Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano
“Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the United States Senate, introduced a resolution on behalf of himself and 40 other Senate Democrats that, if passed, would record the sense of the Senate as condemning the media superstar Tucker Carlson because of the political, historical and cultural opinions of a guest on Carlson’s podcast. You read that correctly: The U.S. Senate is being asked to condemn Carlson because of what someone else said. Here is the back story.” (12/18/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2025/12/17/tucker-carlson-and-the-freedom-of-speech
Source: Common Dreams
“The Chinese government on Thursday condemned the Trump administration’s announcement of a proposed $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, a move that Beijing said violates both the ‘One China principle’ and an agreement in which the US pledged to reduce arms sales to Taipei. The US State Department said the record $11.154 billion package contains a broad range of weaponry and other military equipment, including Lockheed Martin High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Lockheed Martin Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) long-range missiles, BAE Systems M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, drones and tactical software, Javelin and TOW missiles, and M2A1 machine guns and other armaments.” (12/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/china-us-arms-sale-taiwan
Source: mint [India]
“Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to throw out her sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence on the eve of a deadline for the Justice Department to turn over a trove of documents relating to her ex-boyfriend, the disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell filed a long-shot petition for a judge to upend the guilty verdict based on what she claims is ‘substantial new evidence’ that has emerged since her 2021 trial. The 63-year-old filed the request pro se, or without a lawyer, from the Bryan, Texas, federal prison where she is serving her sentence. The new evidence ‘shows that exculpatory information was withheld, false testimony presented, and material facts misrepresented to the jury and the court,’ she wrote in the 51-page filing, the upshot of which is ‘a complete miscarriage of justice, rendering petitioner’s conviction invalid, unsafe and infirm.'” (12/18/25)
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/maxwell-seeks-to-reverse-conviction-as-epstein-deadline-looms-11766008835974.html
Source: The Fifth Column
“Black Irish, Ice Queens, and Body Snatchers (w/ Tina Nguyen).” (12/18/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/black-irish-ice-queens-and-body-snatchers
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama
“During the first Trump term, I warned friends not to assume that the world would at some point snap back to what it was prior to 2016, or that Trumpist populism was just a passing phase. There were too many shifts in right-wing coalitions around the world for this to happen. But it is important to understand that Trumpism is also not a permanent condition. I believe that already in the first year of his second term, we have experienced peak Trump, and that his power will decline steadily as time goes on.” (12/17/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/dont-panic-trump-is-flagging
Source: Common Dreams
by Brian Pitman
“On December 15, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled ‘Designating Fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction’. The order declares that ‘Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic. Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose’. If it was not already clear and despite many think pieces and obituaries to it, the US government continues its failed War on Drugs. This designation of fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction has been nearly a decade in the making across multiple presidential administrations and with bipartisan support and media complicity. The people of the US have been groomed for this moment since 2015.” (12/18/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/fentanyl-boat-strikes-war-on-drugs
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino will step down from his post next month, he said on Wednesday, ending a short and at-times tumultuous tenure as the bureau’s second highest-ranking official. Bongino announced the move on social media hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he thought Bongino wanted to ‘go back to his show.’ He hosted a prominent right-wing podcast prior to joining the FBI. ‘Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show,’ Trump told reporters.” (12/17/25)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dan-bongino-fbi-resignation-9.7020221
Sourec: The UnPopulist
by Steve Chapman
“After two years chairing Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, departing with a warm sendoff from the president in 2019, [Kevin Hassett] returned in Jan. as director of the National Economic Council. Hassett has managed this impressive feat without the indignity of remaking himself to fit Trump’s new radicalism. That’s because Hassett had already demonstrated that he places loyalty to Trump and the MAGA cause above intellectual integrity or scholarly reputation. He fits perfectly into Trump 2.0. So it comes as no surprise that Hassett may be Trump’s choice to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve. … Hassett’s time in the White House confirms that there is no principle or insight of economics that he is not willing to discard to please his boss. When Trump spouts nonsense, Hassett is always there to offer a smiling, expert gloss on it.” (12/18/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/kevin-hassett-has-a-strategy-to-become
Source: Roll Call
“A most consequential year for Congress.” (12/18/25)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL1660042117.mp3
Source: Reason
“Jeff Flake on Free Trade, Immigration, and Trump’s GOP.” (12/18/25)
https://reason.com/2025/12/18/qa-jeff-flake-on-the-gop/
