Source: California Post
by staff

“Steve Hilton is right: California’s high-speed rail project belongs in a museum, not on a map — and certainly not on the state’s budget. The ‘bullet train to nowhere’ was supposed to link San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours at a cost of $33 billion by 2020. Instead, it will only link a couple of towns in the Central Valley, at a cost of over $200 billion, by 2032 at the earliest. The Republican candidate for governor says he will end the project and ‘turn it into the Government Failures National Monument’. That might actually be a profitable idea. One can imagine something like the statue parks that sprang up in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.” (10/26/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/10/26/opinion/steve-hilton-has-only-good-idea-for-failed-high-speed-rail/

Source: Reason
by Jeffrey A Singer

“Patients diagnosed with progressive dementia may know exactly how much deterioration they are willing to endure. They can articulate their wishes, discuss alternatives, and put their instructions in writing. Should losing the ability to repeat those instructions invalidate them? Canada is preparing to address that question. On October 23, its Justice Department announced planned rules that would allow adults diagnosed with an incurable illness expected to destroy their decision-making capacity to consent in advance to assisted suicide (or, as Canada calls it, medical assistance in dying (MAID)). … Competent adults should be free to choose clinician-assisted suicide or clinician-administered euthanasia, provided they give fully informed, voluntary consent and those assisting them do so willingly. That freedom should include planning for the loss of decision-making capacity.” (10/27/26)

https://reason.com/2026/10/26/canada-wants-to-let-dementia-patients-consent-to-euthanasia-in-advance/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“That story about Google killing hundreds of thousands of trees in Finland for its data center project is such a perfect microcosm of what capitalism is doing to our world. Recent mass media headlines are saying the tech giant ‘illegally’ cut down ‘250,000 trees’, but both claims paint an inaccurate picture of what actually happened. Google killed 400,000 trees (250,000 near a town called Muhos and another 150,000 near the village of Otanmäki), and unless the company’s executives actually wind up going to prison for this, their actions cannot properly be described as ‘illegal’. I don’t know who first coined the saying ‘If the penalty is a fine, then it’s legal for rich people’, but it certainly applies here.” (10/27/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/27/on-google-killing-400000-trees-to-build-data-centers-in-finland/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Scott Gilmer

“This November, voters in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, will decide whether to raise their city’s sales tax by half a cent. … Whatever you think of the proposal, don’t miss what is happening. Goodlettsville wants more of its taxpayers’ money, so it has to ask them first. That is how it should work anytime your local government needs more from you. Now ask yourself a simple question: when a local government wants to raise your property taxes, who does it have to ask? The answer is no one but itself. Not you, not your neighbors, not a single voter.” (10/27/26)

https://fee.org/articles/shoppers-get-a-vote-homeowners-should-too/

Source: USA Today
by Justin Haskins

“Supporters say Prop 40 would raise $100 billion over five years, the period during which billionaires could pay it off in annual installments. Backers are selling Prop 40 as a lifeline for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, and 90% of the revenue would go to health care. With federal cuts phasing in, Medi-Cal could need tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to stay afloat. But Prop 40 would do California far more harm than good. … unish business owners, investors and other wealthy people, and they leave for greener pastures. That’s common sense, and California has been living it for years.” (10/27/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2026/10/27/billionaires-california-prop-40-economy/92363766007/

Source: Foreign Policy
by Jonathan Monten, Jordan Tama, & Josh Buby

“Many of Trump’s foreign-policy views are unpopular with U.S. foreign-policy leaders and the public. Trump has failed to sell fellow Republican foreign-policy leaders or voters on key parts of his vision. Rather than mark a turning point in America’s approach to the world, Trump’s foreign policy may not outlast Trump himself.” (10/27/26)

https://archive.is/8PKm9