“There is almost no support for a new war, but there is a vocal group of hardliners in the Republican Party and in Washington that has been seeking this conflict for decades. The report mentions Mark Levin as one example, and there are also ideological fanatics in the Senate including Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham. Genocide denier Bret Stephens chimed in again this week with a despicable plea for war. They have been goading Trump to attack, and I fear they are going to get what they want. The vocal fanatics might not matter as much if they faced real opposition, but there is virtually no one in the Republican Party pushing in the opposite direction.” (02/24/26)
“Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pulled over several cars in Eagle County, Colorado. They took the people away in handcuffs, according to a witness, and left the cars idling at the side of the road. When family members of the disappeared immigrants arrived, there was no sign of their loved ones. What they found instead were customized ace of spades playing cards that read ‘ICE Denver Field Office.’ When I saw an image of that card, the memories came flooding back. I’d seen something similar many years before. Sitting in the U.S. National Archives building — Archives II — in College Park, Maryland, sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s, I’d spent parts of several afternoons watching film footage shot by, and of, U.S. troops in Vietnam back in the 1960s. One of those silent military home movies always stuck with me.” (02/24/26)
“Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Colombia during 2025 closed at USD 9.173 billion, marking a 14.1 percent drop compared to 2024, according to figures from the central bank, mainly due to an increase in the tax burden ordered by the current socialist government. Meanwhile, in Brazil, FDI reached a significant milestone in 2025, totaling USD 84.1 billion between January and November, the highest level in a decade and surpassing the figures for 2014. In stark contrast, the government has managed to ensure that, for the first time since 2003, FDI in Argentina shows a negative cumulative balance of USD 1.521 billion between January and November 25.” (02/24/26)
“‘We live in the age of the revolt against the elites,’ writes Hugo Drochon in his new insightful book Elites and Democracy, summarizing the strides made by populist forces, on the right and on the left, in the West and beyond, in the last decade. The paradox, he observes, is that while populist leaders all reject the elite, they themselves are often part of the elites, either economic or political. Modern politics is thus best understood as the process of one elite replacing another. This basic insight opens up a perspective on the relationship between elites and democracy, which Drochon theorizes with the aid of twentieth-century political thought.” (02/24/26)
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Travis Brammer
“As older landowners retire, many have no successor ready to step in. When ranches do not transfer to the next generation, they are far more likely to be subdivided or converted to non-open space. According to the American Farmland Trust, nearly 300 million acres of U.S. farm and ranchland, almost the size of Alaska, are expected to change hands in the coming decades. What happens to that land will shape wildlife habitat, water resources, rural communities, and open spaces across the country. If conservation depends on keeping land intact and working, then keeping ranching viable for the next generation matters more than ever. Virtual fencing offers a promising new tool to meet the challenge.” (02/24/26)
“When I write or speak about the alarming things I see as an Exvangelical in an America where Christian nationalism is ascendant, I sometimes receive indignant replies. I’ll be asked if I actually mean what I said, or if I’m perhaps exaggerating. If I say something in earnest, I mean what I write. I was asked recently if I actually think there is a real movement to repeal the 19th Amendment. Yes. There is.” (02/24/26)
“Tax and expenditure limitations in state constitutions — known to cognoscenti as ‘TELs’ — vary in their scope. But if effective in curbing government fiscal powers, they are invariably controversial, and courts and legislatures regularly seek ways to undermine them. The average effective lifespan of most TELs is only five years. A particularly famous TEL is Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), inserted into the state constitution by popular vote in 1992. Despite dire warnings that TABOR would destroy the state — and continued charges that it is starving government — Colorado has prospered since it took effect.” (02/24/26)
“The nondelegation doctrine says that Congress may delegate its legislative authority to the president only under certain limited circumstances. Those limits are there to enforce the constitutional separation of powers. Thomas would eliminate many of those limits. In his view, the nondelegation doctrine simply should not apply when a case involves what he characterizes as a non-core legislative power. What is a non-core legislative power? Thomas offered a few examples, including ‘the powers to raise and support armies’ and ‘to regulate foreign commerce.’ According to Thomas, because these powers originally descended from the kingly authority of the British crown, it is entirely proper for Congress to surrender them without limit to the executive branch. One problem with this argument is that it runs counter to the text of the Constitution.” (02/24/26)
“In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Trump should boast of his triumphs this last year — and offer a frank and positive take on the work still ahead. The nation should see him as the happy warrior he deserves to be: cheerful, proud, upbeat. Trump began his second term full of optimism, promising ‘a golden age,’ reversing the misery and turmoil of the Biden years — and immediately started making good on his vows.” (02/24/26)
