Of Freedom And Pedophilia February 28, 2026February 27, 2026 If you missed yesterday’s post, I make bold to suggest you go back and read it. I think it may affect the way you think about your investments and, more broadly, the future. More on AI tomorrow. Today: FREEDOM Anne Applebaum: Europe Now Sees Us As A Danger (70 sobering seconds). It’s everything Putin could ask for. I can understand sacrificing countless lives fighting for freedom. We did that in 1776. We did it in World War II. We did it to free the slaves. As misguided as the Vietnam war was, we fought it not for conquest or oil revenue but to stop the spread of freedom-destroying communism. Fighting and dying for freedom is noble. Fighting and dying to subjugate others — as Putin is forcing his people to do while living like a king — is pure evil. How have we come to switch sides? We used to be (at least mostly, when we were at our best) on the side of freedom. Now we alienate our long-time allies, embrace dictators, shut down USAID, and change “Defense” to “War.” We used to be the good guys. I was so proud of that. PEDOPHILIA Similarly, both parties used to be against corruption, against vulgarity, against dishonesty, against incompetence, and — surely — against protecting pedophiles. Does the Republican Party really believe Hillary Clinton is the one they should be forcing to testify? As Andy Borowitz put it yesterday: In one of the greatest cases of mistaken identity since Donald Trump thought E. Jean Carroll was Marla Maples, House Republicans sent a subpoena to the wrong First Lady. Instead of Melania Trump, who spent untold hours with the child rapist Jeffrey Epstein, they summoned Hillary Clinton. They’d soon regret it. The former Secretary of State demolished Donald Trump and his GOP toadies during her closed-door interrogation on Thursday. This is the sort of coverage you won’t see when MAGA completes its takeover of CNN. With that in mind, here is Secretary Clinton’s amazing opening statement (I haven’t changed or cut a word). Every word worth reading. Can you imagine how different the world would be today if Trump and Putin had not succeeded in thwarting her bid for the presidency? Anyone who doesn’t believe Putin played a role in the hair-thin outcome should watch the first 2 minutes of this. OPRT On news of continued progress — Oportun Delivers Strong Fourth Quarter, Increases Net Income by $104 Million in Full Year 2025 — the stock closed down Friday. If I didn’t already own so much, I would buy more . . . though only with money I could truly afford to lose.