04/07 --Iran: Regime's 10-Point Proposal Demands an End to Attacks and Sanctions; Israelis don't pay for the weapons we "sell" to them — US taxpayers do
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Thomas L. Knapp
Apr 7, 2026, 6:30:07 AM (4 days ago) Apr 7
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 04/07/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iran: Regime’s 10-Point Proposal Demands an End to Attacks and Sanctions
2) After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home
3) UK: Resident doctors commence six-day walkout after rejecting pay deal
4) Bitcoin drops toward $68,000 as demand weakens and whales sell
5) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of allies
6) UK: Regime courts Anthropic with London expansion amid Pentagon feud
7) US appeals court: New Jersey regime cannot regulate Kalshi’s prediction market
8) Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked rescue of pilot
9) Meta to open source versions of its next AI models
10) Study: Birth weight may play role in stroke risk
11) Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Exposes ICE Gang Lie
12) Scientists identify “neural fingerprint” of psychedelic drugs in the brain
13) DR Congo: Regime agrees to take deportees from the US
14) SCOTUS paves way for Steve Bannon contempt case to be dismissed
15) Lebanon: Israeli forces destroy southern Lebanon towns, hit “safe” areas around Beirut
16) Nigeria: Regime troops rescue 31 Easter worshippers after deadly church attack
17) UK: Kanye West’s entry under regime review after festival outcry
18) Dog bites man: Senile reality TV star rages at SCOTUS because it may uphold Constitution
19) Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton for California governor
20) Explosives found near [sic] pipeline supplying gas to Serbia, Hungary
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we “sell” to them — US taxpayers do
22) Thin Libertarianism: Ideal Theory, PPE, & the Real World
23) US Troops In Iran Need To Start Disobeying Orders
24) The Populist War on Technological Capacity
25) Overcoming Failures of Imagination
26) One Blow After Another: The Leadership Team from Hell on a Hell of a Planet
27) For better tech, we must think bigger than content moderation
28) Ten Enduring Lessons from Adam Smith
29) Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Stupidity
30) As the Death Toll Rises in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Support for ICE Shrinks
31) AOC lifts the veil: She won’t help protect innocent civilians, if they’re Israelis
32) Free Trade Is Dead in Washington
33) Trump and Netanyahu: Two Madmen Playing God
34) MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
35) The Elusive Giffen Good, Once Again
36) Adam Smith on Slavery
37) Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired Long Ago
38) Beware the “experts”
39) Journalism’s Better Days
40) Congress Is Moving the Goalposts on Fiscal Responsibility
41) Himes Fact-Checked on “Misleading” Claims About Warrantless Spying
42) POTUS Goes Full Stone Age Retard
43) The Pentagon Has An Air Power Addiction
44) Confronting Both Zionism and the Antisemitism It Welcomes
45) Reclaiming our own birthright: We might need to amend the Constitution
46) A journalist who uses AI? The internet was not pleased.
47) Communism’s Obsolescence
48) A Delicate Balance
49) Fortress Yellowstone
50) The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 04/06/26
52) Bulwark Takes, 04/06/26
53) Rising, 04/06/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/06/26
55) Reason Interview: Ro Khanna
56) EconTalk, 04/06/26
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 40
58) Serious Trouble, 04/05/26
59) Fountainhead Forum, episode 434
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/05/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iran: Regime’s 10-Point Proposal Demands an End to Attacks and Sanctions
Source: New York Times
“Iran on Monday delivered a 10-point proposal to end the war with the United States and Israel, according to Iranian state media. … Two senior Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the proposal included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the lifting of all sanctions. In return, Iran would lift its de facto blockade of the key shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran would also impose a fee of roughly $2 million per ship that it would split with Oman, which sits across the strait. Iran would use its share of the proceeds to reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by American and Israeli attacks, rather than demand direct compensation, according to the plan.” (04/07/26)
https://archive.is/aZpf4
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2) After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home
Source: The Business Standard [Bangladesh]
“The Artemis II astronauts wrapped up their lunar flyby as they continue their journey back to Earth on Tuesday, bringing with them rich celestial observations including little-known lunar craters, a solar eclipse and meteor strikes that scientists hope will open doors. … The Orion capsule will now travel back to Earth in a so-called ‘free-return trajectory,’ a trip that will take about four days.” (04/07/26)
https://www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/usa/after-milestone-rich-lunar-flyby-astronauts-start-trip-home-1404866
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3) UK: Resident doctors commence six-day walkout after rejecting pay deal
Source: Independent [UK]
“Resident doctors have commenced a six-day walkout, marking their 15th round of industrial action, following the collapse of pay negotiations with the government. Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged that patients will be left ‘waiting in pain or anxiety longer than is necessary’ due to delayed appointments, though urgent and emergency care will continue. The British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a government offer that included a 4.9 per cent average basic pay increase from 2026-2027, while an offer for 1,000 extra training places was taken off the table last week.” (04/07/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/nhs-doctor-strike-six-day-streeting-b2952838.html
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4) Bitcoin drops toward $68,000 as demand weakens and whales sell
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin slid toward $68,000 on Tuesday, with traditional markets closed in Hong Kong for a long weekend, as repeated failures near $70,000 left the bitcoin market vulnerable to a break lower. The drop came after another failed push above $70,000, with prices slipping quickly once they approached the lower end of the $65,000 to $73,000 range that has defined trading since late March. Intraday losses accelerated near that boundary, highlighting how little support exists when momentum turns. That calm is not being driven by strong demand. Recent Glassnode data shows softer trading volumes and subdued onchain activity even as prices recover, indicating limited participation behind the move.” (04/07/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/04/07/bitcoin-drops-toward-usd68-000-as-demand-weakens-and-whales-sell
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5) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of allies
Source: Independent [UK]
“Ukraine is continuing its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure despite calls from the West seeking to end such strikes. Russian officials on Sunday said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg. The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region said air defence units had repelled a 30-drone barrage. Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that some allies have signalled for Ukraine to reduce long-range strikes on Russia’s oil sector due to rising global energy prices. Zelensky said he would be happy to do so – but only if Russia reciprocates by stopping its own attacks on the Ukrainian grid.” (04/06/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-trump-putin-zelensky-drones-oil-network-b2945082.html
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6) UK: Regime courts Anthropic with London expansion amid Pentagon feud
Source: MSN
“British officials are moving swiftly to court Anthropic after the US Defense Department labeled it a supply-chain risk for refusing military use of its Claude AI system. The designation, currently blocked by a federal judge, has created a diplomatic and regulatory opening for the UK to position itself as a more supportive base for AI firms. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration is backing the pitch, which includes expanding Anthropic’s London operations and a potential London Stock Exchange listing.” (04/06/26)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/uk-courts-anthropic-with-london-expansion-amid-pentagon-feud/gm-GM5B53FB5E
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7) US appeals court: New Jersey regime cannot regulate Kalshi’s prediction market
Source: Reuters
“A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that New Jersey gaming regulators cannot prevent Kalshi from allowing people in the state to use its prediction market to place financial bets on the outcome of sporting events. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in finding that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the sports-related event contracts that Kalshi allows people to trade on its platform. … The ruling was in line with the position advanced in other litigation by the CFTC under President Donald Trump’s administration. The regulator last week sued Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois to prevent them from pursuing what it called unlawful efforts to regulate prediction markets.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/YHPs5
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8) Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked rescue of pilot
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“US President Donald Trump says a leak to the media about the existence of a second shot-down airman shortly after American troops rescued the first one threatened to upend the entire operation. The rescue of the F-15E pilot on Friday evening was first reported by Israeli media …. ‘We didn’t talk about the first [rescue] for an hour, and then somebody leaked something, which we’ll hopefully find that leaker,’ Trump says during a White House press conference on the weekend rescue mission. … ‘We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail,” he continues.” (04/06/26)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-threatens-to-jail-reporter-over-leaked-rescue-of-pilot-thought-to-have-come-from-israeli-defense-chief/
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9) Meta to open source versions of its next AI models
Source: Axios
“Meta is preparing to release the first new AI models developed under Alexandr Wang, with plans to eventually offer versions of those models via an open source license, Axios has learned. Meta has been the largest U.S. player to let others modify its frontier models, and there has been growing speculation the company might retreat from that strategy altogether. Before openly releasing versions of the new models, Meta wants to keep some pieces proprietary and to ensure they don’t add new levels of safety risk, according to sources.” (04/06/26)
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/06/meta-open-source-ai-models
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10) Study: Birth weight may play role in stroke risk
Source: NDTV [India]
“Your birth weight may be more important than your current adult weight when it comes to your risk of stroke later in life. A new study hints that people who were born with a low birthweight may face a higher risk of stroke in young adulthood, even if they are not overweight or underweight as adults. This suggests that what happens in the womb and during early birth can leave a long-term mark on the brain’s blood-supply system, which may show up as higher stroke risk several years later. The study is set to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO2026) in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May). Dr Lina Lilja and Dr Maria Bygdell of the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, who are study authors and colleagues say that low birthweight can be included in stroke risk assessment for adults.” (04/06/26)
https://www.ndtv.com/health/your-birth-weight-may-play-a-role-in-your-stroke-risk-than-your-current-adult-weight-says-new-study-11319692
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11) Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Exposes ICE Gang Lie
Source: New York Times
“Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating. … video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart. The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/nur7V
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12) Scientists identify “neural fingerprint” of psychedelic drugs in the brain
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Scientists have identified a hallmark signature produced by psychedelic drugs in the human brain when users experience their mind-altering effects. The ‘neural fingerprint’ of the psychedelic trip was spotted among hundreds of brain scans of people on LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline and ayahuasca, pointing to a shared impact on the brain’s behaviour. The finding emerged from a major study that combined 11 brain imaging datasets from around the world in an effort to build a reliable picture of how the substances temporarily rewire the brain. The insights are increasingly important as researchers investigate the drugs in clinical trials as potential therapies for severe mental health and neurological conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.” (04/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/06/scientists-identify-neural-fingerprint-of-psychedelic-drugs-in-the-brain
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13) DR Congo: Regime agrees to take deportees from the US
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to accept migrants deported from the US who are not themselves Congolese under a deal effective from this month, officials said. The Ministry of Communication said a temporary reception system had been set up, while facilities to accommodate arrivals had been selected in the capital, Kinshasa. ‘Logistical and technical support’ will be provided by the US, the statement on Sunday said, adding that the Congolese government would bear no financial cost for the scheme. The government did not say how many deportees they would accept. The US has already sent deportees to several other countries in Africa as part of Washington’s crackdown on immigration. Amid concerns that migrants could be returned to their home countries – where some fear persecution – Congolese officials said no such transfers are being planned.” (04/06/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20d35eejxgo
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14) SCOTUS paves way for Steve Bannon contempt case to be dismissed
Source: NBC News
“The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal case against Trump ally Steve Bannon over his failure to respond to congressional subpoenas. Although Bannon was convicted and served jail time, he and the Trump administration are now seeking to have the case thrown out after the fact, in what would be a mostly symbolic outcome. … Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with the subpoenas, which sought documents and testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters.” (04/06/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-paves-way-steve-bannon-contempt-case-dismissed-rcna261578
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15) Lebanon: Israeli forces destroy southern Lebanon towns, hit “safe” areas around Beirut
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Israel has launched renewed strikes on southern Lebanon as it continues to press forward with a ground invasion, while also waging new attacks on Beirut shortly after striking areas around the capital that had been so far removed from the conflict. … Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a string of attacks in the Jabal Amel region, south of the Litani River, including in the towns of Arzoun, Jouya, Hadatha, Jmeijmeh, Dbeibine and Haris. An Israeli drone struck near Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, killing one person and injuring a second, local media reported. Israel’s military has targeted bridges in southern Lebanon, in what observers say is an attempt to cut the area off from the rest of the country.” (04/06/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/6/israel-destroys-southern-lebanon-towns-hits-safe-areas-around-beirut
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16) Nigeria: Regime troops rescue 31 Easter worshippers after deadly church attack
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“The Nigerian military said Sunday it had rescued 31 worshippers seized from Easter celebrations in northwestern Kaduna state, though at least five others were killed, as the country’s security comes increasingly under international scrutiny. Gunmen raided a Catholic and an evangelical church, the Christian Association of Nigeria chairman for Kaduna state Caleb Bawa Ma’aji told AFP. The kidnapping at a village located around 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the capital, Abuja, occurred despite the police chief ordering a ‘massive security deployment’ including at places of worship during the Easter festival.” (04/06/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20260406-nigeria-troops-rescue-easter-worshippers-after-deadly-church-attack-christians
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17) UK: Kanye West’s entry under regime review after festival outcry
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The government is reviewing whether Kanye West should be allowed to enter the UK after a planned appearance by the US rapper at a London festival prompted criticism over his prior antisemitic comments. The star, now known as Ye, released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ and sold swastika T-shirts last year. He later apologised and blamed his bipolar disorder’s episodes of manic behaviour. Brands have withdrawn their sponsorships of Wireless Festival, and critics are calling on its organisers to cancel his appearance and for his visa to be denied. Ministers have the power to ban foreign nationals from the UK if their presence is not considered ‘conducive to the public good.’ It is understood that ministers are considering West’s permission to enter the UK.” (04/06/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwywnkdn3zno
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18) Dog bites man: Senile reality TV star rages at SCOTUS because it may uphold Constitution
Source: Independent [UK]
“President Donald Trump has lashed out at the U.S. Supreme Court as it weighs the future of birthright citizenship, characterizing the issue as a ‘money making hoax.’ ‘It’s too bad that the Supreme Court can’t watch and study the Mark Levin Show tonight on the Birthright Citizenship Scam,’ the president posted on Truth Social, late Easter Sunday. ‘If they saw it they would never allow that money making HOAX to continue. THEY SHOULD USE THEIR POWERS OF COMMON SENSE FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY.’ … On Life, Liberty and Levin, the show to which Trump alluded, the host had argued that there is no such thing as birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally [sic], echoing the revisionist, Trumpian point of view.” (04/06/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-b2952334.html
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19) Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton for California governor
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for California governor, reordering a crowded, wide-open race to lead the nation’s most populous state. Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator ‘a truly fine man’ who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, ‘has gone to hell.’ ‘With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!’ Trump added. The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump’s backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.” (04/06/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/trump-endorses-republican-steven-hilton-for-22191357.php
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20) Explosives found near [sic] pipeline supplying gas to Serbia, Hungary
Source: United Press International
“Explosives were found in a border area between Hungary and Serbia near a pipeline that carries Russian gas, and which both depend heavily on. Serbian president Aleksander Vucic said Sunday that the explosives were found in backpacks ‘a few hundred miles from the gas pipeline,’ and that he’d alerted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that an investigation was being mounted, CNN and The BBC reported. … The purchase and use of Russian oil by Hungary and Serbia, both of whose leaders are allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been controversial in Europe amid Putin’s now four-year-long war to take Ukraine.” [editor’s note: Is there any place in Hungary or Serbia that ISN’T within “a few hundred miles” of the pipeline? – TLK] (04/05/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/04/05/hungary-explosives-found-near-gas-pipeline-with-serbia/5261775429540/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we “sell” to them — US taxpayers do
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stephen Semler
“U.S. arms sales to Israel aren’t really sales, at least not in the typical sense. Israel’s position as purchaser in these weapons deals isn’t synonymous with funder. This is made clear in the arms sales notifications themselves. Consider the four most recent notified arms sales to Israel published in the Federal Register: $740 million for armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion for tactical vehicles and accessories, $3.8 billion for attack helicopters and related weaponry, and $150 million for utility helicopters and parts. After ‘Prospective Purchaser,’ all these notifications list Government of Israel. After ‘[Funding Source,’ all list Foreign Military Financing — or FMF, the U.S. military aid program through which Israel receives at least $3.3 billion a year. In practice, FMF functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on weapons. U.S. taxpayers are stuck paying for the gift card.” (04/06/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-arms-sales-to-israel/
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22) Thin Libertarianism: Ideal Theory, PPE, & the Real World
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“My own ideal theory is a classical liberal (libertarian) theory based on toleration. The view is necessarily very thin as it accepts that each person should be free to choose and act on their own conception of the good and thus live very different sorts of lives. All of those are to be tolerated unless they involve harm to others. … Importantly, having an ideal theory does not mean thinking we ought to stop with ideal theory. … I must recognize that there will be scenarios in the real world that challenge my own intuitions about what ought to be permitted when people would have difficulty exiting even when their right to do so is protected and figure out how to respond to that.” (04/06/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thin-libertarianism-ideal-theory
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23) US Troops In Iran Need To Start Disobeying Orders
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At this point if you’re in the US military you have a moral obligation to start refusing orders. Desert. Become a conscientious objector. Ideally, get everyone together and launch a full-scale military coup. We’re in ‘Mad King’ territory. Someone’s gotta do what needs to be done. Promoters of this war told the world it was about liberating the Iranian people from tyranny to bring them freedom and democracy. Now that they got their war it’s about bombing them ‘back to the Stone Age,’ stealing their oil, and blowing up their bridges and power plants. The only people dumber than Americans who bought into Trump’s ‘ending the wars’ shtick are the Iranians who believed the United States was going to bring freedom to their country.” (04/06/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/06/us-troops-need-to-start-disobeying-orders-in-iran-and-other-notes/
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24) The Populist War on Technological Capacity
Source: The Dispatch
by Mar Oestreich
“This global race for AI dominance through abundant, scalable power and computation is already underway. Yet much of our domestic debate fixates on scarcity as if the pie were fixed forever, which leads to moralized calls about who then gets to use the limited resources we have. Once electricity becomes a hierarchy of virtue, you may not like where you land. This reflex is bipartisan. On the right, suspicion settles on coastal tech elites siphoning power from ‘real Americans.’ On the left, it gathers around corporate excess and environmental harm. When confidence in builders erodes, it does not leave a vacuum: Gatekeepers step forward. … Once you decide the pie cannot grow, an authority must divide it, looking for villains, assigning virtue, declaring some uses essential and others indulgent.” (04/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ai-data-centers-nimby/
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25) Overcoming Failures of Imagination
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“In a 1961 speech, President John F. Kennedy captured the imagination of the people. He asked the world to see a man on the moon. Back then, such could only be a feat of technocracy — the idea that officials can work wonders if they have enough experts and largesse. And they did it. But, the moon landing had been peak technocracy — pushing the limits of what could be achieved in terms of expense, tax funding, and complication. Prior to that, though, Kennedy had put a symbol in people’s minds.” (04/06/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/overcoming-failures-of-imagination
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26) One Blow After Another: The Leadership Team from Hell on a Hell of a Planet
Source: TomDispatch
by Michael Klare
“On March 13th, buried in the New York Times’s coverage of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict was a headline that would have been easy to miss amid the din of war coverage: ‘As El Niño Simmers, Scientists Warn of Weather Extremes Starting in Late Summer.’ Many readers may not even have noticed it, but that article noted that scientists at the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had raised their estimate for an El Niño event this summer from 60% to about 80%. Admittedly, in this strange world of ours, that hardly seemed like an earth-shattering revelation. But if you had read the piece more closely, your alarm bells should instantly have gone off.” (04/05/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-leadership-team-from-hell-on-a-hell-of-a-planet/
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27) For better tech, we must think bigger than content moderation
Source: hypertext
by Kristen Collins
“Content-focused policies risk censoring speech without fixing the underlying business model that pushes noxious material where it will do the most damage.” (04/06/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/for-better-tech-we-must-think-bigger
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28) Ten Enduring Lessons from Adam Smith
Source: The Daily Economy
by Nikolai G Wenzel
“From technocrats to central planners, the temptation to engineer society persists. Adam Smith saw the dangers clearly.” (04/06/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-wealth-of-nations-at-250-ten-profound-quotations-from-adam-smith/
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29) Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Stupidity
Source: CounterPunch
by John Feffer
“Perhaps Donald Trump was persuaded—by his generals, by his buddies in Silicon Valley, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—that American military superiority would make quick work of the Iranian military. In addition to the aircraft carriers, the Stealth bombers, the Tomahawk missiles, and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Trump could also call upon the assistance of Claude and his buddies.” (04/06/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/06/artificial-intelligence-versus-human-stupidity/
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30) As the Death Toll Rises in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Support for ICE Shrinks
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan
“Deaths in ICE custody hit a 20-year high in 2025 and a majority now say the agency’s actions make Americans less safe.” (for publication 05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/06/a-deadly-immigration-crackdown/
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31) AOC lifts the veil: She won’t help protect innocent civilians, if they’re Israelis
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) is now opposed to funding defensive shields that could save the lives of innocent civilians — if they are Israelis. Seems like she’s trying to win back the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America that spurned her in 2024 for not hating the Jewish state enough. Or maybe she’s just showing her true colors. Her re-hardened anti-Israel position comes even though she isn’t facing any significant opposition in her re-election campaign, which raises and spends so much money it’s more like a good-sized business than a scrappy Bronx-Queens political operation; she doesn’t need the DSA’s endorsement. But she got her fellow antisemitic socialists mad at her because she abstained from voting to deny funding for Israel’s strictly defensive Iron Dome project, which protects Israelis — Jewish and Arab — from the tens of thousands of missiles that have been lobbed from Iran’s regional terror proxies.” (04/06/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/06/opinion/aoc-lifts-the-veil-she-wont-help-protect-innocent-civilians-so-long-as-theyre-israelis/
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32) Free Trade Is Dead in Washington
Source: Foreign Policy
by Bob Davis
“To understand U.S. trade policy, it’s best to think of chaos theory: the search for a pattern behind seemingly haphazard events. Donald Trump is the chaos agent in this case, threatening countries on a whim with sky-high tariffs like the Queen of Hearts thundering, ‘Off with their heads.’ But beyond the seeming disorder, there is more of a Washington consensus on trade policy than is often not commonly recognized — and it dates back to the late Obama years.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/GW8Ce
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33) Trump and Netanyahu: Two Madmen Playing God
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs
“Donald Trump and his partner in war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu, are jointly waging a war of murderous aggression against Iran, a nation of 90 million people. They are in the grip of three cascading pathologies. The first is personality: both are malignant narcissists. The second is the arrogance of power: men who possess the power to command nuclear annihilation and feel, in consequence, no restraint. The third, and most dangerous of all, is religious delusion: two men who believe, and are told daily by those around them, that they are messiahs doing God’s work. Each pathology exacerbates the others, so that together they put the world in unprecedented danger.” (04/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/netanyahu-trump-psychopaths-war-criminals
-----
34) MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“Strange bedfellows defined the coalition that carried Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and 2024. Evangelicals, libertarians, nationalists, and traditional Republicans, groups with little agreement on core policy, laid down their knives on those November Tuesdays to rally behind a whimsical, big-city showman who built, and often mismanaged, his inherited empire. Trump was their champion — a comedian, a performer, but, most importantly, a fighter. If MAGA was anything, it was a coalition bound less by shared policy goals than by a shared sense of grievance and a love for the game. And we were played. I should know. I voted for the man. His faults now exposed for the world to see are, in part, my own.” (04/06/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/maga-champion-need-not-apply/
-----
35) The Elusive Giffen Good, Once Again
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Mark Thornton
“The mysterious Giffen has once again risen from the ashes. In this iteration, it’s silver in the red-hot precious metals market. This so-called anomaly makes for a great story and interesting explanation, but it does not represent a genuine exception or a valid attack on the fundamental laws of economics. It is another example of the questionable scholarship of the Grand Wizard of Mainstream economics, Alfred Marshall.” (04/06/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/elusive-giffen-good-once-again
-----
36) Adam Smith on Slavery
Source: EconLog
by Jack Russell Weinstein
“Smith did not think that sympathy would lead to masters sympathizing with their slaves, but he seemed to have faith that it could motivate abolitionists to push for change. He did not think politics or religion could end slavery, but had enough faith in economic persuasion that he dedicated time to the problem in his classes. He knew that he was educating the next generation of Scottish leaders and lamented, to them, that he doubted economic motivation would be sufficient for masters to liberate those under their yoke: ‘It is indeed allmost impossible that it should ever be totally or generally abolished,’ even in ‘a republican government.’ What, then, could the abolitionist hope for? The answer may be only the uneven progress of history.” (04/06/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/adam-smith-on-slavery
-----
37) Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired Long Ago
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Pam Bondi was fired last week because she deserved to be. I know she’s popular among some, but she was not popular with President Donald Trump, and that’s all that really mattered. The leadership in the Justice Department, including the FBI, has been horrible and feckless. Now that she’s gone, someone has to say that former Attorney General Bondi deserved to lose her job.” (04/06/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/04/06/pam-bondi-deserved-to-be-fired-long-ago-n2673949
-----
38) Beware the “experts”
Source: spiked
by Cory Franklin
“In a Chicago Tribune article last year I wrote, ‘In an ever more complex society, have we run the risk of becoming overly dependent on experts – delegating decisions and responsibilities to them that are outside their domain?’ Several readers called me out, justifiably. They asked whether it was a good idea for anyone other than an expert to fly my plane or perform my open-heart surgery. Point taken. I have spent a lot of time both in planes and operating rooms. Without question, I want experts calling the shots in both of them. … My mistake was in failing to point out the distinction between experts with technical knowledge (the ones who actually know how to do things) and experts who have earned their status primarily as a result of their educational credentials or public opinions.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/mC3hH
-----
39) Journalism’s Better Days
Source: Law & Liberty
by DG Hart
“Younger Americans, born after 1985, may have no frame of reference for the current state of journalism which is highly partisan and considered untrustworthy (at least to partisans on the opposite side). The Gallup Organization’s data shows that trust in ‘Mass Media’ (not identical to but related to journalism) is way down, from 72 percent in 1976 to 28 percent in 2025. The reverse is also true. People who answered positively to survey questions about trust in media, whether they had ‘None at all,’ went from 4 percent in 1976 to 34 percent in 2025. In between those answers was ‘Not very much’ trust in media, which hit a high point of 41 percent in 2016 and has fluctuated since (36 percent in 2025).” (04/06/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/journalisms-better-days/
-----
40) Congress Is Moving the Goalposts on Fiscal Responsibility
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia
“Washington has a habit of changing its budget goals — not because the country solved the spending-driven debt problem, but because each goal proved harder than lawmakers were willing to confront. I remember working on fiscal policy in 2011, when lawmakers still talked about balancing the budget. It was an intuitive target. If the government only spent what it collected in revenues, the debt problem would eventually disappear. Simple in theory. Difficult to achieve in practice.” (04/06/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-is-moving-the-goalposts-on-fiscal-responsibility/
-----
41) Himes Fact-Checked on “Misleading” Claims About Warrantless Spying
Source: The American Prospect
by James Baratta
“After being ambushed by privacy activists outside a town hall in southern Connecticut last week, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke at length about the urgency of extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the warrantless spying program he has been actively lobbying Democratic colleagues to support without reforms. The 702 program is set to expire on April 20. Himes assured protestors that ‘anything I said today, you can sort of check if you want’. In a press release Friday, organizers with QuitGPT and a number of Connecticut-based advocacy groups held him to it: ‘Unfortunately, Himes repeated several false and misleading statements about FISA, the data broker loophole, and AI surveillance.’ Their comments came just hours after a separate virtual town hall last Friday where Himes ‘repeated many of the same statements’ about Section 702.” (04/06/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/06/jim-himes-warrantless-spying-fisa-house-committee-intelligence-ai-surveillance/
-----
42) POTUS Goes Full Stone Age Retard
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Stockman
“It’s pretty clear what the TV screen caption should have read as the Donald expectorated a veritable shower of bully boy phlegm and sputum at the White House cameras last night: ‘Attention JD Vance – activate the 25th Amendment now, POTUS has gone full retard into veritable delusionary madness.’ That’s right. There was hardly a sentence in the speech that accords with reality in any way shape or form. Not even remotely. … The yawning disconnect with reality, however, was probably best revealed by Trump’s utterly ludicrous contention that that if he had not cancelled Obama’s JCPOA in May 2018 Iran would have nuked the entire middle east and Israel into oblivion by now.” (04/06/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2026/04/05/potus-goes-full-stone-age-retard
-----
43) The Pentagon Has An Air Power Addiction
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño
“Iran is not some fragile backwater that will crumble under the weight of American bombs. It is a civilization state with thousands of years of continuous existence, a population of ninety million people, and a geography of mountains, deserts, and underground fortifications specifically designed to resist foreign subjugation. The notion that air power alone can decapitate its leadership, destroy its infrastructure, and produce regime change represents a fantasy that scholars have debunked repeatedly over the past century. Yet here we are, over a month into Operation Epic Fury, watching Washington learn these lessons the hard way.” (04/06/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-pentagon-has-an-air-power-addiction
-----
44) Confronting Both Zionism and the Antisemitism It Welcomes
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“We must all confront Israel, but we must also confront this toxic runoff along with it and we must confront them both simultaneously with the weapon of history. The Jews are not the problem here, Zionism is, and Zionism has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism or the Semitic people. In fact, Zionism is really just another malignant cell of white supremacy, and it has long disdained both Judaism and most people of Semitic de[s]cent. Zionism emerged from central and eastern Europe during the mid-19th century as a distinctly secular strain of the same European national swamp that would fester into fascism and national socialism, and it caried many of the same characteristics too; devotion to such toxically contrived notions as ‘blood and soil’ and scientific racism, not to mention a pronounced disdain for the east, including the Jews who once closely identified with it.” (04/05/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/04/confronting-both-zionism-and.html
-----
45) Reclaiming our own birthright: We might need to amend the Constitution
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley
“‘Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.’ Those words from Chief Justice John Roberts during this week’s oral arguments signaled that the conservative justices are unlikely to reject birthright citizenship. Of course, nothing is certain until this summer when the Court issues its opinion in Trump v. Barbara. However, we need to consider the need for a 28th Amendment to reaffirm [sic] the meaning of citizenship. As some of us stressed before the oral argument, the odds were against the administration prevailing in the case, given more than a century of countervailing precedent. There are good-faith arguments against reading the 14th Amendment as supporting citizenship for any child born in this country.” [editor’s note: Yes, it is POSSIBLE to be constitutionally and historically illiterate and therefore believe nonsense “in good faith.” But it’s an odd admission for Turley to make – TLK] (04/06/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5815807-reclaiming-our-own-birthright-we-might-need-to-amend-the-constitution/
-----
46) A journalist who uses AI? The internet was not pleased.
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“On Thursday morning, I sat down with one of my chatbots and asked it to round up the best takes on a recent social media controversy. The results were unsatisfying — hallucinations, apologies and search results that weren’t what I’d asked for. After several prompts and corrections, the chatbot seemed to give up. Shortly thereafter, so did I. Fortunately, I was intimately familiar with this controversy, since I touched it off. In social media parlance, I was ‘the main character,’ so I already had plenty of raw material and could see how badly ChatGPT had failed. But if you’re hoping for a column on why artificial intelligence is useless, I regret to disappoint.” (04/05/26)
https://archive.is/OAJpF
-----
47) Communism’s Obsolescence
Source: Quillette
by Michael Aaron Cody
“The structural case for why collectivist systems fail.” (04/05/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/04/05/communisms-obsolescence/
-----
48) A Delicate Balance
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“‘Strong, if not perfect’ was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s verdict on the trade deal hammered out between the United States and the European Union (EU) and signed at Turnberry, Scotland, in July 2025. Nothing is perfect, of course — but the carefully hedged endorsement has appeared increasingly prophetic as the deal overcame hurdles and was finally voted through by the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee on March 19, 2026, by 29 votes to 9, and by the wider Parliament on March 26, by 417 votes to 154. The road to passing was not a smooth one.” (04/05/26)
https://fee.org/articles/a-delicate-balance/
-----
49) Fortress Yellowstone
Source: In These Times
by Joseph Bullington
“The taxi judders uphill into a forest brimming with life. Palm fronds droop over the road like huge, oily hands, and green birds flap between trees. And then, abruptly, the forest ends, and we emerge onto a denuded plain where the sun beats down on road and car and red dust. I am here to see firsthand how the ultra-rich are remapping the Earth’s remaining wild places, deciding what is sacrificed and what is conserved and for whom. For me, this road into the Brazilian Amazon began a few weeks prior and nearly 5,000 miles away, on a different dirt road through a sprawling Montana ranch. I had followed that county road up through creek bottoms onto a rolling plateau of rangeland, where the southern front of the Crazy Mountains filled the windshield. I stopped the truck and stepped out into the quiet.” (04/06/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/yellowstone-billionaires-conservation-montana-deforest-amazon
-----
50) The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon
“Contemporary medicine is not failing for lack of knowledge. It is failing under the weight of its own complexity. The present era is defined by unprecedented access to data, advanced technologies, an ever-expanding network of subspecialties, and a dense architecture of protocols and performance metrics. Nearly every aspect of patient care can now be measured, quantified, and standardized. Interventions that were unimaginable only decades ago are now routine. Yet despite these advances, a fundamental element has been eroded. This erosion is philosophical.” (04/05/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-lost-art-of-medicine-what-maimonides-knew-that-we-forgot/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 04/06/26
Source: Reason
"Why Does Trump Want the Biggest Defense Budget Ever?" (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/why-does-trump-want-the-biggest-defense-budget-ever/
-----
52) Bulwark Takes, 04/06/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Major MAGA Revolt Over Trump’s ‘War Crime’ Plan.” (04/06/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5E8e5KJbo
-----
53) Rising, 04/06/26
Source: The Hill
“Niall Stanage gives his notes on President Trump’s controversial Truth Social post from this past weekend.” (04/06/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5814541-rising-april-6-2026/
-----
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/06/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Donald Trump’s ‘Bay of Pigs?'” (04/06/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1XxygmbXnDvGM
-----
55) Reason Interview: Ro Khanna
Source: Reason
“Congress Has Surrendered on War.” (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/ro-khanna-congress-has-surrendered-on-war/
-----
56) EconTalk, 04/06/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization.” (04/06/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-unseen-work-stewart-brand-on-maintenance-and-civilization/
-----
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 40
Source: Brookings Institution
“Teens are using AI — but not how we think.” (04/06/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/teens-are-using-aibut-not-how-we-think
-----
58) Serious Trouble, 04/05/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Strictly Prohibited Ballroom.” (04/05/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/strictly-prohibited-ballroom
-----
59) Fountainhead Forum, episode 434
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“David Friedman on anarchism, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and libertarianism.” (04/05/26)
https://rumble.com/v781yq2-ff-434-david-friedman-on-anarchism-ayn-rand-murray-rothbard-and-libertarian.html
-----
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“In Easter Post, Trump Threatens Iran With ‘Hell,’ US Loses at Least 6 Aircraft, and More.” (04/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4renuFEhGU
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iran: Regime’s 10-Point Proposal Demands an End to Attacks and Sanctions
2) After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home
3) UK: Resident doctors commence six-day walkout after rejecting pay deal
4) Bitcoin drops toward $68,000 as demand weakens and whales sell
5) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of allies
6) UK: Regime courts Anthropic with London expansion amid Pentagon feud
7) US appeals court: New Jersey regime cannot regulate Kalshi’s prediction market
8) Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked rescue of pilot
9) Meta to open source versions of its next AI models
10) Study: Birth weight may play role in stroke risk
11) Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Exposes ICE Gang Lie
12) Scientists identify “neural fingerprint” of psychedelic drugs in the brain
13) DR Congo: Regime agrees to take deportees from the US
14) SCOTUS paves way for Steve Bannon contempt case to be dismissed
15) Lebanon: Israeli forces destroy southern Lebanon towns, hit “safe” areas around Beirut
16) Nigeria: Regime troops rescue 31 Easter worshippers after deadly church attack
17) UK: Kanye West’s entry under regime review after festival outcry
18) Dog bites man: Senile reality TV star rages at SCOTUS because it may uphold Constitution
19) Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton for California governor
20) Explosives found near [sic] pipeline supplying gas to Serbia, Hungary
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we “sell” to them — US taxpayers do
22) Thin Libertarianism: Ideal Theory, PPE, & the Real World
23) US Troops In Iran Need To Start Disobeying Orders
24) The Populist War on Technological Capacity
25) Overcoming Failures of Imagination
26) One Blow After Another: The Leadership Team from Hell on a Hell of a Planet
27) For better tech, we must think bigger than content moderation
28) Ten Enduring Lessons from Adam Smith
29) Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Stupidity
30) As the Death Toll Rises in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Support for ICE Shrinks
31) AOC lifts the veil: She won’t help protect innocent civilians, if they’re Israelis
32) Free Trade Is Dead in Washington
33) Trump and Netanyahu: Two Madmen Playing God
34) MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
35) The Elusive Giffen Good, Once Again
36) Adam Smith on Slavery
37) Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired Long Ago
38) Beware the “experts”
39) Journalism’s Better Days
40) Congress Is Moving the Goalposts on Fiscal Responsibility
41) Himes Fact-Checked on “Misleading” Claims About Warrantless Spying
42) POTUS Goes Full Stone Age Retard
43) The Pentagon Has An Air Power Addiction
44) Confronting Both Zionism and the Antisemitism It Welcomes
45) Reclaiming our own birthright: We might need to amend the Constitution
46) A journalist who uses AI? The internet was not pleased.
47) Communism’s Obsolescence
48) A Delicate Balance
49) Fortress Yellowstone
50) The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 04/06/26
52) Bulwark Takes, 04/06/26
53) Rising, 04/06/26
54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/06/26
55) Reason Interview: Ro Khanna
56) EconTalk, 04/06/26
57) TechTank, season 5, episode 40
58) Serious Trouble, 04/05/26
59) Fountainhead Forum, episode 434
60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/05/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iran: Regime’s 10-Point Proposal Demands an End to Attacks and Sanctions
Source: New York Times
“Iran on Monday delivered a 10-point proposal to end the war with the United States and Israel, according to Iranian state media. … Two senior Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the proposal included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the lifting of all sanctions. In return, Iran would lift its de facto blockade of the key shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran would also impose a fee of roughly $2 million per ship that it would split with Oman, which sits across the strait. Iran would use its share of the proceeds to reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by American and Israeli attacks, rather than demand direct compensation, according to the plan.” (04/07/26)
https://archive.is/aZpf4
-----
2) After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home
Source: The Business Standard [Bangladesh]
“The Artemis II astronauts wrapped up their lunar flyby as they continue their journey back to Earth on Tuesday, bringing with them rich celestial observations including little-known lunar craters, a solar eclipse and meteor strikes that scientists hope will open doors. … The Orion capsule will now travel back to Earth in a so-called ‘free-return trajectory,’ a trip that will take about four days.” (04/07/26)
https://www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/usa/after-milestone-rich-lunar-flyby-astronauts-start-trip-home-1404866
-----
3) UK: Resident doctors commence six-day walkout after rejecting pay deal
Source: Independent [UK]
“Resident doctors have commenced a six-day walkout, marking their 15th round of industrial action, following the collapse of pay negotiations with the government. Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged that patients will be left ‘waiting in pain or anxiety longer than is necessary’ due to delayed appointments, though urgent and emergency care will continue. The British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a government offer that included a 4.9 per cent average basic pay increase from 2026-2027, while an offer for 1,000 extra training places was taken off the table last week.” (04/07/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/nhs-doctor-strike-six-day-streeting-b2952838.html
-----
4) Bitcoin drops toward $68,000 as demand weakens and whales sell
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin slid toward $68,000 on Tuesday, with traditional markets closed in Hong Kong for a long weekend, as repeated failures near $70,000 left the bitcoin market vulnerable to a break lower. The drop came after another failed push above $70,000, with prices slipping quickly once they approached the lower end of the $65,000 to $73,000 range that has defined trading since late March. Intraday losses accelerated near that boundary, highlighting how little support exists when momentum turns. That calm is not being driven by strong demand. Recent Glassnode data shows softer trading volumes and subdued onchain activity even as prices recover, indicating limited participation behind the move.” (04/07/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/04/07/bitcoin-drops-toward-usd68-000-as-demand-weakens-and-whales-sell
-----
5) Ukraine war: Kyiv regime steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of allies
Source: Independent [UK]
“Ukraine is continuing its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure despite calls from the West seeking to end such strikes. Russian officials on Sunday said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg. The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region said air defence units had repelled a 30-drone barrage. Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that some allies have signalled for Ukraine to reduce long-range strikes on Russia’s oil sector due to rising global energy prices. Zelensky said he would be happy to do so – but only if Russia reciprocates by stopping its own attacks on the Ukrainian grid.” (04/06/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-trump-putin-zelensky-drones-oil-network-b2945082.html
-----
6) UK: Regime courts Anthropic with London expansion amid Pentagon feud
Source: MSN
“British officials are moving swiftly to court Anthropic after the US Defense Department labeled it a supply-chain risk for refusing military use of its Claude AI system. The designation, currently blocked by a federal judge, has created a diplomatic and regulatory opening for the UK to position itself as a more supportive base for AI firms. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration is backing the pitch, which includes expanding Anthropic’s London operations and a potential London Stock Exchange listing.” (04/06/26)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/uk-courts-anthropic-with-london-expansion-amid-pentagon-feud/gm-GM5B53FB5E
-----
7) US appeals court: New Jersey regime cannot regulate Kalshi’s prediction market
Source: Reuters
“A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that New Jersey gaming regulators cannot prevent Kalshi from allowing people in the state to use its prediction market to place financial bets on the outcome of sporting events. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in finding that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the sports-related event contracts that Kalshi allows people to trade on its platform. … The ruling was in line with the position advanced in other litigation by the CFTC under President Donald Trump’s administration. The regulator last week sued Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois to prevent them from pursuing what it called unlawful efforts to regulate prediction markets.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/YHPs5
-----
8) Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked rescue of pilot
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“US President Donald Trump says a leak to the media about the existence of a second shot-down airman shortly after American troops rescued the first one threatened to upend the entire operation. The rescue of the F-15E pilot on Friday evening was first reported by Israeli media …. ‘We didn’t talk about the first [rescue] for an hour, and then somebody leaked something, which we’ll hopefully find that leaker,’ Trump says during a White House press conference on the weekend rescue mission. … ‘We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail,” he continues.” (04/06/26)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-threatens-to-jail-reporter-over-leaked-rescue-of-pilot-thought-to-have-come-from-israeli-defense-chief/
-----
9) Meta to open source versions of its next AI models
Source: Axios
“Meta is preparing to release the first new AI models developed under Alexandr Wang, with plans to eventually offer versions of those models via an open source license, Axios has learned. Meta has been the largest U.S. player to let others modify its frontier models, and there has been growing speculation the company might retreat from that strategy altogether. Before openly releasing versions of the new models, Meta wants to keep some pieces proprietary and to ensure they don’t add new levels of safety risk, according to sources.” (04/06/26)
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/06/meta-open-source-ai-models
-----
10) Study: Birth weight may play role in stroke risk
Source: NDTV [India]
“Your birth weight may be more important than your current adult weight when it comes to your risk of stroke later in life. A new study hints that people who were born with a low birthweight may face a higher risk of stroke in young adulthood, even if they are not overweight or underweight as adults. This suggests that what happens in the womb and during early birth can leave a long-term mark on the brain’s blood-supply system, which may show up as higher stroke risk several years later. The study is set to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO2026) in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May). Dr Lina Lilja and Dr Maria Bygdell of the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, who are study authors and colleagues say that low birthweight can be included in stroke risk assessment for adults.” (04/06/26)
https://www.ndtv.com/health/your-birth-weight-may-play-a-role-in-your-stroke-risk-than-your-current-adult-weight-says-new-study-11319692
-----
11) Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Exposes ICE Gang Lie
Source: New York Times
“Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating. … video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart. The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/nur7V
-----
12) Scientists identify “neural fingerprint” of psychedelic drugs in the brain
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Scientists have identified a hallmark signature produced by psychedelic drugs in the human brain when users experience their mind-altering effects. The ‘neural fingerprint’ of the psychedelic trip was spotted among hundreds of brain scans of people on LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline and ayahuasca, pointing to a shared impact on the brain’s behaviour. The finding emerged from a major study that combined 11 brain imaging datasets from around the world in an effort to build a reliable picture of how the substances temporarily rewire the brain. The insights are increasingly important as researchers investigate the drugs in clinical trials as potential therapies for severe mental health and neurological conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.” (04/06/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/06/scientists-identify-neural-fingerprint-of-psychedelic-drugs-in-the-brain
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13) DR Congo: Regime agrees to take deportees from the US
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to accept migrants deported from the US who are not themselves Congolese under a deal effective from this month, officials said. The Ministry of Communication said a temporary reception system had been set up, while facilities to accommodate arrivals had been selected in the capital, Kinshasa. ‘Logistical and technical support’ will be provided by the US, the statement on Sunday said, adding that the Congolese government would bear no financial cost for the scheme. The government did not say how many deportees they would accept. The US has already sent deportees to several other countries in Africa as part of Washington’s crackdown on immigration. Amid concerns that migrants could be returned to their home countries – where some fear persecution – Congolese officials said no such transfers are being planned.” (04/06/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20d35eejxgo
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14) SCOTUS paves way for Steve Bannon contempt case to be dismissed
Source: NBC News
“The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal case against Trump ally Steve Bannon over his failure to respond to congressional subpoenas. Although Bannon was convicted and served jail time, he and the Trump administration are now seeking to have the case thrown out after the fact, in what would be a mostly symbolic outcome. … Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with the subpoenas, which sought documents and testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters.” (04/06/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-paves-way-steve-bannon-contempt-case-dismissed-rcna261578
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15) Lebanon: Israeli forces destroy southern Lebanon towns, hit “safe” areas around Beirut
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Israel has launched renewed strikes on southern Lebanon as it continues to press forward with a ground invasion, while also waging new attacks on Beirut shortly after striking areas around the capital that had been so far removed from the conflict. … Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a string of attacks in the Jabal Amel region, south of the Litani River, including in the towns of Arzoun, Jouya, Hadatha, Jmeijmeh, Dbeibine and Haris. An Israeli drone struck near Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, killing one person and injuring a second, local media reported. Israel’s military has targeted bridges in southern Lebanon, in what observers say is an attempt to cut the area off from the rest of the country.” (04/06/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/6/israel-destroys-southern-lebanon-towns-hits-safe-areas-around-beirut
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16) Nigeria: Regime troops rescue 31 Easter worshippers after deadly church attack
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“The Nigerian military said Sunday it had rescued 31 worshippers seized from Easter celebrations in northwestern Kaduna state, though at least five others were killed, as the country’s security comes increasingly under international scrutiny. Gunmen raided a Catholic and an evangelical church, the Christian Association of Nigeria chairman for Kaduna state Caleb Bawa Ma’aji told AFP. The kidnapping at a village located around 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the capital, Abuja, occurred despite the police chief ordering a ‘massive security deployment’ including at places of worship during the Easter festival.” (04/06/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20260406-nigeria-troops-rescue-easter-worshippers-after-deadly-church-attack-christians
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17) UK: Kanye West’s entry under regime review after festival outcry
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The government is reviewing whether Kanye West should be allowed to enter the UK after a planned appearance by the US rapper at a London festival prompted criticism over his prior antisemitic comments. The star, now known as Ye, released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ and sold swastika T-shirts last year. He later apologised and blamed his bipolar disorder’s episodes of manic behaviour. Brands have withdrawn their sponsorships of Wireless Festival, and critics are calling on its organisers to cancel his appearance and for his visa to be denied. Ministers have the power to ban foreign nationals from the UK if their presence is not considered ‘conducive to the public good.’ It is understood that ministers are considering West’s permission to enter the UK.” (04/06/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwywnkdn3zno
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18) Dog bites man: Senile reality TV star rages at SCOTUS because it may uphold Constitution
Source: Independent [UK]
“President Donald Trump has lashed out at the U.S. Supreme Court as it weighs the future of birthright citizenship, characterizing the issue as a ‘money making hoax.’ ‘It’s too bad that the Supreme Court can’t watch and study the Mark Levin Show tonight on the Birthright Citizenship Scam,’ the president posted on Truth Social, late Easter Sunday. ‘If they saw it they would never allow that money making HOAX to continue. THEY SHOULD USE THEIR POWERS OF COMMON SENSE FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY.’ … On Life, Liberty and Levin, the show to which Trump alluded, the host had argued that there is no such thing as birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally [sic], echoing the revisionist, Trumpian point of view.” (04/06/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-b2952334.html
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19) Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton for California governor
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for California governor, reordering a crowded, wide-open race to lead the nation’s most populous state. Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator ‘a truly fine man’ who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, ‘has gone to hell.’ ‘With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!’ Trump added. The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump’s backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.” (04/06/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/trump-endorses-republican-steven-hilton-for-22191357.php
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20) Explosives found near [sic] pipeline supplying gas to Serbia, Hungary
Source: United Press International
“Explosives were found in a border area between Hungary and Serbia near a pipeline that carries Russian gas, and which both depend heavily on. Serbian president Aleksander Vucic said Sunday that the explosives were found in backpacks ‘a few hundred miles from the gas pipeline,’ and that he’d alerted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that an investigation was being mounted, CNN and The BBC reported. … The purchase and use of Russian oil by Hungary and Serbia, both of whose leaders are allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been controversial in Europe amid Putin’s now four-year-long war to take Ukraine.” [editor’s note: Is there any place in Hungary or Serbia that ISN’T within “a few hundred miles” of the pipeline? – TLK] (04/05/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/04/05/hungary-explosives-found-near-gas-pipeline-with-serbia/5261775429540/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we “sell” to them — US taxpayers do
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stephen Semler
“U.S. arms sales to Israel aren’t really sales, at least not in the typical sense. Israel’s position as purchaser in these weapons deals isn’t synonymous with funder. This is made clear in the arms sales notifications themselves. Consider the four most recent notified arms sales to Israel published in the Federal Register: $740 million for armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion for tactical vehicles and accessories, $3.8 billion for attack helicopters and related weaponry, and $150 million for utility helicopters and parts. After ‘Prospective Purchaser,’ all these notifications list Government of Israel. After ‘[Funding Source,’ all list Foreign Military Financing — or FMF, the U.S. military aid program through which Israel receives at least $3.3 billion a year. In practice, FMF functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on weapons. U.S. taxpayers are stuck paying for the gift card.” (04/06/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-arms-sales-to-israel/
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22) Thin Libertarianism: Ideal Theory, PPE, & the Real World
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“My own ideal theory is a classical liberal (libertarian) theory based on toleration. The view is necessarily very thin as it accepts that each person should be free to choose and act on their own conception of the good and thus live very different sorts of lives. All of those are to be tolerated unless they involve harm to others. … Importantly, having an ideal theory does not mean thinking we ought to stop with ideal theory. … I must recognize that there will be scenarios in the real world that challenge my own intuitions about what ought to be permitted when people would have difficulty exiting even when their right to do so is protected and figure out how to respond to that.” (04/06/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thin-libertarianism-ideal-theory
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23) US Troops In Iran Need To Start Disobeying Orders
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At this point if you’re in the US military you have a moral obligation to start refusing orders. Desert. Become a conscientious objector. Ideally, get everyone together and launch a full-scale military coup. We’re in ‘Mad King’ territory. Someone’s gotta do what needs to be done. Promoters of this war told the world it was about liberating the Iranian people from tyranny to bring them freedom and democracy. Now that they got their war it’s about bombing them ‘back to the Stone Age,’ stealing their oil, and blowing up their bridges and power plants. The only people dumber than Americans who bought into Trump’s ‘ending the wars’ shtick are the Iranians who believed the United States was going to bring freedom to their country.” (04/06/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/06/us-troops-need-to-start-disobeying-orders-in-iran-and-other-notes/
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24) The Populist War on Technological Capacity
Source: The Dispatch
by Mar Oestreich
“This global race for AI dominance through abundant, scalable power and computation is already underway. Yet much of our domestic debate fixates on scarcity as if the pie were fixed forever, which leads to moralized calls about who then gets to use the limited resources we have. Once electricity becomes a hierarchy of virtue, you may not like where you land. This reflex is bipartisan. On the right, suspicion settles on coastal tech elites siphoning power from ‘real Americans.’ On the left, it gathers around corporate excess and environmental harm. When confidence in builders erodes, it does not leave a vacuum: Gatekeepers step forward. … Once you decide the pie cannot grow, an authority must divide it, looking for villains, assigning virtue, declaring some uses essential and others indulgent.” (04/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/ai-data-centers-nimby/
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25) Overcoming Failures of Imagination
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“In a 1961 speech, President John F. Kennedy captured the imagination of the people. He asked the world to see a man on the moon. Back then, such could only be a feat of technocracy — the idea that officials can work wonders if they have enough experts and largesse. And they did it. But, the moon landing had been peak technocracy — pushing the limits of what could be achieved in terms of expense, tax funding, and complication. Prior to that, though, Kennedy had put a symbol in people’s minds.” (04/06/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/overcoming-failures-of-imagination
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26) One Blow After Another: The Leadership Team from Hell on a Hell of a Planet
Source: TomDispatch
by Michael Klare
“On March 13th, buried in the New York Times’s coverage of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict was a headline that would have been easy to miss amid the din of war coverage: ‘As El Niño Simmers, Scientists Warn of Weather Extremes Starting in Late Summer.’ Many readers may not even have noticed it, but that article noted that scientists at the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had raised their estimate for an El Niño event this summer from 60% to about 80%. Admittedly, in this strange world of ours, that hardly seemed like an earth-shattering revelation. But if you had read the piece more closely, your alarm bells should instantly have gone off.” (04/05/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-leadership-team-from-hell-on-a-hell-of-a-planet/
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27) For better tech, we must think bigger than content moderation
Source: hypertext
by Kristen Collins
“Content-focused policies risk censoring speech without fixing the underlying business model that pushes noxious material where it will do the most damage.” (04/06/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/for-better-tech-we-must-think-bigger
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28) Ten Enduring Lessons from Adam Smith
Source: The Daily Economy
by Nikolai G Wenzel
“From technocrats to central planners, the temptation to engineer society persists. Adam Smith saw the dangers clearly.” (04/06/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-wealth-of-nations-at-250-ten-profound-quotations-from-adam-smith/
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29) Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Stupidity
Source: CounterPunch
by John Feffer
“Perhaps Donald Trump was persuaded—by his generals, by his buddies in Silicon Valley, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—that American military superiority would make quick work of the Iranian military. In addition to the aircraft carriers, the Stealth bombers, the Tomahawk missiles, and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Trump could also call upon the assistance of Claude and his buddies.” (04/06/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/06/artificial-intelligence-versus-human-stupidity/
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30) As the Death Toll Rises in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Support for ICE Shrinks
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan
“Deaths in ICE custody hit a 20-year high in 2025 and a majority now say the agency’s actions make Americans less safe.” (for publication 05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/06/a-deadly-immigration-crackdown/
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31) AOC lifts the veil: She won’t help protect innocent civilians, if they’re Israelis
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) is now opposed to funding defensive shields that could save the lives of innocent civilians — if they are Israelis. Seems like she’s trying to win back the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America that spurned her in 2024 for not hating the Jewish state enough. Or maybe she’s just showing her true colors. Her re-hardened anti-Israel position comes even though she isn’t facing any significant opposition in her re-election campaign, which raises and spends so much money it’s more like a good-sized business than a scrappy Bronx-Queens political operation; she doesn’t need the DSA’s endorsement. But she got her fellow antisemitic socialists mad at her because she abstained from voting to deny funding for Israel’s strictly defensive Iron Dome project, which protects Israelis — Jewish and Arab — from the tens of thousands of missiles that have been lobbed from Iran’s regional terror proxies.” (04/06/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/06/opinion/aoc-lifts-the-veil-she-wont-help-protect-innocent-civilians-so-long-as-theyre-israelis/
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32) Free Trade Is Dead in Washington
Source: Foreign Policy
by Bob Davis
“To understand U.S. trade policy, it’s best to think of chaos theory: the search for a pattern behind seemingly haphazard events. Donald Trump is the chaos agent in this case, threatening countries on a whim with sky-high tariffs like the Queen of Hearts thundering, ‘Off with their heads.’ But beyond the seeming disorder, there is more of a Washington consensus on trade policy than is often not commonly recognized — and it dates back to the late Obama years.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/GW8Ce
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33) Trump and Netanyahu: Two Madmen Playing God
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs
“Donald Trump and his partner in war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu, are jointly waging a war of murderous aggression against Iran, a nation of 90 million people. They are in the grip of three cascading pathologies. The first is personality: both are malignant narcissists. The second is the arrogance of power: men who possess the power to command nuclear annihilation and feel, in consequence, no restraint. The third, and most dangerous of all, is religious delusion: two men who believe, and are told daily by those around them, that they are messiahs doing God’s work. Each pathology exacerbates the others, so that together they put the world in unprecedented danger.” (04/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/netanyahu-trump-psychopaths-war-criminals
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34) MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“Strange bedfellows defined the coalition that carried Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and 2024. Evangelicals, libertarians, nationalists, and traditional Republicans, groups with little agreement on core policy, laid down their knives on those November Tuesdays to rally behind a whimsical, big-city showman who built, and often mismanaged, his inherited empire. Trump was their champion — a comedian, a performer, but, most importantly, a fighter. If MAGA was anything, it was a coalition bound less by shared policy goals than by a shared sense of grievance and a love for the game. And we were played. I should know. I voted for the man. His faults now exposed for the world to see are, in part, my own.” (04/06/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/maga-champion-need-not-apply/
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35) The Elusive Giffen Good, Once Again
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Mark Thornton
“The mysterious Giffen has once again risen from the ashes. In this iteration, it’s silver in the red-hot precious metals market. This so-called anomaly makes for a great story and interesting explanation, but it does not represent a genuine exception or a valid attack on the fundamental laws of economics. It is another example of the questionable scholarship of the Grand Wizard of Mainstream economics, Alfred Marshall.” (04/06/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/elusive-giffen-good-once-again
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36) Adam Smith on Slavery
Source: EconLog
by Jack Russell Weinstein
“Smith did not think that sympathy would lead to masters sympathizing with their slaves, but he seemed to have faith that it could motivate abolitionists to push for change. He did not think politics or religion could end slavery, but had enough faith in economic persuasion that he dedicated time to the problem in his classes. He knew that he was educating the next generation of Scottish leaders and lamented, to them, that he doubted economic motivation would be sufficient for masters to liberate those under their yoke: ‘It is indeed allmost impossible that it should ever be totally or generally abolished,’ even in ‘a republican government.’ What, then, could the abolitionist hope for? The answer may be only the uneven progress of history.” (04/06/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/adam-smith-on-slavery
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37) Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired Long Ago
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“Pam Bondi was fired last week because she deserved to be. I know she’s popular among some, but she was not popular with President Donald Trump, and that’s all that really mattered. The leadership in the Justice Department, including the FBI, has been horrible and feckless. Now that she’s gone, someone has to say that former Attorney General Bondi deserved to lose her job.” (04/06/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2026/04/06/pam-bondi-deserved-to-be-fired-long-ago-n2673949
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38) Beware the “experts”
Source: spiked
by Cory Franklin
“In a Chicago Tribune article last year I wrote, ‘In an ever more complex society, have we run the risk of becoming overly dependent on experts – delegating decisions and responsibilities to them that are outside their domain?’ Several readers called me out, justifiably. They asked whether it was a good idea for anyone other than an expert to fly my plane or perform my open-heart surgery. Point taken. I have spent a lot of time both in planes and operating rooms. Without question, I want experts calling the shots in both of them. … My mistake was in failing to point out the distinction between experts with technical knowledge (the ones who actually know how to do things) and experts who have earned their status primarily as a result of their educational credentials or public opinions.” (04/06/26)
https://archive.is/mC3hH
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39) Journalism’s Better Days
Source: Law & Liberty
by DG Hart
“Younger Americans, born after 1985, may have no frame of reference for the current state of journalism which is highly partisan and considered untrustworthy (at least to partisans on the opposite side). The Gallup Organization’s data shows that trust in ‘Mass Media’ (not identical to but related to journalism) is way down, from 72 percent in 1976 to 28 percent in 2025. The reverse is also true. People who answered positively to survey questions about trust in media, whether they had ‘None at all,’ went from 4 percent in 1976 to 34 percent in 2025. In between those answers was ‘Not very much’ trust in media, which hit a high point of 41 percent in 2016 and has fluctuated since (36 percent in 2025).” (04/06/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/journalisms-better-days/
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40) Congress Is Moving the Goalposts on Fiscal Responsibility
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia
“Washington has a habit of changing its budget goals — not because the country solved the spending-driven debt problem, but because each goal proved harder than lawmakers were willing to confront. I remember working on fiscal policy in 2011, when lawmakers still talked about balancing the budget. It was an intuitive target. If the government only spent what it collected in revenues, the debt problem would eventually disappear. Simple in theory. Difficult to achieve in practice.” (04/06/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-is-moving-the-goalposts-on-fiscal-responsibility/
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41) Himes Fact-Checked on “Misleading” Claims About Warrantless Spying
Source: The American Prospect
by James Baratta
“After being ambushed by privacy activists outside a town hall in southern Connecticut last week, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke at length about the urgency of extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the warrantless spying program he has been actively lobbying Democratic colleagues to support without reforms. The 702 program is set to expire on April 20. Himes assured protestors that ‘anything I said today, you can sort of check if you want’. In a press release Friday, organizers with QuitGPT and a number of Connecticut-based advocacy groups held him to it: ‘Unfortunately, Himes repeated several false and misleading statements about FISA, the data broker loophole, and AI surveillance.’ Their comments came just hours after a separate virtual town hall last Friday where Himes ‘repeated many of the same statements’ about Section 702.” (04/06/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/06/jim-himes-warrantless-spying-fisa-house-committee-intelligence-ai-surveillance/
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42) POTUS Goes Full Stone Age Retard
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Stockman
“It’s pretty clear what the TV screen caption should have read as the Donald expectorated a veritable shower of bully boy phlegm and sputum at the White House cameras last night: ‘Attention JD Vance – activate the 25th Amendment now, POTUS has gone full retard into veritable delusionary madness.’ That’s right. There was hardly a sentence in the speech that accords with reality in any way shape or form. Not even remotely. … The yawning disconnect with reality, however, was probably best revealed by Trump’s utterly ludicrous contention that that if he had not cancelled Obama’s JCPOA in May 2018 Iran would have nuked the entire middle east and Israel into oblivion by now.” (04/06/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2026/04/05/potus-goes-full-stone-age-retard
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43) The Pentagon Has An Air Power Addiction
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño
“Iran is not some fragile backwater that will crumble under the weight of American bombs. It is a civilization state with thousands of years of continuous existence, a population of ninety million people, and a geography of mountains, deserts, and underground fortifications specifically designed to resist foreign subjugation. The notion that air power alone can decapitate its leadership, destroy its infrastructure, and produce regime change represents a fantasy that scholars have debunked repeatedly over the past century. Yet here we are, over a month into Operation Epic Fury, watching Washington learn these lessons the hard way.” (04/06/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-pentagon-has-an-air-power-addiction
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44) Confronting Both Zionism and the Antisemitism It Welcomes
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“We must all confront Israel, but we must also confront this toxic runoff along with it and we must confront them both simultaneously with the weapon of history. The Jews are not the problem here, Zionism is, and Zionism has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism or the Semitic people. In fact, Zionism is really just another malignant cell of white supremacy, and it has long disdained both Judaism and most people of Semitic de[s]cent. Zionism emerged from central and eastern Europe during the mid-19th century as a distinctly secular strain of the same European national swamp that would fester into fascism and national socialism, and it caried many of the same characteristics too; devotion to such toxically contrived notions as ‘blood and soil’ and scientific racism, not to mention a pronounced disdain for the east, including the Jews who once closely identified with it.” (04/05/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/04/confronting-both-zionism-and.html
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45) Reclaiming our own birthright: We might need to amend the Constitution
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley
“‘Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.’ Those words from Chief Justice John Roberts during this week’s oral arguments signaled that the conservative justices are unlikely to reject birthright citizenship. Of course, nothing is certain until this summer when the Court issues its opinion in Trump v. Barbara. However, we need to consider the need for a 28th Amendment to reaffirm [sic] the meaning of citizenship. As some of us stressed before the oral argument, the odds were against the administration prevailing in the case, given more than a century of countervailing precedent. There are good-faith arguments against reading the 14th Amendment as supporting citizenship for any child born in this country.” [editor’s note: Yes, it is POSSIBLE to be constitutionally and historically illiterate and therefore believe nonsense “in good faith.” But it’s an odd admission for Turley to make – TLK] (04/06/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5815807-reclaiming-our-own-birthright-we-might-need-to-amend-the-constitution/
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46) A journalist who uses AI? The internet was not pleased.
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“On Thursday morning, I sat down with one of my chatbots and asked it to round up the best takes on a recent social media controversy. The results were unsatisfying — hallucinations, apologies and search results that weren’t what I’d asked for. After several prompts and corrections, the chatbot seemed to give up. Shortly thereafter, so did I. Fortunately, I was intimately familiar with this controversy, since I touched it off. In social media parlance, I was ‘the main character,’ so I already had plenty of raw material and could see how badly ChatGPT had failed. But if you’re hoping for a column on why artificial intelligence is useless, I regret to disappoint.” (04/05/26)
https://archive.is/OAJpF
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47) Communism’s Obsolescence
Source: Quillette
by Michael Aaron Cody
“The structural case for why collectivist systems fail.” (04/05/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/04/05/communisms-obsolescence/
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48) A Delicate Balance
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“‘Strong, if not perfect’ was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s verdict on the trade deal hammered out between the United States and the European Union (EU) and signed at Turnberry, Scotland, in July 2025. Nothing is perfect, of course — but the carefully hedged endorsement has appeared increasingly prophetic as the deal overcame hurdles and was finally voted through by the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee on March 19, 2026, by 29 votes to 9, and by the wider Parliament on March 26, by 417 votes to 154. The road to passing was not a smooth one.” (04/05/26)
https://fee.org/articles/a-delicate-balance/
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49) Fortress Yellowstone
Source: In These Times
by Joseph Bullington
“The taxi judders uphill into a forest brimming with life. Palm fronds droop over the road like huge, oily hands, and green birds flap between trees. And then, abruptly, the forest ends, and we emerge onto a denuded plain where the sun beats down on road and car and red dust. I am here to see firsthand how the ultra-rich are remapping the Earth’s remaining wild places, deciding what is sacrificed and what is conserved and for whom. For me, this road into the Brazilian Amazon began a few weeks prior and nearly 5,000 miles away, on a different dirt road through a sprawling Montana ranch. I had followed that county road up through creek bottoms onto a rolling plateau of rangeland, where the southern front of the Crazy Mountains filled the windshield. I stopped the truck and stepped out into the quiet.” (04/06/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/yellowstone-billionaires-conservation-montana-deforest-amazon
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50) The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon
“Contemporary medicine is not failing for lack of knowledge. It is failing under the weight of its own complexity. The present era is defined by unprecedented access to data, advanced technologies, an ever-expanding network of subspecialties, and a dense architecture of protocols and performance metrics. Nearly every aspect of patient care can now be measured, quantified, and standardized. Interventions that were unimaginable only decades ago are now routine. Yet despite these advances, a fundamental element has been eroded. This erosion is philosophical.” (04/05/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-lost-art-of-medicine-what-maimonides-knew-that-we-forgot/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 04/06/26
Source: Reason
"Why Does Trump Want the Biggest Defense Budget Ever?" (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/why-does-trump-want-the-biggest-defense-budget-ever/
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52) Bulwark Takes, 04/06/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Major MAGA Revolt Over Trump’s ‘War Crime’ Plan.” (04/06/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5E8e5KJbo
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53) Rising, 04/06/26
Source: The Hill
“Niall Stanage gives his notes on President Trump’s controversial Truth Social post from this past weekend.” (04/06/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5814541-rising-april-6-2026/
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54) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/06/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Donald Trump’s ‘Bay of Pigs?'” (04/06/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1XxygmbXnDvGM
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55) Reason Interview: Ro Khanna
Source: Reason
“Congress Has Surrendered on War.” (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/ro-khanna-congress-has-surrendered-on-war/
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56) EconTalk, 04/06/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization.” (04/06/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-unseen-work-stewart-brand-on-maintenance-and-civilization/
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57) TechTank, season 5, episode 40
Source: Brookings Institution
“Teens are using AI — but not how we think.” (04/06/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/teens-are-using-aibut-not-how-we-think
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58) Serious Trouble, 04/05/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Strictly Prohibited Ballroom.” (04/05/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/strictly-prohibited-ballroom
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59) Fountainhead Forum, episode 434
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“David Friedman on anarchism, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and libertarianism.” (04/05/26)
https://rumble.com/v781yq2-ff-434-david-friedman-on-anarchism-ayn-rand-murray-rothbard-and-libertarian.html
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60) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“In Easter Post, Trump Threatens Iran With ‘Hell,’ US Loses at Least 6 Aircraft, and More.” (04/05/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4renuFEhGU
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