The Libertarian Angle, 12/04/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The U.S. versus Venezuela.” (12/04/25)
Lebanon: Israeli forces conduct strikes after first direct talks in decades
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The Israeli military has carried out a new round of air strikes in southern Lebanon, less than a day after Israel and Lebanon held their first direct talks in decades. Residents of the towns of Mjadel, Baraachit, Jbaa and Mahrouna were told to evacuate areas around locations that the Israeli military alleged were weapons warehouses belonging to the Iranian-backed group. No casualties have been reported. An Israeli military spokesman said the sites constituted a ceasefire violation and warned that it would continue to operate ‘to remove any threat’ to Israel. Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on Lebanon since a ceasefire took effect in November 2024, following 13 months of conflict.” (12/04/25)
The Constitution vs. the Commander-in-Chief: The Duty to Disobey Unlawful Orders
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“Every military servicemember’s oath is a pledge to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is not an oath to a politician. It is not an oath to a party. And it is not an oath to the police state. Yet what happens when those same men and women are being told—by their own government—that obedience to power and loyalty to a political leader come before allegiance to the Constitution they swore to uphold? That question isn’t hypothetical. It is the moral line now being tested in real time, and it goes to the heart of what kind of country we are: do we live in a constitutional republic governed by the rule of law, or in a militarized police state where ‘legality’ is whatever the person with the most power and the biggest army say it is?” (12/04/25)
Grand jury declines to indict NY AG Letitia James, less than two weeks after the first case was dismissed
Source: NBC News
“The Justice Department on Thursday failed to secure an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News. The presentation to the grand jury came less than two weeks after the original criminal case against her was dismissed. James, a frequent political target of President Donald Trump’s who had successfully brought a fraud lawsuit against him, had previously been indicted by a grand jury on one charge of bank fraud and another of making false statements to a financial institution. James has denied any wrongdoing. Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and a former personal attorney to Trump with no prior prosecutorial experience, presented the case to a grand jury on her own in the first go-round — and that case was declared void on Nov. 24 when a judge found Halligan’s appointment was unlawful.” (12/04/25)
Vibecession: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“Young people complain they’ve been permanently locked out of opportunity. They will never become homeowners, never be able to support a family, only keep treading water at precarious gig jobs forever. They got a 5.9 GPA and couldn’t get into college; they applied to 2,051 companies in the past week without so much as a politely-phrased rejection. Sometime in the 1990s, the Boomers ripped up the social contract where hard work leads to a pleasant middle-class life, replacing it with a hellworld where you will own nothing and numb the pain with algorithmic slop. The only live political question is whether to blame immigrants, blame billionaires, or just trade crypto in the hopes that some memecoin buys you a ticket out of the permanent underclass. Meanwhile, economists say things have never been better.” (12/04/25)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/vibecession-much-more-than-you-wanted
SCOTUS reinstates Texas congressional gerrymander
Source: USA Today
“Texas can use a congressional map drawn to give President Donald Trump and Republicans an advantage in the 2026 midterm elections, the Supreme Court said Dec. 4 in a decision that may help the GOP keep control of the U.S. House. An ideologically divided court paused a lower court’s ruling that the map likely discriminates against racial minorities by diluting the voting power of Hispanic and Black Texans. That opinion, which replaces a temporary freeze on the ruling issued by Justice Samuel Alito on Nov. 21, keeps the map in place for the midterm elections as litigation over the boundaries continues. The high court said the lower court’s ruling was improper because it came too close to the election.” (12/04/25)
The Horseshoe of Doom: Populists Left and Right Say America Is Failing. The Facts Don’t.
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy
“The populist poles of the left and right are now linked in what political scientists call the ‘horseshoe.’ As each gets further from the center, it bends closer toward its counterpart on the other side. Both distrust markets, both want to micromanage industry, both are protectionist, both romanticize manufacturing work and resent the disruptions that come from open global competition. Both, in other words, are hostile to the core tenets of the liberal economic order that made America prosperous. Each side blames a different villain. For the left, it’s corporations and rich people; for the right, it’s immigrants and trade. But both sides insist that a brighter future is possible only through top-down political control, and neither wants to confront the real risk: a government already too large, spending money it doesn’t have and drifting toward fiscal crisis.” (12/04/25)
Taiwan: Regime bans Chinese social media app
Source: Firstpost [India]
“Taiwan’s government has imposed a one-year ban on a popular Chinese-owned social media app after the company failed to cooperate with authorities investigating fraud cases. Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, has grown rapidly among young people in Taiwan, attracting 3 million users on the island of 23 million. But the Instagram-like platform has also raised alarms among officials who fear it could be exploited for pro-Beijing propaganda or disinformation, a threat Taiwan says it has contended with for years. … The ban has already triggered backlash from some users and opposition politicians, who argue it infringes on free speech.” (12/05/25)
The Veil of Chains: Awakening Liberty Through the Greater Shadow
Source: Agorist Nexus
by Brandon Aragon
“Voting and making government more efficient only evolve tyranny to become more successful, giving false hope, making government easier to bear on the people, while tightening the chains. The Daughters of Liberty didn’t beg Parliament for lower taxes — they built parallel supply chains. Agorists do the same today: Monero instead of fiat, 3D-printed receivers instead of Form 4473s, mutual-aid networks instead of FEMA handouts, home churches and private schools instead of licensed 501(c)(3) compliance. Agorism is far from nihilism — it’s the proactive blueprint for a brighter future, harnessing innovations like cryptocurrencies for untaxed trade, 3D printing for self-reliant manufacturing, and sustainable agricultural techniques such as Walipini underground greenhouses to foster independence, (all year round greenhouses). Voting, on the other hand, veers closer to nihilism: people shrug, pick between two rotten options, and claim it’s the only path, all while surrendering to the system’s slow decay.” (12/04/25)
https://www.agoristnexus.com/the-veil-of-chains-awakening-liberty-through-the-greater-shadow/
Don’t Believe the Left [sic], the Tennessee Election Was a Big GOP Win
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“There’s this thing in politics where people scramble to find something ‘good’ to talk about for their side, no matter how bad reality happens to be. It’s like someone being blown up in a terrorist attack, but their pants were not stained or torn at all – whew! It’s a special kind of ‘missing the forest for the trees’ you can only find in politics and dysfunctional relationships. Under the banner of ‘Tennessee Election Result Is a Fire Alarm for Republicans’, the editors at Newsweek have declared the results of a special election in December of an off-year to be something Republicans need to set their hair on fire over. Why? Because the Republican only won by 9 points in a district that Donald Trump carried by 22.” (12/04/25)