Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Joe Biden has issued ‘a full and unconditional’ pardon to his son Hunter Biden covering convictions on federal gun and tax charges, the US president said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday. … Biden said that he had long maintained that he would ‘not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.’ But, he argued, ‘it is clear that Hunter was treated differently,’ adding that the charges in the case ‘came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.'” (12/01/24)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/01/joe-biden-pardons-hunter
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal
“Once again, I’ve been told, by someone who is very serious, that every human interaction is inherently political. Few approaches to life are more tragic than this one. If you believe every interaction between people involves a political element, you’re doing it wrong. Politics is cheating. It’s what you resort to when you can’t persuade others to cooperate. It’s the method of the mugger, not the person offering products or services.” (12/01/24)
https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2024/12/01/voices/opinion-politics-just-justification-for-stealing/180071.html
Source: Reuters
“Romanian centrist and leftist parties looked to have fended off a surge by the nationalist right in Sunday’s parliamentary election, as attention turned to a top court ruling later on Monday on whether to annul the results of a presidential vote. Romania, a European Union and NATO member, was thrown into turmoil by a shock result in the first round of the presidential vote on Nov. 24. A little-known far-right candidate surged to victory, raising suspicions of outside meddling in the electoral process of a country that has been a staunch ally of Ukraine. Romania’s Constitutional Court ordered a recount of the first round vote and is due to announce at 1500 GMT its decision on whether or not to validate the results of the ballot. If the court approves the result, independent far-right candidate, Calin Georgescu will face centre-right contender Elena Lasconi in a run-off vote on Dec. 8.” (12/02/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/romanian-leftists-win-parliamentary-election-amid-uncertainty-over-presidency-2024-12-02/
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Hamas military chief Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (aka Mohammed Deif), Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, all on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s unclear whether Deif remains alive. Hamas’s official statement on the warrants was a call to ‘expand the scope of accountability to all criminal occupation leaders.’ The more interesting reaction comes from the Israeli regime, which has announced its ‘intention to appeal to the court along with a demand to delay implementation of the arrest warrants’ … while simultaneously reiterating its pre-existing denial of the ICC’s jurisdiction over Israel, Israeli actions, or Israeli citizens. Well, which is it going to be?” (11/29/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19167
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The UN agency providing aid to Palestinians has said it is suspending deliveries through the main crossing between Israel and Gaza because of security concerns. The head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, said two recent convoys had been looted by armed gangs near the Kerem Shalom crossing and called on Israel to maintain law and order. Israel has previously said that it facilitates the passage of aid into Gaza and accused Hamas of hijacking and stealing deliveries. Kerem Shalom is the main route for delivering aid to the more than two million people in Gaza, which the UN has warned is on the brink of famine.” (12/01/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ln5592v46o
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Josh Stylman
“Picture this: Your smartphone dies while you’re on a trip, and suddenly, you’re helpless — unable to navigate, pay, or even access your hotel reservation. This isn’t hypothetical; it’s our reality. According to DataReportal’s ‘Digital 2024 Global Overview Report‘ the average person now spends over 7 hours daily on digital devices, with 47% reporting anxiety when separated from their phones. What once was a minor inconvenience has now become a crisis, revealing how deeply we’ve integrated technology into our daily existence — from ordering coffee to proving our identity. George Orwell envisioned a dystopia of forced submission, but he missed something crucial: people willingly surrendering their freedoms for convenience.” (11/29/24)
https://brownstone.org/articles/how-engineered-dependency-erases-our-autonomy/
Source: CBS News
“Russian President Vladimir Putin approved budget plans, raising 2025 military spending to record levels as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine. Around 32.5% of the budget posted on a government website Sunday has been allocated for national defense, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (more than $145 billion), up from a reported 28.3% this year. Lawmakers in both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and Federation Council, had already approved the plans in the past 10 days.” (12/01/24)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-defense-budget-ukraine-war/
Source: Reason
by Matt Zwolinski
“Arguments for libertarianism typically take two forms. Some libertarians base their creed on natural rights — the idea that each individual has an inborn right to self-ownership, or freedom from aggression, or whatever — and proceed to argue that only a libertarian political regime is compatible with those rights. Others take a consequentialist approach, claiming libertarianism is the best system because it produces the best results, defined according to some philosophical conception of the good. Libertarians have been making these arguments for the last 170 years or so …. Once in a while, however, an argument opens a genuinely different path. John Hasnas, a legal scholar at Georgetown University, has been clearing such a path for a while now, and the chapters in his new book, Common Law Liberalism, have all been previously published elsewhere. But brought together in one volume, these essays set forth an intriguing, novel, and highly promising approach to thinking about a free society.” (for publication 01/25)
https://reason.com/2024/11/30/libertarianism-from-the-ground-up/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“This civilization is built upon the practice of continuously hiding inconvenient truths out of sight and out of mind. An entire empire held together by compartmentalization and avoidance. Inconvenient truths are hidden from us in many different ways. They are hidden from our minds using propaganda, indoctrination, censorship, algorithm manipulation, and other forms of narrative control used to manipulate the ways we think about our world. Inconvenient truths are also hidden from our physical eyes and ears by the manipulation of material reality. We’re choking the developing world with plastics as we ship the mountains of garbage the west produces off to poorer countries, for example. … We ship our trash away, out of sight and out of mind, to hide the contradictions and abuses that are built into our capitalist society so we can pretend everything’s going fine.” (11/29/24)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/11/29/this-dystopia-depends-on-hiding-inconvenient-truths/
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Sergio Goschenko
“President-Elect Trump has used tariffs again as a weapon to maintain the U.S. dollar as the predominant reserve and trade currency. Trump called countries of the BRICS bloc, known for their de-dollarization agenda, to stop their efforts of creating a new currency and payment system, threatening to apply 100% tariffs to their products destined for U.S. soil. … Trump’s announcement seems similar to the one focusing on Mexico, China, and Canada, using tariffs to force capitulation and reach agreements with the nations harmed by these measures. However, the BRICS situation might be a little different, given that Russia, one of the largest nations of the bloc, did not abandon the U.S. dollar on its own, but was forced to, given the sanctions applied as a result of Moscow’s participation in the conflict against Ukraine.” (12/01/24)
https://news.bitcoin.com/prelude-to-currency-war-trump-threatens-100-tariffs-to-brics-countries-abandoning-the-mighty-dollar/
