DHS funds Ministry of Truth – Federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security financed pro-Trump video advertisements that the White House dubbed ‘US Government ads,’ The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The taxpayer money came from US Customs and Border Protection, an arm of DHS, according to the report.

SNAP-Off – Big changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) begin Thursday as last year’s One Big Beautiful (budget) Bill cuts about $186 billion out of its budget over the next 10 years, according to Marketplace Morning Report. States are now responsible for 75% of administration costs, up from 50% previously, according to Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute. 

That could cost states millions of dollars to hundreds of millions, depending on the size of the state, she says, and some states may pull out of SNAP altogether. Beginning Autumn 2027, the program will require more paperwork from applicants, Waxman says. More than 5 million people have stopped participating in SNAP since the budget bill passed, though it’s difficult to say how many of them dropped off because of the initial tightening of application requirements.

•••

Was it Terrorism? – Israeli authorities have not determined the motives of an Omani pilot on flydubai flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, who allegedly stabbed his Indian co-pilot and sent the flight plunging toward a crash. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Fox & Friends Thursday the suspect “underwent Islamist, radical indoctrination.” 

It was Israeli PM Netanyahu’s second appearance on conservative Fox News in 24 hours, according to The Times of Israel.

Because the injured co-pilot managed to open the cockpit door on Wednesday’s flight, passengers detained the suspect while an off-duty British flydubai pilot pulled the jet aircraft out of a “death spiral,” according to the Daily Mail.

•••

Hegseth Doubles Down – In his ‘State of the Force’ speech Wednesday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon has fired 10% of generals and admirals in the US military and he would like to get that to 20%.

Hegseth, speaking before junior officers at Virginia military base, also announced initiatives to study the future of warfare focusing on autonomous operations, per NPR’s All Things Considered.

Hegseth also told the junior officers this: “The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”

•••

Tennessee Botches Execution – Christa Pike would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years when she received a last-minute stay about nine hours before her scheduled lethal injection, Wednesday. The Supreme Court then overturned the lower court’s ruling, 6-3, with Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elana Kagen dissenting.

Pike, 50, later survived two doses of lethal injections Wednesday night, The New York Times reports, before state officials suspended the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She then was taken to hospital for medical care, her attorneys said. 

Pike was 18 when she killed 19-year-old Slemmer, and thus is eligible for the death penalty. Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, also was convicted of the murder. Because Shipp was 17 at the time of Slemmer’s murder, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was recently denied parole, according to the NYT.

Pike’s attorneys have argued that her initial legal defense in the 1995 trial did not adequately present the likelihood of child sexual abuse and neglect.

•••

South Korea Disputes $50b US Investment – A South Korean government official Thursday disputed Trump administration claims it had reached a deal for a $50-billion liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Alaska, The Wall Street Journal reports. Kim Jung-kwan, South Korea’s industry minister, disputed the $50-billion number and that any deal had been reached at all.

“Putting out figures, or using definitive language, goes far beyond what was agreed,” Kim said at a press briefing in Seoul.

But definitive language is exactly what President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) -- who faces Democratic challenger Dan Sullivan in his re-election bid November 3 – voiced in announcing the deal at a White House press conference Wednesday. 

“This one is huge for Alaska,” Republican incumbent Sullivan said.

The project, first proposed in 2014, would pipe LNG from the far-north of Alaska, liquefy it and export it to Asia. If and when it happens, liquefied LNG exports would be years off into the future. 

South Korea’s Kim said he expects both sides to follow up with discussions on the pipeline.

•••

Gas Relief Continues – AAA’s national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4137 Thursday, 2.06 cents lower than Wednesday and $1.4337 higher than on February 27. Diesel is $6.3895 Thursday, down 2.44 cents lower than Wednesday and 75.7 cents higher than on September 1, AAA says. Meanwhile, NPR reports the international benchmark price of oil is up Thursday, breaching the $100 per barrel mark. --TL

_________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 9/30/26

Pre-deregulating AI/SI – Following a White House luncheon with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and other “top executives,” President Trump announced an Artificial Super Intelligence policy that relies on “tremendous self-policing of products and technology.” Trump later told reporters he was “thinking of forming a committee” that would include tech execs.

The White House document on Trump’s pre-deregulation policy outlines four “layers of controls and audits” for AI SI purveyors, according to The Guardian; 1.) implementation of internal safety monitoring during training 2.) internal teams to make sure that first layer is properly implemented, 3.) external auditors to independently assess safety controls and 4.) independent boards for each company to review reports of the safety controls.

SI … Perhaps most importantly, the White House issued a separate order centered on the president’s Gulf of Mexico America-like renaming of AI, as Trump first floated at the United Nations General Assembly last week. It mandates using “‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch.”

The tech broligarchy is pleased.

“This is a start and an accord that the whole industry could come to. It was a sort of historic conversation,” Meta’s Zuckerberg told reporters after the luncheon.

•••

Smith’s Hawks – Americans should not take the rule of law for granted, Jack Smith, special counsel investigating Donald J. Trump’s alleged 2020 election interference, said ahead of his second testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was his third hearing under oath over MAGA Republicans’ accusations Smith “weaponized” the Justice Department against Trump between his two terms. 

The hearing’s TV news moment came when Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) grilled Smith on whether his attending an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors at the Hawks in Atlanta February 3, 2024, just after Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis – who also was investigating Trump’s alleged shenanigans in the ’20 election – admitted to an affair with one of her prosecutors. 

Schmitt had uncovered texts to and from the former special prosecutor that “proved” Smith was in Atlanta that day for the Warriors-Hawks game. 

Except, it turns out Smith was attending an Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball game featuring phenom Caitlin Clark, versus the Terrapins at the University of Maryland, in College Park, just outside Washington, D.C.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told the Judiciary Committee that the University of Iowa team is known among fans as the “Hawks,” and demanded that Schmitt apologize to Smith for calling him a “dirtbag” after misplacing him at the Warriors-Hawks game.

Call him what you will; Schmitt refused.

•••

Sovereignty Day in Iraq – The US Wednesday withdrew the last of its troops who returned in 2014 to lead an international coalition to fight the Islamic State, or ISIS (per The New York Times). After toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, the US military occupied Iraq until 2011 and returned three years later to fight the ISIS threat.

Iraq calls the US withdrawal its “sovereignty day,” though Ret. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who had commanded US troops there told NPR’s Michel Martin on Morning Edition that removing all troops could strengthen neighboring Iran while leaving Iraq vulnerable to an ISIS resurgence.

•••

Gas Relief – As commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal according to various reports, Americans are finding some relief at the pumps. National average for a gallon of unleaded regular slipped 2.15 cents to $4.4343 Wednesday, AAA reports. That’s $1.4543 pricier than on February 27. Diesel is down, too – though higher prices at retail and grocery stores are still on the way -- by 2.52 cents, to $6.4139, which is 81.04 cents higher than AAA’s August 30 average. –TL

________________________________________________

TUESDAY 9/29/26

Iran Connection Still a Question –President Trump was upset by British authorities’ release on bail of five men arrested at US-operated RAF Fairford Air Base in the Cotswolds, NPR reports. The men, British nationals from the London area, were arrested shortly after midnight Sunday when they drove three vans onto the airbase. 

British authorities have not established a connection to terrorists and have floated the possibility they were unwitting pawns in an alleged scheme that may or may not have involved terrorists, Morning Edition reports. Iran’s UK embassy on Monday denied involvement in the incident. 

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio “confirmed” on Fox News’ Hannity Monday night that the illegal entry onto the air base was a thwarted terrorist plot involving a “foreign actor.”  

“What happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the UK over the weekend is a very serious situation,” Rubio told eponymous host Sean Hannity. “It’s one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.”

Meanwhile, oil frees up … Oil exports from the Middle East are up sharply in September, close to the level before Iran closed off the Strait of Hormuz, analysts tell The New York Times. With ships passing an average of 10 million barrels of oil daily through the Strait this month, according to tanker-tracker firm Kpler, some energy prices may soon ease. 

•••

At the US Pumps – Gasoline and diesel prices continue to ease off recent highs, according to AAA. Diesel Tuesday averages $6.4391 nationally, 1.4-cent lower than Monday and 8.85 cents lower than its all-time high set one week ago. Unleaded regular averages $4.4558 nationally Tuesday, 2.1 cents lower than Monday and $1.4758 higher than on February 27.

•••

It’s ‘Super’ – OpenAI has scrapped its release of GPT-6.1, its new artificial intelligence model, over safety concerns, The Wall Street Journal reports. GPT-6.1’s cancellation comes just ahead of OpenAI’s annual developer conference in San Francisco and company President Greg Brockman’s attendance at a White House lunch for AI executives, both on Tuesday.

In addition to Brockman, Tuesday’s White House lunch with President Trump is to be attended by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and – oh, yeah, him -- Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). The lunch guest list was confirmed by Semafor.

Note that while Trump barred The Associated Press from some White House press events last year when the wire service refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico, “Gulf of America,” there have been no repercussions, yet, for the WSJ or Semafor or for that matter, OpenAI for failing to call it “Super Intelligence” after the president changed the name at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Note to OpenAI … What with cancellation of GPT-6.1, this might be the time to rename yourself “OpenSI.”

•••

‘Protecting’ College Sports – The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act, 77-22, with bipartisan support as well as bipartisan opposition, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Oppo, both Democratic and Republican, comes from critics concerned it curbs college student athletes’ rights and earning power without curbing the millions of dollars schools spend on recruiting, athletic facilities and coach salaries.

President Trump supports the bill, but the House won’t get to it until after representatives return to Capitol Hill after the midterms. –TL

________________________________________________

MONDAY 9/28/26

Five British Nationals Arrested at US Air Force Base in England – Five men in their 20s arrested early Sunday for suspicion of terrorism offenses at US-operated RAF Fairford air base in England are UK nationals from London, according to counter-terrorism police, The Guardian reports. 

Police were called when an area resident witnessed three vans being driven toward the airbase, according to the BBC, though President Trump said on Sunday that US intelligence had been watching the men involved.

The US Air Force has used RAF Fairford to launch attacks on Iran during the war.

The five men were detained under suspicion of offense under the Explosives Act and for preparation of a terrorist act, contrary to Section 5 of the UK’s Terrorism Act, The Guardian reports. Police evacuated 85 households from the nearby village of Whelford, Sunday.

Iran’s embassy Monday denied any involvement with the incident, the AP reports.

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump -- National average for a gallon of unleaded regular eased over the weekend, and settled at $4.4768 per gallon Monday, AAA reports. That's 1.5 cents cheaper than Friday and $1.4968 more expensive than February 27. Diesel is $6.4531 per gallon, 4.88 cents lower than Friday. Do not expect more relief Tuesday, as the apparent breakdown of negotiations between the US and Iran was pushing global oil prices up on Monday.

•••

Senate Runs Out of Time – The House of Representatives already is on its midterm elections break and the Senate has just this week remaining for its final votes, with a college sports bill coming up Monday evening the only sure bipartisan thing, according to Roll Call. That gives the Senate precious little time to respond to President Trump’s pocket recission cancelling $810 million in health and education funds already approved by Congress. 

“I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), arguably the most endangered Republican senator for November 3, said in a statement in response to Trump’s pocket recission.

•••

Once More, With Feeling – President Trump expects his negotiators to resume talks with Iran this week, he told Axios in a phone interview Sunday. This came one day after Trump rejected a proposal by Iran to end the seven-month-long war. 

Iran and the US are reportedly far apart on key issues, while Qatar and other mediators from the region have tried to revive the negotiations. 

The Iranian proposal Trump rejected on Saturday centered on the Strait of Hormuz and the US naval blockade, while the Trump administration remains more focused on nuclear concessions. US envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner had held their latest round of negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly last week.

•••

Election Fraud Alert – The Trump administration could use the hours and days after the November 3 midterm to disrupt results – now looking kinda real good for Democrats in the House, if not the Senate -- after struggles to enforce voting crackdowns, election experts speaking in a briefing by the Brennan Center for Justice and reported by The Guardian, said last week.

“I think because the administration has lost so many of their attempts to disrupt the normal process in courts, that they are going to use the claims of foreign interference at the end of voting days to either seize equipment or seize ballots, whether they are legally justified to do so or not,” Caitlin Durkovich, former deputy Homeland Security advisor for resilience and response on the national security council said. 

The non-partisan Brennan Center conveniently has documented the chronology of President Trump’s pre-emptive attempts to influence the 2026 midterms. Trump’s worry is that if Democrats take control of the House, it can impeach him for a third time, but it will take a highly unlikely 60-Democrat majority in the Senate (or several Republicans willing to defy MAGA and join Democrats) to assure conviction. 

•••

Netanyahu Asks for Cover? – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed to deny Haaretz’s Sunday report the Emerati leader warned Netanyahu of the Hamas attack that sparked Israel’s war on Gaza, shortly before the October 7, 2023 attack, according to a report Monday in Haaretz. UAE sources told the newspaper that Netanyahu asked bin Zayed to deny details of their pre-October 7 phone conversation, as well as other details of events leading up to the Hamas attack that could embarrass the Israeli PM and asked for “moral support” in a one-hour meeting at the Tel Aviv airport Sunday. 

The revelations come just ahead of the October 27 Israeli election of all 120 members of Israel’s Knesset, which will determine the coalition to succeed the 37^th government led by Netanyahu. His serious challenger is the National Unity Party’s Benny Gantz, who is pushing for a broad, moderate Zionist government, according to The Jerusalem Post. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 9/28/26

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that following his speech to the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly Wednesday [UN Web TV, above] he secured a new deal for desperately needed Patriot missiles, the Kyiv Post reports. But Zelenskyy was tight-lipped about it and would not reveal the source, number of Patriots or when they would arrive in the Ukraine. He did claim Ukraine shot down 60% of incoming Russian ballistic missiles Thursday night, up from a 29% seen in July, which the Post suggests indicates some help already has arrived.

•UPDATE: The White House says President Trump will detail on Monday trade agreements made with Chinese President Xi during his state visit this week. Scroll this column for details on their meeting.

Defiant Netanyahu at the UN – Amidst large anti-Netanyahu protests in New York City, the Israeli prime minister played the ‘antisemitism’ card on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who tried to block him from coming to the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly because of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him.

“Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in his 40-minute speech to the General Assembly. “Since you were elected mayor, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me.”

Netanyahu addressed the war on Iran his government launched in late February with the Trump administration.

“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard,” he said. “But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”

Netanyahu also pushed back against the accusations of genocide on Palestinians in Gaza that lead to the ICC’s arrest warrant. 

“What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccines to the enemy’s population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of 2 million tons of food into Gaza?” Netanyahu said.

He later added; “Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel has prevented genocide.”

According to Haaretz, Israel has not provided vaccines to Palestinians, but at most has allowed vaccine campaigns by international groups.

Netanyahu also cited two or three incidents of violence by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes in the West Bank, saying perpetrators are “young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in numbers.”

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that 23 Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the beginning of 2026, according to Haaretz.

•••

All Pomp, Scant Circumstance – Nothing substantive emerged from Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the Trump White House this week. President Trump, in fact, was “very angry” there was press coverage his unprecedented red carpet greeting of Xi photo op upon his arrival at the airport, according to WAMU’s The 1A.

Tech titans at the state dinner Thursday were Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, X-DOGEman Elon Musk, Trump AI whisperer Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, according to The New York Times, as well as executives from Google, Microsoft, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer, GE Aerospace and ExxonMobil.

If there were no announcements of, say, a Chinese automaker building an assembly plant in the US, there were expressions of mutual admiration between Trump and Xi, according to USA Today.

“As the leaders of our two nations, President Xi and I both understand that we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said. “Since the first trade ships from New York left the harbor to arrive on the banks of the Pearl River, Americans and Chinese have always exchanged goods, knowledge, customs and ideas.”

“President Trump has pledged to make America great again and led the American people in making significant strides,” Xi said. “China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation and Chinese modernization has kept breaking your ground.”

Meanwhile, at the press table … After the White House initially defied US District Judge Timothy Kelly’s temporary restraining order that CNN, Politico and MS NOW be allowed in, the three outlets’ reporters and photographers were allowed access by Thursday afternoon. But while Politico journalists were able to attend the Trump-Xi state dinner, CNN and MS NOW were again barred.

•••

Gas Up – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular rose to $4.4918 Friday, up 0.93 cents from Thursday and up $1.5118 from February 27, AAA reports. Diesel is $6.5019 per gallon, 1.22 cents lower than Thursday. –TL

______________________________________________

UN General Assembly Day 3, Trump-Xi Day 1

THURSDAY 9/24/26

Trump White House Defies Court Order – US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order to restore access by CNN, Politico and MS NOW early Thursday, but that didn’t stop the Trump White House from denying them access later Thursday morning. According to Politico, its White House reporter was denied access Thursday, along with reporters for CNN and MS NOW. 

The judge’s order was to immediately restore access for the news organizations after President Trump banned them from the White House late last week. 

The three outlets have since filed an emergency request for a court hearing, CNN reports.

The reporters had expected to join other White House correspondents in covering Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

•••

About Zelenskyy’s Warning – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address to the United Nations 81^st General Assembly Wednesday warned that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is ramping up his threats beyond Ukraine, including to Moldova, Poland and the Baltic States. He added that Russia shows “no respect” for the sovereignty of countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

“The more freedom Putin has to act, the more dangerous the world has become for everybody else,” Zelenskyy said.

•••

Gas Prices Rise Again, Diesel Eases – After a downward blip Wednesday, gas prices at the pump are up again for Thursday, according to AAA. The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4825, up 0.81 cents over Wednesday and $1.5025 over February 27. The national average for a gallon of diesel slipped 0.76 cents to $6.5141. –TL

_______________________________________________

United Nations General Assembly, Day 2

WEDNESDAY 9/23/26

Trump Sinks to New Low – Coincidentally following President Trump’s recount of his second-term successes before the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, his approval rating has sunk to 29%, an historical low, according to the American Research Group’s latest poll. Trump’s disapproval rating in the poll, which has an error margin of 3%, is 68% in the ARG poll, Political Wire reports.

•••

Energy Ceasefire? – President Trump urged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop striking Russian oil depots, Marketplace reports. Trump and Zelenskyy briefly met Tuesday evening, after the UN General Assembly.

Zelenskyy, who addresses the General Assembly Wednesday, says Ukraine is “ready for any kind of format of energy ceasefire,” The Guardian reports. He said he did not get a chance to say much to Trump Tuesday.

“I hope we will end this war, and President Trump will help us end this war,” Zelenskyy said. “We need to do it as quick as possible, before winter.”

•••

Diesel and Gas Prices Ease – The national average for a gallon of diesel fuel Wednesday is $6.5217, AAA reports, 0.59-cent lower than Tuesday, up 95.1141 cents from August 21. Unleaded regular is $4.4744 Wednesday, six-one-hundredths of an unobtainable penny lower than Tuesday and $1.4944 more expensive than on February 27.

•••

Trump’s Media Ban Goes to Court – Attorneys for CNN, Politico and MS NOW will cite an exchange between President Trump and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the United Nations Tuesday to argue for their temporary restraining order to end their banning from the White House, according to Mediate, citing a report by correspondent Scott MacFarlane of the left-leaning MeidasTouch news site. 

US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump 45 appointee, hears the case Wednesday afternoon.

Attorneys for the three outlets prevented from entering White House grounds Saturday submitted to the court an Axios report of Trump’s remarks at the UN, in which he objected to Collins’ coverage, per Mediaite.

“I’m surprised that CNN is here, covering me,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be here!”

Collins replied: “The United Nations allowed me in, sir.” – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
WEDNESDAY 9/23/26

By Todd Lassa

The United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly consists of a different crowd than the Trump rallies the president still holds well into his second term. And so this time, there was no dancing to the Village People’s YMCA.

But President Trump did recount his long list of self-congratulated successes since retaking office in January 2025 to transform America from the “Dark Age into the Golden Age.” 

“I do not believe in letting problems foster,” Trump said, “they are harder to solve.”

Therefore, the Trump administration’s latest ultimatum for the Islamic Republic of Iran is that it must reach a deal after the midterm elections.

“I believe we’ll make a deal after the election,” Trump told the General Assembly. “They’re waiting to see if I win the election, but I am not running.”

As a reminder, the Trump administration will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. If the US and Iran can reach a deal, the president said, there will be so much economic investment in the country so as to make it a premier state in the region.

If no deal? “Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic?” 

With the contingent of the Nobel Peace Prize’s host nation, Norway, in the audience, Trump ticked off the eight wars he says he ended since retaking office and said once again he will soon end the Russian-Ukrainian war [or as it’s better-known, Russia’s war on Ukraine].

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the audience, Trump said if he has to impose tariffs of up to 100% on oil and natural gas allowed by the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (the late senator, unlike the president, was an unwavering supporter of Ukraine), he would. 

“We will get that one done,” he said of a resolution to the war. “It will happen more quickly than people understand.”

Trump spoke of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s (he was in the UN audience with First Lady Melania Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent) diplomatic efforts with Havana. The Cuban delegation stood up and left the General Assembly at that point in Trump’s speech.

The president said his agreement with Denmark and its semi-autonomous territory, Greenland, to build two “very major” military bases there would be signed later Tuesday. 

Announced just last weekend, this could have been the centerpiece of Trump’s speech. But the agreement with Denmark and Greenland essentially extends a 1951 agreement to make Greenland a US/NATO bulwark against Russia and China. The agreement also prohibits US adversaries from making “sensitive” investments in Greenland, an island rich in minerals and other raw materials, but does not account for the possibility that the island’s citizens could in the future vote for independence from Denmark, according to The Atlantic.

Trump threatened what right-wing Republicans have long considered the UN’s globalist tendencies, such as “transgender mutilation of our children,” persecution of Christians “all over the world” and the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) “promotion of mass migration,” which he said is destroying greater cultures.

“We want to remain a sovereign nation, and so should you,” Trump said.

The US president Tuesday morning followed Brazil’s progressive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who pre-emptively countered virtually all of Trump’s speech, point-for-point. 

Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, da Silva said; “I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.”

In the US president’s speech, Trump said fear of artificial intelligence comes from the same people who once warned we’d be dead from global warming, since renamed climate change because, he claimed, the world is actually cooling down. He equated the “AI hoax” also with “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine” as well.

As with the Gulf of America, Lake America the state of New America and the Comedy Central satirical animation South America, AI is due for a Trumpesque name-change.

And so, the president has renamed AI “Super Intelligence,” or “SI.” [Imagine what this might do for Sports Illustrated’s website, si.com.]

“We’re going to encourage super intelligence,” Trump said, “not reign it in.”

•••

Networks’ Boycott – After CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox ceased their pool coverage of the Trump White House in response to the president’s banning of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the press pool Monday, the administration announced its own television channel on YouTube. But it did not launch in time for Newsmax’s coverage to President Trump’s permanent helicopter pad on White House grounds, which had visuals but no audio. 

Other networks, including PBS and NPR joined the five networks in solidarity and are not using White House-provided visual or audio assets (The Hustings also joins the boycott). 

Newsmax, meanwhile, will have to rely on Trump TV: The Essentials Station for its White House coverage.

•••

Diesel is Up, Gas is Down – The national average for a gallon of diesel rose 1.69 cents Tuesday to $6.5276, AAA reports. That’s up 95.12 cents from August 21. Unleaded regular Tuesday is down 0.36 cents from Monday to $4.475 per gallon, or $1.495 higher than on February 27.

__________________________________________________

Iran War, Week 24

MONDAY 9/21/26

UPDATE: The five networks that comprise the White House press pool – CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox -- have banded together to effectively boycott pool coverage of President Trump over his ban (per Mediaite).

THIS WEEK – The UN General Assembly meets in Manhattan. President Trump meets with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Monday and attends a state dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this Thursday.

SCROLL THIS COLUMN FOR ...

•Military base use for the Triumphal Arch?

•ICE shooting in Austin

•Diesel tops $6.50 per gallon

Arming the Arc d’Trump – Drones and ammunition will be stored within and snipers will ‘protect’ from above President Trump’s triumphal arch to be built, whether Congress and the District of Columbia want it or not, between the Lincoln Memorial and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s home – now Arlington Cemetary – across the Potomac River. The president announced the military/security justification, which recalls the need for a security bunker beneath his White House East Wing ballroom, in a Truth Social post over the weekend. 

Trump Truth Socialed that military leaders asked him for the Arc d’Trump arsenal. But Major Gen. Randy Manner of the US Army (retired) and acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau told NPR’s Michel Martin on Morning Edition Monday that Trump’s claim the military “begged” for it is an insult to the military, which already has a heavily guarded arsenals in the area, including Fort Myer, next to Arlington.

“This is absurd,” Manner said. “The president of the United States is trying to say we need this sniper stand so we can kill Americans.” 

•••

Trump Assaults First Amendment, Again – President Trump on Friday announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from White House access, meaning primarily regular press conferences, for disseminating “fake news.” More such bans of other fact-based news organizations are forthcoming, Trump said.

On Saturday morning, journalists for the three outlets were denied access to the White House.

“A few minutes ago, our colleague Cheyenne Haslett attempted to enter the White House to do her job as a political reporter,” Politico Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger wrote in a newsroom-wide email Saturday. “Secret Service denied her entry to the complex and confiscated the pass that allows her access to the White House. We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”

MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, also reported that some of its journalists were denied access to the White House last Saturday morning. 

“The White House belongs to the American people,” MS NOW said in a statement, “and the decisions made inside are funded by the American people.”

CNN, MS NOW and Politico Monday sued the Trump administration over the president's ban.

“The president is absolutely within his rights to limit journalists to government facilities, particularly when, in his opinion, they’re not behaving as good faith journalists and that’s just not his opinion,” United Nation’s Ambassador Mike Walz told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union Sunday. “That’s the Supreme Court’s opinion.”

Walz was referring to the Supreme Court’s 1965 ruling in Zemel v. Rusk, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote “the right to speak and publish does not carry with it the unrestrained right to gather information.”

But that SCOTUS decision would seem to regulate, say, whether or not RAND Corporation military analyst Daniel Ellsberg had the right to hand over The Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, not whether the president could restrict journalists working for fact-based news organizations could be kept out of the White House to make room for MAGA-right podcasters and influencers who never will publish anything critical of Trump. 

And it cannot go unmentioned that it’s typical for governments in Moscow and Beijing, to name two, that choose which news media outlets cover their leaders.

Asked which news stories published or broadcast by Politico, CNN and MS NOW the president found to be fake, Trump responded there have been “cumulative stories over the past few years.”

Meanwhile … The Associated Press’ suit seeking to be allowed back into the White House is still under appeal. The news organization has had access to some White House events, but the administration has kept its journalists out of specific restricted spaces since April of last year, according to factually.com. Trump banned the AP from the White House for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

•••

Another ICE Shooting – An ICE agent shot and wounded 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Wilber Garces Perez in Austin, Texas, Sunday as he apparently was making DoorDash deliveries.

Neither Austin police – which stated it was not involved in the shooting – nor ICE released Perez’s name, though Austin immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch identified him for The Texas Tribune. The attorney said Perez has a valid work permit and entered the US legally and was released from the hospital into federal custody Sunday evening. Perez called his wife from inside his car to say he was shot, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

Department of Homeland Security officials said its investigation department along with the FBI will probe the shooting, which comes more than two months after an ICE agent fatally shot a man in Houston. 

Biden! … Without naming Perez, DHS said he entered the US illegally under the Biden administration.

•••

Diesel tops $6.50 – The national average price of a gallon of diesel fuel is $6.5107 Monday, AAA reports, up 6.31 cents over Friday and up 93.43 cents from one month ago. Unleaded regular is $4.4786, up 0.99 cents over Friday and $1.4986 more than it cost on February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 9/21/26

Thanks to all who attended Wednesday’s debate at The Allen Theatre, discussing regulation of Big Technology. As you might expect, the hour-long debate was dominated by discussion of whether or not AI should be regulated.  

The series at the Allen Theatre in Annville, Pennsylvania, draws area and regional residents as well as students from nearby Lebanon Valley College who are interested in civil debate of today’s political issues. Read coverage of the debate series in LVC’s student newspaper, La Vie Collegienne and stay tuned for news of our next live debate, planned for October.

_________________________________________________

Limiting growth of artificial intelligence, curbs on social media and better regulation and anti-trust legislation for such Big Technology companies as Meta, Google, Amazon and Elon Musk’s myriad interests are all fair game in the next Talking With, Not At … live debate at The Allen Theatre, at 36 E. Main Street, Annville, Pennsylvania. 

Debate & Donuts V is 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 16 and is a civil discussion free and open to the public. 

See Monday’s center column for the latest news on the AI industry’s interest in self-regulation and President Trump’s preference for unbound competition.

You also are welcome to discuss this issue in the right and left columns. Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.newsand please indicate your political leanings, right or left, centrist-moderate, hard-right or prog-left, in the subject line, irrespective of the political position taken within. –Editors

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MONDAY 9/14/26

Fed Raises Interest Rates – The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted 12-0 Wednesday to raise interest rates, its first hike in three years, by 25 basis-points, to 3.75%-4% and indicated another increase later this year. Fed chair, Kevin Warsh (above), said the quarter-point increase “removed a dose of accommodation.” That's Fedspeak, according to The Wall Street Journal, for ‘stimulus.’

Planned Accidental Attacks – Russia plans “accidental” drone or rocket strikes on European countries supporting Ukraine to “paralyze or at least weaken the motivation on NATO countries,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk says.

“There is real risk that drones or other types of projectiles will enter the territory of one or several countries on the eastern flank and even cause destruction,” Tusk told Poland’s parliament Thursday, before traveling to Kyiv Friday. “If anyone dares to attack us, they will face a resolute response from us and our allies.”

Tusk said Poland will invoke NATO Article 5 to defend itself against Russian aggression. 

After Tusk’s remarks to parliament Thursday, President Trump announced the US is closer to a permanent military base in Poland, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. US troops currently rotate through a Polish base.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was also in Kyiv Friday and said Europe is closer than ever to a large-scale war erupting from Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to The Guardian’s report. Meanwhile, Europe plans disbursement of €3.3 billion (about US$3.78 billion) to Ukraine to buy missiles and drones.

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4687 Friday, up 3.01 cents over Thursday’s average, AAA says, and up $1.4887 over February 26. Diesel continues to set new record highs, costing on average $6.4476 Friday, AAA says, up 5.2 cents over Thursday.

•••

Preventing Attack on Kennedy Center – President Trump cannot demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts without providing 30-days’ notice, a federal judge ruled Thursday, after the center’s board of directors voted to close it over poor condition and finances (NPR’s Morning Edition).

Trump suggested the Kennedy Center, opened in 1971, will be “ripped down” if his name isn’t emblazoned on the building to give him credit for the renovation he seeks. Trump also claimed, without evidence that the Kennedy Center has lost millions of dollars. –TL

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Fed Raises Interest Rates 25bps

THURSDAY 9/17/26

EU+Canada: New World Leaders? – Something like the “Fifth Beatle” or the “Twelfth Player” at the Seattle Seahawks’ Lumen Field, Canada appears poised to become the 28^th member of the European Union, thanks in large part to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s inarguably un-Trumplike statesmanship. 

Canadian politeness lives. 

At the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, where President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union has proposed making Canada an “associate member” (without offering any details of what that means) Carney wowed the 27 extant members with smooth diplomacy, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“Canada and Europe are strong,” Carney told the European Parliament. “Europe and Canada are stronger together.”

Canada does not support zero-sum deals, he added.

Von der Leyen noted that the EU and Canada already have “deep” trade agreements, as well as deep sociopolitical ties.

“We see the world with the same eyes, from AI to climate change,” von der Leyen said, “from the Arctic to geopolitics and we’ve stood together on Ukraine defense, on raw material supply chains. But above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy.”

Touché.

•••

Meanwhile, Prices at the Pump – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4386 Thursday, up 7.14 cents over Wednesday, AAA says. Diesel is $6.3956, up 8.53 cents over Wednesday. –TL

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War on Iran, Week 23

WEDNESDAY 9/16/26

President Trump departs his Doonbeg golf resort in Ireland, after he said Saturday he would “love to see” unification with Northern Ireland, (Time magazine), which is part of the UK. “It would seem to me that one of the ‘naturals’ of all time is to put them together.” [White House video screenshot]

EU, Canada – European Union President Ursula von der Leyen says she will work on making Canada the economic bloc’s first “associate” member, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new EU category would acknowledge the result of President Trump’s tariff policy and isolationism the shifting the center of “the West’s” power away from US military and economic might.

Speaking in her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, this one with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the audience, von der Leyen said (per WSJ): “We must urgently reimagine our partnerships. And build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies. … I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU.”

Carney has vowed to find new markets for Canadian goods after Trump launched his full-scale trade war with our northern neighbor, which sends about 70% of its exports to the US. Tariffs of 50% are to take effect on key Canadian goods on January 1.

Hello, Cleveland … Meanwhile, the Cleveland City Council Monday, in a shot at President Trump’s “Lake America” moniker for Lake Ontario, voted to rename a portion of another Great Lake, Erie, as the “Gulf of Cleveland.”

•••

House Passes War Powers Act – The House passed the war powers act its third time Tuesday by 220-204 vote, directing the Trump administration to end the war in Iran or seek explicit authorization to continue, The New York Times reports. This time, seven Republicans joined Democrats in the resolution offered by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), up three Republicans from the first two tries.

Moulton, a retired combat veteran, said the war “has not only failed, but backfired.”

Republicans voting for Moulton’s resolution were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Marianette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, both of Iowa and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Impeach Hegseth? ... Massie, meanwhile, has introduced a resolution to impeach war/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

•••

Meanwhile, Prices at the Pump – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.3672 Wednesday, the AAA reports, up another 3.83 cents over Tuesday and $1.551 costlier than the AAA average on February 27. Diesel is up 4.09 cents, to $6.3103 Wednesday, which is $2.6238 higher than just before the US-Israeli war on Iran. –TL

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TUESDAY 9/15/26

It's National Voter Registration Day

•For More on Voter Registration: Click HERE.

Trump Expands his HOAX-o-rama – President Trump defended artificial intelligence development against its chief purveyors – including Dario Amadei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who called for curbs on development last weekend – as Vice President JD Vance questioned AI tech companies’ motives for seeking regulation. 

“AI taking over the World, destroying HUMANITY, and all other things bad, is a HOAX, no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA – UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE – IMPEACHMENT HOAX #1 – IMPEACHMENT HOAX #2 – and all of the other HOAXES and SCAMS that America was forced to endure,” Trump Truth Socialed (hat tip to Politico).

Earlier Monday, Trump TS’d “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades.”

Testing Trump loyalists? … Recently, Trump asserted that “communities that don’t take a data center are making a mistake,” adding that “plenty of communities” want one for the tax revenues (per Forbes), even as right and left have found a not-in-our-backyard issue over which to unite. Will all the president’s 30% or so loyal MAGAnistes stick with him on AI regulation?

Not Steve Bannon … “Face of the MAGA movement” Steve Bannon is joining Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (!!!) in participating in an all-day Pro-Human Assembly in Washington Tuesday arranged by the non-profit Future of Life Institute, NPR reports. Sanders with Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) has written legislation addressing the need for AI regulation. It would make it “illegal for any company to produce AI that is smarter than any human,” Sanders told NPR’s Leila Fadel on Morning Edition Tuesday.

•••

Speaking of Hoaxes – By 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court Tuesday in a one-paragraph ruling blocked the Trump administration from imposing federal requirements for mail-in ballots, The Wall Street Journal reports. With Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting, the court said the US Postal Service cannot enforce a Trump administration rule that would compel state and local election officials to submit lists of voters to the federal government. 

Wait, there’s more… Still, Trump’s Justice Department recently sent out letters to at least 30 top election officials across the country – the “Democratic” ones – in an effort to gain access to private voter data and election records, The New York Times reports.

•••

Speaking of RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA – In the final days of Emmy winner The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, its eponymous host joked about President Trump declining to attend his son, Don Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson. TMZ soon after reported that Donald Sr. did attend the actual May 21 nuptials (last day of The Late Show) of Don Jr. to the socialite/model before the happy couple, sans president, flew off to a “destination” wedding celebration with about 50 guests. 

The May 22 destination wedding might be considered a good thing for President Trump to avoid, if you buy his explanation that his sons control Trump Organization business interests without his input. 

ProPublica Monday published an ongoing investigation of Don Jr.’s three-day wedding party that reports Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, a close friend of dictator Vladimir Putin, “spent hundreds of thousands” of dollars on expenses, including renting out a private island in the Bahamas. 

Kremlev heads the “scandal plagued” International Boxing Association, sponsored by Russian oil giant Gazprom and “appears to have met Donald Trump Jr. only recently, but attended the ‘intimate’ wedding with a large group of other Russian guests.”

Payments for Don Jr.’s wedding were made via an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions, ProPublica reports.

The president’s son recently described the “intimate” three-day wedding celebration in the Bahamas on his podcast, Triggered with Don Jr.

“It was really small, like really close friends. Tried to keep it really tight,” Don Jr. said. “And it was just awesome.”

•••

Meanwhile, Prices at the Pump – The national average price for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.3289 Tuesday, according to the AAA, up 1.26 cents over Monday and up $1.5127 over February 27. Diesel is $6.2694, up 3.93 cents over Monday and up $2.5829 since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran. –TL

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MONDAY 9/14/26

Iran War, Week 23

Can AI’s Quest for World Domination be, er, Slowed? – Until last weekend it seemed only a burst of the artificial intelligence capital-raising bubble on Wall Street could possibly stop development of the technology its leader/experts are beginning to fear will end mankind as we know it. Then on Saturday, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei posted a 3,800-word essay calling on AI companies to “pace the frontier,” which means, “let’s hit the brakes” on AI development. 

Shortly after Amodei’s post, Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, founder of SpaceXAI agreed in their own social posts, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Last Tuesday, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and posted a series of social media posts about how AI companies are not responsibly developing the technology, at the potential expense of human lives. And The Wall Street Journal reports Monday that Amodei’s Anthropic and Altman’s OpenAI are “racing” toward initial public offerings (IPOs) at the same time they admit they call for better understanding of the technology as it develops itself.

Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) tells NPR’s Morning Edition he expects this week to introduce with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) their Ban Artificial Intelligence Act in Congress this week before their recess, which begins next week and extends to after the November 3 midterm elections. The Casar-Sanders bill calls for a ban on the development and deployment of superintelligent AI and for a temporarily pause on advanced AI development until safety rules can be developed under federal regulation.

It would also direct US regulators to pursue international agreements to prevent development of superintelligence anywhere in the world. 

Speaking to reporters at his Doonbeg golf resort in Ireland Sunday, President Trump, who earlier this year signed an executive order to block states’ regulation of AI, said he  opposes the idea of any federal regulations, NPR reports.

“We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins,” Trump said. “And we can put down guardrails, we can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing that up.”

Which means … Even if the Sanders/Casar Ban Artificial Intelligent Act makes it through Congress this week or after the midterms, the Senate will not override a presidential veto.

•••

Kennedy Center May Close Tuesday – President Trump’s hand-picked leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say the center is close to bankruptcy and the only way to save it is to restore Trump’s name on its façade in order to ensure fundraising efforts, according to a “bleak” 57-page packet distributed to the board and obtained by The Washington Post. 

The Kennedy Center’s board, chaired by the president, is to gather in a special meeting Tuesday to consider two resolutions to address a.) the building’s financial crisis and b.) its physical crisis. The center’s officials say they may be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts “within a matter of weeks” and argue that putting Trump’s name back on the center could help raise enough money to keep the lights on, according to WaPo’s scoop.

•••

Russian Drones Strike Near Ukraine-Polish Border – Russia launched drones Sunday at Western Ukraine, just 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, The Kyiv Independent reports, striking a gas station and a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train with former CIA Director David Petraeus aboard. The drones came late to miss an earlier train carrying former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats.

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump – Diesel prices are leaping and bounding across the US, according to AAA’s national average price. Diesel averages $6.2301 per gallon Monday, up 17.45 cents over Friday and $2.5436 higher than it was at the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Unleaded regular averages $4.3163 Monday, up 2.13 cents over Friday and up $1.5001 over February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 9/14/26

The Consumer Price Index remained steady at 3.4% on an annual basis in August, the Labor Department reports Friday. But the month-over-month increase was 0.4%, from 0.1% in July. The monthly increase less food and energy was 0.3%. The gasoline index for August over July was +3.9%, with energy up 2.1% and shelter up 0.3%. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

•Read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s reflections on the 9/11 attacks of 25 years ago in The Gray Area.

Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn Live! – It’s the Red Scare all over again for the Republican Party as indicated by the GOP’s midterm convention featuring President Trump and Vice President JD Vance, in Dallas, Wednesday and Thursday. Politico’s wrap-up feature on the convention leads with a photo of a couple wearing white t-shirts with the words in red on back; “America No Commies!”

“This midterm, we face the most dangerous, radical and frankly weird Democratic candidates in American history,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee told the convention crowd. While Trump claimed capacity crowds, most news organizations showed many empty seats. 

Republicans have made Abdul el-Sayed, the Democratic Party’s Senate candidate for Michigan their chief bogeyman in this tactic, NPR’s Tamara Keith noted on Morning Edition. 

The party’s main focus was painting Democrats as too extreme, according to Politico, on the convention stage, in private meetings near the American Airlines Center in Dallas-area hotels and in television advertising between live coverage.

•••

Diesel Breaches $6 – The national average price of a gallon of diesel fuel jumped 7.83 cents to $6.0556 Friday, according to the AAA. That’s up $2.3691 over the end of February, before the war on Iran began. Regular unleaded is $4.295, up 1.8 cents over Thursday and $1.4788 higher than February 27. --TL

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THURSDAY 9/10/26

Bribe?

Trump Offers $5,000 for GOP Majorities – President Trump’s has offered in his nearly two-hour speech to the Republican midterm convention to pay $5,000 to every adult citizen only if the GOP maintains majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives. It is likely illegal (though Trump has Supreme Court immunity from prosecution) and it would cost taxpayers about $1 trillion, according to The New York Times.

Is it a bribe?

You do not need to vote for congressional Republican candidates in the November 3 midterm elections for the federal government to pay out $1 trillion. You need only hope majorities nationwide vote to maintain or improve Republicans’ thin majorities in both chambers. 

One caveat, the BBC World Service reports, is that American citizens must spend that $5,000 in the US.

 “We don’t want you to go to Canada to spend the money,” he said. “We don’t want you to go to China, to Germany.”

While Trump in his GOP convention speech in Dallas conceded that any president’s party typically loses Congress members in the midterms – “we’re going to change that,” he said – he is pulling every lever he can to reverse that trend this November. 

Trump’s executive order to place restrictions on mail-in ballots distributed by states remains in limbo as SCOTUS considers its legality, but it’s enough to cause suspicion and confusion among voters.

Elsewhere in Trump’s Speech … Though ‘The Trump Dividend,’ as the president calls it, seems to acknowledge that middle- and working-class Americans are suffering increasing food and energy costs under his administration, Trump nevertheless referred again to the “fake” affordability issue in his speech.

He also said he is not getting proper credit for his success in the war on Iran: “I should get something out of it. The Trump Strait.”

Where are the Republicans? … The American Airlines Center in Dallas had many empty seats as most Republican congressional candidates in battleground states avoided the Dallas midterm convention for the hustings, the NYT reports. One exception is Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, who is in a statistical dead heat against Democrat James Talarico for retiring Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s seat. Paxton happily attended after accepting $10 million for his campaign from Trump’s political action committee, Make America Great Again Inc.

Then there’s Fetterman … Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s appearance was either the biggest, or perhaps more accurately the only, surprise in Dallas. Fetterman, who is the Senate swing-vote yang to Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) swing-vote yin appeared on video screen to introduce Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick. 

“Yes, I’m a Democrat,” Fetterman said. “Why am I talking to you? Because, well, I’m a common-sense Democrat. … We’ll work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life, right here in the steel valley.”

Democrats worry Fetterman will switch parties after the midterms. If he doesn’t switch, expect him to be primaried in 2028.

•••

Happy Holidays – The Washington Post claims this as a scoop, though we first spotted the news item under an “Exclusive” banner in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal: Natalie Harp – yes, the portable printer executive assistant constantly at the president’s side – communications advisor Margo Martin and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Chamberlain Harris each received $45,000 cash gifts from President Trump as holiday bonuses at the end of 2025. Each make $150,000 in annual salaries. 

The disclosure also noted a $25,000 cash gift to Walt Nauta, the director of Oval Office operations, which means he’s Harris’ boss. Nauta, whose salary is $175,000 per year, was indicted in June 2023 with Trump in a federal case involving classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago after the president’s first term.

WaPo reporter Kat Zakrewski told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Thursday that it is not clear whether Trump paid Nauta and the three female aides from his own money. Inskeep replied that it’s not a pejorative to point out that Trump has bragged he pays for nothing with his own money.

Wherever the $155,000 in bonuses came from, University of Minnesota law Prof. Richard Painter told The Wall Street Journal the gifts could be breaking federal law that prohibits government employees from accepting outside salaries and bonuses. 

The appearance of a bribe-thing, you know.

“If you want to take a tip, don’t work for the government,” Painter, who was White House ethics officer in President George W. Bush’s administration, added. “I mean, it’s not the Fifth Avenue doorman.”

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.277 Thursday, according to the AAA, up 5.25 cents over Wednesday and up $1.4608 over February 27. Diesel is $5.9773, up 3.49 cents over Wednesday and $2.2908 versus late February, when the Strait of Hormuz was still open to oil tanker traffic. –TL

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Iran War, Week 23

WEDNESDAY 9/9/26

Let’s Get This Strait – Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz may be restricting the flow of oil tankers, but the US blockade there is damaging Iran to the point its leadership is escalading the war. Lead negotiator and speaker of Iran’s parliament Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday said the era of “proportionate responses” to American attacks is over. 

On Tuesday, the US military said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to Iran’s attempted strikes on a US Navy warship, The New York Times reports. [The US reportedly gave the oil tankers enough warning for their crews to evacuate, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.] 

Iran said it had launched strikes on a base in Jordan used by US forces. Three days earlier, Iran made its first known attempt at striking an American military vessel. Iran also has reportedly captured an American underwater drone. The US military says the drone is an old, early model with dated technology.

And so it goes. 

More than six months into his six-week war, President Trump can claim “victory” over Iran by cutting off its oil exports and squeeze its already damaged economy, as Iran has restricted tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz, and funding Houthis who have threatened Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure as global oil prices breach $100 per barrel.

•••

Sanctions on Israeli Settlers – British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced an import ban on all goods from Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Tuesday (Time magazine). Charging UK leadership with “antisemitism,” the Israeli government ordered the British consulate in East Jerusalem closed.

The UK sanctions lead a coordinated effort by 12 governments to restrict trade with the Israeli settlers.

Miliband told the House of Commons; “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.”

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has counted 80 attacks carried out by Israeli settlers that resulted in Palestinian casualties or damage to their property, between August 11^th and 24^th.

•••

Smithsonian Secretary ‘Retires’ – Lonnie Bunch, the first Black secretary of the 21-museum Smithsonian complex in Washington, D.C., told NPR’s All Things Considered Tuesday he is stepping down “because I’m old as dirt.” 

Bunch, 73, is also the first historian to lead the Smithsonian, where he has worked for 38 years. He was named secretary of the institution in 2019 and is founding director of the National Museum of African American History & Culture, which was established in 2003 and opened in its permanent location in 2016. 

Addressing employees at the Smithsonian Tuesday, Bunch was less sanguine about his “retirement.”

“I may be going away, but I’m still going to be a pain in the ass to some people,” he said, according to The Atlantic Daily’s account of his departure. Bunch will be more effective fighting against the Trump administration in its culture war on the institution, according to the report.

President Trump in July signed an executive order calling for signage to be added to the National Museum of American History warning of its “inaccurate” and “partisan” presentation of history. 

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump – Brent Crude topped $100 per barrel on the global market Tuesday, and AAA’s national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas Wednesday is up 7.31 cents to $4.2245 as a result. Unleaded regular now is up $1.4083 over February 27. Diesel is $5.9424 Wednesday, up 4.12 cents over Tuesday and $2.2559 higher than the beginning of the war on Iran. –TL

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TUESDAY 9/8/26

Canada Strikes Back in Trump Trade War

Good Luck with Trump-a-palooza – Republican lawmakers hope Trump-a-palooza, the Wednesday-Thursday midterm GOP convention in Dallas this week will give the president a chance to draw a contrast with Democrats rather than prosecute his personal grievances, Politico reports. On NPR Tuesday, Jonah Goldberg, founding editor of The Dispatch told Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep he fears Trump-a-palooza could become “the political version of a ShamWow infomercial.” 

•••

US-Canada Trade War, Week 1 – Hours before Canada imposed retaliatory 50% tariffs on approximately US$20 billion on American-import clothing, cheese, metal parts, wood products and other items, President Trump Truth Socialed, “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!”

Montreal-based Bombardier builds most of the regional jetliners favored by US carriers for short- to medium-distance flights. The company responded to Trump’s ALL CAPS social media post that it makes such crucial components as wings in California and Texas, The New York Times reports, and a US boycott would hurt American factory workers there. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney made it clear after trade talks with the US collapsed in August that Canada would counteract Trump’s taxes on its goods. Carney described Canada as being “at war” and Canadian officials would respond “dollar for dollar” to US duties. 

After the US had to refund much of last year’s “Liberation Day” tariffs after the Supreme Court struck them down, the Trump White House cited Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (paging Smoot-Hawley) to add 50% duties to motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages and dairy products. 

•••

Houthis Hit Saudi Oil – Brent crude inched near $100 per barrel after Iran-backed Houthi militants struck Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reports. Watch for a bleak day on Wall Street and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off more than 1% by mid-morning as a result. 

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump – AAA’s national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas is $4.1514, up 0.4 cents from last Friday and $1.3352 over February 27. Diesel inched up from its record price late last week to $5.9012, up 5.12 cents over Friday and $2.2147 higher than since the beginning of the war on Iran -- costs freight and delivery companies using diesel (most of them) will pass on to you. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 9/8/26