Integralism by Another Name
Source: Law & Liberty
by James M Patterson
“Postliberals would much rather spar over definitions than over the ideas and their implications.” (12/04/25)
Category: Opinion
The end of the climate cult: A long, lucrative ride
Source: The Spectator
by Matt Ridley
“Finally, thankfully, the global warming craze is dying out. To paraphrase Monty Python, the climate parrot may still be nailed to its perch at the recent COP summit in Belém, Brazil – or at Harvard and on CNN – but elsewhere it’s dead. It’s gone to meet its maker, kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. By failing to pledge a cut in fossil fuels, COP achieved less than nothing, the venue caught fire, the air-conditioning malfunctioned – and delegates were told on arrival not to flush toilet paper. Bill Gates’s recent apologia, in which he conceded that global warming ‘will not lead to humanity’s demise’, after he closed the policy and advocacy office of his climate philanthropy group is just the latest nail in the coffin.” (12/04/25)
https://thespectator.com/topic/climate-politics-come-down-to-earth/
What Really Makes a “Land of the Free”
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“‘For WHO ARE A FREE PEOPLE?’ John Dickinson, the ‘Penman of the American Revolution,’ posed this timeless question in 1767. His answer defied the modern narrative. It’s not a system where you hope to find rulers who respect your constitution and liberty. That’s just luck. A population on its knees, begging for scraps. In his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, Dickinson defined a true ‘land of the free.’ In doing so, he exposed the trap governments use to establish tyranny, and the fatal error the people make that guarantees it.” (12/04/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/12/03/what-really-makes-a-land-of-the-free/
Now it’s clear why Trump got rid of the top military lawyers
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes
“At least President Trump didn’t ‘kill all the lawyers’ first, literally following Shakespeare’s words in ‘Henry VI, Part 2’ on evading the rule of law. Instead, just a month into his second term in February, he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simply fired the top lawyers at the Army, Navy and Air Force, known as judge advocates general, or JAGs. ‘It’s what you do when you’re planning to break the law: You get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down,’ Georgetown Law professor Rosa Brooks said at the time, according to the New York Times. She wasn’t alone in her fear, or her prescience.” (12/04/25)
Rational Thieves
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“Why has the theft of copper wires increased so much recently? For an answer, don’t look at ‘culture’ or other such black boxes.” (12/04/25)
Unpacking the Dangerous Myth of “Narco-Terrorism”
Source: Common Dreams
by Brett Heinz
“Between the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, the US government has a long history of waging bloody and unsuccessful wars against broad concepts that can not be meaningfully defeated. What makes the government’s latest ‘armed conflict’ unique is not just its combination of these two failures, but also that its target (‘narco-terrorism’) is largely a myth. Under the title “Operation Southern Spear,” the Trump administration has launched a campaign intended to target the drug cartels that it designated as terrorist organizations earlier this year. So far, this has involved at least 21 airstrikes, killing upwards of 83 people on small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific; a military buildup involving 15,000 troops; and covert operations by the CIA in Venezuela. Though President Donald Trump lacks the legal authority for these activities, the Senate’s latest attempt to restrain military action failed in a narrow vote of 49-51.” (12/04/25)
Increasing Housing Supply
Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“Modular housing is gaining prominence as a proposed way to increase the housing supply. This is an approach where the majority of home building is done off-site. Factories will construct entire rooms of a house, including all the wiring and plumbing connections built in. At the final construction site, the actual building process consists of the final step of connecting the rooms, plumbing, and so forth, to complete the build. Building in this way is faster and less expensive than traditional home building. … People might think that these companies increase the housing supply by, well, building more housing. But building more housing isn’t an increase in supply, it’s an increase in quantity supplied. An increase in supply means an increase in the capacity to produce something.” (12/04/25)
Trump’s Broken Promise of “One Million Apprentices”
Source: Washington Monthly
by Anne Kim
“As part of his promise to restore American manufacturing and the fortunes of the working class, President Donald Trump pledged to expand trade apprenticeships. In an April executive order, Trump directed the Department of Labor to deliver within 120 days a plan ‘to reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices.’ That deadline has passed, with no evidence of progress or even a plan to reach the one-million apprenticeship milestone. Instead, drastic layoffs, funding cuts, and a purge of ‘DEI’-related initiatives have sabotaged the emerging apprenticeship movement. Growth in apprenticeships is at its slowest in years, far more sluggish than during Joe Biden’s administration or even the president’s first term.” (12/04/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/12/04/trump-one-million-apprenticeships-broken-promise/
Predicting the end
Source: Cobden Centre
by Tim Price
“Mother Shipton predicted the dissolution of the Catholic Church under Henry VIII. She predicted the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, and the ascent of Queen Elizabeth. She forecast television and radio, ships made of iron, and arguably the California gold rush. But probably her most notorious prediction was that ‘The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one.’ She was clearly off a bit on that one. Given the self-evident inaccuracy of forecasts of the end of days, their popularity does seem somewhat bewildering. … For as long as we’ve been working in the capital markets, there have also been sceptics warning of the demise of the biggest bond and credit bubble in history. Like the boy who cried wolf, they have all been discounted, and (rightly) ignored. This time, however, they could finally be justified.” (12/04/25)
The Strange Death of Trump’s Signature Policy
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“‘Member DOGE? ‘Member the excitement that the year started out with? There was Elon with a buzzsaw. There was a righteous effort to shed $1 trillion—or maybe it was $2 trillion?—from the federal budget. If that strikes only a distant chord, maybe it’s because it’s been lost in all the other swirling promises with which Trump started his second term. There was going to be the annexation of Greenland …. And then the Panama Canal was going to be taken ‘back,’ as Trump vowed in his inaugural address, and then Canada was going to be the 51st state. These things do stick in one’s memory. What leaves less of an impression is the denouement—is the inglorious end of DOGE …” (12/05/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/touring-the-graveyard-of-forgotten