“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared war on kratom, an unregulated herbal medicine that comes from the leaves of the mitragyna plant in Southeast Asia. In a Facebook post last week, the governor boasted that state agents have removed over 3,300 kratom and related 7-OH products from the shelves of licensed businesses in California in just three weeks. This is in response to growing numbers of kratom-related deaths. Newsom points out that from 2020-22, 242 deaths in the state have been linked to kratom, with 27 due to kratom alone. Now that many kratom products have been stripped from the shelves of California gas stations and convenience stores, problem solved, right? WRONG. Unfortunately, Newsom’s response only scratches the surface of the problem.” [editor’s note: The “problem” is the idea that Newsom, Siegel, or anyone else should get to decide what other people eat, drink, smoke, snort, inject, etc. – TL] (03/09/26)
“Unidentified suspects fired multiple shots at the US consulate in Toronto in what officials have described as a ‘national security incident’, as police work to determine the motive behind the attack. Authorities said the shooting occurred early on Tuesday morning at around 04:30 local time (08:30 GMT). Officers found shell casings at the scene, as well as damage to the building, said Frank Barredo, deputy chief of the Toronto Police. The US State Department said it was aware of the incident and was closely monitoring the situation in coordination with local law enforcement. It comes as Norwegian police investigate an explosion that occurred outside the US embassy in Oslo on Sunday.” (03/10/26)
“The White House said it fired a National Transportation Safety Board member after reports of drinking on the job and harassing staff, but Todd Inman flatly denied the allegations Monday and said he plans to fight back. Inman revealed Sunday that he had been fired on Friday without explanation, though his term on the board was supposed to continue through the end of 2027. President DonaldTrump’s administration said Monday that it believes the firing is justified. ‘The White House lawfully removed Todd Inman from the NTSB after receiving highly concerning reports of inappropriate alcohol use on the job, harassment of staff, misuse of government resources, and failure to attend at least half of NTSB meetings,’ spokesman Kush Desai said. … Inman said Monday that he hadn’t initially planned to sue over his firing, but now says, ‘I look forward to defending my reputation through all legal means possible.'” (03/10/26)
“A group of Democratic Party moderates gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, last Sunday and Monday for an event organized by Third Way, an influential group in the party’s moderate wing. The event, entitled ‘Winning the Middle’, brought together elected officials, prominent pundits, data gurus, communication savants, and industry figures with one goal in mind: how to block a progressive from winning the party’s nomination for president in 2028. The event’s speakers celebrated their claim that a similar conference hosted by Third Way in the same location back in 2019 helped power Joe Biden (whom they touted as ‘the most conservative Democrat in the 2020 field’) to the White House, recalling that South Carolina served as both the last refuge of and launching pad for the then-former vice president’s flailing presidential campaign.” (03/10/26)
Source: TomDispatch
by Janet Abou-Elias & William D. Hartung
“‘I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us’, said Alex Karp, the CEO of the emerging military tech firm Palantir. Far from an offhand outburst, his statement reflects a broader ethos taking hold in Silicon Valley’s military-tech sector, one that treats coercion as innovation, cruelty as candor, and the unchecked application of technological power as both inevitable and desirable. Karp loves verbal combat as much as he likes running a firm that makes high-tech weaponry. His company has helped Israel increase the pace at which it has bombed and slaughtered Palestinians in Gaza, and its technology has helped ICE accelerate deportations, while also helping locate and identify demonstrators in Minneapolis. Not only is Karp unapologetic about the damage done by his company’s products, he openly revels in it.” (03/08/26)
“I’m a practical person. Ideas matter, but they only come to life when we put them into practice. So if you haven’t heard from me recently, it’s because I’ve been out there, around the country, putting the Organizing Revival into practice on the ground with People’s Action organizers and our growing family of allies. And I’ve been cooking! Yes, I mean that literally. As I’ve met with different people, we’ve been making chiles rellenos, one of my most cherished dishes! Cooking and eating together has become an important part of these strategic gatherings, as we commit to move forward together into an uncertain landscape that holds dark but certain challenges. I’ll share more about this, and my recipe, in a bit. But first, I want to talk about the moment we’re in. I recently wrote an article in Convergence Magazine that I hope you’ve seen.” (03/09/26)
“The primary obligation of any government, the Declaration of Independence tells us in its famous second paragraph, is the ‘safety and happiness’ of its citizens. The necessity of securing safety is obvious (except to progressive politicians in big blue cities, who are often diffident about crime and disorder), but it is thought something of a novelty of the Declaration to set out ‘the pursuit of happiness’ as one of the central ‘inalienable rights’, along with life and liberty. It is well established that Thomas Jefferson and his collaborators in writing the Declaration (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston) followed the language and logic of John Locke’s ‘Second Treatise of Government’. But Locke and other social-contract theorists of the era typically spoke of the inalienable natural rights to ‘life, liberty and property’, or ‘life, liberty and estate.’?” (03/08/26)
“Police in Norway have released pictures of a suspect linked to an explosion outside the US’s embassy in Norway’s capital Oslo on Sunday. Two heavily pixelated images taken from surveillance footage show a person with their face concealed, dressed in dark clothing and carrying a backpack. Police said in a statement on Monday that their investigation had so far showed the explosion was caused by an improvised device that was placed at the building’s entrance. The blast caused minor damage and no injuries were reported. Police previously said it was possible the explosion was an act of terrorism. They said in their latest update that they had no developments on the attacker’s motive. As well as the images, investigators were also examining a video published on Google Maps around the time of the incident, police said.” (03/09/26)
“A week into Trump’s illegal war against Iran, the White House released a 42-second video on X, featuring movie scenes spliced with real military footage of strikes in Iran, promising ‘justice, the American way’. Rather than sober statements about national security or the grim human realities of war, the March 5 video resembled a movie trailer. The clips stitched together real footage of missile strikes with pop-culture heroes: Russell Crowe in Gladiator, Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Keanu Reeves’ relentless assassin in the John Wick films. Even SpongeBob SquarePants made an appearance. The video was immediately mocked for reflecting the militaristic fantasies of teenage boys (see Hegseth, Pete), more than that of the US starting a war. The editing followed a familiar formula: a heroic movie quote, a dramatic cut to real explosions, then a video-game style victory sound. War, apparently, has become content.” (03/09/26)
“Meta’s AI glasses were a breakout hit of 2025, with more than 7 million pairs sold. But the Bay Area tech giant now faces disconcerting allegations about the footage recorded by the devices’ cameras. The company pitches its glasses, with their small cameras that have raised some privacy concerns, as safe: ‘Designed for privacy, controlled by you’. In late February, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, or SvD, published an investigation that said Kenyan subcontractors end up seeing deeply personal footage from the glasses — including bank cards, people changing and people having sex. A new federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Wednesday points to the article and accuses Meta of false advertising, fraud and breach of contract. ‘Consumers purchased these Glasses believing Meta’s privacy assurances,’ the complaint says. ‘They did not, and could not reasonably, understand that their bedrooms, bathrooms, families, bodies, and more would be exposed to strangers around the world.'” (03/08/26)
