Annual Fundraiser: We Think You Can!

Hey, everyone …

Thanks to supporters ERW, ACS, WH, TP, and CS! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $55.50, bring our annual fundraiser total (as of 5am) to $170.50!

It’s a “little engine that could” thing — every contribution gets us closer to $2,751.50, and once we’re there supporter GL will “match funds” to get us to the goal of $5,503. So please think you can at …

https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd

… and have a great day!

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily

The Tariffs Were a Wake-Up Call. Ottawa Hits Snooze Again

Source: CounterPunch
by Umer Azad

“There is something almost admirable about the Canadian government’s ability to respond to an American provocation with precisely the right number of carefully selected adjectives. Washington imposes tariffs. Ottawa expresses deep disappointment. Washington threatens Canadian sovereignty. Ottawa says the relationship is changing. Washington escalates again. Ottawa announces that Canada is entering a new era. Then everyone goes home. The problem is no longer simply that Canada’s foreign policy is too cautious. It increasingly appears to have no direction at all.” (10/07/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/07/the-tariffs-were-a-wake-up-call-ottawa-hits-snooze-again/

Britain’s Productivity Problem Is a Choice

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie

“Britain has a productivity problem, and it is one of our own making. Before the financial crash of 2008, output per hour grew by roughly 2 per cent a year. Since then it has crawled along at about half that rate, sometimes less. The gap with America, France and Germany has widened year after year. That matters more than almost anything else in economics. Productivity pays for higher wages, better public services and a comfortable retirement. A country that stops growing more productive stops growing richer. Its politics turn sour, because every gain for one group must come out of another’s pocket. The comforting story is that some deep mystery is at work, a curse visited on Britain by forces beyond anyone’s control. This is nonsense. Britain made it hard to build, costly to power and unrewarding to invest. The results were entirely predictable.” (10/07/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/britains-productivity-problem-is-a-choice

Trump doesn’t plan to return money he stole to buy campaign ads

Source: Politico

“President Donald Trump will not reimburse the federal government for taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting him and his administration ahead of the November midterms — and even dropped a new ad on Tuesday. Following bipartisan backlash to the more than $10 million spent on what the White House dubbed ‘Patriotic Ads,’ Trump announced Monday on Truth Social that his super PAC would cover the cost of the ads. But White House officials clarified on Tuesday to POLITICO that the president’s post did not mean the PAC would pay for the spots that had already aired. … In all, Trump has spent about $11.6 million on more than a dozen ads, according to an estimate from AdImpact, an analytics firm which tracks advertising. The advertisements were reportedly paid for with funds from a $20 million contract awarded by the Department of Homeland Security.” (10/06/26)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/06/trump-taxpayer-funded-advertisements-01109296

Prioritizing Political Ideology over Educational Outcomes

Source: Show-Me Institute
by Susan Pendergrass

“In Jefferson City, legislative debates over school choice often turn into battles between special interest groups, union lobbyists, and trade associations. Lost in the technical jargon of funding formulas and accreditation benchmarks is the actual student sitting in a classroom where they are not learning. [Nikole] Hannah-Jones’s daughter saw clearly what many policymakers ignore. Adult political battles should never be waged at the expense of vulnerable children. When people demand that families stay put to support a district’s balance sheet, they are asking children to bear the burden of systemic dysfunction.” (10/06/26)

https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/prioritizing-political-ideology-over-educational-outcomes/

Trump fighting Obamacare fraud while Democrats defend the numbers

Source: Fox News
by Mehek Cooke

“Democrats love double talk. They claim to defend affordable health care while taxpayers finance fraudulent enrollments that harm the very consumers Obamacare was supposed to protect. Right on cue, they turned the Trump administration’s fraud crackdown into cruelty. Chuck Schumer claims the administration is kicking hundreds of thousands of people off their plans, while former Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls fraud enforcement a ‘false pretext’ for stripping away coverage. Before Democrats declare 760,000 people victims of Republican cruelty, they should explain why taxpayers were financing policies that some consumers never requested, used and know existed. The Trump administration recently announced that CMS canceled approximately 315,000 unauthorized Obamacare enrollments covering more than 760,000 people and expected to recover approximately $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies. An additional 419,000 enrollments are undergoing eligibility verification. Every taxpayer and every family struggling to afford health insurance should be alarmed.” (10/07/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-fighting-obamacare-fraud-democrats-defending-numbers

Steve Hilton’s “Hail Mary” in Democrat-Dominated California

Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring

“In California, the political script is passé. Every statewide election is the same story. The Democrat candidate gets around 60 percent of all votes, and the Republican gets 40 percent. The script is so predictable that voters have stopped paying attention. Even now, in this polarized, politicized era, if you ask a random person on the street who the two candidates are this year to become California’s next governor, they won’t know. In California, the average low-information voter doesn’t vote for a candidate; they vote for a party. That’s the milieu into which Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has thrown what in football is termed a ‘Hail Mary’, a long ball hurled toward an end zone receiver, thrown in the game’s closing seconds by a team that’s behind.'” (10/07/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/07/steve-hiltons-hail-mary-in-democrat-dominated-california/

US regime, WHO request details from Russian regime amid reports of second pneumonia case

Source: Fox News

“Amid global public health concerns surrounding the death of an Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East worker, the World Health Organization noted in a statement issued Tuesday on the X account of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that it had requested more information from Russia regarding the matter, including on ‘media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.’ ‘The individual died on 2 October 2026 after being hospitalized with severe pneumonia. Initial media reports suggested pneumonic plague following an alleged accidental laboratory exposure,’ the WHO statement noted. … The U.S. State Department has formally requested more information from the Russian government regarding the death of the woman who worked at the anti-plague research facility, issuing what is known as a démarche, defined as a request or intercession with a foreign official.” (10/07/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-who-request-details-russia-amid-reports-second-pneumonia-case