Trump and Clausewitz vs Thomas Aquinas and the Post 1945 World Order

“War,” the Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz wrote, “is a mere continuation of policy by other means.” If there is one line that virtually every Army officer learns from Clausewitz’s posthumously published 1832 book, “On War,” it’s that description of the purpose of armed conflict.

Those words were among the first that popped into my head when I woke up Saturday morning to the news that the American military had attacked Venezuela; seized its dictator, Nicolás Maduro; and brought him to the United States to face criminal charges.

The reason those words occurred to me was simple: The attack on Venezuela harks back to a different time, before the 19th-century world order unraveled, before two catastrophic world wars and before the creation of international legal and diplomatic structures designed to stop nations from doing exactly what the United States just did.

One of the most important questions any nation must decide is when — and how — to wage war. It’s a mistake, incidentally, to view Clausewitz as an amoral warmonger. He wasn’t inventing the notion he describes; he was describing the world as it was. His statement is a pithy explanation of how sovereign states have viewed warfare for much of human history.

When a strong state operates under the principle that war is just another extension of policy, it is tempted to operate a bit like a mob boss. Every interaction with a weaker nation is tinged in some way with the threat of force: Nice little country you have there — shame if something happened to it.

This is not fanciful. In a telephone conversation with The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer, President Trump threatened Venezuela’s new leader, Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president. “If she doesn’t do what’s right,” Trump said, “she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

Diplomacy and economic pressure are almost always still a first resort for powerful nations, but if they fail to achieve the intended results, well, you can watch footage from the American strike in Venezuela to know what can happen next.

But the Clausewitzian view isn’t the only option for nations and their leaders. There is a better model for international affairs, one that acknowledges the existence of evil and the reality of national interests but also draws lines designed to preserve peace and human life.

Carl von Clausewitz, meet Thomas Aquinas.

Read the rest here.

Greenland Next?

Donald Trump has set his sights on a US takeover of Greenland after capturing Nicolas Maduro and saying he would run Venezuela.

“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” the US president told The Atlantic magazine, adding that the Danish territory was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships”.

He said officials in his administration would decide what happened to Greenland, which Mr Trump has claimed the US must annex for its security.

“We need it for defence,” he said of Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, urged Mr Trump to “stop the threats”, adding that Greenland is “not for sale”.

“The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom,” she said, pointing out that Denmark already has a defence agreement with America, which gives it access to Greenland, and that Copenhagen had boosted its investment in the Arctic region’s security.

“I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale,” she added.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the prime minister of Greenland, earlier on Sunday rebuked the Trump administration, calling it “disrespectful” and saying that the territory was “not for sale”.

He was referring to an image posted on social media by Katie Miller, the wife of Mr Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, showing the map of Greenland painted with the US flag and captioned “SOON”.

Ulf Kirtsersson, the prime minister of Sweden, said on X: “It’s only Denmark and Greenland that have the right to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland. Sweden fully stands up for our neighbouring country.” 

The mission to capture Mr Maduro has triggered concerns about further US military operations in the Western hemisphere, which the Trump administration views as part of America’s sphere of influence.

A US invasion of Greenland is deemed unlikely by analysts who point out that the Danish territory is a part of the Nato alliance along with the United States.

However, the renewed threats are likely to alarm European leaders as the American split with the continent grows.

Read the rest here.

After Venezuela, Trump hints the entire hemisphere is in play

As President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for now, he and top aides made clear that the U.S. may not stop there — and demanded that the rest of the world take note.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Venezuela’s long-time dictator, Nicolas Maduro, captured in an overnight raid and extradited to New York on Saturday to be indicted on narco-conspiracy charges, “had a chance” to leave on his own before becoming the latest example of a leader paying a high price for not responding to Trump’s pressure.

“He effed around and he found out,” Hegseth said of Maduro.

The menacing comments were interwoven with specific threats toward three other countries that could soon be in the administration’s sights: Colombia, Cuba and Mexico.

The rest of the hemisphere is paying attention, and attempting to push back on Trump through condemnations of the strike itself and warnings of what could come next.

“All nations of the region must remain alert, as the threat hangs over all,” the Cuban government said in a statement.

The administration’s warnings, meanwhile, are getting bolder and more definitive. Trump again accused Colombia’s president of “making cocaine” and reaffirmed his past threats that he “does need to watch his ass.” He predicted “we will be talking about Cuba.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a more sinister threat of future American action.

“Look, if I lived in Havana and I worked in the government, I’d be concerned,” Rubio said.

Earlier during a phone interview with Fox News, Trump warned that “something will have to be done about Mexico,” stating that he’s asked President Claudia Sheinbaum if she wants the U.S. military’s “help” in rooting out drug cartels.

“American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump said.

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As New York goes hard left, San Francisco edges back towards the center

...It’s a bicoastal split screen that speaks to a realignment of America’s progressive power base. In New York, Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office on Thursday, was swept into power on promises of free buses, childcare and widespread rent freezes. In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie, an heir to the billion-dollar Levi Strauss fortune, has focused on austerity measures, beefing up policing, reviving a hollowed-out downtown core and supporting the booming artificial-intelligence industry.

San Francisco, once an incubator to a host of modern progressive ideas from the LGBTQ+-rights movement to ethnic studies in classrooms and protections for undocumented immigrants, has changed. Even progressives acknowledge it isn’t the liberal trendsetter of yesteryear.

That shift has already upended the national political narrative around the city. For decades a lefty caricature and punching bag for conservatives, pundits and politicians on the right are now racing to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party in the midterms. Meanwhile, moderates in San Francisco, while celebrating their victories, hold their city up as a warning sign for what they cast as the excesses of the left.

“The message is you can take things too far,” said Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party and a moderate who’s helped lead the city’s centrist shift. She added, “Don’t expect that voters won’t notice forever.”

Or as Chris Larsen, a billionaire crypto titan who has been pouring money into local elections, put it: “The cost issue was the overriding thing in New York. Whereas, in San Francisco, it was cleaning the mess that the far left created over the last decade … It was safe, clean streets and getting back our reputation, which I think we largely have now.”

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Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela, control oil production

President Trump said Saturday that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until a transition takes place following the capture of the country’s President Nicholas Maduro. 

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said during a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” he added.

When asked to clarify specifically who will run Venezuela, Trump said the U.S. will be running it with a team...

...The president went on to note that the U.S. would also take control of its oil production.

“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” Trump said. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.” 

His remarks come hours after the U.S. arrested Maduro and his wife on narco-terrorism charges amid a strike on Venezuela overnight. The capture took place just days after the Venezuelan strongman said he was open to conducting negotiations with the U.S. regarding drug trafficking and oil. 

Read the rest here.

The Way We Were: Doylestown PA mid-1950s

2026

Being honest, 2025 is not a year I will look back on with much fondness. Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year.

Russian Casualties Continue to Rise

Over the past 10 months, Russian losses in the war with Ukraine have been growing faster than any time since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, BBC analysis suggests.

As peace efforts intensified in 2025 under pressure from US President Donald Trump's administration, 40% more obituaries of soldiers were published in Russian sources compared with the previous year.

Overall, the BBC has confirmed the names of almost 160,000 people killed fighting on Russia's side in Ukraine.

BBC News Russian has been counting Russian war losses together with independent outlet Mediazona and a group of volunteers since February 2022. We keep a list of named individuals whose deaths we were able to confirm using official reports, newspapers, social media, and new memorials and graves.

The real death toll is believed to be much higher, and military experts we have consulted believe our analysis of cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries might represent 45-65% of the total.

That would put the number of Russian deaths at between 243,000 and 352,000.

Read the rest here.

Lessons of the Heritage Foundation's Implosion

Over the last two days, there has been a massive wave of resignations and departures of scholars and staff from the Heritage Foundation, once one of the nation's most respected conservative think tanks. Those leaving include the leadership of Heritage's Meese Center for Legal and Judicial  Studies,  leading economic policy scholars, my former student and Volokh co-blogger Josh Blackman (editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution), and more. This wave of departures follows in the wake of others, such as that of Princeton Princeton professor and prominent conservative political theorist Robert George, who resigned from the Heritage Board last month. Many of the Heritage refugees have moved to Advancing American Freedom (AAF), an organization led by former Vice President Mike Pence.

The immediate cause of the exodus was Heritage President Kevin Roberts' defense of anti-Semitic "influencer" Tucker Carlson and his support of Nick Fuentes, an even more virulent anti-Semite. As it has become clear that Roberts refuses to break his ties with Carlson and unequivocally condemn right-wing anti-Semitism, and that the Heritage board won't remove Roberts,  more and more people have left Heritage.

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Army chief says Switzerland can't defend itself from full-scale attack

ZURICH, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Switzerland cannot defend itself against a full-scale attack and must boost military spending given rising risks from Russia, the head of its armed forces said.

The country is prepared for attacks by "non-state actors" on critical infrastructure and for cyber attacks, but its military still faces major equipment gaps, Thomas Suessli told the NZZ newspaper.

"What we cannot do is defend against threats from a distance or even a full-scale attack on our country," said Suessli, who is stepping down at the end of the year.

"It's burdensome to know that in a real emergency, only a third of all soldiers would be fully equipped," he said in an interview published on Saturday.

Switzerland is increasing defence spending, modernising artillery and ground systems and replacing ageing fighter jets with Lockheed Martin F-35As.

But the plan faces cost overruns, while critics question spending on artillery and munitions amid tight federal finances.

Suessli said attitudes towards the military had not shifted despite the war in Ukraine and Russian efforts to destabilise Europe.

He blamed Switzerland's distance from the conflict, its lack of recent war experience and the false belief that neutrality offered protection.

Read the rest here.

Argentina's Congress approves 2026 budget, first under Milei

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 26 - Argentina's Congress passed the 2026 budget on Friday, the first approved by legislators since President Javier Milei took office in late 2023.

The budget, passed 46 votes to 25 with one abstention, includes spending of $102 billion (148 billion Argentine pesos) and projects South America's second-biggest economy will grow 5% with inflation at 10.1%. The bill projects a primary budget surplus equivalent to 1.2% of the gross domestic product.

The 2023 budget was the last one passed by Congress. During the first two years of his term, Milei's government had extended the budget of the previous year without passing a bill in Congress, resulting in sectors being dramatically hit by inflation, which hit an annual rate of almost 300% in April 2024.

According to a report by the Civil Association for Equality and Justice, a Buenos Aires-based think tank, the new budget reflects a 7% increase in real terms from 2025 but a 24.6% drop in real terms compared to the 2023 Congress-approved budget. However, the think tank noted that some inflation projections are significantly higher than the executive branch's forecast.

Milei has ruled with sweeping austerity measures, which have often generated massive protests, and in 2024 Argentina had its first budget surplus in more than a decade. Congress this year overrode Milei's vetoes of bills boosting funding for public universities, pediatric health care and people with disabilities.

While the new budget boosts funding for social services -including health, social security and education - the bump does not compensate for sharp falls over the last several years, the ACIJ report said.

After a strong showing in midterm legislative elections in October, Milei's La Libertad Avanza party gained considerable power in the newly elected Congress, becoming the largest minority in the lower house and increasing its bloc in the Senate. The government hopes that will help it push forward a series of overhauls, including overhauls to the labor and tax systems, in the coming months.

Source

Military Folly: The Trump Class "Battleships"

Trump Announces New Class of Battleships Despite Century of Evidence Proving the Large Warships Are Obsolete

The ‘Trump-class’ battleship faces a large obstacle in its way: Reality

Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving

Billionaires including Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents, according to five people familiar with their thinking.

Mr. Thiel, 58, who owns a home in the Hollywood Hills and operates a personal investment firm from Los Angeles, has explored opening an office for that firm, Thiel Capital, in another state and spending more time outside California, three of the people said.

Other billionaires who appear to be making moves to decrease their presence in California include Mr. Page, 52, a longtime resident of Palo Alto. He has discussed leaving the state by the end of the year, according to two people briefed on the talks. In mid-December, three limited liability companies associated with Mr. Page filed documents to incorporate in Florida, according to state records.

The moves are being driven by a potential California ballot measure from the health care union, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the people said. The proposal calls for California residents worth more than $1 billion to be taxed the equivalent of 5 percent of their assets.

If the measure gains enough signatures to reach the state ballot in November and wins approval, it will retroactively apply to anyone who lived in California as of Jan. 1, 2026. Those with $20 billion in assets who resided in the state on that date would face a one-time tax of $1 billion and have five years to pay it, according to the terms of the measure.

Whether the proposal will reach California’s ballot is far from certain, but some billionaires may be unwilling to take the risk. For Mr. Page, whose net worth is estimated at $258 billion, the measure could result in a one-time tax of more than $12 billion. The tax bill for Mr. Thiel, whose net worth is around $27.5 billion, could be more than $1.2 billion.

Read the rest here.

The History of the British Christmas Pudding

Christmas Liturgy

Anglican priests are fleeing to Catholicism

Father Matthew Topham, priest-in-charge of St Mary’s, East Hendred in Oxfordshire, is acutely conscious of the weight of Reformation history that comes with his role.

When Henry VIII broke with Rome, East Hendred was one of only a handful of places around the country where Recusant Catholics remained stubbornly loyal to the Pope, risking death by attending Mass in a secret chapel in the local big house. That chapel remains part of Fr Topham’s parish, somewhere he says Mass each week. Yet the 36-year-old Cambridge graduate is no die-hard cradle Catholic but rather a former Anglican curate who converted in 2023 and was then ordained. He is one of 491 Anglican vicars who, over the past 30 years, according to a new report, have “headed to Rome”.

Many of them are now fearful that, as it approaches its 500th anniversary, the Church of England’s days may be numbered given it is riven by division amid the appointment of Dame Sarah Mullaly as its first-ever female Archbishop of Canterbury and a row over same-sex blessings that has set conservatives and liberals at loggerheads.

Authored by Prof Stephen Bullivant of St Mary’s University in Twickenham, the report details how former Anglican clergy have accounted for more than a third of all Catholic ordinations in England and Wales since 1992, when the General Synod (the legislative assembly of the CoE) voted to ordain women.

That decision prompted an exodus of clerics who could not accept female priests. When the Vatican held out its hand to them and offered a special opt-out from its compulsory celibacy rule (if they were already married), the path was open to enable them to continue in ministry as Catholic priests...

Read the rest here.

Gold and Silver Rise Sharply

Gold and silver prices soared to new highs on Monday.

Gold was last seen at a record $4,445.8 per ounce while spot gold was last trading at $4,414.99. Prices are up nearly 70% since the start of the year.

The metal has soared this year, smashing consecutive price records as risk assets lost ground. Gold is typically viewed as a safe haven asset in times of economic or geopolitical turbulence...

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Reps. Khanna and Massie considering inherent contempt against Bondi

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Sunday they are committed to holding Justice Department officials accountable for their failure to release all eligible Jeffrey Epstein files by Friday’s deadline, saying they're speaking with members of Congress about holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt.

"The quickest way, and I think most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi," Massie said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" when he was asked how Congress can force the Justice Department to release the rest of the files it has related to Epstein...

Read the rest here.

Trump Appoints Special Envoy to Greenland, Further Angering Denmark

U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Louisiana’s governor as Washington’s special envoy to Greenland, reigniting a fight over the fate of the Arctic island. 

Trump, who has long expressed his desire to make self-ruling Danish territory Greenland a part of the U.S., said on his social media platform Truth Social late Sunday that he had appointed Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry “as the United States Special Envoy to Greenland.” 

“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World,” Trump wrote. 

Landry, a Republican who has been in office since early 2024, called the “volunteer position” an “honor” in a post on social media and said he would work to “make Greenland a part of the U.S.” 

“This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!” he added. 

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen posted a statement about the appointment on social media, saying “it may seem like a lot” but urging calm and reiterating Greenland’s right to self-determination. 

“We will shape our own future,” he added. “Greenland is ours, and our borders will be respected.” 

Copenhagen, which retains some authority on matters of foreign policy and security for Greenland, reacted with fury to Trump’s announcement. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told local media he was “deeply outraged” and would summon U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Ken Howery. 

Read the rest here.

Democrats are united in bashing GOP on Obamacare. Medicare for All could reopen a rift.

Progressives are pushing Medicare for All in some of the Democratic Party’s most competitive Senate primaries next year, threatening the unity the party has found on attacking Republicans over expiring Obamacare subsidies.

In Maine, Graham Platner said he’s making Medicare for All a “core part” of his platform in his race against Gov. Janet Mills, the establishment pick who’s called for a universal health care program. In Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly are both championing the concept — and calling out rival Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi for not fully embracing it.

In Minnesota, Medicare for All has emerged as a key distinction between progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and moderate Rep. Angie Craig, who supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act rather than Medicare for All. Flanagan said she “absolutely” expects the policy to define the primary because “it doesn’t matter if I’m in the urban core, the suburbs or greater Minnesota — when I say I’m a supporter of Medicare for All, the room erupts.”

And it’s become a flashpoint in Michigan, where physician Abdul El-Sayed, who wrote a book called Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide, is using his signature issue to draw a contrast with Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who favor other approaches.

Medicare for All — government-funded health coverage for every American — is “where we need to point to,” El-Sayed said in an interview. “And I think you can galvanize a winning coalition around this issue.”

But some more moderate Democrats worry that progressives’ renewed push for Medicare for All would undermine the party’s recent united front in fighting for an extension of the Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, leading to a significant spike in insurance costs for millions of Americans. Their effort initially failed in the Senate, but with the help of four vulnerable Republicans who crossed party lines this week, Democrats have now secured a House vote on an extension in January.

“We have a singular message, which is: ‘Don’t let these tax credits go.’ We have Republicans on the ropes,” said a national Democratic strategist who works on Senate races and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “I don’t think introducing ‘we need MFA’ is the right strategy right now. I think it would be unhelpful.”

Read the rest here.

France Prepares for Russia as US Withdraws

Paris has long worried the United States was an unreliable partner. Donald Trump is proving them right...

...Trump continues to antagonize the United States’ traditional European allies, deriding them as he did in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month as “weak” and a “decaying group of nations.” And for its part, France wants to prove him wrong.

Like many other European nations, France sees Russia has a growing threat to the continent. So it is preparing to defend itself against what the country’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Fabien Mandon, called a “violent test” from Russia in the next three to four years that it would need to counter without much, if any, help from Washington. To do that, France is boosting military spending, increasing weapons production and doubling the reserve forces.

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UK: Pubs go to war with the Labour Party

abour MPs heading back to their constituencies this weekend will do so with a sense of relief that another turbulent term in British politics is over. But those hoping to pitch up at their local pub for a restorative pint with colleagues and constituents may find festive cheer is in short supply. In fact, some may not be allowed through the door.

For the past few weeks, pubs across the country have been putting up signs declaring “No Labour MPs” in protest at changes to business rates announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her latest budget.

The campaign means, for many Labour MPs, there is one less place to escape the bruising reality of their party’s unpopularity. Backbenchers now say they frequently encounter hostility in public spaces after a difficult first 18 months in which the party’s ratings have plummeted from about 34% to 18%.

“It can be hard being the MP of the area you have always lived in,” said one. “The local pub is where we used to go with the kids and just be a normal family. But the last few times we’ve just ended up being shouted at by other customers. Now I’m not even sure we’ll be able to get in.”

That sense of dismay is palpable in a recent video posted by Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, about being banned from one of his local pubs, the Larderhouse.

“It’s the Christmas season, it’s meant to be the joyful season,” he said. “But the Larderhouse and other businesses with a No Labour MPs sticker in the window, they are undermining the inclusive culture that business owners locally have helped to nourish.”

He went on to add: “We have to get politics off the high street full stop, but especially at Christmas.”

Read the rest here.

Economists are skeptical of new inflation numbers

Thursday saw the release of a much lighter-than-expected consumer price report for November, breaking from the recent trend of sticky inflation.

Stocks jumped. Yields fell. Odds of a Federal Reserve rate increased.

And many economists scratched their heads.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index had an annual inflation rate of 2.7% last month, while core CPI — a measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices — was even lower at 2.6%. Both were below what economists had been estimating, as those polled by Dow Jones called for an annual headline rate of 3.1% and a rate on core CPI of 3%.

The November data release Thursday was delayed by 8 days because of the U.S. government shutdown, but more importantly, the October data was canceled, leaving it to the BLS to make certain methodological assumptions about the prior month’s inflation levels.

Those assumptions in the methodology were not clear to economists and were not fully explained in the release.

“The downside surprise reflects weakness in both goods and services, but may be partly due to methodological issues. The BLS might have carried forward prices in some categories, effectively assuming 0% inflation,” Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a note, deeming the November reading as “noisy” in a way that’s “difficult to draw strong conclusions.”

“If these technical factors are the main source of weakness, we could see reacceleration in December,” Gapen added.

Read the rest here.

Not saying that they are cooking the numbers. But this report has raised a lot of eyebrows. And it's worth remembering that Trump fired the last head of BLS after an unfavorable jobs report. 

Kennedy Center to be renamed in honor of Donald Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, the White House said.

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No; this is not satire.

Canada Offers Assisted Suicide to Patient they Would Not Treat

Canada’s healthcare system used to be a source of pride for my country. It was regarded as one of the world’s best examples of a publicly-funded insurance system, free at the point of use, ranking highly for accessibility, care, compassion and the treatment of major and minor illnesses.

No longer. In 2024, the influential Commonwealth Fund survey placed Canada in seventh place out of ten developed countries, with a particularly poor score for access to care. In January, the Canada-based CD Howe Institute gave the country’s healthcare system an even gloomier diagnosis: it was placed ninth out of 10 countries, with all provinces and territories falling below the international average for overall healthcare performance.

Now the world has begun to notice. Story after story has emerged of patients failing to receive the treatment they require. But none is quite so chilling as that of Jolene Van Alstine.

Van Alstine, who lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, was diagnosed with a rare form of parathyroid disease eight years ago. She has dealt with many health-related problems, including abdominal pain and extreme bone pain and fractures. “It has been horrific,” she told reporters on Nov 25. “Every day I get up and I’m sick to my stomach and I throw up and I throw up. And then it takes me hours to cool off. I overheat. We have to turn the temperature down to 14 degrees when I get up in the morning.”

Her condition is treatable – said to involve complex surgery to remove her remaining parathyroid gland. But no doctors in Saskatchewan are able to perform it. Her case could have been moved on to a surgeon in a different Canadian province, but she needed to get a referral from an endocrinologist – and none of them are reportedly taking new patients.

This is where the story takes a truly sinister turn. Van Alistine sought approval for MAID, or medical assistance in dying. Worse, she was actually approved for medically-assisted suicide. Her husband, Miles Sundeen, told Global News that “she doesn’t want to die. She’s expressed that”, but he understands her position “after watching her suffer for this length of time”.

Read the rest here.

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief

Though I tend to think it’s usually a waste of space to devote a column to President Trump’s personality — what more is there to say about the character of this petty, hollow, squalid, overstuffed man? — sometimes the point bears stressing: We are led by the most loathsome human being ever to occupy the White House.

Markets will not be moved, or brigades redeployed, or history shifted, because Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death on Sunday in their home in Los Angeles, allegedly at the hands of their troubled son Nick.

But this is an appalling human tragedy and a terrible national loss. Reiner’s movies, including “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally…,” are landmarks in the inner lives of millions of people; I can still quote by heart dialogue and song lyrics from his 1984 classic, “This Is Spinal Tap.” Until last week, he and Michele remained creative forces as well as one of Hollywood’s great real-life love stories. Their liberal politics, though mostly not my own, were honorable and sincere.

To which our ogre in chief had this to say on social media:

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

I quote Trump’s post in full not only because it must be read to be believed, but also because it captures the combination of preposterous grandiosity, obsessive self-regard and gratuitous spite that “deranged” the Reiners and so many other Americans trying to hold on to a sense of national decency. Good people and good nations do not stomp on the grief of others. Politics is meant to end at the graveside. That’s not just some social nicety. It’s a foundational taboo that any civilized society must enforce to prevent transient personal differences from becoming generational blood feuds.

That is where history will record that the deepest damage by the Trump presidency was done. There is, as Adam Smith said, “a great deal of ruin in a nation,” by which he meant that there are things in almost any country that are going badly wrong but can still be mended. Foolishly imposed tariffs can be repealed. Hastily cut funding can be restored. Ill-thought-out national security strategies can be rewritten. Shaken trust can be rebuilt between Washington and our allies.

But the damage that cuts deepest is never financial, legal or institutional. As one of Smith’s greatest contemporaries, Edmund Burke, knew, it lies in something softer and less tangible but also more important: manners. “Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us,” Burke wrote. It is, he warned, through manners that laws are either made or unmade, upheld or corrupted.

Right now, in every grotesque social media post; in every cabinet meeting devoted, North Korea-like, to adulating him; in every executive-order-signing ceremony intended to make him appear like a Chinese emperor; in every fawning reference to all the peace he’s supposedly brought the world; in every Neronic enlargement of the White House’s East Wing; in every classless dig at his predecessor; in every shady deal his family is striking to enrich itself; in every White House gathering of tech billionaires paying him court (in the literal senses of both “pay” and “court”); in every visiting foreign leader who learns to abase himself to avoid some capricious tariff or other punishment — in all this and more, our standards as a nation are being debased, our manners barbarized.

Read the rest here.

London Police Must Disclose Ties to Freemasonry

Metropolitan police officers must tell their bosses if they are Freemasons, the force has announced, amid fears membership could be linked to corruption.

Britain’s largest force said anyone who was part or had been a member of a “hierarchical organisation that require members to support and protect each other” must declare it.

The body representing Freemasons condemned the rule and said it would consider legal action.

The issue of Freemasons in the Met has been long-running, but previous commissioners have either thought tougher rules were not justified or not worth the pain.

The current commissioner, Mark Rowley, was moved to act as part of his drive to show the public the force can be trusted.

The Guardian also understands, however, that a recent case of alleged wrongdoing in the force contains allegations that acts under investigation may be linked to Freemasonry.

The Met has held intelligence for years of potential corruption linked to personal relationships formed through membership of the Freemasons, but nothing has been proved.

Read the rest here.

NY Times: US Military Superiority is Declining Dangerously

President Xi Jinping of China has ordered his armed forces to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Though the United States maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity on how it would respond to an invasion, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have said that America would defend the island nation. The Pentagon has produced a classified, multiyear assessment that shows how such a conflict would play out: the Overmatch brief.

The report is a comprehensive review of U.S. military power prepared by the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment and delivered most recently to top White House officials in the last year. It catalogs China’s ability to destroy American fighter planes, large ships and satellites, and identifies the U.S. military’s supply chain choke points. Its details have not been previously reported.

The picture it paints is consistent and disturbing. Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, said last November that in the Pentagon’s war games against China, “we lose every time.” When a senior Biden national security official received the Overmatch brief in 2021, he turned pale as he realized that “every trick we had up our sleeve, the Chinese had redundancy after redundancy,” according to one official who was present.

The assessment shows something more worrying than the potential outcome of a war over Taiwan. It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically advanced ones. And it traces a decades-long decline in America’s ability to win a long war with a major power.

War games can be wrong; analysts sometimes overstate adversaries’ abilities. Yet this larger point should not be ignored. Nearly four decades after victory in the Cold War, the U.S. military is ill prepared for today’s global threats and revolutionary technologies.

Read the rest here.

You know you are in trouble when even the NY Times is sounding the alarm over national defense.

Britain's Defense Buildup: Lots of talk but not so much money

LONDON — Keir Starmer tore up the script this year to pledge a massive British defense spending hike. So why is the country's military still preparing to make cuts?

Just ahead of his crucial first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in February, the U.K. prime minister announced his government would spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2027 — and hit 3 percent in the next parliament.

In June he went further — joining NATO allies in promising a move to 3.5 percent by 2035. Britain’s bold direction of travel was warmly welcomed by NATO members, including the U.S., which has sent a clear message under Trump that Europe must become more self-sufficient on security.

Yet inside Whitehall, anxiety is rising about how the U.K. will match lofty rhetoric with reality — and military chiefs are already locked in a fight with the all-powerful Treasury to get cash in the here and now.

The recent government-wide budget delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves contained nothing new for national security, while the Ministry of Defence is currently locked in a fraught battle with the Treasury over a landmark investment plan.

One U.K. defense official, not authorized to speak publicly, said: “Our position is becoming untenable. You can’t talk about leadership in Europe when we haven’t put our budget up at all.”

Read the res here.

How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration

In the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected president, advisers delivered a warning: His approach to immigration could prove disastrous.

Mr. Biden had pledged to treat unauthorized immigrants more humanely than President Donald J. Trump, who generated widespread backlash by separating migrant children from their parents.

But Mr. Biden was now president-elect, and his positions threatened to drastically increase border crossings, experts advising his transition team warned in a Zoom briefing in the final weeks of 2020, according to people with direct knowledge of that briefing. That jump, they said, could provoke a political crisis.

“Chaos” was the word the advisers had used in a memo during the campaign.

They offered a range of options to avert that crisis, by better deterring migrants. Mr. Biden seemed to grasp the risk. But he and his top aides failed to act on those recommendations.

The warnings came true, and then some. After Mr. Biden became president, migrant encounters at the southern border quickly doubled, then kept rising. New arrivals overwhelmed border stations, then border towns, and eventually major cities like New York and Denver.

Anger over illegal migration helped return Mr. Trump to the presidency, and he has enacted even more aggressive policies than those Mr. Biden first campaigned against. Mr. Trump has drawn outrage from Democrats by sending masked agents to target immigrants, often aided by National Guard soldiers.

But a New York Times examination of Mr. Biden’s record found that he and his closest advisers repeatedly rebuffed recommendations that could have addressed the border crisis faster, and eased what became a potent issue for Mr. Trump as he sought to return to the White House and justify the aggressive tactics roiling American cities today.

Former Biden administration officials told The Times that Mr. Biden and his circle of close confidants — including Ron Klain, who was chief of staff during the president’s first two years, Mike Donilon, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Anita Dunn — made two crucial errors.

First, they underestimated the scale of migration that was coming. Second, they failed to appreciate the political reaction to that migration — believing that stronger enforcement would alienate Latino and progressive voters, and also that a border surge would not be an important issue to most voters. Those calculations would later prove to be mistaken, with many voters, including Latinos, citing immigration as a reason for supporting Mr. Trump in 2024.

Read the rest here.

Vigil for St. Nicholas, December 5th, 2025

In the News

Hegseth boat strike fallout, war crime allegations: What to know 

Pete Hegseth ‘pushed top Navy admiral who questioned boat strikes to resign’

Trump pardons former top entertainment executive who was charged by his own Justice Department

Trump pardons Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar

Trump 'garbage' rhetoric about Somalis draws cheers from administration, silence from Republicans and alarm from critics

Poll: Trump's own voters begin blaming him for affordability crisis

Trump's current poll numbers

New York Times sues over Pentagon press access rules

Oklahoma university instructor on leave after failing Bible-based essay on gender

America’s Magical Thinking About Ukraine

Putin authorised 2018 Novichok poisoning of ex-Russian spy Skripal, UK inquiry says

U.S. Institute of Peace renamed for Trump

Von der Leyen pushes ahead with reparations loan for Ukraine as Belgium maintains its opposition

Analysis Kicking the Corpse: Netanyahu's Pardon Request Caps the Slow Death of Law in Israel

Crisis looms in Israel over ultra-Orthodox conscription bill

CDC Panel Meets to Vote On Hepatitis B Vaccine Amid Anti-Vax Push

The Tennessee Special Election

Today's special election to fill a recently vacated congressional seat in Tennessee has been getting a lot of attention. Normally it would be a non-story given that the district is as Republican as San Francisco is Democratic. President Trump carried it by 22 points. But polls have been showing a shockingly close race. This has gotten Democrats excited and Republicans nervous. All of which said, I doubt the Democrats will pull it off. The polls still show the Republican candidate with a modest lead and those same polls have a history of undercounting conservative voters. There's a lot of debate about the hows and whys of that, but it remains true nonetheless. The latest poll showed around 5% of voters as undecided. In that district they almost always break Republican. And there was a margin of error of ~4%. Democrats are hoping that will break their way, but again, history does not suggest that is too likely. Add to that, the Democratic candidate is not a centrist. She is way to the left by Tennessee political standards and has in the past staked out all kinds of really lefty positions like supporting trans/alphabet people etc., pro-abortion, pro-wealth redistribution and so on. That may play well on the left coast and in New York City, but in Tennessee... I'm not seeing it.

In both parties there is a certain class of professional operators who live and breath politics. When they are eating lunch, they are scanning their phone for the latest stories that could impact broad public opinion. They go to bed at night reciting poll numbers and when they dream it's about which districts will need how much money for the coming off year elections. These people are watching this race not to see who wins, but to see how close it is. The serious people in both parties know that flipping the seat is highly improbable. But what has Democrats giddy and Republicans sweating is how close will it be. If the GOP holds the seat, but the margin is single digits, you are going to see alarm among Republicans and elation among Democrats. It will signal a major threat to swing district Republicans and that money will have to be spent defending at least some districts that would normally be considered safe seats. It would likely add to the steady flow of Republican congress people who have announced their plans not to seek re-election. The party leadership would also have to contend with members feeling more free to criticize the administration. Make no mistake, Donald Trump is on the ballot in this election and the forthcoming off year elections. 

The above aside, what if lightning strikes and the Democrats actually manage to flip the seat? In political terms that would be the equivalent of a tactical nuclear weapon going off in the middle of MAGA country. A district Trump won 13 months ago by 22% in a functionally one party state going Democratic, by even a paper thin margin, might well portend a 2026 election wipe out rivaling those of 1974 and 1994. Democrats will be popping champaign corks from Seattle to South Carolina. For Republicans it would be Katie bar the door. 

The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine

He once boasted that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” He accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him.

At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernández in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America’s poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries.

Last year, Mr. Hernández was convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. It was one of the most sweeping drug-trafficking cases to come before a U.S. court since the trial of the Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega three decades before.

But on Friday, President Trump announced that he would pardon Mr. Hernandez, 57, who he said was a victim of political persecution, though Mr. Trump offered no evidence to support that claim. It would be a head-spinning resolution to a case that for prosecutors was a pinnacle, striking at the heart of a narcostate.

Read the rest here.

Report: Trump to recognize Russian military conquests in Ukraine

The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.

The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.

One well-placed source said: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position. They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

Russia’s president on Thursday said Washington’s legal recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory would be one of the key issues in negotiations over the US president’s peace plan.

Read the rest here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all a blessed feast. Given the events of September; Thanksgiving and Christmas this year are likely to rather subdued in my family. But we are not ignoring the holidays entirely. 

UK: Mass migration is only part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is all the skilled workers and the well off who are leaving.

62 Years Later: Oswald did it.

Trump's Peace Plan for Ukraine in One Word

Surrender.

Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts

And the New York Times is not happy.

Quote of the day...

"Things happen." 

-US President Donald Trump responding to questions regarding his dinner guest's ordering the torture, murder and dismemberment of a journalist. 

Polish rail line blown up in suspected sabotage

WARSAW, Nov 17 (Reuters) - An explosion that damaged a Polish railway track on a route to Ukraine was an "unprecedented act of sabotage", Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday as he vowed to catch those responsible for an incident he said could have ended in tragedy.

The blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line that connects the capital to the Ukrainian border followed a wave of arson, sabotage and cyberattacks in Poland and other European countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Warsaw has in the past held Russia responsible, saying Poland has become one of Moscow's biggest targets due to its role as a hub for aid to Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied being responsible for acts of sabotage.

"The blowing up of the railway track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens," Tusk wrote on X.

"An investigation is underway. Just like in previous cases of this kind, we will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are."

Read the rest here.

Trump pardons Jan. 6 defendant for a second time over gun conviction

President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned Dan Wilson, a former Jan. 6 defendant, for a second time on gun charges not related to his conduct during the 2021 riot at the Capitol.

Wilson pleaded guilty in May 2024 to three crimes including a charge of impeding or injuring an officer in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and two gun charges in Kentucky from 2023, when his home was searched as part of the Jan. 6 investigation.

A White House official confirmed the new pardon to NBC News, saying that Trump decided to do so because Wilson’s gun charges stemmed from the Jan. 6 investigation.

Read the rest here.

Also... Was Trump using an autopen for signing pardons?

Trump blinks on Epstein as GOP rebels

President Donald Trump is coming to grips with his impending loss on the Jeffrey Epstein files and a rare moment of tenuous control over the House GOP.

In a late Sunday Truth Social post, Trump said House Republicans should vote to release DOJ records on the late convicted sex offender “because we have nothing to hide.”

“I DON’T CARE!” he said. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”

Trump’s reversal after a monthslong pressure campaign came as dozens of Republicans — perhaps as many as 100 — were already poised to break with him in a vote Tuesday. Even close allies of GOP leadership were weighing whether to defect from the president.

Read the rest here.

Product Review: HP DeskJet 2800e printer

It's junk. I bought one a couple weeks ago at Walmart to help handle the mountain of paperwork I am dealing with following my mother's death. Set up was inconvenient but manageable. Once I got it set up and got past the endless attempts by HP to get me to sign up for automatic ink deliveries and purchases I tried printing the first few docs. It took forever to get them through to the printer, which apparently is limited to specific types of wifi connections. The docs were PDFs. Once I got the machine to actually try printing (now hours into this project) it kept jamming and misprinting pages. I kept repeating print orders which it kept ignoring or jamming or printing pages that were cut off. Of more than 70 pages I actually managed to get through the machine, only two(!) came out right. I thought about taking it back to Walmart and demanding my money back, but realized they would just rebox it and sell it to some other unsuspecting victim. That would have troubled my conscience. So I decided to do the next best thing (and far more enjoyable). I put my boots on and stomped the damned thing good. Your mileage may vary, but FWIW I will NEVER buy anything from HP again. What's left is being saved for target practice. 

Trump to DoJ: Investigate Democrats and Banks for Epstein Ties

President Trump said on Friday that he will direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s past involvement with a number of Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.  

Trump cast his decision as an effort to fight back at Democrats, who the president argued have used the disgraced financier as a weapon against his White House.

“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote in a TruthSocial post. 

Summers is a former Treasure secretary under Clinton who also served as a top economic adviser to President Obama. Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn and a top Democratic donor.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his “Island.” Stay tuned!!!” he continued. 

The announcement comes as the release of a number of documents from the Epstein estate earlier this week have taken Washington by storm. Emails released by House Democrats on Wednesday show Epstein telling associates in the 2010s that “of course” Trump knew about his relationship with underage girls and that Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s home. 

Read the rest here.

Trump's Latest Pardon

Hint: It's another billionaire.

The Most Dangerous Abuse of Power

Let me tell you about four very different men who share something quite important in common.

On Monday, a man named Jonathan Braun was sentenced to 27 months in prison. The charges against him included sexually assaulting the live-in nanny for his own children and attacking a nurse with an IV pole. He was also accused of assaulting a 3-year-old child.

In October, a man named Christopher Moynihan was arrested and charged with threatening via text to “eliminate” Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, at a speaking engagement in New York City on Oct. 20.

In March, a federal jury convicted a man named Eliyahu Weinstein of defrauding investors of $41 million. As Bloomberg reported, he had falsely promised “to invest their money in Covid-19 masks, scarce baby formula and first-aid kits bound for Ukraine.”

In January, an Indiana sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man named Matthew Huttle when he reportedly raised a firearm during a traffic stop. Huttle was being arrested for a felony traffic violation when he resisted arrest. A special prosecutor charged with investigating the case said the deputy’s use of force was “legally justified.”

Four different men. Four very different crimes. But their common trait is that each of them had previously received a pardon, commutation or clemency from President Trump. And they’re only a small fraction of a larger number. As our newsroom reported this week, at least eight people to whom Trump granted clemency in his first term have since been charged with a crime.

In addition, “Several others pardoned more recently after being convicted of offenses committed during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have also run into trouble with the law.”

But the pardons just keep coming. On Sunday, Trump granted sweeping pardons to 77 people who helped him attempt to subvert the 2020 election. Last week, Trump pardoned Glen Casada, the Republican former speaker of the Tennessee House, and Casada’s former chief of staff, Cade Cothren. Both men had been convicted of charges including wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In the same set of pardons, Trump also pardoned Robert Harshbarger Jr., the husband of Diana Harshbarger, a Republican representative from Tennessee. As our newsroom reported, Robert had pleaded guilty to “health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug, in this case kidney medications, some of which came from China, that were not approved for the purpose by the Food and Drug Administration.”

This is just a partial list of the most notorious and unjustifiable pardons of Trump’s second term so far.

I mentioned one of the most brazen in my column two Sundays ago — the pardon of the crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao.

The pardon came after Zhao’s company, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, “took steps that catapulted the Trump family venture’s new stablecoin product, enhancing its credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from $127 million to over $2.1 billion.”

So what do all of these people have in common? It’s certainly not that they’re deserving of pardons. There isn’t a meaningful claim of actual innocence in the bunch, and in almost every case there’s no meaningful evidence of unusually harsh treatment or unjust sentencing. No, the thing they have in common is they are either allies of Trump and his associates or used connections to Trump or his family (or helped enrich Trump) to get relief from justice.

Read the rest here.

Quote of the day...

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an emailed statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.” -Pam Bondi US Attny General

From here.

This should be comedy gold coming from an administration that is aggressively, and largely successfully demanding that GOP held state legislatures gerrymander their congressional districts as extremely as possible. But it's actually not funny. It is further evidence that the DoJ has been reduced to being Donald Trump's personal law service, paid for by American taxpayers. The corruption and brazen abuses of power by this administration are without any precedent in this country.

Tucker Carlson is not your friend

Dec. 18 is an “important date” for Nick Fuentes.

“That’s Joseph Stalin’s birthday,” Fuentes said in a podcast with Tucker Carlson released Oct. 27. “I’m a fan.”

“You’re a fan of Stalin’s?” Carlson asked.

“Always an admirer,” Fuentes replied.

“We’ll circle back to that,” Carlson said. He never did.

That moment represents much of Carlson’s friendly interview with Fuentes. The avowed Stalin and Hitler apologist called “organized Jewry” the “big challenge” to unifying the country and blamed “these Zionist Jews” for thwarting the American right’s political success.

Many of my fellow Hillsdale students — including some friends — listen to Tucker Carlson regularly. They tell me they appreciate how he challenges longtime, “establishment” conservative positions, such as U.S. aid to Israel. Carlson is entitled to free speech protected by the First Amendment, and no conservative I know is calling for his podcast to be taken down from YouTube. But, after this interview, he doesn’t deserve your trust or a place in the conservative movement.

The best way to deal with bad ideas is to challenge them with hard questions and better arguments. But Carlson failed to do either. What kind of interviewer doesn’t offer a follow-up to “I admire Stalin”?

Read the rest here.

In the News

White House downplays new Epstein emails that mention Trump

MAGA World's Evolving Views on L'Affaire Epstein

Reagan-appointed judge resigns, warns of Trump's 'assault on the rule of law'

October jobs data may never be released, White House says

Ex Top Aid to Gavin Newsom Indicted for Corruption

Trump Receives Military Options for Attack on Venezuela 

Germany decides against conscription (for now)

Masked Israeli settlers attack Palestinian villages and IDF soldiers in the West Bank

Ukraine’s Dilemma as a City Teeters: Save Lives or Keep Holding On

Rubio dismisses criticism of U.S. Caribbean strikes at G7 meeting

Mail Order Homes

African American Life a Hundred Years Ago

Not what most people would think.

Do Dumb Ideas Ever Die?

In one of the great scenes of one of the great gangster movies, Mike Newell’s “Donnie Brasco,” an aging Mafioso named Lefty Ruggiero paces a hospital corridor while his son fights for his life following a drug overdose.

“Twenty-eight years, you can read it on his birth certificate: Bellevue Hospital,” Lefty, played by Al Pacino, tells Donnie, played by Johnny Depp, about his comatose son. “Now he’s back, in there, and I’m out here, worried to my death. And he’s asleep in there, same as 28 years ago, with the same expression. He’s made no progress.”

It’s a line that could apply just as well to America’s policy debates.

Twenty-eight years ago — that was 1997, when “Donnie Brasco” came out — we thought we had made progress, at least when it came to answering some of the larger questions that had roiled 20th-century politics.

Trade protectionism? The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the 1930s showed us the worldwide economic ruin to which that could lead. Government stakes in private enterprise, like the Trump administration’s recent equity stake in Intel? The record of state investment in, or control of, private enterprises, from Solyndra to Sematech (not to mention Alitalia or “Such a Bad Experience Never Again” Sabena), is mostly a story of financial disappointment, taxpayer bailouts, managerial incompetence, political interference and cronyism.

America First? The slogan of Charles Lindbergh and other pre-World War II isolationists should have been buried forever on Dec. 7, 1941. Instead, it emerged from its grave some 75 years later.

But it isn’t just the Trump administration that is reawakening the moral and intellectual zombies of the past. Everywhere one looks there are policy necromancers.

The platform of the national Democratic Socialists of America calls for a 32-hour workweek “with no reduction in pay or benefits”; “free public universal child care and pre-K”; “college for all”; the cancellation of “all student-loan debt”; “universal rent control”; “massive public investment to transition away from fossil fuels”; “guaranteed support for workers in the fossil fuel industry,” and “expansive paid family leave.” Not only would American workers stand to benefit, but so would everybody else, since the D.S.A. wants to offer these benefits to anyone who wishes to come to United States through an open-borders policy.

How would the D.S.A. pay for all this? By soaking the rich, along with “for-profit corporations, large inheritances, and private colleges and universities.” Why did nobody think of this before?

Oh, wait — many did. “Bolivarian socialism,” welcomed by the Jeremy Corbyns of the world, took Venezuela from being South America’s richest country to a humanitarian catastrophe. Sweden attempted a form of socialism in the 1970s and ’80s, only to reverse course after it experienced massive capital flight and a financial crisis during which interest rates hit 75 percent. France’s Socialist government imposed a 75 percent tax on earnings over one million euros in 2012; it dropped the tax two years later as the wealthy packed their bags. Britain’s National Health Service, whose advocates chronically complain is “underfunded,” is in a state of perpetual crisis even as health care, according to the BBC, gobbles up roughly one third of government spending.

“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,” Margaret Thatcher once observed. To put it another way, you can’t abolish billionaires, as Zohran Mamdani, the D.S.A.’s poster child, would like, and still expect them to keep footing your bills.

Read the rest here.

9th Circuit: Oregon Right to Life Group Is a Religious Organization

In Oregon Right to Life v. Stolfi, (9th Cir., Oct. 31, 2025), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, remanded the case to the district court for it to re-evaluate whether requiring Oregon Right to Life to furnish its employees with health insurance covering abortion and contraception violates its First Amendment rights. The majority said in part:

We agree with ORTL that its beliefs are religious and sincerely held.  In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission, 605 U.S. 238 (2025), which reiterated the constitutional significance of exemptions granted to some religiously motivated organizations but not others, we return this case to the district court to reevaluate whether RHEA’s application to ORTL violates the First Amendment....

ORTL’s religious motivations and beliefs are overt and long-established.  They are announced throughout ORTL’s governing documents, shared by ORTL’s board, and have been publicly declared by ORTL since before this litigation....

Read the rest here. 

Vatican nixes use of ‘Co-Redemptrix’ as title for Mary

The Vatican’s doctrinal office said Tuesday the title of “Co-Redemptrix” is not an appropriate way to describe Mary’s participation in salvation.

In Mater Populi Fidelis (“The Mother of the Faithful People of God”), the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) said when an expression requires frequent explanation to maintain the correct meaning, it becomes unhelpful.

“In this case, the expression ‘co-redemptrix’ does not help extol Mary as the first and foremost collaborator in the work of redemption and grace, for it carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ,” according to the doctrinal note, released Nov. 4.

Pope Leo XIV approved the document, signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, on Oct. 7.

Read the rest here.

HT: Dr. Tighe

Anglican Church in North America primate goes on leave amidst allegations

The top leader of the Anglican Church in North America — a conservative denomination that broke away from the more liberal Episcopal Church about 15 years ago — has taken a leave of absence after facing allegations of sexual and other misconduct, which he denies.

Archbishop Stephen Wood announced the leave Monday while he awaits the outcome of a church disciplinary process triggered by a formal complaint, called a presentment, of alleged misconduct against him.

The presentment has not yet been made public, but an investigative report by The Washington Post said it alleged Wood tried to kiss a former children’s ministry director at his parish in 2024, shortly before he was elected archbishop. The presentment alleged Wood made other comments and acted in ways that made her uncomfortable since 2021, and made thousands of dollars in payments to her from church funds, the Post said. The presentment also includes allegations that he bullied staffers and plagiarized sermons, the Post reported.

Wood, 62, a married father of four, has denied the allegations.

Read the rest here.

Democrats run the board, winning by wide margins

Nov 4 (Reuters) - The 2025 off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and California provided an early barometer of how some U.S. voters view President Donald Trump's second term and the Democratic Party's efforts to revive its political fortunes.

Here are some takeaways from election night:

New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger may have provided a blueprint for how Democrats can get their mojo back in next year’s congressional elections.

They have much in common. Each was first elected to Congress in 2018, during the midterms in Trump's first term. This year, they both ran as problem-solving moderates with backgrounds in national security and laser-focused their campaigns on affordability issues while positioning themselves as bulwarks against Trump.

To a party starved for good news, Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, and Spanberger, an ex-CIA officer, provided it. While their wins were not huge surprises given that their states tend to support Democrats more than Republicans, their broad margins of victory may bolster the argument that their approach could work in next year’s midterms, when Democrats hope to wrest back control of Congress.

With votes still being counted, Sherrill appeared to have bested her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, by a greater margin in New Jersey than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris beat Trump there last year. There were also signs that Spanberger was outperforming Harris in Virginia.

Sherrill and Spanberger, along with New York mayoral winner Zohran Mamdani, promoted affordability as a central campaign theme.

Spanberger’s “Affordable Virginia” plan focused on lowering healthcare, housing and energy costs, and she vowed to make tech data centers pay “their fair share” of electricity costs. Sherrill’s “Affordability Agenda” targeted similar concerns. She pledged to declare a statewide energy emergency and freeze electricity rates.

Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, said that while it’s always tricky to determine how off-year election results might play in the next year’s midterms, Democrats can take some lessons away from Tuesday.

“If Trump keeps taking a sledgehammer to people’s pocketbooks, that is an easy thing for Democrats to run on,” Payne said.

Read the rest here.

US accused of threatening EU diplomats during bid to kill green shipping rules

European negotiators were personally targeted by their American counterparts during a brutal negotiation over green shipping rules, European Commission officials told POLITICO — a highly unusual gambit that left diplomats shaken after the meeting. 

The threats were made last month, as the U.S. maneuvered to block a new effort to tax pollution at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization in London.

Eight envoys, officials and civil society observers from Europe, granted anonymity to describe the fractious closed-door discussions and protect their relationships with those involved, confirmed national delegates had reported they had been threatened with personal consequences if they went against Washington.

“Our negotiators had never seen this before in any international talks,” said one European official, who had spoken to negotiators. “People being summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London — intimidation, threats of cessation of business, threats of family members losing visas.”

Another European Commission official added that diplomats returned home rattled after the meetings: “We had feedback from a number of people involved in the negotiations about the pressure they faced.”

Since Donald Trump’s return to office, the administration has sought to undermine global climate policy and promote U.S. fossil fuel interests. The president has called efforts to combat global warming a “con job.” He was particularly enraged about the maritime emissions effort, saying it would hit American shippers with unwarranted taxes.

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Tucker Carlson just threw gasoline on the simmering GOP divide over Israel and antisemitism

NEW YORK (AP) — As Republicans accuse Democrats of tolerating antisemitism in their party, the GOP on Friday was roiled by its own schism after the leader of a powerful right-wing think tank defended prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson for his friendly podcast interview with a far-right activist known for his antisemitic views.

The comments from Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, sparked outrage from some Heritage staffers, senators and conservative activists. But they also reflect increasing skepticism toward Israel and of Jews among some on the right, complicating the GOP’s efforts to cast the Democratic Party as antisemitic.

The outrage began when Roberts on Thursday posted a video in which he denied his group was “distancing itself” from the former Fox News host, one of the most powerful voices on the right, after Carlson’s podcast hosted Nick Fuentes, whose followers see themselves as working to preserve America’s white, Christian identify.

“The American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right,” said Roberts, adding that, while antisemitism is wrong, conservatives do not need to always support Israel.

The video drew sharp rebuke from Heritage staffers and multiple Republican senators, as well as top Jewish leaders in both parties.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, called the Roberts statement “deeply disturbing.” Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement to Jewish Insider that he was “appalled, offended and disgusted.”

The flare-up comes as criticism of Israel and blatant antisemitism have risen in right wing circles. Activists such as Fuentes and Candace Owens have seen the popularity of their podcasts and videos grow, particularly among young conservatives who are increasingly skeptical of the notion that the Republican Party should stand by Israel’s side and support its war in Gaza, given President Donald Trump ‘s “America First” agenda.

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