“The White House has published the terms of its Venezuela oil deal, naming the private company at its centre and confirming Washington’s majority control of more than 65 billion barrels, as President Trump vowed the US would be taking ‘all’ of it. … Venezuela’s interim authorities have granted NABEP 100-year concessions over 17 fields with the agreement signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The Venezuelan reserves dwarf America’s own, as the 65 billion barrels covered by the concessions compare with roughly 46 billion across US territory. Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, US President Donald Trump called the reserves ‘unbelievable value that was sitting dormant’ and added that the US is ‘going to be taking all of that. We’re going to be taking that oil out.'” (09/01/26)
“Presidents do not like hearing bad news. CIA Director John Ratcliffe went to Moscow to brief Russian counterparts on the U.S. assessment of the state of the war in Ukraine. The news could not have been good. Even if Ukraine is not winning the war, its costs to Russia in blood and treasure have been extraordinary. Now, Russia’s energy infrastructure is being increasingly shut down. Suppose Russian President Vladimir Putin reversed the favor, sending Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergey Naryshkin to brief President Trump on America’s ‘excursion’ into Iran. Imagine how that would go down if Naryshkin relayed the reality? Trump would be apoplectic. … Neither Trump nor Putin respond well to negative feedback. Few presidents do.” (09/01/26)
“Imagine you hear a speech in which a ruler, reflecting on his first months in office, boasts that he has secured the borders, imposed tariffs, purged the civil service of corruption, eliminated Marxism, and protected Christianity. You might reasonably assume it was delivered in Washington sometime in the past year. In fact, Adolf Hitler delivered it on March 23, 1933, before the newly constituted Reichstag in Berlin’s Kroll Opera House.” (09/01/26)
“A U.S. Postal Service official has alleged that the agency is moving forward with a ‘secretive, rushed’ effort to implement President Trump’s order exerting federal control over mail voting, despite a court order blocking those plans. The official filed a whistle-blower report, published on Tuesday morning by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, asserting that the ‘risky and haphazard’ implementation of Mr. Trump’s order could lead to a ‘catastrophic failure’ in the mail ballot system ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The report said that the agency had planned to complete the new digital system overseeing mail ballots by Sept. 1. ‘Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,’ the official said in the report, which was prepared with the assistance of Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit group that represents people seeking to expose potential lawbreaking.” (09/01/26)
‘Robby Soave delivers his radar on the president’s online defense of data centers and his warning about allowing China to surpass the U.S. in the race to lead AI development.” (09/01/26)
“I attended my first gay wedding in 1995. It was not on purpose. I was on a summer road trip, supported by a $500 travel grant from the University of Illinois, exploring identity-based intentional communities. Because I had so little money, the only groups I could study were the ones who offered free lodging, which generally meant pitching a tent on their lawn. The nice people at the Idyll Dandy Acres community outside of Nashville were happy to oblige. ‘We’re Radical Fairies,’ they told my friend Jeff and me. ‘Everyone is welcome here.’ The happy couple were camped next to us, two women from Britain. On the first morning, they threatened to break my acoustic guitar after I played ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ for the fifth time. Then they invited me to their wedding. Was I really going to say no?” (09/01/26)
“Former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday he will leave the House of Commons, triggering a by-election in his central London constituency. Starmer, who quit as prime minister in July after losing the confidence of Labour MPs following a dreadful set of local election results, said it is the ‘right time’ to concentrate on new work. Starmer had told the BBC in July he would remain an MP until the next election, but told his local paper, the Camden New Journal: ‘I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defense, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world.'” (09/01/26)
“Job openings and hiring were nearly flat in July, according to the Labor Department’s monthly job openings and labor turnover survey, the latest sign that the labor market is stuck in ‘low hire, low fire’ mode. Some 7.3 million positions were available in July, up slightly from a revised 7.2 million in June. Hiring was also fairly steady, with 5.1 million workers finding new jobs in July, a slight decrease from 5.3 million in June as the professional business services sector shed jobs. The hiring rate was 3.2%.” (09/01/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“New standards for replacement automobile tires will ‘save California drivers nearly $1 billion per year in gasoline and electricity costs, putting money back in their pockets. The standards will also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2 million metric tons per year, equivalent to taking approximately 400,000 gasoline cars off California roads.’ That is the claim of the California Energy Commission …. The Commission seems unaware that tire manufacturers strive to deliver the best possible mileage. Unelected government commissions played no role in that process, and drivers are fully capable of selecting the tires that best meet their needs.” (09/01/26)
