William Van Wagenen on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“William Van Wagenen on Life in Post-Assad Syria.” (12/10/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/12-5-25-william-van-wagenen-on-life-in-post-assad-syria/
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
The Tiny Car vs Big Government
Source: Independent Institute
by Allen Gindler
“President Trump recently posted a declaration that confused me a bit. He wrote that he has approved ‘TINY CARS to be built in America,’ proclaiming that they will be inexpensive, safe, fuel-efficient, and amazing. He thanked the Department of Justice and the Departments of Transportation and Environment and demanded that manufacturers start building them now. It sounded like the leader of a centrally planned economy who personally decides which products are permitted. The tone was almost [sic] authoritarian, as if the market had been waiting for permission from the state to innovate. There is a saying: perception is reality. Trump wants us to believe that he is in charge of everything in the country and the world, from diverting hurricanes to stopping wars, regulating trade, and producing automobiles.” (12/10/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/12/10/approved-tiny-cars/
Webster Groves Should Not Institute an Economic Development Sales Tax
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes
“There is a long list of really dumb taxes in Missouri. The St. Louis and Kansas City earnings taxes are actively harmful to growth and opportunity. The personal property taxes on livestock are absurd. The pool table tax has long been an anachronism. But I have always thought that the single worst tax is Missouri is the local economic development sales tax. Why is it the worst? Because while the other taxes are harmful, they at least fund, in part, necessary functions of government. The economic development sales tax is a tax that entirely funds actions that cities should not be engaged in. It’s a tax that collects more money from people to make our communities worse off.” (12/10/25)
Myanmar: Dozens killed as regime forces launch air strike on hospital
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least 30 people, including patients, have been killed, and about 70 wounded after an air strike by the country’s military government hit a major hospital in western Myanmar, according to a rebel group, aid workers and a witness. Myanmar has been gripped by attritional fighting in a raging civil war. The hospital in western Rakhine state’s Mrauk U township was struck late on Wednesday by bombs dropped by a military aircraft, said Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan Army, which is battling the ruling government along parts of the coastal state.” (12/11/25)
The David Frum Show, 12/10/25
Source: The Atlantic
“How to Stop Trump’s Plan to Steal the 2026 Elections.” (12/10/25)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2025/12/david-frum-show-michael-waldman-2026-elections/685219
Reason Interview: Sarah McLaughlin
Source: Reason
“How Foreign Governments Police U.S. Speech.” (12/10/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/12/10/how-foreign-governments-police-u-s-speech/
US Suicide Rate Fell in 2024 After Hovering at High Level
Source: US News & World Report
“The U.S. suicide rate dropped slightly last year from some of the highest levels ever reported, preliminary data suggests. Experts say it’s hard to know exactly why, or whether the decline will continue. A little over 48,800 suicide deaths were reported in 2024, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 500 fewer than the year before. The overall suicide rate fell to 13.7 per 100,000 people. Suicides rose for nearly two decades aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then they shot up again, to more than 14 per 100,000 from 2021 to 2023.” (12/10/25)
The Chris Hedges Report, 12/10/25
Source: The Chris Hedges Report
“The Encampments (w/ Mahmoud Khalil and Michael Workman).” (12/10/25)
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-encampments-w-mahmoud-khalil
What Then Must We Do?, 12/10/25
Source: Bretigne Shaffer
“‘Figure Out Where You DO Have Power’ — A Conversation with the Tenth Amendment Center’s Mike Maharrey.” (12/10/25)
Orange man bad. Really, really bad.
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“The Donald is not (in our opinion) a particularly likeable person. He has significant personal faults, can be very irritating, and does not appear (to us) to be a strong advocate for liberty and freedom. He has compromised on many things. So we here at The Price of Liberty are no great fans of The Donald. He is boastful and arrogant, has many other character faults, and (like others who have held his office) he fails to understand the nature of human liberty and the proper role of human government. He has made a lot of mistakes, not just in his first term. But we recognize that while he is bad, relative to those people who were the alternatives? He is definitely the least of two evils. (We are talking Obama, Clinton, Biden, and especially Harris.)” [editor’s note: Sure, if by “definitely the least of,” one means “exactly like the others” – TLK] (12/10/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/12/10/orange-man-bad-really-really-bad/