“A court in Seoul has ordered Pyongyang to pay roughly $32.5m for blowing up an office in North Korea in 2020 that was intended to foster better relations between the two neighbours. ‘The court has ruled the North should pay the South Korean government 44.6 billion won in damages,’ a spokeswoman for the Seoul Central District Court told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. The lawsuit over the destruction of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office marks the first time the South Korean government has sought damages directly from the North Korean state, media reports said.” (09/16/26)
“The idea of an egalitarian human dignity at the heart of the political order was not just Jefferson’s quirky view of liberal government and society. For most of liberalism’s early history, liberal thinkers saw themselves as making more universal and secular the Christian idea of the Imago Dei—that everyone is born with God Himself reflected in their being. Yet, over time, liberals changed emphasis. Between Jefferson’s time and our own they started championing legal proceduralism, free market economics, and religious freedom. To be sure, these are valuable aspects of liberalism and should be defended. But none alone has the moral force and philosophic weight to anchor an entire approach to politics.” (09/15/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“Across the political spectrum, Americans continue to tolerate abuses of power so long as those abuses are carried out by the ‘right’ people, against the ‘wrong’ people, or in the name of some emergency deemed too important to question. That is how constitutional government dies. Not all at once. Not with the Constitution formally abolished or the Bill of Rights ripped from the National Archives. It dies by degrees: through executive power that expands while congressional authority withers; emergency powers that never quite disappear; wars waged with little regard for constitutional restraints; surveillance systems capable of tracking whole populations; federal agents empowered to operate with ever less accountability; military forces normalized on American streets; and courts that too often allow questions of standing, immunity and procedure to determine whether unconstitutional conduct will ever be confronted on its merits. Every such precedent makes the next abuse easier.” (09/15/26)
“The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform unanimously voted Tuesday to recommend that the full House hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas issued in its investigation of the federal government’s handling of the criminal cases against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. … The GOP-led committee has been investigating Epstein since February 2025, and has sought to speak with Black, a longtime friend and client of the disgraced New York financier, believing he has information related to how Epstein and Maxwell tried to curry favor and exercise influence to protect their illegal activities. Black sat for a transcribed interview in June, but walked out about an hour into the interview after declining to answer questions concerning nondisclosure agreements.” (09/15/26)
“Just this week, Trump excoriated Ukraine for targeting Russia’s oil infrastructure because it’s creating problems for him. ‘Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing,’ Trump said. ‘He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel.’ Trump — who endlessly insisted on the campaign trail that he could ‘end the war in Ukraine in one day’ — doesn’t demand Putin stop murdering Ukrainians. He instead demands that Ukrainians not fight back in a way that inconveniences Trump amid a surge in oil prices overwhelmingly caused by the war Trump started with Iran.” (09/15/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Exclaiming against the upsurge in popularity for socialism, especially among young people, right-wingers wax eloquent about the virtues of America’s ‘capitalist’ system. By the same token, left-wingers vehemently denounce America’s ‘capitalist’ system. Notice the common denominator: Both right-wingers and left-wingers have absolutely no doubts that Americans live under a capitalist system.” (09/15/26)
