Source: The Daily Economy
by Iain Murray

“On most days, America’s air traffic control system is invisible. The radar screens flicker, the controllers thread needles as planes approach and depart, and millions of passengers move through the sky supported by a grid they never see. We are reminded of its fragility only when something breaks. The most recent federal government shutdown provided just such a reminder. The system strained not because of storms or technological failure, but because Washington stopped paying its bills. Controllers continued working without pay, modernization projects halted, safety inspectors were furloughed, and as a result, flights were canceled. This was an institutional failure. If the skies darken whenever Congress deadlocks, the problem is not aviation, but governance.” (12/17/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/keeping-the-towers-open-when-government-closes/

Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein

“In America, antisemitism has gone mainstream. Both the woke right and woke left are poisoning their followers with their hatred. Whether people like Candace Owens personally believe the hatred they spew is justified doesn’t matter; their followers believe it is. Vanishing are the guardrails of social sanctions that restrain hatred of others. … Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but I believe the majority of Americans and Australians are not antisemitic. Yet the majority are staying silent. In his essay ‘Spiritual Laws’ Emerson wrote, ‘Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the mere air of doing a thing, the intimated purpose, expresses character. If you act you show character; if you sit still, if you sleep, you show it.'” (12/17/25)

https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/emerson-and-the-moral-imperative

Source: hypertext
by David Dagan

“Yes, Jonathan V. Last, liberalism needs to revisit its recipe. No, Ross Douthat, we should not give up on the starter.” (12/17/25)

https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/lets-bake-the-liberal-sourdough

Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by Edward Hunt

“The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, or NSS, creates a basis for a more chaotic and violent American empire. Already coming under heavy criticism, with Foreign Policy in Focus publishing warnings about its implications for global development and grand strategy, the strategy remains perhaps most dangerous for its imperious dictates to the world. Behind platitudes of peace and prosperity, it provides a crude imperial logic for violence and aggression, even gesturing at a need for military interventions. ‘For a country whose interests are as numerous and diverse as ours, rigid adherence to non-interventionism is not possible’, the strategy notes. The Trump administration tries to distinguish itself from previous administrations by criticizing foreign policy elites for seeking ‘permanent American domination of the entire world’, but it displays similar ambitions, even if framing them differently.” (12/17/25)

https://fpif.org/a-cruder-imperial-logic-a-more-volatile-american-empire/