A Billion Dollars and the Men Who Ran Israel’s Wars

Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat

“The weapons a country fights with, the software that aims them, and the officers who command them were for a century things a state owned and could not put up for sale. That arrangement is coming apart. One by one these assets are being bought by private companies, financed through public stock markets, and traded like any other holding, and the firm that has carried the process furthest spent most of its life making radios for freight trains.” (11/06/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/thomas_karat/2026/11/05/a-billion-dollars-and-the-men-who-ran-israels-wars

Faster, Pussycat! Annual Fundraiser!

Hey, everyone …

Today is NOT a “Firehose Friday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — we’ve got full 60-item email/social media editions for you. But we also have EXTRA content (another 20+ news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links) for you here at the web edition.

Yesterday was a “zero-dollar day” in our annual fundraiser. Our total remains at $1,151.50.

Our goal is $5,503. Once we’ve raised the first half ($2,751.50), supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for the other half. We’re $1,600 short of — only 41% of the way to — the goal.

This weekend, help us out with a “great leap forward” to the $1,500 mark. If we raise $348.50 between now and Monday, we’ll be at $1,500 (and 54% of the way home). So …

PLEASE SUPPORT RRND/FND!

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

… and then have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!

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

The Boogeyman Ballot

Source: Libertarian Party
by Rob Yates

“Two tribes, one reflex. When we are frightened, the person who chooses differently stops being a neighbor and becomes the threat. Every uniparty election campaign in America is built to harvest it. Politics learned the curfew lesson long ago. Fear travels faster than facts, and every cycle brings a new creature under the bed with a party beside it holding a flashlight and a donation link.” (11/05/26)

https://lp.org/the-boogeyman-ballot/

CA: Newsom commutes all of state’s death sentences

Source: NBC News

“Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted all California death sentences on Thursday, declaring that ‘state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with’ values in America’s most populous state. In an open letter to constituents, Newsom said taking this step is ‘among the most difficult of my career.’ ‘I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,’ he said. California has not put a prisoner to death since Jan. 17, 2006 when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death via lethal injection.” (11/05/26)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-gov-gavin-newsom-commutes-death-sentences-rcna607727

We Don’t Need Politicians to Make it So

Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg

“The ultimate testament to [Patrick] Stewart’s acting skill is that he made it hard not to suspend disbelief, one hour at a time, in what [Ryan] Zickgraf calls ‘authority with authoritarianism apparently filtered out.’ In the real world, we have what we need to exclude authoritarians from getting in the way of getting things done.” (11/05/26)

https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20970

The Rule of Law Will Sometimes Be Unjust. Defend It Anyway.

Source: Liberalism.org
by Michael Burger

“Rules of law can never always produce justice. That’s because life really is complicated. The facts that pertain to doing true justice are unpredictable. Inevitably, even the best-designed rules of law will sometimes get it wrong, with unjust results. When that happens, the law will be an ass. So in a perfectly just world we need sometimes to ignore rules of law. We need a government, or at least agents of government (in other words, judges) who will take into account all of the truly pertinent facts, not just the facts that rules of law say are pertinent. We need a government, in other words, that is not bound by the law, to really deliver justice in a way that the law cannot. Now medieval intellectuals had a term for a ruler unbound by law: a tyrant.” (11/05/26)

https://liberalism.org/essays/the-rule-of-law-will-sometimes-be-unjust-defend-it-anyway

Nigeria: Court nullifies presidential contender’s candidacy two months before election

Source: Associated Press

“A Nigerian court disqualified a leading presidential candidate Thursday, complicating the electoral process two months before the election. A Federal High Court judge in Abuja, the country’s capital, ruled that the leadership of the African Democratic Congress, one of the three major parties contesting the January 2027 election, was illegally constituted and therefore voided the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar. Earlier in the year, a court ordered the party deregistered for failing to meet constitutional requirements, but an appeals court overturned the ruling. The party and government critics say the case was orchestrated by the ruling party.” (11/05/26)

https://apnews.com/article/nigeria-election-atiku-abubakar-court-e37403f0930a889b9e48b4e93eca2fd3

Hungary’s Lesson: Beware the Dangers of Socialism

Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow

“With ever more Americans bizarrely rating ‘socialism’ favorably today, we should remember the high price paid by Hungarians to escape real socialism. Hungary’s tortured history reminds us of the fragility of liberty. Tragically, the Hungarian people lost their battle for freedom 70 years ago. However, their loss planted seeds for the ultimate destruction of Moscow’s satellite system and Europe’s liberation from communism.” (11/05/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/hungarys-lesson-beware-the-dangers-of-socialism/