Bulwark Takes, 11/19/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump Can’t Keep His Own Stories Straight Anymore.” (11/19/25)
Category: Opinion
Property Rights Ping Pong Pandemonium
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Jim Bovard
“Remind me again why any reasonable person expects the federal government to obey the law. The Trump administration this week gravely imperiled the nation’s water supply by curtailing federal regulations over dry land. Or at least that’s the story the media is hustling. A Washington Post headline epitomized the fretting: ‘Trump proposal would limit protections for U.S. waterways’ by narrowing the definition of wetlands. The Post did not mention that mere puddles or land that is dry 350 days a year have been categorized as ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act.” (11/19/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/property-rights-ping-pong-pandemonium
Shutdown lesson: We should privatize air traffic control, just like Canada did
Source: The Hill
by Sean Tinney
“The FAA’s centralized monopoly makes American airspace hostage to congressional dysfunction. When budget negotiations collapse, so does air travel: controllers go unpaid, certifications halt, and the entire system seizes up. Regulatory capture turns these risks into body counts. During the 737 MAX disaster, the FAA delegated oversight to Boeing’s own engineers — 346 people died in two crashes over five months without independent review. Meanwhile, startups like Connect Airlines collapsed after months waiting for approvals that never came. The FAA is designed for stagnation, favoring industry giants with bailouts and expedited certifications while strangling startups with delays — protecting incumbents and gatekeeping competition. Canada once faced similar challenges. Then, in 1996, it privatized air traffic control. Nav Canada now operates on user fees, not tax revenue, and it delivers demonstrably superior performance.” (11/19/25)
The Headlines, 11/19/25
Source: New York Times
“A $7 Billion Opioid Reckoning, and Trump’s Defense of the Saudi Crown Prince.” (11/19/25)
“Military” and “Foreign Policy” Are Not Magic Words to Give the Government Unrestrained Power
Source: The Bulwark
by Anthony Sanders
“‘Military’ and ‘foreign policy’ are not magic words that automatically get the government out of court. However, similarly to what the Bush administration claimed during the War on Terror, the Trump administration is advancing that argument in various contexts, from deportations to sending the National Guard into cities that have not requested them. And some judges want to submit to this ‘magic.’ The Supreme Court should shut this hocus-pocus down before it unleashes unrestrained power in the name of ‘judicial restraint.'” (11/19/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/military-and-foreign-policy-are-not-magic-words
The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than You Think
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“One thing I’ve been tracking this year is the areas where Wall Street and Silicon Valley are going to war. Tech firms clearly want to become banking apps and receive special charters, private equity and crypto are jostling for position in worker 401(k) plans, and the tech right in general wants to supplant big banks as the go-to director of conservative business policy. That’s all still going on. But in one area, Silicon Valley and Wall Street are in sync: conjuring up sketchy credit deals that are pointing us toward another financial crash.” (11/19/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/19/ai-bubble-bigger-than-you-think/
Booming tech sector wants govt intervention for “national security”
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stavroula Pabst
“Authors of a new Council on Foreign Relations report are framing government subsidies and bailouts for key tech industries as a national security imperative. Not surprisingly, many of the report’s authors stand to benefit financially from such an arrangement.” (11/19/25)
How Trump’s trillion-dollar war machine enriches the 1%
Source: Popular Information
by Stephen Semler
“Congress will decide in the coming weeks whether to approve a $1 trillion military budget for 2026. … Money is policy. Should Congress approve such a historic sum, it would not only enable many of Trump’s dangerous and unjust policies — including military occupations of US cities, the resumption of nuclear weapons testing, and rushing toward wars in Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela — it would also trigger a historic redistribution of wealth from the public to private arms companies and their shareholders.” (11/19/25)
https://popular.info/p/how-trumps-trillion-dollar-war-machine
Decapitation Diplomacy
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Earlier this month, during a parliamentary session, Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was pressed by an opposition lawmaker on scenarios that could trigger the clause in Japan’s constitution concerning ‘survival-threatening situations,’ thus allowing collective self-defense. Takaichi explicitly stated that Chinese military action against Taiwan — such as a naval blockade, invasion, or interference with U.S. forces — could qualify. … scandalous as Takaichi’s answers were to the Communist Party in China, it was the response of Xue Jian, consul general of the People’s Republic of China, in Osaka, Japan, that raised more than eyebrows: ‘I have no choice but to cut off that filthy head that barged in without hesitation — are you ready?'” (11/19/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/19/decapitation-diplomacy/
War in Venezuela, Brought to You By the Same People Who Lied Us Into Iraq
Source: The Intercept
by Alain Stephens
“The echoes of Iraq are everywhere: the moral certainty, the insistence on a narrow mission, laws stretched to accommodate force, the journalist class nudging readers toward the idea of escalation. The Times leans on that posture — the intellectual confidence that if a dictator is cruel enough, if his country is chaotic enough, then U.S. firepower is not only justified but prudent and even moral. … This is not law enforcement. It is coercive statecraft backed by military power. And when the press uncritically repeats the administration’s framing, the escalation becomes easier to swallow.” (11/18/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/venezuela-iraq-war-new-york-times/