timesofisrael.com

Channel 13 reports that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said during a recent private meeting that he doesn’t currently see an operational need to strike Iran before next week’s Knesset election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused by critics of pushing for a renewal of the war against Iran to influence or delay the October 27 vote — a charge he has denied.

“We do not see any indications of a need to strike Iran before the election. If we determine that a strike on Iran is necessary, we will carry it out,” Zamir is quoted as having said.

Netanyahu’s main rival, Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot, offered a similar message publicly earlier today, telling Channel 13, “There is no direct, immediate threat from Iran that necessitates a war prior to the election.”

So one has to wonder;  is President Trump  getting ready to strike Iran on his own, without any Israeli military involvement, either before, or after the US mid-terms, assuming the mid-terms are allowed to happen as scheduled?!?

I don't know; but I do know that should the elections go ahead, and Republicans wind up taking a bath, Trump has another 60 days to order any kind of military strike against Iran he so desires. 

And as he has demonstrated, he is very fond of "re-setting the clock" on that 60 day time-limit afforded him by the War Powers Act" before he is Constitutionally required to advise Congress as to what he has done, so that Congress can either decide to declare war, or not. 

Investigation suggests American company Axon still supplies Israel with Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners

Mustafa Abdel Raouf, theguardian.com

The soldiers drag the man into a section of the prison known as Hell’s Wing, a metaphor for its notoriety for acts of brutality. Shoving him violently into a corner, they take a step back before one of them draws his weapon and fires two rubber bullets at his body. The man, a double amputee, collapses to the floor.

After tying him up tightly, the soldiers continue their assault until one of them pulls a stun gun from its holster. The soldier approaches the man, brandishing the gun, before applying it to his body, engulfing him in an electric shock.

This is what Essa* says happened to him during a period in Israeli detention. Today, more than a year and a half later, the scars from the electric shocks remain visible on his body. The close proximity of double scars suggests he was subjected to repeated shocks while in a “tightly restrained” position, says the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.

Essa, now 43, was arrested in the Jabalia refugee camp in January 2024, where he had been staying since having both feet amputated after an Israeli missile attack on his home. He was held at Israel’s Ofer Prison before being released in October 2025.

According to an investigation by the Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Essa was likely to have been tortured with a Taser electroshock weapon manufactured by the American company Axon Enterprise, formerly known as Taser International.

The alleged torture is one of a number of incidents that have been linked to the use of Axon weapons, which the company appears to continue to supply to Israel. Three other detainees since released allege they were tortured using Axon weapons between 2024 and 2025.

By Andrew Napolitano

The U.S. Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. It established boundaries beyond which the government may not venture, even when it invokes national security, public order, economic necessity, emergency or the will of a popular majority. Its purpose is not to make government more powerful but to keep the government off the people’s backs.

By that measure, the American Constitution is a failure. Formally, the document physically survives, its ceremonies continue, and politicians swear their oaths to abide it. Yet functionally, the government it was designed to restrain has accumulated vast and totalitarian powers that its authors would never recognize.

Power grows, concentrates and perpetuates itself, while liberty contracts. Every emergency supplies a justification for new authority. Every temporary restriction threatens to become permanent. Every president discovers powers that his predecessors claimed but that the Constitution never authorized. And every generation is told that the latest surrender of freedom is necessary to preserve freedom itself.

European leaders are pushing toward direct military conflict with Russia despite lacking the domestic support or military strength to succeed. British military leadership announced that citizens must prepare for war, while European politicians increasingly view escalation as a solution to failing domestic economies and collapsing political legitimacy.

Joe Summerland, yahoo.com

The White House has demanded that Politico retract and apologize for a trio of articles it wrote about President Donald Trump and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, in the administration's latest clash with the press.

In a letter from Counsel to the President William Scharf to Politico's Global Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger dated Monday, the outlet is accused of publishing "a series of demonstrably false and defamatory articles in an apparent effort to manufacture a narrative of dysfunction and infighting in the White House" while ignoring denials from senior officials and Trump himself.

"Your publication was told the truth and presented with corroborating evidence, and yet chose to publish fanciful fictions regardless," Scharf alleged. "I... demand that Politico retract these defamatory articles and issue corrections promptly, or face the consequences."

The first of the three stories to which the counsel objected was published in Politico Playbook on October 15 and headlined, "Trump's ice maiden is under fire." It suggested the president was seeking to replace Wiles, his former campaign manager, and was later rejected by Trump himself as "fake news."The second, published in Playbook a day later, said that the first story had caused "a freakout" in the West Wing and that Trump "blew up" over it. A White House spokesman dismissed it as "unbelievably stupid and false." The third, from October 17, suggested that Wiles had set up now-former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia 's disastrous interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News last week. The network denied that Wiles had been involved and Politico has already corrected its story.

Claire's Observations:  Although Politico.com, could potentially be described as "left-leaning", it certainly cannot be characterized as a "hard-left-centric" blog, and one has to wonder if the White House's ire was more a question of the one-two punch timing of these articles,  right before US mid-terms, rather than their explicit content (it did apologise about the Wiles characterisation).

I would therefore like to gently and politely remind this White House and their legal team.... that freedom of the press, does not connote freedom from the press, on the part of the Executive branch of the US government.

saige miller, npr.org

The pro-Israel political organization AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, announced on Wednesday that it will no longer issue endorsements, make direct PAC contributions or earmark funds for candidates.

A longtime influential lobbying group, AIPAC started its direct political involvement five years ago. Since then, particularly this midterm election cycle, AIPAC has been met with mounting resistance. The group has faced criticism over its stances on various issues, including the wars in Gaza and Iran.

Candidates endorsed by AIPAC have also faced tough opposition from both the political right and the political left for accepting the organization's support and financial contributions as public opinion on the U.S. relationship with Israel has shifted. In order to tame the criticism, some AIPAC-endorsed candidates said they won't accept any money from the organization.

AIPAC first announced the changes in a letter to members, stating "the challenges we are confronting will continue to grow in the years ahead." In the letter, AIPAC said it wouldn't stop funneling money to candidates that align with the group's mission by mobilizing individual donors.

Claire's Observations:  Not to worry; AIPAC is very inventive, and will certainly find other ways to bend US election outcomes to its will.

Take, for example,  the potential inclusion of Section 219 into the 2027 NDAA. Here is how Throck, my AI, describes this:  

"If the FY2027 NDAA ultimately becomes law with Section 219 intact, it would establish a formal “United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” Its basic purpose is to move U.S.–Israeli defense cooperation beyond individual weapons purchases and toward much deeper, institutionalized cooperation between the two countries' defense industries and military-technology systems."

The House of Representatives has already passed this, and when Congress reconvenes in January, the Senate will consider it for passage.  If the Senate approves, the legislation will then be reconciled with the House version.

But if this language remains in tact, how soon do we see this "deeper institutionalized cooperation" translate as effectively squelching any public legitimate criticism of anything Israel chooses to do, such as genocide against Palestinians in the West Bank; Gaza; Lebanon; and Syria, or more wars against countries like Turkey and Egypt?!?

This "budgetary Trojan horse" is an absolutely brilliant move on the part of the Israeli government and its American hasbara (Throck defines this as "efforts to explain or defend Israel’s policies, actions, or reputation to foreign audiences, particularly through media, diplomacy, social media, and public-relations campaigns").  

And I say this first because of its capacity to obliquely snuff out the First Amendment to the Constitution when it comes to criticism of Israel because at the point where this language is allowed to remain in this budget, is the point where any legitimate criticism of Israel, becomes a US "national security issue" which cannot be allowed to stand.

And secondly, how deeply does this commit the use of US troops by Israel against countries in the region it just doesn't particularly like, such as Iran, for example?!? 

Please remember that before the US/Israeli attack against Iran, there were utterly no problems with ship transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Throck, my AI, shares the following:  "As of October 25, 2026, the best-supported figure I can find is that the U.S. war against Iran has cost the federal government at least about $45 billion, and probably more.

The important caveat is that there is no complete, up-to-the-day accounting yet."

Add this to the current $40 trillion dollars of debt the US Federal Government owes (that we know about), and you're talking some real money!!

And let's please not forget the human cost to our military in deaths, illnesses, and permanent injuries.  We still have absolutely zero clue as to the real number of dead and maimed for life so far in this Israeli/US war of choice, and understand that this war may well be extended by both countries against Iran.

So, to the Senate in your 2027 session;  if you pass the budget, remove Section 219 from it; it will suppress speech, in violation of the First Amendment, and will find the US military committed to endless regional foreign wars in the Middle East on Israel's behalf, wounding and killing American service members, and for which this country does not, and will not have, the money to pay.

Nadav Rapaport, middleeasteye.net

Nine of the 10 Israeli settlers arrested on suspicion of attacking a Washington Post photojournalist and European diplomats over the weekend have been released from custody, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

A Jerusalem District Court released five suspects on Wednesday, while police released another. Three others had been released on the day of their arrest on Monday, according to the report.

The court found that police had presented evidence linking the suspects to the attacks. However, the judge said the incident took place “in the midst of a much larger event of massive stone-throwing” by Palestinians.

Four of the suspects, all settlers from the occupied West Bank, were released by the court despite police requests to extend their detention.

Claire's Observations:  Released to brutally beat and potentially kill more journalists, I see.  

And if in fact the incident took place "in the midst of a much larger event of massive stone throwing by Palestinians", where, please, is the evidence to support this?

There are few places on this planet more hazardous to the health of  journalists, than are Gaza and the West Bank, courtesy of that self-proclaimed "Only democracy in the Middle East."

By Kyle Anzalone, libertarianinstitute.org

The Department of War is seeking to build a more robust deep-cover spying program to wage economic warfare against China and other nations deemed adversaries of the US. 

A half-dozen sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the Pentagon hopes to develop a next-generation espionage program that includes spies posing as business executives without any official affiliation with the US government.

The Pentagon plans to employ spies known as “nonofficial cover officers,” or NOCs, who operate without an official US government affiliation. Operating under nonofficial cover can be more dangerous than working under diplomatic cover because NOCs lack diplomatic immunity if they are caught.

The program raises legal questions because the Pentagon plans to operate under its Title 10 military authorities, which it uses to conduct intelligence activities, including intelligence preparation of the battlefield. Multiple former officials told the Post that the new program would be operating under “Title 60.” The outlet describes Title 60 as a “half-joke” about the Pentagon combining its Title 10 authorities with the CIA’s Title 50.

If you live in the UK and only watch one video today, make it this one.

Is your WordPress website showing the "PHP Update Required" warning? Running an outdated version like PHP 7.4 puts your site at severe security risk, slows down performance, and prevents future WordPress updates. In this video, I’ll show you step-by-step how to safely upgrade your website from PHP 7.4.33 to PHP 8.3 without breaking your site or losing data.

The PHP2Shell vulnerability (CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619) isn't just an issue for traditional Linux web servers and WordPress blogs—it impacts your entire homelab and network hardware! Because embedded PHP powers management web GUIs and containerized apps, unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) flaws can leave your NAS, firewalls, and self-hosted services fully exposed. In this video, we break down what PHP2Shell is, why it affects devices like QNAP, pfSense, OPNsense, Nextcloud, and older Pi-hole deployments, and the exact step-by-step action plan to find PHP services on your local network and close the security holes before attackers exploit them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its Houston teams are now averaging about 100 arrests of illegal aliens per day.
 

Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s re-election campaign has spent roughly $47,000 on 45 hotel stays nationwide since April, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
 

Navy and Marine Corps separation boards are repeatedly voting to keep transgender service members despite Pentagon rules that leave them almost no choice but to recommend discharge, according to a new report.
 

Legendary Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz offered some commentary on the Ilhan Omar situation during a recent appearance on Newsmax. He suggested that the situation is far worse than Omar is letting on and seems to think that deportation is a very real possibility.

After several years of avoiding the subject — in July 2019, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune published a report on Ilhan Omar, her tax fraud crimes, her illegal use of campaign funds to cover travel costs and touched on her alleged marriage to her younger brother.

A woke, radical leftist lost her mind on Friday after watching how the current frontrunner to Florida’s next governor addressed a biological male pretending to be female at a campaign event.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its Houston teams are now averaging about 100 arrests of illegal aliens per day.
 

Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s re-election campaign has spent roughly $47,000 on 45 hotel stays nationwide since April, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
 

Alberta this morning. 😬 https://t.co/WqROTQnlsr

— SweetMarie (@Oceanbreeze473) October 24, 2026

Webmaster Addition:

Navy and Marine Corps separation boards are repeatedly voting to keep transgender service members despite Pentagon rules that leave them almost no choice but to recommend discharge, according to a new report.
 

Former Deep State FBI Agent Nikki Floris Arrested, but Not for Suppressing China’s Actions in the 2020 Election
 

The Justice Department is seeking an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit to stop California from counting mail-in ballots linked to more than 20,000 people federal investigators have flagged as likely noncitizens, warning that once the ballots are separated from their envelopes, the damage cannot be undone.
 

President Donald Trump has scored another major legal victory in his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration!