“Is one of the world’s most pernicious social stigmas finally lifting? In late September, more than 1,400 young people from nearly 70 countries locked tools at the WorldSkills competition, testing their abilities across 64 crafts, from industrial robotics to culinary techniques. This Olympics-like contest, held in Shanghai this year, has grown in stature and scope over decades. And so, perhaps, has a favorable view of blue-collar work. A survey of the skilled tradespeople pitted against each other for four days found 71% believe the public image of technical and vocational careers has improved. Three-quarters (76%) of respondents say technical and vocational skills are increasingly important to the global economy. Yet just over half had been encouraged by parents or others toward traditional academic paths. In the United States, at least, such advice nowadays makes less sense.” (10/08/26)
“With less than a month before the midterm elections, attempts by President Donald Trump and his administration to keep certain Americans from voting will likely continue. Voting is how we get an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives, regardless of race, disability, zip code, language, or income. That’s why we need to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot free from fear, intimidation, or unnecessary barriers. Anti-democratic forces might dominate the headlines, but they have not dominated the outcomes. That’s important. Our democracy is strongest when voters can fully participate. Our elections are strongest when election officials can do their jobs free from political interference. And our future is strongest when Americans believe that their voice matters.” (10/08/26)
“This week, Judge Mark Cohen’s long, checkered judicial career came to an ignoble end. The Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari to challenge the 2024 ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that he was properly suspended over a litany of partisan social media posts while a sitting judge. Cohen is a former Democratic politician who ran unsuccessfully for Congress, but served for many years in the state House until defeated in 2016. In 2018, Cohen successfully ran for the Court of Common Pleas. After receiving a ‘Not Recommended’ rating from the Philadelphia Bar Association, he barely won the seat with the second-lowest vote total among the victors. During this time on the bench, Cohen continued to maintain his political public persona with social media posts that many found injudicious and unethical. In October 2024, the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline took the rare step of ejecting him from the bench and suspending him without pay over his Facebook posts.” (10/08/26)
“Over the summer, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration free rein to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, along with hundreds of thousands of TPS holders from other countries, limiting the accountability any administration will have for making determinations about TPS for the foreseeable future. Last month, a young pre-med college student named Pierre Damas Bel from Springfield, Ohio was found dead, by an apparent suicide. He was suffering depression brought on by the termination of TPS and being forced to wear an Immigration and Custom Enforcement-issued ankle bracelet. What happened to Damas Bel represents the real human cost of these inhumane policies. But sadly, I don’t believe we have reached the nadir of this administration’s cruelty.” (10/08/26)
“French President Emmanuel Macron went full Orwell this week. While long the darling of Western media, Macron has been one of the most anti-free-speech leaders in the world. This week, he declared that ‘The so-called American ‘free speech’ today, which some people have promoted, is the opposite of free speech.’ Having Emmanuel Macron holding forth on free speech is akin to Joey Chestnut proselytizing on veganism. France has been in a headlong plunge into censorship and speech criminalization. These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to ‘inciting’ or ‘intimidating’ others based on race or religion. For example, fashion designer John Galliano has been found guilty in a French court on charges of making anti-Semitic comments in a Paris bar. In another case, the father of French conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was fined because he had called people from the Roma minority ‘smelly’.” (10/07/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“No one cares. They used to, but then Israel spent three years showing the world why October 7 happened in the first place. After witnessing the cruelty and savagery of the state of Israel, people get it now. Everyone understands. After Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on the morning of October 7, there was an outpouring of love and sympathy for Israel from around the entire world. Every major landmark from the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House to the Empire State Building were illuminated blue and white in solidarity with the Israeli people. … Anyone who hadn’t been following the Israel-Palestine issue very closely was on Israel’s side that day. And then the bombs started dropping. And dropping. And dropping. And dropping.” (10/07/26)
“The concept of innocence shows up often in international law, and in recent weeks, a growing number of countries have rallied to defend it – in the narrowest part of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The waterway links Europe and Asia, helping ships avoid a long route around Africa. An expanding war to keep the strait open and safe for commercial ships (a historic right known as ‘innocent passage’) has now gone global, especially after Iran closed the nearby Strait of Hormuz in its war with the United States. Together, the two vital sea-lanes have served as a transit point for more than a quarter of seaborne petroleum. Recent violations of these ‘innocent’ waterways, embedded in rules for the freedom of navigation, have raised prices at the pump everywhere, even in oil-rich North America.” (10/07/26)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“One of the most potent midterm election slogans was offered by the Republicans in 1946: ‘HAD ENOUGH?’ The GOP swept into power after years of New Deal dominance. We like to say that what counts is not what you are against, but what you are for. Not always, though. Sometimes ‘Had enough?’ is enough. Midterm elections often are waged as a rebuke to the party in control of the White House. Political scientists call this a thermostatic election. Voters adjust the temperature by turning the dial away from perceived overreaches. Sometimes the floor just drops out from under a political party. This could be a year when ‘Had enough?’ is enough. But at times candidates have an agenda, detailed or implicit. Those are the years that produce the biggest change.” (10/07/26)
“Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel took aim at BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, hauling them into federal court on antitrust charges. The theory was breathtaking in scope. She accused them of stealing the future. Nessel’s complaint claimed that the companies had colluded, in violation of federal antitrust law, to hold back wind, solar, and electric vehicles and that Michigan families had paid inflated energy bills as a result. Judge Jane M. Beckering of the U.S. Western District Court in Michigan dismissed the complaint, holding that the state lacked standing to pursue the claim at all. That was only the beginning of the court’s skepticism. As reported, Judge Beckering found that the alleged chain connecting a decades-long conspiracy to the state’s claimed overcharges stretched too thin to support most of the injuries Michigan tried to claim.” (10/07/26)
“Nithya Raman appears to think she is running for mayor of Antifa, not mayor of LA. There’s no other explanation for her latest attack on her opponent — and the police. As The California Post has reported, Raman’s campaign posted, then deleted, a video in which she appears to call Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell ‘fascists’. The video also shows McDonnell with a red ‘X’ over his face. It’s reminiscent of the graffiti scrawled on local businesses and government buildings during the George Floyd riots of 2020, or the anti-ICE riots of 2025. The rioters are her constituency. That’s the message she’s sending by calling McDonnell a ‘fascist’. Does she even know what that means?” (10/07/26)
