Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes
“At least President Trump didn’t ‘kill all the lawyers’ first, literally following Shakespeare’s words in ‘Henry VI, Part 2’ on evading the rule of law. Instead, just a month into his second term in February, he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simply fired the top lawyers at the Army, Navy and Air Force, known as judge advocates general, or JAGs. ‘It’s what you do when you’re planning to break the law: You get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down,’ Georgetown Law professor Rosa Brooks said at the time, according to the New York Times. She wasn’t alone in her fear, or her prescience.” (12/04/25)
https://archive.is/nVv7k
Source: SFGate
“The FBI made an arrest on Thursday in its nearly 5-year-old investigation into pipe bombs placed outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The arrest marks the first time investigators have settled on a suspect in an act that had long vexed law enforcement, spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories and remained an enduring mystery in the shadow of the dark chapter of American history that is the violent Capitol siege. The suspect in custody has been identified as Brian Cole, according to three people familiar with the matter. Two of the people said he lived in Woodbridge, Virginia, a Washington suburb. No other details were immediately available, including the charges Cole might face. The people who described the arrest weren’t authorized to publicly discuss a case that hasn’t yet been made public and spoke on the condition of anonymity.” (12/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/fbi-makes-arrest-in-investigation-into-pipe-bombs-21222839.php
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“Why has the theft of copper wires increased so much recently? For an answer, don’t look at ‘culture’ or other such black boxes.” (12/04/25)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/rational-thieves
Source: Common Dreams
by Brett Heinz
“Between the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, the US government has a long history of waging bloody and unsuccessful wars against broad concepts that can not be meaningfully defeated. What makes the government’s latest ‘armed conflict’ unique is not just its combination of these two failures, but also that its target (‘narco-terrorism’) is largely a myth. Under the title “Operation Southern Spear,” the Trump administration has launched a campaign intended to target the drug cartels that it designated as terrorist organizations earlier this year. So far, this has involved at least 21 airstrikes, killing upwards of 83 people on small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific; a military buildup involving 15,000 troops; and covert operations by the CIA in Venezuela. Though President Donald Trump lacks the legal authority for these activities, the Senate’s latest attempt to restrain military action failed in a narrow vote of 49-51.” (12/04/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/narco-terrorist-myth
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal appeals court restored the 58-month prison sentence for Norman Seabrook, the former head of New York City’s correction officers union who was convicted of bribery, saying a trial judge should not have reduced the sentence because it was much longer than that of the hedge fund founder who bribed him. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said ‘nothing extraordinary and compelling’ justified U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s decision in February 2023 to grant Seabrook, who led the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, compassionate release after he served 21 months in prison. … Prosecutors accused Seabrook, 65, of steering $20 million of union members’ money to Platinum [Partners] in exchange for a $60,000 cash bribe from [Murray] Huberfeld, which was delivered in a Salvatore Ferragamo bag. The union lost about $19 million of its investment.” (12/04/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-12-04/former-nyc-jail-guard-union-chiefs-longer-bribery-sentence-restored-by-us-appeals-court
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the fallout from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz allegedly ignoring reports of welfare fraud that cost his state a billion dollars.” (12/04/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5633247-rising-december-4-2025/
Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“Modular housing is gaining prominence as a proposed way to increase the housing supply. This is an approach where the majority of home building is done off-site. Factories will construct entire rooms of a house, including all the wiring and plumbing connections built in. At the final construction site, the actual building process consists of the final step of connecting the rooms, plumbing, and so forth, to complete the build. Building in this way is faster and less expensive than traditional home building. … People might think that these companies increase the housing supply by, well, building more housing. But building more housing isn’t an increase in supply, it’s an increase in quantity supplied. An increase in supply means an increase in the capacity to produce something.” (12/04/25)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/increasing-housing-supply
Source: Washington Monthly
by Anne Kim
“As part of his promise to restore American manufacturing and the fortunes of the working class, President Donald Trump pledged to expand trade apprenticeships. In an April executive order, Trump directed the Department of Labor to deliver within 120 days a plan ‘to reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices.’ That deadline has passed, with no evidence of progress or even a plan to reach the one-million apprenticeship milestone. Instead, drastic layoffs, funding cuts, and a purge of ‘DEI’-related initiatives have sabotaged the emerging apprenticeship movement. Growth in apprenticeships is at its slowest in years, far more sluggish than during Joe Biden’s administration or even the president’s first term.” (12/04/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/12/04/trump-one-million-apprenticeships-broken-promise/
Source: Common Dreams
“A prominent international human rights organization is warning that the United States’ plan for postwar Gaza will impose ‘unlawful collective imprisonment’ on the Palestinian civilians who have survived two years of genocide. In November, several news outlets reported on the Trump administration’s plan to carve Gaza in two: a so-called ‘green zone’ controlled by Israel and a ‘red zone’ controlled by the militant group Hamas. The US would construct what it called ‘Alternative Safe Communities’ for Palestinians to live in the Israeli-controlled portion of Gaza, which is over half of the territory under the current ‘ceasefire’ agreement. The New York Times described these communities as ‘compounds’ of 20,000 to 25,000 people, where Israeli officials reportedly argued they should not be allowed to leave.” (12/04/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-gaza-compounds-ghetto
Source: Cobden Centre
by Tim Price
“Mother Shipton predicted the dissolution of the Catholic Church under Henry VIII. She predicted the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, and the ascent of Queen Elizabeth. She forecast television and radio, ships made of iron, and arguably the California gold rush. But probably her most notorious prediction was that ‘The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one.’ She was clearly off a bit on that one. Given the self-evident inaccuracy of forecasts of the end of days, their popularity does seem somewhat bewildering. … For as long as we’ve been working in the capital markets, there have also been sceptics warning of the demise of the biggest bond and credit bubble in history. Like the boy who cried wolf, they have all been discounted, and (rightly) ignored. This time, however, they could finally be justified.” (12/04/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/12/predicting-the-end/
