Source: Persuasion
by Damon Linker

“How should we understand the character of the American political present? Are we living through the radical transformation of American democracy into a competitive (or even uncompetitive) authoritarian system? Or are we merely experiencing the fulfillment of longstanding antiliberal and anti-democratic trends in American politics in general and the Republican Party in particular? Or do we merely find ourselves at a rare (but nonetheless democratically legitimate) moment of rapid constitutional evolution to the right after nearly a century of consistently leftward shifts?” (11/17/25)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/no-trump-20-is-not-normal-constitutional

Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg

“Humanity is just now hitting its stride, or at least we’re threatening to. We approached it before World War I, then suffered through a long, ugly period. More recently our leading edges have started to push through the thorns and weeds, and there’s a reasonable chance that we’ll make it this time. But even if this attempt fails, one of the generations that follows us will make it. Post-primate society is coming; it’s only a question of when. This is certain because the development of mankind, of the human race, has been nothing short of spectacular. We have risen so fast that any other conclusion must stand upon gloominess and depression. The long-term record is clear.” (11/17/25)

https://thefindings.substack.com/p/my-fears-about-post-primate-theory

Source: OtherWords
by Reyanna James

“The roughly 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps did not receive their November 1 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as the government shutdown dragged on. The missed payments came just as the holiday season began, leaving many families struggling to put food on the table. Lines at food banks backed up traffic across the country. The Trump administration defied federal court orders to restore full funding to the program before the Supreme Court’s conservative majority temporarily green-lit the freeze. The White House even tried to claw back funding from states that had already distributed it to hungry families. Lawmakers have now negotiated an end to the shutdown. But the threat to the nation’s primary nutrition assistance program, SNAP, is far from over. As the government reopens, millions will still lose access to food assistance starting almost immediately.” (11/17/25)

https://otherwords.org/even-with-the-shutdown-ending-millions-will-lose-food-aid/

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Eyal Shahar

“The natural home for this work is a biomedical journal. There is zero chance, however, that a paper would be accepted by any conventional journal. Why? Because the results are earthshaking, as stated in the title. This post is technical, but the preamble is not. For the non-academic reader, the preamble will serve two purposes: 1) to share an interesting story about the evolution of this work; 2) to give a simple summary of what I found. So, stay with me at least through this section.” (11/17/25)

https://brownstone.org/articles/a-novel-analysis-of-the-pfizer-trial-vaccine-effectiveness-was-nowhere-near-95/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“Came across an old Hampton Institute tweet: ‘If you don’t like being exploited (employee, tenant), then become the exploiter (boss/owner, landlord) is the capitalist mindset that has been drilled into all of us since we were kids. The real solution is to end exploitation (capitalism) altogether.’ You run into this sort of argument all the time when interacting with capitalism supporters. If people can’t make enough money to get by then they should get better-paying jobs. If people don’t like getting kicked around by an abusive status quo then they should climb their way into a socioeconomic strata that isn’t getting kicked around as much. If someone doesn’t like being the nail then they should become the hammer. They deflect criticisms of the abusive system by babbling about what people can do as individuals to be less abused personally.” (11/17/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/16/in-capitalism-they-tell-you-to-become-the-hammer-if-you-dont-like-being-the-nail/