THANK YOU to subscribing contributor T, whose $5 monthly payment yesterday broke our “zero-dollar day” streak! Our annual fundraiser total currently (as of 5am) stands at $1,058.
That’s $1,693.50 short of our $5,503 goal (once we’ve raised half, $2,751.50, supporter GL will “match funds” for the other half).
This year, I’ve tried to be a little less verbose in appealing to you for support, but I guess it’s time to thump the podium and yell a bit:
You already know the story! We’re coming up on 24 years as Rational Review News Digest, with another 11 years before that as Libernet and Freedom News Daily! We’re the Internet’s oldest daily news and commentary roundup for libertarians!
We’re solid, reliable, we get the job done for you, and we only come to you once per year with the “fundraising telethon” schtick!
Once we reach a fairly modest goal, we STFU about money entirely for the rest of the year and mostly for the first three quarters of the following year!
I’d love to STFU about money entirely for the next two months and mostly for nine more months after that! You’re in control of whether or not I get to!
Stop me before I exclaim again! Oh, no, too late!
And, of course, have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: Free the People
“Join Free the People for Liberty Pub Live with Jack Hunter, Jim Antle, and Matt Kibbe to prognosticate on the coming midterm elections. What are the policies, good, bad, and ugly, that will determine who wins, and who loses? Spoiler: It ain’t pretty.” (10/28/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL5fZeuPAcE
Source: Time
by Philip Wang
“In recent days, Trump officials have sued to potentially block the certification of a Senate race in Alaska, threatened election officials in California with jail time, and implied that the outcome in a Senate race in Minnesota couldn’t be trusted if the Republican didn’t win. Trump’s allies have also been urging the President to potentially take drastic measures, including declaring martial law to seize ballots. Election officials in dozens of states are preparing for a wide range of possible interference on Tuesday when millions of voters will cast ballots, as well as in the days that follow as the votes are counted, the final batches of mail-in ballots come in and the election outcomes are certified. … Here’s how the Trump Administration could potentially interfere in each step of the election process—and how state and local officials, and various outside groups, are preparing for each scenario …” (10/28/26)
https://time.com/article/2026/10/28/Trump-voting-election-interference-ballots-DOJ-fraud-investigation/
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy
“Latin American democracy is being put to the test in Brazil and Venezuela. At stake is whether the left-wing government in either country can countenance the idea of legitimate opposition. The day after losing Brazil’s presidential election, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro was ordered to hand over his passports and remain in Brazil. His uncle, also a senator, had warned him to flee or face certain arrest if he was defeated. The opposition leader seems to have heeded this advice — he’s reportedly trying to reach the United States. As Brazilians went to the polls Sunday to choose between Bolsonaro and leftist incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, another Latin American opposition leader had just returned to her home country after nearly a year in exile: Venezuela’s María Corina Machado.” (10/27/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/27/opinion/brazil-and-venezuela-face-a-tough-road-back-to-sanity/
Source: The Hill
“Alaska’s GOP-led government is urging a federal court to dismiss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit seeking to bar the state from certifying its midterm election results, according to a Monday court filing. The DOJ lawsuit, filed last week, claimed the presence of a candidate with the same name as incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) could give Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola an unfair advantage in the upcoming election. In a motion to dismiss, attorneys representing Alaska and the other defendants named in the lawsuit said the state’s elections division ‘has taken significant steps to distinguish them on the ballot so that voters can easily determine which candidate is which.’ The state’s filing also noted ‘the United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate,’ adding ‘the complaint has no legal basis.'” (10/28/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6177625-alaska-gop-moves-dismiss-doj-lawsuit
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“A Supreme Court Case Underlines the Absurdity of the Federal Ban on Home Distilling.” (10/28/26)
“https://reason.com/2026/10/28/a-scotus-case-underlines-the-absurdity-of-the-federal-ban-on-home-distilling
Source: The Daily Economy
by Thomas Savidge
“If a 5-percent levy chases billionaires out of Cali, the long-term income tax gap (not to mention litigation costs) will swallow any wealth-tax windfall.” (10/28/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/californias-billionaire-tax-may-cost-more-than-it-raises-reports-find/
Source: Common Dreams
by Nicholas Rabb & Jeremy Murray
“As Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Washington recently to meet with President Donald Trump, discussions over Artificial Intelligence were hotly anticipated as an urgent matter of national relations, as it was this past May during the previous US-China summit. Disappointingly, little of substance has come of this meeting as well, despite fresh worries over AI doomsday scenarios from industry insiders, and pleas for both regulation and international cooperation. Once again, instead of hashing out guardrails to contain a fever-pitched ‘AI arms race’, the discussion revolved primarily around trade and resources. This discouraging result comes amid an atmosphere in the US in which tech CEOs and politicians claim that China winning the ‘race’ would spell the end of Western civilization.” (10/28/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ai-race-china-dangerous
Source: CNN
“Scores of people have been killed and about 100 injured after a high-speed train collided with a stationary train. Spain’s transport minister called it ‘inexplicable’ that a train was allowed to continue its journey despite a red signal being in place. … This is the third rail disaster in Spain in 2026. In January, two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz, in southern Spain’s Córdoba province, killing more than 40 people. A commuter train near Barcelona derailed days later.” (10/28/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/28/world/live-news/spain-train-crash-collision-intl
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Real ‘Affordability Crisis’ – Created By Government.” (10/28/26)
https://x.com/RonPaul/status/2115473976642384014
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“I’ve had many great arguments with ChatGPT. But it’s worrisome that I almost always win. Often, it concedes that my contrarian view is 100% write. At minimum, it asymptotes to conceding that I’m 70% right. Most people characterize this [a]s ‘sycophancy bias.’ But the problem is deeper. Like almost all human beings, AIs are bad Bayesians.” (10/28/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/chatgpt-knows-its-a-bad-bayesian
