Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Semafor
by Eleanor Mueller

“As President Donald Trump continues buying government stakes in private companies, the rest of Washington is starting to appreciate the power of his new tool. The Trump administration has so far announced 43 equity stakes in firms producing everything from minerals to semiconductors, 36 of which were negotiated without explicit legal authority — and more are yet to come. … Thanks to the precedent Trump has set, a future Democratic president could reap multiple benefits from equity stakes in private companies. Among them, as former Biden administration officials suggested: reining in the AI industry, shrinking defense spending, boxing China out of critical sectors, and pressuring gun and oil companies.” (10/22/260

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/21/2026/trump-turned-the-government-into-an-investor-democrats-have-shopping-plans-too

Source: Cobden Centre
by Ryan McMaken

“The Treasury Department released its monthly statement on Friday and has now confirmed what we all suspected: the US federal government, under the Trump Administration, will finish the 2026 fiscal year with an annual fiscal deficit of about $2 trillion. To be precise, the federal deficit for the 2026 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, is $1.99 trillion. That’s the third largest deficit ever recorded.” (10/22/26)

https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/10/gop-spending-swells-us-deficit-to-nearly-2-trillion-for-2026/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Chuck Babbage

“The backlash against Silicon Valley awfulness—call it a ‘techlash’—is a force that can be turned into remedying actions. It’s not a policy platform. It’s not a solution. It’s a question: How do we tame the corporate monsters to the point where they can be held accountable for making these destructive products? And here are two answers: by wielding the tools of product liability law and antitrust reform.” (10/22/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-techlash-is-coming/

Source: Antiwar.com
by Yves Engler

“Since Donald Trump began his second term, the US has bombed nine countries/territories. According to New America, the Trump administration has hit Somalia 211 times. Over the past thirteen months 71 US maritime strikes in the hemisphere have killed over 200 and in January US forces killed nearly 100 when they kidnapped Venezuela’s President. An eight-week US bombing campaign of Yemen last year killed at least 224 civilians as part of an effort to enable Israel’s genocide and last month the Trump administration gave the Jewish supremacist state $2.8 billion worth of mostly 2,000-pound bombs. Over 40 days at the start of the year the US launched 10,000 strikes on Iran. In one attack, 120 schoolgirls were killed. Carney has either supported or ignored all of that violence. But the prime minister responded to the US president announcing a plan to purchase Russian diesel as a threat to ‘peace’.” (10/22/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/yves_engler/2026/10/21/curious-what-canadas-pm-considers-threat-to-peace/

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Bill Budington & Rory Mir

“An open internet where people can freely build, share, and remix each other’s work is a powerful engine of grassroots innovation we’ve all benefited from. In recent decades, however, corporations have taken control of an increasing share of this work, giving them a greater ability to stifle challengers and limit our choices. When regulators address this by mandating that tech giants play fair by requiring interoperability, the gatekeepers respond with a tired refrain: Playing fair puts users’ security at risk. Unfortunately for these trillion-dollar companies, this gotcha isn’t the end of the conversation. Regulators can ensure that meaningful choice and security thrive.” (10/21/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/interoperability-vs-security-why-not-both