Four Reasons We’re Being Lied To

Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker

“Media outlets are filled with stories about how AI is taking all the jobs. There are also plenty of stories telling us that soaring deficits and rising debt are going to bankrupt the government. These problems are 180-degree opposites, sort of like saying that someone is seriously overweight, but needs to put on a few pounds. Either can be true, but they can’t both possibly be true. There is zero recognition of this fact in elite intellectual circles. To make the logic clearer, the AI taking all the jobs story is one of abundance. … The out-of-control debt and deficit story is one of scarcity.” (05/28/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/28/four-reasons-were-being-lied-to/

Thomas L. Knapp

CA: Airbnb host alleges $12k in damages after startup tested robot in his house

Source: SFGate

“Sean Donovan has rented his childhood home in San Francisco on Airbnb for years. Tech workers in town for conferences, and families coming for graduations are common customers, but last month he had a new guest: a robot that he said left a mess. Donovan alleges that a San Francisco startup booked his home on Airbnb last month ‘under false pretenses’ to conduct tests on the ‘robotic prototype,’ and left the place in shambles, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco County Superior Court. He’s seeking more than $12,000 for a laundry list of damages from the Bot Company, (identified in court records as ‘Botco’) for personal property damage and unauthorized entry into a locked closet. Donovan told SFGATE that he and his partner had never put more hours into fixing the house after an Airbnb rental.” (05/27/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/airbnb-startup-robot-damages-lawsuit-22279560.php

Steve Trinward

Defenders of Classical Liberalism Are the Real Revolutionaries

Source: The Daily Economy
by Adam A Millsap

“The ideas that transformed the world — free trade, limited government, and individual liberty — are now treated as relics rather than the radical achievements they truly are.” (05/28/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/defenders-of-classical-liberalism-are-the-real-revolutionaries/

Thomas L. Knapp

Is Indian Democracy an Extraordinary Success Story?

Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates

“Babones argues that ‘India’s democracy is in better shape than that of just about any other developing country.’ His central claim is that India’s democracy is historically exceptional. He emphasizes that India is the only large, poor, post‑colonial society to maintain continuous electoral democracy for more than seven decades. Unlike Western democracies, which evolved gradually over centuries, India launched universal suffrage at independence despite widespread illiteracy and immense cultural diversity. For Babones, this makes India not a fragile democracy but an extraordinary one – a global outlier whose success cannot be understood through Western liberal frameworks.” (05/27/26)

https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/05/is-indian-democracy-extraordinary.html

Thomas L. Knapp