07/31 -- Trump hits American Buyers of Goods From India with 25% tariff; The Framers' Presidency and Ours
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 31, 2025, 6:25:32 AMJul 31
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 07/31/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump hits American Buyers of Goods From India with 25% tariff
2) Palestine: Israeli troops allegedly murder 30
3) Ukraine war: Russians claim capture of Chasiv Yar, kill six in Kyiv strikes
4) Federal Reserve holds benchmark rate steady
5) TX: Republicans release new House maps as they attempt to take five Democratic seats
6) Guatemala: MS-13 members storm funeral of rival gang member, killing at least seven
7) US FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than three months
8) ME: Governor’s buried cocaine investigation docs hit with official inquiry as questions swirl over Senate run
9) Report: Regime’s latest “forget about Epstein” stunt involves claims of Russiagate documents in secret room burn bags
10) Australia: Regime to include YouTube in social media ban
11) HI: Zuckerberg adds hundreds of acres to sprawling compound
12) US Economy Rebounds With 3% GDP Growth After Trade Reversal
13) NYC: Rabbis arrested while protesting hunger in Gaza
14) UK: Pro-Palestinian Protest Group Can Appeal Ban, Judge Rules
15) Epstein & Maxwell grand juries did not hear directly from victims, prosecutors tell judges
16) US Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit
17) ME: Appeals court sides against mom who argued school concealed child’s gender expression
18) France, 14 other regimes issue “New York call” urging recognition of Palestine
19) Radar satellite launched by India & NASA will track miniscule changes to Earth’s land & ice
20) TX: Homeowner Shoots Intruder After Neighbor Dispute Turns Violent
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Framers’ Presidency and Ours
22) Europe’s Precautionary Principle Is Killing the Next Big Thing
23) Liberty better than government overreach
24) More Irrational Attacks in Our Dysfunctional Society
25) How Does it Feel to Be a Bug?
26) Democrat Party Has Always Been As Foul As Jasmine Crockett
27) We Must Stop Saying “Must”
28) Two Cheers for Behaving Badly
29) Social media self-control among students
30) FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s Meddling in Broadcast Journalism Contradicts His Own Avowed Views
31) Desperately Seeking a Pro-Growth Democrat
32) Will economic freedom continue to triumph?
33) Those Who Were Wrong About Gaza Should Admit It With Profound Humility
34) Behemoth or Leviathan?
35) The Coming Age of AI Government
36) Ban Banning Gas Stoves
37) Teaching hate, hiding truth: NEA’s real agenda revealed in leaked handbook
38) Hamas can’t stop this, only Israel can. But does it want to?
39) The US-EU Trade “Deal” is Nothing to Celebrate
40) Truth, Justice, and the New Superman
41) Consensus Finally Reached: Israel Is Committing Genocide
42) Why Macron’s Palestine Gambit Matters
43) Forcing Culture War Bigotry on Private Enterprise
44) The Intensive Margin
45) Sydney Sweeney tantrum is all about the left’s rage at America’s rejection
46) Don’t Resort to Censorship to Fight Populism
47) Say it with a song
48) Needed: Stupid Anonymous
49) Privatizing Veterans’ Health Care Will Be a Disaster
50) Keep Digging, Donald. You’re Keeping the Epstein Scandal Alive.
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Fountainhead Forum, episode 338
52) The Political Orphanage, 07/30/25
53) How To Fix The Internet, 07/30/25
54) Reason Interview: Richard E. Farley
55) The Learning Curve, 07/30/25
56) The Good Fight, 07/30/25
57) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 07/30/25
58) SolutionsWatch, 07/30/25
59) Washington Monthly Podcast, 07/30/25
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/30/25
61) System Update, episode 494
62) Capital Record, episode 244
63) Politics Politics Politics, 07/29/25
64) Aaron Maté on The Scott Horton Show
65) Political Theater, 07/29/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump hits American Buyers of Goods From India with 25% tariff
Source: Al Jazeera {Qatari state media]
“United States President Donald Trump has announced a 25 percent tariff on [American buyers of] Indian goods, as well as an unspecified penalty for the country’s purchase of Russian oil and military equipment, as the unending war in Ukraine frustrates the White House. Trump announced the trade moves – which he said will come into effect on Friday – on his Truth Social account on Wednesday, saying they are necessary to reverse a long-running trade imbalance.” (07/30/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/30/trump-hits-india-with-25-tariff-extra-penalty-for-russian-oil-purchases
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2) Palestine: Israeli troops allegedly murder 30
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Israeli gunfire killed at least 30 Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in northern Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run civil defence agency. Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that ‘at least 30’ people were killed and 300 wounded. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident north of Gaza City, as the United Nations said that pauses in Israel’s offensive against Hamas were not enough to help the population through a deepening hunger crisis. The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that four days into Israel’s ‘tactical pauses,’ people were still dying from hunger and malnutrition, alongside casualties among those seeking aid.” (07/31/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/31/israel-gaza-war-palestinians-steve-witkoff-latest-live-news-updates
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3) Ukraine war: Russians claim capture of Chasiv Yar, kill six in Kyiv strikes
Source: NBC News
“Russia claimed Thursday to have captured a key Ukrainian town after more than 16 months of intense fighting, while unleashing a deadly seven-hour drone assault on Kyiv that offered no hint of agreeing to President Donald Trump’s demands to end its war. One Ukrainian military spokesman denied Moscow’s claims that it had captured Chasiv Yar, saying Russian troops had only raised their flag over a part of the strategically important town they had occupied months ago. … While Russia was declaring victory in Chasiv Yar, it was launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian civilians in Kyiv. It fired at least 308 drones and eight cruise missiles, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Most of these were shot down, but more than two dozen struck their target, it said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least six people had been killed, including a 6-year-old boy.” (07/31/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/russia-capture-chasiv-yar-ukraine-kyiv-drone-attack-trump-putin-peace-rcna222156
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4) Federal Reserve holds benchmark rate steady
Source: CBS News
“The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it’s keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged, citing elevated uncertainty over the nation’s economic outlook. The decision to hold rates steady marks a continuation of the Fed’s ‘wait-and-see’ strategy this year, as it monitors the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on consumer prices. But Wednesday’s policy statement also underscored that the growth remains steady despite concerns about slowing economic activity. … Two voting FOMC members, Fed Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, voted in favor of lowering the central bank’s short-term rate — a rare show of dissent at the Fed, where monetary policy is generally set by consensus. It is the first time since 1993 that two member of the Fed’s Board of Governors have voted against the chair, according to Capital Economics.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-meeting-today-fed-fomc-interest-rate-trump-powell/
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5) TX: Republicans release new House maps as they attempt to take five Democratic seats
Source: CNN
“Texas Republicans have released their highly anticipated plan for how to tip the balance in their favor in next year’s midterms – redrawing the state’s congressional map in favor of more GOP seats. Multiple Democratic sources said the new map shows that Republicans are attempting to gain five more congressional seats, which they hope will help their chances of holding onto the House majority in the 2026 midterms. Democrats plan to challenge the map in court. … The new map features 30 districts that Trump would have won in 2024, up from 27 under the current map. In total, there are five more seats on the new map that Trump won by more than 10 percentage points.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/30/politics/texas-redistricting-republicans
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6) Guatemala: MS-13 members storm funeral of rival gang member, killing at least seven
Source: CBS News
“Armed gang members stormed into the funeral of a rival gang member in Guatemala, killing at least 7 people and wounding 13 others, government officials said. Guatemala is plagued by the violent rivalry between the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gangs. Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez blamed the attack at the funeral home on Tuesday in the capital, Guatemala City, on their rivalry.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-mara-salvatrucha-barrio-18-guatemala-funeral-attack/
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7) US FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than three months
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump. Dr. Vinay Prasad ‘did not want to be a distraction’ and was stepping down from his role as the FDA’s top vaccine regulator ‘to spend more time with his family,’ a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/30/fda-vaccine-chief-leaves-agency/
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8) ME: Governor’s buried cocaine investigation docs hit with official inquiry as questions swirl over Senate run
Source: Fox News
“More than three decades after Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills avoided releasing approximately 6,000 pages of case files pertaining to the federal investigation into her alleged cocaine use, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is seeking those very documents. The NRSC submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in April 2025, attempting to release the files relating to her suspected cocaine use trial amid suspicion that Democrats were recruiting her to jump into the state’s Senate race. While NARA initially told the NRSC they would review the request, they later claimed 3,000 pages of the files were under FOIA exemption, which preserves the secrecy of grand jury testimony.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-governors-buried-cocaine-investigation-docs-hit-official-inquiry-questions-swirl
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9) Report: Regime’s latest “forget about Epstein” stunt involves claims of Russiagate documents in secret room burn bags
Source: Fox News
“FBI Director Kash Patel found a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump–Russia probe buried in multiple ‘burn bags’ in a secret room inside the bureau, sources told Fox News Digital. Sources told Fox News Digital that the ‘burn bag’ system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher. Sources told Fox News Digital that multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/patel-found-thousands-sensitive-trump-russia-probe-docs-inside-burn-bags-secret-room-fbi
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10) Australia: Regime to include YouTube in social media ban
Source: United Press International
“The Australian government has announced that YouTube will be included in new legislation that bans children under the age of 16 from using social media. The Labor government announced Wednesday that YouTube, will be age-limited just like social media platforms will be starting in December, when new legislation goes into effect that bans children under 16 from using them. … The ban puts the main pressure on the platforms themselves to keep underage kids offline, or risk fines as high as $32 million.” (07/30/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/07/30/Australia-YouTube-social-media-ban-Albanese-Google-Alphabet/5021753878079/
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11) HI: Zuckerberg adds hundreds of acres to sprawling compound
Source: SFGate
“Kauai’s north shore is known for its lush landscapes, beaches, waterfalls and the famed Kalalau Trail. It’s also where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have an oceanfront compound that the pair is actively expanding. Earlier this year, the tech titan and his wife purchased another large piece of land on Kauai’s north shore. The acquisition brings their total land holdings from about 1,400 acres to over 2,300 acres. Reported to cost around $65 million, the new purchase is 962 acres inland and across the road from Zuckerberg’s oceanfront compound near the town of Kilauea. The previous owner had plans to build 80 luxury homes, but those plans were canceled after the sale, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg and Chan told SFGATE. Several billionaires in Hawaii have drawn attention for buying up plots of land and increasing their footprint on the Islands.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-zuckerberg-buys-kauai-land-20792415.php
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12) US Economy Rebounds With 3% GDP Growth After Trade Reversal
Source: Bloomberg
“US economic activity rebounded in the second quarter on a modest pickup in consumer spending and a marked drop in imports after a scramble to secure foreign goods earlier in the year. Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, which measures the value of goods and services produced in the US, increased an annualized 3% after shrinking at a 0.5% rate in the previous period, according to preliminary government data out Wednesday. Net exports added 5 percentage points to GDP after subtracting the most on record in the first three months of the year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis report showed. Goods and services that aren’t produced in the US are subtracted from the GDP calculation but counted when consumed.” (07/30/25)
https://archive.is/A84PL
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13) NYC: Rabbis arrested while protesting hunger in Gaza
Source: Gothamist
“Police arrested and issued summonses to eight rabbis who blocked traffic during a pro-humanitarian aid protest Monday night, officials said. An NYPD spokesperson said the incident happened around 6 p.m. during a planned demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate on Second Avenue and 43rd Street. Organizers said the arrests were noteworthy because it was the first time a group of rabbis the Jewish community’s political center had risked arrest over the war in Gaza. … 11 rabbis in total joined the act of civil disobedience, but only eight were arrested because the NYPD was simultaneously responding to the mass shooting at a nearby office tower.” (07/29/25)
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-rabbis-arrested-while-protesting-hunger-in-gaza
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14) UK: Pro-Palestinian Protest Group Can Appeal Ban, Judge Rules
Source: New York Times
“A pro-Palestinian protest group won permission from a judge on Wednesday to challenge the British government’s decision to ban it as a terrorist organization. The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer banned Palestine Action on July 5, saying that the group’s campaign of vandalism, including of military planes at a Royal Air Force base, had put Britain’s national security at risk. As a result of the ban, the group was added to a list of terrorist organizations that includes ISIS and Al Qaeda, prompting criticism from the United Nations and a broad range of human rights groups that argued the decision was disproportionate and a threat to free speech.” (07/30/25)
https://archive.is/qi23L
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15) Epstein & Maxwell grand juries did not hear directly from victims, prosecutors tell judges
Source: SFGate
“The federal grand juries that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges did not hear directly from any of the alleged victims in the case, Justice Department officials said in support of their request to unseal transcripts of the usually secret proceedings. Just two witnesses testified before the panel and both were law enforcement officials, the officials said. In a court filing late Tuesday, the officials again urged the court to release the records, citing huge public interest, but they also sought to assure the judges that making them public wouldn’t harm victims of the couple’s crimes.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-department-says-epstein-and-maxwell-grand-20793399.php
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16) US Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit
Source: Politico
“Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP. The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing. Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda.” (07/29/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/29/senate-confirms-emil-bove-to-third-circuit-as-dems-fail-to-thwart-trump-pick-00482965
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17) ME: Appeals court sides against mom who argued school concealed child’s gender expression
Source: Portland Press Herald
“An appeals court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit by a Lincoln County mother who argued that her child’s school district violated her parental rights by withholding information about the student’s gender expression at school. Amber Lavigne, of Newcastle, sued the Damariscotta-based Great Salt Bay Community School Board in April 2023, arguing that the district infringed on her parental rights and violated the 14th Amendment. The suit argued that a staff member provided Lavigne’s 13-year-old child with a chest binder, and referred to them by a different name and pronouns than they had been assigned at birth, while intentionally concealing that information from Lavigne. School officials maintained that their policies followed state laws, which provide equal access to education for all students regardless of gender identity, and a right to privacy regardless of age.” (07/30/25)
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/07/29/appeals-court-sides-against-lincoln-county-mom-suing-school-over-withholding-information-on-childs-gender-expression/
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18) France, 14 other regimes issue “New York call” urging recognition of Palestine
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France and 14 other Western nations called on countries worldwide to move to recognise a Palestinian state, France’s top diplomat said Wednesday. The foreign ministers of 15 countries late Tuesday issued a joint statement following a conference in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at reviving a two-state solution between Israelis and the Palestinians. … The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain. … Seventeen countries plus the European Union and Arab League during the conference joined calls for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.” (07/30/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250730-france-14-other-nations-issue-new-york-call-urging-recognition-of-palestine
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19) Radar satellite launched by India & NASA will track miniscule changes to Earth’s land & ice
Source: SFGate
“NASA and India paired up to launch an Earth-mapping satellite on Wednesday capable of tracking even the slightest shifts in land and ice. The $1.3 billion mission will help forecasters and first responders stay one step ahead of floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions and other disasters, according to scientists. Rocketing to orbit from India, the satellite will survey virtually all of Earth’s terrain multiple times. Its two radars — one from the U.S. and the other from India — will operate day and night, peering through clouds, rain and foliage to collect troves of data in extraordinary detail.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/radar-satellite-launched-by-india-and-nasa-will-20793501.php
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20) TX: Homeowner Shoots Intruder After Neighbor Dispute Turns Violent
Source: Greenville Chronicle
“[T]he Forney Police Department responded to a shooting …. According to the preliminary investigation, the suspect became intoxicated earlier in the day and approached a neighbor’s residence in an agitated state. Despite efforts by family members and bystanders to restrain him, the suspect forced entry into the home through a glass door and began assaulting the homeowner. The homeowner, who was armed, shot the suspect twice …. The suspect was airlifted to a hospital for treatment and will be transported to jail upon release.” (07/29/25)
https://www.greenvillechronicle.com/s/4243/Homeowner-Shoots-Intruder-After-Neighbor-Dispute-Turns-Violent-in-Forney.php
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Framers’ Presidency and Ours
Source: Law & Liberty
by Peter J Wallison
“The [US Supreme] Court’s reading of the Framers’ intentions suggests that the Framers wanted the president, acting unilaterally, to use his presidential powers as though he were a tribune of the people, not just as the official responsible for enforcing or executing the laws. But this idea cannot be found in the accounts of how the Constitutional Convention created the presidency. … compared to Congress, the president still had only the authority to execute the laws, to be the commander in chief in wartime, and to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Congress itself had eighteen specific powers, such as laying taxes, coining and borrowing money, declaring war, and raising and supporting armies.” (07/30/25)
https://lawliberty.org/the-framers-presidency-and-ours/
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22) Europe’s Precautionary Principle Is Killing the Next Big Thing
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii
“A few centuries ago, Europe was the beating heart of global innovation. From the Enlightenment’s embrace of reason to the Industrial Revolution’s transformative power, it was a hub of bold thinkers, inventors, and entrepreneurs pushing boundaries. Today, that spirit has faded. Europe no longer leads technological innovation — not due to a lack of talent or scientific exploration, but because of a deeper issue: an overly restrictive regulatory environment. While the US advances rapidly in AI, biotech, and space, and China heavily invests in deep tech, Europe remains tangled in bureaucracy, risk aversion, and a rigid application of the precautionary principle — prioritizing control over creativity and caution over progress.” (07/30/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/europes-precautionary-principle-is-killing-the-next-big-thing/
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23) Liberty better than government overreach
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“I’ve been told liberty isn’t as important as making money or raising a family. If someone doesn’t understand how critical liberty is to both of these tasks, and more, they might believe this. Without liberty, you, your family, the economy, and society will suffer. If you don’t have the liberty to negotiate with a potential employer, you may not get the job you want. When government intrudes into the negotiations, you both lose. This has happened to me. I once saw a business I wanted to work for; they needed an employee, but couldn’t afford to pay the government-mandated minimum wage. I was willing to work for less, for the experience, and to show the employer how I could help him. He wouldn’t risk doing something that would have benefited us both because of government rules. We were both worse off because government was protecting us from liberty.” (07/30/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/07/30/voices/opinion-liberty-better-than-government-overreach/231349.html
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24) More Irrational Attacks in Our Dysfunctional Society
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“In every society, there are off-kilter people. In a healthy, functional society those off-kilter people don’t bother anyone. Everyone can see that they are off-kilter but most everyone displays tolerance, kindness, and consideration for them. ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ But a healthy, functional society is obviously not the type of society in which we live. We live in a society where the government tightly controls, manages, regulates, and directs people’s lives and the use of their resources. In the process of doing that, the state, decade after decade, has engaged in a continuous process of tightening its screws on the American people. It is my contention that this tightening of the screws causes something to go haywire within the off-kilter people. That’s when they go off and engage in their irrational killing sprees.” (07/30/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/07/30/more-irrational-attacks-in-our-dysfunctional-society/
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25) How Does it Feel to Be a Bug?
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“As you may recall, Matthew Adelstein uses r-K selection theory to argue that the average bug’s life is not worth living. Quick version: Humans have a few offspring, who typically receive immense parental investment. Bugs have enormous numbers of offspring, who typically receive near-zero parental investment. Due to these radically different evolutionary strategies, the average human has a long and tolerable life, while the average bug has a brief life that swiftly ends in abject misery. It is a clever observation, and not obviously wrong. But neither is it obviously right. Yes, the vast majority of bugs quickly die terrible deaths. But weighty factors cut the other way.” (07/30/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/how-does-it-feel-to-be-a-bug
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26) Democrat Party Has Always Been As Foul As Jasmine Crockett
Source: The Federalist
by Eddie Scarry
“At the core of The Atlantic’s unnecessarily long profile on loud Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett is the argument that ‘when the Republicans go low, the Democrats should meet them there.’ As Rachel Jeantel so famously put it, ‘That’s real retarded, sir.’ The notion that Democrats have for too long shown excessive restraint or pitched themselves to voters with a naive intellectualism while being punched in the mouth by brute Republicans is a hysterical myth, one that only persists because the media that helped create it continue to perpetuate it. Going back as far as 2015, you undoubtedly heard both Democrat leaders and prominent dorks in the Washington news media call President Trump a ‘bully.'” (07/30/25)
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/30/the-democrat-party-has-always-been-as-foul-as-jasmine-crockett-is/
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27) We Must Stop Saying “Must”
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
“In my first year of grad school, one of my professors had a long list of ‘forbidden words.’ These were terms that do more to confuse than enlighten when used in economic analysis. Terms like ‘need,’ ‘afford,’ ‘exploits,’ ‘vicious circle,’ etc. Today, I’ll argue that we might wish to add the term ‘must’ to that list.” (07/30/25)
https://www.econlib.org/we-must-stop-saying-must
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28) Two Cheers for Behaving Badly
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Ozzy Osbourne, whose funeral cortège will add some color as it processes through Birmingham today, once summarized a big chunk of his life thus: ‘I behaved f—ing badly.’ No doubt: Getting arrested for public urination is one thing, and Ozzy got arrested for public urination at the Alamo, right there on the Cenotaph. There was the infamous business with orally decapitating that bat. The sex and the drugs. The various Luciferian fixations. Helping to make reality television a thing. But the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness’s last public act was helping to raise some $190 million for three charities, including a children’s hospital and a children’s hospice headquartered in his hometown of Birmingham. After that, he promptly went to his eternal reward. I imagine that the initial conversation with St. Peter was an interesting one.” (07/30/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ozzy-osbourne-music-life-death/
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29) Social media self-control among students
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“With a new academic year due to start in the United States, states and districts are seeking to manage students’ cellphone use during the school day. Proposals range from developing usage guidelines to implementing outright bans. Amid the discussion over what adults – educators, parents, policymakers – should do, students are signaling their ability to exercise individual agency. And they want nuanced and flexible approaches to help balance use and manage screen time. In a 2025 Pew survey in the U.S., 44% of teens reported cutting back on both social media and smartphone use. In 2023, that share was 39% (social media) and 36% (smartphones). A wider survey of 20,000 children ages 12 to 15 and parents across 18 countries found 40% of students taking deliberate breaks from their screens, up 18 percentage points from 2022. (07/29/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0729/Social-media-self-control-among-students
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30) FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s Meddling in Broadcast Journalism Contradicts His Own Avowed Views
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“As a minority FCC member during the Bush administration, Carr condemned government interference with newsroom decisions.” (07/30/25)
https://reason.com/2025/07/30/fcc-chairman-brendan-carrs-meddling-in-broadcast-journalism-contradicts-his-own-avowed-views/
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31) Desperately Seeking a Pro-Growth Democrat
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The most recent Wall Street Journal political poll shows that Democrats have swerved into a deep ditch. Only three of 10 voters have a positive opinion of the Democratic Party, and that is the lowest this number has been for Democrats since Bill Clinton’s first term in office. Republicans aren’t very popular either — but they have a big lead over the donkeys. I’m not a cheerleader for the Republicans, and it’s clear the GOP is not the solution to all our nation’s problems. Republicans have been coconspirators in the runaway spending and debt crisis in Washington. What is concerning is that the Democrats have become what might be called a donut party: They have no middle. (07/30/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2025/07/30/desperately-seeking-a-pro-growth-democrat-n2661131
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32) Will economic freedom continue to triumph?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“There has been debate among economic historians about the point at which average real wages actually began to rise in England during the 19th century (even some discussion on this blog) but there can be no doubt that the industrial revolution was the beginning of a golden age of material well-being. Why does the myth [that the industrial revolution caused a great deal of misery] persist?” (07/30/25)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2025/07/will-economic-freedom-continue-to.html
-----
33) Those Who Were Wrong About Gaza Should Admit It With Profound Humility
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“A liberal Israel apologist named Brianna Wu has made a mealy-mouthed tweet acknowledging the reality of what’s happening in Gaza that is so obnoxious I need to have a quick rant about it. Wu, who has managed to translate her public attention from the 2014 Gamergate harassment scandal into a role as a pro-Israel spinmeister, tweeted a screenshot from a New York Times headline titled ‘Total Failure: Israel’s Return to War Heaped Ruin on Gaza and Did Little for Israelis.’ … This enrages me in ways I’m struggling to fully articulate. ‘After countless exaggeration, the cries of wolf are actually true?’ So it wasn’t exaggeration or crying wolf then was it, you fucking asshole? Almost like you’ve spent two years defending A FUCKING GENOCIDE and attacking anyone who opposed it?” (07/30/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/07/30/those-who-were-wrong-about-gaza-should-admit-it-with-profound-humility/
-----
34) Behemoth or Leviathan?
Source: Unpopular Front
by John Ganz
“Naturally, as a proponent of the ‘absurd Trump=fascism’ thesis, I’m disappointed that as impressive a historian as [Adam] Tooze doesn’t want to endorse it as well. But I also have a bit of trouble understanding the logic here. Surely, if Nazism is at the extreme end of the breakdown of the state, with its regular notions of law and right, into factional and clique-based power politics, and we are entering a more fierce and disturbing era of unstatehood, then one must at least say, we are heading in a fascist direction? And I don’t think the fascism thesis relies upon a naive separation of the idealized liberal rule of law and the present disorder and reign of terror. Quite the opposite. I think rather it can show how fascism is implicit in liberal democratic institutions and develops out of their internal contradictions and failures.” (07/30/25)
https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/behemoth-or-leviathan
-----
35) The Coming Age of AI Government
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Brad Pearce
“Libertarians, in general, tend to have an ambivalent view of technological advances, recognizing both the ways in which technology can help the public communicate and become less dependent on government, while also being rightly paranoid about how government will use technology. It is true that AI can improve government efficiency, and it does feel unwise to refuse to use it entirely. I certainly wouldn’t be shedding any tears if some low level government paper pushers lose their jobs to AI. (Athough the reality is that the number of bureaucrats has massively increased since the era when clerical work as all done on paper, and computers have demonstrably not reduced their number.) However, there are a few problems here. The biggest is what happens when AI decides something and no human will second guess it?” (07/30/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-coming-age-of-ai-government
-----
36) Ban Banning Gas Stoves
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Not long ago, you would’ve been labeled a conspiracy theorist if you suggested that a government report about how terribly unhealthy gas stoves are and how they ought to be banned meant that plans were in the works to ban gas stoves. ‘No, the government’s not taking your stove,’ CNET said in January 2024. What were we all worried about? Tightening regulations, that’s what.” (07/30/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/07/30/ban-banning-gas-stoves/
-----
37) Teaching hate, hiding truth: NEA’s real agenda revealed in leaked handbook
Source: Fox News
by Corey DeAngelis
“The National Education Association (NEA) tried scrubbing its radical 2025 handbook from the internet after I leaked its contents on X, but I saved a copy of their 434-page manifesto. This document, meant to guide America’s largest teachers’ union, exposes a radical agenda: erasing Jews from the Holocaust, blaming ‘white supremacy culture’ for systemic racism, pushing illegal racial quotas, calling for ‘educational reparations,’ and attacking homeschooling while ignoring their own failing schools. The NEA, armed with a unique 1906 federal charter, has become a money-laundering operation for the Democratic Party, funneling over 99% of its 2022 political contributions to Democrats. Its president, Becky Pringle, an at-large Democratic National Committee member, engages in histrionics to rally this partisan machine.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/teaching-hate-hiding-truth-neas-real-agenda-revealed-leaked-handbook
-----
38) Hamas can’t stop this, only Israel can. But does it want to?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Paul R Pillar
“What is taking place in Gaza now is mostly not a war, even though that term commonly is applied to the violence there. It is instead a largely unilateral assault on a population and its means of living. It is a situation in which one side, Israel, has — as Trump might put it — nearly all the cards. The news stories emerging almost daily from Gaza are not about pitched battles between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas fighters. They are mostly not about battles at all. Instead, they are about the latest large-scale killing by Israel of Gazans, mostly civilians, at a rate that has averaged about 150 deaths per day since the current round of carnage began in late 2023. Civilians are killed largely with airstrikes but also more recently through getting shot while seeking ever-scarcer food.” (07/30/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/hamas-israel-starvation/
-----
39) The US-EU Trade “Deal” is Nothing to Celebrate
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“Donald Trump announced on Sunday that his administration had reached a trade deal with the European Union, which would place a 15 percent tariff on all goods Americans buy from Europe and require the EU to purchase a certain amount of oil and weapons from some US firms. Although European officials clarified that this was a legally non-binding outline and the two sides are still working out some details, Trump is characteristically celebrating the ‘deal’ as a major win for the American people. But it really isn’t. Every supposed benefit that comes from the agreement applies only to a small subset of the country while leaving the American public, as a whole, worse off.” (07/30/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/us-eu-trade-deal-nothing-celebrate
-----
40) Truth, Justice, and the New Superman
Source: Foundataion for Economic Education
by Caitlin Peters
“After 47 years of Superman movies, James Gunn’s 2025 film offers a poignant take on the values Superman has always embodied: truth, justice, and the American Way. Through his origin story as an alien adopted and raised in Kansas, Superman symbolizes the hope and idealism that define the American Dream: that through hard work and determination, anyone has a shot at success.” (07/30/25)
https://fee.org/articles/truth-justice-and-the-new-superman/
-----
41) Consensus Finally Reached: Israel Is Committing Genocide
Source: Common Dreams
by Jared Keyel
“For nearly two years, the Israeli military has been relentlessly obliterating everything in Gaza. That destruction has not been hidden. The Palestinians who live in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees forced to flee what became Israel in 1948, have been documenting every moment of the carnage. And in fact, Israeli soldiers have gleefully shared photos and videos of themselves destroying everything they see. The Israeli government has openly and repeatedly declared its intent to annihilate Palestinians. For decades, Israel has denied it planned and carried out ethnic cleansing in 1948. … Now, nearly 80 years later, Israeli politicians at the highest level openly plot to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza. It has been clear since October 7, 2023 that the current Israeli assault is the culmination of more than 140 years of colonization, dispossession, expulsion, and repeated massacres. This is genocide.” (07/30/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza-2673782123
-----
42) Why Macron’s Palestine Gambit Matters
Source: The American Conservative
by Andrew Day
“After the French President Emmanuel Macron announced last Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine, several U.S. and Israeli leaders dismissed the move as merely symbolic. … ‘What he says doesn’t matter,’ Trump told reporters Friday. ‘That statement doesn’t carry any weight.’ But if Macron’s announcement ‘doesn’t matter,’ then why have opponents of Palestinian self-determination reacted to it with such venom? In truth, recognition does matter in international affairs, which is why Israel and its Western backers, unlike most nations, have steadfastly refused to acknowledge Palestinian statehood in the first place.” (07/30/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-macrons-palestine-gambit-matters/
-----
43) Forcing Culture War Bigotry on Private Enterprise
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Atkins
“As racial minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ Americans made social advancements in the decades since World War II, the overt violence of Jim Crow gave way to more hidden structural violence and malign governmental neglect of marginalized communities. If private organizations or foundations wanted to advance social justice, then so be it, but conservatives in government would not help them. However, that is no longer true with MAGA and the second Donald Trump administration. The president and his allies are using government coercion to enforce culture-war bigotry even upon private enterprises. The rhetoric coming from federal agencies and spokespeople echoes 19th-century white supremacist propaganda.” [editor’s note: It also echoes 20th-century “anti-discrimination” and “affirmative action” propaganda – TLK] (07/30/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/30/forcing-culture-war-bigotry-on-private-enterprise/
-----
44) The Intensive Margin
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Expanding production on the intensive margin means getting more grain out of land already cultivated, expanding it on the extensive margin means getting more grain by bringing new land into cultivation. In economics, the intensive margin means writing new articles — new enough, at least, to get published — on subjects that smart people have been writing articles about for most of the past century. … The extensive margin, in contrast, is the application of the existing tools of economics, including mathematics where needed, to new subjects.” (07/29/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/the-intensive-margin
-----
45) Sydney Sweeney tantrum is all about the left’s rage at America’s rejection
Source: New York Post
By Kira Davis
“Pretty much everyone wears blue jeans in modern America. Jeans have gone from workwear to high fashion over the last 150-plus years. Dress them up, dress them down … they’re as flexible as American culture. Perhaps they are so enduring because everyone can wear them. Fat or skinny, tall or short, curvy to curve-less and everything in between — jeans are the fashion of unity. But when we’re buying a pair, we’re not contemplating any of that. We want to think about what we could look like wearing them, or who might be attracted to us while we’re wearing them. I am speaking, of course, about the power of advertising, and last week the latest ad for American Eagle jeans caused extreme distress among the Very Online crowd.” (07/30/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/opinion/sydney-sweeney-tantrum-is-all-about-the-lefts-rage-at-americas-rejection/
-----
46) Don’t Resort to Censorship to Fight Populism
Source: Persuasion
by Jacob Mchangama
“Imagine this scenario: one day, Chief Justice John Roberts announces an investigation into ‘fake news, false reports of crimes, slanderous reports, threats, and other infractions’ that ‘affect the honor and security of the Federal Supreme Court, its members, and their families.’ Roberts appoints Justice Samuel Alito to lead the probe, granting him powers to issue warrants, access private phone and messaging data, block social media accounts, and even suspend entire platforms that refuse to comply. Alito then unilaterally expands the investigation to target ‘antidemocratic’ fake news, propaganda, and illegal content more broadly. Such a scenario … would be unthinkable in the United States, or in any democracy that respects the separation of powers and the rule of law. However, in Brazil this scenario is not a hypothetical dystopia but a reality.” (07/29/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/dont-resort-to-censorship-to-fight
-----
47) Say it with a song
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Angela Erickson
“Tom Lehrer never needed to shout to be heard. He just sat down at the piano, smiled sweetly, and sang about nuclear war, venereal disease, or killing pigeons. His satire wasn’t angry or bitter either. It was playful, subversive, and cheerfully delivered in a musical theater voice. Earlier this week on July 26, Lehrer passed away at the age of 97 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As we say goodbye to this legend, we celebrate a man who reminds us that free speech isn’t just a legal concept. It’s a cultural one. One that lives or dies not just in the courts, but in our collective willingness to laugh, to listen, and to be challenged.” (07/29/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/say-it-song
-----
48) Needed: Stupid Anonymous
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Kritz
“For many years, large segments of the American public were perfectly willing to go on Jerry Springer and admit to the world that they abused their spouses, molested their children, tortured their pets, and consumed every illicit drug they could get their hands on. Beginning with Alcoholics Anonymous, a plethora of Anonymous organizations has come on the scene to deal with these issues, along with an ever-increasing number of other social and psychological maladies. However, there is not one Anonymous chapter where a person can get in front of a supportive group and state: ‘Good evening. My name is Steve, and I’m stupid!’ Don’t believe me? Google it!” (07/29/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/needed-stupid-anonymous/
-----
49) Privatizing Veterans’ Health Care Will Be a Disaster
Source: The American Prospect
by Russell Lemle & Jasper Craven
“Long before becoming secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins’s intention to steer veterans and their health care dollars away from VA medical facilities and into private hands was well established. During his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, Collins was a staunch ally of the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), a group whose ideological North Star is privatizing VA services. He embraced three key bills the organization championed that laid the groundwork for outsourcing care for large numbers of VA patients and weakening protections for VA employees. … He has continued to spread these unconvincing assertions as VA secretary in interviews, press releases, Twitter videos, and congressional hearings, while, at the same time, swiftly advancing proposals to deeply cut VA resources and personnel and redirect the so-called ‘savings’ toward expanded outsourcing to private-sector care.” (07/30/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-07-30-privatizing-veterans-health-care-will-be-disaster/
-----
50) Keep Digging, Donald. You’re Keeping the Epstein Scandal Alive.
Source: The Nation
by Joan Walsh
“Trump gave a long, sometimes incoherent press conference alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. They were ostensibly meeting to discuss tariffs, but questions veered toward Epstein. Instead of slapping them down or ignoring them, as he sometimes does, Trump answered them. At length. And very strangely. Trump has maintained that he had a falling out with Epstein years ago. In 2004, they competed for the same gaudy Palm Beach property, and Trump outbid his friend and got it. (In some accounts, Epstein was the one who broke off the friendship over it.) Sounds plausible, for two scummy rich guys. Some of Trump’s communications people say Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago ‘for being a creep,’ in the words of henchman Stephen Cheung. But at Monday’s press conference, Trump gave a different explanation. And a hauntingly creepy one.” (07/29/25)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/keep-digging-donald-keeping-epstein-scandal/#
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Fountainhead Forum, episode 338
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Mary Ruwart on the expensive approval process for drugs and running for President in 2008.” (07/30/25)
https://rumble.com/v6wvn2a-ff-338-mary-ruwart-on-the-expensive-approval-process-for-drugs-and-running-.html
-----
52) The Political Orphanage, 07/30/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“What the Hell Does the Federal Reserve Do?” (07/30/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/what-the-hell-does-the-federal-reserve-do
-----
53) How To Fix The Internet, 07/30/25
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Smashing the Tech Oligarchy.” (07/30/25)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/podcast-episode-smashing-tech-oligarchy
-----
54) Reason Interview: Richard E. Farley
Source: Reason
“Financial historian and attorney Richard E. Farley explains how political games, union power, and creative accounting tanked New York City in 1975 — and why it could happen again.” (07/30/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/07/30/could-new-york-go-bankrupt-again/
-----
55) The Learning Curve, 07/30/25
Source: Pioneer Institute
“U-MD’s Vincent Carretta on Phillis Wheatley Peters, Slavery, & Poetry.” (07/30/25)
https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/u-mds-vincent-carretta-on-phillis-wheatley-peters-slavery-poetry/
-----
56) The Good Fight, 07/30/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Jesse Singal on Crises in Politics and Social Science.” (07/30/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/jesse-singal-on-crises-in-politics
-----
57) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 07/30/25
Source: The New Republic
“As the emerging details of Trump’s trade agreement with Europe puncture his hype, economist Paul Krugman explains at length why it’s actually a big loss for our country — and especially for Trump’s MAGA base.” (07/30/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/198577/paul-krugman-brutally-wrecks-trump-europe-deal-scam-voters
-----
58) SolutionsWatch, 07/30/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“How to Leave the Cage.” (07/30/25)
https://corbettreport.com/how-to-leave-the-cage-solutionswatch/
-----
59) Washington Monthly Podcast, 07/30/25
Source: Washington Monthly
‘Has Donald Trump Ended Free Trade?.” (07/30/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/30/has-donald-trump-ended-free-trade/
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/30/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Monitor: ‘Worst Case Scenario of Famine in Gaza,’ Rep. Greene: Israel’s Actions a Genocide, and More.” (07/30/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1TST-Xkg7A
-----
61) System Update, episode 494
Source: System Update
“What are CBS News'[s] Billionaire Heirs Doing with Bari Weiss? With Ryan Grim on the Funding Behind It; Europe Capitulates to Trump Again.” (07/29/25)
https://rumble.com/v6wt644-system-update-show-494.html
-----
62) Capital Record, episode 244
Source: National Review
“Manufacturing Properly Understood.” (07/29/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/manufacturing-properly-understood/
-----
63) Politics Politics Politics, 07/29/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Why Trump’s Homelessness Move Matters More Than You Think. Breaking Down Democratic Party Struggles (with Dan Turrentine).” (07/29/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/why-trumps-homelessness-move-matters
-----
64) Aaron Maté on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott brings journalist Aaron Maté back on the show to review some of the new information we learned about the origins of Russiagate and why, almost a decade later, this story remains so important.” (07/29/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/7-25-25-aaron-mate-on-why-russiagate-matters/
-----
65) Political Theater, 07/29/25
Source: Roll Call
“Off to the redistricting races.” (07/29/25)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL6106771085.mp3?updated=1753823196
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Trump hits American Buyers of Goods From India with 25% tariff
2) Palestine: Israeli troops allegedly murder 30
3) Ukraine war: Russians claim capture of Chasiv Yar, kill six in Kyiv strikes
4) Federal Reserve holds benchmark rate steady
5) TX: Republicans release new House maps as they attempt to take five Democratic seats
6) Guatemala: MS-13 members storm funeral of rival gang member, killing at least seven
7) US FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than three months
8) ME: Governor’s buried cocaine investigation docs hit with official inquiry as questions swirl over Senate run
9) Report: Regime’s latest “forget about Epstein” stunt involves claims of Russiagate documents in secret room burn bags
10) Australia: Regime to include YouTube in social media ban
11) HI: Zuckerberg adds hundreds of acres to sprawling compound
12) US Economy Rebounds With 3% GDP Growth After Trade Reversal
13) NYC: Rabbis arrested while protesting hunger in Gaza
14) UK: Pro-Palestinian Protest Group Can Appeal Ban, Judge Rules
15) Epstein & Maxwell grand juries did not hear directly from victims, prosecutors tell judges
16) US Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit
17) ME: Appeals court sides against mom who argued school concealed child’s gender expression
18) France, 14 other regimes issue “New York call” urging recognition of Palestine
19) Radar satellite launched by India & NASA will track miniscule changes to Earth’s land & ice
20) TX: Homeowner Shoots Intruder After Neighbor Dispute Turns Violent
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Framers’ Presidency and Ours
22) Europe’s Precautionary Principle Is Killing the Next Big Thing
23) Liberty better than government overreach
24) More Irrational Attacks in Our Dysfunctional Society
25) How Does it Feel to Be a Bug?
26) Democrat Party Has Always Been As Foul As Jasmine Crockett
27) We Must Stop Saying “Must”
28) Two Cheers for Behaving Badly
29) Social media self-control among students
30) FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s Meddling in Broadcast Journalism Contradicts His Own Avowed Views
31) Desperately Seeking a Pro-Growth Democrat
32) Will economic freedom continue to triumph?
33) Those Who Were Wrong About Gaza Should Admit It With Profound Humility
34) Behemoth or Leviathan?
35) The Coming Age of AI Government
36) Ban Banning Gas Stoves
37) Teaching hate, hiding truth: NEA’s real agenda revealed in leaked handbook
38) Hamas can’t stop this, only Israel can. But does it want to?
39) The US-EU Trade “Deal” is Nothing to Celebrate
40) Truth, Justice, and the New Superman
41) Consensus Finally Reached: Israel Is Committing Genocide
42) Why Macron’s Palestine Gambit Matters
43) Forcing Culture War Bigotry on Private Enterprise
44) The Intensive Margin
45) Sydney Sweeney tantrum is all about the left’s rage at America’s rejection
46) Don’t Resort to Censorship to Fight Populism
47) Say it with a song
48) Needed: Stupid Anonymous
49) Privatizing Veterans’ Health Care Will Be a Disaster
50) Keep Digging, Donald. You’re Keeping the Epstein Scandal Alive.
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Fountainhead Forum, episode 338
52) The Political Orphanage, 07/30/25
53) How To Fix The Internet, 07/30/25
54) Reason Interview: Richard E. Farley
55) The Learning Curve, 07/30/25
56) The Good Fight, 07/30/25
57) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 07/30/25
58) SolutionsWatch, 07/30/25
59) Washington Monthly Podcast, 07/30/25
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/30/25
61) System Update, episode 494
62) Capital Record, episode 244
63) Politics Politics Politics, 07/29/25
64) Aaron Maté on The Scott Horton Show
65) Political Theater, 07/29/25
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Trump hits American Buyers of Goods From India with 25% tariff
Source: Al Jazeera {Qatari state media]
“United States President Donald Trump has announced a 25 percent tariff on [American buyers of] Indian goods, as well as an unspecified penalty for the country’s purchase of Russian oil and military equipment, as the unending war in Ukraine frustrates the White House. Trump announced the trade moves – which he said will come into effect on Friday – on his Truth Social account on Wednesday, saying they are necessary to reverse a long-running trade imbalance.” (07/30/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/30/trump-hits-india-with-25-tariff-extra-penalty-for-russian-oil-purchases
-----
2) Palestine: Israeli troops allegedly murder 30
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Israeli gunfire killed at least 30 Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in northern Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run civil defence agency. Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that ‘at least 30’ people were killed and 300 wounded. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident north of Gaza City, as the United Nations said that pauses in Israel’s offensive against Hamas were not enough to help the population through a deepening hunger crisis. The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that four days into Israel’s ‘tactical pauses,’ people were still dying from hunger and malnutrition, alongside casualties among those seeking aid.” (07/31/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/31/israel-gaza-war-palestinians-steve-witkoff-latest-live-news-updates
-----
3) Ukraine war: Russians claim capture of Chasiv Yar, kill six in Kyiv strikes
Source: NBC News
“Russia claimed Thursday to have captured a key Ukrainian town after more than 16 months of intense fighting, while unleashing a deadly seven-hour drone assault on Kyiv that offered no hint of agreeing to President Donald Trump’s demands to end its war. One Ukrainian military spokesman denied Moscow’s claims that it had captured Chasiv Yar, saying Russian troops had only raised their flag over a part of the strategically important town they had occupied months ago. … While Russia was declaring victory in Chasiv Yar, it was launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian civilians in Kyiv. It fired at least 308 drones and eight cruise missiles, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Most of these were shot down, but more than two dozen struck their target, it said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least six people had been killed, including a 6-year-old boy.” (07/31/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/russia-capture-chasiv-yar-ukraine-kyiv-drone-attack-trump-putin-peace-rcna222156
-----
4) Federal Reserve holds benchmark rate steady
Source: CBS News
“The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it’s keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged, citing elevated uncertainty over the nation’s economic outlook. The decision to hold rates steady marks a continuation of the Fed’s ‘wait-and-see’ strategy this year, as it monitors the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on consumer prices. But Wednesday’s policy statement also underscored that the growth remains steady despite concerns about slowing economic activity. … Two voting FOMC members, Fed Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, voted in favor of lowering the central bank’s short-term rate — a rare show of dissent at the Fed, where monetary policy is generally set by consensus. It is the first time since 1993 that two member of the Fed’s Board of Governors have voted against the chair, according to Capital Economics.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-meeting-today-fed-fomc-interest-rate-trump-powell/
-----
5) TX: Republicans release new House maps as they attempt to take five Democratic seats
Source: CNN
“Texas Republicans have released their highly anticipated plan for how to tip the balance in their favor in next year’s midterms – redrawing the state’s congressional map in favor of more GOP seats. Multiple Democratic sources said the new map shows that Republicans are attempting to gain five more congressional seats, which they hope will help their chances of holding onto the House majority in the 2026 midterms. Democrats plan to challenge the map in court. … The new map features 30 districts that Trump would have won in 2024, up from 27 under the current map. In total, there are five more seats on the new map that Trump won by more than 10 percentage points.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/30/politics/texas-redistricting-republicans
-----
6) Guatemala: MS-13 members storm funeral of rival gang member, killing at least seven
Source: CBS News
“Armed gang members stormed into the funeral of a rival gang member in Guatemala, killing at least 7 people and wounding 13 others, government officials said. Guatemala is plagued by the violent rivalry between the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gangs. Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez blamed the attack at the funeral home on Tuesday in the capital, Guatemala City, on their rivalry.” (07/30/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-mara-salvatrucha-barrio-18-guatemala-funeral-attack/
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7) US FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than three months
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump. Dr. Vinay Prasad ‘did not want to be a distraction’ and was stepping down from his role as the FDA’s top vaccine regulator ‘to spend more time with his family,’ a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/30/fda-vaccine-chief-leaves-agency/
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8) ME: Governor’s buried cocaine investigation docs hit with official inquiry as questions swirl over Senate run
Source: Fox News
“More than three decades after Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills avoided releasing approximately 6,000 pages of case files pertaining to the federal investigation into her alleged cocaine use, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is seeking those very documents. The NRSC submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in April 2025, attempting to release the files relating to her suspected cocaine use trial amid suspicion that Democrats were recruiting her to jump into the state’s Senate race. While NARA initially told the NRSC they would review the request, they later claimed 3,000 pages of the files were under FOIA exemption, which preserves the secrecy of grand jury testimony.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-governors-buried-cocaine-investigation-docs-hit-official-inquiry-questions-swirl
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9) Report: Regime’s latest “forget about Epstein” stunt involves claims of Russiagate documents in secret room burn bags
Source: Fox News
“FBI Director Kash Patel found a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump–Russia probe buried in multiple ‘burn bags’ in a secret room inside the bureau, sources told Fox News Digital. Sources told Fox News Digital that the ‘burn bag’ system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher. Sources told Fox News Digital that multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/patel-found-thousands-sensitive-trump-russia-probe-docs-inside-burn-bags-secret-room-fbi
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10) Australia: Regime to include YouTube in social media ban
Source: United Press International
“The Australian government has announced that YouTube will be included in new legislation that bans children under the age of 16 from using social media. The Labor government announced Wednesday that YouTube, will be age-limited just like social media platforms will be starting in December, when new legislation goes into effect that bans children under 16 from using them. … The ban puts the main pressure on the platforms themselves to keep underage kids offline, or risk fines as high as $32 million.” (07/30/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/07/30/Australia-YouTube-social-media-ban-Albanese-Google-Alphabet/5021753878079/
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11) HI: Zuckerberg adds hundreds of acres to sprawling compound
Source: SFGate
“Kauai’s north shore is known for its lush landscapes, beaches, waterfalls and the famed Kalalau Trail. It’s also where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have an oceanfront compound that the pair is actively expanding. Earlier this year, the tech titan and his wife purchased another large piece of land on Kauai’s north shore. The acquisition brings their total land holdings from about 1,400 acres to over 2,300 acres. Reported to cost around $65 million, the new purchase is 962 acres inland and across the road from Zuckerberg’s oceanfront compound near the town of Kilauea. The previous owner had plans to build 80 luxury homes, but those plans were canceled after the sale, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg and Chan told SFGATE. Several billionaires in Hawaii have drawn attention for buying up plots of land and increasing their footprint on the Islands.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-zuckerberg-buys-kauai-land-20792415.php
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12) US Economy Rebounds With 3% GDP Growth After Trade Reversal
Source: Bloomberg
“US economic activity rebounded in the second quarter on a modest pickup in consumer spending and a marked drop in imports after a scramble to secure foreign goods earlier in the year. Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, which measures the value of goods and services produced in the US, increased an annualized 3% after shrinking at a 0.5% rate in the previous period, according to preliminary government data out Wednesday. Net exports added 5 percentage points to GDP after subtracting the most on record in the first three months of the year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis report showed. Goods and services that aren’t produced in the US are subtracted from the GDP calculation but counted when consumed.” (07/30/25)
https://archive.is/A84PL
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13) NYC: Rabbis arrested while protesting hunger in Gaza
Source: Gothamist
“Police arrested and issued summonses to eight rabbis who blocked traffic during a pro-humanitarian aid protest Monday night, officials said. An NYPD spokesperson said the incident happened around 6 p.m. during a planned demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate on Second Avenue and 43rd Street. Organizers said the arrests were noteworthy because it was the first time a group of rabbis the Jewish community’s political center had risked arrest over the war in Gaza. … 11 rabbis in total joined the act of civil disobedience, but only eight were arrested because the NYPD was simultaneously responding to the mass shooting at a nearby office tower.” (07/29/25)
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-rabbis-arrested-while-protesting-hunger-in-gaza
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14) UK: Pro-Palestinian Protest Group Can Appeal Ban, Judge Rules
Source: New York Times
“A pro-Palestinian protest group won permission from a judge on Wednesday to challenge the British government’s decision to ban it as a terrorist organization. The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer banned Palestine Action on July 5, saying that the group’s campaign of vandalism, including of military planes at a Royal Air Force base, had put Britain’s national security at risk. As a result of the ban, the group was added to a list of terrorist organizations that includes ISIS and Al Qaeda, prompting criticism from the United Nations and a broad range of human rights groups that argued the decision was disproportionate and a threat to free speech.” (07/30/25)
https://archive.is/qi23L
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15) Epstein & Maxwell grand juries did not hear directly from victims, prosecutors tell judges
Source: SFGate
“The federal grand juries that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges did not hear directly from any of the alleged victims in the case, Justice Department officials said in support of their request to unseal transcripts of the usually secret proceedings. Just two witnesses testified before the panel and both were law enforcement officials, the officials said. In a court filing late Tuesday, the officials again urged the court to release the records, citing huge public interest, but they also sought to assure the judges that making them public wouldn’t harm victims of the couple’s crimes.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-department-says-epstein-and-maxwell-grand-20793399.php
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16) US Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit
Source: Politico
“Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP. The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing. Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda.” (07/29/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/29/senate-confirms-emil-bove-to-third-circuit-as-dems-fail-to-thwart-trump-pick-00482965
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17) ME: Appeals court sides against mom who argued school concealed child’s gender expression
Source: Portland Press Herald
“An appeals court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit by a Lincoln County mother who argued that her child’s school district violated her parental rights by withholding information about the student’s gender expression at school. Amber Lavigne, of Newcastle, sued the Damariscotta-based Great Salt Bay Community School Board in April 2023, arguing that the district infringed on her parental rights and violated the 14th Amendment. The suit argued that a staff member provided Lavigne’s 13-year-old child with a chest binder, and referred to them by a different name and pronouns than they had been assigned at birth, while intentionally concealing that information from Lavigne. School officials maintained that their policies followed state laws, which provide equal access to education for all students regardless of gender identity, and a right to privacy regardless of age.” (07/30/25)
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/07/29/appeals-court-sides-against-lincoln-county-mom-suing-school-over-withholding-information-on-childs-gender-expression/
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18) France, 14 other regimes issue “New York call” urging recognition of Palestine
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France and 14 other Western nations called on countries worldwide to move to recognise a Palestinian state, France’s top diplomat said Wednesday. The foreign ministers of 15 countries late Tuesday issued a joint statement following a conference in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at reviving a two-state solution between Israelis and the Palestinians. … The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain. … Seventeen countries plus the European Union and Arab League during the conference joined calls for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.” (07/30/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250730-france-14-other-nations-issue-new-york-call-urging-recognition-of-palestine
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19) Radar satellite launched by India & NASA will track miniscule changes to Earth’s land & ice
Source: SFGate
“NASA and India paired up to launch an Earth-mapping satellite on Wednesday capable of tracking even the slightest shifts in land and ice. The $1.3 billion mission will help forecasters and first responders stay one step ahead of floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions and other disasters, according to scientists. Rocketing to orbit from India, the satellite will survey virtually all of Earth’s terrain multiple times. Its two radars — one from the U.S. and the other from India — will operate day and night, peering through clouds, rain and foliage to collect troves of data in extraordinary detail.” (07/30/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/radar-satellite-launched-by-india-and-nasa-will-20793501.php
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20) TX: Homeowner Shoots Intruder After Neighbor Dispute Turns Violent
Source: Greenville Chronicle
“[T]he Forney Police Department responded to a shooting …. According to the preliminary investigation, the suspect became intoxicated earlier in the day and approached a neighbor’s residence in an agitated state. Despite efforts by family members and bystanders to restrain him, the suspect forced entry into the home through a glass door and began assaulting the homeowner. The homeowner, who was armed, shot the suspect twice …. The suspect was airlifted to a hospital for treatment and will be transported to jail upon release.” (07/29/25)
https://www.greenvillechronicle.com/s/4243/Homeowner-Shoots-Intruder-After-Neighbor-Dispute-Turns-Violent-in-Forney.php
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Framers’ Presidency and Ours
Source: Law & Liberty
by Peter J Wallison
“The [US Supreme] Court’s reading of the Framers’ intentions suggests that the Framers wanted the president, acting unilaterally, to use his presidential powers as though he were a tribune of the people, not just as the official responsible for enforcing or executing the laws. But this idea cannot be found in the accounts of how the Constitutional Convention created the presidency. … compared to Congress, the president still had only the authority to execute the laws, to be the commander in chief in wartime, and to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Congress itself had eighteen specific powers, such as laying taxes, coining and borrowing money, declaring war, and raising and supporting armies.” (07/30/25)
https://lawliberty.org/the-framers-presidency-and-ours/
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22) Europe’s Precautionary Principle Is Killing the Next Big Thing
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii
“A few centuries ago, Europe was the beating heart of global innovation. From the Enlightenment’s embrace of reason to the Industrial Revolution’s transformative power, it was a hub of bold thinkers, inventors, and entrepreneurs pushing boundaries. Today, that spirit has faded. Europe no longer leads technological innovation — not due to a lack of talent or scientific exploration, but because of a deeper issue: an overly restrictive regulatory environment. While the US advances rapidly in AI, biotech, and space, and China heavily invests in deep tech, Europe remains tangled in bureaucracy, risk aversion, and a rigid application of the precautionary principle — prioritizing control over creativity and caution over progress.” (07/30/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/europes-precautionary-principle-is-killing-the-next-big-thing/
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23) Liberty better than government overreach
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“I’ve been told liberty isn’t as important as making money or raising a family. If someone doesn’t understand how critical liberty is to both of these tasks, and more, they might believe this. Without liberty, you, your family, the economy, and society will suffer. If you don’t have the liberty to negotiate with a potential employer, you may not get the job you want. When government intrudes into the negotiations, you both lose. This has happened to me. I once saw a business I wanted to work for; they needed an employee, but couldn’t afford to pay the government-mandated minimum wage. I was willing to work for less, for the experience, and to show the employer how I could help him. He wouldn’t risk doing something that would have benefited us both because of government rules. We were both worse off because government was protecting us from liberty.” (07/30/25)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2025/07/30/voices/opinion-liberty-better-than-government-overreach/231349.html
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24) More Irrational Attacks in Our Dysfunctional Society
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“In every society, there are off-kilter people. In a healthy, functional society those off-kilter people don’t bother anyone. Everyone can see that they are off-kilter but most everyone displays tolerance, kindness, and consideration for them. ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ But a healthy, functional society is obviously not the type of society in which we live. We live in a society where the government tightly controls, manages, regulates, and directs people’s lives and the use of their resources. In the process of doing that, the state, decade after decade, has engaged in a continuous process of tightening its screws on the American people. It is my contention that this tightening of the screws causes something to go haywire within the off-kilter people. That’s when they go off and engage in their irrational killing sprees.” (07/30/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/07/30/more-irrational-attacks-in-our-dysfunctional-society/
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25) How Does it Feel to Be a Bug?
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“As you may recall, Matthew Adelstein uses r-K selection theory to argue that the average bug’s life is not worth living. Quick version: Humans have a few offspring, who typically receive immense parental investment. Bugs have enormous numbers of offspring, who typically receive near-zero parental investment. Due to these radically different evolutionary strategies, the average human has a long and tolerable life, while the average bug has a brief life that swiftly ends in abject misery. It is a clever observation, and not obviously wrong. But neither is it obviously right. Yes, the vast majority of bugs quickly die terrible deaths. But weighty factors cut the other way.” (07/30/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/how-does-it-feel-to-be-a-bug
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26) Democrat Party Has Always Been As Foul As Jasmine Crockett
Source: The Federalist
by Eddie Scarry
“At the core of The Atlantic’s unnecessarily long profile on loud Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett is the argument that ‘when the Republicans go low, the Democrats should meet them there.’ As Rachel Jeantel so famously put it, ‘That’s real retarded, sir.’ The notion that Democrats have for too long shown excessive restraint or pitched themselves to voters with a naive intellectualism while being punched in the mouth by brute Republicans is a hysterical myth, one that only persists because the media that helped create it continue to perpetuate it. Going back as far as 2015, you undoubtedly heard both Democrat leaders and prominent dorks in the Washington news media call President Trump a ‘bully.'” (07/30/25)
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/30/the-democrat-party-has-always-been-as-foul-as-jasmine-crockett-is/
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27) We Must Stop Saying “Must”
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
“In my first year of grad school, one of my professors had a long list of ‘forbidden words.’ These were terms that do more to confuse than enlighten when used in economic analysis. Terms like ‘need,’ ‘afford,’ ‘exploits,’ ‘vicious circle,’ etc. Today, I’ll argue that we might wish to add the term ‘must’ to that list.” (07/30/25)
https://www.econlib.org/we-must-stop-saying-must
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28) Two Cheers for Behaving Badly
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Ozzy Osbourne, whose funeral cortège will add some color as it processes through Birmingham today, once summarized a big chunk of his life thus: ‘I behaved f—ing badly.’ No doubt: Getting arrested for public urination is one thing, and Ozzy got arrested for public urination at the Alamo, right there on the Cenotaph. There was the infamous business with orally decapitating that bat. The sex and the drugs. The various Luciferian fixations. Helping to make reality television a thing. But the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness’s last public act was helping to raise some $190 million for three charities, including a children’s hospital and a children’s hospice headquartered in his hometown of Birmingham. After that, he promptly went to his eternal reward. I imagine that the initial conversation with St. Peter was an interesting one.” (07/30/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ozzy-osbourne-music-life-death/
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29) Social media self-control among students
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“With a new academic year due to start in the United States, states and districts are seeking to manage students’ cellphone use during the school day. Proposals range from developing usage guidelines to implementing outright bans. Amid the discussion over what adults – educators, parents, policymakers – should do, students are signaling their ability to exercise individual agency. And they want nuanced and flexible approaches to help balance use and manage screen time. In a 2025 Pew survey in the U.S., 44% of teens reported cutting back on both social media and smartphone use. In 2023, that share was 39% (social media) and 36% (smartphones). A wider survey of 20,000 children ages 12 to 15 and parents across 18 countries found 40% of students taking deliberate breaks from their screens, up 18 percentage points from 2022. (07/29/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0729/Social-media-self-control-among-students
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30) FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s Meddling in Broadcast Journalism Contradicts His Own Avowed Views
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“As a minority FCC member during the Bush administration, Carr condemned government interference with newsroom decisions.” (07/30/25)
https://reason.com/2025/07/30/fcc-chairman-brendan-carrs-meddling-in-broadcast-journalism-contradicts-his-own-avowed-views/
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31) Desperately Seeking a Pro-Growth Democrat
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“The most recent Wall Street Journal political poll shows that Democrats have swerved into a deep ditch. Only three of 10 voters have a positive opinion of the Democratic Party, and that is the lowest this number has been for Democrats since Bill Clinton’s first term in office. Republicans aren’t very popular either — but they have a big lead over the donkeys. I’m not a cheerleader for the Republicans, and it’s clear the GOP is not the solution to all our nation’s problems. Republicans have been coconspirators in the runaway spending and debt crisis in Washington. What is concerning is that the Democrats have become what might be called a donut party: They have no middle. (07/30/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2025/07/30/desperately-seeking-a-pro-growth-democrat-n2661131
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32) Will economic freedom continue to triumph?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“There has been debate among economic historians about the point at which average real wages actually began to rise in England during the 19th century (even some discussion on this blog) but there can be no doubt that the industrial revolution was the beginning of a golden age of material well-being. Why does the myth [that the industrial revolution caused a great deal of misery] persist?” (07/30/25)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2025/07/will-economic-freedom-continue-to.html
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33) Those Who Were Wrong About Gaza Should Admit It With Profound Humility
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“A liberal Israel apologist named Brianna Wu has made a mealy-mouthed tweet acknowledging the reality of what’s happening in Gaza that is so obnoxious I need to have a quick rant about it. Wu, who has managed to translate her public attention from the 2014 Gamergate harassment scandal into a role as a pro-Israel spinmeister, tweeted a screenshot from a New York Times headline titled ‘Total Failure: Israel’s Return to War Heaped Ruin on Gaza and Did Little for Israelis.’ … This enrages me in ways I’m struggling to fully articulate. ‘After countless exaggeration, the cries of wolf are actually true?’ So it wasn’t exaggeration or crying wolf then was it, you fucking asshole? Almost like you’ve spent two years defending A FUCKING GENOCIDE and attacking anyone who opposed it?” (07/30/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/07/30/those-who-were-wrong-about-gaza-should-admit-it-with-profound-humility/
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34) Behemoth or Leviathan?
Source: Unpopular Front
by John Ganz
“Naturally, as a proponent of the ‘absurd Trump=fascism’ thesis, I’m disappointed that as impressive a historian as [Adam] Tooze doesn’t want to endorse it as well. But I also have a bit of trouble understanding the logic here. Surely, if Nazism is at the extreme end of the breakdown of the state, with its regular notions of law and right, into factional and clique-based power politics, and we are entering a more fierce and disturbing era of unstatehood, then one must at least say, we are heading in a fascist direction? And I don’t think the fascism thesis relies upon a naive separation of the idealized liberal rule of law and the present disorder and reign of terror. Quite the opposite. I think rather it can show how fascism is implicit in liberal democratic institutions and develops out of their internal contradictions and failures.” (07/30/25)
https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/behemoth-or-leviathan
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35) The Coming Age of AI Government
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Brad Pearce
“Libertarians, in general, tend to have an ambivalent view of technological advances, recognizing both the ways in which technology can help the public communicate and become less dependent on government, while also being rightly paranoid about how government will use technology. It is true that AI can improve government efficiency, and it does feel unwise to refuse to use it entirely. I certainly wouldn’t be shedding any tears if some low level government paper pushers lose their jobs to AI. (Athough the reality is that the number of bureaucrats has massively increased since the era when clerical work as all done on paper, and computers have demonstrably not reduced their number.) However, there are a few problems here. The biggest is what happens when AI decides something and no human will second guess it?” (07/30/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-coming-age-of-ai-government
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36) Ban Banning Gas Stoves
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Not long ago, you would’ve been labeled a conspiracy theorist if you suggested that a government report about how terribly unhealthy gas stoves are and how they ought to be banned meant that plans were in the works to ban gas stoves. ‘No, the government’s not taking your stove,’ CNET said in January 2024. What were we all worried about? Tightening regulations, that’s what.” (07/30/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/07/30/ban-banning-gas-stoves/
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37) Teaching hate, hiding truth: NEA’s real agenda revealed in leaked handbook
Source: Fox News
by Corey DeAngelis
“The National Education Association (NEA) tried scrubbing its radical 2025 handbook from the internet after I leaked its contents on X, but I saved a copy of their 434-page manifesto. This document, meant to guide America’s largest teachers’ union, exposes a radical agenda: erasing Jews from the Holocaust, blaming ‘white supremacy culture’ for systemic racism, pushing illegal racial quotas, calling for ‘educational reparations,’ and attacking homeschooling while ignoring their own failing schools. The NEA, armed with a unique 1906 federal charter, has become a money-laundering operation for the Democratic Party, funneling over 99% of its 2022 political contributions to Democrats. Its president, Becky Pringle, an at-large Democratic National Committee member, engages in histrionics to rally this partisan machine.” (07/30/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/teaching-hate-hiding-truth-neas-real-agenda-revealed-leaked-handbook
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38) Hamas can’t stop this, only Israel can. But does it want to?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Paul R Pillar
“What is taking place in Gaza now is mostly not a war, even though that term commonly is applied to the violence there. It is instead a largely unilateral assault on a population and its means of living. It is a situation in which one side, Israel, has — as Trump might put it — nearly all the cards. The news stories emerging almost daily from Gaza are not about pitched battles between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas fighters. They are mostly not about battles at all. Instead, they are about the latest large-scale killing by Israel of Gazans, mostly civilians, at a rate that has averaged about 150 deaths per day since the current round of carnage began in late 2023. Civilians are killed largely with airstrikes but also more recently through getting shot while seeking ever-scarcer food.” (07/30/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/hamas-israel-starvation/
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39) The US-EU Trade “Deal” is Nothing to Celebrate
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“Donald Trump announced on Sunday that his administration had reached a trade deal with the European Union, which would place a 15 percent tariff on all goods Americans buy from Europe and require the EU to purchase a certain amount of oil and weapons from some US firms. Although European officials clarified that this was a legally non-binding outline and the two sides are still working out some details, Trump is characteristically celebrating the ‘deal’ as a major win for the American people. But it really isn’t. Every supposed benefit that comes from the agreement applies only to a small subset of the country while leaving the American public, as a whole, worse off.” (07/30/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/us-eu-trade-deal-nothing-celebrate
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40) Truth, Justice, and the New Superman
Source: Foundataion for Economic Education
by Caitlin Peters
“After 47 years of Superman movies, James Gunn’s 2025 film offers a poignant take on the values Superman has always embodied: truth, justice, and the American Way. Through his origin story as an alien adopted and raised in Kansas, Superman symbolizes the hope and idealism that define the American Dream: that through hard work and determination, anyone has a shot at success.” (07/30/25)
https://fee.org/articles/truth-justice-and-the-new-superman/
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41) Consensus Finally Reached: Israel Is Committing Genocide
Source: Common Dreams
by Jared Keyel
“For nearly two years, the Israeli military has been relentlessly obliterating everything in Gaza. That destruction has not been hidden. The Palestinians who live in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees forced to flee what became Israel in 1948, have been documenting every moment of the carnage. And in fact, Israeli soldiers have gleefully shared photos and videos of themselves destroying everything they see. The Israeli government has openly and repeatedly declared its intent to annihilate Palestinians. For decades, Israel has denied it planned and carried out ethnic cleansing in 1948. … Now, nearly 80 years later, Israeli politicians at the highest level openly plot to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza. It has been clear since October 7, 2023 that the current Israeli assault is the culmination of more than 140 years of colonization, dispossession, expulsion, and repeated massacres. This is genocide.” (07/30/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza-2673782123
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42) Why Macron’s Palestine Gambit Matters
Source: The American Conservative
by Andrew Day
“After the French President Emmanuel Macron announced last Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine, several U.S. and Israeli leaders dismissed the move as merely symbolic. … ‘What he says doesn’t matter,’ Trump told reporters Friday. ‘That statement doesn’t carry any weight.’ But if Macron’s announcement ‘doesn’t matter,’ then why have opponents of Palestinian self-determination reacted to it with such venom? In truth, recognition does matter in international affairs, which is why Israel and its Western backers, unlike most nations, have steadfastly refused to acknowledge Palestinian statehood in the first place.” (07/30/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-macrons-palestine-gambit-matters/
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43) Forcing Culture War Bigotry on Private Enterprise
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Atkins
“As racial minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ Americans made social advancements in the decades since World War II, the overt violence of Jim Crow gave way to more hidden structural violence and malign governmental neglect of marginalized communities. If private organizations or foundations wanted to advance social justice, then so be it, but conservatives in government would not help them. However, that is no longer true with MAGA and the second Donald Trump administration. The president and his allies are using government coercion to enforce culture-war bigotry even upon private enterprises. The rhetoric coming from federal agencies and spokespeople echoes 19th-century white supremacist propaganda.” [editor’s note: It also echoes 20th-century “anti-discrimination” and “affirmative action” propaganda – TLK] (07/30/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/30/forcing-culture-war-bigotry-on-private-enterprise/
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44) The Intensive Margin
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Expanding production on the intensive margin means getting more grain out of land already cultivated, expanding it on the extensive margin means getting more grain by bringing new land into cultivation. In economics, the intensive margin means writing new articles — new enough, at least, to get published — on subjects that smart people have been writing articles about for most of the past century. … The extensive margin, in contrast, is the application of the existing tools of economics, including mathematics where needed, to new subjects.” (07/29/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/the-intensive-margin
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45) Sydney Sweeney tantrum is all about the left’s rage at America’s rejection
Source: New York Post
By Kira Davis
“Pretty much everyone wears blue jeans in modern America. Jeans have gone from workwear to high fashion over the last 150-plus years. Dress them up, dress them down … they’re as flexible as American culture. Perhaps they are so enduring because everyone can wear them. Fat or skinny, tall or short, curvy to curve-less and everything in between — jeans are the fashion of unity. But when we’re buying a pair, we’re not contemplating any of that. We want to think about what we could look like wearing them, or who might be attracted to us while we’re wearing them. I am speaking, of course, about the power of advertising, and last week the latest ad for American Eagle jeans caused extreme distress among the Very Online crowd.” (07/30/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/opinion/sydney-sweeney-tantrum-is-all-about-the-lefts-rage-at-americas-rejection/
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46) Don’t Resort to Censorship to Fight Populism
Source: Persuasion
by Jacob Mchangama
“Imagine this scenario: one day, Chief Justice John Roberts announces an investigation into ‘fake news, false reports of crimes, slanderous reports, threats, and other infractions’ that ‘affect the honor and security of the Federal Supreme Court, its members, and their families.’ Roberts appoints Justice Samuel Alito to lead the probe, granting him powers to issue warrants, access private phone and messaging data, block social media accounts, and even suspend entire platforms that refuse to comply. Alito then unilaterally expands the investigation to target ‘antidemocratic’ fake news, propaganda, and illegal content more broadly. Such a scenario … would be unthinkable in the United States, or in any democracy that respects the separation of powers and the rule of law. However, in Brazil this scenario is not a hypothetical dystopia but a reality.” (07/29/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/dont-resort-to-censorship-to-fight
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47) Say it with a song
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Angela Erickson
“Tom Lehrer never needed to shout to be heard. He just sat down at the piano, smiled sweetly, and sang about nuclear war, venereal disease, or killing pigeons. His satire wasn’t angry or bitter either. It was playful, subversive, and cheerfully delivered in a musical theater voice. Earlier this week on July 26, Lehrer passed away at the age of 97 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As we say goodbye to this legend, we celebrate a man who reminds us that free speech isn’t just a legal concept. It’s a cultural one. One that lives or dies not just in the courts, but in our collective willingness to laugh, to listen, and to be challenged.” (07/29/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/say-it-song
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48) Needed: Stupid Anonymous
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Kritz
“For many years, large segments of the American public were perfectly willing to go on Jerry Springer and admit to the world that they abused their spouses, molested their children, tortured their pets, and consumed every illicit drug they could get their hands on. Beginning with Alcoholics Anonymous, a plethora of Anonymous organizations has come on the scene to deal with these issues, along with an ever-increasing number of other social and psychological maladies. However, there is not one Anonymous chapter where a person can get in front of a supportive group and state: ‘Good evening. My name is Steve, and I’m stupid!’ Don’t believe me? Google it!” (07/29/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/needed-stupid-anonymous/
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49) Privatizing Veterans’ Health Care Will Be a Disaster
Source: The American Prospect
by Russell Lemle & Jasper Craven
“Long before becoming secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins’s intention to steer veterans and their health care dollars away from VA medical facilities and into private hands was well established. During his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, Collins was a staunch ally of the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), a group whose ideological North Star is privatizing VA services. He embraced three key bills the organization championed that laid the groundwork for outsourcing care for large numbers of VA patients and weakening protections for VA employees. … He has continued to spread these unconvincing assertions as VA secretary in interviews, press releases, Twitter videos, and congressional hearings, while, at the same time, swiftly advancing proposals to deeply cut VA resources and personnel and redirect the so-called ‘savings’ toward expanded outsourcing to private-sector care.” (07/30/25)
https://prospect.org/health/2025-07-30-privatizing-veterans-health-care-will-be-disaster/
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50) Keep Digging, Donald. You’re Keeping the Epstein Scandal Alive.
Source: The Nation
by Joan Walsh
“Trump gave a long, sometimes incoherent press conference alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. They were ostensibly meeting to discuss tariffs, but questions veered toward Epstein. Instead of slapping them down or ignoring them, as he sometimes does, Trump answered them. At length. And very strangely. Trump has maintained that he had a falling out with Epstein years ago. In 2004, they competed for the same gaudy Palm Beach property, and Trump outbid his friend and got it. (In some accounts, Epstein was the one who broke off the friendship over it.) Sounds plausible, for two scummy rich guys. Some of Trump’s communications people say Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago ‘for being a creep,’ in the words of henchman Stephen Cheung. But at Monday’s press conference, Trump gave a different explanation. And a hauntingly creepy one.” (07/29/25)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/keep-digging-donald-keeping-epstein-scandal/#
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Fountainhead Forum, episode 338
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Mary Ruwart on the expensive approval process for drugs and running for President in 2008.” (07/30/25)
https://rumble.com/v6wvn2a-ff-338-mary-ruwart-on-the-expensive-approval-process-for-drugs-and-running-.html
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52) The Political Orphanage, 07/30/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“What the Hell Does the Federal Reserve Do?” (07/30/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/what-the-hell-does-the-federal-reserve-do
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53) How To Fix The Internet, 07/30/25
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Smashing the Tech Oligarchy.” (07/30/25)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/podcast-episode-smashing-tech-oligarchy
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54) Reason Interview: Richard E. Farley
Source: Reason
“Financial historian and attorney Richard E. Farley explains how political games, union power, and creative accounting tanked New York City in 1975 — and why it could happen again.” (07/30/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/07/30/could-new-york-go-bankrupt-again/
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55) The Learning Curve, 07/30/25
Source: Pioneer Institute
“U-MD’s Vincent Carretta on Phillis Wheatley Peters, Slavery, & Poetry.” (07/30/25)
https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/u-mds-vincent-carretta-on-phillis-wheatley-peters-slavery-poetry/
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56) The Good Fight, 07/30/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Jesse Singal on Crises in Politics and Social Science.” (07/30/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/jesse-singal-on-crises-in-politics
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57) The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 07/30/25
Source: The New Republic
“As the emerging details of Trump’s trade agreement with Europe puncture his hype, economist Paul Krugman explains at length why it’s actually a big loss for our country — and especially for Trump’s MAGA base.” (07/30/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/198577/paul-krugman-brutally-wrecks-trump-europe-deal-scam-voters
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58) SolutionsWatch, 07/30/25
Source: The Corbett Report
“How to Leave the Cage.” (07/30/25)
https://corbettreport.com/how-to-leave-the-cage-solutionswatch/
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59) Washington Monthly Podcast, 07/30/25
Source: Washington Monthly
‘Has Donald Trump Ended Free Trade?.” (07/30/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/30/has-donald-trump-ended-free-trade/
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/30/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Monitor: ‘Worst Case Scenario of Famine in Gaza,’ Rep. Greene: Israel’s Actions a Genocide, and More.” (07/30/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1TST-Xkg7A
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61) System Update, episode 494
Source: System Update
“What are CBS News'[s] Billionaire Heirs Doing with Bari Weiss? With Ryan Grim on the Funding Behind It; Europe Capitulates to Trump Again.” (07/29/25)
https://rumble.com/v6wt644-system-update-show-494.html
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62) Capital Record, episode 244
Source: National Review
“Manufacturing Properly Understood.” (07/29/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/manufacturing-properly-understood/
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63) Politics Politics Politics, 07/29/25
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Why Trump’s Homelessness Move Matters More Than You Think. Breaking Down Democratic Party Struggles (with Dan Turrentine).” (07/29/25)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/why-trumps-homelessness-move-matters
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64) Aaron Maté on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott brings journalist Aaron Maté back on the show to review some of the new information we learned about the origins of Russiagate and why, almost a decade later, this story remains so important.” (07/29/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/7-25-25-aaron-mate-on-why-russiagate-matters/
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65) Political Theater, 07/29/25
Source: Roll Call
“Off to the redistricting races.” (07/29/25)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL6106771085.mp3?updated=1753823196
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