Today’s news (9/26/2017) — Kurds vote independence, Turkey threatens

Kurds overwhelmingly support independence

As results come in from yesterday’s referendum in Kurdish Iraq as to whether the region should become independent, the “yes” vote is garnering greater than 90% support. So far, Israel is the only country that is supporting Kurdish statehood, although occasional support for Kurdish independence appears in the U.S. press.

Both Iraq’s Shiites and Turkey’s President Erdogan — the latter especially — are hostile and have scheduled military joint exercises near Kurdistan following the referendum.

Puerto Rico is not Katrina

Democrats are eager to blame the Trump administration for poor response to Puerto Rico’s recovery effort from Hurricane Irma, but there’s scant evidence that this is the case. Besides FEMA, the U.S. Navy and Marines are active in relief efforts.

Republican woes

With Maine’s Republican Senator Collins declaring her opposition to the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare reform bill, the bill now seems finally dead.

The prospect of major tax reform — another Republican campaign promise — is uncertain, with the only apparent agreement to emerge so far between the administration and Republican legislators being a desire to reduce or eliminate the estate tax, the state and local tax deduction, and corporate and pass-through taxes.

Marriage is an institution in jeopardy, in part because of the marriage penalty, which hasn’t been addressed in current tax reform proposals.

Democrats’ woes

Nearly forty people were killed in the Democratic-Party-run city of Chicago last weekend, but liberals take no responsibility.

Democrats are accused of having outsourced their leadership to celebrity spokesmen, as with Jimmy Kimmel’s role as Senator Chuck Schumer’s mouthpiece against the Graham-Cassidy bill.

The Democrats are also accused of being the biggest spenders of campaign “dark money.”

Arts: psychopaths and the Tate

Surprise! Psychopaths prefer Blackstreet and Eminem to Beethoven, contrary to A Clockwork Orange.

Or that the United Kingdom’s Tate Modern has gone full postmodern.

Click here to go to the previous Founders Broadsheet (“Monday’s news – 9/25/2017 – Right gains in Germany – China ready for N. Korean occupation”)