“The way people of later times view a dark age is, due once again to the lack of reliable records, not at all the same as the way people living in such an age view it; the only people who are in a position to recognize that they’re living in such an age are those who understand what the term means in the first place. So it’s doubtful that the authoritarian rulers of countries like India and the United States recognize (or care) what they’re doing to future history; what’s important to this discussion is that they are using modern computer technology to do it. In the last century, it would’ve been impossible for a Trump, Modi, or Xi to eliminate every single instance of a fact or opinion they disliked …. when physical media are no longer the norm, universal censorship of a work enters the realm of the possible.” (10/06/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Throughout history, there have been tyrannies that have been imposed on the citizenry through non-democratic means. Monarchies have been one example. Another example have been communist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and Cuba. Still other examples have been U.S.-supported national-security-state coups in Iran, Guatemala, and Chile. What many Americans fail to realize, however, is that it is entirely possible to have tyranny with a democratically elected system.” (10/06/25)
“When John Searle exposes the errors of materialists, dualists can only be delighted. Searle and dualists, both minorities in academic philosophy of mind, have something crucial in common: Namely, they agree that mental states as standardly conceived exist; they are not ‘really’ illusions, behavior, functions, or computer programs. Denial of the reality of the mental, rather than being the necessary implication of science, is in fact a profoundly unscientific attempt to say that reality can only contain what our theories adequately account for. Despite these points of agreement, Searle’s solution to the mind-body problem is avowedly anti-dualistic; and even if he requested admission to the dualist camp, it is likely that they should be uneasy to receive him.” (10/06/25)
“When the second Trump administration issued an order threatening to strip federal funding from K-12 schools that teach children ‘anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies’ related to gender and race, it was lifting from Florida’s playbook. Likewise, the administration’s campaign against universities on such issues as anti-Israel protests, transgender athletes, and critical race theory were all preceded by Florida, where a powerful executive branch, Republican-controlled Legislature, and conservative state Supreme Court allowed Gov. Ron DeSantis to apply intense pressure to public universities and school districts. … In March, Maria Rojas, a Texas midwife who operated four clinics for low-income women in Harris and Waller counties, became the first person in the state arrested for allegedly providing illegal abortions. Rojas'[s] case was the first opportunity for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office to flex its new criminal and civil powers under a trio of anti-abortion bills passed in 2021.” (for publication 11/25)
Source: CounterPunch
by Jeff Cohen & Richard Eskow
“Parts of the plan are uncontroversial. All sane people want the war to end quickly. And few would object to point 18, which calls for ‘an interfaith dialogue …based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.’ And yet, I wonder how many Americans noticed that #5 calls on Israel to release the 1,700 people it has seized from Gaza since 2023, ‘including all women and children …’ How many Americans even knew that Israel routinely imprisons children before they saw that sentence? Our media doesn’t mention it much. … Under international law, the United States and other countries should condemn this child abuse and demand that the children be released. however, the Trump plan uses this longstanding criminal practice as leverage, saying that the children will only be released when Hamas accedes to the demands in this proposal.” (10/06/25)
“In his novel The Autumn of the Patriarch, which is eerily evocative of our current political plight, Gabriel Garcia Marquez described how a Latin American autocrat ‘discovered in the course of his uncountable years that a lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth, [and] became convinced … that the only livable life was one of show.’ In amassing unchecked power spiced with unimaginable cruelty, that fictional dictator extinguished any flicker of opposition in his imaginary Caribbean country, reducing its elite to a craven set of courtiers. Even though he butchered opponents, plundered the treasury, raped the young, and reduced his nation to penury, ‘lettered politicians and dauntless adulators … proclaimed him the corrector of earthquakes, eclipses, leap years and other errors of God.'” (10/06/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Carroll
“With the Bureau of Labor Statistics generating all this attention, many are taking the opportunity to highlight its perceived shortcomings and ways that it might be reformed and improved. But there is a much more foundational question that we ought to be asking: Should the BLS even exist in the first place?” (10/06/25)
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich & Elizabeth Kucinich
“Western governments are preparing a plan for Gaza’s postwar administration. The proposal, advanced through quiet coordination between Washington, London, and Jerusalem, would establish a new international body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority to govern the territory for several years following the conflict. The concept, promoted as a stabilization effort, is said to draw inspiration from earlier foreign-led missions in Kosovo and Lebanon. At the center of this ‘plan’ is the risible suggestion that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should lead the authority, overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction, policing, and governance on behalf of the self-proclaimed international community.” (10/06/25)
“The off-year governor’s election in purple Virginia is almost always a win for the party that doesn’t hold the White House, but this year the race is showing how much Democrats have refused to learn their lessons from their massive culture-war losses of 2024. The battle in the Old Dominion has all the hallmarks of Democrats’ White House defeat in November. An uninspiring political-insider candidate, hand-picked by the party establishment, is running a campaign that relies on hype from friendly media. She’s dodging questions about hot-button cultural issues — including trans athletes in school sports and men [sic] in girls’ dressing rooms — and betting she can coast to victory on resistance-fueled backlash to President Donald Trump.” (10/05/25)
“Buyers are sidelined by high prices, while owners cling to historically cheap loans and high equity. The freeze is reshaping labor markets and family formation.” (10/06/25)
