Source: The American Conservative
by Anatol Lieven
“The Russian fighters that briefly entered Estonian airspace last Friday and the drones that flew into Polish and Romanian airspace earlier are very unlikely to have been an accident, but they were not an ‘attack.’ The drones were unarmed decoys, nobody was hurt, and the only damage was done when one was shot down by Polish air defenses. They may have been intended as a test of those defenses; they were almost certainly intended as a warning — a warning above all against British and European plans to deploy a ‘reassurance force’ to Ukraine after a peace settlement. This has been repeatedly and categorically rejected by the Russian government, but continues to be urged by some European governments with a blind determination that suggests that, rather than making a contribution to peace, they are actually interested in blocking any viable peace settlement.” (09/26/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-russian-air-incursions-are-a-warning-to-europe/
Source: The Hill
“President Trump on Thursday announced a slew of product-specific tariffs [on American consumers] set to take effect on Oct. 1, including duties on [American buyers of] any pharmaceuticals whose manufacturers don’t have plants in the U.S. The tariffs, which are on top of sweeping reciprocal duties Trump has imposed on [American buyers of goods from] countries worldwide, are likely to spur criticism, particularly when it comes to pharmaceutical imports. Experts have raised concerns that those tariffs could cause supply chain issues and make certain drugs more difficult and expensive to acquire. … Trump separately announced the administration would impose a 50 percent tariff on [American buyers of] all kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products starting on Oct. 1, as well as a 30 percent tariff on upholstered furniture. … The president also said there would be a 25 percent tariff beginning Oct. 1 on [American buyers of] ‘Heavy (Big!) Trucks’ made outside the United States.” (09/25/25)
https://thehill.com/business/5522854-trump-pharmaceutical-tariffs-october/
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“September is Constitution Month, a celebration of the document produced by the 1787 Convention to replace the Articles of Confederation. Predictably, whether Republican or Democrat, there was no shortage of public effusions in its praise. Even libertarians, inheritors of the tradition of classical liberalism, are inclined to celebrate. This is, however, a mistake. For it was precisely their faith in constitutionalism that proved its great undoing. Indeed, the tragedy of classical liberalism is not simply that it was betrayed by later generations, or that its ideals were corrupted by progressives. Its failure was more profound: it trusted the state to limit itself.” (09/25/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-failure-of-constitutionalism
Source: Reason
“Peter Thiel warns of a pending one-world totalitarian government — while himself pushing to supercharge the surveillance state.” (09/25/25)
https://reason.com/video/2025/09/25/donald-trump-and-peter-thiel-are-using-ai-to-supercharge-the-surveillance-state/
Source: Hindustan Times [India]
“Russia on Thursday introduced a partial ban on diesel exports and extended an existing ban on gasoline exports until the end of the year after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries. Ukraine’s drone attacks have drastically brought down Russian oil refining, which fell by almost a fifth on certain days. It also cut fuel exports from key ports, Reuters reported. Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak announced the decision and said there was a small deficit of oil products. However, he said that oil stockpiles were covering the shortfall. … The fuel shortage across Russia is reportedly widening. According to a local newspaper, the country’s No.2 oil producer, Lukoil, had banned the sale of gasoline in jerry cans at certain filling stations in Moscow.” (09/26/25)
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russia-bans-fuel-exports-until-end-of-year-diesel-gasoline-after-ukrainian-drone-attacks-on-refineries-101758818962863.html
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“‘The White House budget office,’ CNN reports, ‘is telling federal agencies to prepare plans for mass firings in the event of a government shutdown’ …. The headline characterizes Trump’s latest move as a ‘threat’ intended to encourage Democrats to capitulate, and dissident Republicans to get back on side, in the latest fight over government spending. Threat? Maybe to Democrats who can’t bear the thought of any reduction, in any government function, ever. Maybe to Republicans who have pet programs they know would be affected by ‘reductions in force.’ The rest of us should reply as Br’er Rabbit did to Br’er Fox’s threat to cook him and eat him: ‘Oh, Br’er Fox, I don’t care what you do with me, so long as you just don’t throw me in that briar patch over there.'” (09/25/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19956
Source: New York Times
“A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, a culmination of President Trump’s relentless effort to exact retribution for investigating his 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia, according to people familiar with the decision. While the charges have yet to be unsealed, the people familiar with the decision said the grand jury had indicted Mr. Comey on Thursday on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction. The move came after Mr. Trump intensified his pressure campaign on the Justice Department in recent days, publicly demanding that top officials prosecute Mr. Comey and Letitia James, the New York attorney general who sued Mr. Trump for inflating the value of his assets while out of office.” (09/25/25)
https://archive.is/ri4Ps
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“The Trump administration is taking its war on free speech into the realm of thought crimes. This is more than politics. In declaring ‘Antifa’ — a loose ideology based on opposition to fascism — as a domestic terrorist organization, the government has given itself a green light to treat speech, belief, and association as criminal acts. With this one executive order, political dissent has been rebranded as terrorism and free thought recast as a crime. Critics will argue that ‘Antifa’ means rioting and property destruction. But violent acts are already crimes, handled under ordinary law. What’s new — and dangerous — is punishing people not for violence, but for what they believe, say, or with whom they associate.” (09/25/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/25/would-orwell-be-branded-a-terrorist-the-governments-war-on-thought-crimes/
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday outlining the terms of a deal to transfer TikTok to a US owner. Trump said he and China’s president Xi Jinping had come to an agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US, separating the social media platform from its Chinese owner ByteDance. Trump said the deal complies with a law that would have forced the shutdown of the app for American users had it not been divested and sold to a US owner. … Under the plan, US investors will take over the majority of TikTok’s operations and take charge of a licensed copy of the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm. American companies are expected to own about 80% of the US version of the spun off company, while ByteDance and Chinese investors will own less than 20%.” (09/25/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/25/trump-china-tiktok-deal
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“The president was angry at the press, claiming that journalists were spreading ‘poisonous propaganda’ about him. Using the Federal Communications Commission as a political weapon, he threatened the licenses of broadcast firms that employed people critical of him. While Donald Trump likely is the first person to come to mind here, the opening sentences are not about him. They are, instead, about the spiritual standard bearer of the Democratic Party — Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, while president, FDR used the powers of his office to punish, bully, and intimidate print and broadcast journalists that dared to disagree with the New York patrician. … Unlike Donald Trump — who at least is facing some condemnation from media quarters for his use of the FCC licensing process to bully broadcast media — Roosevelt is almost uniformly presented in the legacy media as a staunch civil libertarian.” (09/25/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/presidents-have-long-history-using-fcc-silence-their-critics