NY: Mamdani’s pick for community safety committee Alex Vitale is anti-cop professor who penned “The End of Policing”

Source: New York Post

“One of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team picks to advise on community safety is an author who once penned a book titled ‘The End of Policing.’ Alex Vitale, a Brooklyn College sociology professor, was among those tapped on Monday to help staff Mamdani’s committee on community safety amid the mayoral turnover. ‘I’m excited to announce that I have been asked to join the Mamdani Transition Team to work on community safety issues. A New Era for NYC,’ Vitale posted on X touting the news. The liberal professor is behind the 2017 anti-cop book — that decries ‘broken windows’ and other proactive policies. ‘The problem is not police training, police diversity, or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last 40 years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society,’ a description of the book reads.” (11/25/25)

https://nypost.com/2025/11/25/us-news/mamdani-pick-for-community-safety-committee-alex-vitale-is-anti-cop-professor-who-penned-the-end-of-policing/

Steve Trinward

An Antidote to the FDR Cult

Source: Reason
by James Bovard

“If there were any doubts that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the greatest scoundrels of American political history, David Beito’s new biography should settle the issue. Beito — whose previous book, The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights, did yeoman’s work exposing Roosevelt’s depredations against civil liberties — has now written FDR: A New Political Life, and it should help FDR get the villainous reputation he deserves. Treachery was the consistent theme of Roosevelt’s political life.” (11/25/25)

https://reason.com/2025/11/25/an-antidote-to-the-fdr-cult/

Thomas L. Knapp

A Note Of Gratitude And Appreciation

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“It was a surprisingly exhilarating adventure packing up poster books and mailing them off to my readers. This was my first time ever physically interfacing with my audience in large numbers to any extent, and it was so beautiful going through everyone’s names and addresses and getting to send them all physical things that I could put my love into. I made so many expensive rookie mistakes and had to solve a million problems figuring out how to do this thing that I’d never attempted before, but I loved every minute of it. It filled me with so much appreciation for all of you who’ve made it possible for me to do this weird, crazy job all these years and undertake these strange projects every so often.” (11/25/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/25/a-note-of-gratitude-and-appreciation/

Steve Trinward

Judge gives US DOJ a day to detail Ghislaine Maxwell trial materials to be released

Source: Albany Times Union

“A federal judge in Manhattan is demanding more information from the Justice Department as he weighs its request to unseal records from the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on Tuesday ordered the Justice Department to tell him what materials it plans to publicly release that were subject to secrecy orders in the British socialite’s case. The deadline: Noon on Wednesday. Engelmayer’s order came after the Justice Department on Monday asked for his permission to release grand jury records, exhibits and discovery materials in the Maxwell case. Engelmayer said government lawyers must file a letter on the case docket describing materials it wants to release ‘in sufficient detail to meaningfully inform victims’ what it plans to make public.” (11/25/25)

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/judge-gives-justice-department-a-day-to-detail-21208378.php

Thomas L. Knapp

Political Remembering and Cultural Forgetting

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver

“As we look towards America’s 250th next year, it’s worth reflecting on the ways in which the events of 1776 and the Revolutionary War were remembered over the decades to follow. Note, for instance, that the Fourth of July did not become a federal holiday until 1870—long after the passing of anyone who remembered the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But in that interval, plenty of local commemorations had sprung up, and many places in the country had their own holidays and celebrations to mark events in the war. Remembrance was local and specific, marking a direct community connection to the war, until mass communication made the commemoration events more national and shared.” (11/25/25)

https://fee.org/articles/political-remembering-and-cultural-forgetting/

Thomas L. Knapp

Adolescence lasts into 30s: New study shows four pivotal ages for your brain

Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

“The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed. Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells. Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we ‘peak’. They say the results could help us understand why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies through life. The brain is constantly changing in response to new knowledge and experience – but the research shows this is not one smooth pattern from birth to death. Instead, these are the five brain phases: Childhood (from birth to age nine); Adolescence (nine to 32); Adulthood (32 to 66); Early ageing (66 to 83); Late ageing (83 onwards).” (11/25/25)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgl6klez226o

Steve Trinward