Hey, everyone:
One of our long-time supporters, RB, sends this note:
“I’m not senile. I remember I already did this once, but I know it’s moving slow this year. Appreciate what you do. Good luck.”
What RB already did once this year, and did again over the weekend, was send us a $100 donation, bringing our year-end fundraiser total to $2,208.84. THANK YOU, RB!
Where are those of you who read the freedom movement’s newspaper every day, but have never financially supported it?
We’re $541.66 short. Once we reach $2,750.50 — but NOT UNTIL we do — supporter GL will “match funds” for the other half, getting us to our goal of $5,501.
Please help:
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: The Dispatch
“Rights, Obligations, and Nostalgia | Interview: Megan McArdle.” (12/22/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/rights-obligations-and-nostalgia-interview-megan-mcardle/
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“The problem on the mainstream left today is almost identical to the problem on the right. They are both run by old white cis het men for old white cis het men. The only difference is that the right admits it while the left just uses minorities like human shields while they kill Muslims with drones and organize the global bourgeoisie beneath decaying relics of progressive internationalism like the EU and the UN. Well, no more. No more Weimar allies buttering us up with petty privileges while the Nazis gather their guns. We need our own goddamn guns, our own clinics, our own schools, our own parties and organizations run from the bottom up by our own people.” (12/21/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-mainstream-left-will-never.html
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan
“People like [Alejandro] Flores-Muñoz — and other immigrants, legally present or not — are an important entrepreneurial force in the United States. They start businesses at a higher rate than native-born Americans, creating jobs and enriching communities in the process. Now they’re getting swept up in Trump’s mass deportation efforts. As entrepreneurial immigrants are detained and deported, it won’t just be newcomers and their families who suffer. The American workers, customers, and communities they support will suffer too.” (for publication 01/26)
https://reason.com/2025/12/21/trump-is-deporting-entrepreneurs/
Source: The Bulwark
“Mark Kelly Isn’t Backing Down.” (12/21/25)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-kelly-isnt-backing-down/id1772157676?i=1000742193798
Source: Wired
by Makena Kelly
“From Zohran Mamdani’s campaign to the US government’s Halo memes, fandom has become the defining language of US politics.” (12/22/25)
https://archive.is/VALUR
Source: The UnPopulist
by Jonathan Rauch
“Discontents with liberal modernity are perennial and a spiritual awakening won’t cure them.” (12/21/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/lets-not-grant-the-postliberal-critique
Source: Semafor
“The State Department’s independent watchdog is reviewing a request from two Democratic senators to investigate whether Trump officials broke ethics rules in connection with deals involving the United Arab Emirates, according to correspondence shared with Semafor. The department’s inspector general wrote to Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., this month confirming that it was evaluating their request for an investigation of the involvement by Trump aides Steve Witkoff and David Sacks in a decision to allow the export of advanced US-made chips to the UAE. Witkoff and Sacks’ work on the issue drew scrutiny from the senators as a result of their reported financial ties to the UAE in the cryptocurrency space.” (12/22/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/22/2025/sacks-witkoff-could-face-ethics-probe-over-uae-deals
Source: Antiwar.com
“Netanyahu To Ask Trump for Another Iran War, US ‘Pursuing’ Third Tanker Near Venezuela, and More.” (12/22/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isCl7heUMmI
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Richard M Ebeling
“President Trump and the current Federal Reserve Board of Governors differ as to what interest-rate changes should be focusing on and how the accompanying monetary changes should be applied to facilitate the achievement of the chosen shorter- or longer-term targets. But what is missed in most of the discussions, debates, and rhetorical exchanges is that both share a common institutional and policy premise: a government agency having the capacity to undertake monetary central planning.” (12/22/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/interest-rates-are-prices-not-arbitrary-policy-tools/
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer
“Since the federal government entered the highway business early last century, it has largely paid for roads by taxing gasoline purchases. The federal gas tax accounts for roughly 70 percent of Highway Trust Fund revenue, and every state has its own gas tax as well. But today people don’t buy as much gas, and these funds face shortfalls. According to the Pew Research Center, the collective road maintenance backlog of 24 states has grown to over $86 billion since 2015. The tax was never a particularly good way to fund roads, and new solutions are overdue. Fortunately, there may be an opportunity to take advantage of skyrocketing demand for warehouses and data centers to help pay for roads, by selling state and federal land near highways.” (12/21/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/12/21/how-federal-land-sales-can-fund-highways/
