Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Late last week, Congress passed and President Trump signed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill marks the first time the US military budget officially passed the one trillion dollar mark. Of course, when you add in other military-related spending such as interest on the debt, veterans’ affairs, and military components of other government agencies, the true number is at least one and a half times that amount. To paraphrase the famous 1953 President Eisenhower speech, ‘The Chance for Peace,’ each of these dollars spent on military offense and the maintenance of the US global empire rather than on defense of our own nation is taken from the mouths of the hungry and off the backs of hardworking American families.” (12/22/25)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/a-christmas-gift-to-the-war-machine
Source: NBC News
“The Justice Department on Tuesday released a third batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including some that have references to President Donald Trump. The Justice Department, which [was legally required to release the files by last Friday] under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, acknowledged the Trump appearances in a post on social media, and said some include ‘untrue and sensationalist claims.’ ‘The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,’ the department said in a post on X.” (12/23/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-releases-3rd-batch-jeffrey-epstein-files-mention-tr-rcna250533
Source: Quillette
by Ralph Leonard
“There is a contradiction at the heart of the revised justice system that is about to come into being. If trial by jury remains our method of trying the most serious crimes, this implies that it is the best way of litigating criminal cases. If so, then we are accepting that ‘non-serious’ cases are going to be tried using an inferior form of litigation. That will create a two-tier legal system. The irony is that, over the past year, public discourse has been obsessed with what some are calling a crisis of national identity. Does ‘Englishness’ exist? If so, is it good? What are its ethnic boundaries? Yet, jury trial, something that is very important to English history, identity, and our understanding of ourselves — something that has been an ancient, even ancestral, English right, is facing a wrecking ball.” (12/23/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/12/23/the-strange-death-of-english-justice-trial-by-jury/
Source: Barron’s
“Bitcoin was falling in holiday-thinned trade, with the cryptocurrency on course to end the year lower. … With many markets closed early for Christmas Eve on Wednesday, reduced liquidity raises the potential for increased volatility. Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $87,090 and is down 7% in the year to date, LSEG data show.” (12/24/25)
https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-122425/card/bitcoin-falls-in-holiday-thinned-trade-aK63ufUycCRuiNhVNF3B
Source: The Daily Economy
by Laura Williams
“Federal subsidies drive food production, consumption, and — unintentionally — chronic disease. Now we’re being asked to subsidize weight loss drugs to fight what farm policy broke.” (12/23/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/obesity-economics-how-subsidies-distort-the-american-diet/
Source: Washington Monthly
by Jonathan Alter
“While Trump muscles the media and renames the Kennedy Center, history will get the last laugh. Just ask the good people of Appleton, Wisconsin.” (12/23/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/12/23/the-trump-boomerang-effect-bari-weiss-meet-ozymandias/
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The Libyan army chief has been killed in an air crash in Turkey, Libya’s prime minister has said. Gen Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad and four others were on board a Falcon 50 aircraft flying out of the Turkish capital, Ankara. In a post on X, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said signal with the business jet was lost at 20:52 local time (17:52 GMT) – about 42 minutes after it took off from Ankara’s airport. The Tripoli-bound jet had issued an emergency landing request before contact was lost.” (12/23/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvgzyepdqno
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger delivers her lens on Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) dropping out of New York’s Governors’s race after getting jilted by President Trump.” (12/23/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5660903-rising-december-23-2025/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Helen Dale
“Many Jews came to Australia precisely because they thought they would be safe. The Bondi massacre changed that.” (12/23/25)
https://lawliberty.org/terror-on-the-beach/
Source: Fox News
“Obamacare subsidies that have dominated the conversation on Capitol Hill are set to expire after Congress failed to act, but a cohort of bipartisan senators are quietly working to find a solution for when lawmakers return next year. It has engulfed Congress since September and played a starring role in the longest-ever government shutdown. And both Republicans and Democrats tried, and failed, to pass their partisan plans to either extend or replace the Biden-era enhanced tax credits. They are guaranteed to expire, and millions of Americans who use the subsidies are set to experience hikes to their out-of-pocket costs for healthcare that can vary widely depending on the state. Still, some in Congress haven’t given up on the issue.” (12/23/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-quietly-works-bipartisan-obamacare-fix-healthcare-cliff-nears
