out! … It’s a good time to remember, or realize for the first time, that throughout the 20th century, American classical liberals, or libertarians, warned of the dangers of national funding for every sort of thing. ” (10/10/250
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/tgif-hooked-on-state.html
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25) When Presidents Kill
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano
“During the past six weeks, President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. troops to attack and destroy four speed boats in the Caribbean Sea, 1,500 miles from the United States. The president revealed that the attacks were conducted without warning, were intended not to stop but to kill all persons on the boats, and succeeded in their missions. Trump has claimed that his victims are ‘narco-terrorists’ who were planning to deliver illegal drugs to willing American buyers. He apparently believes that because these folks are presumably foreigners, they have no rights that he must honor and he may freely kill them. As far as we know, none of these nameless faceless persons was charged or convicted of any federal crime. We don’t know if any were Americans. But we do know that all were just extrajudicially executed. Can the president legally do this? In a word: NO.” (10/10/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2025/10/09/when-presidents-kill-2/
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26) The Peacemaker in Chief
Source: Town Hall
by Michael Reagan
“It was fun watching Kaitlan Collins of CNN the other day as she marveled at Donald Trump’s boundless energy and accessibility. Collins recently said Trump (unlike his sleepy and media-shy predecessor) hardly ever sleeps and is super-accessible to the press. But I doubt if Ms. Collins has suddenly decided that Trump isn’t so bad after all. The CNN anchor and the rest of the liberal mainstream news media will never forgive Trump for his New York-size ego, his unfiltered talk, his mean public persona or his great sense of humor. And the most deranged of them will never stop believing he is a fascist who’s intent on becoming a dictator, which is absurd.” (10/11/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2025/10/11/the-peacemaker-in-chief-n2664791
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27) It’s time to impeach Donald Trump again
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“In our political system, impeachment is designed as a check on executive overreach, a constitutional remedy for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ which has been understood to encompass abuses of office that threaten the foundations of a republican government. Importantly, the high crimes and misdemeanors standard doesn’t necessarily require criminal or unlawful conduct, and a president’s neglect of duty can meet the test. In Federalist No. 65, Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius, made it clear that impeachment is a specifically political process of inquest into the public conduct of public officials, that is, again, that the conduct in question need not even break the law. I’m afraid it is time to impeach Donald Trump again, this time removing him from office.” (10/11/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/its-time-to-impeach-donald-trump
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28) The Administration’s Foolish War on Basic Science
Source: The UnPopulist
by Kenneth Silber
“Cutting funding for gravitational wave studies won’t save taxpayers much but will jeopardize future scientific breakthroughs.” (10/11/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-administrations-foolish-war-on
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29) Three women, three Nobel Peace Prize winners
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, has many striking similarities to two previous winners: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Iran’s Narges Mohammadi. Yes, all three are women. Yes, all are champions for democracy inside dictatorships. And all are either in prison or in hiding. On those aspects alone, they are worthy of a Nobel and inspiring to millions of followers. Yet what really links them in a meaningful way is how they describe a mental strength that helps them stand for civic virtues such as individual freedom and democratic equality.'” (10/10/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1010/Three-women-three-Nobel-Peace-Prize-winners
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30) Mexicans Must Pay to Play?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sergio Martínez
“The Mexican federal government has announced a new 8% excise tax on violent video games. The justification? That violent games are responsible for violent behavior. Violence is indeed a heavy problem in Mexico, and organized crime has left significant parts of the country in a state of terror. But attacking video games seems a poor policy-choice that echoes the moral panics of the 1990s — when games like Mortal Kombat triggered congressional hearings and headlines about the corruption of the youth that led to the creation of the ESRB system. Such panics gain political traction even when evidence is lacking.” (10/10/25)
https://fee.org/articles/mexicans-must-pay-to-play/
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31) Forget Obamacare subsidies, it’s time to mend or END the whole thing
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Democrats shut down the government partly to force Republicans to extend COVID-era boosts in Obamacare subsidies that Dems once called ‘temporary’ but now say are needed to keep the program viable. This reveals what a true disaster Obamacare has been, as its critics warned even as Dems were ramming it into law with not a single Republican vote in 2010. Blindly tossing fresh trillions down that hole is nuts: Time to fix it — or scrap it altogether. The 10-year cost of Dems’ current demand totals almost a half-trillion dollars, to benefit primarily insurers and wealthier Americans. Under the expiration that Democrats wrote into law, 1.6 million Americans (just 0.5% of the population) would see their subsidies return to pre-COVID levels. That would leave their Obamacare plans so pricey that many would drop them altogether, especially those who could get cheaper and better coverage through their employers.” (10/11/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/11/opinion/forget-obamacare-subsidies-its-time-to-mend-or-end-the-whole-thing/
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32) FBI Spied on Republican Lawmakers Using Surveillance Powers Many Supported
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. government engaged in mass surveillance of the American people. Some of the snooping delved into the content of emails and phone calls. But much of it was of metadata — who people contact and when. While not as revealing as actual messages, it let the government build profiles on people and their affiliations. This week, lawmakers — some of whom allowed federal agencies to accumulate and exercise such power — received a lesson in how disturbing such scrutiny can be when they found out the last administration monitored their calls.” (10/10/25)
https://reason.com/2025/10/10/fbi-spied-on-republican-lawmakers-using-surveillance-powers-many-supported/?nab=1
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33) Thoughts On The Ceasefire News
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israel continued to hammer Gaza with military explosives on Thursday despite the announcement of the first stages of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Israel always does this. When normal people get a ceasefire agreement they think ‘Good, this means we can finally stop fighting and killing!’ Whenever Israelis get a ceasefire agreement they go, ‘This means we have to hurry up and kill as many people as possible before it takes effect.’ But it does appear that the killing and abuse will at least diminish for a time, which is an objectively good thing no matter how you slice it. The first stages of the agreement reportedly entail a partial withdrawal of IDF troops, Israel’s starvation blockade officially ending, humanitarian aid being allowed into the enclave, and both Israel and Hamas releasing captives and stopping the fighting.” (10/10/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/10/thoughts-on-the-ceasefire-news/
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34) What the founders would say now
Source: The Atlantic
“When the American republic was founded, the Earth was no more than 75,000 years old. No contemporary thinker imagined it could possibly be older. Thus Thomas Jefferson was confident that woolly mammoths must still live in ‘the northern and western parts of America,’ places that ‘still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored and undisturbed by us.’ The idea that mammoths or any other kind of creature might have ceased to exist was, to him, inconceivable. … In trying to imagine how [the founders] would perceive the state of their republic in 2025, the risk is that we invent our own versions of Jefferson’s nonexistent beasts. The originalist fallacy that dominates the current Supreme Court — the pretense that it is possible to read the minds of the Founders and discern what they ‘really’ meant — in fact turns the Founders into ventriloquists’ dummies. We express our own prejudices by moving their lips.” (10/10/25)
https://archive.is/0Bumi
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35) Why Bari Weiss Matters
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“It’s fashionable to say that we are in a ‘post-liberal’ moment, or that liberal democracy has disappeared. I’ve done so myself in some contexts. But liberal democracy is, above all, an act of will; and the same essential structures that support it remain: a First Amendment, a vibrant private sector, the separation of powers, an independent judiciary. These cannot work as designed if we wage tribal war on each other, as we are. But they are still there. They can still be used for their original purpose with their authentic liberal spirit. And the truth is that the media is eminently fixable, and our job as journos is to fix it. If we already had, none of this would be happening. That’s why Bari Weiss matters at CBS, and why I am praying she pulls it off.” (10/10/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/why-bari-weiss-matters-c21
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36) When Godzilla Breaks Windows
Source: EconLog
by Ethan Kelley
“It’s morning in Tokyo. You’re sitting on your balcony with a cup of coffee or tea, enjoying the rising sun over the bay. Birds chirp. All is peaceful — until that peace is shattered by a giant radioactive kaiju named Godzilla. You watch in horror as the massive, irradiated monster makes landfall and begins his rampage through the city, crushing buildings and leaving devastation in his wake. As the chaos unfolds, a surreal thought floats through your mind: Well, at least Tokyo’s construction companies will be busy. There’s got to be some good in all this, right? Frédéric Bastiat would like a word with you.” (10/10/25)
https://www.econlib.org/when-godzilla-breaks-windows
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37) Why we need to take Trump’s Drug War very seriously
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“Donald Trump has long been a fan of using the U.S. military to wage a more vigorous war against drug cartels in Latin America. He also shows signs of using that justification as a pretext to oust regimes considered hostile to other U.S. interests. The most recent incident in the administration’s escalating antidrug campaign took place on October 3 when ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. naval forces had sunk yet another small boat off of the coast of Venezuela. It was one of four destroyed vessels and a total of 21 people killed since late September. The administration claims they were all trying to ship illegal drugs to the United States.” (10/10/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/cartels-vessels-caribbean/
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38) Fascism Can’t Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
The following three things can’t all be true simultaneously: 1. Many Americans are fascists 2. Fascists are an acceptable target for political violence 3. Political violence in America is morally unacceptable (at the current time) … I thought about this while following the Twitter spat between Democratic hopeful Gavin Newsom and Trump advisor Stephen Miller. Newsom called Miller fascist; Miller accused this of being a call to violence which placed ‘a target’ on him. Miller is hardly sympathetic here — he’s called people fascist himself in the past, and later suggested Newsom should be arrested for his speech (if only there were a word to describe the sort of person who supports that kind of thing …) Still, I found myself able to see things from both perspectives.” (10/10/25)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/fascism-cant-mean-both-a-specific
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39) Liberty: Natural, Practical, and Divine
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Dan Sanchez
“What is the best ethical framework upon which to hang the case for liberty? The libertarian debate over this question has long been cast as a contest between natural rights and utilitarianism.” (10/10/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/liberty-natural-practical-and-divine
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40) Private Chat, Back Now in Europe?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“We seem to have Germany — not a typo: Germany — to thank for the fact that one of the most intrusive EU gambits attacking freedom of speech is about to fail. The proposal would let governments monitor all private chat messages, via mandatory back doors, without bothering with such trivialities as warrants, probable cause, evidence. The European Union centralizes many assaults on liberty that member countries are supposed to supinely accept once enacted. But it can’t ignore individual members as proposals are still en route to becoming law. And the German government, often not exactly a beacon when it comes to free speech, has now made its opposition to this particular mode of surveillance and censorship loud and clear.” (10/10/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/10/private-chat-back-now-in-europe/
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41) Why Does US Media Continue to Undercount the Gaza Death Toll?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader
“Ben Hubbard, the long-time Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, is known for his high standards. So too is Karen DeYoung, the long-time reporter and foreign affairs editor for the Washington Post. Yet they, and their editors, share a common, recurring failure by misleading their readers about the serious undercount of Palestinian deaths during the Israeli regime’s genocidal destruction of Gaza. How so? By repeating in article after article the Hamas claim of 67,000 deaths since October 2023. The real death toll estimate is probably around 600,000.” (10/11/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/media-undercount-gaza-death
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42) Texas targets antifa because Trump said so, I guess
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“If Texas law enforcement tries to infiltrate every group that identifies as antifa-adjacent, it’s going to be infiltrating a lot of knitting circles, vegan clubs, and faculty groups (including a FIRE client), the vast majority of which would catch the vapors if forced to watch a video of violence, let alone contemplate performing it with their own hands. And even if they had the manpower, it would still be unlawful to target these groups simply for their beliefs. So presumably, law enforcement is going to narrow its scope to focus on a particular kind of antifa-aligned group — the kind that is actively planning to commit violent acts. But if law enforcement is capable of identifying which groups want to commit violent acts, then why bring ideology into it?” (10/10/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/texas-targets-antifa-because-trump-said-so-i-guess
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43) What Japan Taught Me About American Trains
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“I rode the train from New York to D.C. this week, and I have thoughts. I took the Acela, the flagship offering from Amtrak, America’s semi-nationalized, permanently beleaguered rail operator. The service spans the 225 miles that separate the sole superpower’s biggest city from its capital in a stately, none-too-rushed three hours. Plenty of time to mull the gap between this service and the trains back home. Okay, yes, I’ve only lived in Japan for one year, but that’s more than enough for Japanese rail to etch itself into my soul. As an urbanist, there’s a special joy in living in a place built for and around trains.” (10/10/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-american-trains-suck
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44) Intellectual Property in Outer Space
Source: Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom
by Stephan Kinsella
“Most people do not understand that IP law is domestic only, which is why it is nonsensical to say that China is ‘stealing’ western ‘IP.’ Most countries have IP protection, primarily because of Western, primarily US, IP imperialism and bullying, mostly at the behest of Big Pharma (patents) and Hollywood and the music industry/RIAA (copyright) which have forced other countries to adopt American-style IP, to their detriment.2 But any country that chooses not to have IP rights and does not protect inventions and and artistic works does not violate others’ property rights, any more than insecure property rights in North Korea violates property rights in Texas. … the same is true in outer space, since no municipal copyright or patent law applies in outer space (or on the high seas or deep sea bed).” (10/10/25)
https://c4sif.org/2025/10/intellectual-property-in-outer-space/
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45) Why America needs to tax-incentivize tradesmen, not just college graduates
Source: Fox News
by Mike Sarraille & Kirk Offel
“Walk onto any construction site in America, and you’ll hear the same story: We can’t find enough skilled workers. Electricians, welders, HVAC technicians, plumbers and heavy-equipment operators are in dangerously short supply, and the gap is widening. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently warned that building America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure will require an army of electricians. The demand for data centers (both cloud and AI) is expected to double year over year. Mike Rowe has been sounding the alarm for years: The most ‘essential’ jobs are the ones our culture stopped celebrating. Here’s the truth: Without skilled tradesmen, America grinds to a halt. … Yet we keep pushing young people toward four-year degrees, often leaving them with six-figure debt, while treating the trades as a second-class option.” (10/11/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/why-america-needs-tax-incentivize-tradesmen-not-just-college-graduates
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46) Thirteen Windows into the Conservative Mind
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey O Nelson
“Christopher Scalia’s 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) is a book about books that also functions as an extended book list. It is a collection of essay-length chapters that discuss and recommend some of his favorite novels. And it is a reliable guide to younger readers, suspicious and wearied of politicized works of culture, exhorting them to reclaim their patrimony by making great literature central to their intellectual formation.” (10/10/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/thirteen-windows-into-the-conservative-mind/
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47) Finance Economists Warn Against Government as Shareholder
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Nathan Miller
“President Trump first mused about a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund during his 2024 presidential campaign. Shortly after he took office, he signed an executive order instructing his Treasury and Commerce Secretaries to design such a fund. Those plans would ultimately stall, but as we summarized in August, what we’ve seen instead is a wave of ad hoc stakes and revenue shares wrested from U.S. companies like U.S. Steel, Nvidia and AMD, and most famously Intel. Trump advisers pledged to continue their interventionist tear, and just this week Trump announced the country will take a 10% stake in the Canadian mining company Trilogy Metals and fast-track permit approval for an Alaskan mining road the company stands to benefit from. A survey of top finance economists by the Kent Clark survey groups warns this strategy tends to backfire, even for the individual firm.” (10/10/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/finance-economists-warn-against-government-shareholder
-----
48) The Democrats Take a Trick From the Tea Party
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“There are at least two layers to the government shutdown now about to enter its second week. One is the standard fight between the two major parties, which has defined most government shutdowns since Bill Clinton was forced to share power with a Republican-controlled Congress in 1995. The second is a battle within the Democratic Party, with disenchanted progressives simultaneously pressuring and revolting against an ossified leadership class they perceive as constantly losing to President Donald Trump. If the latter sounds familiar, simply swap out progressives for disenchanted conservatives, Democratic leaders for the Republican establishment, and Trump for the former President Barack Obama under the Tea Party more than a decade ago — really until that rebellion was more or less brought to heel by Trump.” (10/10/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-democrats-take-a-trick-from-the-tea-party/
-----
49) How Antimonopoly is Enduring Despite Trumpian Corruption
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s meager attempt at insult comedy in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week is the kind of thing that many political observers call ‘dramatic’, when in reality it was boring deflection and obfuscation punctuated by lazy scandalmongering. But there was something interesting going on in that hearing on the other side of the panel. Four different senators asked Bondi about the antitrust division and its slide into pay-to-play corruption. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) posed questions about how Bondi’s team overruled her antitrust enforcers to approve the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks merger after pressure from MAGA lobbyists, how Live Nation has hired the same lobbyists to try to get a monopolization case thrown out, and how top antitrust deputies were fired for resisting lobbyist-infused deals.” (10/10/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-10-09-antitrust-pam-bondi-corruption-senate/
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50) How Not to Run a Household — or a Country
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Donald and Melania Trump are eating breakfast together …. Donald Trump to Melania: ‘How much did our family spend last year on food, clothing, furniture, and other stuff for Mar-a-Lago?’ Melania: ‘About two million dollars.’ Donald: ‘How much stuff – tangible stuff, stuff with mass, stuff you can touch – did our family sell?’ Melania: ‘Well, we sold only that used golf cart for $5,000.’ Donald: ‘This is bad. Very bad. It’s a family emergency. The people we trade with are taking advantage of our kindness. I’m so disappointed in them. They let me down. It ends now!’ Melania: ‘What do you mean?’ Donald: ‘Simple. From now on, we won’t buy any stuff – no food, no clothes, no golf carts, no anything – from anyone who doesn’t buy at least an equal amount of stuff from us. I’m tired of being ripped off!’” (10/10/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/how-not-to-run-a-household-or-a-country/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Underthrow Podcast, 10/11/25
Source: Underthrow
“How Special Economic Zones Could Lift Millions Out of Poverty.” (10/11/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhoBl6b_40
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52) Unattended Baggage, episode 313
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Unattended Baggage Rideshare Therapy, LLC.” (10/11/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-313-unattended-baggage-rideshare
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53) The Political Orphanage, 10/10/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“(Sneak Peak) From Branding to the Electric Chair.” (10/10/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/sneak-peak-from-branding-to-the-electric-chair
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54) Neon Liberalism, episode 47
Source: Liberal Currents
“Liberalism 101: Liberalism and Limited Government.” (10/11/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberalism-47-liberalism-101-liberalism-and-limited-government/
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55) The Good Fight, 10/11/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Oren Harman on the Magic of Metamorphosis.” (10/10/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/oren-harman
-----
56) LPALive, episode 52
Source: LP Alliance
“Interviewing LP Russia.” (10/10/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tJ7EYRT3E
-----
57) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/10/25
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Iain Davis (independent investigative journalist, author/blogger from the UK) comes on the show to talk about Peter Thiel ‘and group’ (which includes J.D. Vance as possibly our next president), technocracy, AI, does AI free or enslave us, Digital ID …” (10/10/25)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/385485-2025-10-09-2025-10-10-ernest-hancock-interviews-iain-davis-activist-from.htm
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58) Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, 10/10/25
Source: The Bulwark
“How Orwell Helps Us Remember Truth.” (10/10/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-orwell-helps-us-remember-truth
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59) PoliTicks, 10/10/25
Source: We Are Libertarians
“Is Katy Porter What California Deserves?” (10/10/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/politicks-is-katy-porter-what-california-deserves
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60) IP … Frequently, episode 304
Source: IP … Frequently
“Borders for Thee, but Not for Me.” (10/10/25)
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/ip-frequently/episodes/Ep–304—Borders-for-Thee–but-Not-for-Me-e39bsba
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61) The Anarchist Experience, episode 549
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, Lori, and Riley discuss the impact of the government shutdown, where government has the most direct impact, and Roger Ver’s proposed settlement.” (10/10/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/the-anarchist-experience-549/
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62) Nonzero, 10/10/25
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Whose Toady is Bari Weiss? | Robert Wright & Paul Bloom.” (10/10/25)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69061
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63) Freakonomics Radio, episode 649
Source: Freakonomics
“Should Ohio State (and Michigan, and Clemson) Join the N.F.L.?” (10/10/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-ohio-state-and-michigan-and-clemson-join-the-n-f-l/
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64) System Update, episode 529
Source: System Update
“Q&A with Glenn: Is the Gaza Peace Deal Real? Why was the Nobel Peace Prize Given to Venezuela’s Opposition Leader? And More …” (10/10/25)
https://rumble.com/v705418-system-update-show-529.html
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65) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/10/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel Approves First Phase of Gaza Ceasefire, US Sending 200 Troops to Israel, and More.” (10/10/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71oFHP2J7k
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