Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig
“With a lawless administration still in power, and Trump still wielding the veto pen, it’s far from guaranteed a Democratic Congress will be able to significantly rein him in. But there are still better and worse scenarios for what Democrats can accomplish depending on how strongly the party of Trump is repudiated at the polls. Partly it depends on how much they’re willing to play hardball. But partly it depends on just how many seats they win.” (10/26/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-democratic-toolkit-for-using-a
Source: SFGate
“A bomb exploded Tuesday near a bridge that crosses Colombia’s border with Venezuela, injuring at least four police officers in the Colombian city of Cucuta, officials said. Norte de Santander provincial Gov. William Villamizar said on X that police were investigating who was responsible for the attack. The explosion was set off in front of the local branch of Colombia’s tax collection agency near the Francisco de Paula de Santander International bridge. Footage of the aftermath showed a truck and several motorcycles that were damaged by the blast. The attack comes as Colombia’s conservative government changes the nation’s security strategy and takes a more confrontational approach towards gangs and rebel groups.” (10/27/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/bomb-blast-near-colombia-s-border-with-22496999.php
Source: Independent Institute
by Richard K Vedder
“We Americans are the luckiest bunch of humans to ever live. We are more affluent than ever before, even though most Americans also have much more leisure than earlier generations. Our success is demonstrated by the large numbers of immigrants trying to permanently enter our country, often illegally [sic] at great risk. Compared with a century or even a generation ago, our houses are bigger and nicer (with air conditioning and upscale kitchen appliances), our cars are more luxurious and reliable than those of earlier generations, and we have new pleasures like social media and ocean cruises to entertain and titillate us when we are not watching movies or shows on giant screens unheard of a generation ago or on technologically advanced hand-held devices.” (10/26/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/26/americas-best-of-times-worst-of-times-can-adam-smith-save-the-future/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The group was looking around for an available wall. Activists with Indivisible Kansas City were targeting Jon Patterson, the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, who is seeking a seat in the state Senate in a battleground race against Democratic state Rep. Keri Ingle. They had flyers to hand out, but Krista Mann, who organized the action, had also created a slide presentation reminding voters about Patterson’s longtime support for data centers. The slides explained that Patterson personally prevented votes on transparency measures and supported a bill allowing Missouri power companies to charge ratepayers for building electricity infrastructure ‘to provide the power that we need for the data centers’. Mann hooked a portable projector into her computer and displayed the presentation on a brick facade outside a bank. They called it a ‘guerrilla projection’.” (10/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/27/guerrilla-projections-defending-democracy-in-missouri/
Source: Politico
“A federal judge Monday night temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting down additional trees or closing down a public golf course that the president intends to upgrade to a championship-level course. Judge Ana Reyes, in a lengthy, cutting opinion, found that the president’s public statements were at odds with the administration’s assertions in court that the felling of more than 400 trees earlier this month was routine maintenance and not preparation for the president’s grand vision for East Potomac Golf Links. … A preservation group and two local residents asked the court to bar further tree cutting after theInterior Department earlier this month cut down more than 400 trees on short notice.” (10/26/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/26/judge-bars-trump-admin-from-further-tree-felling-closures-at-golf-course-01135977
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“We Needed Higher Oil Prices.” (10/26/26)
https://mises.org/podcasts/minor-issues/we-needed-higher-oil-prices
Source: Liberalism.org
by James Strickland
“It has often been claimed that ‘all politics is local.’ That twentieth-century phrase is sometimes said, though incorrectly, to have originated with Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, who was known to say that the outcomes of congressional elections were determined by local issues. In other words, politicians running for national office must appeal to local voters and their concerns. Political scientists and others have since cast doubt on the influence of local voters and their concerns on national policy or trends. There may be less variety in local concerns or opinions across states or cities now than ever, and party platforms across states now resemble each other more than ever.” (10/26/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/is-all-politics-still-local
Well, the longest from here on out, anyway, unless this fundraiser lasts until after the winter solstice on December 21 (when the days stop shortening and start lengthening).
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Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“A localized ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect early Tuesday ahead of a humanitarian mission brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, as missile attacks resumed in Kyiv. The local pause in fighting started at 3 a.m. to allow an aid mission into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine later this week. According to her office, Melania Trump led talks with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine after meeting with U.N. officials who briefed her on the situation in the town. … Up to 2,000 people are stranded in Oleshky with dwindling food and medicine. They are unable to leave because of explosive mines and drone attacks in the area, according to the U.N.” (10/27/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/27/g-s1-150037/russia-ukraine-war
Source: Students For Liberty
by Dr. Tom G Palmer
“There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are eternal, universal and indestructible. Among these is the right of locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs to no particular race, but belongs to all and to all alike. It is the right you assert by staying here, and your fathers asserted by coming here. The presumption of liberty is embedded in America’s Founding documents. … The right to come and go, to converse with whom we wish, to exchange with others on mutually agreeable terms, and more are presumed rights of human beings. Any who would restrict a person from interacting voluntarily with people of another religion or language, county or country, must bear the burden of justifying such restrictions.” (10/26/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/the-equal-presumption-of-liberty-to-travel-and-exchange/