04/24 -- Standoff intensifies in Strait of Hormuz; There's a Simple Way to End the Gerrymander Wars
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Thomas L. Knapp
Apr 24, 2026, 6:13:53 AM (7 days ago) Apr 24
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 04/24/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Standoff intensifies in Strait of Hormuz
2) It pleaseth the US crown to lighten up just a little bit on cannabis
3) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime claims it killed 12 FSB officers in drone swarm attack
4) DOJ: Soldier in Maduro abduction charged over prediction market bets on operation
5) Lebanon: Regime accuses Israeli regime of war crime after murder of journalist
6) Jeffries warns Democrats might not support FISA reauthorization if Patel remains atop FBI
7) DOJ watchdog launches probe into compliance with Epstein files law
8) UT: Four people accuse Salt Lake City council member, congressional candidate, of unwanted sexual advances
9) Germany: Son of former Iranian shah whines at European regimes to give him a country
10) Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover
11) Ukraine: Russian occupation court jails woman for buying Ukrainian war bonds
12) Turkey: Parliament passes bill to restrict social media access for under-15s
13) Scientists uncover identity of mysterious “golden orb” discovered miles underwater in 2023
14) American Airlines cuts 2026 earnings projections after surge in jet fuel
15) Maine tried zoning reform to fix its housing crisis; It’s unclear if it’s working
16) Duterte to stand trial at ICC over deadly Philippines “war on drugs”
17) UK: High Street mini-marts selling cocaine, cannabis & prescription drugs, BBC secret filming reveals
18) Senate Republicans clear go-it-alone path for ICE gang funding
19) Burgum says National Park Service botched Grand Canyon wildfire
20) Pope Leo Heading Back to Rome After Outspoken Africa Tour
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) There’s a Simple Way to End the Gerrymander Wars
22) ChatGPT Confessed to a Crime It Couldn’t Possibly Have Committed
23) To Stop Endless War in Iran and Beyond, Congress Should Rescind the Money To Fight
24) The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy
25) Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Is Legally Puzzling but a “Huge Win” for Patients, Suppliers, and Scientists
26) This Is What Democracy Looks Like, and Why Our Founding Fathers Didn’t Create One
27) Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed Iran war — but he doesn’t know how
28) The hidden cost of simplicity: Procurement reform’s fragmentation problem
29) How Iran Committed Suicide
30) Two Cheers for Abundance Liberalism
31) More green, more giggles, less crime
32) I was suspicious of the SPLC. I was right to be.
33) American “Micro-Militarism”: Military Disasters and the End of Empire
34) AI vs the Rent Seekers
35) Why London’s Dockless E-Bikes are Causing Chaos
36) Un-Redistricting Virginia
37) Iran ceasefire was just extended; real test for Washington starts now
38) No, Taxes Don’t Have a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card
39) A New Nobel Prize for War
40) The EU still has no guts when it comes to Israel
41) A Delusional Trump, Backed by Israel, Drives the Iran War
42) Taxing Ownership
43) From Shakespeare to Smith: Why Credit Exists in Every Western Society
44) Resist Beginnings: The Ancient Roman Maxim Behind the American Revolution
45) The left’s “Dignity Index”: A weak attempt to disarm Republicans, and disguise its own hate
46) An Unseen Consequence of the U.S. War on Iran
47) The nanny state being pushed
48) California lawmakers threaten free speech regarding immigration groups
49) Aftermath: Wall Street Is Lying to Itself
50) Test-Score Growth Is the Best Metric We Have for Understanding School Performance
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 04/23/26
52) The Libertarian Angle, 04/23/26
53) The Permanent Problem, episode 14
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/23/26
55) The Fifth Column, episode 554
56) Underthrow Podcast, 04/23/26
57) Is the West in Civilisational Decline?
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/22/26
59) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 102
60) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/22/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Standoff intensifies in Strait of Hormuz
Source: WTOP News
“Tensions in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz intensified Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered the U.S. military to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats in the strait, while Iran pushed back on Trump’s claim there was a leadership rift in the Islamic Republic. … Trump also said Thursday evening that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.” (04/24/26)
https://wtop.com/national/2026/04/the-latest-standoff-intensifies-in-strait-of-hormuz-after-trump-issues-shoot-and-kill-order/
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2) It pleaseth the US crown to lighten up just a little bit on cannabis
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The Trump administration has moved to reclassify marijuana, more than four months after Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to move it from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. The schedule I classification meant marijuana was alongside heroin, LSD, MDMA and synthetic opioids, whereas a schedule III classification put it in the same category as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. … rescheduling will not immediately legalize marijuana or affect the sentences of those incarcerated for possession.” (04/23/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/23/trump-administration-reclassify-marijuana-schedule-iii
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3) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime claims it killed 12 FSB officers in drone swarm attack
Source: Independent [UK]
“Ukraine’s drone wing says it has killed at least 12 officers and injured 15 others in a strike on a command post for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi confirmed the attack yesterday in [the formerly Ukrainian region of] Donetsk, and said Ukrainian forces used FP-2 drones manufactured by the Ukrainian defence company Fire Point. He said the command post hit in the attack is responsible for sabotage operations, building intelligence networks, recruitment, carrying out terrorist attacks and arson, and coordinating Russian proxy forces.” (04/24/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-drone-strike-fsb-donetsk-putin-zelensky-b2964061.html
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4) DOJ: Soldier in Maduro abduction charged over prediction market bets on operation
Source: The Hill
“A U.S. Army soldier has been accused of using classified information about the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on the prediction market Polymarket, federal officials said Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg who was involved in the planning of the operation, was charged with using confidential government information for personal gain. He allegedly made more than $400,000 in profits from the wagers. … Van Dyke allegedly created an account on Polymarket on Dec. 26 and placed about $33,000 worth of bets on markets about U.S. operations in Venezuela and Maduro’s ouster between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2. The U.S. launched the operation in Venezuela early on Jan. 3, capturing Maduro and his wife. The U.S. attorney’s office also accused Van Dyke of attempting to conceal his identity as the trades drew widespread scrutiny.” (04/23/26)
https://thehill.com/business/5846393-solider-in-maduro-raid-charged-over-prediction-market-bets-on-operation-doj/
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5) Lebanon: Regime accuses Israeli regime of war crime after murder of journalist
Source: CBS News
“Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon that killed a journalist on Wednesday were a war crime, Lebanon’s prime minister said. A journalists’ union said rescuers were prevented from accessing the destroyed building where the reporter was left trapped beneath rubble. Amal Khalil, 43, a journalist with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, bled to death in the ruins of a building that was hit in an Israeli drone strike after Israeli forces’ gunfire prevented ambulance crews from reaching her ‘for nearly four hours,’ according to Lebanon’s Union of Journalists.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lebanon-israel-war-crime-journalist-killed-drone-strike/
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6) Jeffries warns Democrats might not support FISA reauthorization if Patel remains atop FBI
Source: The Hill
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is warning that House Democrats might not back an extension of the government’s warrantless spy powers as long as FBI Director Kash Patel remains atop the agency. Jeffries has long portrayed Patel as a partisan conspiracy theorist who’s unfit to be the nation’s top cop. On Thursday, he escalated those criticisms by suggesting Democrats might be ready to leverage their support for an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to secure Patel’s removal. … The remarks create what is potentially another barrier in the effort to extend FISA’s spying powers, which expire on April 30. Already, many Democrats — joined by some Republicans — are vowing to oppose the legislation unless it’s amended to include stronger privacy protections for U.S. citizens.” (04/23/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5845476-jeffries-democrats-fisa-patel/
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7) DOJ watchdog launches probe into compliance with Epstein files law
Source: CBS News
“The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said in a statement that it will ‘evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the’ Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last November. The bill required the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of becoming law, a deadline the department failed to meet. … The rolling release and repeated publishing and unpublishing of documents left survivors and members of Congress alike calling for an independent review of the department’s handling of the files. The two lawmakers who led the push to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, have also pushed for an independent review.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epstein-files-justice-department-inspector-general/
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8) UT: Four people accuse Salt Lake City council member, congressional candidate, of unwanted sexual advances
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
“Four people from Utah political circles — three of them elected officials — accuse Eva Lopez Chavez, a Salt Lake City Council member and Democratic congressional candidate, of restraining them during what they considered unwanted sexual advances. Lopez Chavez, through attorney Greg Skordas, said nothing ‘inappropriate’ occurred during her interactions with three of the people and the fourth alleged contact ‘never occurred.’ … Victoria Petro, who is Lopez Chavez’s fellow City Council member; Maggie Regier, who worked on Stan Penfold’s mayoral campaign in 2019; Hoang Nguyen, who is now a state representative; and Jen Plumb, now a state senator, described their allegations in interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune. Each person said their allegations arose in social settings before Lopez Chavez joined the City Council in 2023.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/04/22/four-women-accuse-salt-lake-city/
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9) Germany: Son of former Iranian shah whines at European regimes to give him a country
Source: Reuters
“The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year. … Demonstrations by both supporters and opponents were held in central Berlin and a person was detained after Pahlavi, who made an appearance, was spattered with some form of red liquid. Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in exile, emerged as [the US regime’s pick to lead a puppet regime] after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran and other Iranian cities last year.” (04/23/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/son-former-shah-iran-appeals-western-countries-support-2026-04-23/
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10) Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover
Source: CNN
“Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have cleared the way for CNN, HBO and Warner’s other media brands to join Paramount Skydance later this year. Shareholders ‘overwhelmingly’ voted in support of the takeover deal, WBD said after a pro forma special meeting took place on Thursday morning. The vote was anticlimactic, but still a crucial moment in the monthslong struggle for control of WBD, one of the biggest media companies in the world. Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, now has to secure regulatory approval in the United States and other countries. But company executives are optimistic that they’ll be able to complete the deal in the third quarter of the year, meaning by the end of September.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/23/media/wbd-shareholders-approve-paramount-takeover
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11) Ukraine: Russian occupation court jails woman for buying Ukrainian war bonds
Source: US News & World Report
“A woman living in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison for buying war bonds to support the Ukrainian military, the court that convicted her said on Thursday. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia District Court said the woman had used a Ukrainian mobile app to purchase bonds worth 270,080 roubles ($3,600), and had been caught by the FSB security service. It identified her only by the initial B, and said she was a Russian citizen. People living in parts of Ukraine that Russian forces have captured in more than four years of war have effectively been forced to take Russian citizenship if they want to retain access to healthcare, pensions and property rights.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-23/russian-controlled-court-jails-woman-for-buying-ukrainian-war-bonds
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12) Turkey: Parliament passes bill to restrict social media access for under-15s
Source: ABC News
“Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported. The legislation is the latest in a global trend to protect young people from dangerous online activity. Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, in a gun attack. Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack. The bill will force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.” (04/23/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/turkish-parliament-passes-bill-restrict-social-media-access-132302915
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13) Scientists uncover identity of mysterious “golden orb” discovered miles underwater in 2023
Source: Fox News
“A strange ‘golden orb’ pulled from more than 2 miles beneath the Gulf of Alaska, once rumored to be everything from an alien egg to an unknown species, has finally been identified after a yearslong scientific investigation. Researchers with NOAA and the Smithsonian announced the unusual object, first discovered in 2023 during a deep-sea expedition, is a remnant from a rarely seen giant deep-sea anemone called Relicanthus daphneae, specifically part of the organism that anchored it to the ocean floor. The discovery was made using a remotely operated vehicle exploring about 3,250 meters (over 2 miles) deep, where it encountered an odd golden structure attached to a rock. The strange, mound-shaped mass with a small opening stunned scientists, who admitted at the time they had no idea what they were looking at.” (04/23/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/science/scientists-uncover-identity-mysterious-golden-orb-discovered-miles-underwater-2023
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14) American Airlines cuts 2026 earnings projections after surge in jet fuel
Source: CNBC
“American Airlines on Thursday cut its 2026 earnings forecast, becoming the latest airline to lower its outlook after a surge in fuel costs added billions to expenses this year. American said it could post an adjusted per-share loss of 40 cents up to earnings of $1.10 a share, lower than the per-share earnings of $1.70 to $2.70 it forecast in January, though Wall Street analysts have been trimming their forecasts for the industry since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran this year. Airlines have been either cutting their full-year forecasts or holding off on further guidance because of volatile prices for jet fuel since the war started. Fuel is generally their biggest expense after labor.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/american-airlines-aal-q1-2026-earnings.html
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15) Maine tried zoning reform to fix its housing crisis; It’s unclear if it’s working
Source: SFGate
“In 2022, the Maine Legislature took a rare step and required municipalities to adjust local zoning rules in an effort to spur housing construction, a move that generated a fierce debate over state growth targets versus local control. Four years later, the State House may have finally worked out the kinks from that experiment. Municipal legal experts and town managers are hoping a new bill, L.D. 2173, signed by Gov. Janet Mills a week ago, is the last word on land use restrictions, a technical but critical piece of the housing puzzle, for a while. The bill marks the second big adjustment lawmakers have made to zoning laws since L.D. 2003, the landmark 2022 legislation that required towns to remove some regulatory barriers in order to encourage housing production. L.D. 2003 aimed to do this by eliminating single-family zoning restrictions and making it easier to build accessory dwelling units while creating support for communities to develop affordable housing.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/maine-tried-zoning-reform-to-fix-its-housing-22222480.php
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16) Duterte to stand trial at ICC over deadly Philippines “war on drugs”
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte will face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) after judges on Thursday confirmed charges of crimes against humanity over his so-called ‘war on drugs.’ Pre-trial judges ‘unanimously confirmed all the charges … against Rodrigo Roa Duterte and committed him to trial,’ the ICC said in a statement. Duterte will be the first Asian former head of state to face trial at the ICC, which prosecutes individuals for the world’s worst crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.” (04/23/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260423-ex-philippine-president-duterte-to-stand-trial-at-icc-over-deadly-war-on-drugs
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17) UK: High Street mini-marts selling cocaine, cannabis & prescription drugs, BBC secret filming reveals
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas and prescription pills are being offered for sale in mini-marts on UK High Streets, a BBC investigation can reveal. They were readily offered to our undercover researchers who secretly filmed in shops across four neighbouring West Midlands towns. One street we visited was described as ‘lawless’ by an anonymous law enforcement source. Just a few miles away, in a town where we found illegal drugs being sold in shops, legitimate businesses told us they had been intimidated by gangs – and witnessed knife and gun violence. Across the country, shopfronts are being exploited by organised criminal gangs that have gained a foothold pushing illegal drugs, say both the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI).” (04/23/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62l429w2pko
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18) Senate Republicans clear go-it-alone path for ICE gang funding
Source: Politico
“Senate Republicans green-lit their party-line plan early Thursday morning to send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement agencies in the coming years. Senators voted 50-48 to adopt a budget blueprint for legislation that could fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other agencies for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. The vote was almost entirely on party lines, with GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only lawmakers to break ranks. The vote just after 3:30 a.m. completed the first step in the GOP’s plan to approve roughly $70 billion in additional funding without help from Democrats, who have refused to fund the immigration agencies without a slate of new restrictions on how they operate.” (04/23/26)
https://archive.is/Ex9Jx
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19) Burgum says National Park Service botched Grand Canyon wildfire
Source: SFGate
“After the Dragon Bravo wildfire incinerated the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park last summer, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the visitor center and more than 100 other buildings, a looming question remained: Could the disaster have been prevented? At the center of that query was the initial fire management strategy employed by national park officials. And, confusingly, what park leaders communicated about that strategy conflicted with the park’s own social media posts. Leaders said the park used a ‘full suppression’ strategy from the beginning. But social media posts reported an initial ‘confine and contain strategy,’ which allows a fire to continue burning a defined area. In a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum weighed in on the discrepancy for the first time, affirming the information shared on the park’s social media accounts and undermining the credibility of Grand Canyon’s superintendent and park spokesperson.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/doug-burgum-grand-canyon-fire-22220798.php
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20) Pope Leo Heading Back to Rome After Outspoken Africa Tour
Source: US News & World Report
“Pope Leo returns to Rome on Thursday after wrapping up an ambitious four-nation Africa tour in which he forcefully decried the direction of global leadership, denouncing despotism and war, and drew the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump. The first U.S. pope closed the nearly 18,000 km (11,185 miles) tour with a final Mass in a stadium in Equatorial Guinea, where tens of thousands began gathering in pouring rain before dawn for a last chance to see him. Leo told worshippers in a homily, his 25th speech over the 10-day tour, that the Christian message means ‘every people is set free from the slavery of evil.’ He urged them to live their faith with joy. The pope has taken on a new forceful speaking style during his time in Africa, in which he also visited Algeria, Cameroon and Angola.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-23/pope-leo-heading-back-to-rome-after-outspoken-africa-tour
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) There’s a Simple Way to End the Gerrymander Wars
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The absolute BEST way to end the gerrymander wars would be to abolish Congress (and the rest of the US government). I’m all for it, but I sense I’m in the minority on that suggestion. There’s an easier — or at least simpler — way to get it done, while still catering to the fantasy that it’s possible for a politician to ‘represent’ the rights and interests of the diverse populations who elect him or her. It’s a two-step process: First, Congress repeals the Uniform Congressional District Act. Second, each state goes from ‘single-member district’ elections to ‘at-large statewide’ elections with Ranked Choice Voting.” (04/23/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20552
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22) ChatGPT Confessed to a Crime It Couldn’t Possibly Have Committed
Source: The Intercept
by Radley Balko
“You might spend your Saturday mornings sipping coffee, attending a kids’ soccer game, or just recovering from a tough week at work. Not Paul Heaton. He recently spent a weekend persuading ChatGPT to confess to a crime it didn’t commit. … In his exchange with ChatGPT, Heaton used the Reid technique, the confrontational interrogation method first developed in the 1950s that has since been adopted by police departments all over the country. The man for whom it’s named, John Reid, published his methodology after winning acclaim for getting a man named Darrel Parker to confess to raping and murdering his own wife — an origin story with a haunting twist. It worked. … One of the problems with the Reid technique is that its primary function isn’t to gather evidence and generate leads, it’s to extract a confession from the person police already believe committed the crime.” (04/23/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/23/chatgpt-ai-false-confession-interrogation-crime/
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23) To Stop Endless War in Iran and Beyond, Congress Should Rescind the Money To Fight
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Vine
“Trump’s embrace of endless wars already has killed and injured tens of thousands, displaced millions, squandered tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, driven up prices on gas and other necessities, created a global economic crisis, and risked wider catastrophe and World War III. And don’t forget Trump’s genocidal threats to ‘wipe out’ Iranian civilization, implying a potential nuclear attack. Faced with the threat of more endless war in Iran and beyond, Congress must do everything in its power to stop Trump. One tool Congress hasn’t used is its power to immediately cut off money for wars in Iran and beyond. With constitutional authority over government spending, Congress can use its rescission power – that is, the power to rescind, or take back, money previously appropriated to government agencies.” (04/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/david-vine/2026/04/22/to-stop-endless-war-in-iran-and-beyond-congress-should-rescind-the-money-to-fight/
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24) The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thiago VS Coelho
“The Good Food Institute openly says it works with governments to advocate public investment in alternative proteins, while New Harvest says that ‘publicly-funded groups like ours’ are needed to steer cellular agriculture toward the public good. By GFI’s own 2024 policy report, governments were estimated to disburse about $560 million on alternative proteins in 2024, with cultivated meat alone drawing $84 million in public investment that year, double the previous high. In the United States, USDA already put a historic $10 million grant into Tufts’[s] National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, where the research agenda includes consumer acceptance, willingness-to-pay, scalable cell lines, serum-free media, scaffolds, and process optimization. That is not a picture of a market proving itself. It is a picture of advocates trying to socialize the cost of proving whether a market exists.” (04/23/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-food-pyramid-lab-grown-meat-and-new-moral-orthodoxy
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25) Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Is Legally Puzzling but a “Huge Win” for Patients, Suppliers, and Scientists
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s distinction between medical and recreational cannabis is hard to reconcile with the relevant scientific and statutory criteria.” (04/23/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/23/medical-marijuana-rescheduling-is-legally-puzzling-but-a-huge-win-for-patients-suppliers-and-scientists/
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26) This Is What Democracy Looks Like, and Why Our Founding Fathers Didn’t Create One
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Virginia voted, and the Democrats treated the Republicans and Independents in the state like Bill Clinton treated so many women over the years – forcing their will on everyone else. If southern and rural Virginians didn’t want to be overpowered into submission, they shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt. In an election decided by three points after last year’s Governor’s race was won by the Democrat by more than 15 points, Democrats switched the state’s Congressional district map from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats. Hitler would be proud. This is why we are a Constitutionally Limited Republic and not a democracy.” (04/23/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/04/23/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-and-why-our-founding-fathers-didnt-create-one-n2674916
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27) Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed Iran war — but he doesn’t know how
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Trudy Rubin
“In 1966, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a description of a mental bias that became known as ‘Maslow’s hammer.’ ‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, I suppose it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail,’ Maslow contended. Or, as some have reworded his theorem: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This is a good diagnosis for how President Donald Trump has trapped us all in his unnecessary war with Tehran. A war from which he can’t find a good exit.” (04/23/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/iran-war-trump-strait-hormuz-ceasefire-weak-deal-20260423.html
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28) The hidden cost of simplicity: Procurement reform’s fragmentation problem
Source: Niskanen Center
by Jacob Brown
“There’s broad bipartisan agreement that the federal government pays too much for goods and services yet procurement timelines remain far too slow. Over the past year, the Trump administration has been working on the ‘Revolutionary FAR Overhaul’ (RFO), described in an executive order as an effort to ‘create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible.’ To achieve this, the EO directs an overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency supplements so that they contain ‘only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement.’ So far, the administration has succeeded in making provisional changes to the FAR, which many agencies have adopted.” (04/23/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-hidden-cost-of-simplicity-procurement-reforms-fragmentation-problem
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29) How Iran Committed Suicide
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“How does the supposedly most fearsome regime in the violent Middle East now find itself on the verge of an utter economic and military collapse? Iran’s half-century-long deadly terrorist reputation peaked with the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel that it helped fund and coordinate. Iran’s terrorist ambitions of running the Middle East had accelerated after witnessing Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s distancing itself from Israel. Biden’s humiliation by a series of Chinese slights and the Russian invasion of Ukraine further eroded American deterrence. European appeasement was another force multiplier of Iranian hubris.” [editor’s note: And yet somehow the mighty US hasn’t decisively defeated them – TLK] (04/23/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/04/23/how-iran-committed-suicide/
-----
30) Two Cheers for Abundance Liberalism
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“This emerging school of thought has its flaws. But it’s a potentially valuable ally for libertarians and other free market advocates.” (04/23/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/04/23/two-cheers-for-abundance-liberalism/
-----
31) More green, more giggles, less crime
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“For Earth Day in 2026, the celebratory events held April 22 numbered well over 10,000 worldwide. From cleanups to teach-ins to tree planting, such activities help boost enthusiasm for caring about the environment. Ultimately, however, it is during the other days of the year that follow-through can bring those good intentions to fruition. Over decades of Earth Day celebrations, many individuals have found that a focus on environmental care in local communities can reap tangible civic and social benefits. A case in point is Philadelphia, where a long-standing project in urban greening has been linked to drops in crime. That success has led the neighboring city of Chester to trod the same path. Philadelphia’s story began with green-thumbed activists from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society seeking to recover good neighborliness, square foot by square foot.” (04/22/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0422/More-green-more-giggles-less-crime
-----
32) I was suspicious of the SPLC. I was right to be.
Source: USA Today
by Nicole Hurley
“I’ve been suspicious of the Southern Poverty Law Center for some time. The SPLC, a nonprofit founded in 1971, was built to combat hate and discrimination. The mission sounds worthy enough. But then the group began publishing its annual ‘Year in Hate and Extremism’ report, identifying hundreds – sometimes more than 1,000 – ‘hate groups’ across the United States. In 2019, it labeled Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative legal organization, a ‘hate group.’ Calling a firm that focuses on First Amendment and religious liberty cases a hate group is like calling a defense attorney a criminal for representing the accused. For many conservatives, that was a bridge too far, and it eroded their trust in the SPLC. I thought I might have been onto something. It turns out the situation could be even more serious.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/04/23/southern-poverty-law-center-indictment-unite-right-rally/89730972007/
-----
33) American “Micro-Militarism”: Military Disasters and the End of Empire
Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred McCoy
“Writing more than 2,000 years ago, the Greek historian Plutarch gave us an eloquent description of what modern historians now call ‘micro-militarism.’ When an imperial power like Athens then, or America now, is in decline, its leaders often react emotionally by mounting seemingly bold military strikes in hopes of regaining the imperial grandeur that’s slipping through their fingers. Instead of another of the great victories the empire won at its peak of power, however, such military misadventures only serve to accelerate the ongoing decline, erasing whatever aura of imperial majesty remains and revealing instead the moral rot deep inside the ruling elite. There is mounting historical evidence that America is indeed an empire in steep decline, while President Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran is becoming the sort of micro-military disaster that helped destroy successive empires over the past 2,500 years …” (04/23/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/american-micro-militarism/
-----
34) AI vs the Rent Seekers
Source: EconLog
by Max Molden
“Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations doesn’t provide a particularly optimistic picture: once your nation has been stable for a while, and may even have risen to wealth, it becomes more and more vulnerable to ‘institutional sclerosis.’ This happens because small groups are better able to overcome free-riding, resulting in their ability to effectively skew the system towards their own interests. As more and more of these groups emerge, survive and are able to reap their rents—protected from that competition which makes for general progress and growth—the overall system deteriorates. If you take Olson’s work to its logical conclusion, a very effective cure for economic stagnation is a catastrophic war. That is obviously not a desirable solution. But Olson was pointing to a real issue: the longer a society remains stable, the more it gets choked by special interest groups.” (04/23/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/ai-vs-the-rent-seekers
-----
35) Why London’s Dockless E-Bikes are Causing Chaos
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mike Salem
“As London heads toward local elections on May 7, voters will hear plenty about housing, crime and the cost of living. But on the streets, literally underfoot, a smaller, more visible issue is shaping perceptions of how well the city is run: the explosion of dockless e-bikes. What should have been a triumph of consumer choice and green innovation has instead become a daily frustration. Across the capital, rental bikes are left sprawled across pavements, obstructing pedestrians and provoking growing public irritation. For many, this looks like a failure of the market. In reality, it is the opposite.” (04/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-londons-dockless-e-bikes-are-causing-chaos/
-----
36) Un-Redistricting Virginia
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“A circuit court has ruled that Virginia’s new voter-passed congressional map, gerrymandered to give Democrats in the state a prohibitive advantage in the next congressional election, is unconstitutional.
Judge Jack Hurley, of the Circuit Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 29th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, denied a motion to stay his injunction blocking certification of the election using the new districts. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli reports that once a final order is drafted and entered, ‘it will be immediately appealed.’ If the rejiggering survives the challenge, it could be the factor that tips the balance in the House of Representatives toward the Democrats next November.” (04/23/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/23/un-redistricting-virginia/
-----
37) Iran ceasefire was just extended; real test for Washington starts now
Source: Fox News
by Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (USA, ret.)
“On Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would extend the ceasefire with Iran — with no set deadline — until Tehran’s leaders can “come up with a unified proposal.” That announcement landed hours after Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks was canceled without explanation, after Iranian officials told U.S. counterparts through Pakistani intermediaries that they would not appear at the table. Trump had said that very morning he did not want to extend. By Tuesday evening, he did. The extension may have been unavoidable. What happened in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday makes clear exactly what Washington bought.” (04/23/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/iran-ceasefire-extended-real-test-washington-starts
-----
38) No, Taxes Don’t Have a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“While taxation is coercive, economically distortive, and ultimately something to be abolished, it does not follow that one may simply opt out of the existing legal regime. As much as one might wish otherwise, there does exist — at present — a binding legal obligation to report and pay income taxes under U.S. law. This article then is a response to a recent post on Twitter by Peter Schiff, who argued that, unlike excise taxes, the Internal Revenue Code contains no provision that creates a liability to pay the income tax, rendering it effectively ‘voluntary.’ This is not a new argument. It is, in fact, one of the more persistent claims advanced by so-called ‘tax protester’ theories. And like most such claims, it depends less on the structure of the law than on a selective reading of it.” (04/23/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/no-taxes-dont-have-a-get-out-of-jail-free-card
-----
39) A New Nobel Prize for War
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“With the Middle East in flames, President Donald Trump’s desperate lobbying campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize looks ever more bizarre. Of course, his claim to have ended and prevented numerous wars is more fantasy than reality. Worse, his surprise bombing of Iran amid negotiations, twice, demonstrated that his goal is anything but peace. Moreover, his proposal for a massive military buildup with no connection to American security suggests he is preparing even more reckless wars of choice. … However, it would be a shame to disappoint someone so desperate for public acclaim. It is time to create a Nobel War Prize, to denounce rather than praise the year’s most ostentatious warmonger or warmongers. Although 2026 is far from over, Trump would be a strong favorite this year.” (04/23/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-new-nobel-prize-for-war/
-----
40) The EU still has no guts when it comes to Israel
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“Despite rampant human rights violations, European elites refuse to break pact giving Israelis access to business and over a billion euros through 2027.” (04/23/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/eu-israel-relations/
-----
41) A Delusional Trump, Backed by Israel, Drives the Iran War
Source: Common Dreams
by Jamal Kanj
“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the temporary ceasefire is the culmination of an American policy defined by strategic incoherence. At the center stands Donald Trump, whose shifting positions, confused war objectives, and conflicting actions have not only failed to ease regional tensions but have actively deepened them. Nowhere is this clearer than in Trump’s threats to blow up the whole country, including its bridges and power plants. At the same time, he touted a military ‘big day’, presenting potential war crimes as diplomatic tool, aggression as diplomacy, and destruction as leverage. Trump’s inflated, almost delusional, promises ahead of potential talks come across less as statesmanship and more as a calculated sales pitch to the American public.” (04/23/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/delusional-trump-iran-war
-----
42) Taxing Ownership
Source: Law & Liberty
by John O McGinnis
“In an AI age, wealth taxes are not merely bad tax policy. They are downright dangerous.” (04/23/26)
https://lawliberty.org/taxing-ownership/
-----
43) From Shakespeare to Smith: Why Credit Exists in Every Western Society
Source: The Daily Economy
by Iain Murray
“Credit is not an artificial construct imposed by financiers or states. It arises because modern commercial life cannot function without it.” (04/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/from-shakespeare-to-smith-why-credit-exists-in-every-western-society/
-----
44) Resist Beginnings: The Ancient Roman Maxim Behind the American Revolution
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“America was built on a foundation that constitutional violations are a deadly disease. Give government an inch – and they’ll take a few thousand miles, and never stop. And before too long, it’ll get to a place where it’s no longer a Republic, but a long slow coup. Or, as the Declaration of Independence put it, eating ‘out our substance.’ Our rights. Our money. And everything in between. The solution? The ancient Roman principle behind the American Revolution.” (04/22/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/04/22/resist-beginnings-the-ancient-roman-maxim-behind-the-american-revolution/
-----
45) The left’s “Dignity Index”: A weak attempt to disarm Republicans, and disguise its own hate
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“The latest effort to neuter conservatives and force Republicans to surrender comes from a deceptively titled device called ‘The Dignity Index.’ The ruse is fronted by Kennedy relative Tim Shriver, who appears on Fox News in the guise of a perfectly reasonable moderate Democrat, the type we all wish still existed. His pitch is for politicians to treat their opponents with respect, lower the temperature of public debate and restore civility to public life. Who could be against such laudable goals? But whom does the pitch not remind you of? President Trump, of course, with his bare-knuckled, smash-mouth, macho belligerence. Trump is the antithesis of the gentle tone Shriver is trying to elevate as the core virtue of leadership ahead of the midterms. But the dignity blather is just a fancy way of damning Trump for mean tweets.” (04/22/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/22/opinion/miranda-devine-the-lefts-dignity-index-is-a-weak-attempt-to-disarm-republicans-and-disguise-their-own-hate/
-----
46) An Unseen Consequence of the U.S. War on Iran
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“There are, of course, consequences of the U.S. war on Iran that are easy to see. The deaths and injuries of thousands of Iranians. The deaths and injuries of dozens of U.S. soldiers. The massive destruction of homes, businesses, ships, and infrastructure in Iran and nearby countries. Gasoline prices and the prices of other things soaring. All easy to see. But there are also unseen consequences of the war and, more generally, of the U.S. government’s overall foreign policy of interventionism.” (04/22/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/04/22/an-unseen-consequence-of-the-u-s-war-on-iran/
-----
47) The nanny state being pushed
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“It is hard to believe that ‘once upon a time’ labor unions were enemies of government. Fedgov and State governments both. 150 years ago, and much more recently, the FedGov and States used the Army and National Guard (Organized Militia) to suppress labor union activities. Especially strikes. … Today, to some degree, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. In Colorado, for example, we find the Regressive-controlled General Assembly (the Legislature, both upper and lower houses) pushing for government to treat labor unions like the senior house of the General Assembly. In some really stupid ways! Especially since what the unions want means government agencies snatching more power to micro-manage everyday life, and create opportunities for new government jobs (more government parasites) and fees and fines, and at the same time increase the incentives to shove campaign contributions into the pockets of politicians.” (04/22/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/04/22/the-nanny-state-being-pushed/
-----
48) California lawmakers threaten free speech regarding immigration groups
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Carolyn Iodice
“A new bill under consideration in California is facing criticism for censoring speech about immigration. Elon Musk has claimed the bill would ‘make investigating fraud illegal.’ One opponent has dubbed it the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act,’ named after the YouTuber known for filming alleged fraud at child care centers in Somali immigrant communities in Minnesota. But its sponsor says the bill simply protects immigrant organizations from threats of violence. So which is it? The bill, AB 2624, does two things. First, it allows people who’ve faced threats or violence for providing or receiving immigration services to join California’s ‘Safe at Home’ program, which allows people to keep their residential address out of state records. Second — and this is the part we’re focusing on — it limits what regular people are allowed to post online about immigrants and the people who help them.” (04/22/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/california-lawmakers-threaten-free-speech-regarding-immigration-groups
-----
49) Aftermath: Wall Street Is Lying to Itself
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Are We Still at War? I’m going to say no, not really, although the ultimate resolution is still to be determined. Donald Trump blinked again on Tuesday, announcing an indefinite extension of the cease-fire until the Iranians ‘can come up with a unified proposal’. Unnamed advisers came out later and told go-to regurgitator Barak Ravid that the open-ended cease-fire isn’t open-ended, but I don’t know who they think they’re convincing. Trump is not going to risk further damage to his rapidly deteriorating political position by greenlighting a full-scale attack. He’s had several opportunities to do so and demurred. That’s of course better than the alternative. But instead, we have an ‘end’ to the indiscriminate bombing part of the war that keeps all the economic consequences intact.” (04/23/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/23/aftermath-iran-trump-wall-street-is-lying-to-itself/
-----
50) Test-Score Growth Is the Best Metric We Have for Understanding School Performance
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Cory Koedel
“We’ve written a lot at the Show-Me Institute lately about A–F letter grades for public schools. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will soon begin assigning these grades to all schools and districts under an executive order from Governor Kehoe. Legislation to codify the order may follow, depending on how the 2026 session unfolds. A central component of these letter grades is student growth. Growth measures how much students learn over the course of a year, based on state assessments. … I’ve studied academic growth extensively and believe it is the most accurate indicator of school effectiveness we have. No other measure comes close.” (04/22/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/test-score-growth-is-the-best-metric-we-have-for-understanding-school-performance/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 04/23/26
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“The fight for privacy and free speech in the surveillance age.” (04/23/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/podcasts/so-speak-free-speech-podcast/fight-privacy-and-free-speech-surveillance-age
-----
52) The Libertarian Angle, 04/23/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Evil of Conscription.” (04/23/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVwW7itbSQ
-----
53) The Permanent Problem, episode 14
Source: Niskanen Center
“AI ‘psychology,’ with Jack Lindsey.” (04/23/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/ai-psychology-with-jack-lindsey/
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/23/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Stop The Fraud: The Government Hates Competition.” (04/23/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YxNrZEeYLQxw
-----
55) The Fifth Column, episode 554
Source: The Fifth Column
“Tucker, Totenkopf, and the Fascist Question w/ Michelle Goldberg.” (04/23/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/tucker-totenkopf-and-the-fascist
-----
56) Underthrow Podcast, 04/23/26
Source: Underthrow
“We Are Living in an Invisible Debtor’s Prison.” (04/23/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/we-are-living-in-an-invisible-debtors
-----
57) Is the West in Civilisational Decline?
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley
“[Max Rangeley talks] through different theories of the rise and fall of civilisations, and the extent to which they apply to the West’s current predicament.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/04/speech-in-budapest-is-the-west-in-civilisational-decline/
-----
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/22/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran’s IRGC Seizes Two Ships in Strait of Hormuz, Israel Kills Journalist in Lebanon, and More.” (04/22/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-n83cbCqI
-----
59) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 102
Source: National Review
“All About Gerrymandering — with Sean Trende.” (04/22/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-charles-c-w-cooke-podcast/all-about-gerrymandering-with-sean-trende/
-----
60) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/22/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski: Trump Orders Hormuz Blockade After Talks Fail — Ceasefire at Risk?” (04/22/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-lt-col-karen-kwiatkowski-trump-orders-hormuz-blockade-after-talks-fail-ceasefire-at-risk/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Standoff intensifies in Strait of Hormuz
2) It pleaseth the US crown to lighten up just a little bit on cannabis
3) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime claims it killed 12 FSB officers in drone swarm attack
4) DOJ: Soldier in Maduro abduction charged over prediction market bets on operation
5) Lebanon: Regime accuses Israeli regime of war crime after murder of journalist
6) Jeffries warns Democrats might not support FISA reauthorization if Patel remains atop FBI
7) DOJ watchdog launches probe into compliance with Epstein files law
8) UT: Four people accuse Salt Lake City council member, congressional candidate, of unwanted sexual advances
9) Germany: Son of former Iranian shah whines at European regimes to give him a country
10) Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover
11) Ukraine: Russian occupation court jails woman for buying Ukrainian war bonds
12) Turkey: Parliament passes bill to restrict social media access for under-15s
13) Scientists uncover identity of mysterious “golden orb” discovered miles underwater in 2023
14) American Airlines cuts 2026 earnings projections after surge in jet fuel
15) Maine tried zoning reform to fix its housing crisis; It’s unclear if it’s working
16) Duterte to stand trial at ICC over deadly Philippines “war on drugs”
17) UK: High Street mini-marts selling cocaine, cannabis & prescription drugs, BBC secret filming reveals
18) Senate Republicans clear go-it-alone path for ICE gang funding
19) Burgum says National Park Service botched Grand Canyon wildfire
20) Pope Leo Heading Back to Rome After Outspoken Africa Tour
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) There’s a Simple Way to End the Gerrymander Wars
22) ChatGPT Confessed to a Crime It Couldn’t Possibly Have Committed
23) To Stop Endless War in Iran and Beyond, Congress Should Rescind the Money To Fight
24) The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy
25) Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Is Legally Puzzling but a “Huge Win” for Patients, Suppliers, and Scientists
26) This Is What Democracy Looks Like, and Why Our Founding Fathers Didn’t Create One
27) Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed Iran war — but he doesn’t know how
28) The hidden cost of simplicity: Procurement reform’s fragmentation problem
29) How Iran Committed Suicide
30) Two Cheers for Abundance Liberalism
31) More green, more giggles, less crime
32) I was suspicious of the SPLC. I was right to be.
33) American “Micro-Militarism”: Military Disasters and the End of Empire
34) AI vs the Rent Seekers
35) Why London’s Dockless E-Bikes are Causing Chaos
36) Un-Redistricting Virginia
37) Iran ceasefire was just extended; real test for Washington starts now
38) No, Taxes Don’t Have a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card
39) A New Nobel Prize for War
40) The EU still has no guts when it comes to Israel
41) A Delusional Trump, Backed by Israel, Drives the Iran War
42) Taxing Ownership
43) From Shakespeare to Smith: Why Credit Exists in Every Western Society
44) Resist Beginnings: The Ancient Roman Maxim Behind the American Revolution
45) The left’s “Dignity Index”: A weak attempt to disarm Republicans, and disguise its own hate
46) An Unseen Consequence of the U.S. War on Iran
47) The nanny state being pushed
48) California lawmakers threaten free speech regarding immigration groups
49) Aftermath: Wall Street Is Lying to Itself
50) Test-Score Growth Is the Best Metric We Have for Understanding School Performance
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 04/23/26
52) The Libertarian Angle, 04/23/26
53) The Permanent Problem, episode 14
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/23/26
55) The Fifth Column, episode 554
56) Underthrow Podcast, 04/23/26
57) Is the West in Civilisational Decline?
58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/22/26
59) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 102
60) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/22/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Standoff intensifies in Strait of Hormuz
Source: WTOP News
“Tensions in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz intensified Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered the U.S. military to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats in the strait, while Iran pushed back on Trump’s claim there was a leadership rift in the Islamic Republic. … Trump also said Thursday evening that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.” (04/24/26)
https://wtop.com/national/2026/04/the-latest-standoff-intensifies-in-strait-of-hormuz-after-trump-issues-shoot-and-kill-order/
-----
2) It pleaseth the US crown to lighten up just a little bit on cannabis
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The Trump administration has moved to reclassify marijuana, more than four months after Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to move it from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. The schedule I classification meant marijuana was alongside heroin, LSD, MDMA and synthetic opioids, whereas a schedule III classification put it in the same category as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. … rescheduling will not immediately legalize marijuana or affect the sentences of those incarcerated for possession.” (04/23/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/23/trump-administration-reclassify-marijuana-schedule-iii
-----
3) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime claims it killed 12 FSB officers in drone swarm attack
Source: Independent [UK]
“Ukraine’s drone wing says it has killed at least 12 officers and injured 15 others in a strike on a command post for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi confirmed the attack yesterday in [the formerly Ukrainian region of] Donetsk, and said Ukrainian forces used FP-2 drones manufactured by the Ukrainian defence company Fire Point. He said the command post hit in the attack is responsible for sabotage operations, building intelligence networks, recruitment, carrying out terrorist attacks and arson, and coordinating Russian proxy forces.” (04/24/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-drone-strike-fsb-donetsk-putin-zelensky-b2964061.html
-----
4) DOJ: Soldier in Maduro abduction charged over prediction market bets on operation
Source: The Hill
“A U.S. Army soldier has been accused of using classified information about the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on the prediction market Polymarket, federal officials said Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg who was involved in the planning of the operation, was charged with using confidential government information for personal gain. He allegedly made more than $400,000 in profits from the wagers. … Van Dyke allegedly created an account on Polymarket on Dec. 26 and placed about $33,000 worth of bets on markets about U.S. operations in Venezuela and Maduro’s ouster between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2. The U.S. launched the operation in Venezuela early on Jan. 3, capturing Maduro and his wife. The U.S. attorney’s office also accused Van Dyke of attempting to conceal his identity as the trades drew widespread scrutiny.” (04/23/26)
https://thehill.com/business/5846393-solider-in-maduro-raid-charged-over-prediction-market-bets-on-operation-doj/
-----
5) Lebanon: Regime accuses Israeli regime of war crime after murder of journalist
Source: CBS News
“Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon that killed a journalist on Wednesday were a war crime, Lebanon’s prime minister said. A journalists’ union said rescuers were prevented from accessing the destroyed building where the reporter was left trapped beneath rubble. Amal Khalil, 43, a journalist with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, bled to death in the ruins of a building that was hit in an Israeli drone strike after Israeli forces’ gunfire prevented ambulance crews from reaching her ‘for nearly four hours,’ according to Lebanon’s Union of Journalists.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lebanon-israel-war-crime-journalist-killed-drone-strike/
-----
6) Jeffries warns Democrats might not support FISA reauthorization if Patel remains atop FBI
Source: The Hill
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is warning that House Democrats might not back an extension of the government’s warrantless spy powers as long as FBI Director Kash Patel remains atop the agency. Jeffries has long portrayed Patel as a partisan conspiracy theorist who’s unfit to be the nation’s top cop. On Thursday, he escalated those criticisms by suggesting Democrats might be ready to leverage their support for an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to secure Patel’s removal. … The remarks create what is potentially another barrier in the effort to extend FISA’s spying powers, which expire on April 30. Already, many Democrats — joined by some Republicans — are vowing to oppose the legislation unless it’s amended to include stronger privacy protections for U.S. citizens.” (04/23/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5845476-jeffries-democrats-fisa-patel/
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7) DOJ watchdog launches probe into compliance with Epstein files law
Source: CBS News
“The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said in a statement that it will ‘evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the’ Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last November. The bill required the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of becoming law, a deadline the department failed to meet. … The rolling release and repeated publishing and unpublishing of documents left survivors and members of Congress alike calling for an independent review of the department’s handling of the files. The two lawmakers who led the push to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, have also pushed for an independent review.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epstein-files-justice-department-inspector-general/
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8) UT: Four people accuse Salt Lake City council member, congressional candidate, of unwanted sexual advances
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
“Four people from Utah political circles — three of them elected officials — accuse Eva Lopez Chavez, a Salt Lake City Council member and Democratic congressional candidate, of restraining them during what they considered unwanted sexual advances. Lopez Chavez, through attorney Greg Skordas, said nothing ‘inappropriate’ occurred during her interactions with three of the people and the fourth alleged contact ‘never occurred.’ … Victoria Petro, who is Lopez Chavez’s fellow City Council member; Maggie Regier, who worked on Stan Penfold’s mayoral campaign in 2019; Hoang Nguyen, who is now a state representative; and Jen Plumb, now a state senator, described their allegations in interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune. Each person said their allegations arose in social settings before Lopez Chavez joined the City Council in 2023.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/04/22/four-women-accuse-salt-lake-city/
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9) Germany: Son of former Iranian shah whines at European regimes to give him a country
Source: Reuters
“The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year. … Demonstrations by both supporters and opponents were held in central Berlin and a person was detained after Pahlavi, who made an appearance, was spattered with some form of red liquid. Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in exile, emerged as [the US regime’s pick to lead a puppet regime] after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran and other Iranian cities last year.” (04/23/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/son-former-shah-iran-appeals-western-countries-support-2026-04-23/
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10) Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover
Source: CNN
“Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have cleared the way for CNN, HBO and Warner’s other media brands to join Paramount Skydance later this year. Shareholders ‘overwhelmingly’ voted in support of the takeover deal, WBD said after a pro forma special meeting took place on Thursday morning. The vote was anticlimactic, but still a crucial moment in the monthslong struggle for control of WBD, one of the biggest media companies in the world. Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, now has to secure regulatory approval in the United States and other countries. But company executives are optimistic that they’ll be able to complete the deal in the third quarter of the year, meaning by the end of September.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/23/media/wbd-shareholders-approve-paramount-takeover
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11) Ukraine: Russian occupation court jails woman for buying Ukrainian war bonds
Source: US News & World Report
“A woman living in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison for buying war bonds to support the Ukrainian military, the court that convicted her said on Thursday. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia District Court said the woman had used a Ukrainian mobile app to purchase bonds worth 270,080 roubles ($3,600), and had been caught by the FSB security service. It identified her only by the initial B, and said she was a Russian citizen. People living in parts of Ukraine that Russian forces have captured in more than four years of war have effectively been forced to take Russian citizenship if they want to retain access to healthcare, pensions and property rights.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-23/russian-controlled-court-jails-woman-for-buying-ukrainian-war-bonds
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12) Turkey: Parliament passes bill to restrict social media access for under-15s
Source: ABC News
“Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported. The legislation is the latest in a global trend to protect young people from dangerous online activity. Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, in a gun attack. Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack. The bill will force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.” (04/23/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/turkish-parliament-passes-bill-restrict-social-media-access-132302915
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13) Scientists uncover identity of mysterious “golden orb” discovered miles underwater in 2023
Source: Fox News
“A strange ‘golden orb’ pulled from more than 2 miles beneath the Gulf of Alaska, once rumored to be everything from an alien egg to an unknown species, has finally been identified after a yearslong scientific investigation. Researchers with NOAA and the Smithsonian announced the unusual object, first discovered in 2023 during a deep-sea expedition, is a remnant from a rarely seen giant deep-sea anemone called Relicanthus daphneae, specifically part of the organism that anchored it to the ocean floor. The discovery was made using a remotely operated vehicle exploring about 3,250 meters (over 2 miles) deep, where it encountered an odd golden structure attached to a rock. The strange, mound-shaped mass with a small opening stunned scientists, who admitted at the time they had no idea what they were looking at.” (04/23/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/science/scientists-uncover-identity-mysterious-golden-orb-discovered-miles-underwater-2023
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14) American Airlines cuts 2026 earnings projections after surge in jet fuel
Source: CNBC
“American Airlines on Thursday cut its 2026 earnings forecast, becoming the latest airline to lower its outlook after a surge in fuel costs added billions to expenses this year. American said it could post an adjusted per-share loss of 40 cents up to earnings of $1.10 a share, lower than the per-share earnings of $1.70 to $2.70 it forecast in January, though Wall Street analysts have been trimming their forecasts for the industry since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran this year. Airlines have been either cutting their full-year forecasts or holding off on further guidance because of volatile prices for jet fuel since the war started. Fuel is generally their biggest expense after labor.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/american-airlines-aal-q1-2026-earnings.html
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15) Maine tried zoning reform to fix its housing crisis; It’s unclear if it’s working
Source: SFGate
“In 2022, the Maine Legislature took a rare step and required municipalities to adjust local zoning rules in an effort to spur housing construction, a move that generated a fierce debate over state growth targets versus local control. Four years later, the State House may have finally worked out the kinks from that experiment. Municipal legal experts and town managers are hoping a new bill, L.D. 2173, signed by Gov. Janet Mills a week ago, is the last word on land use restrictions, a technical but critical piece of the housing puzzle, for a while. The bill marks the second big adjustment lawmakers have made to zoning laws since L.D. 2003, the landmark 2022 legislation that required towns to remove some regulatory barriers in order to encourage housing production. L.D. 2003 aimed to do this by eliminating single-family zoning restrictions and making it easier to build accessory dwelling units while creating support for communities to develop affordable housing.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/maine-tried-zoning-reform-to-fix-its-housing-22222480.php
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16) Duterte to stand trial at ICC over deadly Philippines “war on drugs”
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte will face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) after judges on Thursday confirmed charges of crimes against humanity over his so-called ‘war on drugs.’ Pre-trial judges ‘unanimously confirmed all the charges … against Rodrigo Roa Duterte and committed him to trial,’ the ICC said in a statement. Duterte will be the first Asian former head of state to face trial at the ICC, which prosecutes individuals for the world’s worst crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.” (04/23/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260423-ex-philippine-president-duterte-to-stand-trial-at-icc-over-deadly-war-on-drugs
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17) UK: High Street mini-marts selling cocaine, cannabis & prescription drugs, BBC secret filming reveals
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas and prescription pills are being offered for sale in mini-marts on UK High Streets, a BBC investigation can reveal. They were readily offered to our undercover researchers who secretly filmed in shops across four neighbouring West Midlands towns. One street we visited was described as ‘lawless’ by an anonymous law enforcement source. Just a few miles away, in a town where we found illegal drugs being sold in shops, legitimate businesses told us they had been intimidated by gangs – and witnessed knife and gun violence. Across the country, shopfronts are being exploited by organised criminal gangs that have gained a foothold pushing illegal drugs, say both the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI).” (04/23/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62l429w2pko
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18) Senate Republicans clear go-it-alone path for ICE gang funding
Source: Politico
“Senate Republicans green-lit their party-line plan early Thursday morning to send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement agencies in the coming years. Senators voted 50-48 to adopt a budget blueprint for legislation that could fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other agencies for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. The vote was almost entirely on party lines, with GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only lawmakers to break ranks. The vote just after 3:30 a.m. completed the first step in the GOP’s plan to approve roughly $70 billion in additional funding without help from Democrats, who have refused to fund the immigration agencies without a slate of new restrictions on how they operate.” (04/23/26)
https://archive.is/Ex9Jx
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19) Burgum says National Park Service botched Grand Canyon wildfire
Source: SFGate
“After the Dragon Bravo wildfire incinerated the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park last summer, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the visitor center and more than 100 other buildings, a looming question remained: Could the disaster have been prevented? At the center of that query was the initial fire management strategy employed by national park officials. And, confusingly, what park leaders communicated about that strategy conflicted with the park’s own social media posts. Leaders said the park used a ‘full suppression’ strategy from the beginning. But social media posts reported an initial ‘confine and contain strategy,’ which allows a fire to continue burning a defined area. In a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum weighed in on the discrepancy for the first time, affirming the information shared on the park’s social media accounts and undermining the credibility of Grand Canyon’s superintendent and park spokesperson.” (04/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/doug-burgum-grand-canyon-fire-22220798.php
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20) Pope Leo Heading Back to Rome After Outspoken Africa Tour
Source: US News & World Report
“Pope Leo returns to Rome on Thursday after wrapping up an ambitious four-nation Africa tour in which he forcefully decried the direction of global leadership, denouncing despotism and war, and drew the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump. The first U.S. pope closed the nearly 18,000 km (11,185 miles) tour with a final Mass in a stadium in Equatorial Guinea, where tens of thousands began gathering in pouring rain before dawn for a last chance to see him. Leo told worshippers in a homily, his 25th speech over the 10-day tour, that the Christian message means ‘every people is set free from the slavery of evil.’ He urged them to live their faith with joy. The pope has taken on a new forceful speaking style during his time in Africa, in which he also visited Algeria, Cameroon and Angola.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-23/pope-leo-heading-back-to-rome-after-outspoken-africa-tour
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) There’s a Simple Way to End the Gerrymander Wars
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The absolute BEST way to end the gerrymander wars would be to abolish Congress (and the rest of the US government). I’m all for it, but I sense I’m in the minority on that suggestion. There’s an easier — or at least simpler — way to get it done, while still catering to the fantasy that it’s possible for a politician to ‘represent’ the rights and interests of the diverse populations who elect him or her. It’s a two-step process: First, Congress repeals the Uniform Congressional District Act. Second, each state goes from ‘single-member district’ elections to ‘at-large statewide’ elections with Ranked Choice Voting.” (04/23/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20552
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22) ChatGPT Confessed to a Crime It Couldn’t Possibly Have Committed
Source: The Intercept
by Radley Balko
“You might spend your Saturday mornings sipping coffee, attending a kids’ soccer game, or just recovering from a tough week at work. Not Paul Heaton. He recently spent a weekend persuading ChatGPT to confess to a crime it didn’t commit. … In his exchange with ChatGPT, Heaton used the Reid technique, the confrontational interrogation method first developed in the 1950s that has since been adopted by police departments all over the country. The man for whom it’s named, John Reid, published his methodology after winning acclaim for getting a man named Darrel Parker to confess to raping and murdering his own wife — an origin story with a haunting twist. It worked. … One of the problems with the Reid technique is that its primary function isn’t to gather evidence and generate leads, it’s to extract a confession from the person police already believe committed the crime.” (04/23/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/23/chatgpt-ai-false-confession-interrogation-crime/
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23) To Stop Endless War in Iran and Beyond, Congress Should Rescind the Money To Fight
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Vine
“Trump’s embrace of endless wars already has killed and injured tens of thousands, displaced millions, squandered tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, driven up prices on gas and other necessities, created a global economic crisis, and risked wider catastrophe and World War III. And don’t forget Trump’s genocidal threats to ‘wipe out’ Iranian civilization, implying a potential nuclear attack. Faced with the threat of more endless war in Iran and beyond, Congress must do everything in its power to stop Trump. One tool Congress hasn’t used is its power to immediately cut off money for wars in Iran and beyond. With constitutional authority over government spending, Congress can use its rescission power – that is, the power to rescind, or take back, money previously appropriated to government agencies.” (04/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/david-vine/2026/04/22/to-stop-endless-war-in-iran-and-beyond-congress-should-rescind-the-money-to-fight/
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24) The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thiago VS Coelho
“The Good Food Institute openly says it works with governments to advocate public investment in alternative proteins, while New Harvest says that ‘publicly-funded groups like ours’ are needed to steer cellular agriculture toward the public good. By GFI’s own 2024 policy report, governments were estimated to disburse about $560 million on alternative proteins in 2024, with cultivated meat alone drawing $84 million in public investment that year, double the previous high. In the United States, USDA already put a historic $10 million grant into Tufts’[s] National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, where the research agenda includes consumer acceptance, willingness-to-pay, scalable cell lines, serum-free media, scaffolds, and process optimization. That is not a picture of a market proving itself. It is a picture of advocates trying to socialize the cost of proving whether a market exists.” (04/23/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-food-pyramid-lab-grown-meat-and-new-moral-orthodoxy
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25) Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Is Legally Puzzling but a “Huge Win” for Patients, Suppliers, and Scientists
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s distinction between medical and recreational cannabis is hard to reconcile with the relevant scientific and statutory criteria.” (04/23/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/23/medical-marijuana-rescheduling-is-legally-puzzling-but-a-huge-win-for-patients-suppliers-and-scientists/
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26) This Is What Democracy Looks Like, and Why Our Founding Fathers Didn’t Create One
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Virginia voted, and the Democrats treated the Republicans and Independents in the state like Bill Clinton treated so many women over the years – forcing their will on everyone else. If southern and rural Virginians didn’t want to be overpowered into submission, they shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt. In an election decided by three points after last year’s Governor’s race was won by the Democrat by more than 15 points, Democrats switched the state’s Congressional district map from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats. Hitler would be proud. This is why we are a Constitutionally Limited Republic and not a democracy.” (04/23/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/04/23/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-and-why-our-founding-fathers-didnt-create-one-n2674916
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27) Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed Iran war — but he doesn’t know how
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Trudy Rubin
“In 1966, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a description of a mental bias that became known as ‘Maslow’s hammer.’ ‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, I suppose it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail,’ Maslow contended. Or, as some have reworded his theorem: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This is a good diagnosis for how President Donald Trump has trapped us all in his unnecessary war with Tehran. A war from which he can’t find a good exit.” (04/23/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/iran-war-trump-strait-hormuz-ceasefire-weak-deal-20260423.html
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28) The hidden cost of simplicity: Procurement reform’s fragmentation problem
Source: Niskanen Center
by Jacob Brown
“There’s broad bipartisan agreement that the federal government pays too much for goods and services yet procurement timelines remain far too slow. Over the past year, the Trump administration has been working on the ‘Revolutionary FAR Overhaul’ (RFO), described in an executive order as an effort to ‘create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible.’ To achieve this, the EO directs an overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency supplements so that they contain ‘only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement.’ So far, the administration has succeeded in making provisional changes to the FAR, which many agencies have adopted.” (04/23/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-hidden-cost-of-simplicity-procurement-reforms-fragmentation-problem
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29) How Iran Committed Suicide
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“How does the supposedly most fearsome regime in the violent Middle East now find itself on the verge of an utter economic and military collapse? Iran’s half-century-long deadly terrorist reputation peaked with the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel that it helped fund and coordinate. Iran’s terrorist ambitions of running the Middle East had accelerated after witnessing Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s distancing itself from Israel. Biden’s humiliation by a series of Chinese slights and the Russian invasion of Ukraine further eroded American deterrence. European appeasement was another force multiplier of Iranian hubris.” [editor’s note: And yet somehow the mighty US hasn’t decisively defeated them – TLK] (04/23/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/04/23/how-iran-committed-suicide/
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30) Two Cheers for Abundance Liberalism
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“This emerging school of thought has its flaws. But it’s a potentially valuable ally for libertarians and other free market advocates.” (04/23/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/04/23/two-cheers-for-abundance-liberalism/
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31) More green, more giggles, less crime
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“For Earth Day in 2026, the celebratory events held April 22 numbered well over 10,000 worldwide. From cleanups to teach-ins to tree planting, such activities help boost enthusiasm for caring about the environment. Ultimately, however, it is during the other days of the year that follow-through can bring those good intentions to fruition. Over decades of Earth Day celebrations, many individuals have found that a focus on environmental care in local communities can reap tangible civic and social benefits. A case in point is Philadelphia, where a long-standing project in urban greening has been linked to drops in crime. That success has led the neighboring city of Chester to trod the same path. Philadelphia’s story began with green-thumbed activists from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society seeking to recover good neighborliness, square foot by square foot.” (04/22/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0422/More-green-more-giggles-less-crime
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32) I was suspicious of the SPLC. I was right to be.
Source: USA Today
by Nicole Hurley
“I’ve been suspicious of the Southern Poverty Law Center for some time. The SPLC, a nonprofit founded in 1971, was built to combat hate and discrimination. The mission sounds worthy enough. But then the group began publishing its annual ‘Year in Hate and Extremism’ report, identifying hundreds – sometimes more than 1,000 – ‘hate groups’ across the United States. In 2019, it labeled Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative legal organization, a ‘hate group.’ Calling a firm that focuses on First Amendment and religious liberty cases a hate group is like calling a defense attorney a criminal for representing the accused. For many conservatives, that was a bridge too far, and it eroded their trust in the SPLC. I thought I might have been onto something. It turns out the situation could be even more serious.” (04/23/26)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/04/23/southern-poverty-law-center-indictment-unite-right-rally/89730972007/
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33) American “Micro-Militarism”: Military Disasters and the End of Empire
Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred McCoy
“Writing more than 2,000 years ago, the Greek historian Plutarch gave us an eloquent description of what modern historians now call ‘micro-militarism.’ When an imperial power like Athens then, or America now, is in decline, its leaders often react emotionally by mounting seemingly bold military strikes in hopes of regaining the imperial grandeur that’s slipping through their fingers. Instead of another of the great victories the empire won at its peak of power, however, such military misadventures only serve to accelerate the ongoing decline, erasing whatever aura of imperial majesty remains and revealing instead the moral rot deep inside the ruling elite. There is mounting historical evidence that America is indeed an empire in steep decline, while President Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran is becoming the sort of micro-military disaster that helped destroy successive empires over the past 2,500 years …” (04/23/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/american-micro-militarism/
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34) AI vs the Rent Seekers
Source: EconLog
by Max Molden
“Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations doesn’t provide a particularly optimistic picture: once your nation has been stable for a while, and may even have risen to wealth, it becomes more and more vulnerable to ‘institutional sclerosis.’ This happens because small groups are better able to overcome free-riding, resulting in their ability to effectively skew the system towards their own interests. As more and more of these groups emerge, survive and are able to reap their rents—protected from that competition which makes for general progress and growth—the overall system deteriorates. If you take Olson’s work to its logical conclusion, a very effective cure for economic stagnation is a catastrophic war. That is obviously not a desirable solution. But Olson was pointing to a real issue: the longer a society remains stable, the more it gets choked by special interest groups.” (04/23/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/ai-vs-the-rent-seekers
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35) Why London’s Dockless E-Bikes are Causing Chaos
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mike Salem
“As London heads toward local elections on May 7, voters will hear plenty about housing, crime and the cost of living. But on the streets, literally underfoot, a smaller, more visible issue is shaping perceptions of how well the city is run: the explosion of dockless e-bikes. What should have been a triumph of consumer choice and green innovation has instead become a daily frustration. Across the capital, rental bikes are left sprawled across pavements, obstructing pedestrians and provoking growing public irritation. For many, this looks like a failure of the market. In reality, it is the opposite.” (04/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-londons-dockless-e-bikes-are-causing-chaos/
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36) Un-Redistricting Virginia
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“A circuit court has ruled that Virginia’s new voter-passed congressional map, gerrymandered to give Democrats in the state a prohibitive advantage in the next congressional election, is unconstitutional.
Judge Jack Hurley, of the Circuit Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 29th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, denied a motion to stay his injunction blocking certification of the election using the new districts. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli reports that once a final order is drafted and entered, ‘it will be immediately appealed.’ If the rejiggering survives the challenge, it could be the factor that tips the balance in the House of Representatives toward the Democrats next November.” (04/23/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/23/un-redistricting-virginia/
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37) Iran ceasefire was just extended; real test for Washington starts now
Source: Fox News
by Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (USA, ret.)
“On Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would extend the ceasefire with Iran — with no set deadline — until Tehran’s leaders can “come up with a unified proposal.” That announcement landed hours after Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks was canceled without explanation, after Iranian officials told U.S. counterparts through Pakistani intermediaries that they would not appear at the table. Trump had said that very morning he did not want to extend. By Tuesday evening, he did. The extension may have been unavoidable. What happened in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday makes clear exactly what Washington bought.” (04/23/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/iran-ceasefire-extended-real-test-washington-starts
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38) No, Taxes Don’t Have a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“While taxation is coercive, economically distortive, and ultimately something to be abolished, it does not follow that one may simply opt out of the existing legal regime. As much as one might wish otherwise, there does exist — at present — a binding legal obligation to report and pay income taxes under U.S. law. This article then is a response to a recent post on Twitter by Peter Schiff, who argued that, unlike excise taxes, the Internal Revenue Code contains no provision that creates a liability to pay the income tax, rendering it effectively ‘voluntary.’ This is not a new argument. It is, in fact, one of the more persistent claims advanced by so-called ‘tax protester’ theories. And like most such claims, it depends less on the structure of the law than on a selective reading of it.” (04/23/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/no-taxes-dont-have-a-get-out-of-jail-free-card
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39) A New Nobel Prize for War
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“With the Middle East in flames, President Donald Trump’s desperate lobbying campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize looks ever more bizarre. Of course, his claim to have ended and prevented numerous wars is more fantasy than reality. Worse, his surprise bombing of Iran amid negotiations, twice, demonstrated that his goal is anything but peace. Moreover, his proposal for a massive military buildup with no connection to American security suggests he is preparing even more reckless wars of choice. … However, it would be a shame to disappoint someone so desperate for public acclaim. It is time to create a Nobel War Prize, to denounce rather than praise the year’s most ostentatious warmonger or warmongers. Although 2026 is far from over, Trump would be a strong favorite this year.” (04/23/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-new-nobel-prize-for-war/
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40) The EU still has no guts when it comes to Israel
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Eldar Mamedov
“Despite rampant human rights violations, European elites refuse to break pact giving Israelis access to business and over a billion euros through 2027.” (04/23/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/eu-israel-relations/
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41) A Delusional Trump, Backed by Israel, Drives the Iran War
Source: Common Dreams
by Jamal Kanj
“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the temporary ceasefire is the culmination of an American policy defined by strategic incoherence. At the center stands Donald Trump, whose shifting positions, confused war objectives, and conflicting actions have not only failed to ease regional tensions but have actively deepened them. Nowhere is this clearer than in Trump’s threats to blow up the whole country, including its bridges and power plants. At the same time, he touted a military ‘big day’, presenting potential war crimes as diplomatic tool, aggression as diplomacy, and destruction as leverage. Trump’s inflated, almost delusional, promises ahead of potential talks come across less as statesmanship and more as a calculated sales pitch to the American public.” (04/23/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/delusional-trump-iran-war
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42) Taxing Ownership
Source: Law & Liberty
by John O McGinnis
“In an AI age, wealth taxes are not merely bad tax policy. They are downright dangerous.” (04/23/26)
https://lawliberty.org/taxing-ownership/
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43) From Shakespeare to Smith: Why Credit Exists in Every Western Society
Source: The Daily Economy
by Iain Murray
“Credit is not an artificial construct imposed by financiers or states. It arises because modern commercial life cannot function without it.” (04/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/from-shakespeare-to-smith-why-credit-exists-in-every-western-society/
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44) Resist Beginnings: The Ancient Roman Maxim Behind the American Revolution
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“America was built on a foundation that constitutional violations are a deadly disease. Give government an inch – and they’ll take a few thousand miles, and never stop. And before too long, it’ll get to a place where it’s no longer a Republic, but a long slow coup. Or, as the Declaration of Independence put it, eating ‘out our substance.’ Our rights. Our money. And everything in between. The solution? The ancient Roman principle behind the American Revolution.” (04/22/26)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/04/22/resist-beginnings-the-ancient-roman-maxim-behind-the-american-revolution/
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45) The left’s “Dignity Index”: A weak attempt to disarm Republicans, and disguise its own hate
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine
“The latest effort to neuter conservatives and force Republicans to surrender comes from a deceptively titled device called ‘The Dignity Index.’ The ruse is fronted by Kennedy relative Tim Shriver, who appears on Fox News in the guise of a perfectly reasonable moderate Democrat, the type we all wish still existed. His pitch is for politicians to treat their opponents with respect, lower the temperature of public debate and restore civility to public life. Who could be against such laudable goals? But whom does the pitch not remind you of? President Trump, of course, with his bare-knuckled, smash-mouth, macho belligerence. Trump is the antithesis of the gentle tone Shriver is trying to elevate as the core virtue of leadership ahead of the midterms. But the dignity blather is just a fancy way of damning Trump for mean tweets.” (04/22/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/22/opinion/miranda-devine-the-lefts-dignity-index-is-a-weak-attempt-to-disarm-republicans-and-disguise-their-own-hate/
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46) An Unseen Consequence of the U.S. War on Iran
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“There are, of course, consequences of the U.S. war on Iran that are easy to see. The deaths and injuries of thousands of Iranians. The deaths and injuries of dozens of U.S. soldiers. The massive destruction of homes, businesses, ships, and infrastructure in Iran and nearby countries. Gasoline prices and the prices of other things soaring. All easy to see. But there are also unseen consequences of the war and, more generally, of the U.S. government’s overall foreign policy of interventionism.” (04/22/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/04/22/an-unseen-consequence-of-the-u-s-war-on-iran/
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47) The nanny state being pushed
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“It is hard to believe that ‘once upon a time’ labor unions were enemies of government. Fedgov and State governments both. 150 years ago, and much more recently, the FedGov and States used the Army and National Guard (Organized Militia) to suppress labor union activities. Especially strikes. … Today, to some degree, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. In Colorado, for example, we find the Regressive-controlled General Assembly (the Legislature, both upper and lower houses) pushing for government to treat labor unions like the senior house of the General Assembly. In some really stupid ways! Especially since what the unions want means government agencies snatching more power to micro-manage everyday life, and create opportunities for new government jobs (more government parasites) and fees and fines, and at the same time increase the incentives to shove campaign contributions into the pockets of politicians.” (04/22/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/04/22/the-nanny-state-being-pushed/
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48) California lawmakers threaten free speech regarding immigration groups
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Carolyn Iodice
“A new bill under consideration in California is facing criticism for censoring speech about immigration. Elon Musk has claimed the bill would ‘make investigating fraud illegal.’ One opponent has dubbed it the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act,’ named after the YouTuber known for filming alleged fraud at child care centers in Somali immigrant communities in Minnesota. But its sponsor says the bill simply protects immigrant organizations from threats of violence. So which is it? The bill, AB 2624, does two things. First, it allows people who’ve faced threats or violence for providing or receiving immigration services to join California’s ‘Safe at Home’ program, which allows people to keep their residential address out of state records. Second — and this is the part we’re focusing on — it limits what regular people are allowed to post online about immigrants and the people who help them.” (04/22/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/california-lawmakers-threaten-free-speech-regarding-immigration-groups
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49) Aftermath: Wall Street Is Lying to Itself
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Are We Still at War? I’m going to say no, not really, although the ultimate resolution is still to be determined. Donald Trump blinked again on Tuesday, announcing an indefinite extension of the cease-fire until the Iranians ‘can come up with a unified proposal’. Unnamed advisers came out later and told go-to regurgitator Barak Ravid that the open-ended cease-fire isn’t open-ended, but I don’t know who they think they’re convincing. Trump is not going to risk further damage to his rapidly deteriorating political position by greenlighting a full-scale attack. He’s had several opportunities to do so and demurred. That’s of course better than the alternative. But instead, we have an ‘end’ to the indiscriminate bombing part of the war that keeps all the economic consequences intact.” (04/23/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/23/aftermath-iran-trump-wall-street-is-lying-to-itself/
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50) Test-Score Growth Is the Best Metric We Have for Understanding School Performance
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Cory Koedel
“We’ve written a lot at the Show-Me Institute lately about A–F letter grades for public schools. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will soon begin assigning these grades to all schools and districts under an executive order from Governor Kehoe. Legislation to codify the order may follow, depending on how the 2026 session unfolds. A central component of these letter grades is student growth. Growth measures how much students learn over the course of a year, based on state assessments. … I’ve studied academic growth extensively and believe it is the most accurate indicator of school effectiveness we have. No other measure comes close.” (04/22/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/test-score-growth-is-the-best-metric-we-have-for-understanding-school-performance/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 04/23/26
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“The fight for privacy and free speech in the surveillance age.” (04/23/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/podcasts/so-speak-free-speech-podcast/fight-privacy-and-free-speech-surveillance-age
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52) The Libertarian Angle, 04/23/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Evil of Conscription.” (04/23/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVwW7itbSQ
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53) The Permanent Problem, episode 14
Source: Niskanen Center
“AI ‘psychology,’ with Jack Lindsey.” (04/23/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/ai-psychology-with-jack-lindsey/
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/23/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Stop The Fraud: The Government Hates Competition.” (04/23/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YxNrZEeYLQxw
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55) The Fifth Column, episode 554
Source: The Fifth Column
“Tucker, Totenkopf, and the Fascist Question w/ Michelle Goldberg.” (04/23/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/tucker-totenkopf-and-the-fascist
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56) Underthrow Podcast, 04/23/26
Source: Underthrow
“We Are Living in an Invisible Debtor’s Prison.” (04/23/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/we-are-living-in-an-invisible-debtors
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57) Is the West in Civilisational Decline?
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley
“[Max Rangeley talks] through different theories of the rise and fall of civilisations, and the extent to which they apply to the West’s current predicament.” (04/23/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/04/speech-in-budapest-is-the-west-in-civilisational-decline/
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58) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/22/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran’s IRGC Seizes Two Ships in Strait of Hormuz, Israel Kills Journalist in Lebanon, and More.” (04/22/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-n83cbCqI
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59) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 102
Source: National Review
“All About Gerrymandering — with Sean Trende.” (04/22/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-charles-c-w-cooke-podcast/all-about-gerrymandering-with-sean-trende/
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60) The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/22/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski: Trump Orders Hormuz Blockade After Talks Fail — Ceasefire at Risk?” (04/22/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-lt-col-karen-kwiatkowski-trump-orders-hormuz-blockade-after-talks-fail-ceasefire-at-risk/
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