Source: The Dispatch
“Steve Hayes invites Jonah Goldberg, David French, and Kevin Williamson to discuss the ‘double tap’ order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that may violate the laws of war. Is this another issue where Trump can ‘win’ because we’re an outcomes-over-process society?” (12/05/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/corrupting-influences-roundtable/
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Venezuela obviously poses no threat to the U.S. on its own. That is why interventionists have been going out of their way to hype the connections with great power rivals. The trouble for the fearmongers is that the connections are much more tenuous and much less significant than they have claimed. There has been increased military cooperation between some of these authoritarian states, but except for Russia and North Korea none of it comes close to a formal treaty alliance. Hawks want the public to believe that there is a grand anti-American coalition forming around the world to menace the U.S. to sell the same braindead aggressive policies they have always favored. Whenever the U.S. threatens or attacks one of these states, we see that there is no coalition.” (12/05/25)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/there-is-no-axis-of-authoritarianism
Source: Town Hall
by Terry Paulson
“President Trump will not be on the ballot to help Republicans in the midterm elections, but his administration’s promises for his final two years should be. For a critical election, Newt Gingrich rallied Republican candidates to come together with a Contract with America that helped win the day. The contrast between the Republican and Democratic parties has never been greater. Most Americans are tired of the personal political attacks, but they may again be ready to listen to what these warring parties will actually do if voters deliver them a midterm victory. Let’s be honest, Donald Trump is a can-do President. He took four years to prepare the campaign promises his administration would start delivering on day one. His team works every day to do just that, and the results are amazing.” (12/06/25)
Source: New York Post
“Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz on Friday warned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz the state could lose federal Medicaid funding unless it restores ‘the integrity’ of its program. In a post on X, Dr. Oz claimed more than $1 billion had been stolen through a massive Medicaid fraud scheme carried out by ‘bad actors’ within Minnesota’s Somali community, alleging some of the funds ‘may have even made its way to the Somalian terrorist group (al-Shabab).’ ‘Our staff at CMS told me they’ve never seen anything like this in Medicaid — and everyone from Gov. Tim Walz on down needs to be investigated, because they’ve been asleep at the wheel,’ Oz said.” (12/07/25)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“No single academic knows enough to base his conclusion solely on his own work and expertise. Each of them is relying on information produced by many others. … What happens if each of those experts feels entitled, even obligated, to lie just a little, to shade his conclusions to strengthen the support they provide for what he believes is the right conclusion? Each of them then interprets the work of all the others as providing more support for that conclusion than it really does. The result might be that they end up biasing their results in support of the wrong conclusion, which each of them believes is right on the basis of the lies of all the others.” (12/05/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/implications-of-academic-dishonesty-2e2
Source: ABC News
“The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Friday that the court’s investigation into the invasion of Ukraine cannot be halted by peace talks but could be deferred by the U.N. Security Council. ‘If we have an ongoing investigation, then we will follow our own regulatory framework,’ deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told The Associated Press. … The court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and five others over their alleged involvement in war crimes in Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly said that it doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the court and considers the warrant null and void.” (12/05/25)
Source: Heartland Institute
“Good News: Climate Cult In Decline.” (12/05/25)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/good-news-climate-cult-in-decline-the-climate-realism-show-184-2/
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“No president ever pardoned a soldier for war crimes before Donald Trump. Yes, there were broad Confederate amnesties that effectively forgave Civil War atrocities, but no pardons. Even Nixon merely lessened and commuted the sentence of the My Lai commander found guilty of civilian mass murder. But in his first term, Trump pardoned three men very credibly accused by their own troops of wantonly killing unarmed civilians — and one convicted of posing with a man he’d just murdered. Their chief lobbyist? [Pete] Hegseth. … Yes, murdering a few bad guys on a boat in cold blood may sound like a trivial thing. But the principles it violates are about as profound as you can get. This kind of murder is not a defense of the West. It’s an attack on it.” (12/05/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-military-as-a-murder-weapon-cbd
Source: Fox News
“A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that certain evidence linked to an ally of former FBI Director James Comey is temporarily off limits to the Justice Department in its efforts to renew a prosecution of the ex-director following the dismissed criminal case. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the DOJ may not use information pertaining to Daniel Richman. ‘Upon consideration of Petitioner Daniel Richman’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, the relevant legal authority, and the entire present record, the Court concludes that Petitioner Richman is entitled to a narrow temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo while the Court evaluates his Motion for Return of Property and awaits full briefing and argument from the parties,’ the ruling reads.” (12/06/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-rules-evidence-linked-james-comeys-ally-off-limits-doj
Source: The Daily Economy
by Saul Zimet
‘Minnesota’s largest-ever food-aid scandal reveals how weak incentives, political pressure, and lax oversight enable public-sector fraud to flourish — costing taxpayers billions.” (12/05/25)