Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Finally, the city council of Castle Hills, Texas, is doing the right thing by Sylvia Gonzalez, accepting a settlement to resolve years of litigation against the city for violating her First Amendment rights. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, agreeing that courts may properly consider evidence that an arrest is retaliatory. According to Gonzalez’s lawsuit, in 2019 city leaders had lashed out against the councilwoman for her support of a nonbinding petition to remove a city manager. The city’s weapon? A rarely used law that it wielded against her for ‘briefly and inadvertently having the petition among her papers’ during a heated council meeting; she allegedly tried to ‘steal’ her own petition.” (11/05/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/11/05/vindictiveness-vs-the-1st-amendment/

Source: Fox News
by Newt Gingrich

“The Nov. 4 off-year elections were a smashing Democratic victory. This is the first and most important lesson Republicans should take from the results. In elections in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and California, there was a huge wave in favor of the Democrats. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s referendum victory in California will certainly shape the 2026 midterms. Yet, there were some local Republican victories, such as the one for Nassau County executive in New York, which provided the GOP hints of a better future – if Republicans are willing to study and learn from them. President Donald J. Trump suggested that his name not being on the ballot was a major factor in the outcome. This may be true, but it does not solve anything for Republicans. His name is not going to be on the ballot in 2026 or 2028 either.” (11/05/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-republicans-have-one-big-thing-learn-about-2025-wipeout

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Orlando Pérez

“News that the administration may greenlight attacks inside the country, even remove Maduro, is already causing panic. It should.” (11/05/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-venezuela-military/

Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, & Noel Sims

“On September 23, Adelita Grijalva won a special election to represent Arizona in the House of Representatives in a landslide, collecting 69% of the vote. Forty-three days later, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) has not sworn in Grijalva. Johnson’s obstruction has prevented Grijalva from providing the decisive signature on a discharge petition that would force a House vote on the public release of the Epstein files. The failure to swear in Grijalva is unprecedented. A Popular Information analysis of the 59 other House special elections since 2015 reveals that the average time between winning an election and being sworn in is less than 11 days. Since Johnson became Speaker in October 2023, special election winners have been sworn in, on average, about seven days after the election. The current 43-day delay is already eight days longer than the previous record.” (11/05/25)

https://popular.info/p/speaker-johnsons-unprecedented-democracy

Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein

“Having read and written extensively about the suffering of the Chinese people under Mao, I was horrified and alarmed to listen to this short take by an Oberlin College student shortly after the Charlie Kirk assassination. The student is an unapologetic Mao-inspired revolutionary who is for more ‘political assassinations’ and anti-free speech for ‘reactionaries,’ and ‘capitalists.’ She wants ‘some people’ to ‘be afraid to express their opinion in public.’ In a college course, she was taught ‘how violent revolution liberated millions of people and liberated women’ in Mao’s China. Her views are extreme, but she is not alone.” (11/05/25)

https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/maos-children-how-revolutionary-passions