Author: Lone Candle

Trump touts Israel’s approval of his Gaza peace plan. Hamas has not agreed.

Posted on by Lone Candle

This “peace deal” is a demand for Hamas’s surrender. Hamas surrendering may bring peace, but I generally wouldn’t call a demand for surrender a ‘peace deal’.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/29/trump-touts-peace-plan-for-israel-hamas-has-not-agreed-00584857?cid=Connatix&nid=00000150-1596-d4ac-a1d4-179e288b0000&nname=illinois-playbook&nrid=00000164-8481-d4a7-a5fc-9ecfc4730000

Why the Government Shut Down—and How Democrats Claim Victory

Posted on by Lone Candle

Sometimes, for wars to end, leaders on the losing side have to decide that they love their kids more than they hate their enemy. Hamas hates Israel more than they care about the lives of Palestinians, so Hamas refuses to surrender.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br3FD3Rt5-Q

Brendan Carr Says Networks Must Serve the ‘Public Interest.’ What Does That Mean?

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Unlike other forms of media, radio and network TV stations broadcast over public airwaves, which the FCC polices by issuing broadcast licenses. Federal law authorizes the FCC to ensure licensees serve “the public interest, convenience, and necessity.”
“Generally, this means [a broadcaster] must air programming that is responsive to the needs and problems of its local community of license,” the FCC claims.

…

The “public interest standard” is in fact “not really a standard because it doesn’t tell you what they can’t do,” Thomas W. Hazlett, an economics professor at Clemson University, tells Reason. “There is some formal structure to the process, but in terms of an actual regulatory standard, it basically means that we’re going to make rules according to what we think is right. And of course, if you want to do things that are different and exercise power in a certain direction, you’ll talk a lot about public interest because it’s a very wide berth for justifying what you’re trying to do. It does dress it up a little bit, that it’s not just politics, it’s bigger than that, but not really: It’s what the five members of the commission vote to do, and that’s the beginning and the end.””

https://reason.com/2025/09/23/brendan-carr-says-networks-must-serve-the-public-interest-what-does-that-mean/

Politicians Go Out of Their Way To Make Political Tensions Worse

Posted on by Lone Candle

“At the Arizona memorial service for Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated two weeks ago, President Donald Trump acknowledged Kirk’s character, saying, “he did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them.” And then he added, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents. And I don’t want the best for them.”

It was an honest moment if an awkward comment to make at a memorial service for a man murdered (to all appearances) by a political opponent. Like too much of the political class across the ideological spectrum, Trump is prone to despising those he disagrees with. It raises questions about why people should ever submit to the governance of those who hate them—and whether politicians realize that they’re a big part of what brought us to this unfortunate moment.

…

Trump also put the blame for Kirk’s murder on “the radical left” and promised to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence,” hinting at something nastier than a criminal investigation.”

https://reason.com/2025/09/24/politicians-go-out-of-their-way-to-make-political-tensions-worse/

Google Says Biden Admin Pressured Company To Remove Content

Posted on by Lone Candle

“While Alphabet “continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press [Alphabet] to remove non-violative user-generated content,” a lawyer for Alphabet wrote in a September 23 letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. Administration officials including Biden “created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions” of private tech platforms regarding the moderation of misinformation.

…

the Biden administration’s attempts to pressure private companies into doing their bidding with regard to free speech seems quite quaint in comparison to what the Trump administration has been doing.”

https://reason.com/2025/09/24/google-says-biden-admin-pressured-company-to-remove-content/

Trump’s Tariffs Have Already Hurt the Economy—and the Pain Is Only Beginning

Posted on by Lone Candle

“While most Americans have not yet felt the tariffs’ full effects, businesses have started to. An August survey administered by the Dallas Federal Reserve found that 60 percent and 70 percent of Texas retailers and manufacturers, respectively, said that Trump’s tariffs were negatively affecting their businesses. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Section 232 tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have cost John Deere “$300 million so far, with nearly another $300 million expected by the end of the year.” The company has already laid off “238 employees across factories in Illinois and Iowa.” While anecdotal, John Deere’s struggles are reflected in the 48 percent lower growth in total nonfarm employment from January 2025 to August 2025 (598,000 jobs added) compared to those months last year (1.1 million jobs added).”

https://reason.com/2025/09/24/trumps-tariffs-have-already-hurt-the-economy-and-the-pain-is-only-beginning/

SCOTUS Is Now Poised To Overrule Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 Precedent Limiting Presidential Power

Posted on by Lone Candle

“In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that President Franklin Roosevelt acted illegally when he tried to fire an anti-New Deal commissioner from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC “cannot in any proper sense be characterized as an arm or an eye of the executive,” declared the Court in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. “We think it plain under the Constitution that illimitable power of removal is not possessed by the President in respect of officers of the character of those just named.”

But that was then. More recently, the Supreme Court has all but announced that Humphrey’s Executor faces imminent judicial execution, an outcome that would allow President Donald Trump (and every president who succeeds him) to fire “independent” agency heads at will.”

https://reason.com/2025/09/25/scotus-is-now-poised-to-overrule-humphreys-executor-a-1935-precedent-limiting-presidential-power/

US sanctions wife of Brazilian judge who oversaw Bolsonaro prosecution

Posted on by Lone Candle

Trump is using U.S. sanction power to punish those who prosecute people Trump likes politically. This isn’t an act of justice, but an act of defending those who try to coup democracies. He did something similar when he pardoned the January 6th attackers who tried to end U.S. democracy.

“The U.S. announced new sanctions on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Monday, the latest move in the Trump administration’s effort to object to the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted de Moraes for overseeing the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who was convicted of organizing a coup to remain in office following his electoral loss to now-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022. A panel of Supreme Court justices, including de Moraes, voted earlier this month to sentence the far-right populist leader, an ally of Trump’s, to a 27-year prison sentence.

…

The Brazilian government called the move “a new attempt of undue interference in Brazilian internal affairs,” accusing the U.S. government of pursuing “the politicization and distortion” of the Magnitsky Act.

“This new attack on Brazilian sovereignty will not achieve its goal of benefiting those who led the failed coup attempt, some of whom have already been convicted by the Supreme Federal Court. Brazil will not bow to this latest aggression,” Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/22/bolsonaro-prosecution-us-sanctions-00575122