10/15 -- Palestine: Israeli regime to open Gaza's Rafah crossing for aid; What Hamburger Helper Knows and GDP Misses
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Thomas L. Knapp
Oct 15, 2025, 6:25:33 AM (14 days ago) Oct 15
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 10/15/25
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Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Palestine: Israeli regime to open Gaza’s Rafah crossing for aid
2) US regime revokes visas of people it deems insufficiently worshipful of Charlie Kirk
3) Madagascar: Military takes power, says colonel
4) Trump claims responsibility for six more Caribbean Sea murders
5) SCOTUS rejects Section 230 test in Grindr case
6) Ukraine: Zelenskyy strips Odesa mayor of citizenship
7) SCOTUS turns away Colorado “parental rights” dispute
8) Italy: Explosion kills three Carabinieri during raid
9) Spacex launches successful Starship Flight 11
10) Bangladesh: Fire in chemical warehouse, garment factory leaves at least nine dead
11) State Department employee allegedly removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials
12) Instagram says it’s overhauling how teens experience the app, making it more “PG-13”
13) With three weeks until Election Day, Nation’s only two 2025 races for governor rocked
14) Cameroon: Opposition challenger claims victory in presidential election
15) CA: Newsom vetoes bills that could have saved Californians $550 million per year
16) Goldman Sachs: US consumers will pay 55% of Trump tax hikes
17) Report: Indicted Letitia James is housing “fugitive” grandniece in her Virginia home
18) Norway: Venezuelan regime to close embassay after opposition leader wins Nobel Prize
19) CA: Incarcerated firefighters just got a nearly 700% raise
20) FL: Resident shoots armed intruder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) What Hamburger Helper Knows and GDP Misses
22) Elections Have Consequences: Tariffs and Bailouts Edition
23) Trump, the Murderer-in-Chief
24) Beware: The Zombie War on Terror is upon us
25) With executive orders, who needs Congress anymore?
26) NJ governor’s race could show GOP how to win in midterms
27) The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward
28) Palestine before 1948
29) A Huge Airbase with a Small Country Attached to It
30) Money supply not corporate profits the key driver of price increases
31) Trump has done the impossible in Gaza, and the media still sneer
32) What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?
33) Trump Keeps Admitting That He Is Bought & Owned By The World’s Richest Israeli
34) Why Democrats are losing the culture war
35) How Civil Rights Activists use the Fourteenth Amendment to Bypass the First Amendment
36) The Tariffs Trump Promised, But Didn’t Deliver, Didn’t Hurt the Economy
37) Who Will Democrats Hate Next Now That the Genocide Is Over?
38) The Welfare and Warfare State
39) China’s Long Reach
40) Has the Supreme Court Abandoned Originalism?
41) What Does Terrorism Actually Mean? Maybe Orwell Can Help
42) Letting People Do What They Do Best
43) The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize
44) Welcome to pre-Beta version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
45) Latest FBI Spying Makes Watergate Look Trivial
46) Forgotten Foundation: Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
47) 2025 Nobel: Growth Through Technology and Culture
48) Trump’s new order could redefine protests as “domestic terrorism”
49) Why China Can Collapse the US With One Decree
50) Israel Must Not Turn Into Sparta
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 10/14/25
52) Underthrow Podcast, 10/14/25
53) Rising, 10/14/25
54) The Bryan Hyde Show, 10/14/25
55) Advisory Opinions, 10/14/25
56) The Good Fight, 10/14/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/14/25
58) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 95
59) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 143
60) System Update, episode 530
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
Hey, everyone … we had a “zero-dollar day” yesterday — our year-und fundraiser total remains, as of 5:30am on Wednesday, at $522.50.
We’re about 20% of the way to our goal: Once we reach $2,750.50, reader GL will “match funds” to get us to $5,501.
The quicker we get there, the quicker I get to stop hectoring you about money entirely for the rest of the year and mostly until NEXT October, so please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Our “mini-goal” for this morning was $165.13 in donations, getting us to the 25% point($687.63). We obviously missed that, so how about TOMORROW morning? That URL again:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
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1) Palestine: Israeli regime to open Gaza’s Rafah crossing for aid
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Israel will allow aid to flow into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday after first threatening to keep it closed if Hamas did not speed up the return of remains of deceased hostages, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday morning. It said the turnaround came after Hamas handed over the remains of four more hostages late on Tuesday, meaning that eight bodies have now been returned from the 28 that had remained in Gaza.” (10/15/25)
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-open-gaza-aid-after-more-hostage-bodies-return/live-74358512
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2) US regime revokes visas of people it deems insufficiently worshipful of Charlie Kirk
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The US Department of State says it has revoked the visas of six foreigners over remarks they made on social media about Charlie Kirk …. The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,’ the department said in a post on X on Tuesday evening in the US. The post was followed by a list of screenshots and critical remarks from six social media accounts, which the State Department said belonged to individuals from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico. ‘An Argentine national said that Kirk ‘devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric’ and deserves to burn in hell. Visa revoked,’ the State Department tweeted along with a screenshot that had the username blacked out.” (10/15/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/us-revokes-six-visas-over-charlie-kirk-death-amid-social-media-crackdown
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3) Madagascar: Military takes power, says colonel
Source: CNN
“Madagascar’s military has taken charge of the Indian Ocean island, an army colonel said on Tuesday, after President Andry Rajoelina fled abroad during a standoff with youth-led protesters and security forces. ‘We have taken the power,’ Col. Michael Randrianirina, who led a mutiny of soldiers joining anti-government Gen Z demonstrators, said on national radio. Randrianirina added that the military was dissolving all institutions except the lower house of parliament or National Assembly, which voted to impeach Rajoelina minutes earlier. In a day of turmoil for the nation off east Africa, the 51-year-old leader had sought to dissolve the assembly by decree. Despite flying out on a French military jet, Rajoelina is refusing to step down in defiance of weeks of Gen Z protests demanding his resignation and widespread defections in the army.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/africa/madagascar-president-dissolves-national-assembly-intl
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4) Trump claims responsibility for six more Caribbean Sea murders
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, [murdering] six people aboard. ‘The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists [sic] aboard the vessel were [murdered] in the strike,’ Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. ‘No U.S. [murderers] were harmed.’ … last week, an attempt in the US Senate to prevent further US [murders] on alleged drug-carrying boats off the coast of Venezuela without congressional approval failed, after nearly all Republicans and Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted against the measure.” (10/14/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/14/trump-six-killed-us-strike-boat-venezuela
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5) SCOTUS rejects Section 230 test in Grindr case
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will not consider whether the LGBTQ dating app Grindr could be held liable for matching a teenager with adult men who sexually assaulted him. It means the justices won’t wade into a new fight over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives [sic] tech firms broad immunity from legal challenges over user-generated content. John Doe, the anonymous petitioner, wrote in his appeal to the justices that he was 15 years old when he signed up for Grindr, representing he was an adult. Over four days in April 2019, the app matched him with four adult men, who each raped him on consecutive days, he alleges.” [editor’s note: Section 230 doesn’t “give tech firms broad immunity.” They are not the publishers of content published by others whether Section 230 says so or not – TLK] (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/5554408-grindr-supreme-court-liability/
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6) Ukraine: Zelenskyy strips Odesa mayor of citizenship
Source: Straits Times [Singapore]
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy revoked the citizenship of Odesa mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov on Tuesday, which Ukraine’s security service said was due to Trukhanov also being a Russian citizen. Trukhanov denied having Russian citizenship and said he would take his case to court. Ukraine prohibits its citizens from holding Russian citizenship …. ‘I now have evidence that I could not, either physically or legally, obtain Russian citizenship or passports,’ Trukhanov told public broadcaster Suspilne. Ukraine’s SBU security service said the decision to strip Trukhanov’s citizenship had been made thanks to evidence it had provided that Trukhanov had a valid Russian passport.” (10/14/25)
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/Zelenskiy-strips-Odesa-mayor-of-Ukrainian-citizenship
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7) SCOTUS turns away Colorado “parental rights” dispute
Source: CBS News
“The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid to revive a lawsuit brought by two Colorado families who alleged their parental rights were violated when their children attended school-sponsored club meetings that included discussions of gender identity and sexuality and were allegedly discouraged from telling their parents about it. … The families challenged policies implemented by the Poudre School District R-1 in Wellington, Colorado, which they say urge district employees not to disclose information about a students’ gender identity, including to parents.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-turns-away-parental-rights-dispute-brought-by-colorado-families/
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8) Italy: Explosion kills three Carabinieri during raid
Source: Reuters
“An explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy during a police raid killed three Carabinieri officers and injured 12 others, Italy’s fire service said on X on Tuesday. The explosion occurred in Castel d’Azzano, near the city of Verona, overnight and caused the farmhouse to collapse, firefighters said. A woman was also injured and seven firefighters were taken to hospital for checks, they added. Italian media reported that the officers were trying to carry out an eviction order and that the initial indications were that gas canisters had exploded in the building. … Corriere della Sera reported that three siblings lived in the building and had been resisting attempts to evict them for several years.” (10/14/25)
https://archive.is/cs47v
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9) Spacex launches successful Starship Flight 11
Source: USA Today
“In a year marked early on by a string of explosive failures, SpaceX’s Starship is on track to end 2025 on a high note. The commercial spaceflight company, founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, launched the gargantuan rocket on a second successful uncrewed test flight in a row …. The launch system vehicle’s lower stage, known as Super Heavy, ignited all of its 33 engines …. Starship’s upper stage, the vehicle where crew and cargo would one day ride, separated within a few minutes of liftoff to fire its own six Raptor engines and continue on its own flight …. the vehicle … deployed mock Starlink internet satellites for the second time in a row and relighted a Raptor engine in space for the third time ever in a necessary maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground.” (10/14/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/14/starship-launch-megarocket-spacex/86619615007/
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10) Bangladesh: Fire in chemical warehouse, garment factory leaves at least nine dead
Source: ABC News
“A fire at a garment factory and a chemical warehouse in Bangladesh’s capital has left at least nine people dead and several others injured. Fire official Talha bin Jashim said Tuesday’s blaze happened in Dhaka’s Mirpur area and is believed to have started on the third floor of the seven-story garment building. He said rescuers have recovered at least nine bodies and several other people have been injured. The number of casualties could increase, he said. … Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment industry after China, and the sector has employed about 4 million workers, mostly women.” (10/14/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-chemical-warehouse-garment-factory-bangladesh-capital-leaves-126502600
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11) State Department employee allegedly removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials
Source: Fox News
“A State Department employee is accused of allegedly removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials going back to 2023. The Justice Department said Ashley Tellis is also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense (now Department of War), and is considered a subject matter expert on India and South Asian affairs.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/state-department-employee-allegedly-removed-classified-docs-met-chinese-officials
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12) Instagram says it’s overhauling how teens experience the app, making it more “PG-13”
Source: NBC News
“Instagram said Tuesday that it would overhaul its approach to teenagers’ accounts and try to crack down on their access to objectionable content after a firestorm of bad publicity over how teens use the social media app. Instagram, which is owned by Meta, announced a series of changes that it said were aimed at making teens’ experience on Instagram similar to viewing PG-13 movies, with equivalent restrictions on sexualized content and other adult material. One new restriction that Instagram said it would adopt is called age-gating: If an Instagram account regularly shares content that is age-inappropriate — for example, content related to alcohol or links to pornographic websites — then, the company said, it will block all teen accounts from being able to see or chat with that account.” (10/14/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/instagram-says-making-app-pg-13-teens-rcna237350
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13) With three weeks until Election Day, Nation’s only two 2025 races for governor rocked
Source: Fox News
“With Election Day 2025 fast approaching, the only two states this year holding showdowns for governor have been jolted by October surprises. In Virginia, explosive revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race that the GOP is aiming to leverage up and down the ballot shook up the race for governor, forcing Democratic Party nominee former Rep. Abigail Spanberger back on defense in a race where most polls indicated her enjoying a lead over Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. And in New Jersey, a couple of weeks after the controversy over Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s Naval Academy records sent shock waves through her gubernatorial battle with Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, the race was rocked again last week after her allegations that Ciattarelli was ‘complicit’ with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nations-only-two-races-governor-year-get-rocks-three-weeks-go-until-election-day
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14) Cameroon: Opposition challenger claims victory in presidential election
Source: Le Monde [France]
“Cameroon’s opposition challenger Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed election victory on Tuesday, October 14, against incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 43 years. However, official results for the weekend vote are not expected for two weeks. ‘Our victory is clear. It must be respected,’ Tchiroma declared in a post on Facebook. He urged the government to ‘accept the truth of the ballot box’ or ‘plunge the country into turmoil’ and promised to publish detailed results by region. … In the 2018 presidential election, opposition challenger Maurice Kamto declared himself the winner the day after the vote. He was subsequently arrested and his supporters’ rallies were dispersed with tear gas and water cannon, with dozens arrested.” (10/14/25)
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2025/10/14/cameroon-opposition-challenger-issa-tchiroma-bakary-claims-victory-in-presidential-election_6746408_124.html
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15) CA: Newsom vetoes bills that could have saved Californians $550 million per year
Source: SFGate
“In August 2020, thousands of Californians endured rolling blackouts due to extreme heat that stressed the state’s energy grid. Since then, efforts to prevent energy shut-offs like these have intensified, particularly in the face of increasing extreme weather events resulting from climate change. But one viable, growing solution just took a major hit after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a number of bills that would have expanded California’s ability to grow its virtual power plant system. Virtual power plants, or VPPs, are exactly what they sound like. Instead of drawing power from a traditional power plant that exists in a static location, VPPs generate power across a variety of sources from various locations, including rooftop solar panels, home batteries and smart thermostats. Public utilities and private companies manage these energy resources, and consumers can get compensation for participating and sending energy back to the grid.” (10/14/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/newsom-vetoes-bills-saved-californians-550-million-21093209.php
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16) Goldman Sachs: US consumers will pay 55% of Trump tax hikes
Source: United Press International
“U.S. consumers will likely pay for more than half the cost of tariffs this year through higher prices, according to a new Goldman Sachs analysis. Goldman Sachs economists predicted Sunday that U.S. companies will shoulder 22% of the tariffs, implemented by President Donald Trump six months ago, with foreign exporters taking an 18% hit by cutting prices. … Goldman Sachs'[s] recent analysis did not take into account Trump’s threat Friday to impose a 100% tariff on [American buyers of] goods from China. Those tariffs are set to take effect on Nov. 1, and will increase levies from 30% after Beijing’s Commerce Ministry announced tightened export restrictions on rare earth items and materials.” (10/13/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/10/13/consumers-55-Trump-tariffs-goldman-sachs/8051760404249/
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17) Report: Indicted Letitia James is housing “fugitive” grandniece in her Virginia home
Source: New York Post
“Indicted New York state Attorney General Letitia James has housed a ‘fugitive’ relative in her Virginia house for five years, according to reports. The under-fire prosecutor’s grandniece, Nakia Thompson, has been living with her three children in James’[s] three-bedroom property in Norfolk since 2020. It has been revealed that Thompson is officially listed as an ‘absconder’ who is wanted by authorities in Forsyth County, North Carolina, for failing to finish her probation, court documents seen by the Daily Mail reveal. ‘Ms. Thompson was sentenced to probation for misdemeanor convictions for assault and battery and trespassing, and has willfully avoided probation supervision,’ Keith Acree from the North Carolina Department of Corrections told the Daily Mail.” [editor’s note: Seems like just being a Dem AG (NY, VA, ??) is denying “no one is above the law” – SAT] [additonal editor’s note: That’s true of pretty much any AG or other politician – TLK] (10/14/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/14/us-news/indicted-letitia-james-is-housing-fugitive-grandniece-in-her-virginia-home/
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18) Norway: Venezuelan regime to close embassay after opposition leader wins Nobel Prize
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Venezuela says it will close its embassy in Norway, just days after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was announced the winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. A Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the Venezuelan embassy did not give a reason for shutting its doors for its decision on Monday. … Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since 2024, was declared the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday for her ‘extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.’ She was barred from standing in last year’s election [sic] in Venezuela, which was won [sic] by President Nicolas Maduro in a widely disputed result.” (10/14/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/14/venezuela-to-close-norway-embassy-after-opposition-leader-wins-nobel-prize
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19) CA: Incarcerated firefighters just got a nearly 700% raise
Source: SFGate
“More than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters were sent to Southern California in January to fight four different wildfires. As the Palisades Fire ran up a hillside, one strike team saved the life of a resident who was still at his home. ‘These firefighters, man, I cannot say enough about what they did for me,’ the resident later told a video crew. In the aftermath of the flames, incarcerated firefighters went door-to-door looking for residents who needed help, food or water. … Many of these firefighters were convicted of crimes committed in Los Angeles …. The state was paying them $1 an hour to fight active wildfires, plus a daily rate that ranges from $5.80 and $10.24. … On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that gives incarcerated firefighters a major wage increase. The new law will pay fire crews from county jails and state prisons $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage, while they’re fighting active wildfires.” (10/14/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/incarcerated-firefighters-wage-increase-21099221.php
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20) FL: Resident shoots armed intruder
Source: Miami Herald
“A resident shot and wounded an armed man who broke into his Miami Gardens house Monday morning in what police are calling a home invasion. The man shot was one of three men who entered the residence at 3035 NW 204th Terrace around 11:45 a.m., police said. Armed with a rifle, he opened the bedroom door before the resident grabbed a gun and fired, striking him in the arm, according to police. The other two men fled. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics took the wounded man to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital.” (10/13/25)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article312488591.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) What Hamburger Helper Knows and GDP Misses
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert
“Plenty of indicators suggest that things are and have been fine in the American economy for a long, long time. And yet, for years we heard about the ‘vibecession’ where almost every economic indicator was pointing toward a great economy but consumers were inexplicably acting as if we were in a recession. The problem wasn’t with the consumers and, paradoxically, the problem was not with the fancy government statistics. The problem was with the talking heads and their refusal to ask why consumer behavior might be more telling than aggregate indicators. To help cut through the noise, we can look to other, less obvious sources combined with economic theory. The New York Times, for example, reports that Hamburger Helper sales have risen 14.5 percent just since the start of the year.” (10/14/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-hamburger-helper-knows-and-gdp-misses/
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22) Elections Have Consequences: Tariffs and Bailouts Edition
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Argentine farmers grow lots of soybeans. Argentine farmers also export lots of soybeans. Chinese customers buy lots of soybeans. They used to buy lots of soybeans grown by US farmers. Now they buy soybeans grown by Argentine farmers instead. Oh, did I mention that one reason Milei needs a bailout is that he recently lowered the export tax on (and therefore his government’s revenues from) Argentine soybeans? So now you and I get to pay MORE taxes and HIGHER prices so that American farmers get a bailout, Javier Milei gets a bailout, and Argentine farmers can sell more soybeans to Chinese customers at LOWER prices and pay LOWER taxes. Insult, meet injury.” (10/14/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20079
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23) Trump, the Murderer-in-Chief
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Trump has civilians murdered on his orders, and he enjoys doing it. The deaths of these civilians please him. He will keep ordering more executions unless he is stopped and removed from office. Trump’s tyrannical abuse of power is a threat to the American people, and it is also a threat to international peace. It is probably just a matter of time before he escalates with strikes inside Venezuela. It may not be long before he turns his sights on other countries in the region. The president arrogates to himself the right to order the deaths of anyone he chooses to call a terrorist, and he routinely labels almost everyone he doesn’t like a terrorist.” (10/14/25)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/trump-the-murderer-in-chief
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24) Beware: The Zombie War on Terror is upon us
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Branko Marcetic
“There is good news and bad news for critics of the United States’[s] bloated 21st century war machine. The good news: the ‘war on terror’ is dead. The bad news? It seems to have become a part of the walking dead — a kind of zombie war on terror that is continuing and radically expanding, even as the fears and threats that originally motivated all its excesses are seemingly vanishing from the American psyche. Consider the following facts: despite the public release only a few years ago of evidence showing the Saudi government’s direct complicity in the crime of September 11, 2001 — the central, instigating act of terrorism that drove and justified every aspect of the ‘war on terror’ that followed — associating with or even taking money from that same government appears to carry no stigma.” (10/14/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/zombie-war-on-terror/
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25) With executive orders, who needs Congress anymore?
Source: The Hill
by Bill Press
“Seriously, when was the last time you remember Congress passing any significant legislation? Monumental achievements like Medicare, the Clean Air Act, the Voting Rights Act, or the Civil Rights Act, aren’t possible anymore. This 119th Congress, like the last few sessions, is incapable of probing, debating, and resolving such weighty issues. It can’t even manage its most basic job of keeping the government running. Sadly, history will show that nobody seized Congress or stole away its authority. Its wounds are self-inflicted. Through laziness, lack of courage, or sheer party loyalty over what’s best for the nation, members of Congress gradually ceded their powers, starting with the power to declare war.” (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/5553266-congress-losing-power-president/
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26) NJ governor’s race could show GOP how to win in midterms
Source: Fox Newsm
by Liz Peek
“The midterm elections are a little over a year away. To continue pushing the Trump agenda forward, Republicans must keep control of the House and the Senate. Democrats want to make the midterms a referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump. The GOP should counter by making the elections, instead, about the ongoing need to reverse former President Joe Biden’s disastrous excess spending, open borders, climate obsession and soft-on-crime policies. It will take two years to drain the swamp; Republicans will need two more to replant it. In New Jersey’s governor’s race, Republican Jack Ciattarelli is doing just that, and is closing the gap with Democrat U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill. The ‘Jersey Guy’ may be creating the template for a GOP victory next November.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-jersey-governors-race-could-show-gop-how-win-midterms
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27) The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Martin Kulldorff
“Scientific journals have had enormous positive impact on the development of science, but in some ways, they are now hampering rather than enhancing open scientific discourse. After reviewing the history and current problems with journals, a new academic publishing model is proposed. It embraces open access and open rigorous peer review, it rewards reviewers for their important work with honoraria and public acknowledgement, and it allows scientists to publish their research in a timely and efficient manner without wasting valuable scientists’ time and resources.” (10/14/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-scientific-journals-and-a-way-forward/
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28) Palestine before 1948
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“[T]he borders of present-day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, taken together, trace almost exactly the outer boundaries of the British Mandate for Palestine, as established in 1922, meaning that Palestine as a political entity long predates the 1948 creation of the State of Israel. This means that when Britain governed Palestine, all of those three major present-day parts (Gaza, West Bank, Israel) were one political unit, under one legal system, governed from Jerusalem.” (10/14/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/palestine-before-1948
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29) A Huge Airbase with a Small Country Attached to It
Source: TomDispatch
by Juan Cole
“Donald Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s nomination of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his hands already crimson with the blood of innocent Iraqis, to run post-war Gaza, brings to mind a distant era when London sent its politicians out to be viceroys in its global colonial domains. Consider Blair’s proposed appointment, made (of course!) without consulting any Palestinians, a clear signal that the Middle East has entered a second era of Western imperialism. Other than Palestine, which has already been subjected to classic settler colonialism, our current neo-imperial moment is characterized by the American use of Israel as its base in the Middle East and by the employment of air power to subdue any challengers.” (10/14/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/a-huge-airbase-with-a-small-country-attached-to-it/
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30) Money supply not corporate profits the key driver of price increases
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“Some commentators are of the view that an important driver in the increases of the prices of goods is businesses that push prices higher in order to secure higher profits. According to the Ground Work Collaborative think tank report, Prices are simply the sum of costs and corporate profits. While rising costs of inputs can drive up what Americans pay at the gas pump or the grocery store, corporate profits can just as easily. The report, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during the second and the third quarter of 2023. But does it make any sense that profits cause price inflation? We suggest that businesses cannot raise prices to secure higher profits without the buyers’ agreement.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/10/money-supply-not-corporate-profits-the-key-driver-of-price-increases/
-----
31) Trump has done the impossible in Gaza, and the media still sneer
Source: New York Post
by Andrea Peyser
“G-d bless President Trump. The leader of the free world has achieved the seemingly impossible. He has freed from the clutches of terrorists in Gaza the last remaining Jewish hostages who’ve endured more than two years of extreme physical and psychological torture. The president of the United States has brought to heel Hamas, a group of murderous madmen bent on destroying not only the captives’ beloved nation of Israel, but an entire people: innocent Jews. … There is joy throughout Israel and around the world, but also sorrow and excruciating pain. In exchange for the release of a few dozen people, including the remains of murdered hostages, Hamas ghouls are getting back some 2,000 of their own prisoners held in Israeli custody, some of them cold-blooded killers.” (10/13/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/13/opinion/trump-has-done-the-impossible-in-gaza-and-the-media-still-sneers/
-----
32) What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?
Source: Niskanen Center
by Dan Davies
“And as with science research grant administration, so with quite a lot of the modern regulatory state. It is a hard thing to accept that you might be part of a system that impedes overall prosperity, or that your primary income stream may come from acting as a type of bridge troll representing some legally privileged party that must be paid off to get out of people’s way. Rent extraction is, of course, what the other guy does; even hereditary landlords prefer to construct a story about themselves as custodians of the shared patrimony. But in the nicest and mildest possible terms, Klein and Thompson are trying to deliver the same message in 2025 as Teles and Lindsay were in 2017: The system isn’t working as intended. There are too few people rowing and too many pretending to steer.” (10/14/25)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/what-happens-when-chinese-resolve
-----
33) Trump Keeps Admitting That He Is Bought & Owned By The World’s Richest Israeli
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s bizarre how little mainstream attention is given to the fact that the president of the United States has repeatedly confessed to being bought and owned by the world’s richest Israeli, especially given how intensely fixated his political opposition was on the possibility that he was compromised by a foreign government during his first term. During a speech before the Israeli parliament on Monday, President Trump once again publicly admitted that he has implemented Israel-friendly policies at the behest of Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, this time adding that he believes Adelson favors Israel over the United States. … Sheldon Adelson reportedly gave Trump and the Republicans over $424 million in campaign funding from 2016 up until his death in 2021. His widow Miriam continued her husband’s legacy and poured a further $100 million into Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.” (10/14/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/14/trump-keeps-admitting-that-he-is-bought-and-owned-by-the-worlds-richest-israeli/
-----
34) Why Democrats are losing the culture war
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“The more Democrats and Republicans fight about trans people, the less we demand action on issues that actually materially impact most Americans. The great thing about the culture war for people in power is that no matter which party wins, everyday Americans lose.” (10/14/25)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/why-democrats-are-losing-the-culture
-----
35) How Civil Rights Activists use the Fourteenth Amendment to Bypass the First Amendment
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“A federal court in Virginia recently ruled that the name of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, who is regarded as a great hero by many Americans, violates the free speech rights of black students. … The judge’s reasoning was that where a school is named after a Confederate hero, families who consider Confederate history offensive have a cause of action against the school board for the violation of their First Amendment right to free speech because school names and symbols are ‘compelled speech.’ … the Fourteenth Amendment bypasses the First Amendment, in cases involving complaints that the free speech rights of some (expressing Confederate heritage) violate the protection from compelled speech ‘as incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment’ for civil rights groups demanding the equal protection of the law.” (10/14/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-civil-rights-activists-use-fourteenth-amendment-bypass-first-amendment
-----
36) The Tariffs Trump Promised, But Didn’t Deliver, Didn’t Hurt the Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“A threatened tariff that is never implemented does not hurt the economy as much as a threatened tariff that is actually implemented. That simple point seems to have eluded Matthew Lynn, a financial columnist whose Washington Post column’s title told readers, ‘Economists were wrong about tariffs. They need to figure out why.’ While I agree that economists do tend to over-react to tariffs, and oversell the benefits of lowering them, the simple reason economists were wrong is that the tariffs Trump threatened on April 2, ‘Liberation Day,’ were never implemented. The tariffs Trump promised us on April 2 averaged well over 20 percent. The current nominal effective tariff rate is 17.9 percent …. this is the rate we would be paying if companies actually paid the tariff rates Trump puts down on paper for a specific country and item. But the actual rate that companies end up paying is often much less than this.” (10/14/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/14/the-tariffs-trump-promised-but-didnt-deliver-didnt-hurt-the-economy/
-----
37) Who Will Democrats Hate Next Now That the Genocide Is Over?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“We have a ceasefire in Israel (and make no mistake, there is no country called ‘Palestine,’ at least not yet), so the question comes up: who will Democrats hate next? They’ve hated Jews for so long that their anti-Semitism will continue; it’s a part of their DNA. But there won’t be anything Jews will be doing for the next little while that will be chant-worthy, so what is a progressive activist to do? Since dating or showering are out of the question, shifting their hate to other targets is pretty much all there is. But where? White people. The old, trusted target is always at the ready for hate. White people, especially straight white men, are the worst, right? (10/14/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/10/14/who-will-democrats-hate-next-now-that-the-genocide-is-over-n2664904
-----
38) The Welfare and Warfare State
Source: Law & Liberty
by Christopher Coyne
“In 2022, then-President Joseph Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that gives the president the authority to direct domestic industry in the name of national defense, to increase the supply of baby formula available to Americans. Three years later, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and associated products in the name of America’s national security. How did baby formula and kitchen cabinets come to be considered as crucial parts of America’s security? Andrew Preston’s important book, Total Defense, provides an answer to this question.” (10/14/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-welfare-and-warfare-state/
-----
39) China’s Long Reach
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“We have known for years that China’s Communists were tyrants; responsible for arguably a hundred million deaths due to murder, torture and starvation; subjugating Tibet; harvesting organs from political prisoners; placing more than a million Uyghurs in concentration camps; canceling all political rights in Hong Kong. These totalitarians also threaten to invade Taiwan and lay claim, ridiculously, to 90 percent of the South China Sea … which they are policing. Then we discovered the Chinese had opened police stations in the United States and other countries to harass and silence Chinese dissidents who had managed to escape to our shores. Now, it is hardly a surprise that the CCP has intruded into our electrical grids and water systems, while buying up farmland near American military bases.” (10/14/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/14/chinas-long-reach/
-----
40) Has the Supreme Court Abandoned Originalism?
Source: The New Republic
by Matt Ford
“The right-wing majority has veered hard in the direction of unitary executive theory — and a schism with conservative legal scholars is starting to widen.” (10/14/25)
https://archive.is/VivHA
-----
41) What Does Terrorism Actually Mean? Maybe Orwell Can Help
Source: Common Dreams
by Mark Milinich
“When activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla were being held in Ktziot prison, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir staged a photo op taunting them and saying, ‘I was proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters, whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves the conditions of terrorists: the conditions in Ktziot prison.’ This requires a little unpacking. First, Ben Gvir’s claim that the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), and the Conscience and Thousand Madleens flotilla that followed a week later, support terrorism requires a bit of jiujitsu. When Israel drops 2,000-pound dumb bombs on hospitals and defenseless people, they always insist they are actually targeting the hidden Hamas fighters in tunnels beneath the visible injury and death of people on the surface. They make a distinction between the terrorist below ground and the ‘collateral damage’ above.” (10/14/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-terrorism-orwell
-----
42) Letting People Do What They Do Best
Source: The Dispatch
by Norbert J Michel
“Because we Americans value our self-reliance, we can be skeptical about free trade. A common line of thinking goes like this: Buying things made in other countries will result in fewer American jobs. And letting foreigners produce the things we really need seems like an obvious security risk. As for trade deficits with other countries, those can’t be good because deficits are negative and signal a loss. Even worse, it means foreigners will invest in the U.S. and own assets here — another security risk. A good starting point for understanding why trade is beneficial is that countries don’t trade with countries. People in different places trade with other people, and that’s an important distinction. When governments restrict trade, it means that they limit people’s freedom to buy what they need and their freedom to produce what they’re best at producing.” (10/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/comparative-advantage-specialization-free-trade-explained/
-----
43) The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“When it comes to destroying your brand, Norwegian Nobel Committee is the Bud Lite of peace prizes. After all, back in 2009 they gave the Peace Prize to a President Barack Obama who then went on to bomb at least seven countries, set the Middle East on fire, and even conduct drone strikes on American citizens! Other awardees have had similarly suspicious records as peacemakers. They even gave a Peace Prize to the likes of Henry Kissinger. This year has proven to be no different. Last week the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 Peace Prize would go to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. Machado has a long history in the Venezuelan opposition including support for and participation in the US-backed, 2002 coup against then-president Hugo Chavez.” (10/14/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2025/10/13/the-nobel-war-is-peace-prize/
-----
44) Welcome to pre-Beta version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Quite a few people are writing about the various dangers of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or AI. (In our humble opinion, as poorly named as the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ or calling the guy who killed the South ‘Honest Abe.’ (Hints: it wasn’t holy, it definitely was not Roman, and had no resemblance to an empire. And even by cop standards, Honest Abe didn’t stay bought.) Events in the last week or so bring those warnings about danger to people, jobs, liberty. freedom, and a sound coinage to mind. They also remind us of Douglas Adams’[s] fantastic radio, television, book, and movie series.” (10/13/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/10/13/welcome-to-pre-beta-version-of-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/
-----
45) Latest FBI Spying Makes Watergate Look Trivial
Source: The Federalist
by Hans Mahncke
“In 1972, a small team of operatives connected to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee’s offices in the Watergate complex to install listening devices. To this day, there is no conclusive evidence that Nixon personally ordered (or even knew of) the break-in beforehand. Yet Watergate shaped American political consciousness for decades. It gave the world a permanent suffix for scandal and became the ultimate symbol of abuse of power, a crisis so severe that it culminated in the only resignation of a U.S. president to preempt removal from office. Fast forward 50 years, and what has come to light under the Biden administration dwarfs the clumsy efforts of Nixon’s campaign operatives. According to a newly released document from Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-IA] the FBI secretly monitored the phone records of at least eight sitting Republican senators.” (10/13/25)
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/13/the-latest-fbi-spying-makes-watergate-look-trivial/
-----
46) Forgotten Foundation: Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“‘To these grievous acts and measures Americans cannot submit.’ On October 14, 1774, the First Continental Congress drew its line in the sand. They met that fall to confront the Coercive Acts – Parliament’s brutal retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. They had a decision: submit to tyranny, or resist. Their answer was the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress. It is one of the most important, and most forgotten, documents of the American Revolution, providing a foundation for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.” (10/14/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/10/13/forgotten-foundation-declaration-and-resolves-of-the-first-continental-congress/
-----
47) 2025 Nobel: Growth Through Technology and Culture
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“One of the big mysteries of human history is the so-called ‘hockey-stick of prosperity.’ That is, the fact that, for much of human history, standards of living were virtually unchanged. Very little separated the Roman citizen in 1AD from the British citizen in 1700. But, starting in the 1700s, standards of living skyrocketed. … Nothing like this had happened before, and it kept happening. Even the most optimistic economists at the time had trouble explaining it. Enter Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt. Collectively, their work helped explain why this growth happened, why it happened where it did, and how it is sustainable.” (10/13/25)
https://www.econlib.org/2025-nobel-mokyr-aghion-howitt
-----
48) Trump’s new order could redefine protests as “domestic terrorism”
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jason M Blazakis
“President Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ was never really about antifa. It was about building a template for repression. Now, with his latest order on ‘Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,’ the blueprint is clear: free expression, political dissent and municipal autonomy are in the crosshairs. … History offers warnings. Governments that criminalize opposition rarely stop at the margins. In Turkey, the label of ‘terrorist’ has been used to decimate civil society, shutter newspapers and jail academics. In Russia, counterextremism laws have become blunt instruments for crushing democracy. We must be honest: America is inching down that path.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/sfDsD
-----
49) Why China Can Collapse the US With One Decree
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“When Donald Trump reacted to China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals (a group of 17 chemical elements used in almost all electronics) by threatening a new 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods, Wall Street investors who had yawned at most of his erratic announcements for six months finally took notice. It was the same stock-tanking pressure that led Trump to climb down from his Liberation Day tariffs; sure enough, by Sunday, the TACO (Trump always chickens out) vibes started kicking in. ‘I have a great relationship with President Xi … he’s a great leader for their country, and I think we’ll get it set,’ Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way to Israel. ‘Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!’ he exclaimed on Truth Social. Next thing you know he’ll be apologizing in Mandarin like John Cena.” (10/14/25)
https://prospect.org/world/2025-10-14-china-trump-tariffs-rare-earth-minerals/
-----
50) Israel Must Not Turn Into Sparta
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“[A] chill went down my spine when I read the text of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘super-Sparta’ speech in mid-September where he claimed that Israel had been driven into a state of isolation on the world stage and would need to adapt by embracing that isolation, by ‘adapting to an economy with autarkic characteristics’ and by becoming a ‘super-Sparta,’ producing its own weapons and economic necessities and generally ignoring the outside world. In particular, Netanyahu singled out Europe, arguing that Muslim migration had led to European countries developing an ‘Islamist agenda’ that was intrinsically anti-Zionist. Another way to put it was that Netanyahu was adopting a ‘Masada Mindset.’ The overwhelming sense of the speech was a belief that Israel, and Jews, have an utterly singular fate.” (10/13/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/now-israel-must-choose
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 10/14/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Jacob shows how U.S. officials use massive chaos, much of which they incite, as a way to justify the exercise of omnipotent, tyrannical powers.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1pgW0LXqCo
-----
52) Underthrow Podcast, 10/14/25
Source: Underthrow
“Ten Rules for Radical Innovators.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BBKFrv0J1w
-----
53) Rising, 10/14/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers his case to give Donald Trump a Nobel Peace Prize after successfully implementing the first phase of a peace deal that, on Monday, led to the release of the last remaining hostages from the October 7th, 2023 massacre.” (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5554230-rising-october-14-2025/
-----
54) The Bryan Hyde Show, 10/14/25
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos is my guest and we’re talking about what is happening to our money supply as well as what’s going on with precious metals.” (10/14/25)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-ba4kv-19931b2
-----
55) Advisory Opinions, 10/14/25
Source: The Dispatch
“The Future of Free Speech.” (10/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-future-of-free-speech/
-----
56) The Good Fight, 10/14/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“The Good Fight Club: Gaza Ceasefire, U.S. Government Shutdown, and America’s Slouch Towards Autocracy.” (10/14/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-good-fight-club-8
-----
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/14/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Speaks To Israeli Knesset, Attends Summit in Egypt as Israel and Hamas conduct Swap, and More.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Labu5wwY1iY
-----
58) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 95
Source: National Review
“The Unalloyed Case for Free Markets — with Dominic Pino.” (10/13/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-charles-c-w-cooke-podcast/the-unalloyed-case-for-free-markets-with-dominic-pino/
-----
59) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 143
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Free Ian Freeman with Mark Edge.” (10/13/25)
https://rumble.com/v7085j0-ep143-free-ian-freeman-with-mark-edge-gracearchy-with-jim-babka.html
-----
60) System Update, episode 530
Source: System Update
“Prof. John Mearsheimer on Trump’s Knesset Speech, the Israel/Hamas Ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine, and More.” (10/13/25)
https://rumble.com/v709j7m-system-update-show-530.html
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Today's Freedom News:
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
1) Palestine: Israeli regime to open Gaza’s Rafah crossing for aid
2) US regime revokes visas of people it deems insufficiently worshipful of Charlie Kirk
3) Madagascar: Military takes power, says colonel
4) Trump claims responsibility for six more Caribbean Sea murders
5) SCOTUS rejects Section 230 test in Grindr case
6) Ukraine: Zelenskyy strips Odesa mayor of citizenship
7) SCOTUS turns away Colorado “parental rights” dispute
8) Italy: Explosion kills three Carabinieri during raid
9) Spacex launches successful Starship Flight 11
10) Bangladesh: Fire in chemical warehouse, garment factory leaves at least nine dead
11) State Department employee allegedly removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials
12) Instagram says it’s overhauling how teens experience the app, making it more “PG-13”
13) With three weeks until Election Day, Nation’s only two 2025 races for governor rocked
14) Cameroon: Opposition challenger claims victory in presidential election
15) CA: Newsom vetoes bills that could have saved Californians $550 million per year
16) Goldman Sachs: US consumers will pay 55% of Trump tax hikes
17) Report: Indicted Letitia James is housing “fugitive” grandniece in her Virginia home
18) Norway: Venezuelan regime to close embassay after opposition leader wins Nobel Prize
19) CA: Incarcerated firefighters just got a nearly 700% raise
20) FL: Resident shoots armed intruder
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) What Hamburger Helper Knows and GDP Misses
22) Elections Have Consequences: Tariffs and Bailouts Edition
23) Trump, the Murderer-in-Chief
24) Beware: The Zombie War on Terror is upon us
25) With executive orders, who needs Congress anymore?
26) NJ governor’s race could show GOP how to win in midterms
27) The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward
28) Palestine before 1948
29) A Huge Airbase with a Small Country Attached to It
30) Money supply not corporate profits the key driver of price increases
31) Trump has done the impossible in Gaza, and the media still sneer
32) What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?
33) Trump Keeps Admitting That He Is Bought & Owned By The World’s Richest Israeli
34) Why Democrats are losing the culture war
35) How Civil Rights Activists use the Fourteenth Amendment to Bypass the First Amendment
36) The Tariffs Trump Promised, But Didn’t Deliver, Didn’t Hurt the Economy
37) Who Will Democrats Hate Next Now That the Genocide Is Over?
38) The Welfare and Warfare State
39) China’s Long Reach
40) Has the Supreme Court Abandoned Originalism?
41) What Does Terrorism Actually Mean? Maybe Orwell Can Help
42) Letting People Do What They Do Best
43) The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize
44) Welcome to pre-Beta version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
45) Latest FBI Spying Makes Watergate Look Trivial
46) Forgotten Foundation: Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
47) 2025 Nobel: Growth Through Technology and Culture
48) Trump’s new order could redefine protests as “domestic terrorism”
49) Why China Can Collapse the US With One Decree
50) Israel Must Not Turn Into Sparta
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Trump Watch, 10/14/25
52) Underthrow Podcast, 10/14/25
53) Rising, 10/14/25
54) The Bryan Hyde Show, 10/14/25
55) Advisory Opinions, 10/14/25
56) The Good Fight, 10/14/25
57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/14/25
58) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 95
59) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 143
60) System Update, episode 530
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
0) Year-End Fundraiser Update
Hey, everyone … we had a “zero-dollar day” yesterday — our year-und fundraiser total remains, as of 5:30am on Wednesday, at $522.50.
We’re about 20% of the way to our goal: Once we reach $2,750.50, reader GL will “match funds” to get us to $5,501.
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Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
-----
1) Palestine: Israeli regime to open Gaza’s Rafah crossing for aid
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Israel will allow aid to flow into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday after first threatening to keep it closed if Hamas did not speed up the return of remains of deceased hostages, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday morning. It said the turnaround came after Hamas handed over the remains of four more hostages late on Tuesday, meaning that eight bodies have now been returned from the 28 that had remained in Gaza.” (10/15/25)
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-open-gaza-aid-after-more-hostage-bodies-return/live-74358512
-----
2) US regime revokes visas of people it deems insufficiently worshipful of Charlie Kirk
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The US Department of State says it has revoked the visas of six foreigners over remarks they made on social media about Charlie Kirk …. The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,’ the department said in a post on X on Tuesday evening in the US. The post was followed by a list of screenshots and critical remarks from six social media accounts, which the State Department said belonged to individuals from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico. ‘An Argentine national said that Kirk ‘devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric’ and deserves to burn in hell. Visa revoked,’ the State Department tweeted along with a screenshot that had the username blacked out.” (10/15/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/us-revokes-six-visas-over-charlie-kirk-death-amid-social-media-crackdown
-----
3) Madagascar: Military takes power, says colonel
Source: CNN
“Madagascar’s military has taken charge of the Indian Ocean island, an army colonel said on Tuesday, after President Andry Rajoelina fled abroad during a standoff with youth-led protesters and security forces. ‘We have taken the power,’ Col. Michael Randrianirina, who led a mutiny of soldiers joining anti-government Gen Z demonstrators, said on national radio. Randrianirina added that the military was dissolving all institutions except the lower house of parliament or National Assembly, which voted to impeach Rajoelina minutes earlier. In a day of turmoil for the nation off east Africa, the 51-year-old leader had sought to dissolve the assembly by decree. Despite flying out on a French military jet, Rajoelina is refusing to step down in defiance of weeks of Gen Z protests demanding his resignation and widespread defections in the army.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/africa/madagascar-president-dissolves-national-assembly-intl
-----
4) Trump claims responsibility for six more Caribbean Sea murders
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, [murdering] six people aboard. ‘The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists [sic] aboard the vessel were [murdered] in the strike,’ Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. ‘No U.S. [murderers] were harmed.’ … last week, an attempt in the US Senate to prevent further US [murders] on alleged drug-carrying boats off the coast of Venezuela without congressional approval failed, after nearly all Republicans and Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted against the measure.” (10/14/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/14/trump-six-killed-us-strike-boat-venezuela
-----
5) SCOTUS rejects Section 230 test in Grindr case
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will not consider whether the LGBTQ dating app Grindr could be held liable for matching a teenager with adult men who sexually assaulted him. It means the justices won’t wade into a new fight over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives [sic] tech firms broad immunity from legal challenges over user-generated content. John Doe, the anonymous petitioner, wrote in his appeal to the justices that he was 15 years old when he signed up for Grindr, representing he was an adult. Over four days in April 2019, the app matched him with four adult men, who each raped him on consecutive days, he alleges.” [editor’s note: Section 230 doesn’t “give tech firms broad immunity.” They are not the publishers of content published by others whether Section 230 says so or not – TLK] (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/5554408-grindr-supreme-court-liability/
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6) Ukraine: Zelenskyy strips Odesa mayor of citizenship
Source: Straits Times [Singapore]
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy revoked the citizenship of Odesa mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov on Tuesday, which Ukraine’s security service said was due to Trukhanov also being a Russian citizen. Trukhanov denied having Russian citizenship and said he would take his case to court. Ukraine prohibits its citizens from holding Russian citizenship …. ‘I now have evidence that I could not, either physically or legally, obtain Russian citizenship or passports,’ Trukhanov told public broadcaster Suspilne. Ukraine’s SBU security service said the decision to strip Trukhanov’s citizenship had been made thanks to evidence it had provided that Trukhanov had a valid Russian passport.” (10/14/25)
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/Zelenskiy-strips-Odesa-mayor-of-Ukrainian-citizenship
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7) SCOTUS turns away Colorado “parental rights” dispute
Source: CBS News
“The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid to revive a lawsuit brought by two Colorado families who alleged their parental rights were violated when their children attended school-sponsored club meetings that included discussions of gender identity and sexuality and were allegedly discouraged from telling their parents about it. … The families challenged policies implemented by the Poudre School District R-1 in Wellington, Colorado, which they say urge district employees not to disclose information about a students’ gender identity, including to parents.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-turns-away-parental-rights-dispute-brought-by-colorado-families/
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8) Italy: Explosion kills three Carabinieri during raid
Source: Reuters
“An explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy during a police raid killed three Carabinieri officers and injured 12 others, Italy’s fire service said on X on Tuesday. The explosion occurred in Castel d’Azzano, near the city of Verona, overnight and caused the farmhouse to collapse, firefighters said. A woman was also injured and seven firefighters were taken to hospital for checks, they added. Italian media reported that the officers were trying to carry out an eviction order and that the initial indications were that gas canisters had exploded in the building. … Corriere della Sera reported that three siblings lived in the building and had been resisting attempts to evict them for several years.” (10/14/25)
https://archive.is/cs47v
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9) Spacex launches successful Starship Flight 11
Source: USA Today
“In a year marked early on by a string of explosive failures, SpaceX’s Starship is on track to end 2025 on a high note. The commercial spaceflight company, founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, launched the gargantuan rocket on a second successful uncrewed test flight in a row …. The launch system vehicle’s lower stage, known as Super Heavy, ignited all of its 33 engines …. Starship’s upper stage, the vehicle where crew and cargo would one day ride, separated within a few minutes of liftoff to fire its own six Raptor engines and continue on its own flight …. the vehicle … deployed mock Starlink internet satellites for the second time in a row and relighted a Raptor engine in space for the third time ever in a necessary maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground.” (10/14/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/14/starship-launch-megarocket-spacex/86619615007/
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10) Bangladesh: Fire in chemical warehouse, garment factory leaves at least nine dead
Source: ABC News
“A fire at a garment factory and a chemical warehouse in Bangladesh’s capital has left at least nine people dead and several others injured. Fire official Talha bin Jashim said Tuesday’s blaze happened in Dhaka’s Mirpur area and is believed to have started on the third floor of the seven-story garment building. He said rescuers have recovered at least nine bodies and several other people have been injured. The number of casualties could increase, he said. … Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment industry after China, and the sector has employed about 4 million workers, mostly women.” (10/14/25)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-chemical-warehouse-garment-factory-bangladesh-capital-leaves-126502600
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11) State Department employee allegedly removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials
Source: Fox News
“A State Department employee is accused of allegedly removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials going back to 2023. The Justice Department said Ashley Tellis is also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense (now Department of War), and is considered a subject matter expert on India and South Asian affairs.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/state-department-employee-allegedly-removed-classified-docs-met-chinese-officials
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12) Instagram says it’s overhauling how teens experience the app, making it more “PG-13”
Source: NBC News
“Instagram said Tuesday that it would overhaul its approach to teenagers’ accounts and try to crack down on their access to objectionable content after a firestorm of bad publicity over how teens use the social media app. Instagram, which is owned by Meta, announced a series of changes that it said were aimed at making teens’ experience on Instagram similar to viewing PG-13 movies, with equivalent restrictions on sexualized content and other adult material. One new restriction that Instagram said it would adopt is called age-gating: If an Instagram account regularly shares content that is age-inappropriate — for example, content related to alcohol or links to pornographic websites — then, the company said, it will block all teen accounts from being able to see or chat with that account.” (10/14/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/instagram-says-making-app-pg-13-teens-rcna237350
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13) With three weeks until Election Day, Nation’s only two 2025 races for governor rocked
Source: Fox News
“With Election Day 2025 fast approaching, the only two states this year holding showdowns for governor have been jolted by October surprises. In Virginia, explosive revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race that the GOP is aiming to leverage up and down the ballot shook up the race for governor, forcing Democratic Party nominee former Rep. Abigail Spanberger back on defense in a race where most polls indicated her enjoying a lead over Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. And in New Jersey, a couple of weeks after the controversy over Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s Naval Academy records sent shock waves through her gubernatorial battle with Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, the race was rocked again last week after her allegations that Ciattarelli was ‘complicit’ with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nations-only-two-races-governor-year-get-rocks-three-weeks-go-until-election-day
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14) Cameroon: Opposition challenger claims victory in presidential election
Source: Le Monde [France]
“Cameroon’s opposition challenger Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed election victory on Tuesday, October 14, against incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 43 years. However, official results for the weekend vote are not expected for two weeks. ‘Our victory is clear. It must be respected,’ Tchiroma declared in a post on Facebook. He urged the government to ‘accept the truth of the ballot box’ or ‘plunge the country into turmoil’ and promised to publish detailed results by region. … In the 2018 presidential election, opposition challenger Maurice Kamto declared himself the winner the day after the vote. He was subsequently arrested and his supporters’ rallies were dispersed with tear gas and water cannon, with dozens arrested.” (10/14/25)
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2025/10/14/cameroon-opposition-challenger-issa-tchiroma-bakary-claims-victory-in-presidential-election_6746408_124.html
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15) CA: Newsom vetoes bills that could have saved Californians $550 million per year
Source: SFGate
“In August 2020, thousands of Californians endured rolling blackouts due to extreme heat that stressed the state’s energy grid. Since then, efforts to prevent energy shut-offs like these have intensified, particularly in the face of increasing extreme weather events resulting from climate change. But one viable, growing solution just took a major hit after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a number of bills that would have expanded California’s ability to grow its virtual power plant system. Virtual power plants, or VPPs, are exactly what they sound like. Instead of drawing power from a traditional power plant that exists in a static location, VPPs generate power across a variety of sources from various locations, including rooftop solar panels, home batteries and smart thermostats. Public utilities and private companies manage these energy resources, and consumers can get compensation for participating and sending energy back to the grid.” (10/14/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/newsom-vetoes-bills-saved-californians-550-million-21093209.php
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16) Goldman Sachs: US consumers will pay 55% of Trump tax hikes
Source: United Press International
“U.S. consumers will likely pay for more than half the cost of tariffs this year through higher prices, according to a new Goldman Sachs analysis. Goldman Sachs economists predicted Sunday that U.S. companies will shoulder 22% of the tariffs, implemented by President Donald Trump six months ago, with foreign exporters taking an 18% hit by cutting prices. … Goldman Sachs'[s] recent analysis did not take into account Trump’s threat Friday to impose a 100% tariff on [American buyers of] goods from China. Those tariffs are set to take effect on Nov. 1, and will increase levies from 30% after Beijing’s Commerce Ministry announced tightened export restrictions on rare earth items and materials.” (10/13/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/10/13/consumers-55-Trump-tariffs-goldman-sachs/8051760404249/
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17) Report: Indicted Letitia James is housing “fugitive” grandniece in her Virginia home
Source: New York Post
“Indicted New York state Attorney General Letitia James has housed a ‘fugitive’ relative in her Virginia house for five years, according to reports. The under-fire prosecutor’s grandniece, Nakia Thompson, has been living with her three children in James’[s] three-bedroom property in Norfolk since 2020. It has been revealed that Thompson is officially listed as an ‘absconder’ who is wanted by authorities in Forsyth County, North Carolina, for failing to finish her probation, court documents seen by the Daily Mail reveal. ‘Ms. Thompson was sentenced to probation for misdemeanor convictions for assault and battery and trespassing, and has willfully avoided probation supervision,’ Keith Acree from the North Carolina Department of Corrections told the Daily Mail.” [editor’s note: Seems like just being a Dem AG (NY, VA, ??) is denying “no one is above the law” – SAT] [additonal editor’s note: That’s true of pretty much any AG or other politician – TLK] (10/14/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/14/us-news/indicted-letitia-james-is-housing-fugitive-grandniece-in-her-virginia-home/
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18) Norway: Venezuelan regime to close embassay after opposition leader wins Nobel Prize
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Venezuela says it will close its embassy in Norway, just days after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was announced the winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. A Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the Venezuelan embassy did not give a reason for shutting its doors for its decision on Monday. … Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since 2024, was declared the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday for her ‘extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.’ She was barred from standing in last year’s election [sic] in Venezuela, which was won [sic] by President Nicolas Maduro in a widely disputed result.” (10/14/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/14/venezuela-to-close-norway-embassy-after-opposition-leader-wins-nobel-prize
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19) CA: Incarcerated firefighters just got a nearly 700% raise
Source: SFGate
“More than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters were sent to Southern California in January to fight four different wildfires. As the Palisades Fire ran up a hillside, one strike team saved the life of a resident who was still at his home. ‘These firefighters, man, I cannot say enough about what they did for me,’ the resident later told a video crew. In the aftermath of the flames, incarcerated firefighters went door-to-door looking for residents who needed help, food or water. … Many of these firefighters were convicted of crimes committed in Los Angeles …. The state was paying them $1 an hour to fight active wildfires, plus a daily rate that ranges from $5.80 and $10.24. … On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that gives incarcerated firefighters a major wage increase. The new law will pay fire crews from county jails and state prisons $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage, while they’re fighting active wildfires.” (10/14/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/incarcerated-firefighters-wage-increase-21099221.php
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20) FL: Resident shoots armed intruder
Source: Miami Herald
“A resident shot and wounded an armed man who broke into his Miami Gardens house Monday morning in what police are calling a home invasion. The man shot was one of three men who entered the residence at 3035 NW 204th Terrace around 11:45 a.m., police said. Armed with a rifle, he opened the bedroom door before the resident grabbed a gun and fired, striking him in the arm, according to police. The other two men fled. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics took the wounded man to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital.” (10/13/25)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article312488591.html
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) What Hamburger Helper Knows and GDP Misses
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert
“Plenty of indicators suggest that things are and have been fine in the American economy for a long, long time. And yet, for years we heard about the ‘vibecession’ where almost every economic indicator was pointing toward a great economy but consumers were inexplicably acting as if we were in a recession. The problem wasn’t with the consumers and, paradoxically, the problem was not with the fancy government statistics. The problem was with the talking heads and their refusal to ask why consumer behavior might be more telling than aggregate indicators. To help cut through the noise, we can look to other, less obvious sources combined with economic theory. The New York Times, for example, reports that Hamburger Helper sales have risen 14.5 percent just since the start of the year.” (10/14/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-hamburger-helper-knows-and-gdp-misses/
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22) Elections Have Consequences: Tariffs and Bailouts Edition
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Argentine farmers grow lots of soybeans. Argentine farmers also export lots of soybeans. Chinese customers buy lots of soybeans. They used to buy lots of soybeans grown by US farmers. Now they buy soybeans grown by Argentine farmers instead. Oh, did I mention that one reason Milei needs a bailout is that he recently lowered the export tax on (and therefore his government’s revenues from) Argentine soybeans? So now you and I get to pay MORE taxes and HIGHER prices so that American farmers get a bailout, Javier Milei gets a bailout, and Argentine farmers can sell more soybeans to Chinese customers at LOWER prices and pay LOWER taxes. Insult, meet injury.” (10/14/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20079
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23) Trump, the Murderer-in-Chief
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Trump has civilians murdered on his orders, and he enjoys doing it. The deaths of these civilians please him. He will keep ordering more executions unless he is stopped and removed from office. Trump’s tyrannical abuse of power is a threat to the American people, and it is also a threat to international peace. It is probably just a matter of time before he escalates with strikes inside Venezuela. It may not be long before he turns his sights on other countries in the region. The president arrogates to himself the right to order the deaths of anyone he chooses to call a terrorist, and he routinely labels almost everyone he doesn’t like a terrorist.” (10/14/25)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/trump-the-murderer-in-chief
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24) Beware: The Zombie War on Terror is upon us
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Branko Marcetic
“There is good news and bad news for critics of the United States’[s] bloated 21st century war machine. The good news: the ‘war on terror’ is dead. The bad news? It seems to have become a part of the walking dead — a kind of zombie war on terror that is continuing and radically expanding, even as the fears and threats that originally motivated all its excesses are seemingly vanishing from the American psyche. Consider the following facts: despite the public release only a few years ago of evidence showing the Saudi government’s direct complicity in the crime of September 11, 2001 — the central, instigating act of terrorism that drove and justified every aspect of the ‘war on terror’ that followed — associating with or even taking money from that same government appears to carry no stigma.” (10/14/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/zombie-war-on-terror/
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25) With executive orders, who needs Congress anymore?
Source: The Hill
by Bill Press
“Seriously, when was the last time you remember Congress passing any significant legislation? Monumental achievements like Medicare, the Clean Air Act, the Voting Rights Act, or the Civil Rights Act, aren’t possible anymore. This 119th Congress, like the last few sessions, is incapable of probing, debating, and resolving such weighty issues. It can’t even manage its most basic job of keeping the government running. Sadly, history will show that nobody seized Congress or stole away its authority. Its wounds are self-inflicted. Through laziness, lack of courage, or sheer party loyalty over what’s best for the nation, members of Congress gradually ceded their powers, starting with the power to declare war.” (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/5553266-congress-losing-power-president/
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26) NJ governor’s race could show GOP how to win in midterms
Source: Fox Newsm
by Liz Peek
“The midterm elections are a little over a year away. To continue pushing the Trump agenda forward, Republicans must keep control of the House and the Senate. Democrats want to make the midterms a referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump. The GOP should counter by making the elections, instead, about the ongoing need to reverse former President Joe Biden’s disastrous excess spending, open borders, climate obsession and soft-on-crime policies. It will take two years to drain the swamp; Republicans will need two more to replant it. In New Jersey’s governor’s race, Republican Jack Ciattarelli is doing just that, and is closing the gap with Democrat U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill. The ‘Jersey Guy’ may be creating the template for a GOP victory next November.” (10/14/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-jersey-governors-race-could-show-gop-how-win-midterms
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27) The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Martin Kulldorff
“Scientific journals have had enormous positive impact on the development of science, but in some ways, they are now hampering rather than enhancing open scientific discourse. After reviewing the history and current problems with journals, a new academic publishing model is proposed. It embraces open access and open rigorous peer review, it rewards reviewers for their important work with honoraria and public acknowledgement, and it allows scientists to publish their research in a timely and efficient manner without wasting valuable scientists’ time and resources.” (10/14/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-scientific-journals-and-a-way-forward/
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28) Palestine before 1948
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“[T]he borders of present-day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, taken together, trace almost exactly the outer boundaries of the British Mandate for Palestine, as established in 1922, meaning that Palestine as a political entity long predates the 1948 creation of the State of Israel. This means that when Britain governed Palestine, all of those three major present-day parts (Gaza, West Bank, Israel) were one political unit, under one legal system, governed from Jerusalem.” (10/14/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/palestine-before-1948
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29) A Huge Airbase with a Small Country Attached to It
Source: TomDispatch
by Juan Cole
“Donald Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s nomination of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his hands already crimson with the blood of innocent Iraqis, to run post-war Gaza, brings to mind a distant era when London sent its politicians out to be viceroys in its global colonial domains. Consider Blair’s proposed appointment, made (of course!) without consulting any Palestinians, a clear signal that the Middle East has entered a second era of Western imperialism. Other than Palestine, which has already been subjected to classic settler colonialism, our current neo-imperial moment is characterized by the American use of Israel as its base in the Middle East and by the employment of air power to subdue any challengers.” (10/14/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/a-huge-airbase-with-a-small-country-attached-to-it/
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30) Money supply not corporate profits the key driver of price increases
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“Some commentators are of the view that an important driver in the increases of the prices of goods is businesses that push prices higher in order to secure higher profits. According to the Ground Work Collaborative think tank report, Prices are simply the sum of costs and corporate profits. While rising costs of inputs can drive up what Americans pay at the gas pump or the grocery store, corporate profits can just as easily. The report, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during the second and the third quarter of 2023. But does it make any sense that profits cause price inflation? We suggest that businesses cannot raise prices to secure higher profits without the buyers’ agreement.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/10/money-supply-not-corporate-profits-the-key-driver-of-price-increases/
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31) Trump has done the impossible in Gaza, and the media still sneer
Source: New York Post
by Andrea Peyser
“G-d bless President Trump. The leader of the free world has achieved the seemingly impossible. He has freed from the clutches of terrorists in Gaza the last remaining Jewish hostages who’ve endured more than two years of extreme physical and psychological torture. The president of the United States has brought to heel Hamas, a group of murderous madmen bent on destroying not only the captives’ beloved nation of Israel, but an entire people: innocent Jews. … There is joy throughout Israel and around the world, but also sorrow and excruciating pain. In exchange for the release of a few dozen people, including the remains of murdered hostages, Hamas ghouls are getting back some 2,000 of their own prisoners held in Israeli custody, some of them cold-blooded killers.” (10/13/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/10/13/opinion/trump-has-done-the-impossible-in-gaza-and-the-media-still-sneers/
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32) What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?
Source: Niskanen Center
by Dan Davies
“And as with science research grant administration, so with quite a lot of the modern regulatory state. It is a hard thing to accept that you might be part of a system that impedes overall prosperity, or that your primary income stream may come from acting as a type of bridge troll representing some legally privileged party that must be paid off to get out of people’s way. Rent extraction is, of course, what the other guy does; even hereditary landlords prefer to construct a story about themselves as custodians of the shared patrimony. But in the nicest and mildest possible terms, Klein and Thompson are trying to deliver the same message in 2025 as Teles and Lindsay were in 2017: The system isn’t working as intended. There are too few people rowing and too many pretending to steer.” (10/14/25)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/what-happens-when-chinese-resolve
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33) Trump Keeps Admitting That He Is Bought & Owned By The World’s Richest Israeli
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s bizarre how little mainstream attention is given to the fact that the president of the United States has repeatedly confessed to being bought and owned by the world’s richest Israeli, especially given how intensely fixated his political opposition was on the possibility that he was compromised by a foreign government during his first term. During a speech before the Israeli parliament on Monday, President Trump once again publicly admitted that he has implemented Israel-friendly policies at the behest of Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, this time adding that he believes Adelson favors Israel over the United States. … Sheldon Adelson reportedly gave Trump and the Republicans over $424 million in campaign funding from 2016 up until his death in 2021. His widow Miriam continued her husband’s legacy and poured a further $100 million into Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.” (10/14/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/10/14/trump-keeps-admitting-that-he-is-bought-and-owned-by-the-worlds-richest-israeli/
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34) Why Democrats are losing the culture war
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“The more Democrats and Republicans fight about trans people, the less we demand action on issues that actually materially impact most Americans. The great thing about the culture war for people in power is that no matter which party wins, everyday Americans lose.” (10/14/25)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/why-democrats-are-losing-the-culture
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35) How Civil Rights Activists use the Fourteenth Amendment to Bypass the First Amendment
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“A federal court in Virginia recently ruled that the name of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, who is regarded as a great hero by many Americans, violates the free speech rights of black students. … The judge’s reasoning was that where a school is named after a Confederate hero, families who consider Confederate history offensive have a cause of action against the school board for the violation of their First Amendment right to free speech because school names and symbols are ‘compelled speech.’ … the Fourteenth Amendment bypasses the First Amendment, in cases involving complaints that the free speech rights of some (expressing Confederate heritage) violate the protection from compelled speech ‘as incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment’ for civil rights groups demanding the equal protection of the law.” (10/14/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-civil-rights-activists-use-fourteenth-amendment-bypass-first-amendment
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36) The Tariffs Trump Promised, But Didn’t Deliver, Didn’t Hurt the Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“A threatened tariff that is never implemented does not hurt the economy as much as a threatened tariff that is actually implemented. That simple point seems to have eluded Matthew Lynn, a financial columnist whose Washington Post column’s title told readers, ‘Economists were wrong about tariffs. They need to figure out why.’ While I agree that economists do tend to over-react to tariffs, and oversell the benefits of lowering them, the simple reason economists were wrong is that the tariffs Trump threatened on April 2, ‘Liberation Day,’ were never implemented. The tariffs Trump promised us on April 2 averaged well over 20 percent. The current nominal effective tariff rate is 17.9 percent …. this is the rate we would be paying if companies actually paid the tariff rates Trump puts down on paper for a specific country and item. But the actual rate that companies end up paying is often much less than this.” (10/14/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/14/the-tariffs-trump-promised-but-didnt-deliver-didnt-hurt-the-economy/
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37) Who Will Democrats Hate Next Now That the Genocide Is Over?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“We have a ceasefire in Israel (and make no mistake, there is no country called ‘Palestine,’ at least not yet), so the question comes up: who will Democrats hate next? They’ve hated Jews for so long that their anti-Semitism will continue; it’s a part of their DNA. But there won’t be anything Jews will be doing for the next little while that will be chant-worthy, so what is a progressive activist to do? Since dating or showering are out of the question, shifting their hate to other targets is pretty much all there is. But where? White people. The old, trusted target is always at the ready for hate. White people, especially straight white men, are the worst, right? (10/14/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/10/14/who-will-democrats-hate-next-now-that-the-genocide-is-over-n2664904
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38) The Welfare and Warfare State
Source: Law & Liberty
by Christopher Coyne
“In 2022, then-President Joseph Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that gives the president the authority to direct domestic industry in the name of national defense, to increase the supply of baby formula available to Americans. Three years later, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and associated products in the name of America’s national security. How did baby formula and kitchen cabinets come to be considered as crucial parts of America’s security? Andrew Preston’s important book, Total Defense, provides an answer to this question.” (10/14/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-welfare-and-warfare-state/
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39) China’s Long Reach
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“We have known for years that China’s Communists were tyrants; responsible for arguably a hundred million deaths due to murder, torture and starvation; subjugating Tibet; harvesting organs from political prisoners; placing more than a million Uyghurs in concentration camps; canceling all political rights in Hong Kong. These totalitarians also threaten to invade Taiwan and lay claim, ridiculously, to 90 percent of the South China Sea … which they are policing. Then we discovered the Chinese had opened police stations in the United States and other countries to harass and silence Chinese dissidents who had managed to escape to our shores. Now, it is hardly a surprise that the CCP has intruded into our electrical grids and water systems, while buying up farmland near American military bases.” (10/14/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/10/14/chinas-long-reach/
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40) Has the Supreme Court Abandoned Originalism?
Source: The New Republic
by Matt Ford
“The right-wing majority has veered hard in the direction of unitary executive theory — and a schism with conservative legal scholars is starting to widen.” (10/14/25)
https://archive.is/VivHA
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41) What Does Terrorism Actually Mean? Maybe Orwell Can Help
Source: Common Dreams
by Mark Milinich
“When activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla were being held in Ktziot prison, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir staged a photo op taunting them and saying, ‘I was proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters, whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves the conditions of terrorists: the conditions in Ktziot prison.’ This requires a little unpacking. First, Ben Gvir’s claim that the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), and the Conscience and Thousand Madleens flotilla that followed a week later, support terrorism requires a bit of jiujitsu. When Israel drops 2,000-pound dumb bombs on hospitals and defenseless people, they always insist they are actually targeting the hidden Hamas fighters in tunnels beneath the visible injury and death of people on the surface. They make a distinction between the terrorist below ground and the ‘collateral damage’ above.” (10/14/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-terrorism-orwell
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42) Letting People Do What They Do Best
Source: The Dispatch
by Norbert J Michel
“Because we Americans value our self-reliance, we can be skeptical about free trade. A common line of thinking goes like this: Buying things made in other countries will result in fewer American jobs. And letting foreigners produce the things we really need seems like an obvious security risk. As for trade deficits with other countries, those can’t be good because deficits are negative and signal a loss. Even worse, it means foreigners will invest in the U.S. and own assets here — another security risk. A good starting point for understanding why trade is beneficial is that countries don’t trade with countries. People in different places trade with other people, and that’s an important distinction. When governments restrict trade, it means that they limit people’s freedom to buy what they need and their freedom to produce what they’re best at producing.” (10/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/comparative-advantage-specialization-free-trade-explained/
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43) The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“When it comes to destroying your brand, Norwegian Nobel Committee is the Bud Lite of peace prizes. After all, back in 2009 they gave the Peace Prize to a President Barack Obama who then went on to bomb at least seven countries, set the Middle East on fire, and even conduct drone strikes on American citizens! Other awardees have had similarly suspicious records as peacemakers. They even gave a Peace Prize to the likes of Henry Kissinger. This year has proven to be no different. Last week the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 Peace Prize would go to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. Machado has a long history in the Venezuelan opposition including support for and participation in the US-backed, 2002 coup against then-president Hugo Chavez.” (10/14/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2025/10/13/the-nobel-war-is-peace-prize/
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44) Welcome to pre-Beta version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“Quite a few people are writing about the various dangers of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or AI. (In our humble opinion, as poorly named as the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ or calling the guy who killed the South ‘Honest Abe.’ (Hints: it wasn’t holy, it definitely was not Roman, and had no resemblance to an empire. And even by cop standards, Honest Abe didn’t stay bought.) Events in the last week or so bring those warnings about danger to people, jobs, liberty. freedom, and a sound coinage to mind. They also remind us of Douglas Adams’[s] fantastic radio, television, book, and movie series.” (10/13/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/10/13/welcome-to-pre-beta-version-of-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/
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45) Latest FBI Spying Makes Watergate Look Trivial
Source: The Federalist
by Hans Mahncke
“In 1972, a small team of operatives connected to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee’s offices in the Watergate complex to install listening devices. To this day, there is no conclusive evidence that Nixon personally ordered (or even knew of) the break-in beforehand. Yet Watergate shaped American political consciousness for decades. It gave the world a permanent suffix for scandal and became the ultimate symbol of abuse of power, a crisis so severe that it culminated in the only resignation of a U.S. president to preempt removal from office. Fast forward 50 years, and what has come to light under the Biden administration dwarfs the clumsy efforts of Nixon’s campaign operatives. According to a newly released document from Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-IA] the FBI secretly monitored the phone records of at least eight sitting Republican senators.” (10/13/25)
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/13/the-latest-fbi-spying-makes-watergate-look-trivial/
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46) Forgotten Foundation: Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“‘To these grievous acts and measures Americans cannot submit.’ On October 14, 1774, the First Continental Congress drew its line in the sand. They met that fall to confront the Coercive Acts – Parliament’s brutal retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. They had a decision: submit to tyranny, or resist. Their answer was the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress. It is one of the most important, and most forgotten, documents of the American Revolution, providing a foundation for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.” (10/14/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/10/13/forgotten-foundation-declaration-and-resolves-of-the-first-continental-congress/
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47) 2025 Nobel: Growth Through Technology and Culture
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“One of the big mysteries of human history is the so-called ‘hockey-stick of prosperity.’ That is, the fact that, for much of human history, standards of living were virtually unchanged. Very little separated the Roman citizen in 1AD from the British citizen in 1700. But, starting in the 1700s, standards of living skyrocketed. … Nothing like this had happened before, and it kept happening. Even the most optimistic economists at the time had trouble explaining it. Enter Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt. Collectively, their work helped explain why this growth happened, why it happened where it did, and how it is sustainable.” (10/13/25)
https://www.econlib.org/2025-nobel-mokyr-aghion-howitt
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48) Trump’s new order could redefine protests as “domestic terrorism”
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jason M Blazakis
“President Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ was never really about antifa. It was about building a template for repression. Now, with his latest order on ‘Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,’ the blueprint is clear: free expression, political dissent and municipal autonomy are in the crosshairs. … History offers warnings. Governments that criminalize opposition rarely stop at the margins. In Turkey, the label of ‘terrorist’ has been used to decimate civil society, shutter newspapers and jail academics. In Russia, counterextremism laws have become blunt instruments for crushing democracy. We must be honest: America is inching down that path.” (10/13/25)
https://archive.is/sfDsD
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49) Why China Can Collapse the US With One Decree
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“When Donald Trump reacted to China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals (a group of 17 chemical elements used in almost all electronics) by threatening a new 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods, Wall Street investors who had yawned at most of his erratic announcements for six months finally took notice. It was the same stock-tanking pressure that led Trump to climb down from his Liberation Day tariffs; sure enough, by Sunday, the TACO (Trump always chickens out) vibes started kicking in. ‘I have a great relationship with President Xi … he’s a great leader for their country, and I think we’ll get it set,’ Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way to Israel. ‘Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!’ he exclaimed on Truth Social. Next thing you know he’ll be apologizing in Mandarin like John Cena.” (10/14/25)
https://prospect.org/world/2025-10-14-china-trump-tariffs-rare-earth-minerals/
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50) Israel Must Not Turn Into Sparta
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“[A] chill went down my spine when I read the text of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘super-Sparta’ speech in mid-September where he claimed that Israel had been driven into a state of isolation on the world stage and would need to adapt by embracing that isolation, by ‘adapting to an economy with autarkic characteristics’ and by becoming a ‘super-Sparta,’ producing its own weapons and economic necessities and generally ignoring the outside world. In particular, Netanyahu singled out Europe, arguing that Muslim migration had led to European countries developing an ‘Islamist agenda’ that was intrinsically anti-Zionist. Another way to put it was that Netanyahu was adopting a ‘Masada Mindset.’ The overwhelming sense of the speech was a belief that Israel, and Jews, have an utterly singular fate.” (10/13/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/now-israel-must-choose
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Trump Watch, 10/14/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Jacob shows how U.S. officials use massive chaos, much of which they incite, as a way to justify the exercise of omnipotent, tyrannical powers.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1pgW0LXqCo
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52) Underthrow Podcast, 10/14/25
Source: Underthrow
“Ten Rules for Radical Innovators.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BBKFrv0J1w
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53) Rising, 10/14/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers his case to give Donald Trump a Nobel Peace Prize after successfully implementing the first phase of a peace deal that, on Monday, led to the release of the last remaining hostages from the October 7th, 2023 massacre.” (10/14/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5554230-rising-october-14-2025/
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54) The Bryan Hyde Show, 10/14/25
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos is my guest and we’re talking about what is happening to our money supply as well as what’s going on with precious metals.” (10/14/25)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-ba4kv-19931b2
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55) Advisory Opinions, 10/14/25
Source: The Dispatch
“The Future of Free Speech.” (10/14/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-future-of-free-speech/
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56) The Good Fight, 10/14/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“The Good Fight Club: Gaza Ceasefire, U.S. Government Shutdown, and America’s Slouch Towards Autocracy.” (10/14/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-good-fight-club-8
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57) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/14/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Speaks To Israeli Knesset, Attends Summit in Egypt as Israel and Hamas conduct Swap, and More.” (10/14/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Labu5wwY1iY
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58) The Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, episode 95
Source: National Review
“The Unalloyed Case for Free Markets — with Dominic Pino.” (10/13/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-charles-c-w-cooke-podcast/the-unalloyed-case-for-free-markets-with-dominic-pino/
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59) Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 143
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Free Ian Freeman with Mark Edge.” (10/13/25)
https://rumble.com/v7085j0-ep143-free-ian-freeman-with-mark-edge-gracearchy-with-jim-babka.html
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60) System Update, episode 530
Source: System Update
“Prof. John Mearsheimer on Trump’s Knesset Speech, the Israel/Hamas Ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine, and More.” (10/13/25)
https://rumble.com/v709j7m-system-update-show-530.html
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