Source: The UnPopulist
“What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz.” (12/13/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/what-tools-does-congress-still-retain
Source: The Daily Beast
by David Rothkopf
“It is hard to know whether Donald Trump or the MAGA movement he created is falling apart faster. The 79-year-old president is deteriorating rapidly before our eyes—cankles puffier, bruises and bandages on his hand more ever present. He’s nodding off at event after event, slurring his words, his behavior increasingly erratic. And he has become painfully sensitive to the fact that his decay is so apparent, going as far as suggesting that media outlets reporting about his health are guilty of treason. Of course, every effort he makes to prove he’s not one step away from melting into a bubbling orange puddle seems to make it clearer that he’s losing it. As bad as all that is, however, MAGA may be collapsing even more quickly than its creator.” (12/12/25)
Source: New York Post
by Betsy McCaughey
“Democratic pols are knocking heads over homelessness: One approach to the problem reflects reality, and the other is sheer lunacy. On the lunatic side, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is vowing to let homeless encampments spill into every Gotham neighborhood. And in Connecticut, Democratic state lawmakers are about to pass a law that will keep local officials from cracking down on living rough in parks or vehicles. But Democrats with higher aspirations, like California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu, are reading the political tea leaves — and distancing themselves as far as they can from such misplaced compassion. After all, Americans favor clearing homeless encampments by nearly two to one, an August AP-NORC/Harris poll found. The general public has it right: Freezing to death, being murdered, or dying of an overdose on a urine-soaked mattress does not equal kindness.” (12/12/25)
Source: Gadgets 360 [India]
“Astronomers have seen the orbit of a star wobbling around a black hole — a spectacular dance in the cosmos that serves as one of the very few direct confirmations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity made over 100 years ago. The result, derived from periodic changes in X-ray and radio emissions in a tidal disruption event, is essentially a new window onto the workings of a spinning black hole that warps space and time around it. According to the study, researchers analysing the tidal disruption event AT2020afhd noticed that both the swirling disk of stellar debris and the black hole’s powerful jets were wobbling in unison, repeating roughly every 20 days. This motion matches a phenomenon called frame-dragging, where a rotating black hole literally drags spacetime around with it — an effect first described by Einstein and later quantified by Josef Lense and Hans Thirring.” (12/12/25)
Source: Free Talk Live
“Chalk wars in Keene, NH in 2011 :: Typical tragedy of the commons story :: AI threats :: Man jailed for decorating sewer covers, creating whimsy :: Sarah’s mayor candidate won :: Iowa is a police state :: Freedom in the fifty states :: Arkansas dumps PBS, Alabama keeps it despite hemorrhaging money :: US gov UFO study may have studied how to mentally harm people with delusions about UFOs and Skinwalkers :: Minnesota Somalian scam on welfare :: People claiming autism for fraud of the welfare system :: 2025-12-13 Hosts: Bonnie, Riley O’Bill, Angelo.” (12/12/25)
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait
“In rejecting yesterday a redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump, Indiana’s Republican-controlled senate did not merely deny Republicans two new U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections. They also engaged in a mass revolt against the president. … The significance of Indiana’s noncompliance lies not in the specifics of what was refused — attempts to gerrymander electoral maps are hardly unprecedented, even though a mid-decade battle violates norms — but in the act of refusal itself. Trump’s authoritarian project relies on the cultlike hold he has over his party. Republicans have come to understand that the cost of defying Trump is the death of their political career. … What politician is willing to sacrifice their career or their family’s safety for a single act of defiance Yet the spines of Indiana Republicans stiffened where so many others snapped.” (12/12/25)
Source: Common Dreams
by Angel Gomez
“As the USS Gerald R. Ford — the largest aircraft carrier afloat — casts its shadow along the Venezuelan coast, the United States must confront an uncomfortable question: What national interest is being protected by threatening a country that poses no military, territorial, or existential danger to the American republic? The answer, made clear by an array of respected American scholars, former officials, and ex-military insiders, has nothing to do with security. Instead, it arises from a familiar mixture of ideology, geopolitical control, and the old reflex of imperial overreach. This is not defense. This is theater — one part provocation, one part political opportunism, and no part necessity. Among the clearest voices cutting through the rhetoric is professor John Mearsheimer, perhaps the most prominent American realist in international relations. He does not mince words: Venezuela is not a threat to the United States.” (12/13/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/against-intervention-venezuela
Source: Yascha Mounk
“The Good Fight Club: Can Europe Control Its Fate?” (12/13/25)
Source: Law & Liberty
by Gary Saul Morson
“A newly translated volume in Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel series illustrates how revolutionaries seized control of Russia.” (12/12/25)
Source: Fox News
“Israel announced Saturday it had killed Ra’ad Sa’ad, the head of the Weapons Production Headquarters in Hamas’[s] military wing and one of the architects of Oct. 7. ‘Sa’ad was one of the last remaining veteran senior militants in the Gaza Strip and a close associate of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’ military wing. He held several senior positions and was a central figure within the organization’s military leadership,’ the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X. The IDF added his death ‘significantly degrades Hamas’ ability to reestablish its capabilities.’ An IDF official told Fox News that, in recent months, Sa’ad had been working to reestablish the terror group’s capabilities and weapons manufacturing in violation of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The official also stated that, under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is allowed to strike targets that are actively engaging in terrorism.” (12/13/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/israel-announces-killed-one-architects-oct-7-attacks