Source: New York Post
“Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman whose dramatic eviction last month sparked mass housing protests that led to an early election, has died, the Madrid tenants’ union said on Wednesday, as thousands demonstrated over her death. Abascal had been in hospital for severe anxiety and exhaustion since her eviction on September 23 from her home of more than 70 years, when police and social workers removed her by stretcher. Her case ignited protests over a mounting housing crisis including a shortage of homes and surging rents. Activists camped out in a major Madrid square. …Trade unions on Wednesday announced a nationwide general strike over housing issues on November 11. The protests, along with parliament’s rejection last week of decrees aimed at curbing evictions and limiting rent pressures, prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call an early election for November 29.” (10/08/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/world-news/spanish-woman-whose-eviction-sparked-housing-protests-dies-at-87-as-crowds-chant-murder/
Source: The Atlantic
“Why American Cities Cost So Much and Deliver So Little.” (10/07/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/10/david-frum-show-reihan-salam-american-cities/688915/
Source: OtherWords
by Nicholas Martinez
“With less than a month before the midterm elections, attempts by President Donald Trump and his administration to keep certain Americans from voting will likely continue. Voting is how we get an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives, regardless of race, disability, zip code, language, or income. That’s why we need to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot free from fear, intimidation, or unnecessary barriers. Anti-democratic forces might dominate the headlines, but they have not dominated the outcomes. That’s important. Our democracy is strongest when voters can fully participate. Our elections are strongest when election officials can do their jobs free from political interference. And our future is strongest when Americans believe that their voice matters.” (10/08/26)
https://otherwords.org/democracy-works-when-we-defend-it/
Source: CounterPunch
by Naveen Basavaraj
“In 2003, singer Barbra Streisand tried to remove aerial photos of her home from the internet. But her efforts to take down the images only drove more people to seek them out. Two decades later, the Streisand effect has become a kind of internet maxim: Trying to bury something often ends up amplifying it. Working with colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University and George Mason University, I wanted to explore how this phenomenon plays out – and whether it’s simply internet folk wisdom or something that can be backed up with data.” (10/08/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/08/whether-its-banning-books-or-preventing-macklemore-from-touring-silencing-artists-often-backfires/
Source: The American Prospect
by Marueen Tkacik
“A reviled ‘boligarch’ and his right-wing adversaries are engaged in a low-level war, but the only people who will feel the impact are the Venezuelan people.” (10/08/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/08/crude-awakening-alejandro-betancourt-venezuela-oil/
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Billionaires haven’t done anything wrong merely by earning great wealth. Typically, they’ve done something right. They’ve been industrious and entrepreneurial and helped people improve their lives. Typically, they earn their billions; which, incidentally, they don’t stuff under a giant mattress but invest further. This doesn’t stop the [proposed California wealth] tax’s demagogic proponents, like Ro Khanna, from claiming that the interests of the ‘donor class’ are inherently opposed to those of the ‘working class.’ Khanna wants government to privilege one ‘class’ over the other. But as Dmitri Bolt points out, neither should get a government-enforced advantage.” (10/08/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/10/08/kill-the-class-warfare/
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A gilded statue of US President Donald Trump naked went on display in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Danish artist Jens Galschiot is exhibiting the satirical statue, titled ‘Orange Plague’ and also known as ‘King of Injustice’, at the parliament’s headquarters in the eastern French city. It shows the president sitting naked on the shoulders of a much smaller man. In his hand, he holds a long golf club. Including its pedestal, the statue is around 2.5 metres tall and, according to the artist, is coated with 23-carat gold. An orange cloth covering it was removed when it was unveiled on Tuesday. The statue stands at one of the parliament’s busiest intersections connecting two buildings. It is scheduled to remain on display through Thursday.” (10/08/26)
https://archive.is/0FHHj
Source: The Corbett Report
“Unvandalism.” (10/08/26)
https://corbettreport.com/unvandalism/
Source: Checks & Balances
“Can Trump Take Control of the Midterms?” (10/07/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/can-trump-take-control-of-the-midterms
Source: Antiwar.com
by Larry C Johnson
“Benjamin Netanyahu likes to translate Israel’s grief into American. At the United Nations last month, he took the dead of October 7 and multiplied them by the ratio of America’s population to Israel’s. The 1,200 Israelis killed that day, he said, were ‘equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That’s 16 times 9/11.’ Per-capita comparisons are a perfectly legitimate tool. A small country feels a massacre more than a large one, and Americans should understand what October 7 meant to Israelis. But a method is only honest if you’re willing to apply it to everyone. So let’s apply Netanyahu’s method to the people his army has been killing for three years.” (10/08/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/larry_c_johnson/2026/10/07/by-netanyahus-own-math-gaza-is-3900-september-11ths/
