“There are lots of historical precedents for large numbers of multigenerational non-citizens in a country. None of them are attractive examples to follow. There were the Jews in ancient Egypt, the Huns and the Vandals in the Roman Empire, Irish Catholics under penal laws of English occupation from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, and more recently black tribes in apartheid South Africa. Sure, most of those empires continued on the maps for centuries afterwards, but they all endured massive civil discord and violent revolts as a result of the arrangement. And yet, among the Republican right, there’s a crusade against birthright citizenship enshrined in the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment …. Jettisoning birthright citizenship would create the same kind of large permanent underclass that caused the violent chaos in the aforementioned empires above.” (12/17/25)
“A hundred deaths, a thousand deaths, quickly turn into ‘collateral damage.’ But the killing of two desperate men, clinging to the wreckage of their boat in the Caribbean – their boat that has just been bombed – rips open the abstraction of military public relations. They’re just ordinary human beings – like you, like me, like our parents and our children – rather than … uh, narco-terrorists. And suddenly this new war the Trump administration has launched is more than just a videogame. Hey, Pete, this is not keeping us safe! Indeed, as I write these words, I picture the so-called Secretary of War clinging to the wreckage himself. Perhaps he’ll eventually realize that war always comes home, that what we do has consequences, that creating peace is a bit more complex than killing the bad guy (and thus preventing him from contradicting the official narrative).” (12/17/25)
“Washington brands Nicolás Maduro a dictator, celebrates Volodymyr Zelenskyy as democratic, and sponsors María Corina Machado to achieve regime change in Venezuela rather than promote genuine democracy.” (12/17/25)
“The U.S. welfare system is broken, and the Minnesota scandal is a blaring warning to that reality. The failure of political leaders on many fronts bears some of the blame. But the main culprit is the massive federal welfare system that annually passes hundreds of billions of dollars down to states to dole out, with the philosophy that the more people on the rolls, the better. The structure of the U.S. welfare system creates incentives for states to expand the rolls – and little incentive for them to ensure that money is going to those who truly need it. As welfare rolls expand, programs receive more money. It’s a system based on the Democratic perspective that government should provide more support to more people. And the U.S. welfare system is massive. It consists of roughly 90 different programs that cost more than $1 trillion annually.” (12/17/25)
“Any reasonable person knows that President Donald Trump’s comments on the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner have been, to use a word, deplorable. In a message amplified through official accounts, Trump said Reiner died ‘reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction … known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.’ Fortunately, some Republicans found this to be a tasteless and irresponsible thing to say. … So, I figured I’d ask local Republican members of Congress what they think. Their response: crickets.” (12/16/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“Although the Fed lacked employment data for October and November during its most recent FOMC policy meeting, the Fed was likely pushing its new policies while assuming more soft employment data. The latest data from the BLS further helps the Fed, politically speaking, in its efforts to justify further cuts to the target policy interest rate even though price inflation measures remain near three percent, and are not — as the Fed has repeatedly insisted — hurrying back to the stated two-percent inflation target.” (12/16/25)
Source: Independent Institute
by William J Watkins, Jr.
“The Bill of Rights exists to protect the people and the states from an overreaching federal government. Since the 1920s, the federal courts have turned the Bill of Rights into a weapon to use against the people and the states. December 15 — Bill of Rights Day — should remind Americans that the first 10 amendments were intended to restrict rather than augment federal power. In our upside-down world today, we associate the Bill of Rights with landmark Supreme Court cases restricting state action. Modern Americans express shock when learning that the Bill of Rights was intended to apply only to the federal government.” (12/16/25)
“For over two decades now, Amazon has been seen as a one-stop shop to buy virtually anything, and get it delivered in no time flat. It’s been estimated that the platform has over 310 million active users, and just in the U.S. during 2023, sold over 4.5 billion items. Amazon claims to be guided by four principles: ‘customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking’. Certainly there is a very large quantity of retail items for sale on the platform, even if their quality or identity may be questionable. But in another much more obscure part of the business, Amazon’s supposed obsession with its customers and ‘commitment to operational excellence’ falls flat. Amazon Business, an operation under the umbrella of Amazon’s services, has grown as a popular procurement tool for businesses and organizations over the past few years.” (12/17/25)
“We here at TPOL generally like Whoopi Goldberg … as an actress when she played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation. That was a long time ago. But the good will from her appearances has long since evaporated, except for what she gets that we provide to any human being. Regardless of their faults. Including what we are tempted to say one of Goldberg’s greater ones: an inability to understand simple English declarative statements, combined with a firm belief that her political enemies are all monsters. So we are placed in a quandry: for once we agree with her. Whoopi Goldberg is recently reported as saying, ‘I’m not gonna let Secretary Kennedy tell me what vaccines to take.’ Amen … we here at TPOL are totally agreement with Whoopi Goldberg. The government should not be telling us what we can put into our bodies.” (12/16/25)
“I could probably name 50 entertainers whose political positions I find odious … if I bother to notice those political positions. I mostly go out of my way NOT to. Is there any compelling reason to deprive ourselves of great films or great performances from Oliver Stone, Jon Voit, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, James Woods, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio … just to indulge our political disagreements with them and maybe cost them a buck or two in box office sales, TV residuals, etc.? The idea smacks of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. As for speaking ill of the dead, even dancing on their graves … well, I’m not against it in the case of particularly unsavory characters. But over political disagreements? No. Tom Smothers wasn’t Charles Manson and Pete Seeger wasn’t Joseph Stalin. They enriched our lives whether we liked their politics or not.” (12/16/25)
