Source: The Bulwark
“If the systems governing the targeting of a small boat—confirmation of targets, visual identification, proportionality, and discrimination—broke down, then the failure was not caused by fog. It was caused by the inability to penetrate ‘fog’ through disciplined process and the rule of law. Modern militaries are designed precisely to prevent rapid-fire decisions based on guesswork or emotion. If operators identified survivors and those observations were either missed, dismissed, or overridden, that is not fog. That is a breakdown in leadership and moral judgment. Here is where the danger grows. By invoking ‘fog’ as a catch-all excuse, the secretary risks creating the conditions for blame to be pushed downward onto the very service members who executed an order under pressure. If he was the senior person in the room during the initial strike, he was in charge and responsible.” (12/03/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-fog-of-war-is-no-excuse-hegseth-caribbean-venezuela-boat-strike
Source: SFGate
“There were hundreds, then dozens, and then just a few. Now there’s one Israeli hostage left in Gaza: Ran Gvili. Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known affectionately as ‘Rani’, was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. After a series of ceasefire-mandated exchanges of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel, Gvili’s body still has not been recovered. His remains are somewhere in Gaza. On Thursday, as Israel woke to the news that remains militants returned the previous day belonged to another hostage, the country mourned Gvili as a hero who died fighting to save a kibbutz that was not his own.” (12/04/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/the-last-hostage-held-in-gaza-died-fighting-to-21223415.php
Source: The Hill
“Britain sanctioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency and summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Thursday after an inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018. The government said that the GRU was being sanctioned in its entirely for ‘reckless’ acts including the attack in the city of Salisbury that targeted Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer who was imprisoned in Russia in 2006 for spying for Britain. He was released as part of a 2010 spy swap and settled in the U.K.” (12/04/25)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-uk-sanctions-russias-gru-spy-agency-over-2018-nerve-agent-attack/
Source: Politico
“Signalgate: the sequel.” (12/04/25)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL5185659120.mp3
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Jacek Spendel (President of Liberty International) on young people and liberty, why freedom is desired all over the world, promoting liberty, etc.” (12/04/25)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/387999-2025-12-03-2025-12-04-ernest-hancock-interviews-jacek-spendel.htm
Soource: Libertarian Institute
by Jeb Smith
“Most Americans are unaware that President Abraham Lincoln implemented a much more centralized and authoritarian government than the one he inherited. He overthrew the original union, which was very libertarian in policy, eradicating a union of consent and replacing it with a centralized state—a dictatorship set above the people. The government would no longer serve us, but we were to serve it. Not just the federal government, but the states as well, became vastly more authoritarian because of Lincoln. Few of our modern governmental abuses occurred before Lincoln—he originated big government, and our current nationalist and democratic views of both the Constitution and centralized government’s power.” (12/03/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/abraham-lincoln-anti-libertarian/
Source: Independent Institute
by Caleb Petitt
“The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) posits that market prices accurately reflect all available information. There are three forms of the EMH: weak, semi-strong, and strong. Each form supposes different sets of information that are fully reflected in market prices. The weak EMH information set consists of historical prices, the semi-strong form includes all publicly available information, and the strong form encompasses information privately held by individual investors or groups. Essentially, no one believes that the strong form holds completely, and most economists believe that the weak form generally holds.” (12/04/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/12/04/defending-efficient-market-hypothesis/
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Immigration – both legal and illegal – is a hot topic in Western nations. Governments are taking measures to restrict the flow. And citizens are debating how to maintain a national identity while integrating those bringing different cultures and values. In the United States, the issue has gone from boil to broil in the wake of two recent events – the shooting of two National Guard members (one of whom has died) and revelations of large-scale fraud in the use of Minnesota’s pandemic relief funds. The alleged perpetrators are from communities made up largely of legal immigrants: An Afghan national, who served alongside American troops, has been charged in the shootings, and the large majority of those arrested in the fraud case have Somali roots.” (12/03/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1203/Liberation-from-migrant-labels
Source: The Daily Beast
by David Gardner
“President Donald Trump is facing growing pressure to make Pete Hegseth the first major casualty of his second term after the Pentagon chief was accused of putting his own troops in danger. A damning report on the Signalgate scandal reportedly laid the blame on Hegseth for compromising sensitive war plans. But the blunder is just the latest in a series of embarrassments for the hapless former Fox & Friends Weekend host.” (12/03/25)
https://archive.is/12LpM
Source: CNN
“The New York Times is suing the Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s new restrictions on press access. The lawsuit, set to be filed in federal court in Washington, DC, names the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks the repeal of a new policy, instituted in October, that prompted Pentagon beat reporters to turn in their press passes rather than sign onto the restrictions. ‘The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in violation of a free press’ right to seek information under their First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution,’ Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said.” [editor’s note: The First Amendment doesn’t require “press access” to the Pentagon or anything else – TLK] (12/03/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/04/media/hegseth-new-york-times-pentagon-lawsuit-press
