“The Internet is a global network. Update a website or type an email over here, in a jiffy it ends up over there, even if ‘there’ is thousands of miles away. Now, in cases where the connections of the interconnection get disrupted, the electrons (well, ‘packets’) are routinely diverted to a more stable path. … But not always. Certainly not if we’re talking about a major undersea data cable. Were such a cable accidentally severed — or deliberately severed, by a hostile power practicing for war, say, the People’s Republic of China — transmission of data between affected countries may stop dead until the cable can be fixed. Declan Ganley wants to cure this particular vulnerability by building an alternative he calls the Outernet, a space-based version of the Internet that bypasses the earthbound network entirely.” (11/25/25)
“It’s hard to imagine a greater political opportunity than releasing the full, unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files. The late financier was an unscrupulous magnet for the world’s most powerful. The task from President Donald Trump’s base was simple: Release the names, prosecute the guilty and prove that the government, when properly led, won’t protect the rich and connected. Instead, we got months of resistance, bizarre denials and attempts to frame the issue as a ‘Democrat hoax’ …. After all the performative huffing and puffing, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed the House with just one dissenting vote, flew through the Senate and was signed into law by Trump. That’s nearly unanimous consent from a Congress that can’t agree on lunch. … One would think that would be the end of the story and transparency would flow like waterfalls. Unfortunately, that’s not how swamp water works.” (11/25/25)
“At the dawning of the British Empire in 1818, the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley penned a memorable sonnet freighted with foreboding about the inevitable decline of all empires, whether in ancient Egypt or then-modern Britain. In Shelly’s stanzas, a traveler in Egypt comes across the ruins of a once-monumental statue, with ‘a shattered visage lying half sunk’ in desert sands bearing the ‘sneer of cold command.’ Only its ‘trunkless legs of stone’ remain standing. Yet the inscription carved on those stones still proclaims: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ And in a silent mockery of such imperial hubris, all the trappings of that awesome power, all the palaces and fortresses, have been utterly erased, leaving only a desolation ‘boundless and bare’ as ‘the lone and level sands stretch far away.'” (11/25/25)
“Epstein and Alan Dershowitz collaborated on smear campaigns against Mearsheimer, Walt, and an underage assault victim making allegations against Epstein — in the same week.” (11/25/25)
“[I]n the longer reach of Western history, Trump’s behavior is far more a rule than an exception. He is, really, just another giant ego out there smashing things and trying to rebuild them in his own image — perhaps even to the good on occasion. And there’s something strangely reassuring in that. Why? Because like the most extreme autocrats of the past, who almost invariably fell through arrogance and overreach, we’re already starting to see cracks in the reign of the would-be Emperor Donald the First.” (11/25/25)
“New York, August 16, 1824. The guns had scarcely fallen silent when the bells began. Bunting unfurled; apprentices scrambled onto rooftops; veterans pinned sun-faded cockades. A steamboat shrieked past Staten Island as ferries veered in for a glimpse of the man the papers called the Nation’s Guest. Then the figure who had once ridden beside Washington — older now but unmistakable — stepped ashore at Castle Garden: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette. At the subsequent reception, ‘In they came, rich and poor, Black and white … old veterans, young soldiers.’ For thirteen months and more than six thousand miles, through all twenty-four states, variations of that scene replayed: processions, banquets, tears, toasts. Ryan L. Cole’s The Last Adieu invites us to follow Lafayette’s Farewell Tour — and asks why it mattered.” (11/25/25)
“If we are living in an age of lawfare, it is fast becoming a war of attrition. The dismissal of the indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and current New York Attorney General Letitia James is the latest twist in the controversial prosecutions of Trump antagonists. James immediately posted a message celebrating the decision, but she may want to focus on the prepositional phrase following the word ‘dismissal’: ‘without prejudice.’ The administration may still be able to revive these cases. James’[s] victory lap on social media is a fitting addition to the opinion, which emphasized President Donald Trump’s social media postings about these cases. U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie noted that Trump had demanded the indictment of these and other individuals shortly before the charges were handed down.” (11/25/25)
“Regime change in Venezuela has been one of Trump’s few fairly consistent policies since his first term. He sought regime change in 2019 and backed Guaido through the end of the term. Almost as soon as he was back in office, Trump had Venezuela in his sights again. Once he had picked Rubio to be his Secretary of State, the writing was on the wall. It was practically guaranteed that he would be pursuing regime change in Caracas again, and that is what we are seeing unfold right now. … Perhaps the most straightforward explanation is that Trump is a crude throwback imperialist. Overthrowing the government of a much weaker country so that the U.S. can exploit that country’s resources is what he thinks the U.S. should have always been doing.” (11/25/25)
“My first post after I brought this Substack back to life almost a year ago was about DOGE, the not-exactly-part-of-the-government organization, headed by Elon Musk, that Donald Trump was creating to save money by eliminating ‘waste, fraud and abuse.’ DOGE would, I predicted, fail. And it did indeed fail, even more spectacularly than I expected: Although DOGE still has eight months left on its original charter, it has already been quietly disbanded. But although DOGE is gone, its malign legacy endures.” (11/25/25)
“If there were any doubts that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the greatest scoundrels of American political history, David Beito’s new biography should settle the issue. Beito — whose previous book, The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights, did yeoman’s work exposing Roosevelt’s depredations against civil liberties — has now written FDR: A New Political Life, and it should help FDR get the villainous reputation he deserves. Treachery was the consistent theme of Roosevelt’s political life.” (11/25/25)
