Congressional stock trading

+ A new paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research (Captain Gains) provides yet more evidence for why congressional stock trading should be banned. The study shows the stock performance of politicians who later become congressional leaders remains pretty average until they assume positions of power, then “their portfolios beat their peers by 47 percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts.”

+ As Hegseth tries to court-martial Kelly for urging US military personnel to disobey illegal orders, CNN reported that in April 2016 Hegseth told an audience that the U.S. military should not follow “unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief.”

“If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief in chief.[He meant this to apply to Obama, of course.] 

+ Steven Dennis, Bloomberg: “If it’s illegal to say, ‘Refuse illegal orders’ and it’s illegal to say, ‘Follow illegal orders,’ what is it legal to say?”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/05/roaming-charges-kill-them-all-then-blame-the-fog-of-war/

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/05/roaming-charges-kill-them-all-then-blame-the-fog-of-war/