“Last spring, as I was ending my time at the U.S. Treasury as an oversight official monitoring the IRS’s IT modernization efforts, one initiative by the Trump administration gave me hope that progress would be made after I left: trimming federal contracts with large consulting firms. … after decades of dependence on outside firms to do their work for them, many government agencies can no longer even function without them. They are suffering from something called ‘vendor capture,’ and it’s one of the most underexamined barriers to meaningful change in federal operations.” (11/18/25)
“When I began TomDispatch in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, believe me, the world did not look good. But I guarantee you one thing: if you had told me then that, almost a quarter of a century later, the president of the United States would be Donald J. Trump (and had explained to me just who he was), I would have thought you an idiot first class or totally mad! Donald J. Trump as president of the United States, not just once, but twice? In what century? On what planet? You must be kidding! (And what a dreadful joke at that!) Now, of course, I would have to put all of that in the past tense (and probably add yet more exclamation points)!!” (11/18/25)
“Cooperation is both the most fragile and the most necessary condition of political life. It is fragile because individuals and groups often pursue short-term gains at others’ expense, yet it is essential because no political community endures without mutual accommodation and understanding. Politics, as Aristotle taught, is the art of living together — not the sum of private interests but the shared effort to sustain a common life. The enduring question is how cooperation survives amid constant temptations to betray, deceive, or act unilaterally. One answer lies in reciprocity.” (11/18/25)
“The Democrats’ lurch to the left is accelerating at warp speed — and Connecticut is the latest victim. The state legislature’s Democratic supermajority last week rammed through a bill that’s a thinly disguised socialist wishlist. Cynically couched as a remedy for the affordable housing crisis, its real purpose is ideological: forcing Connecticut’s 169 towns to achieve what the bill calls ‘economic diversity.’ Translation: If you’ve worked hard to own a home in a leafy suburb with quiet streets, you can’t live there unless everybody can — including those with low incomes and even the homeless. The state, through regional councils, will dictate how many people at each income level a town must house. The councils are mere middlemen, a cosmetic addition to paper over a fundamental loss of local control.” (11/17/25)
“On a cloudy Wednesday in mid-April, Jared and Laurie Berezin, a couple in their 40s from Maynard, Massachusetts, pulled their car into the Macy’s parking lot at the Burlington Mall. Carrying a sign that said, ‘Just Say No To Harassing Immigrants, the two stood by themselves outside Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s New England Regional Headquarters. One week later, there were five people. Six weeks after that, there were 60. Earlier this month, at the 29th consecutive Wednesday protest, there were more than 700. Singing and chanting, the crowd of grandmothers, ministers, war veterans, nuclear physicists, retirees, and many others offered hope and support as a handful of immigrants arrived for their deportation hearings. Using bullhorns, they decried injustices happening inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where hundreds of immigrants, many with no criminal records, have been detained for multiple days since January.” (11/18/25)
Source: Foundation for Econic Education
by Jake Scott
“Global trade patterns are continuing to shift, and increasingly Eastward. As Gulf nations diversify and broaden their highly oil-dependent economies, ASEAN nations seem to be deepening theirs, focusing more on what they are good at while pursuing stability alongside. In this vein, Vietnam and the United States are now closing in on what may become one of the most strategically important bilateral trade agreements either has attempted in decades. … Two features of the emerging agreement stand out as especially consequential. The first is the pursuit of structured reciprocity, a model far more formal (and couched in the language favored by President Trump) than previous phases of US–Vietnam engagement. … The second is the macro-financial consultation mechanism.” (11/18/25)
“There’s nothing Washington likes more than a scandal. Most quickly fade away. But every once in a while, there’s a scandal that takes root, that just won’t go away. President Nixon had Water-gate, President Bill Clinton had Whitewater and President Trump now has Geoffrey Epstein. But what’s unique about the Epstein-gate scandal is that this is not something Democrats laid on Trump. From the start, this scandal was entirely of Trump’s own creation. He brought it on himself. He created it, he fanned the flames, and now he can’t get out from under it. Forget the politics. Just stand back for a moment and review how Trump’s mishandled the Epstein matter. It’s been one ham-handed mistake after another. Either he or whoever is advising him on how to deal with Epstein should be fired for incompetence.” (11/18/25)
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is in a penitent mood. ‘I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,’ she said in an interview Sunday on CNN, where all normal, spiritually mature Christians such as Rep. Greene go to make their confessions. … Rep. Greene professes to put her Christian faith at the center of her life and American flourishing at the center of her politics. She has an opportunity to put those professions into action if she is sincere — as I will assume, arguendo, that she is, though I actually very much doubt it — about her regret over her contributions to ‘toxic politics.’ Rep. Greene should resign her office and return to private life. A period of penance might be good for her.” (11/18/25)
“Democrats say they will make life more affordable for Americans. What a joke. People should ask: If Democrat policies lower costs for Americans, why are all the most expensive cities in the U.S. run by Democrats? Where were these concerned politicians when their party and President Joe Biden blew up federal spending and drove inflation to 9% — the highest since Democrat Jimmy Carter was president? Show me one Democrat who backs sustainable measures that actually lower the cost of living, rather than fake fixes like freezing prices. Why is it so expensive to live in cities and states run by Democrats? Because they impose high taxes, costly labor regulations, expensive green mandates and restrictions on new building that drive construction costs higher. New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, and Honolulu are the costliest cities in the U.S. All are run by Democrat mayors and are in states with Democrat governors.” (11/18/25)
