“China will suspend an additional 24% tariff on [Chinese buyers of] US goods for another two months, formalizing a decision by the two countries’ leaders to prolong their trade truce until next January. The move will take effect at 1:01 p.m. Beijing time on Tuesday, with a 10% blanket tariff retained on [Chinese buyers of] US imports, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said in a statement. China will also extend its suspension of special fees on American ships docking at its ports until Jan. 10, the Transport Ministry said in a separate statement on Monday.” (11/09/26)
“In 1954, Congress replaced the traditional ‘Armistice Day’ observance with a celebratory ‘Veterans Day.’ Instead of mourning war, we now celebrate warriors. Parades. Air shows. Political speeches. Free meals, drinks, haircuts, etc. for veterans. A lot of ‘thank you for your service’ to everyone identifiable as a veteran of the US armed forces; quite a bit of mutual back-slapping among those of us who ‘served.’ To me, the best way to celebrate veterans would be stop making so many of us — especially, but not only, of the dead, maimed, traumatized, and homeless varieties.” (11/08/26)
“Donald Trump conceded he had been ‘too tough’ on immigration and offered to work with Democrats on an amnesty deal for migrants in a sign that he could temper his deportation campaign in the wake of Republicans’ midterm rout. The president said in a TV interview aired on Sunday that some voters had been turned off by the severity of his administration’s approach to immigration. … Asked if he thought some kind of ‘legal status’ deal with Democrats was possible, Trump told CBS that was ‘something that’s actually doable’. He added that he would be willing to work with legislators such as Texas senator-elect James Talarico to achieve reform. The interview was filmed on Friday morning, shortly before Trump announced he was appointing immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as his chief of staff.” (11/08/26)
“While most of us spent the spring and summer working on campaigns, Michael Heise, founder of the Mises Caucus, was plotting a second takeover of the Libertarian Party. His plan to create the ‘American Liberty Party’ wouldn’t just capture the Libertarian Party, but destroy it, replacing it with a bizarre mixture of America First populist mush that, by his own admission, ‘wont be explicitly libertarian.’ … On October 27, Heise announced the American Liberty Party. If you visit the website and scroll to the bottom you will realize that it is a project of the Mises Caucus, paid for by Mises PAC and not actually a new political party.” (11/07/26)
“On Saturday, at least two tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, including one that caught fire. The first vessel was transiting about eight nautical miles off the coast of Khasab, on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, when it caught fire. Unverified videos purporting to show the blaze have circulated on social media, and appear to show a vigorous cargo fire burning amidships. The crewmembers were evacuated, and no injuries have been reported. Video footage shows at least two firefighting tugs on scene and working to combat the blaze.” (11/08/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“Republicans took a pounding on Tuesday that made past wave elections look like a mild drizzle by comparison. Just whatever you do, don’t blame the Iran war. … Even in 2006, Republicans had other problems besides the Iraq War. But this furious denial of the war’s impact is reminiscent of those who wanted to blame GOP congressional losses 20 years ago on earmarks.” (11/07/26)
“Bitcoin has seen sharp two-way moves in the last several hours, reminding traders why leverage can hurt. The volatility came as the market digested two uncomfortable headlines. First, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia – AI bellwether and the largest stock by market cap – admitted to an affair with a woman U.S. officials believe was spying for China. Second, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiations with Iran had stalled. … Bitcoin fell to about $73,761 late Sunday, its lowest point since August, before recovering to trade above $75,000, according to CoinDesk data.” (11/08/26)
“Free speech is in trouble, and problems are snowballing, with the First Amendment now squeezed between competing visions of unfreedom. The massacre of the Republican party at the polls last week was driven at least in part by the Trump administration’s cringeworthy failures on the issue. … Supporters of civil liberties are becoming a subculture. We’re aging out of the era when Americans reflexively understood why free speech is important.” (11/07/26)
“A data leak from Moscow’s statistics agency has revealed that more than 450,000 Russians have been killed in the war in Ukraine. Rosstat was hit by a cyber attack carried out by groups banned by Russia as ‘extremist organisations’, who stole data on the economy and wartime losses. The Belarusian Cyber Partisans and Silent Crow hacking groups obtained the records, which contained information from death certificates registered between February 2022 and August this year, from Rosstat’s internal demography database. …. Silent Crow, a pro-Ukrainian hacktivist group, published the data, which showed there had been an estimated 450,100 deaths. However, the Cyber Partisans, a group of anonymous hacktivists opposing the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, estimated the figure to be lower – at 393,881 – because of a more limited methodology that explicitly identified military operations as the cause.” (11/08/26)
