“Should this be seen as the Hans Christian Andersen story, in which the narcissistic emperor is finally exposed as a naked fool by a truth-telling child? Donald Trump is certainly all of these things: narcissistic, naked in his support for Putin and a fool. But the parallel doesn’t quite work because it hasn’t taken a child to reveal this. He has done it himself, in plain sight …. a better literary parallel might be Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Goldfinger, in which the evil Auric Goldfinger attempts to stage his theft from Fort Knox with the help of a group of American mafia bosses, one of whom is the gloriously named Pussy Galore.” (10/19/26)
“The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other alleged 9/11 plotters seeking to hold the government to a plea deal it later withdrew. The court action removes one barrier to Mohammed standing trial before a military commission in 2028, where the death penalty is a possible punishment. He has been held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006. Mohammed is accused of being the ringleader of the plot to crash hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The other two men who appealed to the Supreme Court were Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash, who are also held at Guantanamo and set to face trial.” (10/19/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Right-wing and left-wing interventionists and interventionist mainstream-press commentators are up in arms over President Trump’s decision to ease economic sanctions against Russia in connection with the Russian government’s agreement to supply diesel fuel to the United States. The notion is that nothing — not even the midterms — must be permitted to interfere with the Cold War II racket that holds that Russia is an aggressor nation that is hell-bent on conquering the world and, therefore, that it is necessary to target the Russian populace with severe impoverishment and even death by starvation or illness with ever-more economic sanctions. … In the eyes of national-security statists, it is imperative that we continue hewing to the official narrative. Russia is coming to get us, just like before.” (10/19/26)
“A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher and his associates were found guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, in an infamous starvation cult by a Mombasa court on Monday. … Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the cult base inland from the Kenyan beach resort of Malindi, in what became known as the ‘Shakahola Forest Massacre.’ Paul Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to ‘meet Jesus.'” (10/19/26)
“The government raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington home last week is yet another example of the president abusing his authority to go after his political foes. It also shows how the vile anti-immigrant sentiment that used to mold the fringe of the American tapestry now sits at the heart of power. The Trump administration is reportedly trying to strip Omar of her U.S. citizenship. … This is not the first time that Omar has been targeted. According to the Washington Post, officials scrutinized her record in 2019 and found no evidence of fraud. Has anything changed in the meantime? The biggest difference is that since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the government has not only engaged in mass deportation efforts of undocumented immigrants, but it has also waged war against unquestionably legal immigrants like Omar.” (10/19/26)
“As gratifying as it might be to see unprincipled Trump enablers reduced to minority status after signing off on economy-wrecking tariffs, inhumane immigration detentions, and wars of choice, there’s at least one good reason to dread a Democratic majority too: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts progressive who is spending the run-up to the midterms freaking out over possible consolidation in the condiments business and accusing private equity firms of gutting such shopping-mall favorites as Claire’s and Toys R Us. There’s every reason to believe that a Senate run by Warren and other economic interventionists will waste time, money, and resources trying to prevent a world in which, per the X wag Iowahawkblog, ‘a panopticon conglomerate owns two brands of hot sauce.'” (10/19/26)
“A murder warrant was issued Oct. 19 in Florida for former Cuban leader Raul Castro in connection with two humanitarian planes shot down 30 years ago. The warrant, signed by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, charges Castro with one-count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Castro, then Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba, was a final decision-maker in the chain of command that authorized the shootdown, according to the affidavit. Two planes, operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue, were shot down by the Cuban Air Force in [allegedly] international waters Feb. 25, 1996. Four people were killed.” (10/19/26)
