Source: Washington Monthly
by Anne Kim
“Political polling has had a black eye since at least the 2016 presidential election. That’s when national polls had Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by a significant margin all the way up to Election Day. Democrats started measuring the curtains. Unfortunately, the polls massively underestimated the strength of Trump’s support, and Trump went on to win the Electoral College and the White House. More recently, pollsters have suffered embarrassing failures in high-profile contested primaries. … In truth, polls have always been unreliable. Numbers create the illusion of infallibility, but polls are an imperfect gauge of unpredictable behavior.” (10/04/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/10/04/is-political-polling-broken/
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper
“Any search for the chief enabler of Donald Trump’s corruption and subversion of American democracy really must lead to one and only one place: the Supreme Court. The reactionary majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has repeatedly bailed Trump out from his many prosecutions, enabled his wildly lawless trampling over the basic appropriations process, and (in what is for my money the worst Court decision in American history, Trump v. U.S.) explicitly immunized him from being prosecuted for breaking, in effect, any law. Yet despite that, many Trump critics still balk at proposals to attack the Court’s power head-on. At a recent conference about liberalism in the 21st century, when asked about Court reform, Bob Bauer, former White House counsel for President Obama, warned that ‘You don’t respond to norm breaking by breaking more norms’.” (10/05/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/05/oct-2026-supreme-courts-power-based-on-lie-of-supremacy/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The FBI has arrested a ‘Chinese foreign agent’ at Los Angeles International Airport accused of spying on the Taiwanese president’s son. Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, was arrested on Sunday before her planned departure to China, the first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, said in a post on X. Authorities charged Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, with acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Zhang surveilled Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te’s son, the FBI said. The agency did not directly name Zhang’s alleged target, but later shared a news article identifying him as Lai Ting-yu.” (10/05/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/5/fbi-arrests-chinese-foreign-agent-for-spying-on-taiwan-presidents-son
Source: Antiwar.com
“Saudi-Backed Leader Announces New Yemen Offensive, IDF Kills Two Christian Women in Gaza, and More.” (10/04/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtajokLb_Qk
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“[G]overnments constantly grab and keep more and more over us more and more often, and that in turn causes greedy and immoral people to seek power and be worse and worse parasites on us. Today, that means letting a supposed majority of people electing and giving someone incredible power. At least in part, because those people (not just the immigrants) promised them the modern equivalent of bread and circuses. … Bluntly, Americans have done it to ourselves.” (10/04/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/10/04/places-and-societies-of-origin-and-american-politics/
THANK YOU to supporter JS and subscribing contributors T and SH! Their donations over the weekend, totaling $105, bring our annual fundraiser total (as of 5am on Monday, October 5) to $115!
Our goal is $5,503 — with supporter GL’s “matching funds” pledge, we only have to raise $2,751.50 from our other 5,000 or so readers … which seems like an easy ask, but always seems to take a while.
Remember, once we’ve reached our goal, I stop talking about money ENTIRELY for the rest of the year and MOSTLY for the first nine months of NEXT year. So please, support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at:
About that name change:
I’ve always called this event our “year-end fundraiser,” because it takes place in the fourth quarter of the year. But “annual fundraiser” seems more appropriate. This is the ONLY time each year when we set a fundraising goal and I start bugging you to help us reach it. That seems worth emphasizing.
We’re $2,636.50 short at the moment. You can change that. Please do.
Have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro has won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, beating the incumbent left-wing President Lula da Silva. But he did not obtain more than 50% of the votes required to win outright. There will be a run-off vote between these two candidates on 25 October. Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of the former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for masterminding a failed coup attempt after losing the last election. … With 98.81% of the votes counted, Bolsonaro had 47.24% to Lula’s 44.91% of the vote.” (10/05/26)
https://archive.is/238mR
Source: Reason
by Gene Healy
“With the power of the purse, Congress can pressure the president to stand down in Iran by doing what it usually does best: nothing. … To date, we’ve spent over $40 billion on the president’s Iran adventure, yet Congress has never passed specific appropriations for any of it. The administration has been paying the bills by tapping into Pentagon funds authorized for other purposes, such as military training and readiness. … Facing ‘an urgent budget shortfall,’ the Trump administration requested Epic Fury funds in June. In July, the House passed a budget resolution incorporating the ask. The supplemental request now sits with the Senate …. doing nothing—simply refusing to pass the supplemental—would be a good start.” (10/02/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/02/want-to-stop-the-iran-war-dont-pay-the-bill/
Source: Serious Trouble
“National controversy erupts over a rape non-prosecution at Cornell; Jeanine Pirro has various prosecutorial troubles; Sheri Mecklenburg leaves the Chicago US Attorney’s office with a bang.” (10/03/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/very-special-prosecutors
Source: Yahoo! News
“At least two tankers were struck in waters near Oman and Iran over the weekend as Tehran warned it would not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz until its conditions for ending the war with the United States are met. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British maritime security service, said a crude oil tanker was struck by an unknown projectile Saturday about four nautical miles east of Oman. Another tanker was struck Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz, suffering damage to its engine room, according to UKMTO.” (10/04/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/more-tankers-hit-iran-restates-222841428.html
