Hey, everyone …
Our annual fundraiser had a “zero dollar day” yesterday.
We’re stuck (as of 5am Friday) at $245.50 versus our goal of $5,503 (with supporter GL’s “matching funds” offer, we only have to raise $2,751.50 from the rest of our readers).
It’s important. We only ask once a year, and we set a modest goal, but we ARE a reader-supported publication.
“Mini-goal”: Please help us reach the $500 mark by Monday. That’s only $254.50 away. YOUR contribution will shorten that distance. The URL once again:
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: SFGate
“The government of Panama declared a state of emergency Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours. Officials did not attribute any deaths to the quakes but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories. The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes on Friday toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. The earlier quake, also felt in neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac announced the emergency during a news conference in the capital, Panama City. He said homes, schools, healthcare facilities, roads and hotels were among the damaged facilities.” (10/10/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/unnerved-panamanians-sleep-in-streets-as-22471467.php
Source: Washington Post
“The overlooked businesses making Americans rich.” (10/09/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/the-overlooked-businesses-making-americans-rich/
Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol
“This November, voters will decide on the California Billionaire Tax Act (Prop 40), which would retroactively impose a 5 percent tax on the wealth of residents worth more than $1 billion. Its supporters say it could raise $100 billion, even though several billionaires have already left the state or plan to. Beginning in 2020 and intensifying in 2021, a tidal wave of entrepreneurs and businesses left California, including tech billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison. It’s not hard to see why: the state’s high taxes, heavy regulations, and increasingly contentious political climate have made it clear that success is not welcome.” (10/09/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/09/hasta-la-vista-baby/
Source: The Bulwark
by Matthew D Taylor
“One is doing a bit of cynical pandering, the other is condemning anyone opposed to the tech future—and neither is willing to look in the mirror.” (10/09/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/jd-vance-peter-thiel-antichrist-new-testament-tech-trump-authoritarianism
Source: Freakonomics
“It’s Show Business, Baby!” (10/09/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/its-show-business-baby/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat
“In February 2003, the intelligence that August Hanning’s service had handed to Washington turned up in Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations Security Council, in the case for invading Iraq. On the morning of 6 October 2026, masked officers walked Hanning, now eighty, out of his house near Münster in handcuffs, on suspicion of attempted treason and espionage. The secrets that undid him had been sitting on a hard drive in that house, and some of them had been shared with Berlin by its allies. The United States is the first of those allies.” (10/09/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/thomas_karat/2026/10/08/the-spy-chief-who-was-caught-by-accident
Source: Fox News
by Chuck DeVore
“The cartels are losing political cover, and they know it. The Trump administration has treated the Western Hemisphere as a security problem rather than allow diplomatic courtesy to block needed action. Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody. Colombia elected Abelardo de la Espriella, who ran opposed to negotiations with armed groups and won. Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and others have aligned with Washington’s enforcement policies. The Shield of the Americas coalition now coordinates intelligence and operations against cartel networks, but with a handful of exceptions: Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua. That is the Donroe Doctrine in practice: American predominance in the hemisphere, applied to migration, Chinese footholds and the drug trade. Critically, this is a major shift in the operating environments for the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) and the Colombian and Venezuelan networks that fed them.” (10/10/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/donroe-doctrine-conservative-victories-squeeze-cartels-latin-america
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US President Donald Trump has said he thinks ‘it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president’ as he responded to Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism of the US diesel deal with Russia. The Ukrainian president warned a new deal to release millions of tonnes of Russian diesel into the US would provide Moscow with money to continue its war against his nation, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that Zelensky “wants to make problems for the world” by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries. Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart ought to “stop” before suggesting Ukraine should ‘get a new leader who can make a deal’. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 the country has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.” (10/10/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqe8r5l7n92jo
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A former headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has been named as a suspect in a sexual abuse investigation and detained by police, following a BBC Eye report. Ahmad Imanuddin Sumar, known to students as Abah, led the Abul Barokat boarding school on the island of Lombok. Police reopened the case after the BBC World Service revealed accusations of sexual abuse against him, and documented how former students had gathered evidence in an effort to bring the allegations to the authorities. The story sparked public outrage and led to 12 more former students giving testimony to police. Central to the BBC Eye investigation were former students Ziadatur Rahmah, known as Zia, and Sukma Rohana Fajar. They launched their own investigation after Zia told a former classmate, Yusron Azzahidi, that the headteacher had sexually assaulted her when she was 17.” (10/10/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy8lx1r2vrro
Source: New York Post
by Kirsten Fleming
“An alleged gangbanger in this country illegally [sic] was shot and wounded by ICE [gangbangers] in The Bronx on Thursday. And by the way New York politicians immediately reacted (with press conferences and outraged tweets the length of ‘War and Peace’) one would think ICE had made swiss cheese of a sweet grandma as she handed out Werther’s Originals to the neighborhood children. All the usual suspects reflexively grabbed a microphone and called to ‘abolish ICE’ in the name of Oscar Belgal, who reportedly used his car to smash through a vehicle barricade before accelerating toward ICE [gangbangers]. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the car and was unharmed, no thanks to his pathetic excuse of a father. Still, an outraged Mayor Mamdani stood alongside AG Tish James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams declaring war on ICE.” (10/09/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/09/opinion/when-will-mamdani-care-about-victims-of-crimes-the-same-way-he-does-about-illegal-migrants/
