Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Hayley Tsukayama
“Developers of virtual private network (VPN) apps are reporting that their products are again being pulled from Apple’s App Store in Russia. This is an unacceptable crackdown on a vital tool to protect privacy and speech online. Why? VPNs give people a way to control their own online activities. When you visit a website through a VPN, that website only sees the VPN server’s location (well, IP address) rather than your actual location. It’s like sending a letter through a P.O. box so the recipient doesn’t know where you really live. It can also disguise where you’re accessing information from, which can make it possible to access information banned by your government.” (10/30/26)
“For years, Trump has claimed that foreign governments possess the power to hack electronic voting machines to change the outcome of a race. Election-security experts and lawmakers told me that they expect him to trot out the same claims again if Republicans lose large numbers of seats in the House and Senate. And they’re concerned that he’ll use classified intelligence reports as a pretext for trying to seize ballots or stop vote-counting by the states.” (10/30/26)
“Every two years, Gallup survey researchers ask Americans how much ‘thought’ they typically give to congressional midterm elections. This year’s 56% response of ‘quite a lot’ is the highest recorded over the nearly 70 years since Gallup first asked that question in 1958. Economic and financial pressures are a primary driver of heightened attention to the 2026 midterms. But a majority of Americans also say they are ‘stressing out’ about ‘the future of the nation’ (74%) and civic division (58%). In response, a wide range of civic and interfaith collaboration is seeking to pierce the haze of uncertainty and polarization. A quick online search reveals dozens of prayer gatherings and community conversations scheduled across the United States in the weeks and days preceding the Nov. 3 vote.” (10/30/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Madsen Pirie
“There are many phrases of Adam Smith that are well worth echoing today, and one of the most significant is this: ‘The end of all production is consumption.’ It is not to create jobs. The people who talk of new industries creating many new jobs are putting the cart before the horse. The aim of production is not to give people work to do; it is to produce goods and services that people will freely buy because they help improve their lives.” (10/30/26)
“The gloaming deepened on a Halloween in the early 1970s. A restless gaggle of youths just turned teens pondered making a final stab at trick-or-treating. The problem? They had no costumes, having earlier laughed at how such garb was for little kids, not for them. But now, uncool or not, those costumed kids were getting free candy. They were not. Amid the enveloping darkness, Jack-o’-lanterns flickered and costumed children tittered and flitted from door to door. Time was expiring. What to do? One youth, his face etched with angst, hesitantly floated a trial balloon in the gloaming. ‘Let’s just knock doors like this’. The gaggle eyed one another’s black T-shirts, jeans, and boots. The bald suggestion hung in the air until… Shrugs. Swiftly, pillowcases were pilfered from their unwitting parents and the gaggle’s quest for treats sans costumes commenced. It didn’t go well.” (10/31/26)
“I just returned from a long visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Great fun, but there’s a background climate of fear. Wherever you go, you see and hear warnings about bears — and admonitions to carry bear spray. The warnings and admonitions come from official signage, friends, and fellow tourists. Conveniently enough, bear spray is available at virtually every store, for a price of $40 a can. … soon after I bought my bear spray — and spotted our first bear — I decided to confirm the risk. I found much ado about next to nothing. Over the last ten years, Yellowstone saw just 9 bear attacks, with 0 deaths. Grand Teton had 1 bear attack, with 0 deaths.” (10/30/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The viral Red Baron Pizza worker and his $500,000 fundraiser is not a feel-good story, it’s a feel-bad story. Everything about it says horrible things about where our society is headed. Some obnoxious prick films a guy working his fingers to the bone for a ‘prank’ hoping to get social media clicks, and the worker flips out at him because his shitty, abusive job had stretched him a hair’s breadth from snapping. The video goes viral because people sympathize with a father shouting at a creepy live-streamer about how his shift was supposed to end an hour ago and he needs to get up at five in the morning to do it all again so his family doesn’t get evicted from the home he’s struggling to pay for, and then a fundraiser is launched which winds up giving the man half a million dollars.” (10/31/26)
“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Two socialists walk into a bar. One, a socialist of the more nationalist vintage—a self-styled ‘Heritage American,’ though he dares not utter the dreaded ‘S’ word. The other, a more traditional Marxist, with some critical theory and anti-Zionism sprinkled in for good measure. Both are politicians dripping with smarm. As soon as the two men belly up to the bar, an angry economist approaches them with a question: ‘Why should I vote for either of you bozos?'” (10/30/26)
“Heading out early on a brisk, bright Saturday morning, brilliant red, gold, yellow trees shimmered in every direction as Maine’s autumn temperatures recovered from near freezing overnight to warmish. It’s prime fleece season in New England and beyond, but Ben Waxman is losing business. Waxman is a co-owner of American Roots, a small clothing manufacturer, one of the businesses in the Dana Warp Mill, a restored 19th-century textile mill on the banks of the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, a Portland suburb. The firm makes T-shirts, hoodies, and specially designed casual wear, and proclaims its products ‘Union Strong, American Made, Proudly Sewn in Maine’. For months, the outlook has been any anything but robust, since the Trump administration launched a trade war against Canada and a shooting war against Iran.” (10/30/26)
