War in Venezuela, Brought to You By the Same People Who Lied Us Into Iraq

Source: The Intercept
by Alain Stephens

“The echoes of Iraq are everywhere: the moral certainty, the insistence on a narrow mission, laws stretched to accommodate force, the journalist class nudging readers toward the idea of escalation. The Times leans on that posture — the intellectual confidence that if a dictator is cruel enough, if his country is chaotic enough, then U.S. firepower is not only justified but prudent and even moral. … This is not law enforcement. It is coercive statecraft backed by military power. And when the press uncritically repeats the administration’s framing, the escalation becomes easier to swallow.” (11/18/25)

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/venezuela-iraq-war-new-york-times/

After UN backs Gaza peace plan, Trump miraculously receives praise from New York Times

Source: New York Post
by Michael Goodwin

“Miracles come in all shapes and circumstances, but here is a truly remarkable one: The New York Times has said something positive about President Trump. All he had to do was get most of the world to back his sweeping plan for bringing peace to Gaza. It was a long shot, but he and his skilled negotiating team pulled it off. So much so that a Monday Times headline called it ‘A Major Breakthrough.’ The story went on to declare that the United Nations Security Council vote to support the president’s plan represents ‘a major diplomatic victory for the Trump administration.’ It is that, and a helluva lot more, including the fact that it already has saved untold lives, both Jewish and Arab, and will save many more each day if it is fully implemented.” (11/19/25)

https://nypost.com/2025/11/18/opinion/michael-goodwin-trump-miraculously-receives-praise-from-new-york-times-after-un-backs-gaza-peace-plan/

The global race for talent: Other nations are outpacing the U.S. on high-skill immigration

Source: Niskanen Center
by Cecilia Ignatio

“Immigration policy has become a critical tool for labor and economic strategy. But as governments around the world compete for valuable workplace talent, the United States has gone in the opposite direction by adding new restrictions on legal immigration for high-skilled workers, explicitly targeting the H-1B visa program through a $100,000 fee. … The administration has said the amount will encourage companies to hire American workers instead of relying on foreign talent. However, in practice, the policy has created confusion among employers regarding the extent of its implementation.” (11/18/25)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-global-race-for-talent

Does the Pope Go to the Movies?

Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“As some of you probably know, Pope Leo XIV spoke to group of film industry professionals this past Saturday, urging them not to give up on the movies. … Movies, the pontiff declared, are a uniquely popular art, accessible to all and yet at their best capable of sustaining long contemplation and analysis, and of touching the depths of the human soul. Unlike much of the video that clogs our screen-sodden lives these days, cinema is narrative art. It takes us on a journey and, inasmuch as life is also a journey, reminds us thereby that we are alive. … I agree!” (11/18/25)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/does-the-pope-go-to-the-movies

Jeffrey Epstein Pursued Swiss Rothschild Bank to Finance Israeli Cyberweapons Empire

Source: Drop Site
by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain

“With an avalanche of new documents released by the House Oversight Committee, and looming legislation mandating further disclosures, the press has renewed its relentless coverage of the life and times of Jeffrey Epstein. Yet, with some notable exceptions, a major part of his life’s work has remained outside the media’s gaze, his relationship with the state of Israel and his prominent role in helping advance the Israeli cyberweapons industry.” (11/18/25)

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ariane-de-rothschild-ehud-barak-swiss-bank-israeli-cyberweapons

Labour’s rush to digital ID reveals the idiocy of the technocrats

Source: spiked
by Andrew Orlowski

“The UK scrapped war-time identity cards in 1952. It remains one of the few countries that eschews a ‘papers, please’ relationship with the state. In the 2000s, the 9/11 terror attacks gave Tony Blair’s government a justification to re-introduce state-issued identity cards …. Introduced via legislation in 2004, ID cards became one of New Labour’s most contentious policies, dogging the final years of the government. They were scrapped in 2010 by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition. By then, they had already cost an estimated £5 billion, officially, or between £10 billion and £20 billion, unofficially. Surely no one would want to do that all over again? Almost nobody did, until this year.” (11/18/25)

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/11/18/labours-rush-to-digital-id-reveals-the-idiocy-of-the-technocrats/

The Mamdani Freak-Out

Source: In These Times
by Dania Rajendra

“Roughly two weeks before the New York City mayoral election, more than 1,000 rabbis signed onto an open letter against anti-Zionism in politics, and thus, against Zohran Mamdani, under the misnomer ‘The Jewish Majority.’ They wrote the letter ‘to declare that we cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalization throughout our nation.’ In doing so, they discredited themselves and expanded Jewish leftists’ opportunity to redefine the political  —  and spiritual – parameters of Jewish identity. Anti-Zionism has existed since the beginning of Zionism itself, and has, indeed, grown as Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank remains deeply unpopular across the United States and around the world. Democrats’ refusal to contend with this fact – to actually represent their base – has become a symbol of the party’s overall inability to listen to, and fight for, its members.” (11/19/25)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/zohran-mamdani-islamophobia-antisemitism-adl

A Postmortem on the 2025 Government Shutdown

Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann

“There was a way the 2025 shutdown could have been avoided. Congress could pass a temporary spending bill to fund government operations while continuing to hammer out regular spending bills. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives drafted a straightforward Continuing Resolution to do just that, sending the bill to the Senate, well before the government would shut down. That’s when things went wrong.” (11/18/25)

https://www.independent.org/article/2025/11/18/postmortem-2025-government-shutdown/

Remember the great Justin Raimondo, critic of the warfare-welfare state

Source: Orange County Register
by the editorial board

“Justin Raimondo tried to warn us. The co-founder of Antiwar.com devoted his life to warning Americans and particularly the American right against the relentless pull of the military-industrial complex and the bipartisan-established warfare-welfare state. Raimondo would’ve turned 74 today. He passed away on June 27, 2019 in Sebastopol, California at the age of 67 after battling lung cancer. But his legacy lives on and his message is as necessary as ever.” (11/18/25)

https://archive.is/BlTN3