Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“Where primitive societies understood power and thus sought to preempt it and foreclose political domination, our modern societies obsess about and worship power. This bad habit puts our lives and those of our children and grandchildren at risk, and it makes movement in the direction of a free society almost impossible. This is among the many reasons we ought to be deeply disturbed by and uncomfortable with standard political taxonomies such as left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, etc. These binaries lead to shallow and confused analysis because they do not even attempt to understand the structural realities driving today’s states. These frameworks don’t know how to talk about or understand the relationship between the state and capital or the development of authoritarian power during the modern era.” (11/23/25)
“Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot. There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas artist who wasn’t even at the protest. Daniel ‘Des’ Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained ‘Antifa materials’ after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there. But the boxed materials aren’t Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, or whatever MAGA officials claim ‘Antifa’ uses to wage its imaginary war on America. As prosecutors laid out in the July criminal complaint that led to the indictment, they were zines and pamphlets. Some contain controversial ideas — one was titled ‘Insurrectionary Anarchy’ — but they’re fully constitutionally protected free speech.” (11/23/25)
“[S]olving problems is hard, and in politics, it often involves taking on well-organized constituencies that will wave away the smoke and insist that everything is just fine. So institutions often choose to disregard the underlying issues and simply whack the alarm with a hammer until it stops beeping. There has been a lot of that going on recently, most notably in education. Instead of rectifying disparities in preparation and achievement, people decided it would be simpler to adjust the measurements.” (11/23/25)
“Suicide bombers on Monday attacked the Federal Constabulary’s (FC) headquarters in Pakistan’s Peshawar city in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bombing killed at least three FC soldiers and injured 11 others, according to Dawn. A bomber blew himself up on the gate and two others tried to enter the FC’s premises but were gunned down by FC personnel, Mian Saeed Ahmad, a Peshawar police officer, told the newspaper.” (11/24/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Walter Block
“Under Mamdani’s proposal, [New York City’s] minimum wage would improve to $20 per hour in 2027, $23.50 in 2028, $27 in 2029 and $30 in 2030. This is almost double the present minimum wage currently prevailing in the Big Apple, at $16.50. … [T]he minimum wage law is not a floor, raising wages above the level stipulated by the enactment. Rather, it is a barrier over which one has to jump in order to get a job in the first place, and then to retain it.” (11/23/25)
“A couple hours before I began writing this column, I drove from Irvine up the 405 to the VA Long Beach Healthcare System for a routine appointment. At the hospital I saw two veterans in their 40s in wheelchairs. Although it’s possible they suffered civilian accidents, more likely their legs were blown off by IEDs — improvised explosive devices — in the Iraq War two decades ago. I backed President Donald Trump in three elections because I hoped he would end such senseless ‘regime-change wars,’ as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called them. He promised to be a ‘peace president.’ Instead, recently he perpetrated the nonjudicial killings of 76 ‘narco-terrorists,’ who could just be fishermen given the lack of actual information, in violation of international law. … Worse is his inability to end the Ukraine War ‘in 24 hours,’ as he promised. … Then there’s the Middle East.” (11/23/25)
“European leaders are discussing a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine after the White House made major ‘revisions and clarifications’ to its 28-point peace plan. However, major issues remain unresolved, Finland’s president Alexander Stubb said on Monday. Ukraine reiterated its red lines including formal recognition of occupied territories, demands on limits to Ukraine’s military capacities and restrictions on future alliances, Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of Ukraine’s parliament said on Monday. … Europe demanded changes proposing that Ukraine be granted a larger military than under the US plan and that talks on land swaps should start from the frontline rather than a pre-determined view of which areas should be considered Russian.” (11/24/25)
“What are a few deportation threats among friends? President Donald Trump has called Zohran Mamdani a ‘100% Communist lunatic’ who ‘needs to be DEPORTED.’ Mamdani called the president a ‘despot,’ promising to ‘Trump-proof’ New York. Yet they couldn’t have been chummier in their Oval Office meeting on Friday. What’s happening here? Trump loves populists and winners, and Mamdani is both. … This surreal scene is no bad thing for voters who have been told that the other side is the mortal enemy, though they might wonder how sincere each side was in their election insults. In reality, Mamdani and Trump have some shared interests, and it’s not just about building more apartments and tackling inflation. Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line.” (11/21/25)
