“When President Donald Trump announced that he had helped broker an end to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, it marked the achievement of a goal many anti-war activists had been struggling toward for two years. Few were bothered by the fact that it was Trump who ultimately presided over the cessation of violence; the goal was always to end the bombing, by any means possible. Whether this deal amounts to a lasting end to violence in the region is all but certain; already, Israel has attacked and killed Palestinians in an apparent breach of the agreement’s terms. But, with a hostage swap underway, there is some reason to believe that this merciless, apocalyptic phase of the genocide in Gaza is coming to an end. As this fragile ‘ceasefire’ takes hold, it is worth considering what this apparent diplomatic success means for Trump, his foreign policy going forward, and for his opposition.” (10/18/25)
“Assume it is true that fentanyl is exported from Venezuela to America, even if experts deny it. Assume that blowing up suspected smugglers on small boats in international waters is legal, and that the soldiers who do it will not, in 5, 10, or 15 years, be prosecuted (we know since the Nuremberg trials that ‘obeying orders’ is not a legal justification for crimes, and it is also true in American law). Ignore that the higher-ups, if they escape prosecution, will not be roasting in hell for all eternity for disobeying the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ if traditional Christian beliefs are true. There still remains a big question — in fact, a whole set of related one[s] — about the very justification for these operations, which is to ‘stop the poison, and keep America safe,’ to borrow the words of the Secretary of Defense.” (10/17/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“When President Trump announced a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, in retaliation for Beijing’s latest export controls on rare earth elements, markets saw only the headline risk. But the real story lies beyond the ticker: a structural reordering of global trade. The world’s supply chains, long anchored to the Chinese mainland, are splintering. Capital is scattering across Asia’s periphery, and shipping routes that once followed predictable trans-Pacific lines are being redrawn into a new web of uncertainty and opportunity. Alongside an eastward turn worth $100 billion in investment, the trends of the last 30 years of global financial flows are being upended.” (10/17/25)
“It was quite a week for the Democrat Party. On Wednesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, once fringe figures, held a CNN town hall to promote their socialist agenda. The next night, zany Zhoran Mamdani, the darling of the far left, took to the debate stage as the leading candidate for New York City mayor. We also learned from Axios that plots are afoot to primary Sen. John Fetterman [D-PA] from the left. Even though the hoodie-rocking senator votes 95% of the time with Democrats, he calls out communism and supports Israel. In today’s Democrat Party, those positions are a bridge too far. What is becoming increasingly clear is that Democrat Socialists of America-backed Mamdani is not an ‘extreme’ Democrat. He’s just a normal one. The outlier today is Fetterman and any other Democrat who will not genuflect to the new socialist power structure.” (10/18/25)
“Last year, then-Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris insisted in a presidential debate that she is a gun owner and that she and her running mate, Tim Walz, were ‘not taking anybody’s guns away, so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.’ Later, she elaborated with 60 Minutes interviewer Bill Whitaker that she owned a Glock pistol that she had fired at the shooting range. Maybe Harris should have checked with lawmakers in California where she was once attorney general and which she represented in the U.S. Senate. That state just banned the sale of Glock pistols. True, state officials won’t take away Kamala’s pistol or those already owned by other Californians, but that’s cold comfort for anybody looking to purchase new products from the popular gunmaker.” (10/17/25)
“A giant of nineteenth century literature, Émile Zola’s life and writings show that realism can be an antidote to the pathology of radicalism.” (10/17/25)
“The aim of elections is not to guarantee any particular outcome. Yet, protecting incumbents means seeking a very, very particular outcome. Elections should make sure that — above all else — the voting public shapes the government. Definitely not that the government shapes the public. By drawing fancy lines for districts.” (10/17/25)
“Trump’s latest scheme to take universities into receivership, a proposed ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’, has turned out to be a gift to dithering college presidents. Trump’s offer that they couldn’t refuse, sent on October 1 to nine universities that were expected to be malleable, offered preferential access to federal funding in exchange for compliance with several demands. These included freezing tuition rates for five years, capping international student enrollment, adopting definitions of sex/gender aligned with biological sex, ending consideration of race or gender in admissions and hiring, as well as ‘institutional neutrality’ on political and social issues. But Trump’s scheme was so crass and half-baked that several college presidents politely told him to stuff it. So far, he has no takers. Universities that explicitly rejected the deal citing academic freedom include Brown, MIT, Penn, USC, and Dartmouth.” (10/17/25)
“While couched in the language of fighting drug trafficking into the United States, the Trump administration has made no secret of its desire for regime change in Venezuela. Under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with the support of CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump’s chief domestic policy advisor, Stephen Miller, Trump’s team has pushed for the removal of Maduro from power. A Trump administration official familiar with policy discussions on the approach to Venezuela told Axios that, though the military build up is ‘about narco-terrorism … if Maduro winds up no longer in power, no one will be crying.’ Another, by comparing it to the American operation against Panama’s Manuel Noriega in 1989, implied that a coup was higher on the agenda.” (10/17/25)
