Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“President Donald Trump has said the US will ‘substantially reduce’ joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his ‘very good relationship’ with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. He also noted on Truth Social that South Korea had recently declined to join the US in the ‘denuclearisation’ of Iran. ‘These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile,’ Trump posted. Seoul said it was reviewing Trump’s comments, adding it hoped a favourable relationship between Washington and Pyongyang could lead to meaningful talks. Pyongyang has not yet commented.” (08/17/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2lll7zvn0o
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Normally when we speak of ‘losing’ something or ‘costing’ something, it’s in terms of already having that thing. You lose $50 on a bet, or a steak dinner costs you $50. Using the definition preferred by supporters of ever-increasing government revenue, though, I ‘lost’ thousands of dollars yesterday when I walked past a bank instead of walking in, waving a gun at the tellers, and taking all the cash from their drawers. It ‘cost’ me thousands of dollars. And committing to not robbing every bank I happen to walk past in the future ‘costs’ me too. I’m ‘losing’ all that money! Oh, the humanity! … even if one supports taxation for the purpose of funding government operations, it’s beyond dishonest to claim that cutting, or just not raising, taxes is a ‘cost’ or a ‘loss’ to government.” (08/15/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20835
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
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)
https://www.wcvb.com/article/dnc-moves-new-hampshire-further-down-the-presidential-primary-calendar/73444424
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/
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)
https://www.wionews.com/world/israeli-minister-ben-gvir-calls-for-killing-30-40-people-in-gaza-every-night-iran-reacts-1786946991609
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)
https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/3mt3irnsmf225
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)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/attorney-general-todd-blanche-doj-state-voter-rolls-supreme-court-rcna592721
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
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)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/16/russian-strikes-kill-ukrainian-woman-as-nato-jet-downs-drone-over-romania
