It’s a FIREHOSE FRIDAY at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — we’ve got at least 125 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links for you today at our web edition (maybe more by the time you read this).
Why? Three reasons:
First, to remind our email digest subscribers of a change, effective a month or so ago, that you might have missed: EVERY day is now a “drink from the firehose” day, with extra content above and beyond the 60-70 items in the email edition. We usually have AT LEAST 15-20 extra links for you, sometimes more. So after you’ve looked at the digest, come on over for a visit at the web if you want more!
Second, to remind our web readers that we DO offer a daily email digest. It’s one, and only one, email message a day — no spam, and we never sell, rent, or share our subscriber list — with 60-70 handy summaries and links.
And third, of course, to remind our readers that we’re a reader-supported publication. We try to go easy on fundraising nine months out of the year (we run one real “fundraiser” in the fourth quarter), but we do have to occasionally bring it up. You can help out at:
“Iran’s missiles set alight a refinery and damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait on Friday as Israeli and U.S. strikes kept hitting Iran. As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists in Iran reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan.” (04/03/26)
“From public-health policy to climate change, more and more issues are being removed from public control and handed to ostensibly neutral specialists. Though they may maintain a façade of democratic procedure, today’s Western societies are largely governed by an alliance between expert knowledge and managerial power. They would be more accurately described by the term ‘technocracy.’ Cast your mind back to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was not an aberration, but a revelation. … We might, understandably, be inclined to regard the Covid lockdowns as a bad memory – something best forgotten. But that would be a mistake. The state overreach, censorship, obsession with risk and distrust in people’s ability to make their own decisions were not exceptions to the norm, but the new norm.” (04/02/26)
“The Fifth Column marks ten years with a live, loose, alcohol-assisted celebration featuring Thor Halvorssen, Pete Meijer, Olivia Reingold, Nick Gillespie, and Nancy Rommelmann, with stops along the way for Venezuela, culture war absurdity, Jewish identity, sexual politics, old stories, new grievances, and the usual refusal to keep anything on the rails.” (04/02/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post, a White House official said on Thursday, following mounting frustration with her performance, including her handling of investigative files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump had also reportedly grown frustrated that Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries who he wanted to face criminal charges. In a social media post, Trump praised Bondi as ‘a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend’ and said she will move to a job in the private sector. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, will lead the Justice Department in the interim.” (04/02/26)
“There is no doubt that Congress has traded away a lot of its authority over trade policy in the past few decades. But, as the Trump administration is now learning, those policies do not allow for the open-ended, anything-goes approach that Trump wants to take. The IEEPA tariffs were tripped up by the plain text of the underlying law, which courts at all levels agreed did not include the power to tariff. The new Section 122 tariffs face a similar legal challenge over the administration’s attempt to read broad powers into a narrowly tailored law. There is an easy solution to all this. Put a tariff bill in front of Congress. Of course, there is an equally obvious reason why Trump has refused to do that. It would be unlikely to pass.” [editor’s note: And even if it did pass, taxation would still be theft – TLK] (04/02/26)
“Russian forces maintained a day-long barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 impacts from drones. Further south, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said a Russian attack damaged a high-rise apartment building and a local business. No injuries were reported. Over the border in Russia’s Belgorod Region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said 13 people were injured in a series of drone attacks, 11 of them in the village of Shebekino, just inside the border.” (04/02/26)
“When President Trump launched his war on Iran, attention fixed on missiles, drones and the risks of escalation. The real story lay elsewhere: a grandiose and ultimately reckless vision of American ‘energy dominance’ that helped propel Washington into war. This was not simply a security decision, but an economic and ideological gamble rooted in Trump’s long-held belief that U.S. control over international energy flows would translate into global geopolitical supremacy and arrest America’s relative decline. In his second term, that belief hardened into doctrine. But in Iran, it collided with reality.” (04/02/26)
“After aggressively accumulating Bitcoin over the past two years, several public companies are now reversing course. With BTC hovering around $66K and prolonged price weakness weighing on balance sheets, firms, especially mining companies, are increasingly offloading holdings to stay liquid.” (04/03/26)
“Afroman can’t beat qualified immunity, and neither can you. But wait, didn’t he win his case? That’s what all the headlines are saying. Yes. He overcame his defamation case. It’s a great victory for free speech. But before that case ever went to trial, he lost a fight that few are talking about. … He wanted the deputies held accountable for the damage they did to his home: the broken door, the smashed gate, the detached cameras, and the $400 in cash that went ‘missing’ during the raid. The judge dismissed his claims. No jury. No hearing. Just gone. Think about that. The deputies got a full jury trial over hurt feelings from a music video. But … Afroman couldn’t get a hearing over a broken door and ‘missing’ money.” (04/02/26)
“Rich, Lori, and Riley discuss the Free State Project endorsing racism, whether or not facts can be racist, why poor people should just live within their means and have babies if they want to, and why Gen Z should just stop whining.” (04/02/26)
