Hey, everyone …
As of Friday, we were $296.66 short of making our year-end fundraiser goal.
Between then and now, P&KAW, PH, WW, T, and JR contributed a total of $396.66, bringing our total to $2850.50 — $100 more than the “halfway point” that triggers GL’s “matching funds” pledge to get us to our goal of $5,501.
THANK ALL OF YOU WHO SUPPORTED THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!!!
While I try not to single out any particular donor, I do want to “single out” two categories and congratulate one individual.
The first category is the few of you who supported our work financially for the first time ever. I’m glad you decided we’re worth it, and we’ll continue to try to meet that expectation.
The second is our long-time supporters, those of you who always come through — often multiple times per year — to get us through this single fundraiser every year. Without you, we’d never have made it through these last 23 years.
The individual is JR, who has supported us monthly for years, has sent us extra donations more than once throughout this fundraiser, and who sent a final big one with this note:
“In honor of my first grandson (born this past Thursday!), in hopes that he will grow up to a world of liberty and responsibility.”
Congratulations, JR! We share those hopes for your grandson, and will continue doing our little part toward creating such a world!
And now I get to stop talking about money entirely for what little is left of the rest of the year, and ALMOST entirely until next October. For which I’m sure we’re all very glad!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Joe Wolverton, II
“There are many events in the history of the formation of this Republic that go unnoticed, unremembered, and unheralded. Today is a chance to remedy that and remember the Regulators. As if cut from today’s headlines, patriot farmers and small ranchers in North and South Carolina led a rebellion against armed government officials trying to exercise control over western lands. History has dubbed the uprising the War of the Regulation, the final battle of which happened on May 16 in 1771. The West in this case, of course, was not Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, but the rural counties of the Carolina backcountry. Historian James Whittenburg described the events as ‘the last and greatest of the social upheavals’ that led to the War for Independence.” (12/27/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/12/27/the-regulator-war-of-1771-a-forgotten-rebellion-against-corruption/
Source: United Press International
“President Donald Trump and Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent urged an end to the Senate filibuster rule ahead of an anticipated budget battle in January. Bessent submitted an op-ed that The Washington Post published on Saturday and blames Senate Democrats and the filibuster for blocking passage of a resolution to keep the federal government open while negotiating the 2026 fiscal year budget and causing a record 43-day shutdown of the federal government. … Senate Democrats control 47 seats, including two occupied by independents who caucus with Senate Democrats, while the GOP controls 53 seats, so neither party can overcome the filibuster rule without help from the other.” (12/27/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/12/27/senate-filibuster/8511766875059/
Source: Wired
by Cory Doctorow
“In 2026, the leaders of America’s (former) trading partners are going to have to grapple with the political consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs. A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there’s one thing the past four years have taught us, it’s that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause. Luckily for the political fortunes of the world’s leaders, there is a better way to respond to tariffs. Tit-for-tat tariffs are a 19th-century tactic, and we live in a 21st-century world — a world where the most profitable lines of business of the most profitable US companies are all vulnerable to a simple legal change that will make things cheaper for billions of people, all over the world, including in the US, at the expense of the companies whose CEOs posed with Trump on the inaugural dais.” (12/26/25)
https://archive.is/FbldE
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“Lloyds Banking Group is shutting an invoice financing service for small business customers as the UK’s biggest lenders pivot to focus on more lucrative corporate clients. The UK’s biggest high street bank will close its invoice factoring service by the end of the year, according to two people familiar with the matter, in a blow to small enterprise customers operating on thin margins. The move to end the service, under which Lloyds buys unpaid invoices from small businesses in return for the right to receive the payments from their customers, follows similar closures by other top lenders. It comes as businesses confront rising costs after increases in the minimum wage and successive tax-raising budgets by chancellor Rachel Reeves.” (12/28/25)
https://archive.is/fTmcp
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Everyone Else has a Holiday Hangover, so Rich E Rich Reads the News. HEADLINES: CRYPTO RIDDLE The ‘crypto curse’ killing millionaires from chopper crashes to concrete burial as FBI cop reveals chilling theories … Trump’s pardons wipe out payments to defrauded victims … Cocaine Dogs and ‘Safe Space Ambassadors’: Rand Paul Highlights Wild Government Waste in Annual ‘Festivus’ Report … Tennessee Judge Postpones Abrego Garcia Trial Amid Claims Of Vindictive Prosecution.” (12/27/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/12/27/the-anarchist-experience-560/
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“I think we would all agree that education is one of the most important facets of any society. I’m not just talking about ‘going to school;’ there is much more to education than that. Education can even begin in the womb, and takes off from birth. Everything we are surrounded by ‘educates’ us, in one way or another — for good or ill. Not all education is ‘good.’ It should be unnecessary to say that. People can only know and act upon what they have been taught. If people don’t know what ‘freedom’ and ‘tyranny’ are — and the source of both — then they will not know how to protect the former and guard against the latter.” (12/26/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2025/12/26/the-miseducation-of-america-n2668494
Source: Sky News [UK]
“A powerful winter storm has disrupted one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in New York City and northeastern US. Around 4in of snow fell in New York City on Saturday, although many roads were cleared by Saturday morning. Still, the storm has caused significant disruptions to holiday travel, with at least 1,500 flights cancelled or delayed since Friday night, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware. … New York and New Jersey were put under states of emergency. … San Francisco and Orlando experienced travel delays, as snow began falling on Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport.” (12/28/25)
https://news.sky.com/story/state-of-emergency-declared-as-us-storm-disrupts-hundreds-of-flights-13487704
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Terence Zimwara
“The start of the second Trump administration in January brought optimism that the crypto economy was headed for better times. During the run-up to the November 2024 U.S. elections, Donald Trump had pledged to eliminate the Biden administration’s anti- crypto policies and end government ‘lawfare’ against crypto entrepreneurs. It was hardly a surprise that bitcoin and a wave of altcoins surged in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory and the pro- crypto Republican Party’s consolidation of power in Congress. … Yet the rally soon gave way to the darker side of crypto’s DNA: volatility. The months that followed reminded traders that parabolic gains are often followed by brutal corrections.” (12/27/25)
https://news.bitcoin.com/the-leverage-tinderbox-how-geopolitics-and-open-interest-fueled-the-largest-wipeouts-ever/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Graham McAleer
“Their battlefield experiences informed a ‘literary counteroffensive’ against the grim ideologies of the twentieth century.” (12/26/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/lewis-and-tolkien-at-war/
