“In a Thanksgiving letter to shareholders this past Monday, Nov. 10, business titan and retiring Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett announced that he’s ‘going quiet.’ ‘Sort of,’ he added. In fact, this ‘quiet’ farewell from one of the world’s wealthiest individuals will likely echo through the halls of American business and philanthropy for some time. For investors, there is keen interest in how his handpicked successor will perform as chief executive of one of the United States’ 10 largest firms. But it is at the intersection of affluence and altruism, of gaining and giving, that Mr. Buffett’s words and actions carry outsize implications. He has donated $60 billion over the last 20 years, and this week gifted $1.3 billion from sales of stock to four family foundations. That still leaves $150 billion of his personal fortune to be given away.” (11/13/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver
“‘Imagine money falling from the sky. Would you slip a tenner into your pocket before you told anyone? Chances are, most of us would trouser a few notes rather than inform the authorities.’ This is the opening of economist and banker David McWilliams’s rollicking history of money, and his description of Operation Bernhard, the Nazi campaign to destabilize Britain by flooding the country with counterfeit cash. Lenin tried a similar ploy in Russia. Despite having different political beliefs, they ‘both understood the phenomenal power of money: undermine money and you undermine the fabric of society.’ That right there is McWilliams’s underlying theme: money is the fabric of society. He wants people to understand how cash shapes our world.” (11/13/25)
“Venezuela is not small, not simple, and not susceptible to quick, low-cost military outcomes. In geographic and demographic terms alone, Venezuela is enormous. It covers roughly 882,000 square kilometers, making it substantially larger than Ukraine (579,000 sq km) or Texas (696,000 sq km). Its population — estimated to be above 31 million people — is roughly equivalent to current wartime Ukraine and modern Texas. It is a country of sprawling mountains, dense cities, jungles, and industrial corridors where military infrastructure sits interlaced with civilian life. … A few commentators on cable news shows — eager to portray potential U.S. military action as simple and manageable — have taken to comparing a possible operation in Venezuela to Operation Just Cause, the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama to seize Gen. Manuel Noriega. The analogy is dangerously misleading.” (11/13/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“President Trump and the Pentagon have now attacked and killed more than 70 people on the high seas in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean near South America. They justify these killings by claiming that the victims are engaged in violations of U.S. federal drug laws. But the fact is that Trump’s and the Pentagon’s claims are nothing more than informal accusations. In fact, their informal accusations don’t even amount to a formal accusation set forth in a grand-jury indictment. That’s because a grand jury cannot issue an indictment unless it sees evidence that establishes that there is ‘probable cause’ that the accused committed the crime. With Trump’s and the Pentagon’s informal accusation, no such burden of proof is required.” (11/13/25)
“The United States has once again taken up its old role as the self-appointed police of the Western Hemisphere. Under the disingenuous pretext of combating ‘narco-terrorism’, US forces have launched a violent campaign across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that has already killed at least 76 people (most of them unidentified) in a series of so-called ‘anti-narcotics’ strikes on small boats. Washington claims these are precision military operations targeting narco-traffickers who are directly attacking the US with their illegal contraband. But in reality, they are extrajudicial, indiscriminate executions on the high seas. There is no due process, no physical threat to the United States, and no legal justification under either domestic or international law. It’s murder, plain and simple: moral, legal, and strategic failures disguised as national security policy.” (11/13/25)
“The phrase ‘kids will be kids’ has long been used to excuse bad behavior. It grew out of a centuries-old idea that youth itself should confer some form of immunity — that immaturity, carelessness or even cruelty are simply part of growing up. What began as a forgiving nod to childhood mischief has evolved into a cultural permission slip …. One damning recent example comes from a Politico report on a leaked group chat of young Republicans trading racist epithets, celebrating sexual assault and making antisemitic jokes about gas chambers and loving Hitler. … Speaking on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show,’ Vice President JD Vance offered a forceful defense of the participants, arguing that ‘the reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys — they tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do.’ … Contrast this dismissive framing with how Vance responded to offensive comments in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination.” (11/13/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lipton Matthews
“Few ideas in modern historical writing have generated as much intrigue as the claim that slavery and capitalism shared a common managerial language. The suggestion that slaveholders employed accounting principles comparable to those used by modern firms implies that plantations functioned as early laboratories of capitalist rationality. This interpretation has captured scholarly attention because it seems to reveal a chilling continuity between bondage and modern business practice. Yet the plantation record books themselves tell a more restrained story.” (11/13/25)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by John Coleman
“Imagine a fourth-grade classroom in which the teacher uses AI to generate a video of Ronald Reagan explaining his Cold War strategy. It’s history in living color, and the students lean in, captivated. Now imagine that same teacher facing thousands of dollars in damages under the proposed NO FAKES Act because the video looks too real. That’s not sci-fi. It’s a risk baked into this bill. The NO FAKES Act, introduced this year in both the House and Senate, would create a new federal ‘digital replication right’ letting people control the use of AI-generated versions of their voice or likeness. That means people can block others from sharing realistic, digitally created images of them. The right can extend for up to 70 years after the person’s death and is transferred to heirs.” (11/13/25)
“Could radical openness save civilization? Johan Norberg’s ‘Peak Human’ offers a humanist vision of progress grounded in freedom and exchange.” (11/13/25)
Source: Fox News
by US Representative Brian Mast [R=FL]
“Let me say this as plainly as I can: when the Democrats shut down our federal government, that wasn’t a strategy. That was their failure. For the last 40 days, the term ‘government shutdown’ became interchangeable for Democrats with words like ‘leverage’ or ‘to make a point.’ But for millions of Americans, this shutdown wasn’t political theater. It was a gut punch. It meant missed paychecks, putting unpaid bills on credit cards with mounting interest, delayed travel, national security risks, and uncertainty about whether the people who protect and serve this nation will get paid on time – if at all.” [editor’s note: The shutdown happened because Mast’s party wanted it to happen, and ended when Mast’s party chose to let it end – TLK] (11/13/25)
