The Trump Administration’s Difficult Relationship with the Truth

Source: Independent Institute
by Caleb Petitt

“As a social science, economics is meant to be apolitical. Research is meant to find out truths about the world we live in, particularly when it comes to markets. Government organizations such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Census Bureau, and Federal Reserve all play a role in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data on the country’s economic well-being. The Trump administration seems determined to chip away at their independence and weigh in on their analysis. Last year, President Trump fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS, because he was displeased with a routine correction to a jobs number estimate. He has also tried to limit the Federal Reserve’s independence through executive orders, threatened to fire former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and repeatedly attempted to remove Dr. Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve board member.” (09/02/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/02/trump-administration-relationship-truth/

The Elephant in the Canadian Room

Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson

“At first glance, the current American-Canadian trade ‘war’ is absurd. We are neighbors with a long history of close friendship, speak the same language (for the most part), and spring from the same British civilization. Nearly one million Canadians reside in the United States. Given the two countries’ natural affinities, Canadians are nearly indistinguishable from Americans. Both sides have reasonable grievances over trade policy. Americans don’t like Canada’s perennial trade surpluses of more than $50 billion in a supposedly free-trade zone. They resent the fact that non-free-market China exports subsidized cheap steel and aluminum through Canada, giving Canadian auto and truck exports a price advantage. The United States also objects to Canada imposing a surcharge on American digital media companies to subsidize Canadian Indigenous and French-language content.” (09/03/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/03/the-elephant-in-the-canadian-room/

ICE gang member fedrally charged with lying over shooting

Source: CNN

“An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been federally charged with lying about the events leading up to his shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg earlier this year, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The charges against ICE officer Christian Castro are not yet publicly available, but a person familiar with the matter told CNN that he is facing several counts of making false statements. This is the first time the Justice Department has charged an officer for conduct that occurred on-duty during highly publicized immigration operations nationwide. Local prosecutors in Minnesota had already charged Castro with second-degree assault and making a false report earlier this year.” (09/03/26)

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/03/politics/ice-officer-christian-castro-federal-charges

Trump Hands Dems Their Best Gift Yet

Source: The Bulwark
by Lauren Egan

“For months, Democrats running in competitive races have taken note of the widespread and growing public backlash to data centers and have begun elevating their opposition to them in campaign settings. Given the public perception that data centers are responsible for rising utility costs, Democrats have tied the proliferation of those facilities to the party’s overarching midterm theme of affordability, and they’ve blamed Republican incumbents for courting them. … in the past few weeks, Republican officials have seemingly started to wake up to the fact that their party is on the wrong political side of the issue. … All that, however, was before Trump’s Truth Social post Monday morning.” (09/02/26)

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-republicans-data-centers

Libertarians and Political Action

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Hamoon Soleimani

“For most of the twentieth century, the trouble with libertarianism was never its ideas, it was its posture. Theorists stood outside the arena with folded arms, waiting for voters to reason their way to liberty, treating political philosophy as a kind of religion of non-participation. That turned one of the sharpest critiques of state power into a seminar-room parlor trick. While purists argued over who would pave the roads without a transportation ministry, the people who actually wanted power simply took it, grabbing the money, locking down capital, and dictating the granular details of everyday life. Surviving runaway state intervention means dropping the fantasy of keeping your hands clean, and giving up on a mass awakening that is never going to arrive.” (09/02/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/libertarians-and-political-action

Vigilante? No, showing love

Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton

“No one in their right mind wants to actually kill someone. But sometimes, that is the only sane choice. A choice to take lethal action, defensively, to end the ability of the shooter to harm (more) people. Some would claim that this is a ‘civic duty’ or negatively, ‘taking justice into your own hands.’ That is often labeled as being a vigilante. We at TPOL believe it to be an act of love.” (09/02/26)

https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/09/02/vigilante-no-showing-love/

Norwegian pirates steal Russian ship in Arctic over Crimea compensation claim

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“Norway has seized a Russian ship in ⁠the Arctic to ⁠enforce a compensation claim by Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz, linked to Russian asset seizures in Crimea. Norway seized the ship on Wednesday, after Moscow failed to pay Naftogaz $4.22bn plus interest and legal costs to compensate for ⁠assets it seized in ⁠Crimea after a tribunal ruling at The Hague in 2023. … The vessel, the Professor Molchanov, was taken off the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard after a 24-hour standoff with the Norwegian Coast Guard, according ⁠to Covington, the US law firm representing Naftogaz.⁠” (09/003/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/3/norway-seizes-russian-ship-in-arctic-over-crimea-compensation-claim?traffic_source=rss

Despite all of the rage, evidence doesn’t point to a genocide in Gaza

Source: New York Post
by David Harsanyi

“In May 2025, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, went on BBC Radio and told the audience that 14,000 babies in Gaza were going to die ‘in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them’. Two days. Fourteen thousand babies. According to UNICEF, there are around 20,000 babies in the entirety of Gaza. Which means 70% of all infants were in danger of dying in mere hours. An ‘utterly chilling’ figure, Fletcher stressed. The New York Times, along with numerous other establishment media outlets, relayed Fletcher’s allegation to its credulous audience without any skepticism. The usual experts were summoned to discuss this unfolding famine on cable news. And the antisemites across social media amplified the claim. No matter how far-fetched a story is about Israel, including preposterous evidence-free accusations that it trains dogs to rape Palestinians, papers such as The New York Times will spread it to feed the perception that the Jewish state operates as a genocidal entity.” (09/02/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/09/02/opinion/evidence-doesnt-point-to-a-genocide-in-gaza-despite-all-of-the-rage/

TAC Right Now, 09/02/26

Source: The American Conservative

“Andrew Day and Luke Nicastro talk to Connor Echols of Responsible Statecraft about Dan Driscoll’s resignation as Army secretary, Vice President J.D. Vance’s controversial speech to an Israel lobby group, whether the Iran War is becoming a Forever War, and Israel’s sponsoring ads on the podcast of Sen. Ted Cruz.” (09/02/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/j-d-vances-perplexing-moves-w-connor-echols/