Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich and Riley talk about this week’s online security breach, healthcare around the world, and this HEADLINE: Hero Oregon Dad Showed the Importance of Defying Restrictive Gun Laws.” (10/23/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/10/23/the-anarchist-experience-603/
Source: The American Conservative
by Jude Russo
“Sometimes you have to restate the obvious—dirty work, but someone has to do it: Another round of strikes is unlikely to accomplish this war’s stated political goals, which themselves change on a regular basis. While never-ending, mindless destruction for its own sake has its charms, I guess, generally speaking a war is supposed to accomplish something; the ‘something’ here has been at various times and non-exclusively the end of the Iranian nuclear program, reopening the Strait of Hormuz (which was open before the war), and regime change. The going theory among the teeming intellects downtown appears to be that yet another movement in the symphony of death, in concert with Scott Bessent’s exotic economic maneuvers, will get the Iranians to cry uncle and/or provoke a change of management in Tehran. Anything is possible, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” (10/23/26)
Hey, everyone …
THANK YOU to long-time supporter JR, whose $25 donation yesterday (with a note: “Not sure how much your copay is, but hopefully this helps” brings our annual fundraiser total to (as of 5am) $1,028!
Before going any further (it gets a little weird), let me mention that today is a “FIREHOSE FRIDAY” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper, with no email edition but about 100 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links lined up for you here at our web edition.
That “copay” remark from JR refers to yesterday’s update, in which I mentioned a medical appointment. I expected a 45-minute thing, but it turned into a four-plus-hour thing (not including an hour or so of travel time). A big chunk out of my usual work time, which is why I decided to go “web-only” today. Why more than four hours? Read on if you’re interested. But first:
We’re $1,723.50 short of our goal. Once we reach $2,751.50, supporter GL will “match funds” to get us to our goal of $5,503.
So: I went to the doctor to find out what kind of procedure I’d need to repair a hole in my left retina. Good news! The hole is too small to bother with, no surgery needed.
BUT!
Well, let me go with more good news: I PROBABLY don’t have cancer.
The four hours was all about multiple rounds of imaging because they saw something else in my eye. Optometrists doing regular eye exams have been mentioning a “freckle” in my eye for a decade or so, but the imaging at the specialist says it’s bigger than that. Ultrasound (one of, IIRC, four kinds of scans) says it is shaped “consistent with a choroidal melanoma.”
Which means more imaging every three months for probably a year to see if it is growing, changing, etc. It’s hard to biopsy the back of the eye, so all they can really do is watch and guess, then (if necessary) hit it with radiation, lasers, or surgery to remove the mass (or, possibly, the eye).
Am I worried? Yes. But there are worse things than rocking a Snake Plissken eyepatch for the rest of my life, which sounds like both a stretch and the worst even remotely likely outcome. Fortunately I have decent health coverage (through my wife’s employer).
If I was cynical, I’d say a cancer scare was just the thing I could use to get y’all to
Good thing I’m not cynical, huh?
I do hope you’ll support us because we bring you important content reliably, not because ooh, scary, poor Tom.
And I also hope you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: Yahoo! News
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says seven vessels were damaged in attacks or by naval mines near the Strait of Hormuz overnight Thursday, according to Iranian state media and the IRGC Navy. The move comes amid reports that the U.S. and Israel are drawing up plans to strike Iran after the U.S. midterm elections. President Donald Trump told NewsNation that the U.S. has ceased negotiations with Iran, but demurred on indicating when any additional military actions could take place. … On Truth Social, Trump accused Iran of trying to drive up the price of oil ahead of the upcoming election.” (10/22/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/iran-says-7-vessels-hit-104842813.html
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm
“An uncanny strength of the second Trump administration has been its ability to be involved in so many scandals that no single one seems to become a dominant story. Take the most recent allegations about Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal defense attorney, who recently landed a plush gig working for Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banker. Habba will get $50 million over five years to do unspecified work for a company that barely exists, according to The New York Times, while Herrera got a presidential pardon for a 2025 campaign finance charge. That’s just a typical day for the current White House, where the mingling of personal and public business has become routine.” (10/22/26)
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Why Corporations Are People.” (10/22/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/why-corporations-are-people
Source: Newsweek
“Jared Kushner has strongly denied allegations raised in a new Vanity Fair report that Dutch intelligence monitored activity on his phone and uncovered purported secret financial arrangements involving Middle Eastern governments, calling the claims ‘completely insane’ and saying they ‘never happened.’ … The report, written by Matthew Cole and excerpted from his forthcoming book Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East, alleges that Dutch intelligence obtained screenshots of Kushner’s iPhone through files found on a Russian military intelligence operative’s server and subsequently monitored his phone activity. … The report alleges that roughly $750 million was transferred into an account at First Abu Dhabi Bank held by the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, a UAE government-funded charity. Kushner was allegedly a signatory on the account, giving him access to it, but was not its owner … The article also alleges that a separate account in Israel received roughly $1 billion intended for Kushner’s personal benefit.” (10/22/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“According to election polls, Democrats are fairly certain to take control over the U.S. House of Representatives. There is now also the possibility that they could take control over the U.S. Senate. Realizing the danger he faces of losing control over Congress, President Trump is barnstorming the country, doing his best to rally his MAGA supporters to go to the polls and vote. But a question naturally arises: If Trump becomes certain that he faces defeat next month, will he switch directions and simply suspend the midterm elections? After all, one cannot lose an election if no election is held.” (10/22/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/10/22/will-trump-suspend-the-midterm-elections/
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“A strong earthquake struck [Chinese-occupied Tibet] on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people and injuring 65 others, Chinese state media reported. Hundreds of homes in the remote Himalayan region collapsed due to the magnitude 7.0 quake, Xinhua reported. … The earthquake’s epicenter is around 190 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Nagqu, a city around 300 kilometers north of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, the US Geological Survey said.” (10/23/26)
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“After leading with the theory of perfect competition, economics textbooks standardly add a ‘corrective’ chapter on the evils of monopoly. While they occasionally mention government-created monopoly, the focus is almost always on the harm of free-market monopoly, and the necessity of antitrust laws to combat such monopoly. A free-market monopoly is a business that manages to control a whole industry, and uses its control to slash output and raise prices. Later textbook chapters move on to markets with varying degrees of ‘monopoly power’ – and broadly conclude that as monopoly power goes up, market performance goes down. The moral: Free markets are only optimal in an extreme polar case. The further the real world strays from that case, the more suboptimal they become – and the more regulation improves the free-market outcome. Murray Rothbard rejects this picture, using three different sets of arguments.” (10/22/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/repairing-rothbardian-monopoly-theory