“The reality that Donald Trump’s presidency will end in January 2029 is already making Republicans restless. Normally, Trump angers, exhausts, and eventually prevails over elected Republicans — not vice versa. Just this week, though, rebellious Republicans forced the release of the so-called Epstein files in defiance of Trump, who had spent months trying to suppress them before abruptly reversing course. Plenty of other cracks are showing too: Staunch allies of the president are mouthing critiques that would have been unfathomable a year ago. These disputes are the prelude to an ugly battle over the post-Trump Republican Party.” (11/21/25)
“Free-marketeers have long pointed out a particular asymmetry between capitalism and socialism (whether of the international or national variety). While anyone in a capitalist society would have a right to engage in socialism (as anyone can do now in our hampered market economy), the reverse would not hold: under socialism — that is, a centrally planned economy, democratic or not — no one would be free to engage in ‘capitalist acts between consenting adults’ (to use Robert Nozick’s phrase from Anarchy, State, and Utopia). It would upset the plan.” (11/21/25)
“Do you sell cupcakes, run a home photography studio, or tutor kids in your living room? If so, you might be breaking the law. In the US, zoning ordinances often treat modest home enterprises as threats to the neighborhood. If you’re just running an online business, local governments generally won’t bother you, but if clients are coming to your home, then they try to limit the visibility and impact of your business. Have these regulations gone too far? Should state governments tell local governments to leave home-based businesses alone, within certain limits?” (11/21/25)
Source: Independent Institute
by Matthew B Crawford
“Transformative urban planning has long been an ambition of the high-modernist mindset. Its goals are usually public health, efficiency, beauty and something more elusive—order. Some cities that have received the full treatment over the past two centuries are wonderful places to visit despite their controversial remakings; see Paris …. Others, like Brasilia and Chandigarh (both designed from the ground up by Le Corbusier), quickly became ghost towns, full of high-modernist buildings and plazas of impressive conceptual ambition through which the wind whistled forlornly, eventually to be repurposed by squatters or stripped of building materials for use in the surrounding shanty towns where urban life carries on in defiance of the master plan.” (11/21/25)
“No one in the American military swears allegiance to any individual. The oaths are not pledges of loyalty to a party, a personality, or a political movement. Loyalty is pledged to the Constitution — and officers further take that obligation ‘without mental reservation,’ knowing full well it may someday require them to stand with courage between unlawful authority and the people they serve.” (11/21/25)
“Argentina’s Ministry of Deregulation — yes, it now has one — reports that by June 2024, little more than half a year after chainsaw-wielding libertarian candidate Javier Milei won the presidential election, the housing market boomed … into a magnificent recovery.” (11/21/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kym Kent
“Recently, a colleague handed me an article by The Free Press, ‘The College Kids Who Can’t Do Basic Math,’ and asked for my thoughts. The article cited a November 6, 2025, report from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), which revealed that the math skills of approximately one in eight of their first-year students were below middle-school level. In the wake of earlier reports of Harvard offering remedial math classes, the fact that UCSD was offering similar classes was not surprising. As I processed what I was reading, I wrestled with conflicting internal responses.” (11/21/25)
“I favor government employees defying orders and sabotaging the instruments of the state as much as the next libertarian (well, maybe a little more). But I suspect the Democratic lawmakers urging members of the military and the intelligence community to ‘refuse illegal orders’ haven’t entirely thought through their positions. While their advice is commendable so far as it goes, as officials of a political party known for its expansive view of the role of government their words are likely to come back and bite them on their collective asses. It’s hard to imagine them being so enthusiastic about a reboot of this message directed at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and IRS agents under a Democratic administration.” (11/21/25)
“In 1986, manufacturers were granted almost complete immunity from liability for injuries caused by vaccines. This meant they had no incentive to ensure that vaccines are safe before they brought them onto the market. People can file claims against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is therefore not interested in having any of its agencies, including the CDC and the Food and Drug Agency (FDA), publish studies demonstrating vaccine harms – a perfect set-up for the industry. HHS was required to submit to Congress biennial vaccine safety reports but a lawsuit revealed that it had not sent a single report in 30 years.” (11/21/25)
“What does it mean to be ‘insubordinate?’ Put simply, insubordination entails a person who’s lower on some ladder of authority defying the orders of someone who’s higher on that ladder. Trump clearly believes in the existence of such a ladder, upon which he enjoys higher ranking than, and authority over, mere mortals. Especially journalists. And most especially female journalists. … In reality, Trump’s only subordinates (with respect to his position as president of the United States) are employees of the federal government’s executive branch. Literally everyone else in the country is either his equal or his superior.” (11/20/25)
