Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Never forget October 7th 2023, that fateful day when Israelis were brutally massacred by Israeli tanks and Israeli helicopters and Israeli drones and Israeli soldiers and Israeli bullets, and also by Hamas a bit. … I’m sorry but it’s just plain hilarious that we’re still expected to hate Hamas after spending two years being shown exactly what it is that Hamas has been fighting. Only Israelis could spend two years committing genocide and then demand everyone feel very, very sorry for them on the anniversary their genocide started.” (10/08/25)
“Democrats know they have a problem with working-class voters but don’t agree on the cause. Commentators chalk Kamala Harris’[s] 2024 loss to high prices, an unusually short campaign cycle, or voter resentment against the possibility of having an African American woman as president. But the Democratic Party’s working-class woes have much deeper roots. Many voters in key battleground states feel burned by decades of Democrats’ unrealized promises to improve the lives of working people, failure to reign in obscene economic inequality, and support for economically disastrous policies (from NAFTA to the entrance of China to the World Trade Organization) that led to the loss of countless jobs and futures in their states.” (10/08/25)
“Tuesday was one of those days when you can feel the world shifting. The think tank Ember reported that for the first half of 2025 renewable energy produced more electricity than coal. More to the point, solar and wind grew so fast that they covered all the growth in demand for electricity so far this year, with room to spare. That means that fossil fuel emissions for producing electricity plateaued (even fell slightly) over the first half of the year. It’s an epochal moment: It demonstrates that the clean energy transition is not destined to be the slow, dragged-out affair that most analysts would have predicted even five years ago. ‘The fall overall of fossil may be small, but it is significant,’ said one of the Ember researchers.” (10/08/25)
“Cruelty, including a lust for vengeance, largely defines President Donald Trump’s character. And with an enemies list that is nearly limitless, he will never lack for targets. Among his self-declared enemies is the entire Democratic Party. Democrats, according to Trump, are a radical, evil, and dangerous lot. Going a step further, he has also declared that Democrats are ‘the party of hate, evil, and Satan.’ The same goes for the political left in general. To Trump’s mind, all these people, representing approximately half of the nation’s population based upon election results, are evil and deserve punishment. They are, as Trump tells us, the enemy within. But it would be a mistake to assume vengeance is Trump’s ultimate goal. Yes, he is vindictive, and, yes, he enjoys hurting people who he feels crossed him; but he clearly also has grander dreams.” (10/08/25)
“The federal government has, for decades, behaved as though the fundamentals of basic budgeting don’t apply. But that’s hardly surprising considering that Congress has rewarded this poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars again and again. Bureaucrats have every incentive to burn through taxpayer money and no incentive to save it. The widespread practice of ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ budgeting has been the result, and it has to stop. Imagine if an American family, having paid their bills to cover their monthly expenses, decided to intentionally spend their remaining paycheck as fast as they possibly could. Instead of using their remaining paycheck for investments, or add to their savings, or set money aside for a rainy day; their only objective is to spend their paycheck quickly on whatever they can find. No family spends money this way. Because money doesn’t grow on trees.” (10/08/25)
“Indiana will put to death a man who was convicted in the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl, the state’s third [pre-planned prisoner killing] since resuming capital punishment last year. The [pre-planned prisoner killing] of Roy Lee Ward is scheduled before sunrise Friday at the state prison in Michigan City, Indiana. The 53-year-old has exhausted his legal options to challenge the sentence. Ward’s [pre-planned prisoner killing] by lethal injection comes amid questions about Indiana’s handling of pentobarbital, the drug it has used in recent [pre-planned prisoner killings].” (10/08/25)
“The Department of Labor’s new rule cutting farmworker wages bluntly states that souped-up immigration enforcement has devastated the agricultural workforce and created a significant ‘risk of supply shock-induced food shortages,’ according to a document filed in the Federal Register last week. The document also indicates that American workers are simply not interested in and do not have the skills to perform agricultural jobs, at odds with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’s claim that the farm workforce will soon be 100 percent American. ‘The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,’ the document says, adding that ‘this threat will grow’ given new federal funding for immigration enforcement under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” (10/08/25)
“The IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce as part of the ongoing government shutdown, according to the an updated contingency plan posted Wednesday to the agency website. Most IRS operations are closed, the agency said in a separate letter to IRS workers. The news comes after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to fund federal operations and the government shutdown has entered its second week, with no discernible endgame in sight. The agency’s initial Lapse in Appropriations Contingency Plan provided for the first five business days of operations, when states that the department would remain open using Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act funds. Now, only 39,870 employees, or 53.6%, will remain working as the shutdown continues. Last week Trump said roughly 750,000 federal workers nationwide were expected to be furloughed across agencies, with some potentially fired by his administration.” (10/08/25)
“Calling in the National Guard and federal law enforcement isn’t a solution — it’s a signal that the system has cracked. Chicago is learning the hard way what happens when outdated police hiring practices collide with political cuts. Since 2019, more than 2,100 police positions have been eliminated, while the city added layers of bureaucracy. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) still has 795 unfilled vacancies, compounded by 833 position cuts under Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and 614 by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The result: President Donald Trump is now sending in the National Guard to cover gaps created by years of slow hiring pipelines, endless vacancies and deliberate downsizing.” [editor’s note: Snider is correct that military occupation of American cities isn’t a “solution” — to crime, anyway – TLK] (10/08/25)
“Law enforcement officials have arrested a Florida man in connection with the start of the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles in January. Federal officials arrested Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, on Tuesday in Florida on suspicion of starting the conflagration that eventually burned over 6,700 structures and left 12 people dead. In a press conference on Wednesday, acting U.S. Attorney Bilal ‘Bill’ Essayli said Rinderknecht faces federal charges of destruction of property by means of fire, facing up to 20 years in federal prison. Rinderknecht is accused of igniting a fire in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day on a hilltop in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, along the Temescal Ridge Trail. That small fire, dubbed the Lachman Fire, was extinguished on the surface by firefighters but smoldered for days underground before high winds and dry weather helped reignite nearby vegetation. That so-called holdover fire became the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7.” (10/08/25)
