Source: The Daily Economy
by Emmanuel Rincon

“As with Cuba, defenders of the Venezuelan regime have attributed the country’s economic collapse to US sanctions — which they incorrectly call a ‘blockade’ — rather than to the political, economic, and social model imposed by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. That model brought massive state controls, expropriations, corruption, persecution of the opposition and the press, the destruction of the rule of law, and the elimination of judicial guarantees for investment.” (11/14/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/sanctions-didnt-destroy-venezuelas-economy-socialism-did/

Source: The Atlantic
by Adam Serwer

“As long as conservatives believed that the Epstein files would provide a pretext for persecuting ‘Democrat elites,’ it was politically advantageous to speculate about who might be implicated or suggest that those people had Epstein killed. As soon as it became clear that Trump himself was in said files, all those right-wing media influencers, who had promised their audience a lib bloodbath, began to drop or downplay the issue. The DOJ’s attempt to block the release of more files does not necessarily mean they contain a smoking gun or other damaging information; although Trump has an almost supernatural lack of shame, his overdeveloped sense of pride often motivates irrational and odd behavior. Nevertheless, what we already know about Trump’s relationship with Epstein is disturbing.” (11/14/25)

https://archive.is/2F2qs

Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III

“Conservatives have allowed libertarian rhetoric to talk themselves out of attempting to solve problems while not actually doing anything substantively libertarian. So we say ‘Don’t ask for free stuff, move instead’ while jacking up federal spending, running record deficits even during relative peace and prosperity, eroding civil liberties, waging all kinds of wars, and watching the national debt careen past $38 trillion. It is the kind of thing that makes a person think that they are taking crazy pills, as many conservatives now apparently are.” (11/15/25)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-affordability-crisis-cant-be-advised-away/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Victor Ray

“MAGA’s favorite think tank, the Heritage Foundation, is reportedly in the midst of a conservative Civil War after Heritage president Kevin Roberts defended Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with the white supremacist Nick Fuentes. For readers not steeped in the nuances of the internet’s competing racist factions, Fuentes is a neo-Nazi podcaster and streamer …. His long march from the far-right fringe to conservative mainstream has been helped along by rising antisemitism, the movement’s increasingly-open embrace of gutter racism, and a cadre of zealous young followers whose political ideology was forged in white supremacist chat rooms (they call themselves ‘groypers’ after an alt-right meme). … Roberts attempted to thread a needle, claiming to oppose a nebulous notion of ‘cancellation’ while condemning some of Fuentes’[s] most over-the-top statements. But Fuentes’[s] open Nazism isn’t an ideological deviation.” (11/14/25)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-heritage-foundation-groypers-and-the-narcissism-of-small-differences/

Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson

“On one level, politics is about principles and values. At another level, it is about math. The Democrats angry about the compromise that resulted in the reopening of the federal government are confused about which level they are operating on. … Our constitutional system contains many chokepoints of different kinds — a feature, not a bug — and exploiting those is what you do, within reason, when the math is against you. Supermajority requirements empower legislative minorities, just as procedural mandates and the Bill of Rights protect minority interests outside of the legislative chamber. We do not follow strictly majoritarian conventions, nor should we: Majorities get things wrong — violently wrong, tragically wrong — all the time. That’s why the Founding Fathers so often used the word ‘democracy’ in a monitory fashion. But minority power is by nature largely obstructive in character.” (11/14/25)

https://thedispatch.com/article/congress-democrats-government-shutdown-math/