Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“One of the most persistent myths about war is that it is sometimes inevitable. States are carried along by the impersonal forces of history: the balance of power, alliance commitments, ideological antagonisms, the rise and decline of great powers, et cetera. Leaders may make mistakes along the way, but these are trivia, for the ultimate outcome was determined by circumstances beyond their control. And while it is true the international environment constrains the choices available to statesmen, sometimes severely, constraints are not immutable laws, and circumstances do not make decisions. But the false and persistent narratives are politically useful to the powerful, for the invocation of historical necessity serves to excuse the decisions of those who possess the power to make war and obfuscate their ultimate responsibility for having failed to do otherwise.” (10/22/260
“On September 28, Brent crude climbed more than 2 percent after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Six days earlier, speaking before the United Nations, Trump had presented two possibilities: a deal with Tehran or the ‘annihilation of the Islamic Republic’. Even after rejecting the proposal, he said negotiations could continue. One president retained the power to bargain, refuse or escalate; millions of people were left to live with the consequences. That gap between who decides and who pays is the subject of the Iran war. It has a name: war livestock.” (10/22/26)
Source: The Atlantic
by Nancy A Youssef & Jonathan Lemire
“President Trump has been hearing lately from two trusted confidants, each promising a quick path to ending the war in Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that Iran is on the brink of economic collapse and that a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, combined with sanctions, will force Tehran to capitulate at the negotiation table. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a series of calls with Trump, has offered a different route: one more round of devastating U.S. and Israeli strikes to topple the regime. Now the Trump administration appears to be considering combining the two approaches, betting that Iran is already on the verge of economic ruin and that a few more major strikes will be enough to trigger regime change.” (10/22/26)
“MAGA is an insidious political ‘movement’ that is the inevitable conclusion of the project started with the infamous Powell Memorandum in 1972. Formally titled ‘Attack on American Free Enterprise System’, the Powell Memo is a call to arms for the oligarchy in the US to push for a set of policies that benefit the wealthy while waging a narrative battle designed to get the working class to support these policies to their own detriment. The Powell Memo is not hypothetical: it is the blueprint that the modern conservative movement has followed, and the result some 50 years later is MAGA. The central narrative of MAGA is essentially this: Some other group of people is preventing you (typically white, Christian, straight, cisgender men) from having the basic things in life that you deserve.” (10/22/26)
“As President Donald Trump continues buying government stakes in private companies, the rest of Washington is starting to appreciate the power of his new tool. The Trump administration has so far announced 43 equity stakes in firms producing everything from minerals to semiconductors, 36 of which were negotiated without explicit legal authority — and more are yet to come. … Thanks to the precedent Trump has set, a future Democratic president could reap multiple benefits from equity stakes in private companies. Among them, as former Biden administration officials suggested: reining in the AI industry, shrinking defense spending, boxing China out of critical sectors, and pressuring gun and oil companies.” (10/22/260
“The Treasury Department released its monthly statement on Friday and has now confirmed what we all suspected: the US federal government, under the Trump Administration, will finish the 2026 fiscal year with an annual fiscal deficit of about $2 trillion. To be precise, the federal deficit for the 2026 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, is $1.99 trillion. That’s the third largest deficit ever recorded.” (10/22/26)
“The backlash against Silicon Valley awfulness—call it a ‘techlash’—is a force that can be turned into remedying actions. It’s not a policy platform. It’s not a solution. It’s a question: How do we tame the corporate monsters to the point where they can be held accountable for making these destructive products? And here are two answers: by wielding the tools of product liability law and antitrust reform.” (10/22/26)
“Since Donald Trump began his second term, the US has bombed nine countries/territories. According to New America, the Trump administration has hit Somalia 211 times. Over the past thirteen months 71 US maritime strikes in the hemisphere have killed over 200 and in January US forces killed nearly 100 when they kidnapped Venezuela’s President. An eight-week US bombing campaign of Yemen last year killed at least 224 civilians as part of an effort to enable Israel’s genocide and last month the Trump administration gave the Jewish supremacist state $2.8 billion worth of mostly 2,000-pound bombs. Over 40 days at the start of the year the US launched 10,000 strikes on Iran. In one attack, 120 schoolgirls were killed. Carney has either supported or ignored all of that violence. But the prime minister responded to the US president announcing a plan to purchase Russian diesel as a threat to ‘peace’.” (10/22/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Bill Budington & Rory Mir
“An open internet where people can freely build, share, and remix each other’s work is a powerful engine of grassroots innovation we’ve all benefited from. In recent decades, however, corporations have taken control of an increasing share of this work, giving them a greater ability to stifle challengers and limit our choices. When regulators address this by mandating that tech giants play fair by requiring interoperability, the gatekeepers respond with a tired refrain: Playing fair puts users’ security at risk. Unfortunately for these trillion-dollar companies, this gotcha isn’t the end of the conversation. Regulators can ensure that meaningful choice and security thrive.” (10/21/26)
