SOHRAB AHMARI: The Case for Kurdistan.

The Kurds have been a people without a state for centuries. Monday’s independence referendum in northern Iraq’s Kurdish zone is an important step toward rectifying this historic injustice, and I believe the U.S. is making a grave mistake by opposing the vote.

The Trump administration announced its displeasure in a September 15 statement, noting that the referendum “is distracting from the effort to defeat ISIS and stabilize the liberated areas.” It added: “Holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing.” The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the White House said, should work out its differences with Baghdad through dialogue.

Not now, go away, in other words. The statement reflected the sort of rigid adherence to Washington dogma that too often prevents America from seizing the opportunities presented by the tectonic shifts in the Middle East. The Trump administration failed even to nod at Kurdish aspirations, or offer an alternative timeline if the current moment is too inconvenient. This was unnecessary slap when there are compelling moral and strategic reasons for creating a Kurdish state in northern Iraq sooner than later.

The Kurds will almost certainly win their independence from at least Iraq and probably Syria. The question is whether we want to keep Independent Kurdistan as a friend and an ally.

I FIND THIS HIGHLY PLAUSIBLE: Forget getting rich – sex and sleep are the real keys to happiness.

STEPHEN KRUISER: NFL Players Double Down, Lobby for an ‘Activism Awareness Month.’

What’s the big deal? Baseball is about to enter the postseason, and the NHL’s 2017 season begins in two weeks.

SILLY RABBIT: Original Trix With Artificial Colors Is Back After Customers Revolt. “Using radishes and turmeric instead of Red 40 and Yellow 6 didn’t work for children and adults alike.”

You don’t say:

“Change it back!!” wrote Denver-area mother and photographer, Ashley Carara, on Facebook shortly after the new recipe hit shelves.She said in an interview Thursday she likes the way the artificial colors and high-fructose corn syrup look and taste. The new recipe—not so much. “My kids find the color of the new Trix cereal quite depressing,” she said.So change it back is what the company did. General Mills has decided to reintroduce the original, more-vibrant Trix, artificial flavorings and all, and will start selling it on supermarket shelves alongside the more wholesome version in October.The reintroduction of Classic Trix is a reversal of General Mills’ pledge two years ago to remove artificial colors and flavors from all its cereal brands. It said the seven reformulated, all-natural cereals boosted sales by 6% in early 2016. At the same time, natural-ingredient haters flooded the company with calls, emails and social-media posts, according to Mike Siemienas, a spokesman.It turns out consumers “don’t all want one thing,” he said.

The reformulated stuff looks almost as sad as a bowl of brightly colored Kaboom.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? U.S. shale oil output expected to rise by 79,000 barrels a day in October.

That translates to a small savings for you at the pump, or fewer pennies in some oilgarch™’s bank account — or a little of both.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Why a team of 8-year-old football players decided to kneel for national anthem.

In my experience, this is not the kind of thing eight-year-olds decide to do on their own.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1597: New Details Of Targeting Of Conservative Groups Emerge In Tea Party Lawsuits.

HIPSTER PARADISE: Sen. Thom Tillis Say Federal Overregulation Causing Businesses to ‘Withdraw from Urban Areas.’

PROCUREMENT: Xbox Marks the Spot.

Remember all those gritty WWII submarine movies where the skipper brings the boat up to periscope depth, drapes his arms around the handles of the scope, and scans the surface for targets? Well, that was then. According to the Virginian Pilot newspaper – the Navy is replacing the helicopter-like stick that has been used to adjust the periscopes on more modern subs – with Xbox 360 controllers. Nowadays, there is no long tube that only one sailor can look through at a time – but rather video screens, so it is somehow appropriate going forward the display will be controlled by the same device that is used for video games ashore. In addition to being more user friendly than the joystick that had been in play in recent years, you also can’t beat the price. The joysticks costs about $38,000…but the Navy can get Xbox controllers for less than $30 a pop.

You have to wonder if the Navy endured a Playstation vs Xbox flame war as part of the purchase decision.

IT’S ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Germany Will Miss Another Green Goal.

Berlin’s grand green energy transition is falling short of the lofty targets that inspired it. Earlier this month, the think tank Agora Energiewende released a report that projected Germany would fall well short of its goal to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—far shorter than was previously believed. Berlin had committed to cutting 40 percent of its GHG emissions by 2020 as compared to 1990 levels, but as that year looms large, the country has achieved a reduction of “just” 28 percent (a remarkable decrease, though nowhere close to the target), and it’s expected to only shave off another 2 or 3 percent over the next few years. Now, a new study from the BEE renewable energy group suggests that the country is going to fall short of its Brussels-set target of sourcing 18 percent of its energy production from renewables by 2020.

Related: Pruitt blasts Europe, Merkel for ‘hypocrisy’ on climate. “Pruitt mentioned Merkel by name, urging the public to press her on the issue. If reducing carbon dioxide emissions ‘is so important to you, Madam Chancellor, why are you getting rid of nuclear? Because last time I checked, it’s pretty clean on CO2,’ he said.”

Plus, new promotional video for the EU energy/climate policy:

You gotta admit, it’s a rockin’ tune.

LONDON JUST BECAME A FAR WORSE PLACE TO VISIT: Transport for London bans Uber on spurious “elfnsafety” grounds. To paraphrase Pitt the Younger, “health and safety” is the plea for every infringement of human freedom in Britain today – it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. The Freedom Association responds here. International visitors to London who use Uber regularly, like I do, might want to speak up too.

PIERS MORGAN: Don’t get angry about a bunch of white girls singing n***as, blame Kanye and the rap industry for putting it in their songs in the first place.

The chorus to ‘Gold Digger’ includes this line:

‘Now I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger,

But she ain’t messing with no broke niggas,

Now I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger,

But she ain’t messing with no broke niggas.’

I’ve spelled out the word ‘niggas’ exactly as it was written in the song’s lyrics because it’s important and relevant to do so for the purposes of this column.

Of course, by doing so, I will inevitably provoke outrage from certain quarters, but that outrage is also an important and relevant factor for the purposes of this column.

On Tuesday, an Instagram story video was posted showing female members of the Alpha Phi Sorority at University of New Hampshire singing and dancing to the song at a party.

Oh, sure — blame the victim: Poor Kanye who had his work culturally appropriated by privileged white female college students.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, HE ALSO SPREAD THEM ABOUT HIS OWN HEALTH CARE BILL: Obama spreads untruths about the Graham-Cassidy health bill.

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THE ACADAMY’S SELF-MARGINALIZATION CONTINUES: More Law Prof Reactions To The Wax & Alexander Op-Ed On The Breakdown Of The ‘Bourgeois Culture.’

MAXINE WATERS: “Impeachment is about whatever Congress says it is.”

COUNTER-TERROR WARFARE IN MALI AND NIGER: France arms its Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with Hellfires.

France began using the Reaper UAV in Africa in 2014 but they were unarmed. The Reapers are built to handle hot and dusty conditions and have about twice the readiness and over five times the endurance of the Tigers. The French Reapers would often find Islamic terrorists in Mali but by the time a Tiger helicopter, a fixed wing warplane (equipped with smart bombs) or ground troops could arrive the Islamic terrorists were often no longer vulnerable to attack. Meanwhile the Americans had been using Hellfire armed Reapers and smaller Predators throughout Africa and the Middle East regularly for nearly two decades.

Finding them is good, finishing them quickly is better.

Here’s a photo of a Reaper taking off on a night mission in Afghanistan.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How Not To Recover From A Crisis, Mizzou Edition.

The University of Missouri, where I teach and which I dearly love, is in crisis. Freshman enrollment at the university’s Columbia campus (Mizzou) is down by a whopping 35% from two years ago. Missouri’s governor and legislature slashed Mizzou’s state appropriation by $22 million this year.

Administrators have responded by cutting Mizzou’s operating budget by 12% and laying off 307 employees (474 across the entire University of Missouri system). They’ve also closed seven dormitories to students, instead renting out the rooms for football games and special events like the recent solar eclipse.

Suffice it to say, morale on campus is low.

The primary culprit, of course, is Mizzou’s reaction to the student protests of 2015. In November of that year, a group of students, justifiably angered by three racist incidents on the 35,000-student Columbia campus, presented administrators with a number of unreasonable demands. Among other things, they insisted that the president of the 77,000-student University of Missouri system publicly acknowledge his “white male privilege” and resign his post and that the university adopt patently unconstitutional racial quotas for faculty and staff.

Instead of leading like compassionate, wise adults—joining the protestors’ rightful condemnation of racist conduct but working to convince them that their demands were unreasonable—many Mizzou officials either succumbed to or actively perpetuated the frenzy.

Mizzou’s football coach publicly supported a player boycott by the members of his team. The chancellor encouraged the protestors by allowing them to erect a tent city on a university quad and providing them with electricity generators. One administrator bullied a student reporter and attempted to prevent him from documenting the protests. A professor actually battered a reporter and famously called for “some muscle” to remove him from the protestors’ camp.

Watching Mizzou’s leadership abdicate to the loudest voices from the radical left, most Missourians were aghast. Many decided that their children, donations, and tax dollars should go elsewhere. Hence, Mizzou’s current situation.

One might think, then, that the university’s administration would be doing all it can to get back in the good graces of the people of Missouri.

Not so much. As I keep saying, if some evil genius of the right wanted to destroy the reputation of the academy, xe couldn’t do better than the academy is doing to itself.

WELL, HE CERTAINLY SEEMS LOADS OF FUN TO WORK FOR: Was Lawrence O’Donnell’s meltdown video leaked on purpose?

Nice symmetry though: Socialist stooge Pete Seeger in 1949: “If I Had a Hammer.”* Socialist stooge Lawrence O’Donnell in 2017: “Stop the f***king hammering!!!!”

* As James Lileks once quipped, “‘If I Had A Hammer’? Well, what’s stopping you? Go to the hardware store; they’re about a buck-ninety, tops.”

THE LEFT IS INSANE AND VIOLENT, WORLDWIDE: Former Australian PM Head-Butted By Same-Sex Marriage Supporter.

ANY WEAPON TO HAND: The Left catapulted Valerie Plame to stardom without figuring out what she thinks.

The left-wing darling just tweeted an article accusing Jews of starting American wars. After the predictable blowback, Plame first encouraged her audience “to put aside your biases” and read the article before admitting that she “didn’t do my homework on the platform.”

An especially embarrassing gaffe for a veteran intelligence analyst, the UNZ.com article in question asserted, among other things, that Jews “own the media,” that Jewish people should wear labels while on national television, and that their beliefs are as dangerous as “a bottle of rat poison.”

One doesn’t need training in espionage though to recognize the bigotry of the piece. One also doesn’t need to be some sort of covert agent to recognize the flimsiness of her excuse. . . .

Of course, Plame is entitled to her opinions and her excuses. Everyone else is also entitled to mercilessly mock the very people who have promoted her for so long, because her story provided something politically useful to them.

There’s a lot to mock.

VOX: How Venezuela went from a rich democracy to a dictatorship on the brink of collapse.

As New York University historian Greg Grandin has pointed out, Chávez “submitted himself and his agenda to 14 national votes, winning 13 of them by large margins, in polling deemed by Jimmy Carter to be ‘best in the world.’”

“Chávez was always careful to maintain electoral legitimacy,” Francisco Toro, editor of Caracas Chronicles, an opposition-friendly news and analysis site, told me. Toro says that Chávez had big advantages with friendly media and his tendency to use state money on his campaigns, but that he didn’t “steal or cancel elections blatantly.” Chávez even allowed his opposition to run a recall referendum against him in 2004 just two years after surviving a coup attempt. He won the referendum by a huge margin.

When Chávez picked Maduro to succeed him, it was because he expected Maduro to be an effective champion for his ideas after his death. But while Maduro shared a great deal with Chávez ideologically, he has not been able to repeat his political or economic success. Instead, he’s overseen Venezuela’s descent into economic catastrophe, lost swaths of Chávez’s committed political base, and become one of Latin America’s newest autocrats.

Just last month I wrote on this page, “It’s an easy prediction to make, that the Left will portray Maduro as they eventually portrayed Stalin — the brute who betrayed the revolution of his noble predecessor.”

And, well, here you go.

ROCKET MAN WON’T LIKE THIS: China banks reportedly to halt business with North Korea as South Korea sends $8 million.

Related: Trump issues executive order against North Korea, gives the Treasury Department new authority to go after people and entities that do business with the rogue regime. (Video.)