Source: Cobden Centre
by Walter E Block
“Trump has recently gone berserk with his interferences of international trade for a change. How should Canada react? There are four and only four realistic options (I rule out physically attacking the US over this imbecilic action of their government). One, do nothing, stand pat, ignore this latest moronic display of economic ignorance. Two, raise our tariff levels against the US; Trump threatens that if we do so, he will reciprocate, and then we will be off to the races with a real trade war. Three, lower the barriers to trade with the US that we have previously enacted. Four, eliminate them entirely.” (12/16/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/12/trump-is-at-it-again-with-his-tariff-craziness-how-should-canada-respond/
Source: Financial Review [Australia]
“US job growth remained sluggish in November and the unemployment rate rose to a four-year-high, pointing to a continued cooling in the labour market after a weak October. Nonfarm payrolls increased 64,000 in November after declining 105,000 in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent last month, up from 4.4 per cent in September. The BLS had to forgo publishing an October jobless rate because it was unable to retroactively collect that data following the government shutdown. … The advance in November payrolls was driven by health care and social assistance as well as construction. Private payrolls increased by 69,000 in November after adding 52,000 jobs the prior month. Employment fell in transportation and warehousing as well as leisure and hospitality.” (12/16/25)
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/us-payrolls-rise-64-000-after-october-drop-20251217-p5noao
Source: The New Republic
“Marjorie Taylor Greene Humiliates Trump Over Reiner as MAGA Cracks Up.” (12/16/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/204469/marjorie-taylor-greene-humiliates-trump-reiner-maga-cracks
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“The Trump administration and its acolytes argue that permitting 50 different state governments to create wildly differing rules for AI will slow the development of research and allow liberal states to create ‘woke’ onramps for the nascent technology. ‘There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,’ wrote Trump in a post shared to his Truth Social on Monday. ‘I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something.’ … Among the chief concerns for states’ rights advocates is a loss of flexibility when it comes to innovation and policy-making. Local variation allows states the ability to test different regulatory approaches before others follow, permitting state governments the opportunity to tailor AI systems to differing demographics, economies, and values.” (12/16/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-ai-and-states-rights/
Source: Fox News
“Former President Joe Biden requested executive privilege amid the Congressional investigations into his administration’s use of the autopen, with the Trump administration rejecting the request Tuesday, Fox News Digital learned. ‘I am concerned that disclosure of these materials would damage important institutional interests of the Presidency, including by impairing the ability of future Presidents to receive robust, candid advice from their close advisers. For these reasons, I hereby assert executive privilege over the documents listed,’ Biden wrote in a letter to Archival Operations Division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Oct. 1, 2025, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. … White House Counsel David Warrington responded Tuesday to the request in a letter to NARA, denying the calls for executive immunity. Such immunity protects government officials, notably the president, from lawsuits or prosecution over actions conducted while performing official duties.” (12/16/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-trump-white-house-torpedoes-biden-attempt-shield-autopen-presidency-files
Source: Law & Liberty
by David Hebert
“Lynn’s central argument rests on a fundamental confusion between what economists refer to as the ‘legal incidence’ and the ‘economic incidence’ of a tax. Legally, because tariffs are a tax on imports, it is the US importers who must write the check to Customs and Border Protection. But this says nothing about who actually pays the tariff. For example, when landlords’ property taxes go up, who pays? The landlord will obviously write the check to the county assessor, but unless Lynn thinks that landlords are running charities, that cost gets passed on to tenants in the form of higher rent, less frequent maintenance, or fewer included benefits (utilities or access to designated parking, for example). The legal incidence falls on the landlord, but the economic incidence falls disproportionately on renters, i.e., young Americans already besieged by high housing costs. Tariffs work the same way.” (12/16/25)
https://lawliberty.org/the-tariff-vindication-that-still-isnt/
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin
“In May 2013, as President Barack Obama delivered a major foreign-policy speech in Washington, I managed to slip inside. As he was winding up, I stood and interrupted, condemning his use of lethal drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. ‘How can you, a constitutional lawyer, authorize the extrajudicial killing of people – including a 16-year-old American boy in Yemen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki—without charge, without trial, without even an explanation?’ As security dragged me out, Obama responded, ‘The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to’. Perhaps my questions touched a chord in his conscience, but the drone attacks did not stop. Just before that incident, I had returned from Yemen, where a small delegation of us met with Abdulrahman’s grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki – a dignified man with a PhD from an American university, someone who genuinely believed in the values this country claims to represent.” (12/16/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/extrajudicial-killing-obama-trump
Source: Le Monde [France]
“Despite concessions from the European Commission, including a safeguard clause that is due to be adopted by the European Parliament on December 16, Paris has called for a ‘postponement’ of the free trade agreement between the EU and countries in the South American trade bloc. … The issue of a free trade agreement with countries in the Mercosur bloc has always been highly sensitive in France, where part of the farming sector is categorically opposed to the deal, as well as nearly the entire political spectrum. France’s industrial sector, which might benefit from the export opportunities the deal would entail, has supported it, but only in a hushed way. Against this backdrop, an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis among France’s livestock, uncertainty about the 2026 state budget, and the upcoming local elections, set for March 2026, have convinced the president to hit the brakes.” (12/16/25)
https://archive.is/LvgNS
Source: Antiwar.com
“House To Vote on Venezuela War Powers Resolution, US Offers Ukraine NATO-Style Guarantees, and More.” (12/16/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwgIMcmFq1k
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“You are operating a newsroom or, let’s say, a commentary room. Somebody accuses you of bias in how you decide what to publish. You deflect: Of course different media organizations have different perspectives; each to its own. Sometimes, too, we choose what to run less rationally than the Platonic philosopher-journalist would demand. Bias is everywhere, inevitable. Which makes the only cure maximal freedom of speech and openness of discourse. The answer to deficient speech is better speech, not either direct or indirect government censorship. Nevertheless, the FCC has proposed to ‘investigate’ the selection process of newsrooms.” (12/16/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/12/16/press-bias-fix/
