Political Theater, 12/10/25
Source: Roll Call
“Buy the ‘Shadow Ticket,’ take the ride.” (12/10/25)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL6616681418.mp3
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
In new peace, US firms will help Israel spy on and target Gazans
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Sophia Goodfriend
“Since mid-October, some 200 U.S. military personnel have been working out of a sprawling warehouse in southern Israel, around 20 kilometers from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. The Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) was ostensibly set up to facilitate the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-point ‘peace plan’ — whose stated aims are to ‘disarm Hamas,’ ‘rebuild Gaza,’ and lay the groundwork for ‘Palestinian self-determination and statehood’ — which last week received the endorsement of the UN Security Council. Yet while no Palestinian bodies have been involved in the conversations surrounding Gaza’s future, at least two private U.S. surveillance firms have found their way into the White House’s post-war designs for the Strip.” (12/10/25)
It’s Time to End Affirmative Action for Men
Source: The Dispatch
by Yascha Mounk
“Community colleges, historically black institutions, and big public schools are now heavily female. So, increasingly, are the country’s most selective private universities. Women make up the majority of incoming students at every Ivy League school except Dartmouth. If they were to admit applicants without considering their sex, the best schools in the country would end up with incoming classes that have an even greater predominance of women than they already do. So, largely unnoticed by the public, they have started to embrace a solution to this supposed problem that is simple, effective, and manifestly unjust: affirmative action for men.” (12/10/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/university-college-gender-discrimination-men-admissions/
Guinea-Bissau: Junta Adopts Charter Barring Leaders From Elections
Source: US News & World Report
“Guinea-Bissau’s military junta adopted a 12-month transitional charter that bars the interim president and prime minister from running in the next elections, two weeks after officers staged a coup that suspended the constitution. The 29-article charter, published on Tuesday, requires presidential and legislative elections to be held at the end of the one-year transitional period, with the polling date to be set by the transitional president. Army officers in Guinea-Bissau, branding themselves the Military High Command, toppled President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on November 26 and installed Major-General Horta Inta-a as interim president the following day. … The Military High Command will control legal and institutional reforms during the transition, including drafting revisions to the suspended constitution, setting up a new Constitutional Court, changing regulations for political parties and overseeing the appointment of new electoral officials, according to the charter.” (12/10/25)
Reasonably Optimistic, episode 1
Source: Washington Post
“Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson predicted the metaverse, wearable tech and artificial intelligence long before those technologies arrived. What does he think of it all now? Host Megan McArdle talks to Stephenson about the future of AI, education and social media — and how his fiction became a window into the culture of Silicon Valley.” (12/10/25)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/the-scifi-writer-who-predicted-the-future/
Gilded Glory
Source: Law & Liberty
by Brian Domitrovic
“The American economy in the quarter century after 1865 remains without exaggeration the greatest example of material development and the expansion of mass prosperity in world history. We cannot compare ourselves favorably to the best economy that ever was, namely the Gilded Age (the term comes from a Mark Twain book of 1873), but we can and should aspire to emulate the best. If we are not in a new Gilded Age today — we are not, because we are not growing enough — it would be commendable if we aspired to be. Perhaps the HBO series (which takes place in the 1880s) is striking a chord because we were once that good, and we know we can be again.” (12/10/25)
Trump’s Clemency Machine Deserves More Right-Wing Scrutiny
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“Just a year ago, a series of pardons signed by President Joe Biden, apparently executed through the ‘autopen’ and seemingly without his direct involvement, rightly became the subject of intense scrutiny from conservative media. Right-wing stars Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon among others bashed the autopen pardon of a convicted killer from Connecticut, Adrian Peeler, even proposing legal theories for how Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department might be able to undo Biden era pardons. Yet one month ago, Trump unwittingly mimicked Biden’s inattentiveness when, after pardoning Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he did not even know who the crypto exchange founder was. … while conservatives had no trouble denouncing Biden’s autopen pardons, the same standard of scrutiny is overdue for the clemency system now operating inside this administration.” (12/10/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-clemency-machine-deserves-more-right-wing-scrutiny/
FL: Regime sues medical associations for expressing medical opinions
Source: United Press International
“Florida is suing three major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing them of pushing misinformation about gender-affirming care to drive demand for their members’ services and generate profit from membership sales. The lawsuit was announced Tuesday by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a video statement, naming the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Endocrine Society and AAP as defendants. ‘We believe these organizations fail to disclose the risks, limits and evidence when promoting so-called gender-affirming care for children,’ he said. … All three defendants have previously come out against legislation seeking to interfere in the healthcare of children.” (12/10/25)
Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 12/10/25
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Flies Fighter Jets Into Gulf of Venezuela, Zelensky Rules Out Ceding Territory, and More.” (12/10/25)
Trump’s Word Games Can’t Conceal the Murderous Reality of His Anti-Drug Strategy
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“I have a riddle for you. If we call a drug smuggler a combatant, how many combatants died when SEAL Team 6 killed 11 men on a cocaine boat near Venezuela on September 2? Zero, because calling a drug smuggler a combatant does not make him a combatant. That reality goes to the heart of the morally and legally bankrupt justification for President Donald Trump’s bloodthirsty anti-drug campaign in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, which began on September 2 and so far has killed 87 people in 22 attacks. The September 2 operation is newly controversial because it included a follow-up missile strike that blew apart two defenseless survivors of the initial attack as they clung to the smoldering wreckage. But all these attacks entail the use of deadly force in circumstances that do not justify it.” (12/10/25)