So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, episode 284
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“Venezuela is a cautionary tale w/ Jim Epstein and Germania Rodriguez Poleo.” (10/07/26)
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
The Donald’s Quixote Is Tilting at Iranian Windmills
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Stockman
“Treasury Secy Scott Bessent clearly endeavors to be the second Pete Hegseth of Trump World, albeit via packing heat in the form of economic missiles rather than the kinetic kind. In fact, however, his ballyhooed Operation Economic Outcast actually amounts to the greatest windmill tilting operations since Don Quixote himself. So let’s cut to the chase right up front. To wit, Bessent’s premise that he can switch-off Iran’s military payroll and bring the regime to its knees by driving its oil exports to zero is wholly delusionary. The former (regime collapse) does not remotely follow from the latter (oil exports at zero), which for all practical purposes has already happened. So herein we endeavor to explain why cutting off Iran’s oil exports isn’t any kind of war-winning silver bullet at all.” (10/07/26)
Pharmaceutical Lobby Sues Trump Regime Over Most-Favored-Nation Pricing
Source: US News & World Report
“The pharmaceutical industry’s top lobby group on Wednesday sued to invalidate one piece of the Trump administration’s efforts to benchmark US drug prices to lower costs overseas in the Medicare health insurance program, arguing that it is an illegal overreach by the US government. … The PhRMA lobby group filed its lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US Department of Health and Human Services he runs, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and two of its officials. The lobby group argues in its lawsuit that CMS, Medicare’s regulator, has stretched the authority of a program to test new pricing ideas into rewriting Medicare’s pricing structure without congressional action.” (10/07/26)
What did Netanyahu know before Oct. 7?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Blaise Malley
“His re-election prospects are threatened as recent investigations detail alerts from abroad in the days and weeks before the 2023 Hamas attack.” (10/07/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/benjamin-netanyahu-october-7-warning/
UK: Reform investigates its employees, concludes they did nothing wrong
Source: Politico
“Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has published an internal investigation purporting to clear two senior aides who were caught in an undercover donations sting. The party is now threatening legal action against the TV company that produced the report alleging that they discussed how the party could receive a £500,000 donation from a fake U.S. donor. The review ‘found no evidence’ that either Dan Jukes, Farage’s long-term right-hand man, or James Orr, his policy chief, broke any laws. … A party official, granted anonymity to discuss internal matters, told POLITICO the pair’s futures will only be decided after the conclusion of a Metropolitan Police investigation. Scotland Yard is investigating multiple ‘potential offences’ arising from the broadcast of footage showing discussions about how the party could receive donations from an overseas donor and also asking a bogus company to pay for polls commissioned by officials.” (10/07/26)
Reasonably Optimistic, 10/07/26
Source: Washington Post
“How America can recover from Trump-era politics.” (10/07/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/how-america-can-recover-from-trumpera-politics/
Debt and Profit
Source: EconLog
by Valentin Boboc
“An ordinary person can earn a paycheque, pay her taxes, cover living costs and mortgage payments, and perhaps even add to her savings — and at the end of the day she will still owe most of her mortgage. This is a normal state of affairs, and nobody finds it puzzling. Yet when a company reports profits alongside large amounts of debt, the reaction is often to question whether it’s really making money. After all, if a company is ‘truly’ profitable, why is it in debt? The short answer is that debt is not the opposite of profit. Loss is the opposite of profit. This imagined contradiction is easier to resolve once we recognize that profit is a flow and debt is a stock.” (10/07/26)
Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/07/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Punching The Panda: US Deploys New Missile System Near China.” (10/07/26)
Prettifying Executions Does Not Make Them Quicker or More Reliable
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“After Tennessee unsuccessfully tried to execute Christa Pike last week, an ambulance whisked her to a Nashville hospital, where the condemned murderer became a patient in urgent need of lifesaving care. Should Pike recover from two botched administrations of pentobarbital, which left her unconscious and unable to breathe on her own, she might travel that road in reverse after she is well enough to be killed. That bizarre episode illustrates the perverse consequences of trying to disguise the brutal reality of capital punishment by dressing it in medical garb. Although most Americans say murderers like Pike should be executed, the method they prefer suggests they are squeamish about admitting what that entails.” (10/07/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/07/prettifying-executions-does-not-make-them-quicker-or-more-reliable/
Trump regime proposes $70,000 fee for international students to work in the US
Source: Firstpost [India]
“In a latest move by the Trump administration to tighten restrictions on foreign students, the US Department of Homeland Security has proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to participate in a programme that allows them to work in the United States. Under the proposed rule, colleges and universities would have to pay the fee for each international student entering the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme. The programme enables foreign students to work in positions connected to their fields of study while completing their education or after graduation. International students are generally permitted to work through OPT for up to one year after completing their studies. Those graduating from certain science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes can qualify for an additional two years. Schools would be required to pay the $70,000 for each new student’s initial application to the program, and a $30,000 fee for each renewal.” (10/07/26)