“The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an interesting torts decision yesterday on group libel. In Bean Maine Lobster, Inc. v. Monterey Bay Aquarium Found., a unanimous appellate panel ruled that the Maine lobster industry could not sue the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation for saying that Maine lobstering is all wrong for the right whale. The controversy began after the Aquarium told the public to avoid lobster because lobster fishing poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The Maine lobster industry employs roughly 6000 people and catches a whopping 80 percent of the ‘lobster landings’. The Aquarium maintains a program called Seafood Watch, which assigns ratings to different species of seafood, ‘based on environmental impact and sustainability’. It gives a ‘red’ rating to seafood that ‘comes from sources that don’t align with [Seafood Watch’s] guiding principles.’ It gave a red rating to lobster.” (10/10/26)
“Russia is escalating its war against Ukraine, killing at least 30 Ukrainian civilians during an October 8 glide bomb attack on two public buses. Rightly, most of the world is outraged. Civilians, tragically, are always killed in wars. But deliberately targeting them is another thing altogether. What this outrage means, unfortunately, is that this war will not end anytime soon. Anger is a major catalyst for wars, and Ukrainians are angry. It’s unclear what the Kremlin’s calculation was in carrying out this strike, perhaps chalked up to growing desperation on the Russian side. Yet bombing civilians doesn’t break a people’s morale and will to fight; in fact, such acts usually strengthen that will.” (10/09/26)
“Our Founding Fathers did not put ‘charity’ in the Constitution as a responsibility — power — of Congress or the national government. Thus, the entire American welfare system is unconstitutional, and if anyone disagrees, please ‘lay [your] finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents’ and point it out to me. And prove to me that you know more about the Constitution than the man who wrote it. The Founders didn’t put [it there] for a quite obvious reason: if the government starts giving out free money, the lazy, shiftless, and selfish (which is far too many of mankind) will line up for miles to get as much of it as possible.” (10/10/26)
“When Americans think of monuments to George Washington in Europe, Paris usually comes to mind: Daniel Chester French’s majestic equestrian statue, presented by the Daughters of the American Revolution as a tribute to France’s indispensable role in securing American independence. Others may know the bronze statue in London’s Trafalgar Square, a replica of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s celebrated likeness of Washington, cast from the original that still stands on Virginia soil. Almost no one thinks of Budapest. Yet the Washington statue standing beside a quiet lake in Budapest’s picturesque City Park may be the most American of them all. Not because it is the oldest or the grandest, but because of who built it and why.” (10/09/26)
“The poll data is in sync with history. Trump’s abysmal job approval and economic record should lead to healthy Democratic gains, including in places where, a year ago, most would not have expected Democrats to win. That Democrats are not guaranteed a sweep of every contested Senate race, let alone an above-average net House gain, is not because the polls are untrustworthy. The polls themselves tell us to remain uncertain and tell the parties not to be complacent.” (10/09/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“A US-based nonprofit is planning to use AI surveillance to check for ‘hateful’ speech about Israel inside classrooms in the genocide-ravaged Gaza Strip. The Associated Press reports: ‘A U.S. charity in Gaza is worried that teachers at its schools might stray from a curriculum it says promotes peace and tolerance, so it plans to record classroom conversations and use artificial intelligence to flag speech deemed ‘hateful’ or ‘inciting.’ … So inside the ruins of Gaza an American charity funded by Israelis is going to be teaching schoolchildren not to hold negative beliefs toward the US-backed ethnostate which just destroyed their neighborhoods, killed their families, and laid siege to their entire population, and will be enforcing these standards using AI tech surveillance which will be shared with God knows whom.” (10/10/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that the U.S. military’s planned execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist, who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, will be live-streamed. Of one thing we can be fairly certain: Leading up to Hasan’s execution, U.S. officials will either (1) do everything they can to avoid mentioning what motivated Hasan to commit those murders or (2) lie about it by claiming that he just hates America for its ‘freedom and values.'” (10/09/26)
“If a crisis can also be seen as an opportunity, the United States Department of Defense is staring at the greatest opportunity of its existence. In the last eight months of warfare with Iran, the U.S. military has produced arguably the worst performance in American history. It had many months, if not years, to prepare for an air campaign against Iran. It was facing an enemy with an already devastated air force, which had been bombed heavily by Israel and once by the United States the year before. The United States had the benefit of an advanced mixed force of land-based and sea-based air power, missiles which the Iranians could not intercept, and excellent intelligence on Iranian activity. Furthermore, the U.S. military also had access to supposedly world-leading, cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities …. And the U.S. military failed miserably.” (10/09/26)
“Laws, no matter how well intended, are only as strong as people’s beliefs in them. And there is no higher law in life than the one that says we are to treat each other as we wish to be treated.” (10/09/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“The plain fact is that it is immoral to take money by coercion from one party and give it to another party. Just because the government does it does not make it any less immoral. Welfare is immoral in any country.” (10/09/26)
