Source: The Daily Economy
by Christopher Freiman

“With SNAP funding in the news, we’re seeing a revival of a familiar complaint against big business. The reason millions of Americans need public benefits like SNAP, critics say, is that their employers don’t pay them enough. … this complaint is morally confused. To see why, let’s start with a simple point: an employer is a buyer of labor. So when critics say that big corporations should raise their employees’ wages to the point where they don’t need public assistance, what they’re really saying is that corporations should pay more for what they buy. But we shouldn’t assume that merely buying something from someone obligates you to pay them so much that they never need public assistance, rather than simply paying them the mutually agreeable price.” (11/19/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/do-employers-shift-labor-costs-onto-taxpayers/

Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead

“Pay-to-play schemes. Protection rackets. Extortion. Corruption. Self-enrichment. Graft. Grift. Brutality. Roaming bands of thugs smashing car windows and terrorizing communities. Immunity for criminal behavior coupled with prosecutions of whistleblowers. This is how a crime syndicate operates — not a constitutional republic. What we are witnessing today is the steady transformation of the federal government — especially the executive branch — into a criminalized system of power in which justice is weaponized, law is selectively enforced, and crime becomes a form of political currency.” (11/19/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/19/profiteering-protection-rackets-a-pay-to-play-presidency/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“In a referendum on Sunday, voters in Ecuador – where some 70% of global cocaine flows – soundly rejected the idea of foreign bases in the country to help fight the drug trade. And in the last three months, as the United States military has built up forces near Venezuela and conducted lethal strikes against alleged drug-carrying boats – dubbed by the White House as ‘narco-terrorists’ – cries have grown louder that such attacks might violate international law. Meanwhile, amid this forceful approach, one country in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, has received a largely unnoticed accolade for an alternative tactic to dealing with crime – whether it is petty theft or international drug runners coming to its shores.” (11/18/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1118/Lawful-checks-on-cocaine-traffickers

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“Many people are up in arms over President Trump’s red-carpet welcome of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). They cite the CIA’s conclusion that bin Salman orchestrated and ordered the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to secure documents relating to his upcoming marriage. … When it comes to the power of government to kill its own citizens, the Saudi system and the U.S. system are now very similar. That is, in both systems, the regime wields the omnipotent power to kill any citizen who is deemed to be a threat to ‘national security.'” (11/19/25)

https://www.fff.org/2025/11/19/trumps-red-carpet-welcome-of-mohammed-bin-salman/

Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Nathan Miller

“The UK’s latest plan to ‘put fans first’ is a sweeping ban on ticket resale above face value — a move Housing Minister Steve Reed says will end ‘the scandal of ticket touts.’ New legislation being drawn up by Labour will outlaw selling a ticket for even a pound above face value and cap service fees on resale platforms. … Capping prices below that which people are willing to pay creates a shortage in any official market. Musical artists have limited time to perform, and venues have a limited number of seats. Nothing Starmer does can change that. If his policy is to work for anything, it’ll only work to produce shortages, misallocations, and black markets given some people who missed out in the primary market and are willing to pay more to go will now not be able to make mutually beneficial trades with sellers.” (11/19/25)

https://www.cato.org/commentary/labour-poised-boost-black-market-expense-true-fans

Source: Wired
by David Gilbert

“For almost a decade, President Donald Trump has managed to control the conspiracy theory spin around disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The conspiracy theories benefited him; they were one of the factors buoying him to office. It’s only been in the last few weeks — spurred by the release of new Epstein documents and the public defection of GOP lawamkers — that the complex web of misinformation has spun out of Trump’s control. It all began with QAnon.” (11/19/25)

https://archive.is/WGyca