Source: The UnPopulist
by Samantha Hancox-Li
“And it’s a good thing for women and the world, contrary to claims of the neo-right’s new darling.” (12/22/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/no-sweetheart-favoritism-isnt-driving
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“Evita Duffy-Alfonso, the pregnant daughter of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, tore into TSA last week over the abuse she suffered prior to a recent flight. Writing on X on Thursday, she called for abolishing TSA: ‘I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ … Duffy-Alfonso’s condemnation of TSA is refreshing regardless of whether it spurs the Trump administration to repent. But the outrage that her comment evoked on Twitter does raise the question: How many Trump voters abandoned their opposition to unleashing federal agencies after Trump was back in the Oval Office?” (12/22/25)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/12/22/did-tsa-finally-grab-the-wrong-groin/
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by William Harris
“On college campuses across the country, students and administrators are debating bans on Fizz, a mobile app that lets users within a particular community — such as a college or university — communicate anonymously. Some view Fizz as a source of bullying and other unwelcome content. Yet many students see Fizz — founded by two Stanford dropouts who felt their campus lacked opportunities to build community during the COVID-19 pandemic — as a source of vital connection. … The practical stakes of banning anonymous forums from campus are high. Cutting off access to online platforms doesn’t only silence offensive comments — it restricts the tools students use to speak, organize, and mobilize around political and social causes, in ways that are often faster and more powerful than offline alternatives. Consistent with their right to speak anonymously, students possess the First Amendment freedom to assemble and receive information through both online platforms and offline media.” (12/22/25)
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“Ending wars and creating lasting peace are rarely easy, and it usually requires an outright victory by one side (followed by a reasonable settlement that discourages the losers from trying to reverse the results) or mutual recognition that nothing is to be gained by continuing the fighting. In the latter case, both sides must accept that they are not going to get everything they want and focus instead on obtaining enough of what they need to be satisfied. In either case, however, a host of details need to be worked out …. Ideally, a peace agreement will also point the way to long-term reconciliation, a process that typically takes a long time. Evenhanded third-party mediators can facilitate all these steps and help guarantee that an agreement sticks. Trump is a poor peacemaker because he and his team ignore all these requirements.” (12/22/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“As with American young people, the suicide rate among current and former military personnel continues to rise. The way I figure it is that when young people are checking out of life early, that’s a surefire way to know that there is something dreadfully wrong with that society. I believe that the same holds true for a nation’s military personnel — those who ostensibly devote their lives to the defense of the United States. The common perception is that soldiers who commit suicide are suffering from PTSD — that is, from the mental and emotional problems arising from the overall horror of combat and war. That might well be a factor but I don’t believe it is the biggest factor. I have long contended that the biggest factor leading soldiers and former soldiers to take their own lives is guilt — deeply seated guilt arising from the wrongful killing of other human beings.” (12/22/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/12/22/the-real-reason-for-military-suicides/
Source: Waste No More Time
by Nicholas Sarwark
“You may have heard of Bari Weiss. Ms. Weiss became famous for leaving her position as an opinion writer at the New York Times and starting the Free Press and recently being named editor-in-chief at CBS News under the pro-Trump ownership of the Ellison family. The Free Press embraced conspiracy, controversy, and ‘debate’ in a bid to earn newsletter subscribers, which resulted in backing down from Radley Balko over an inaccurate and conspiratorial George Floyd story. It’s an incredible rise, but is unlikely to end well because Bari Weiss doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. Reporting on the news requires attention to detail and accuracy that writing an opinion column doesn’t. If you’re wrong about an opinion, nobody gets sued for defamation. Wrong about material facts that damage someone’s reputation … well that’s a different story.” (12/22/25)
https://nsarwark.substack.com/p/on-hiring-a-restaurant-critic-to
Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Erick-Woods Erickson
“A story has come out that the State of Georgia inappropriately counted 315,000 votes in Fulton County, Georgia. Elon Musk and others have recirculated the claim and it is being amped up by conservative writers, talk hosts, etc. It is simply not true. 315,000 is the early in-person votes cast in Fulton County. The issue is not about the legitimacy of the votes. It is about the failure of an election bureaucrat to sign a certificate related to poll closing tapes. There actually is no law that requires the certificate be signed for the votes to count. … Y’all, there were absolutely issues in the election. But this really is not one.” (12/22/25)
https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/the-latest-stolen-election-story
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lucas Sylveira de Campos Mouawad
“President Donald Trump created new tariffs on April 2, a day he would come to call the Liberation Day. In July, he decided to increase tariff rates. On November 20, the same decided to pull 10 percent of the tariff he had imposed on Brazilian goods entering the US economy, leaving the rate at 40 percent. Brazil is the greatest coffee producer and exporter in the world, and its coffee used to represent one-third of what the United States of America consumed. With the tariffs imposed in April, prices rose rapidly and consumers in the US felt unsatisfied with the quality of product they had been getting, and — in case they wanted the same type of coffee they had been getting before Liberation Day — they would have to pay more for the same.” (12/22/25)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Ryan Smith
“If there’s one problem facing the story of renewable energy among American progressives, it is the grimness of the vibe. Renewables, as the story goes, are necessary to fight climate change, save the planet, and do our duty to our fellow living creatures. These things are, of course, all true. But the delivery feels like urging people to eat their vegetables. Yes, it will be good for you and will create new jobs, but any sense of green energy making life better and more exciting feels out of reach. … what if that story was wrong and renewable energy isn’t just a righteous yet painful solution to our problems? What if it was the herald of the greatest revolution in energy since the steam engine?” (12/22/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-biggest-thing-since-steam/
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Marcionism was an early Christian movement founded by Marcion of Sinope in the second century AD. Marcion taught that the God of the Old Testament — a deity focused on law and judgment — was entirely separate from and inferior to the God of the New Testament revealed by Jesus. Marcion not only rejected the Old Testament entirely but also created his own biblical canon, consisting of edited versions of Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s letters. Crucially, he removed what he saw as Jewish influences. Early, mainstream Christians declared the sect heretical. Still, Marcionism remained influential for several centuries and ultimately pushed the Church to define its own scriptural canon and theological boundaries more formally. Marcionism is back — with an attitude.” (12/22/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-the-old-testament