Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey

“Utilizing state power to execute those who have killed others with a 3.15% failure rate should cause Americans to pause and take a step back to consider what is happening here. Yes, we want blood for those who have wrongly taken innocent lives, but is this how we want to be known? Government fails at most of the services it attempts, wasting our tax money in the process via mismanaged programs and bungled operations. You would think Americans have seen so much incompetence from government that they would seek their services as a last resort, but all too often we have handed over the simplest of jobs to government only to watch them muck it up. No rational person would give a failing monopoly like the government the legal power to end a life.” (10/13/26)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/why-pete-hegseth-and-christa-pike

Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek

“The midterm elections are three weeks away. In some states, voting has already begun. Betting site Kalshi shows odds of 61% that Democrats will win control of the Senate. Recent developments in the Texas and Michigan races suggest keeping your money in your pocket. As voters find out more about front-runner Democrats James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the polls are tightening. They say intimacy breeds contempt; nowhere is this truer than in politics. … Talarico, a photogenic 37-year-old state representative, recently vanished from public view for nearly two weeks, an extraordinary absence so close to Election Day. He says he had the flu; does he not know about Theraflu? Has he heard of Zoom?” [editor’s note: I doubt that the campaign to create an “October Surprise” in Texas out of thin air will work; it’s too obviously a desperation play – TLK] (10/13/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-two-troubled-senate-races-could-spoil-democrats-blue-wave-fantasy

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler

“Between now and November 29, there will be widespread speculation about whether the ‘Houdini’ of Spanish politics, as Sánchez is sometimes called, can extricate himself from another tight spot; and there will be hand-wringing editorials in the center-left press about the potential demise of Europe’s only ‘progressive’ leader and the deterioration of European democracy. All of which misses the point—because Sánchez himself has done a lot to damage Spain’s democracy. The key question posed by the snap election is ‘Why didn’t Sánchez call one sooner?’ Or, to put it the other way around: ‘Why is he still in power?'” (10/13/26)

https://fee.org/articles/going-going-gone/

Source: Common Dreams
by Nicolas JS Davies

“On October 9th, the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Was awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African international lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid political prisoners on Robben Island, and went on to serve as a judge on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC), then as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2025, Navi Pillay led the UN Commission of Inquiry that confirmed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. With the world in the grip of seemingly intractable war and chaos, the Nobel Committee clearly wanted to honor someone who has worked against the tide of militarism and violence to uphold international law. And yet, on the same day, the United States unveiled unilateral, illegal coercive measures or “sanctions” against the ICC, where Navi Pillay served as a judge from 2003 to 2008.” (10/13/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-and-the-hague-confront-impunity-for-war-crimes