Source: The American Conservative
by Joseph Addington

“t the end of August, President Donald Trump announced a major deal with the government of Venezuela. The agreement would give the U.S. functional control of about 20 percent of Venezuela’s oil, which equates to over 65 billion barrels—or almost one and a half times more oil than the United States has in its own current proven reserves (which total approximately 46 billion barrels). … Trump, ever the dealmaker, appears to view this as the capstone of his Venezuela policy. Superficially, it bears the hallmarks of a triumph for a kind of crude foreign policy realism: American hard power, deployed narrowly, forced cooperation from a previously hostile neighbor and secured material benefits for the United States. … Despite the president’s enthusiasm, however, the Venezuelan oil deal is a clumsy instrument that introduces significant risks.” (09/09/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-venezuelan-oil-deal-is-a-big-gamble/

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin

“President Donald Trump is trying to force states to severely curtail mail voting for the fall election by requiring the US Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail ballots unless states meet various onerous requirements. This plan is an affront to both federalism and the separation of powers. The Constitution grants state governments default authority over election administration, subject to override by Congress, when it comes to procedural rules for federal elections. Trump is seeking to usurp these powers.” (09/08/26)

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/08/trumps-mail-order-ballot-order-is-an-assault-on-federalism-and-separation-of-powers/

Source: Town Hall
by Deroy Murdock

“Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP’s natural home for gay conservatives, recently filed for divorce from the transgender movement. High time and Hallelujah! As LCR’s president, Ross Hemminger, explained August 20 in Townhall: ‘In 2015, the Log Cabin Republicans Board of Directors voted to add the ‘T’ under the umbrella of our mission — out of a belief that all adults should be allowed to pursue their own happiness, free of government interference, as long as it did not impede on the inalienable rights of others.’ Hemminger’s thoughts parallel America’s innate libertarianism. When, for instance, fully grown decathlete Bruce Jenner became Caitlin, it was not everyone’s Olympic Gold Medal moment. However, it also was nobody’s javelin to discard but Jenner’s. Since then, Hemminger continued, ‘The transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all; nearly all of their efforts and those of their aligned special interest groups focus on minors.'” (09/09/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/deroymurdock/2026/09/09/lcr-lgb-yay-n2682665

Source: Asia Times
by Stephen Prager

“While Republicans express ‘offense’ at plans for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to attend September 11 remembrances this week due to his Muslim faith, US President Donald Trump provoked outrage on Tuesday when he told what seems to be a fabricated story about his heroism following the terrorist attack. … Trump has claimed on multiple occasions to have been present in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and has told a version of the same story before, including on the 2016 campaign trail. But many aspects of the tale are in doubt or contradicted by both the public record and others known to be involved in the recovery.” (09/09/26)

https://asiatimes.com/2026/09/stolen-valor-trumps-9-11-story-draws-scorn-as-fabrication/

Source: Niskanen Center
by Rachel Levine

“The ‘co-location’ of power plants and large energy users on the same site is gaining traction as a way to provide electricity to data centers without raising household bills. It seems like a quick fix but is really a symptom of a grid that has struggled to anticipate and meet rising demand. While co-location may provide near-term relief for select industries willing to pay for it, it won’t scale to keep power reliable and affordable for everyone. To do that, we need interregional, high-voltage transmission to arbitrage power over long distances to serve load wherever it is.” [editor’s note: No, we need decentralized and localized generation. “The grid” is obsolete technology – TLK] 09/08/26)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/bypassing-the-grid-wont-save-us-from-having-to-build-more-of-it/