“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of top American generals and admirals who work around the globe to a meeting next week at a Virginia Marine Corps base in Virginia without saying the subject of the Big Brass get-together. Oops — that news doesn’t come from an official Pentagon press release. It’s a scoop that reporters got on Thursday, citing four United States government officials who requested anonymity. And here I am, spreading the news. And I’m repeating it just days after a bonkers, insidious, illegal demand from the Defense Department that Pentagon reporters sign a ‘pledge’ not to publish sensitive information, even if it is not classified, unless it’s been ‘approved’ by official press officers at the DoD, on threat of losing their press passes.” (09/27/25)
“Although Barrett is preternaturally nice, she irritates some people. The reason she does makes her an exemplary justice. It is her fastidious acknowledgment that certainty and precision are often elusive when construing, as an originalist, the Constitution’s text (‘due’ process, ‘unreasonable’ searches, ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments, etc.) in modern contexts. Awareness of uncertainties justifies judicious restraint: The duty to construe texts does not empower judges to try to discover — or guess — the purposes or intentions of those who wrote the words.” (09/26/25)
“The Justice Department’s announcement that former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding is all but a fait accompli. Pious, sanctimonious self-righteousness and hypocritical moralizing had long ago cost him his professional reputation. With charges of perjury and obstruction, Comey could face imprisonment. More tragically, the narcissistic leader, who was relieved of his duties by President Donald Trump soon into his first term, will continue to damage the agency I love and served for a quarter of a century. And that makes me — and many others in my ranks — weary, saddened and angry. Based on my own observations and those of my colleagues at the bureau, it was clear from the start that Comey was hellbent on altering FBI culture.” (09/26/25)
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“To understand where we are today, it is necessary to see that even before the absurd Donald Trump era of American politics, we were in a period of intensified crackdowns on leaks and off-the-record communications; a closer look reveals a deep, bipartisan trajectory toward authoritarian tendencies in how the political and economic ruling class manages dissent and prevents transparency and public accountability. The ‘progressive’ Obama team’s record-setting surge in leak investigations and prosecutions is an example of how leak control has become institutionalized over the past decade, in a culture of surveillance and fear that is persisting and intensifying under the current administration.” (09/26/25)
“Back when Trump was just a Page Six grotesque and social climber, Spy magazine famously described him as a ‘short-fingered vulgarian.’ It turns out that his fingers aren’t the problem, but his short little attention span — not his grip, but his grip on the issues and, from time to time, on reality. … Not long ago, he was sure that Ukraine couldn’t win — he also claimed that Ukraine had started the war—and that the Ukrainians needed to get to a negotiated settlement as soon as possible. Now he says he thinks the Ukrainians may be able to take back all of the territory occupied (and annexed in some cases) by Russia, a proposition that is, unhappily, at least as implausible as any other dumb thing that has come out of Trump’s mouth.” (09/26/25)
“President Donald Trump justifies his enthusiasm for prohibitively high tariffs by insisting the U.S. is being ‘ripped off’ by other countries. It’s a strange argument, since people only trade with one another if they see benefit in the deal. But the president is right to complain that other governments impose trade barriers of their own that are often every bit as burdensome as the high taxes Americans pay on imports. If foreign officials honestly wish to restore something like free trade, they should emphasize dropping their own barriers in return for lower U.S. levies. Case in point: Canada, which sends three-quarters of its exports across its southern border but imposes damaging restrictions on imports.” (09/26/25)
“In 2006, George W. Bush fired seven of his U.S. attorneys, primarily because they refused to prosecute bogus voter fraud cases (or they were not ‘loyal Bushies,’ as one administration official put it). Bush replaced them with Republicans deemed more loyal. What resulted was a popular outcry, a protracted investigation and hearings in Congress, and the eventual resignation of the sitting attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, along with eight other top officials. In 2025, Donald Trump fired a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, because he refused to prosecute two of his political enemies, former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. He installed Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer with no prosecutorial experience, who was also on his personal legal team, to get the job done.” (09/267/25)
“The Federalist remains one of the most influential books ever written about our country because no other single text better or more clearly expresses the mind of the American Founders. Cited in everything from Supreme Court decisions to Broadway musicals, this collection of eighty-five papers by the pseudonymous Publius still has considerable sway over our national imagination. Something about this book keeps Americans coming back to it in search of self-knowledge. Still, reading these documents cannot help but inspire an aching sense of loss.” (09/26/25)
“Orwell’s novel ends with a development that, at the time, had no parallels in Soviet reality: The pigs adopt human ways, from sleeping in beds to drinking alcohol and finally wearing clothes and walking upright. … Orwell, a democratic socialist, thus seems to be envisioning a scenario in which the Soviet regime evolves into a state capitalist oligarchy and drops its Communist trappings. That never came true — or did it? Not quite in the way it happens in Animal Farm; but, after the fall of the Soviet Union and a brief democratic interlude, that’s pretty much where things have ended up.” (09/26/25)
“President Donald Trump recently ordered his attorney general to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, and tonight, the Department of Justice delivered an indictment of Comey for lying to Congress. Comey, for his part, insists on his innocence. But the charges against Comey are not just about the president’s abuse of his power for personal retribution. They represent a test of the president’s plans for the future.” (09/26/25)
