Source: SFGate
“A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting [b]lack women and girls — and terrorizing those who tried to fight back — is dead, prosecutors said as his trial was set to begin Monday. Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with Roger Golubski, he’d demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives. Golubski, 71, was facing six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. But he did not appear in court Monday morning for the start of jury selection. Prosecutors later confirmed in court that Golubski has died. They did not say how or when he died.” (12/02/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/a-white-kansas-detective-accused-of-preying-on-19952914.php
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“[W]hile there were indeed plenty of reasons not to vote for Kamala Harris, war was a big one of them and it was an issue that helped sink Hillary too. In fact, Donald Trump seems to win every time that he can successfully present himself as an isolationist and the Democrats just fucking handed him this costume in 2024. … While Trump may have made his triumphant return to the Oval Office billed as a man who managed the mild miracle of not invading a single country during his first term, the cold hard reality is that every single foreign policy disaster that Biden and Harris have recklessly inflamed was made possible by the policies of the ‘isolationist’ elected before them to make America great again.” (12/01/24)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-isolationist-shuffle-how-gop-became.html
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The statistic that best defines our politics over the past 20 years is this: Nine of the past ten national elections have resulted in a change in power in at least one chamber of Congress or the White House. (The sole outlier is 2012.) Several of those elections were considered at the time to be realignments that would lead to a sustained majority for one of the major parties. After Republicans defeated John Kerry in 2004 and snatched five Senate seats across the South, commentators believed social issues like gay marriage would set an unwinnable trap for Democrats. Hugh Hewitt wrote a book called Painting the Map Red, imagining a permanent conservative majority. Democrats then took the House and Senate in the 2006 midterms.” (12/02/24)
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-12-02-what-is-democratic-party/
Source: Reuters
“An alliance of civil society groups in the Philippines filed an impeachment complaint on Monday against Vice President Sara Duterte, on grounds of grave misconduct and constitutional violations. The daughter of firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte has been embroiled in a bitter row with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and is the subject of an enquiry into her spending by the House of Representatives. She denies wrongdoing. Monday’s complainants included civil society and religious leaders, as well as former government officials critical of her father.” (12/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippine-groups-launch-impeachment-bid-against-vice-president-monday-2024-12-02/
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Robin Capehart on cleaning up after flooding from Hurricane Helene.” (12/01/24)
https://rumble.com/v5uxw3h-ff-242-robin-capehart-on-cleaning-up-after-flooding-from-hurricane-helene.html
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Josh Blackman
“Back in August 2017, President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio after he was convicted before he was sentenced. At the time, I wrote that the pardon was ‘premature,’ as the ‘preemptive pardon short-circuited the judicial process.’ … Trump’s pardon of Arpaio was criticized because he bypassed the DOJ Pardon Attorney. He unilaterally decided to issue the pardon. Hunter would have never qualified for a pardon set forth by the DOJ Pardon Attorney. Chalk up another victory for the unitary executive. … Trump was widely criticized for issuing a pardon to advance his personal interests. Arpaio was a big supporter of candidate and President Trump. The pardon was largely viewed as payback for a loyal supporter. Biden is in a similar position, though it is in many regards worse. This is not merely a political ally.” (12/01/24)
https://reason.com/volokh/2024/12/01/comparing-trumps-pardon-of-arpaio-and-bidens-pardon-of-biden/
Hey, everyone …
THANK YOU to long-time “subscribing donor” JS, whose $10 payment over the weekend was the only blip in our big “wrap this fundraiser up by Monday” push.
Our total, as of 5:30am on Monday, December 2, stands at $2,094.50. Please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper in getting to the finish line at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Our goal is $5531 … and we’re only $581.50 short of that goal, thanks to supporter GL’s “matching funds” offer.
BUT!
We have to get to the $2,675.50 halfway point for that “matching funds” offer to matter. It’s not one of those “however much you raise, I’ll match it, up to $X” offers, it’s an “if you raise the first half from others, I’ll give the second half” offer.
The fundraiser ends, with the goal met or not met, on December 31. And the earlier we reach the goal, the sooner I stop asking you for money. The time/money correlation is also rather of the essence for Steve, as he ran into a “sudden unanticipated car repair” situation last week. Please help out at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
I hope everyone had a happy, healthy, and prosperous holiday weekend, and wish you all a great day and a great week. That URL one more time:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: NBC News
“Syria’s military has rushed reinforcements to the country’s northwest and launched airstrikes in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized Aleppo, one of the country’s largest cities. … At least 446 civilians and military personnel have died in the latest round of fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group.” (12/02/24)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/live-updates-syria-civil-war-israel-gaza-hamas-iran-hezbollah-lebanon-rcna182389
Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“This bout of protectionism is absurd. Consider: The president of the United States would force Americans to pay a tax on their imports of many products in order to incite foreign governments to control (including with the death penalty!) their producers of another product (Fentanyl) that many Americans want, or to incite foreign governments to prevent neighboring nationals from approaching American borders even if they are suspected of coming to America to work for Americans. It is not easy to find another sentence so full of economic absurdities. A related point that many people and apparently many high-level politicos do not seem to understand is the following. A tax on imports is also a quasi-tax on domestically produced substitutes — except that the latter tax is not paid to the government imposing it, but instead to the domestic producers of these substitutes.” (11/30/24)
https://www.econlib.org/some-aspects-of-economic-illiteracy/
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Yascha Mounk and Cass Sunstein discuss the meaning of free speech and how it should be applied on campus.” (11/30/24)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/sunstein