“On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hencely v. Fluor Corporation, a case that asks whether private military contractors can be held liable in state court for negligence and other violations of law, or whether they are immune from lawsuits brought by people they injure. Its outcome could signal how the current majority feels about deputizing private actors with federal immunity even if they engage in blatantly illegal acts. … The Supreme Court hasn’t considered the issue of private contractor liability since 1988, when in Boyle v. United Technologies, it manufactured civil immunity for military equipment manufacturers. It did so even though Congress had specifically refused to protect private contractors under a statute that otherwise allows for negligence suits against the federal government.” (1/05/25)
“Most Americans learn about the Revolution as a fight against unfair taxes and British tyranny. But dig deeper into the Declaration of Independence, and one grievance leaps off the page: ‘He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.’ Thomas Jefferson wasn’t just talking about soldiers traipsing about in their scarlet coats. It was about the notion that soldiers would be present in the first place. For the colonists, the idea of having troops quartered in towns enforcing royal edicts at the end of a bayonet was an egregious example of oppression. Yet, when compared to what we see in 2025, it is not difficult to notice how far we have gone — in the wrong direction.” (11/05/25)
“In case you hadn’t noticed, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is a black woman, as she repeatedly reminds readers in her memoir, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines. Jean-Pierre also is ‘openly queer’ (her words, not mine, scattered like breadcrumbs throughout her 177-page treatment of her two-plus years as former President Joe Biden’s top spokesperson). If it weren’t for identity politics, Jean-Pierre wouldn’t have any identity at all. She tosses around labels, not arguments. Jean-Pierre told The New Yorker that the ‘broken’ White House in her book title refers not to the White House of her former boss, but that of current President Donald Trump. And yet, by her own account, KJP’s defection from the Democratic Party was a reaction to serving in an administration that was burdened with ‘racism, misogyny and double standards.'” (11/05/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“According to NBC News, the Trump administration is now considering a military attack on Mexico. That’s on top of Trump’s obvious internal struggle on whether to do the same to Venezuela. Another possibility is Columbia, whose president, according to Trump, is an ‘illegal drug leader.’ Oh, the difficult life of an interventionist drug-war president who is ostensibly set on making America great again. Who to attack first? Who to kill? How many to kill? Which killing route will be more apt to make America great again? How best to win the Nobel Prize for Peace?” (11/05/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“As Americans, our greatest battles lie here in the heartland, thousands of miles from Jerusalem, Tehran, the Gaza Strip, and the rest of the chaotic world out there. … We have enough issues here, in Pennsylvania, Idaho, Missouri, and California. It is here, not in the Middle East, where Americans are struggling to afford rising grocery prices and unaffordable housing costs. These United States are where Trump and his administration’s aims should be focused, not between the Golan Heights and Tehran. And yet when asked about such apparently trivial domestic issues by O’Donnell, Trump merely waved his hand and claimed that grocery prices, despite what our eyes and pocketbooks clearly tell us, are, in fact, falling; even if they aren’t, it is all President Biden’s fault. … Such is the MAGA that we have received: a shadow of the MAGA promised.” (11/05/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Dick Cheney, arguably the single government official most responsible for the expansion of US warmongering and militarism in the 21st century, has died. The worst worst war sluts of the US empire have issued statements expressing their condolences, including Democrats like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi. Because if there’s one thing that can bring Democrats and Republicans together, it’s war crimes and the slaughter of millions of middle easterners. Dick Cheney died far too old and far too free. The fact that such monsters get to pass away in their eighties surrounded by loved ones instead of alone in a cage is an indictment of our entire civilization. In a truly sane society, Richard Bruce Cheney would have lived a life of relative obscurity, working as a gardener or something without ever getting anywhere close to power.” (11/05/25)
“Families, entrepreneurs, and Fortune 500 companies alike are chasing better schools. Freedom to choose may be the quiet engine of the next American migration wave.” (11/05/25)
“In his self-portrayal as a global peacemaker, President Donald Trump prefers to employ arm-twisting pressure to stop a conflict, such as in Gaza. Yet for one of the most intractable wars – a civil conflict in Africa’s third-largest country, Sudan – he might be relying on principled persuasion. The reason? Mass atrocities against civilians on both sides of that 18-month-long war have pushed many nations with a strategic stake in Sudan to join a Trump-led effort for a humanitarian truce. On Monday, the U.S. senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, said Sudan’s rival military forces have agreed in principle to a three-month truce, which would allow safe corridors for delivery of vital aid. If a pause in fighting does help the millions of Sudanese in need, it would be a nod to a global norm that recognizes the innocence of civilians in battle zones.” (11/04/25)
“Today, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in one of those rare cases that could reshape all three branches of government. The justices deciding Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, a challenge to the current tariff regime, could determine whether the imperial presidency is entrenched or arrested. They could either cajole Congress out of its dormancy or render it even more inert. And they could buttress the legitimacy of the Court’s conservative majority — which in the past decade has aggressively intervened to limit the administrative state’s domestic operations — or undermine it by applying different standards to presidents of different parties.” (11/05/25)
“Nearly exactly a year later, two narratives have taken hold about the electoral wipeout Democrats experienced in 2024. The first is the Democratic Party, weighed down by an unpopular and enfeebled presumptive nominee who had overseen unpopular foreign wars and economic carnage at home, failed to articulate a vision other than ‘we’re not Trump.’ The second is that Democrats, after routing Donald Trump in 2020, moved too far to the left, losing the coveted ‘moderate’ vote and the entire election. Progressives have stuck mostly to the first narrative. As political director at RootsAction, I was among the first group of detractors encouraging Joe Biden not to seek a second term as president.” (11/05/25)
