“Politics and government have long been muddied by a chicken-or-egg issue. Which came first, people with good morals or the just institutions that nurture good people? Economist and social theorist Deirdre N. McCloskey surprised me, just a bit, by coming down hard on one side of the question last week. ‘It is ethics, good or bad, that guides pretty much all human relationships, from a marriage or a small circle of friends to a sports team, a business, or a nation-state,’ she wrote, adding that ‘well-designed laws, courts, catechisms, extrinsic motives, social approval, and even a few good and decent people are of no avail if too many people do not behave like self-respecting and other-respecting adults.’ While this sure seems true, I note that her fellow economists have been preaching the preeminence of proper incentives and disincentives to channel good outcomes. For a long, long time.” (11/11/26)
“Joel Webbon has a six-year plan to usher in the first Christian-nationalist president, and he’s sticking to it. Although some on the far right were shaken by last week’s rout of Republicans at the polls, seeing it as a setback for their own agenda, Webbon told me last week that he sees it as validation. Conveniently enough, the first phase of Webbon’s plan required that Republicans lose the midterms, getting rejected by voters after starting a wildly unpopular war that exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis. … Phase 2: Recruiting James Fishback to run in the 2028 Republican presidential primary. Fishback is a 31-year-old Floridian who ran a racist and anti-Semitic campaign in an unsuccessful GOP primary bid to be Florida’s governor. … Fishback would be too young to meet the minimum presidential age of 35, but that does not matter to Webbon, because victory is not the point.” (11/11/26)
“President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC for defamation just received a green light from a federal judge to go forward to trial. Judge Jeffrey Kuntz (S.D. Fla.) ruled in Trump v. BBC that the media outlet must stand trial for splicing together lines from Trump’s January 6th speech to make it seem more violence-inducing before the riot at the Capitol. Judge Kuntz, however, rejected a claim under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The biggest challenge for the court may be whether it can seat jurors who can overcome the case’s underlying political elements. … As a torts professor, I was critical of some past filings by the President that pursued overbroad or flawed defamation claims. BBC was different. It involved an act that is anathema to ethical journalists: cutting lines from different parts of a tape and then joining them as if they were stated together.” (11/11/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ross Clark
“This week it seems that another Net Zero domino will fall. The Government is reported to be on the point of announcing that the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which lays down targets for the sale of new cars, will be watered down. This follows a consultation launched in August. At present, manufacturers are under an obligation to ensure that a rising percentage of their vehicles are pure electric or else face punitive fines of up to £12,000 for every petrol and diesel vehicle they sell over the limit. … The UK car industry is falling well short of the targets, in spite of offering large incentives on electric vehicles. 26.6% of new cars sold in Britain so far this year have been pure electric. The industry also fell short of the 22% and 28% targets in 2024 and 2025 but largely avoided fines because of get-out clauses which made some allowance for increased hybrid sales.” (11/11/26)
“Every political coalition falls apart eventually, unless you’re running the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan or something. Barack Obama’s 2008 win led Democrats into some dizzy daydreams about a ‘permanent’ majority that Republicans could only temporarily defeat. ‘Obama doesn’t need right-leaning whites anymore,’ Ron Brownstein wrote in 2013, after Democrats won a second presidential election with a minority of white voters but a supermajority of non-whites. For a long time, both parties wondered if Trump had built something sturdier than that. … But neither theory of the electorate worked without voters who believed their vote was protecting their way of life – culture and costs.” (11/11/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is claiming that anyone who opposes Trump’s warmongering hates ‘the troops’. ‘If you want to take issue with what we did in Epic Fury or Rough Rider or NAB and Nicolas Maduro, you’re taking issue with the troops and what they accomplished,’ Hegseth told the press on Monday. If you’re too young to remember 2003, this was the line they used the last time the White House started an unwinnable war in the middle east. If you hate the war, you hate The Troops. And we all know you’re not allowed to hate The Troops. You MUST love the imperial stormtroopers. It’s such shitbrained war propaganda. Yes, absolutely fuck the war. Absolutely fuck every single person who chose to enter into this ridiculously unprovoked war of aggression. And hey, fuck The Troops too while we’re at it.” (11/12/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The Social Security Act was instituted in 1935 as the cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Although many changes in the Social Security program have taken place over the years, the nature of Social Security has not changed. … the nature of Social Security remains that of an intergenerational, income-transfer, wealth-redistribution welfare program that takes money from those who work and gives it to those who don’t.” (11/11/26)
“When speaking of Democratic Party politicians, the answer to the question in the title is very easy: they are just pure evil. Some of them, yes, do fall into the other categories as well, but the people who advocate and urge evil (more on that in a moment) are evil. And every Democrat politician supports incredibly, vile, evil things. But when we are talking about the various people who vote for the Democrats, the motives and rationales are not always so uncomplicated. I base this article on a recent Breitbart headline: ‘Democrat Who Said Trump Supporters Belong in Concentration Camps on Track to Win North Caroline House Seat’. This is, of course, appalling, horrifying, revolting, and, yes, pure, 100% evil. There is no other word for it.” (11/11/26)
“It is Veterans Day again, which means that, alongside the free red, white, and blue pancake specials and complimentary coffees, Americans will post tributes honoring the ultimate sacrifice of our soldiers. Just as predictably, on Memorial Day, veterans will receive well-intentioned messages thanking them for their service. Of course, Memorial Day honors those who died while serving in the U.S. military, whereas Veterans Day recognizes all who have served. This confusion is hardly something to get worked up about in itself. But it is symptomatic of something more consequential: a nation detached from its military and the wars it fights.” (11/11/26)