Freakonomics Radio, episode 624
Source: Freakonomics
“The Animal No One Loves, Until They Do.” (02/28/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-animal-no-one-loves-until-they-do/
Death of a Cemetery
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Not everything worth fighting for, or against, is being taken up President Trump and Elon Musk. There are other battles. For a moment, at least, let us direct our attentions closer to home to consider the causes taken up by, say, the Institute for Justice and Pacific Legal Foundation. Unlike a taxpayer-funded NGO, always on the march to push big government or social decay, these organizations go to bat for people around the country who are being abused by local governments.” (02/28/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/02/28/death-of-a-cemetery/
Haiti: Regime thugs raid rival gang leader’s stronghold
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The government of Haiti says police have launched a large-scale operation in a shantytown controlled by powerful gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, who is widely known as Barbecue. The authorities say several gang members have been killed in the Lower Delmas area of the capital Port-au-Prince. Local reports say military drones carrying explosives are being used in the operation. Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime praised the assault. He said it was the work of a special task force created two days ago to tackle insecurity.” (03/02/25)
Manifest Destiny in the Histories of the US and Israel
Source: Antiwar.com
by M Reza Behnam
“Truman’s decision to position Israel as a citadel of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East has boomeranged and has resulted in the United States being despised in much of the world. Rather than protect U.S. interests in the region as planned, Israel has imperiled them. As we have seen since the 7 October 2023 insurrection, there are no limits on U.S.-Israeli brutality and on the suffering they have been willing to inflict on the Palestinians in order to preserve their imperium in the region.” (02/28/25)
The Tom Woods Show, episode 2612
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“How to Evade the College Brainwashers.” (02/28/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2612-how-to-evade-the-college-brainwashers/
What happens when the president ignores the law?
Source: Orange County Register
by Rafael Perez
“By now, we all know that Donald Trump and his friends have been breaking the law. The Impoundment Control Act, the Privacy Act, and the Constitution itself have probably all been violated by the executive branch since the inauguration. If one were disposed to agree with the president’s agenda, it wouldn’t be a far leap to think that Trump is justified in breaking the law because they are preventing him from implementing desirable policies. This leap is particularly narrow if you believe that Trump’s policies are literally ‘saving’ America.” (02/28/25)
Democrats, get over the Obama Coalition. Time to grow anew
Source: Fox News
by Jesse Ferguson
“The Rising American Electorate? The New American Majority? The Coalition of the Ascendent? Ultimately, they were all really just the Obama Coalition. But, at this point, Democrats need to get over it. Since the 2008 election, the core Democratic political priority has been to hold onto this coalition – loosely defined as voters of color, unmarried women and young voters. These people powered Barack Obama to his historic and historically large win in 2008. The problem is, for the last nearly 20 years, Democrats haven’t had a strategy to grow – the priority was to hold and fortify this coalition that dominated in a moment in time. Well, like most movements, if you don’t have a strategy to grow, you’re vulnerable.” (03/01/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-get-over-obama-coalition-time-grow-anew
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost lands on the moon with equipment for NASA
Source: Fox News
“A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other equipment to deliver for NASA touched down on the moon on Sunday, the latest of several companies seeking to kickstart business on Earth’s natural satellite ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, targeting the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side. The company’s Mission Control, located outside Austin, Texas, confirmed a successful landing.” (03/02/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/science/private-lunar-lander-blue-ghost-lands-moon-equipment-nasa
A Cruel Hoax: the Political Economy of Anti-immigration
Source: CounterPunch
by Richard D Wolff
“Deporting immigrants may deliver electoral wins to politicians if voters have been sufficiently cultivated by years of demonizing and scapegoating them. For its victims, the cruelties involved are horrific. Yet such deportation makes little sense economically. It represents a nationally self-destructive program based on a faulty grasp of immigration economics.” (02/28/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/28/a-cruel-hoax-the-political-economy-of-anti-immigration/
Iran: Economy minister impeached as inflation rises, currency falls
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran’s economy minister has been impeached after parliament voted to dismiss him amid rising inflation and a falling currency. Abdolnaser Hemmati was removed from office after 182 of 273 lawmakers voted against him, conservative parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on Sunday, just six months after moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government took office. In 2015, the Iranian rial was worth 32,000 to the United States dollar, but by the time Pezeshkian took office in July, it had plummeted to about 600,000 to the dollar on the open market. With regional tensions escalating recently, it dropped even further, trading hands in Tehran’s exchange shops and on its streets for about 950,000 rials to the dollar.” (03/02/25)