“President Donald Trump is facing growing pressure to make Pete Hegseth the first major casualty of his second term after the Pentagon chief was accused of putting his own troops in danger. A damning report on the Signalgate scandal reportedly laid the blame on Hegseth for compromising sensitive war plans. But the blunder is just the latest in a series of embarrassments for the hapless former Fox & Friends Weekend host.” (12/03/25)
“There’s a reason that women like Olivia Nuzzi used to be shunned by polite society in more orderly times. Any woman who sets her sights on a married man is making a deliberate, selfish choice to cause pain to another woman. This is not a sisterly act. Throughout history, women who make enemies of other women are seen as lethal to the tribe’s cohesion and are cast out. That’s the way it was when shame existed, and genteel social norms had replaced stoning or drowning or other horrors the medieval world bestowed on women. But social punishment still exists and is no less brutal than in the days of the crucible. In a form of reverse shunning, Nuzzi is granted the spotlight she craves for a million cold eyes to watch as she preens and gyrates in the special place in hell reserved for women who steal another woman’s husband.” (12/04/25)
“Trump appears to understand that a government that tells its citizens to consume more meat should also do its part to make meat more accessible. Two weeks ago, he dramatically reduced a tariff on Brazilian beef imports. His administration has also suggested that it will raise the quota for duty-free imports of Argentinian beef from 20,000 to 80,000 metric tons. Trump’s recent moves are a boon to American meat-packers who can buy more foreign beef on the cheap, but his capricious attitude toward tariffs poses a problem for ranchers, who raise cattle with the expectation of selling them years later. Each calf represents a long-term bet; why should producers invest in growing the herd when crucial policies seem to change every few months?” (12/03/25)
“Members of Congress considered 19 online safety bills Tuesday that may soon have a major impact on the future of the internet as age-verification laws have spread to half of the US and around the world. In response, digital and human rights organization Fight for the Future is hosting a week of events—across Reddit, LinkedIn, and various livestreams—to raise awareness on how it believes these bills are setting a dangerous precedent by making the internet more exploitative rather than safer. Many of the proposed bills include a clause for ID or age verification, which forces people to upload an ID, allow a face scan, or otherwise authenticate that they are not a minor before viewing adult content. Fight for the Future says the policies will lead to increased censorship and surveillance.” (12/03/25)
“The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will discuss hepatitis B vaccines at their meeting on December 4 and 5. In this article I will lay out the case for removing hepatitis B vaccines from the CDC childhood schedule altogether. As the Informed Consent Action Network has demonstrated, the hepatitis B vaccines Recombivax and Engerix — injected into the vast majority of American children at birth, one month, and six months of age — never should have been licensed by the FDA in the first place.” (12/03/25)
“Do you have a silver card? I do. I live in New London, Connecticut, and while I don’t get EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfers) anymore, I still carry the card as a talisman. It’s nestled in my wallet right behind my driver’s license. It reminds me that there was a time when I needed help and was able to get it. It’s the kind of reminder we all need — and one that’s in ever shorter supply these days. When I was poorer, that card filled every month with money I could spend on food — fruits and vegetables, oil, spices, and cheese at the grocery store. I marshalled my resources carefully then, never taking them for granted. When Congress and the Trump White House shut the government down recently, they hit 42 million Americans right in their wallets. They took that stability away.” (12/04/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Gerard Lyons
“One word describes this Budget: bad, but it can be used three times, bad, bad, bad. Bad in terms of its fiscal consequences, economic impact and the incentives it embeds. Because so much of the Budget was trailed in advance, the initial impact of it may be seen as neutral. It’s not. The Red Book confirmed that Britain is a high public spending, high tax and high borrowing economy—and with no appetite ever to reform. The Budget provided a decisive shift away from a focus on economic growth to redistribution as a driver of fiscal policy. Tax hikes, not trimming public spending. Hitting work, not incentivising it. And saddling businesses with higher costs. The unintended consequences of the Chancellor’s 88 fiscal measures will be hard to quantify, but is unlikely to be economically beneficial.” (12/03/25)
“Across the country, entire neighborhoods are losing their grocery stores — and not just big chains, but independents as well as family-owned shops and markets. It’s part of a broader pattern of food access disappearing where it’s needed most, often in poorer neighborhoods, larger Black or Latino communities and areas with a history of disinvestment. Some companies, like Walmart and Kroger, promote themselves as ‘a community partner’ only to turn around and cite the very same conditions as reasons to leave. In the South and West Sides of Chicago and parts of Detroit or Kansas City, Mo., grocery stores have left, citing low profits, crime or aging infrastructure. Other times, stores simply consolidate or move to wealthier suburbs. Have city-run stores been tried? Yep! But mostly in rural areas. Baldwin, Fla. (a town of about 1,300) opened its own grocery store, in 2019, after the last independently owned one closed.” (12/03/25)
