Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Spain has been celebrating all year, with a calendar of educational and cultural events intended ‘to highlight the great transformation achieved in this half-century of democracy.’ Inaugurating the ‘Spain in Liberty’ program in January, Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez said: ‘You don’t need to have a particular ideology, to be on the left, in the center, or on the right, to regard with enormous sadness and terror the dark years of Francoism.’ You don’t, but it certainly helps. ‘Liberty in Spain’ deserves praise for innovatively addressing a complicated issue; but it has also highlighted deep-set disagreement over how Spain should confront its past—and even whether doing so is necessary.” (11/20/25)
“An increasing amount of public attention has been drawn to an obscure ideological movement called ‘postliberalism,’ which argues that free markets, individual liberty, and limited government handicap a societal commitment to what they call the ‘common good.’ Until just a few years ago, postliberalism hovered around the extreme periphery of the political right. That is no longer the case. The most obvious reason is that Vice President J.D. Vance self-identifies as a postliberal. And more recently, the postliberal movement has found itself at the center of a string of controversies.” (11/20/25)
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato
“Rather than continuing to pretend that we’re in an agreement or mutually beneficial relationship with a predatory ruling class, we could start to put facts ahead of abstractions and thought experiments. We could reimagine the social contract in Proudhonian terms, as working from the bottom-up, first relationships of equality and solidarity between individuals, then between their cooperative bodies, and outward from there in federations and agreements as may be needed for specific times and purposes. This is precisely the reverse of Rawlsian social contract philosophy in that it does not take the state as a given: it begins with contract where it can be found as a social fact and insists that any social arrangement must harmonize with genuine contract. But I don’t want to suggest that this reversal of Rawls is in method only.” (11/20/25)
“No, this isn’t a satirical Babylon Bee headline: ”Black Women Can’t Swim Because of Societal Expectations’: Michelle Obama’s Viral Claim Sparks Controversy.’ The former first lady, in a live podcast, recently said, ‘Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern. So, when we’re straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness. That’s why so many of us can’t swim, and we run away from the water. People won’t go to the gym because we’re trying to keep our hair straight for y’all. It is exhausting, and it is so expensive, and it takes up so much time!’ Who knew that black women straighten their hair to conform to the expectations of whites? Even worse, who knew this oppressive white standard of beauty, according to Obama, has the real-world effect of preventing black kids from learning to swim?” (11/20/25)
“On June 19, 2024, Khaled Mahajneh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, became the first lawyer to visit a notorious detention facility for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, located inside the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, one of several detention facilities established after October 7, 2023 to hold Palestinians seized in Gaza. Speaking to +972 Magazine a week after his visit, Mahanjeh drew a pertinent comparison with the treatment of Muslim prisoners in the US’s post-9/11 ‘war on terror,’ but concluded that Israel’s behavior was even worse.” (11/20/25)
The shutdown was its own risk — but not one that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a real choice on, after the blowback to his decision to fund the government in March. Schumer’s camp kept insisting that he didn’t want to reopen without a cleaner victory on health care, but the defection of his centrists underscored that the risk hadn’t paid off. Since the shutdown ended, Democrats who are behaving like potential presidential candidates have been lining up to argue that their party gave in because its Senate leaders were too cautious. … As the party’s base demands more brawls and more risks, Democrats in power are trying to catch up.” (11/19/25)
“I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is a loathsome, self-serving narcissist. But if she can make life even one iota more unpleasant for the current President of the United States, then I say go for it, mean girl. Go for it all the live long day.” (11/19/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“No no everything’s fine. It’s perfectly normal for people to have 80 hour work weeks while billionaires transform into trillionaires and tech plutocrats feed all our drinking water to AI servers as the planet dies. This is the only system that could possibly work. No no it’s great. If you can’t afford a house it’s because you’re lazy and entitled. Stop eating fancy fruits and vegetables and sleep in your cubicle. One time I saw a homeless person with a phone. Sell your phone and use the money buy a house, you idiot. What do you mean you want taxes to go toward infrastructure and basic social safety nets? That money is for the arms industry, and for Israel. If you want a high-speed rail system, build it yourself.” (11/20/25)
“A few months ago, an impromptu trip to my neighborhood wine store turned into an awesome lesson in spontaneous order, American entrepreneurship, and creative destruction. There, I met several small-business owners who were proudly sampling their new products and eager to tell me all about them, their upstart businesses, and the booming local industry to which they belonged. Being a dork, I drank up their stories for almost an hour …. these happy folks weren’t selling beer or wine — they were selling THC-infused drinks that’ve become all the rage at local stores, breweries, bars, and restaurants here in North Carolina, thanks to nothing more than consumer interest, good ol’ fashioned American industriousness, and the federal government getting out of the way. Now, that same government is putting these and many other entrepreneurs out of business — and for no good reason.” (11/19/25)
“President donald trump’s administration has been embroiled in scandal and sloppiness. His own party has defied his political pressure. His senior staff has been beset by infighting. He has sparred with reporters and offered over-the-top praise to an authoritarian with a dire human-rights record. A signature hard-line immigration policy has polled poorly. And Republicans have begun to brace themselves for a disastrous midterm election. That was 2017. But it’s also 2025.
Ten months into the president’s second term, Trump 2.0 is for the first time starting to resemble the chaotic original. And that new sense of political weakness in the president has not just emboldened Democrats who have been despondent for much of the past year. It’s also begun to give Republicans a permission structure for pushing back against Trump and jockeying for power with an eye to the elections ahead. This was not the plan.” (11/19/25)
