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/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“The world’s largest shopping event, Singles’ Day, was again held Nov. 11 in China – though the online bargains began weeks earlier, as is the case with Black Friday sales in other parts of the world. This year, however, the event was not just a commercial gala. China’s annual shopping spree, which began in 2009 in earnest, no longer focuses on singles. (The date 11.11 resembles ‘bare sticks’ in Chinese, an idiom for being unhitched.) The unofficial holiday of mass consumption is now a key economic indicator: Whether or not the world’s second-largest economy will fall into a downward spiral of falling prices, or deflation. Early reports from China’s giant e-commerce firms suggest spending for Singles’ Day was not enough to trigger a rise in retail prices and thus help end more than two years of declining prices.” (11/14/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1114/The-persuasive-power-of-China-s-consumers

Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by staff

“Implemented during the Biden administration, the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule was designed to help reduce conflict on federal lands and facilitate voluntary conservation. The rule identifies conservation as a valid ‘use’ of federal land under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), puts conservation on an equal footing with other uses such as grazing and energy development, and — importantly — authorizes ‘conservation leases’ as a tool to support voluntary, private investment in restoring and stewarding public lands. While PERC does not support most aspects of the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, we believe its conservation leasing provisions are worth keeping.” (11/14/25)

https://www.perc.org/2025/11/14/on-the-recission-of-the-conservation-and-landscape-health-rule/

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“Why did [Heritage Foundation president Kevin] Roberts weigh in on the Carlson-Fuentes controversy? He obviously felt he needed to express support for the right of conservatives to be conspiracy-theory antisemites — despite the fact that Heritage itself has an antisemitism task force. Unsurprisingly, many of the task force members have now resigned. Media reporting on this story has been excellent and revealing. However, I believe that much of the commentary misjudges the true nature of Heritage, portraying it as a genuine think tank that picked the wrong leader or was corrupted by MAGA. Because the truth is that Heritage has always been a fraud. It has always been a propaganda mill cosplaying as a research institution – a scam that worked for a long time.” (11/14/25)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-heritage

Source: Eyes on the Right
by Damon Linker

“Through Trump’s first term and extending through the immediate aftermath of the insurrectionary riot on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, elected officials of the Republican Party would sometimes speak out harshly against him. In every case, it was figures from the GOP’s old Reaganite establishment, who would express their criticisms in the name of principles and norms that this establishment had long affirmed. In nearly every case, such defiance of Trump ended badly for the Republican officeholder. By the time Trump became his party’s nominee in 2024, expressions of opposition to him from within his own party had all but ceased. The second Trump administration has continued and even extended this obsequious passivity before the Great Leader. [Marjorie Taylor] Greene has now brought that period of reticence to an end.” (11/15/25)

https://damonlinker.substack.com/p/trump-takes-fire-from-the-maga-right