“You’d have gone broke betting against the resilience of the Trump phenomenon this past decade. He has survived two impeachments, one insurrection, one plague, one lost election, one incredibly close assassination attempt, several major lawsuits, and the passionate, undying hatred of 40 percent of the country. None of it counted. He’s had, of course, some very lucky breaks: the mass migration and cultural extremism under Biden, along with the epic fuck-up of Joe’s attempt to stay in power as a near-corpse. But there are some signs that the entire MAGA operation is beginning to fray — as its manic transgressions, dumb overreach, and intensifying contradictions become harder to ignore.” (11/14/25)
“Understandably, the Baltic states were at the vanguard of a resolute response to the 2022 Russian invasion — lobbying for international sanctions, shunning diplomacy with Moscow, and even advocating for measures implying a collective responsibility of Russian citizens for the crimes committed by the country’s leadership. For example, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia, pushed for blanket visa restrictions on all Russians. While Baltic state officials cite security concerns as their justification, Russian dissidents criticized the measure as counterproductive and playing right into the hands of the Kremlin. Yet, when it comes to Israel, these same principles evaporated.” (11/14/25)
“Butter is made from cream, which is derived from milk. Not a new truth; it’s never been anything but. B‑but — some people are allergic! And we must protect them. Under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004, milk is one of nine major allergens that must be explicitly declared — either in parentheses after the ingredient (e.g., ‘cream (milk)’) or in a separate ‘Contains: Milk’ statement. Which is why Costco had to recall 79,200 pounds of butter. A labeling oversight meant that perfectly good and safe butter was placed on the big box store’s shelves without the explicit warning that butter contains milk.” (11/14/25)
“Last Saturday, Bob Kuttner wrote a scoop for the Prospect that Chuck Schumer was much more involved with the allegedly rearguard action by wayward Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown. A day later, that deal was consummated. There’s been uproar about Schumer’s leadership of the Democrats in the Senate, but also a sense that Democrats might be in a decent position politically, raising the salience of health care and affordability at a time when President Trump is essentially unable to do much about it without abandoning his economic program.” (11/14/25)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“The Jeffrey Epstein story is not going away, no matter how much Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, or Donald Trump try to discount it. Strangely, the Democrats had four years to disclose the ‘Epstein Files’ yet failed to do so, and now that they are no longer in power, they want the files released to the public. Weird, right? Even weirder is how hard-core Trump, Bondi, and Patel lobbied the Biden administration for the release of the files, and right after they got in power, chose to poo-poo the whole notion with a ‘nothing to see here’ attitude. WTF is going on with the Epstein Files?” (11/14/25)
“In a graphic posted to Truth Social on November 8, Donald Trump lists himself next to Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of two ‘great presidents,’ because FDR’s ‘New Deal’ introduced the 30-year home mortgage and Trump, apparently, wants to ‘go large’ on the idea. Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte confirmed on X that ‘we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage — a complete game changer.’ The Trump/Pulte proposal brings up two questions: First, is a 50-year mortgage a good idea? Second, why on earth does the federal government set mortgage terms?” (11/13/25)
“While the country’s attention was drawn to the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which purports to designate the ideology of antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ and directs federal law enforcement to disrupt its gatherings and those of its supporters. The gist of NSPM-7 appears to be the president’s view that the United States suffers from an enemy within our borders, an enemy that consists of Americans who hate Christianity, capitalism, and Americanism, and it is somehow the duty of the federal government to disrupt the free speech of these haters because their speech has a tendency to violence. Here is the backstory.” (11/13/25)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Rindala Alajaji
“Remember when you thought age verification laws couldn’t get any worse? Well, lawmakers in Wisconsin, Michigan, and beyond are about to blow you away. It’s unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs. … This is actually happening. And it’s going to be a disaster for everyone.” (11/13/25)
“Instead of trusting the market and discerning customers, states and cities are considering policies that could end up hurting both restaurants and diners. In New York state, Democratic lawmakers in Albany have pushed their own dynamic pricing bans for food, and Vermont legislators have sought to prohibit businesses from using electronic shelf labels or dynamic pricing. The way these bills are drafted largely exempts longtime restaurant industry traditions such as happy hour but it raises the question: Is it necessarily more problematic if a restaurant utilizes real-time, demand-based dynamic pricing versus more traditional forms of dynamic pricing?” (11/13/25)
“The past year has shown that the concept of ‘abundance’ has legs. A bestselling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. An expanding shelf of other well-received volumes on similar themes. Policy organizations with abundance in their name. The simultaneous emergence of a more right-coded ‘progress’ movement that identifies many of the same problems and offers similar solutions. … OK, so abundance has legs — but what kind of creature are they attached to? And where are those legs capable of taking us? What are the appropriate contours of the concept — we want an abundance of what, exactly? And what’s the social vision behind this desire for more — we want abundance for what?” (11/13/25)
