“The government has been cracking down on the misuse of opioids, but the restrictions have gone too far, hurting ordinary Americans who need them. Approximately one quarter of the nation’s population suffers from pain. The latest assault, causing problems for those suffering, which includes many elderly people, is the Biden DOJ’s lawsuits against the pharmacies CVS and Walgreens for prescribing them. This has resulted in repeatedly denying those in pain the prescriptions their doctors wrote, forcing them to try to convince pharmacists who know nothing about their conditions that they’re not criminals, but patients in need of relief. The DOJ launched its nationwide case against CVS about a year ago. Today, we’re no closer to a resolution. The lawsuit alleged that CVS ‘knowingly filled prescriptions for controlled substances’, a dramatic headline that masks something much simpler, instead portraying it as far more dangerous.” (12/15/25)
“For decades now Democrats have used the specter of the redneck deplorable to scare Queer folk and people of color into voting for slightly more passive aggressive white supremacists like Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, but their caricature of rural monstrosity is only a fraction of the story at best. What most MSDNC shitlibs leave out of their grotesque portraits of rust belt, white trash, MAGA folk is the fact that most of these people were actually motivated to vote for Donald Trump largely as a reckless act of vengeance against the two-party system.” (12/14/25)
“The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) met recently to discuss, among other topics, the appropriateness of giving Hepatitis B vaccines to all babies in the United States on their first day of life. This practice has been in place for decades, and is in some ways a bit like frontal lobotomies – people just trusted that it was a good idea as otherwise, doctors would not have recommended it. And who wants to argue with health staff on the first day of their baby’s life?” (12/14/25)
“From their offices and living rooms, hundreds of volunteer archivists gather for a virtual ’hackathon’ session to download LGBTQ+ resources from websites controlled by state and federal governments and universities before the institutions completely scrub the materials. In light of the increasing hostility toward queer history, further spurred by President Donald Trump’s executive orders attacking diversity, equity and inclusion at the beginning of his second term, citizen archivists began holding these download parties to preserve the soon-to-be-deleted DEI information. These gatherings are organized by Invisible Histories, a community-based nonprofit focused on archiving queer history in the Deep South. Although the erasure of DEI content from institutional websites (for example, the National Park Service removing transgender people from its description of the Stonewall Uprising on its official website) is not a new challenge, the nonprofit has had to adopt a more rapid response in this moment.” (12/15/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Donald J Boudreaux
“My teacher announced, as if it were a fact as firm as any law of thermodynamics, that the Great Depression was caused by laissez-faire policies advocated by Smith, and that salvation came from the more scientifically sound ideas of Keynes — ideas expertly put into practice by Franklin Roosevelt. ‘Depressions are a thing of the past,’ my teacher proclaimed. ‘Keynes taught us how to prevent them.’ ‘Cool!’ I recall thinking with as much relief as a 15-year-old can muster about such matters. Seven years later, I graduated from college with a degree in economics. By then I’d learned that my high-school history teacher’s history was bunk. The Great Depression wasn’t a failure of capitalism or of the ideas of Adam Smith. Instead, it was caused chiefly by the Federal Reserve foolishly allowing the money supply to shrink by more than a third.” (12/14/25)
“America’s already crawling with creepy wannabe cops demanding — Third Reich or Soviet Union style — that people ‘show their papers’ as a condition of going just about anywhere or doing just about anything (including their jobs if the ICE gang happens to drop in on a workplace). If you think they won’t eventually escalate to browsing through YOUR shared memes, photos of cats and memories with your significant others, etc., think again.” (12/13/25)
“Thinking that you’re the privileged descendant of the conquerors has always been a key part of the mythology that every nation-state teaches to, and about, its favored ethnicity. Maybe you’re not a lineal descendant of the Founder Himself, but you’re still a part of a noble and honored bloodline. That’s why life is good for you, and perhaps why it’s hard for your neighbor. When the favored people claim the land that’s rightfully theirs, that’s progress …. The theory that a nation is made of the descendants of a band of conquering heroes is still both popular and normative among nationalists. Like the social contract story that developed in its shadow, the theory of the conquering heroes is incomplete. It just about always resounds in the midst of an actually unfinished conquest, or in a situation of semi-permanent social inequality.” (12/13/25)
“There are few characters more repellent than the late Jeffrey Epstein. His life left a line of human wreckage and misery. Those associated with Epstein have also faced public backlash and recriminations throughout the years. Recently, however, the Epstein scandal took a new turn. Due to unprecedented access to once-sealed material, the public is now combing through emails, appointment books, and photos with a voracious interest in his private associations and contacts. Most of these people are not accused of any criminal conduct, mind you — just notorious association. The result has been the humiliation and condemnation of various individuals revealed in the files. The question is whether we should consider the implications of such transparency and how it can expose those who are not accused of any crime.” [editor’s note: “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear” instantly disappears when it’s the powerful getting exposed – TLK] (12/13/25)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Daniel J Smith & Scott Beaulier
“When Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani recently rallied with striking Starbucks workers, they trumpeted a ‘New York where every worker can live a life of decency.’ Mr. Mamdani promised a $30 minimum wage in the name of dignity on the campaign trail. Their intentions might be noble; their logic isn’t. By artificially hiking entry-level wages through political mandates rather than skills, productivity or experience, they don’t lift up workers; they wall off the very on-ramp to mobility. We know this firsthand. Neither of our first real jobs was glamorous. They were at McDonald’s in Iron Mountain, Michigan (Scott) and Kmart in Midland, Michigan (Dan).” (12/12/25)
