Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy

“American industry has been getting a lot of hands-on direction from Democrats and Republicans for quite some time now. Every few years, someone looks at the underwhelming results of this economic maneuvering and insists that real ‘industrial policy’ has never been tried. The truth is that the left’s call for a ‘mission-oriented’ state and the right’s yearning for a nationalist industrial revival may sound different, but they share the same conceit: that their own intentions can finally succeed where decades of intervention have failed.” (11/20/25)

https://reason.com/2025/11/20/there-is-no-such-thing-as-good-industrial-policy-but-republicans-and-democrats-keep-trying/

Source: Semafor
by Burgess Everett & Eleanor Mueller

“The rifts between Trump and the rest of the GOP are piling up. Indiana Republicans are declining to rewrite their congressional maps at the behest of the president, sparking a wave of redistricting regret on Capitol Hill. Trump’s pitch to eliminate Affordable Care Act subsidies is also drawing skepticism within the party, as is his bid to jam a moratorium on state AI regulations into a must-pass defense bill. Republicans spurned Trump’s plans to import Argentine beef and shunned suggestions like a 50-year mortgage. Then there’s the nearly unanimous bicameral vote to compel the Trump administration to release Jeffrey Epstein files and the Senate’s rejection of Trump’s personal appeal to gut the filibuster. … the fresh GOP resistance marks a new phase for a party that muscled through much of Trump’s agenda this summer with zero Democratic votes and quickly confirmed his Cabinet.” (11/20/25)

https://www.semafor.com/article/11/20/2025/trump-stops-getting-everything-he-wants-from-fellow-republicans

Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by John Feffer

“Ecuador, once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America, is now one of its most dangerous. The murder rate in 2020 was 7.7 homicides per 100,000 people. That was roughly comparable to the United States where it was 6.4 that year. In nearby Brazil, on the other hand, it was 22.3. By 2023, Ecuador’s homicide rate had leapfrogged over its neighbors to an astounding 46 per 100,000. In a mere three years, the number of murders had increased six-fold. The reason: narco-traffickers. Ecuador had become a convenient transshipment hub, and various gangs were warring over territory, particularly in coastal cities. In 2023, in a presidential election that featured the assassination of one of the candidates, Ecuadorians voted in Daniel Noboa, an undistinguished but telegenic conservative politician who promised an iron-fist approach to fighting drug kingpins. His tactics boiled down to unleashing the military to attack specific gangs.” (11/20/25)

https://fpif.org/us-military-is-no-answer-to-narcotraffickers/

Source: Niskanen Center
by Will Raderman

“After years of deliberation, a bipartisan consensus is coalescing on the need for Congress to help states protect their Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs against improper payments and outright fraud, which cost the federal government, states, and taxpayers an estimated $135 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic alone. … An effective reform package would focus on fixing how UI administration is funded and establish new program guardrails. Congress can ensure that state UI agencies make use of more federal revenue raised specifically for program administration while offsetting past administrative funding lost to inflation.” (11/20/25)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/broaden-the-base-lower-the-improper-payment-rates

Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley

“But remember the ‘failed’ playbook quarterbacked by Dr. Anthony Fauci.” (11/20/25)

https://www.independent.org/article/2025/11/20/nih-announces-new-pandemic-playbook/