Unattended Baggage, episode 352
Source: Unattended Baggage
“US Navy: It’s what’s for dinner!” (08/15/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-352-us-navy-its-whats-for
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
DNC boots New Hampshire further down the presidential primary calendar
Source: WCVB 5 News
“100 years of presidential political history may now be just that – history. On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) made its primary calendar official, as it voted to put South Carolina first in its presidential nominating calendar. The move comes amidst a renewed drama between the DNC and the state of New Hampshire, which has long served as the ‘First in the Nation’ primary state. The party voted in line with a prior vote by the party’s Rules & Bylaws Committee to establish South Carolina first, Nevada second and New Hampshire third. … State law in New Hampshire requires it to hold its primary before any other similar primary contest.” (08/16/26)
The Right To Be Left Alone
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano
“The rapid spread of public surveillance cameras represents something far more consequential than a new piece of police technology. It represents a fundamental change in the relationship between the individual and the state. These cameras allow government agents to record, identify, catalog and retroactively track the movements of people who have committed no crime, are suspected of no wrongdoing and have done nothing to invite government scrutiny. That’s not public safety. It’s an assault upon individual privacy. Privacy is not a privilege granted by government. It is an aspect of personal liberty that government exists to protect. It is a natural human right protected from the government in the Bill of Rights. The fact that a person leaves his home and travels upon a public road does not mean that he has surrendered that right.” (08/14/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/08/13/the-right-to-be-left-alone-2/
Israel: Ben-Gvir calls for “killing 30-40 people in Gaza every night”
Source: WION [India]
“Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has made another shocking statement calling for genocide of Palestinians. In a podcast, he said that Israeli forces should ‘kill 30 or 40 people in Gaza every night’ and go beyond ‘those who pose a danger at that particular moment.’ He advocated for building Jewish settlements throughout the entirety of the Gaza Strip and called for the permanent, engineered mass emigration of the Palestinian population out of Gaza to other countries, while stating that ‘terrorists’ should not be allowed to emigrate but rather be killed ‘one by one.’ … The remarks are the latest in a long record of extreme statements from Ben-Gvir, who sits in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government and controls Israel’s police and prison services.” (08/17/26)
Decentralization is Insurance
Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell
“[D]ecentralization prevents a lot. The idea is that because you control and own your own data, and because the entire network isn’t owned by a single person or company, you have long-term freedom that can’t get taken away by the whims of the company behind whatever platform you’re using. On a centralized and closed platform, if ownership shuts it down or changes it in ways you find intolerable, you’ve got two options: stick it out and suffer or leave and lose all your friends. On a decentralized and open network, if the particular piece of it you’re on (the server, the app) shuts it down or changes it in ways you find intolerable, you’ve got a third option: head somewhere else, but keep your connections to all your friends. … Decentralization is, in other words, insurance. And that’s why it’s such a hard sell.” (08/14/26)
Blanche says DOJ may take states’ voter roll fight to SCOTUS
Source: NBC News
“Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday there’s a ‘possibility’ that the Justice Department will ask the Supreme Court to intervene in dozens of cases in which judges have ruled against the federal government’s efforts to gain broad access to state voter rolls ahead of November’s midterm elections. ‘Absolutely, it’s a possibility,’ Blanche told NBC News’[s] ‘Meet the Press’ when asked whether he’d appeal the 22 cases the Justice Department has lost so far to the Supreme Court. … The cases stem from an executive order Trump signed asking [sic] states to turn over their voter rolls, including voters’ names, dates of birth, residential addresses, state driver’s licenses and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.” (08/16/26)
What can Libertarians Learn from Foucault?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“Before reading Mark Pennington’s recent book, Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom, it would not have occurred to me that libertarians could learn anything from the social theories of Michel Foucault. Pennington has persuaded me that some beliefs associated with Foucault, and postmodernism more generally, are not devoid of merit. As will be discussed below, however, the beliefs that he identifies as postmodern differ somewhat from the collection of beliefs that I have hitherto associated with postmodernism.” (08/16/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/08/what-can-libertarians-learn-from.html
Ukraine targets Moscow in mass drone attack as Russia bombards Kyiv
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least one person has been killed and three have been wounded in a Ukrainian drone barrage targeting Moscow, a local official says, as Russia has bombarded Kyiv with ballistic missiles. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it destroyed 822 drones across the country overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on social media early on Sunday that the city was targeted with 600 drones and ‘201 drones were destroyed in Moscow region’. … The drone assault came after Ukrainian authorities said late on Saturday that at least one person was killed and seven were wounded in Russian air attacks.” (08/16/26)
Ninety-One Years of Social Security: The Case for Personal Retirement Accounts
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
‘FDR signed the program into law in 1935. Demographic shifts and federal spending created trillions in unfunded liabilities. Private accounts offer a direct path to real wealth.” (08/14/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/ninety-one-years-of-social-security
Families of US sailors denounce Trump and Hegseth for “dismissing their experiences and calling them liars”
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring. … The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard. When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions on board, he replied: ‘No, they’re not.’ He said that the Lincoln’s deployment, now in its ninth month, was ‘not nearly long enough’. Earlier, Hegseth also swatted away families’ concerns, saying that the reality onboard the Lincoln had been ‘completely misrepresented’.” (08/16/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/16/navy-families-denounce-trump-hegseth