Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The Dutch central bank (DNB) has confirmed that billions of dollars in gold has been taken out of north America and relocated to London, citing ‘increasing geopolitical unrest’. DNB said on Wednesday that 86 tonnes of gold had been removed from the US and Canada in a complex operation that took several months. It is now being held by the Bank of England, where the precious metal can be traded more easily ‘in a crisis situation’. Bank president Olaf Sleijpen said the move was ‘necessary to strengthen our resilience and preparedness’. The decision comes amid an ongoing trade dispute between the US and Canada, with both countries announcing fresh tariffs on each other after failed trade talks.” (09/02/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgy51xlz39o
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on a mission to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). This implies that America was healthy at one time but is not healthy now. Is this actually the case? How is something like this even measured? Can America be made healthy again? MAHA does not stand for Make Americans Healthy Again. So what exactly does it mean to make America, a country, healthy again?” (09/02/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/kennedy-gets-it-half-right/
Source: The Hill
by Jeffrey Stein
“From the beginning, the boat strikes campaign has been widely condemned as lawless. Contrary to President Trump’s absurd claims, the U.S. is not and cannot be in a formal armed conflict with the unnamed drug cartels supposedly targeted in these attacks. The boat strikes are therefore nothing more than premeditated killings of civilians. A chorus of elected officials, governments and international bodies have thus denounced the strikes as ‘illegal.’ But why focus on the strikes’ illegality in the first place? After all, one could just as easily condemn the strikes for their cruelty. The strikes have torn apart families from across Latin America, depriving them — forever — of husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. ” (09/02/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/6064098-aclu-lawsuit-wrongful-deaths/
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“An explosion near a German train station followed by the discovery of a suspicious object caused police to temporarily close the transport hub in the southern city of Augsburg on Wednesday morning. Later in the morning, police said the suspicious object had been identified as harmless and that the train station was reopened again at 10 a.m. and trains starting running again. … An unidentified object exploded in a passageway near the station at around 3:15 a.m. local time, according to officials, causing minor injuries to two people. The people injured were a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man, both of whom are Ukrainian citizens, the German news agency dpa reported.” (09/02/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/explosion-germany-train-station-9.7329026
Source: Niskanen Center
“Why neither party is fiscally responsible.” (09/02/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/why-neither-party-is-fiscally-responsible/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Rachel Lu
“Alasdair MacIntyre was a political animal, or so one naturally assumes. He was at any rate an Aristotelian, and since Aristotle declared man to be the zoon politikon (‘political animal’), it seems safe to say that MacIntyre thought of himself as one such. Nevertheless, for much of his life he was deeply reluctant to enter into political discourse. In youth, he was (in)famously a Marxist. Eventually he broke with the socialists and made his way to Aristotelian Thomism. He spent decades writing on the incoherence of modern moral theory, giving considerable attention along the way to action theory, the virtues, and the history of philosophy. But he largely eschewed political discourse, to the frustration of political theorists who hoped to enlist him as an ally.” (09/02/26)
https://lawliberty.org/macintyres-common-good/
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
“Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an ‘oppressive system’ linked with white supremacy and that it must be ‘dismantled’ to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the ‘fundamental evil of the capitalist system’ and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called ‘to dismantle the capitalist state’. As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club [and] roused the crowd with an attack on capitalism: ‘I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country.'” (09/02/26)
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/09/02/the-texas-trotsky-talarico-declares-capitalism-an-oppressive-system-that-must-be-dismantled/
Source: SFGate
“Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it will expand its operations in Venezuela, just days after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal to develop the nation’s oil reserves and give the Pentagon a stake in the profits. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Trump administration Tuesday to ‘stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough,’ as he pushed back against a fresh wave of taunts from Washington. Carney said U.S.-Canada trade talks could resume if Washington becomes serious about negotiations. And a record percentage of Americans — about 9 in 10 — 89% — believe there’s widespread corruption in the U.S. government, according to a new Gallup poll released Wednesday. That’s up 10 percentage points from last year.” (09/02/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/the-latest-canadian-prime-minister-carney-tells-22414063.php
Source: Politico
“Trump’s data center defense.” (09/02/26)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL3382091301.mp3
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“It’s both common and accurate to point out that many people who go into government are control freaks motivated by the desire to exercise power over others, or else driven by self-interest to profit from control of the reins of government. But a new study points out that even when government officials are sincere and intend to make the world a better place, they often cause more harm than good.” (09/02/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/02/study-even-well-intentioned-regulators-do-more-harm-than-good/