Source: Townhall
by Jen Springman
“The future is arriving, and America is entering a new infrastructure age. Much of the political class is succumbing to a familiar temptation: slow it down by stoking fear of the unknown and imagining worst-case scenarios without acknowledging the benefits. Nowhere is this clearer than with data centers.” (07/27/26)
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“Even with much of their leadership and infrastructure decapitated over the last several months, the skeleton crew that remains of the Islamic Republic continues to maintain a slight upper hand over their colossal foes simply by using the Strait of Hormuz to create a heavy economic price for an oil-dependent globalized economy actively colluding with American imperialism and Israeli genocide. This is the only reason why Donald Trump pretends to play ceasefire on-and-off like a psychotic game of red-light-green-light. That rapist and his cuckholds in Tel Aviv are attempting to feign diplomacy just long enough to keep the world economy from imploding, at least until after the midterms, but those already desperate acts have been badly botched by an unexpected third party in the Persian Gulf named Oman.” (07/26/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/07/its-time-to-use-strait-of-hormuz-to.html
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“There are things in international law that we might not, in fact, desire to do. As we can see with this argument about Saudi Arabia and an enrichment plant. A straight reading of that international law insists that not only may they we should, in fact, be helping. There’s going to be an awful lot of smoke blowing, argument and shifty looks as people try to weasel a way out of obeying international law. Or argue that that should happen. Please note, we have no position at all on whether Saudi should gain an enrichment plant or not. Rather, if we can all decide that, y’know, this international law isn’t quite all it’s cracked up to be and we’d rather not have to obey it for practical reasons then, well, doesn’t that open up some vast number of interesting issues?” (07/26/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-perils-of-these-international-law-things
Source: The Hill
by Matthew T Martens
“Having experienced the dangers of judge-controlled tribunals, the Founders were determined to preserve the jury as a cornerstone of American justice. But when it comes to denying Americans the right to a jury trial, King George III could not hold a candle to modern American prosecutors. Today, approximately 95 percent of criminal cases in the United States are resolved through guilty pleas rather than trials. In so-called plea bargaining, prosecutors threaten unduly severe sentences for those defendants who dare go to trial or offer unduly lenient sentences for dangerous offenders looking to avoid responsibility. The result is the virtual elimination of criminal trials of any sort, jury or judge. How did this transformation occur? The short answer is that the Supreme Court let it happen, caving to Richard Nixon’s ‘law and order’ agenda.” (07/26/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5986854-jury-trials-plea-bargaining-crisis/
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“Not only are Black people losing political power at the hands of a hostile Supreme Court; they are also losing majority or plurality status in any number of big cities, as the in-migration of Latinos, which dwarfs that of gentrifying whites, transforms once heavily Black neighborhoods. In Los Angeles, the South-of-the-I-10-Freeway neighborhoods that for decades sent three Black representatives to the U.S. House, are now overwhelmingly Latino. For this reason, paradoxically, it may be that the kind of voting we’ve seen from the Mamdani electoral base will turn out to be the best guarantor of Black elected officials. Whatever allegations may be made against America’s new new left, they don’t include voting based on race.” (07/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/27/zohran-mamdani-black-latino-voters-carmine-desapio/
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“If complete abolition of discretionary tariffs is impossible, Congress could at least reform any remaining delegations of tariff authority to 1) confine them to a narrow set of circumstances, and 2) eliminate judicial deference to executive determinations that the required circumstances actually exist. Make the government bear the burden of proof. Even if all this were done, a malicious, ignorant, or stupid president could still try to impose illegal tariffs. But businesses and trading partners could confident that his efforts would have no legal effect, and would be swiftly invalidated by courts.” (07/26/26)
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“State ‘motor voter’ laws — especially those which, like New Jersey’s, automatically register people who interact with the license bureau to vote, only later allowing them to opt out — don’t just risk inaccuracies like those produced by this episode, they abandon a key element in any supposed democracy: Consent. When you beg the state of New Jersey for a driver’s license, government ID card, etc., the bureaucrat behind the counter doesn’t request your permission to add your name to yet another database and co-opt you as a ‘member of the electorate.’ It just happens without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ … If someone signed your name on a legal contract you didn’t agree to or a petition you didn’t agree with, you’d be angry — and you’d be right.” (07/26/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert
“[I]n the span of a week, the White House effectively told Canada, our closest trading partner and ally, that America’s word means nothing and then told them that they are complicit in forced labor. … Then we set a penalty that just so happens to approximate the Section 122 tariffs that just expired. Foreign officials must now contend with an even clearer reality: not only is an agreement with the United States not worth the paper it’s printed on, but we will accuse you of horrendous practices if it means that an administration can re-impose tariffs.” (07/24/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/judges-can-void-a-tariff-they-cant-rebuild-our-reputation/
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Regime change failed, of course. Worse: the mullahs’ regime hardened and gained confidence from successfully resisting the might of America’s war machine. The US watched helplessly as Iran instantly blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, and couldn’t prevent them from hitting the Gulf states, Israel, and Jordan with what seems like a robust supply of missiles. So we were almost instantly exposed, humiliated, checkmated. The MOU was a recognition of this, but it postponed all the hard stuff and was so vaguely drafted that it soon fell apart. The only clear result of the war is therefore Iran’s control of the strait and enhanced leverage over the gulf. So what now? Escalation to get out of this? That appears to be a live possibility. The president is now in ‘revenge mode,’ we’re told — which is, of course, an emotion, not a strategy.” (07/24/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/revenge-mode-as-strategy-a54
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by James Bovard
“After Al Qaeda terrorists used Afghanistan for training bases for the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and quickly routed the Taliban government. President George W. Bush boasted that U.S. troops brought freedom and democracy to Afghanistan. But rather than democracy, the United States brought Hamid Karzai, an oil pipeline lobbyist who was expected to slavishly follow U.S. orders.” (07/24/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/afghan-lessons-for-american-democracy/