The Free Market Can Connect Rural America Faster Than the Government

“We shouldn’t let government subsidies distort the market. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick embraced this thinking with his June 2025 decision to drop the NTIA’s “fiber preference,” shifting the agency toward a technology-neutral, cost-driven framework. The policy emphasizes cost-effectiveness among technologies meeting speed and latency standards.

In many areas, fiber expansion will continue to make sense, but if LEO-based broadband can offer high-quality internet connectivity virtually instantaneously and on the cheap to many in the targeted regions, why should the federal government stand in the way? After all, as Starlink celebrates its 8 million and counting user base, something largely accomplished absent heavy subsidization”

https://reason.com/2025/12/09/the-free-market-can-connect-rural-america-faster-than-the-government/

Elon Musk says he warned Trump against tariffs, which U.S. manufacturers blame for a turn to more offshoring and diminishing American factory jobs

“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report last month showed there were 6,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in October, despite nonfarm payrolls increasing by 119,000. The slip in factory roles have brought the tally of lost manufacturing jobs since Trump’s April tariff push to 59,000, according to the data.

Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Fortune the shrinking manufacturing sector is, in part, a result of tariffs disproportionately hitting intermediate goods, which are products used in the process of creating a finished good. This can hike up production costs, forcing companies to slash headcount. Pantheon Macroeconomics analysts Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen similarly said in September that shrinking wage growth was a result of tariff-hit companies trying to maintain margins amid rising input costs.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-says-warned-trump-170848786.html

Elon Musk’s ‘Account Based In’ Feature Has Already Improved X

“Elon Musk finally rolled out a long-requested feature on X, the site formerly known as Twitter: It is now possible to see the geographic location where a given user likely resides. (Yes, it’s possible to fool the system with a VPN.) And what this has revealed is that some—by no means all, but some—highly visible accounts associated with rightwing politics, support for President Trump, extremely anti-interventionist America First foreign policy views, and more sinisterly, racist and antisemitic comments, are not American at all. They reside in foreign countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Bangladesh.”

https://reason.com/2025/11/26/elon-musks-account-based-in-feature-has-already-improved-x/

Decline and Fall of the Conservative Mind | The David Frum Show

DOGE was a massive failure. It was run by arrogant people who didn’t think they needed to learn and understand the subject matter. DOGE misdiagnosed the problem. Fraud and waste isn’t the driver of the debt, legitimate payments to people for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and military spending, are the drivers. DOGE also broke the law. The executive cannot legally stop spending that has been passed by Congress and signed by a president.

DOGE did enduring harm to research. We lost valuable people who are hard to get back. The standing of the United States and its power to influence people through the State Department, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and foreign aid have been deeply damaged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gyi8r1zExU

FCC Head Says Kimmel Not ‘the Last Shoe to Drop,’ Musk’s A.I. Push, Your Friday News Quiz

Trump has repeatedly suggested that broadcast stations that air things he doesn’t like should get their licenses revoked. Two late night hosts appear to have been suspended or let go at the desire of Trump and his administration. Where are the free speech warriors now? Was it all a lie?

These companies also need federal approval for desired mergers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyZSp97uf0

Elon Turns Charlie Kirk Situation Scary

Prominent people on the right are using this horrible murder to falsely blame Democrats and the entire left. They falsely claim all of the right is under attack, subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, encouraging more violence. While, of course, ignoring the times people on the left are attacked and murdered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itinwnMA8DQ