When Money Becomes Everything

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith

“Willie Sutton reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Willie would’ve made a good politician. Governments became friends with banks for the same reason Willie robbed them. If a sufficiently important bank issued more receipts for money than it had locked up in its vaults, people would get suspicious and start to pull their money out. The monetary contagion could spread to other banks, and government, which kept its loot in banks, would be in trouble. Using its status as an agency of coercion, government intervened to stop the redemption while keeping the banks in business.” (10/26/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-money-becomes-everything

Liberalism Is for Ordinary People

Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri

“We need to get better at describing our goals in these terms. My instinct, even now, is to say that the goal of liberalism is to produce an open society, to encourage mutual enrichment and mutual support under conditions of freedom. But we need to be able to paint a picture like the above, to say what these abstractions mean for the people who live where the factory opens, what it means to the local kids when a library opens up where there wasn’t one before.” (10/26/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-is-for-ordinary-people/

India: Gandhi Acquitted in Defamation Case

Source: US News & World Report

“Rahul Gandhi, the ⁠leader ⁠of India’s main ⁠opposition Congress party, was acquitted in a ​defamation case by a local court on Monday, TV ‌channels said. The acquittal ‌comes at a time when Gandhi is ⁠leading a ⁠united opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ​Chief Election Commissioner over a controversial revision of voter lists. … Gandhi was accused of calling India’s powerful ⁠Home Minister Amit Shah, who was then head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a ‘murder accused’, during a state election campaign speech in 2018.” (10/26/26)

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-10-26/indian-opposition-leader-rahul-gandhi-acquitted-in-defamation-case-tv-channels-report

Free Talk Live, 10/25/26

Source: Free Talk Live

“Is voting pointless? :: Tim in FL calls and talks about death :: Dying :: Dave Ridley calls about a religious lawsuit against Dover NH :: Property taxes :: NHcornerstone.org :: Film the authorities when they harass you! :: Expatriation laws :: Sarah in NM calls about mail in ballots being smeared with fentanyl :: Skeeter calls to accuse and project :: Taxation is (not?) theft :: Should kids be educated? :: David in NM calls to educate us on how to end a call :: I love you, bye :: 2026-10-25 :: Hosts: Stu, Mr. Penguin, Mark Edge.” (10/25/26)

https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-10-25

How Israel Used AI to Relentlessly Murder Palestinian Journalists and Their Families in Their Homes

Source: Antiwar.com
by Andy Worthington

“Under international humanitarian law, as most noticeably enshrined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, ‘Civilian journalists engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected as long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities.’ (emphasis added). The State of Israel, however, has nothing but contempt for international humanitarian law. As far as they are concerned, everyone who works for a media outlet that is, in any way, aligned with the military wing of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other militant faction in Gaza, is a terrorist, and can be targeted and killed, and anyone who works as a journalist but has previously had any suspected involvement with any of these military factions in any kind of capacity can also be targeted and killed.” (10/26/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/worthington/2026/10/25/how-israel-used-ai-to-relentlessly-murder-palestinian-journalists-and-their-families-in-their-homes/

Trump Exempts Some Canadian Products From Section 338 Tariffs—But His Illegal Trade War Continues

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin

“In addition to illegally usurping congressional power over taxation, the Trump trade war against Canada damages our economy and poisons relations with a key ally. Courts should strike it down, just as they did with the IEEPA tariffs and the more recent Section 122 tariffs. They should also invalidated the massive Section 301 ‘forced labor’ tariffs, which have been challenged in three cases currently before the US Court of International Trade.” (10/25/26)

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/10/25/trump-exempts-some-canadian-products-from-section-338-tariffs-but-his-illegal-trade-war-continues/

Arms Control, Not Ukraine, Should be on the Superpowers’ Agenda

Source: CounterPunch
by Imran Khalid

“Asked at the White House whether he would sit down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next month’s APEC summit in Shenzhen, Donald Trump steered the conversation from Ukraine to warheads. ‘We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,’ he said. Russia, he added, ‘has been fine on Ukraine.’ In the same exchange he suggested it was time for someone other than Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate for Kyiv. Two proposals now ride on one invitation.” (10/26/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/26/arms-control-not-ukraine-should-be-on-the-superpowers-agenda/