Godless and Providential?

Source: Law & Liberty
by Mark Tooley

“The Godless Constitution and the Providential Nation by Steven D. Smith is timely reading for America’s 250th birthday, especially amid increasing debates over Christian Nationalism. Even as American religious practice has declined over several decades, more religious voices are paradoxically clamoring to legally establish their preferred form of religion. Integralists want a Catholic confessional state. Some Calvinists who self-identify as Christian Nationalists believe civil magistrates should repress blasphemy and apostasy, among other spiritual duties. Smith rightly sees this clamoring for more religion in governance as a reaction against the decline of providentialism and civil religion.” (08/31/26)

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/godless-and-providential/

Thomas L. Knapp

Experts, lawyers puzzled over US-Venezuela oil deal, call for contract transparency

Source: Reuters

“A massive long-term oil deal expected to grant the U.S. access to a fifth of Venezuela’s crude ​reserves has energy experts and lawyers questioning its legality and eventual execution, while calling on both governments for contract transparency. The unprecedented pact, announced by U.S. ‌President Donald Trump on Friday and confirmed by Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, will put a whopping 65 billion barrels of recoverable oil under Washington’s control, a volume that surpasses total U.S. proved oil reserves of 46 billion barrels. The agreement did not pass through a competitive process, and its negotiation remained a secret until last week, even amid a sweeping reform of Venezuela’s primary hydrocarbons law and the migration of ​dozens of joint ventures and contracts to new terms, which authorities and operators have not completed.” (08/31/26)

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/experts-lawyers-puzzled-over-us-venezuela-oil-deal-call-contract-transparency-2026-08-31/

Thomas L. Knapp

Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry Jackson

“California law now provides for an annual adjustment to the statewide minimum wage for inflation. On Jan. 1, 2027, it will jump from $16.90 per hour to $17.40, higher than any statewide minimum wage currently in effect. (In a few cities, the minimum wage is already $20 an hour and in many others it’s dangerously close to that mark.) It is a wage, said Newsom, ‘that rewards work, grows the economy, and puts working families first. We believe if you work hard, you deserve a decent paycheck.’ Put aside for the moment that government is in no position to decide what a ‘decent paycheck’ is and let’s look at the employment numbers and marvel at why advocates don’t see the destructive nature of government-instituted wage floors.” (08/31/26)

https://fee.org/articles/newsom-celebrates-a-higher-minimum-wage-as-california-jobs-struggle/

Thomas L. Knapp

Data center fight could decide next president, and cost America the AI race

Source: Fox News
by Len Khodorkovsky

“It’s the fall of 2028. A debate moderator turns to two presidential nominees who spent their governorships fighting over data centers. ‘China’s AI lead is now a fact,’ she says. ‘In 2026, you decided to restrict data-center construction, and the machinist in Youngstown, Ohio, watched his job follow the servers to the Gulf. What do you tell him? Which of your policies would you take back?’ That reckoning is two years away, but the choices that will decide it are being made now. Rising electric bills deserve a real fix, but not one rushed for political expediency that leaves the people it’s meant to help worse off down the road. The pressure to do something is building.” (08/31/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/data-center-fight-could-decide-next-president-cost-america-ai-race

Steve Trinward

The billionaire tax is breaking the California Democratic Party

Source: SFGate

“California’s billionaire tax proposal is splintering the state’s Democratic Party, with party leaders opposing the wealth tax even as voters, and especially young voters, appear eager to increase taxes on the rich. The latest division appeared last week when the San Francisco Democratic Party voted to oppose Proposition 40, the controversial wealth tax on the November ballot. The decision goes against the state party, which endorsed the plan earlier in the month. Michael Nguyen, a candidate for the SF Board of Supervisors, said the local party’s rejection of the state party’s position on the tax was unprecedented, and he called out local Democrats for supporting the ultrawealthy. … Polling shows that Democrats overwhelmingly support the measure, which would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on any resident who was worth more than $1 billion and be implemented next year.” (08/31/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/billionaire-tax-san-francisco-democrats-22406495.php

Steve Trinward

Global Empire as Domestic Policy

Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato

“We rarely consider the domestic political implications of Washington’s globe-spanning empire, yet government spending on war and empire functions as the de facto national industrial policy of the United States, largely determining which cutting-edge technologies receive the most investment, which companies will enjoy massive state-guaranteed markets, and which physical objects will be the focus of the country’s industrial production capacity. Through the military empire, the state becomes both the architect of and primary consumer for a huge industrial sector. And while it has grabbed more headlines this year due to the parlous speculative bubble surrounding AI, the political consequences of the connection between the global military empire and the private sector tech industry remain woefully under-discussed in the mainstream discourse.” (08/31/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/31/global-empire-as-domestic-policy/

Thomas L. Knapp