“Gov. Gavin Newsom is celebrating a win after a judge ruled last week that his $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News can move forward. Newsom filed the defamation lawsuit in June against the conservative-leaning news network, alleging it misled the public about a phone conversation that took place between the California governor and President Donald Trump during civil unrest that erupted in Los Angeles earlier that month. Judge Sean P. Lugg said in an April 30 decision rejecting the network’s motion to dismiss that he found it ‘reasonably conceivable’ that Fox knew the statements were false before making them. ‘Looking forward to discovery,’ Newsom wrote Thursday on X after the judge’s decision, alluding to the legal process where each side turns over documents, including private communications that could be embarrassing.” (05/04/26)
“The day I talked to Dan Osborn last month, he had just quit his job. He had been working as a steamfitter at Grunwald Mechanical, an HVAC contractor in Omaha, while also running his second campaign for U.S. Senate as an independent. The first one, two years ago against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, nearly succeeded, with Osborn performing 14 points better against his Republican opponent than Kamala Harris did in Nebraska against hers. But a nonpolitician has to eat, so Osborn went back to work, even while signing up for a second campaign against Nebraska’s other senator, former Gov. Pete Ricketts. The demands of the campaign trail got to be too much for a full-time job, and Osborn knows choosing it over a steady paycheck is a risky move.” (05/04/26)
“President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. will significantly reduce its troop presence in Germany, escalating a dispute with Chancellor Friedrich Merz as he seeks to scale back America’s commitment to European security. The Pentagon on Friday had initially announced it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but when asked Saturday about the reason for the move, Trump didn’t offer an explanation and said an even bigger reduction was coming. ‘We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,’ Trump told reporters in Florida. Earlier on Saturday, Germany’s defense minister appeared to take in stride the news that 5,000 U.S. troops would be leaving his country.” [editor’s note: Yet another thing we libertarians have been agitating for for decades? Or just another ploy? – SAT] (05/02/26)
“The zombies are everywhere. They’re staring at their phones as they carelessly cross the road. They’re constantly watching videos, sound-on and loudly, on airplanes or in store check-out lines. And they’re not Gen Z screenagers; now, the kids’ aging grandparents are quickly becoming the biggest screen addicts of all. … Last month Wired reported that a med student in India used AI to create a character named Emily Hart (a pretty blonde ‘MAGA influencer’ who claimed to enjoy posing in a stars-and-stripes bikini) and profited handsomely from the deception. In March the equally fake Jessica Foster, billed as a US Army service member, was exposed as a money-spinning AI fiction in a similar scam. Youngsters can spot AI from a mile away; it wasn’t Gen Z sending over cash.” (05/02/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Laws aimed at pro-Palestine protests should always be looked at as efforts to ban criticism of Israel. That’s what we’re seeing in the UK as the prime minister encourages the prosecution of anyone who says ‘globalise the intifada.’ ‘If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,’ said Keir Starmer during a Thursday press conference. ‘It is racism, extremely racism and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong. So, I say again this government will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.'” (05/02/26)
“In its daily use of social media (three hours, 32 minutes on average), Latin America leads the world. Over the past quarter century, it has nearly tripled the number of people attending university and cut poverty by about half. This list of notable trends could go on, regardless of concerns about crime, corruption, and caudillo-style rulers. Together, however, they might help explain this latest news: Last year, the region saw the greatest improvement in key indicators of democracy, such as political participation and civil liberties, compared with Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. In fact, it was the only region to improve. And Latin America did so after seeing nine years of decline on the index of democracy compiled annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).” (05/01/26)
“Police in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) have charged a man with murder and two counts of sexual assault following the death of a five-year-old girl. The body of the girl, who is identified only as Kumanjayi Little Baby for cultural reasons, was discovered on Thursday following severals days of a major police search. Jefferson Lewis, 47, was charged with her murder on Saturday night and has been scheduled to appear in a Darwin court on Tuesday. Five people have been arrested over violent riots in Alice Springs sparked by the child’s death. Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole announced the charges against Lewis on Sunday morning.” (05/02/26)
“On three major occasions in President Trump’s second term, his opponents, including many elected officials, have taken to the streets under the banner of ‘No Kings.’ And yet just this week, King Charles III spoke before our joint houses of Congress, where his comments about governmental checks and balances drew a standing ovation from everyone there. A contradiction lies here, between our history and our perception of it. The truth is, the law that made kings untouchable (that ‘the king can do no wrong) has never gone away in the United States. Instead, it multiplied. Today we call it ‘sovereign immunity.'” [editor’s note: Fascinating how this “progressive” pundit babbles about “sovereign immunity” when the “qualified” version for police is the real problem – SAT] [editor’s note: Fascinating how SAT doesn’t understand that the “qualified” version is a just a subset of the “sovereign” version and that both are irredeemably evil – TLK] (05/02/26)
“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ — Declaration of Independence … No, our Founders were not totally consistent with the above principle, and frankly, America never has been. But to understand their failings in the matter, we must comprehend the age in which they lived, the ‘zeitgeist’ they grew up in. Very, very few Americans today understand it, and the hypocritical Left condemns our Founders for it. This column aims to show the current utter hypocrisy of today’s Democratic Party, and please be patient, reader, we will arrive there by and by.” (05/02/26)
“Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has arrived in Eswatini, days after his government said a trip had been cancelled due to China pressuring African countries to stop him flying over their territories. His visit to Eswatini – Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa — followed ‘days of careful arrangements by the diplomatic and national security teams,’ he said, without giving further details on how he reached the country. China described the visit as a ‘stowaway-style escape farce.’ China [pretends Taiwan is] part of its territory with no right to state-to-state relations. Images showed Lai being welcomed by Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Dlamini as he walked past a guard of honour. Taiwan’s delegation also included Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung and National Security Council Adviser Alex Huang, according to its presidential office.” (05/02/26)
