“There was something perfect about the Supreme Court’s review of President Trump’s tariff spree the week Dick Cheney passed away. What the court was weighing, after all, was Cheney’s core legacy: the limitless executive power now claimed by Cheney’s Frankenstein monster, Trump. In that sense, Dick Cheney pioneered the Trump presidency. Without Cheney and Addington, no Trump and Vought. Cheney was never a constitutional conservative; he was always an extremist, a pioneer of an elected, unaccountable, and secret monarchy that has reached its zenith in the GOP today. His attempt to cast himself in recent years as some kind of principled, old-school constitutional Republican is classic Cheney: i.e. shameless misdirection, calculated spin, and a big fat lie. But resistance libs have lapped it up.” (11/07/25)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“She’s not a ‘woke’ problem or an ‘anti-woke’ icon. She’s not a toy to be propped up or to be canceled. She’s an individual and the market proves it.” (11/08/25)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“The Fenris wolf has a problem. He would like to prove his strength by breaking the third fetter as he proved it by braking the previous two that the gods put on him. But he does not trust the gods — would you trust someone who wanted to tie you up? — so will only let them bind him if he has a guarantee that if he cannot break it they will free him. The gods have a problem. There is no power above them to enforce contracts, so their promise to free him is worthless — and besides, they don’t actually plan to keep it. … The solution Fenrir proposes is for the gods to give a hostage to guarantee performance of their promise.” (11/08/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Slezkine
“According to the ‘global majority’ (as the Russians call it), the sun is finally setting on the West. After 500 years of dominance, the West is showing signs of relative decline across almost every dimension. A protracted period of historical anomaly is passing, and the world is entering an age defined by a reassertion of sovereign interests and a resurgence of ancient civilizations. At a certain remove, this image seems a reasonable enough representation of new realities. But as a roadmap for navigating international politics, it is far too rough a sketch.” (11/08/25)
“Within sight of the towering pyramids of Giza, the just-opened Grand Egyptian Museum draws a line across thousands of years of history to a modern nation redefining its own political and cultural identity. While today’s Egypt plays a key role in world affairs, its various problems, from authoritarian rule to economic woes, have left its citizens looking for direction. So this month’s glittering opening of the museum and its exhibits – built and curated over two decades – has provided a welcome dash of color, glamour, and national pride. ‘It is a gift from Egypt to the world and we are proud to finally share it,’ Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said. (Ancient Egypt’s other gifts to the world include inventions relating to mathematics and metallurgy, the solar calendar, the sickle, and papyrus.)” (11/07/25)
“‘A monarchy, or a corrupt, tyrannical aristocracy’ … That’s what George Mason predicted we’d get under the constitution. And he was far from alone. The Anti-Federalists repeatedly warned that the constitution wouldn’t actually create a federal union. Instead, they argued, it would result in a consolidated national government. They pointed to specific parts of the document – what they considered weapons baked into the system – that would guarantee this outcome. What follows are five of those weapons – including taxation – straight from Mason, Cato, Elbridge Gerry, the Pennsylvania Dissent, and Luther Martin.” (11/08/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Which sounds more likely: (A) that things are bad because the population keeps organically voting for policies which just so happen to hurt ordinary people while benefitting the rich and powerful, or (B) that things are bad because the rich and powerful want things this way? Does it seem more likely to you that (A) the democratic process consistently leaves people unable to advance basic human interests because the population always organically splits itself into an exact 50–50 deadlock that leaves everyone unable to get anything done long term, and that this deadlock always just so happens to land on a status quo that serves the interests of the rich and powerful, or (B) that the rich and the powerful artificially created this status quo via manipulation?” (11/08/25)
“The latest round of deadly boat strikes, which killed 3 people—bringing the total death toll to at least 70 since September—are confirmation that the second Trump administration has decisively refocused US foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean. Long treated as a secondary concern, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, when attention centered on China, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, the region has returned to the forefront of US global strategy. But what is emerging is not a revival of Cold War containment or the Monroe Doctrine. It is the consolidation of a new US doctrine, one that aims to fuse emergency powers, economic warfare, and militarization into a unified hemispheric order. This emerging doctrine is anchored in the expansion of presidential authority.” (11/08/25)
“One of the hardest things to explain about what it’s like to live in Japan has to do with a single word: majime. It means something like earnest striving, or wholesome seriousness. That’s easy enough to understand. What’s harder to wrap your head around is the role it plays in Japanese society, where a majime attitude is the default setting for social interaction. I see it through my 14-year-old’s eyes. Growing up in Canada, she had adopted the standard North American teenage girl persona: slightly detached, snarky, above it all. In other words, the exact opposite of majime. When we moved to Japan, she and her brother realized they’d have to flip the script if they wanted to fit in at public school: the kind of simple-minded earnestness that would have gotten them pilloried in a Montreal schoolyard is positively de rigueur in Tokyo.” (11/07/25)
