“Come back, Johnny Carson! Late-night TV no longer resembles the laughs-first model perfected by The Tonight Show legend and, later, Jay Leno. It’s all about pushing progressive talking points, often shoving comedy to the exits. A new study by the conservative NewsBusters highlights just how imbalanced late-night television has become in the Age of Kimmel. The study found that 87 percent of jokes that targeted senatorial candidates drew satirical blood against Republicans. The time period? Peak campaign season: September 8 through October 29. That’s no accident. Meanwhile, Democrats running for the Senate endured just seven jokes in toto.” (11/06/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian C York
“On November 3, our colleagues at the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in) received notifications from X that the Delhi Police had issued takedown requests targeting 42 URLs. Among the accounts and posts targeted were those belonging to SFLC.in, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), and X account @geoblockedindia, as well as posts documenting legal notices and instances of online censorship. Takedown requests targeting SFLC.in and other digital rights groups threaten not only their work, but the public’s ability to know when and how online speech is being restricted.” (11/06/26)
“A common complaint from recent dumbphone converts is that the switch has made them more reliant on others. Without a smartphone, it becomes necessary to ask for directions, weather, transit times and other information that was once easily accessed online. But why is interdependence a bad thing? In the depths of what has been dubbed a ‘loneliness epidemic,’ with friendship rates at an all-time low and screen time at an all-time high, the solution is not to become more self-reliant but to reinforce our social fabric through shared responsibility. I have lived without a smartphone for the past four years, and in that time I have grown comfortable depending on friends and even strangers to help me navigate an increasingly digital world.” (11/08/26)
“Trump’s tariff embrace has represented a revolution within the Republican Party. But even when skeptical, GOP lawmakers have begrudgingly gone along with the president for much of the last decade, wary of crossing the most popular figure in their party on one of his top priorities. Other Republicans came to agree with the president that insulating American firms from international competition could help rebuild domestic industry. Traditional conservatives are now optimistic that the party’s midterm catastrophe will mark the end of that era. A CNBC poll found 64% of voters believed Trump’s tariffs hurt their local economy, whereas just 14% said it helped. A Wall Street Journal analysis of AdImpact data also found Republicans spent $0 this campaign cycle on tariffs, either for or against. Democrats devoted $58.3 million to bashing the Trump policy.” (11/06/26)
“Just because someone is the CEO of a major corporation does not mean that he advocates a free society—even when he makes millions of dollars a year.” (11/06/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“When Trump won the presidency in 2024, there were high hopes among his MAGA supporters that this time around, he would succeed in MAGA. They looked on him as the man on the white horse — the man who, if given free rein, would restore America to greatness. In fact, for the past two years, Trump has enjoyed extraordinary freedom to do pretty much whatever he wants. … None of this proclivity toward dictatorial power has made America great again, unless, of course, one defines ‘greatness’ as living under a powerful, tyrannical welfare-warfare state rather than in a free, peaceful, prosperous society characterized by a limited-government republic.” (11/06/26)
“While everyone was refreshing early election returns and exit polls and turnout models on Tuesday, something very unusual happened: A monopolist broke itself up. Health conglomerate CVS, the seventh-largest U.S. company by revenue, decided to split off its consumer-facing in-store and mail-order pharmacy business from its Aetna insurance and Caremark pharmacy benefit management (PBM) side. When asked about it on CNBC, CVS chair and CEO David Joyner said that government regulatory pressure played a role. ‘What you see in the regulatory environment is clearly one of the things that we need to make sure we’re navigating,’ Joyner said. This is not, however, an unalloyed victory over the forces of capital—and if you dig into the fine print, it’s not much of a victory at all.” (11/06/26)
“The midterm result was a tale of many backlashes. There was the backlash of erstwhile Trump voters, particularly young white males, against high gasoline prices and the Iran War. There was the backlash of Hispanic voters against ICE and Trump’s horrific deportation policy. There was the backlash of Black voters against Republicans’ gerrymandering to negate their votes and Trump’s open racism. There was the backlash of women against the destruction of abortion rights and suppression of the Epstein files. There was a backlash of ordinary families against the loss of healthcare coverage. There was a general backlash against Trump’s bottomless corruption and lies. And there was a backlash of patriotic Americans against Trump’s bromance with Putin. Yet one of the most stunning blows was against the class of oligarchs, whom voters reasonably believe have been major enablers Trump and the Republicans, allowing them to inflict significant economic, social and strategic harm the country.” (11/06/26)
