Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“Although the Fed lacked employment data for October and November during its most recent FOMC policy meeting, the Fed was likely pushing its new policies while assuming more soft employment data. The latest data from the BLS further helps the Fed, politically speaking, in its efforts to justify further cuts to the target policy interest rate even though price inflation measures remain near three percent, and are not — as the Fed has repeatedly insisted — hurrying back to the stated two-percent inflation target.” (12/16/25)
Source: Independent Institute
by William J Watkins, Jr.
“The Bill of Rights exists to protect the people and the states from an overreaching federal government. Since the 1920s, the federal courts have turned the Bill of Rights into a weapon to use against the people and the states. December 15 — Bill of Rights Day — should remind Americans that the first 10 amendments were intended to restrict rather than augment federal power. In our upside-down world today, we associate the Bill of Rights with landmark Supreme Court cases restricting state action. Modern Americans express shock when learning that the Bill of Rights was intended to apply only to the federal government.” (12/16/25)
“Israeli authorities are expected to advance plans to build 9,000 new housing units in an illegal [squat] on the site of the abandoned Qalandiya airport in occupied East Jerusalem, in another attempt to cut off Palestinian lands from each other and block any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state ever emerging. The so-called Atarot neighbourhood in northern East Jerusalem, reminiscent of the E1 plan to undermine Palestinian statehood, is to be discussed and have its outlines approved on Wednesday by the District Planning and Building Committee, according to Israeli group Peace Now. … It would build an Israeli enclave in an area where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in close proximity, with the aim of blocking development in a key area and further damaging the likelihood of a sovereign Palestinian state being established.” (12/17/25)
“Alessandro Fusillo (Libertarian Attorney from Rome; DIFENDERSI ORA) on freedom, E.U., The Philosophy of Liberty worldwide, activism, predictions for 2026, etc,” (12/16/25)
“We here at TPOL generally like Whoopi Goldberg … as an actress when she played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation. That was a long time ago. But the good will from her appearances has long since evaporated, except for what she gets that we provide to any human being. Regardless of their faults. Including what we are tempted to say one of Goldberg’s greater ones: an inability to understand simple English declarative statements, combined with a firm belief that her political enemies are all monsters. So we are placed in a quandry: for once we agree with her. Whoopi Goldberg is recently reported as saying, ‘I’m not gonna let Secretary Kennedy tell me what vaccines to take.’ Amen … we here at TPOL are totally agreement with Whoopi Goldberg. The government should not be telling us what we can put into our bodies.” (12/16/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stateside designated Venezuelan government a ‘terrorist’ organization and ordered a ‘complete and total’ blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of the country. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said ‘Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.’ … The White House has reportedly undertaken a large military buildup in the Caribbean, including deploying its largest aircraft carrier to the region, as well as launching strikes against boats that it claims were trafficking drugs to the U.S.” (12/16/25)
“I could probably name 50 entertainers whose political positions I find odious … if I bother to notice those political positions. I mostly go out of my way NOT to. Is there any compelling reason to deprive ourselves of great films or great performances from Oliver Stone, Jon Voit, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, James Woods, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio … just to indulge our political disagreements with them and maybe cost them a buck or two in box office sales, TV residuals, etc.? The idea smacks of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. As for speaking ill of the dead, even dancing on their graves … well, I’m not against it in the case of particularly unsavory characters. But over political disagreements? No. Tom Smothers wasn’t Charles Manson and Pete Seeger wasn’t Joseph Stalin. They enriched our lives whether we liked their politics or not.” (12/16/25)
“Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said Tuesday that China is now suing Missouri, in China, in the wake of the $24 billion American court judgment the state has obtained against China in connection with the pandemic. … In April, a federal judge in Cape Girardeau ordered the Chinese government to pay the money to Missouri after finding it hoarded personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. … Hanaway, in her news release Tuesday, said the new Chinese suit is demanding that the defendants in Missouri issue public apologies in the New York Times and other American media and internet platforms and in Chinese media and internet platforms. Hanaway also said the suit demands compensation equivalent to $50.5 billion plus legal fees and the right to claim further compensation.” (12/16/25)
