“‘Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.’ — Thomas Jefferson … This clearly states a scriptural principle (one found in the Bible, that is.) Peter told the Sanhedrin, ‘“we must obey God rather than men.’ Tyranny, even its milder forms such as authoritarianism, are evil, sinful, and an affront not just to human liberty and freedom and people, but to the God who has given us liberty and freedom. But tyranny is not just evil, it is corrupting, it is disgusting, to any lover of liberty, to anyone who values human life and dignity, to anyone who believes that humans have rights. (Regardless of where those rights come from.)” (11/12/25)
“This is an administration that is willing to kill people whether it’s legal or not or whether it’s ethical or not. It’s an administration that is contributing to the erosion of our ability to appreciate the full weight and value of personhood. They’re exploiting our disposition to use distance and country of origin to calculate the permissibility of sin. Some may find themselves apathetic to the murder of these people. That sort of attitude commits you to barbarism: human life has no value. Did we always believe that or did our transition begin in 2016?” (11/12/25)
“Few topics feel more relevant right now than how Americans see others who disagree with them politically. As a social psychologist, I get to regularly teach students about these dynamics. And now, from FIRE’s latest National Speech Index, there is new data that almost perfectly illustrates the extent of partisan bias in this country.” (11/12/25)
“History and the constraints of American federalism suggest the euphoria and catastrophism that have followed Zohran Mamdani’s election victory are misplaced.” (11/12/25)
Source: The Atlantic
by Simon Shuster, Nancy A Youssef, & Gisela Salim-Peyer
“Vladimir Putin’s Russia may seem like an obvious place for Maduro to turn as he scours the world for well-armed friends willing to help him withstand a U.S. pressure campaign that threatens his 12-year reign. … Earlier this year, Maduro signed what he called a ‘historic and strategic’ pact with Putin to expand trade and military cooperation. But the Kremlin’s response to Maduro’s existential crisis has been underwhelming for a country that considers itself a great power. … Maduro may be about to learn the same difficult lesson absorbed by the governments of other Russian allies, including Armenia, Syria, and Iran. They all recently appealed to the Kremlin for help only to discover that the war in Ukraine has taken such a toll, and remains such a priority, that Russia’s ability to come to the rescue is severely diminished.” (11/12/25)
“Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created an ongoing bloodbath in the adjacent Caribbean Sea. The Pentagon has so far destroyed 18 go-fast boats there and in the Pacific Ocean. No evidence has been presented or charges brought suggesting that those ships were running drugs, as claimed. The White House has simply continued to release bird’s-eye view surveillance videos (snuff films, really) of a targeted vessel. Then comes a flash of light and it’s gone, as are the humans it was carrying, be they drug smugglers, fishermen, or migrants. As far as we know, at least 64 people have already been killed in such attacks. The kill rate is accelerating.” (11/13/25)
“The Trump administration has announced a proposal for a 50-year home mortgage, supported by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. It’s a plan that would lower monthly payments but severely increase cost for borrowers through significantly higher interest payments. The proposal has been greeted with rage and disdain across the nativist right. Commentators like Glenn Beck and Matt Walsh, as well as elected officials like Thomas Massie, have all condemned it as financially ruinous and politically insulting to hard-working Americans. Among Trump’s most hardline nativist base, there is real anger. Trump entered politics promising to take the country back for his white, Christian base. He promised not fiscal discipline but social welfare for the right kind of American. For migrants and minorities, he offered deportation and incarceration.” (11/12/25)
“Second-wave feminism of the worst sort is alive and well in Britain, apparently. The United Kingdom is on its way to criminalizing depictions of choking during sex, in a move it describes as boosting ‘protection for women and girls.’ The ban wouldn’t just apply to disturbing or publishing such porn, but also possessing it. It also wouldn’t matter if the images were AI-generated. Proponents of the law suggest the mere existence of choking porn harms women, even when it’s created consensually between adults and even though many women enjoy ‘breath play’ like light strangulation or suffocation during sex. In the name of ‘protection,’ the U.K. government wants to control what women can look at, create, and do with their bodies. Cool, cool, cool.” (11/12/25)
“A few short weeks ago, people who largely represented one political faction were protesting for ‘No Kings.’ Then, too many of those from the very same faction in New York City did a flip-flop and voted for a man who promises to act exactly like a king. During his election night victory speech, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said, ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.’ This is real-world king-level stuff. His supporters didn’t notice the contradiction within themselves, but were thrilled at the prospect. Politics makes people stupid. Apparently, those voters aren’t opposed to kings at all. They just don’t like Donald Trump being the president. Who knew? All of us did.” (11/12/25)
“This year’s Nobel Prize laureate has spent much of her time recently in the U.S. lobbying policymakers to squeeze Maduro into vacating power. Constantly at risk of detention in her own country, [María Corina] Machado is granting interviews and dialing into conferences to advocate for regime change. Her talking points are clearly tailored for the Trump administration: Maduro is the head of a drug cartel that is poisoning Americans; his dictatorship rests on weak pillars; and the forces of democracy inside Venezuela are fully prepared to seize the mantle once Maduro is gone. … But as the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While there’s no disputing that Maduro is a despot and a fraud who steals elections, U.S. policymakers can’t simply take what Machado is saying for granted.” (11/12/25)
