Source: Liberal Currents
by WBF
“Social media has been a boon to autocratic regimes and their allied movements in democracies.” (09/28/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/social-media-has-not-brought-liberation/
Source: ABC News
“Hungary’s Parliament voted on Monday to lift the parliamentary immunity of three lawmakers, including the country’s prime minister, Péter Magyar, as prosecutors proceed with ongoing criminal investigations. Prosecutors are investigating Magyar on suspicion of misdemeanor theft after he allegedly took a man’s mobile phone during a nightclub altercation and threw it into the Danube River in June 2024, nearly two years before his party won a landslide election that unseated former populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. … Lawmakers on Monday also voted to suspend the immunity of two former ministers in Orbán’s government who are suspected of, separately, criminal mismanagement of 17.3 billion forints ($53.6 million) of public funds and accepting more than 12 billion forints ($37.2 million) in bribes and kickbacks.” (09/28/26)
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“‘Late Empire Floundering’: The Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Makes No Sense w/ Nat Wilson Turner.” (09/27/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Joseph Addington
“Delcy Rodriguez, acting president of Venezuela, is preparing to put herself out of a job. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly this week, Rodriguez declared that Venezuela is getting ready for a return to democracy. ‘I want to make this very clear at this General Assembly: There will be elections in Venezuela,’ said Rodriguez Wednesday. ‘Venezuela has initiated a process of democratic transformation for its rebirth, an orderly, institutional, and verifiable process.’ Exactly when that orderly process will produce an election is not yet clear, although a rough plan is beginning to take shape.” (09/28/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/democracy-is-coming-to-venezuela-eventually/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mark Pulliam
“Justice Clarence Thomas’s brand of originalism is ‘going further,’ and he is now on track to set the Supreme Court’s longevity record.” [editor’s note: Sure, but how early in his tenure did that “brand of originalism” start getting tainted by the bribes he’s since been caught taking? – TLK] (09/28/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/clarence-thomas-a-profile-in-courage/
Source: SFGate
“The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The new rules were released shortly after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring.” (09/28/26)
Source: Liberal Currents
“The War with Iran Has No End.” (09/27/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-war-with-iran-has-no-end-neon-liberalism-92/
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Your average American is trapped, suffocating beneath the weight of a decaying civilization defined by the totally manufactured standards of an empire that only exists on television now. Your average American is bored, terrified, overworked, underpaid, overstimulated, heavily medicated and hopelessly in debt. Your average American is fucked; surrounded on all sides by forever wars, climate catastrophe, economic stagnation and constant adds disguised as softcore child pornography … So, then why the fuck shouldn’t they go fucking crazy? I was raped into a lifetime of traumagenic disassociation by rabid papists as a preschooler and even I feel bad for the beige plight of the average American. The current prevailing definition of mental illness is essentially making a violent break from mainstream reality but in 2026, mainstream reality itself is violently broken.” (09/27/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/09/if-western-civilization-is-sickness.html
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“There are two kinds of elections happening this November, one of them quite strange. The natural focus has been on whether Democrats can win back the House and Senate. That’s the one that matters for the direction of the country. But thanks to California’s primary system, which advances the top two candidates to the general election, eight U.S. House races feature two Democrats taking on one another. Some feature incumbents with nothing more than token opposition, but several follow the main storylines from primary season: whether incumbents have grown too old and disconnected from their constituents to get another term, whether left-wing challengers can usher in a new generation of leadership, and whether big money will dictate voter decisions.” (09/28/26)
Source: Seattle Times
“The number of confirmed cases of Ebola virus in Congo has surged past 8,000, as the country runs out of health workers to contain the deadly disease. Congo announced an outbreak on May 15, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no known treatment or vaccine, and has struggled to contain it. Latest data from Congo’s health ministry showed that 8,067 cases have been confirmed, with 3,901 deaths as of Sept. 26 across 63 health zones in seven of the country’s 26 provinces, with a fatality rate of more than 48%.” (09/28/26)