The Science of Politics, 10/15/25
Source: Niskanen Center
“The Supreme Court is enabling Trump’s executive power.” (10/15/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-supreme-court-is-enabling-trumps-executive-power
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
This Is Why Gun Rights Advocates Aren’t Happy With Pam Bondi
Source: Chasing Liberty
by Jeff Charles
“Claiming Attorney General Pam Bondi is a strong defender of the Second Amendment is like saying former President Joe Biden’s mental capacity is in tip-top shape. Sure, it sounds nice, but anyone paying attention can see that it’s just a heaping pile of bovine excrement. Despite what some are saying, Bondi’s Department of Justice has been hard at work on gun control laws. I’m not talking about striking them down, I’m talking about defending them. Vigorously.” (10/15/25)
https://www.libertychasers.com/p/this-is-why-gun-rights-advocates
Russian drone and missile barrage hits Ukraine’s gas facilities
Source: Reuters
“Russia launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Targets in the central Vinnytsia and Poltava regions, as well as the northeast regions of Sumy and Kharkiv regions came under attack, he said. … Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year, initially focusing on electricity but this year increasingly targeting gas infrastructure.” (10/16/25)
Let’s shut down government for real
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“Recently, everyone has been up in arms over a supposed government shutdown. The same way they were over the last few and will be when the next regularly scheduled shutdowns roll around. Some act as if this hasn’t become normal political theatrics. I’m not sure which rock they’ve been hiding under for the past few decades, but it must be a remote one. These same people are trying to decide who’s to blame. Blame? Instead of assigning blame, if there were a government shutdown, I would suggest proudly claiming credit for the accomplishment. Blame belongs to those who want to end the shutdown and open government back up, not those who keep it shut down.” (10/15/25)
The Fifth Column, episode 528
Source: The Fifth Column
“President Comacho Delivers Peace, w/ Mary Katharine Ham.” (10/15/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/528-president-comacho-delivers-peace
IL: Gang members carry out chemical attack on Chicago crowd, local cops
Source: The Hill
“Border Patrol [gang-bangers] were involved in a Tuesday car chase that ended in dozens of protesters being sprayed with tear gas and two [abductions] in a Chicago neighborhood amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime. Federal [gang members] chased two people who rammed into a Border Patrol vehicle before fleeing the scene, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ‘Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal [sic] aliens, attempted to flee on foot,’ the DHS said in a statement to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. ‘As Border Patrol [abducted] the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.’ … Thirteen Chicago police officers were impacted by the tear gas while attempting to ‘de-escalate’ the situation, DHS said.” (10/15/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5556412-car-chase-arrests-teargas-chicago/
Free Trade and Dynamic Efficiency
Source: EconLog
by Arnold Kling
“The usual case for free trade is not the best case for free trade. The usual case is based on static efficiency, meaning making better use of a fixed set of resources. Economists use the term comparative advantage to describe how, if humans choose to specialize and trade with one another, each can end up better off than if they produce everything for themselves. But trade has an even more important role to play in what economists have come to call dynamic efficiency, which is the ability of an economy to exploit innovation and increase living standards over time. This dynamic efficiency is a central concern of the economists who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize: Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt, and Joel Mokyr.” (10/15/25)
Lebanon: At Least One Killed as Israeli Drones Pound Seddiqine
Source: Antiwar.com
“Israel drones carried out multiple strikes against the town of Seddiqine in southern Lebanon overnight and into Wednesday. At least one person was killed when one of the strikes hit a medical center, and another person was wounded. Another overnight strike was reported near Wadi Jilou, another village in the south, targeting a vehicle and wounding one person. The identity of the person was not reported, but media referred to them as a Lebanese citizen. Somewhat further north, in the area around Zahrani, IDF drones were reported to be flying at low altitude overhead. There have as yet not been reports of any strikes in that area, however.” (10/15/25)
The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller after the Government Shutdown Ends
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“As promised — or threatened, if you wandered over to Reason by accident — the Trump administration has started using the government sort-of-shutdown as an opportunity to engage in mass layoffs of federal employees. In the game of chicken between Republicans and Democrats over just how much the government should overspend and on what, the losers so far appear to be some of the almost 3 million Americans who thought federal employment would be a comfortable way to collect a paycheck. Setting thousands of former government workers loose to seek jobs elsewhere — preferably not involving money forcibly extracted from taxpayers — is a step in the right direction.” (10/15/25)
Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
Source: NBC News
“A federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown, which has now stretched to two weeks. Two unions sued the Trump administration last month ahead of the shutdown after the White House signaled a plan to lay off workers through ‘reductions in force’ (RIFs) at federal agencies. At a hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge in the Northern District of California granted the unions’ motion to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the layoffs, which began on Friday.” (10/15/25)