| Kensington Review |
30 December 2025 |
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Cogito Ergo Non Serviam |
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Latest Commentary: US Hit Venezuelan Port Last Week -- President Trump announced that the CIA launched a drone strike against a Venezuelan port last week. The White House claimed it was a remote facility used by Tren de Aragua, a gang the administration has decided is the root of all drug evil. The attack occurred when no one was present on the dock, so no one was hurt. This is an escalation from the American attacks on small boats that may be carrying drugs but which lack the range to reach the US. Now, the American government has hit a target within Venezuela. This is an act of war. [30 December] Trump Loses Manufacturing Jobs, Expands Trade Deficit -- As the end of the year approaches, it is appropriate that the White House be held accountable for its policies and their outcomes since the inauguration 11 months ago. One of the key promises that Mr. Trump made when he ran for the presidency was a renaissance in manufacturing jobs in the US. He ws going to slap tariffs on imports and that would spark American creativity and unleash a flood of investment that would bring thousands upon thousands of manufacturing jobs back to the American workers. Since he took office, Mr. Trump has presided over a loss of 58,000 manufactuing jobs. He has failed to deliver. [26 December] DoJ Breaks Epstein File Law -- The American Department of Justice is misnamed. As of midnight last Friday, it had not released all of the Epstein Files as required by an Act of Congress. They can hem and haw all they want, but the fact is that the few documents released are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Epstein Transparency Act. Congress now must act if it is have any credibility or power from here on. At very least, Attorney-General Pam Bondi and her team must testify under oath as to why they have failed to obey the law. That the time they had was insufficient is nonsense; a month was given them. The administration has played this stupidly, and the drip, drip, drip of the Epstein spiggot will eventually destroy the current leadership of the Republican Party. [23 December] Suspect Data Show Drop in November Inflation -- The US government released data showing that the Consumer Price Index, a trailing inflation indicator, may have declined in November to 2.7%. This is lower than the 3.1% many economists expected, but it is also above the 2.0% target of the Federal Reserve. It is also a suspect figure. The government shut-down earlier this autumn badly impeded the collection of data. It seems plausible and prudent to average the data from today with data that will come out for December. Things may still be a bit off, but the questionable data will be diluted so as to make the overall picture closer to being accurate. [20 December] House GOP Moderates Force Healthcare Vote -- Yesterday, this journal commented on the decision of Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA), to send the House home for the holidays without a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Moderate Republicans in district vulnerable in the mid-terms needed a vote of some kind. So,four of them signed a discharge petition to force a vote on the Democratic proposal to simply extend the subsidies for 3 years. When that happened, the Speaker suddenly decided to put a GOP plan to a vote, which passed and which will likely die in the Senate or fail to reduce premiums. Still, there was a vote. [19 December] © Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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23 Years Online Volume XXIII, Number 192
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