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Debt Rattle September 6 2026

Sep 062026
 
 September 6, 2026  Posted by at 8:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  Add comments


Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, Brussels 1873
The literary prowess gathered in that photo is insane.


• U.S. Central Command Destroys Three Iranian Tankers (CTH)
• Ukraine Pushes Congress For Russia Sanctions Before Election Recess (RFE/RL)
• General David Petraeus Now Claims 1.4 million Russians Killed or Wounded (CTH)
• America’s Immigrant Population Plummets For First Time In A Century (MN)
• Masked Men Block Dover Port at Mass Migration Protest (Salgado)
• “We Have The Receipts”: Bartiromo Denies Fox Firing (ZH)
• We Have New Details on the Maria Bartiromo Situation (Matt Margolis)
• Reputation Assassins Are Targeting Sen. Fetterman and Elon Musk (Pinsker)
• Radicals Scrubbing Social Media of Past Statements (Turley)
• Trump Was Right About the Kennedy Center… In a HUGE Way! (Matt Margolis)

 


 

 


 

Back in 2015:

 


 


“After IRGC Fires Upon U.S. Navy Vessels ..”

• U.S. Central Command Destroys Three Iranian Tankers (CTH)

The U.S. Central Command has released video showing their elimination of three Iranian oil tankers following an attack on two U.S. navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 5, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships patrolling regional waters. A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed.
Following Iran’s failed attacks, CENTCOM permanently disabled the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask. American forces also completely destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo (also known as the “Noxen”) in the Gulf of Oman, striking the vessel in multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship. The three Iranian crude oil tankers are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran has no means by which to defend them.


“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”

Read more …

While we’re visiting Putin.

• Ukraine Pushes Congress For Russia Sanctions Before Election Recess (RFE/RL)

Ukraine’s top sanctions official says he remains optimistic about prospects for a sweeping Russia sanctions bill in the US Congress despite growing uncertainty over when the House of Representatives will take it up, as lawmakers face a sharply shortened legislative calendar ahead of the November elections. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s sanctions commissioner, spent this week in Washington meeting lawmakers and congressional staff as Kyiv presses Congress to advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.


The legislation passed the Senate on August 7 by an overwhelming 86-11 vote, reflecting rare bipartisan agreement. The bill would give the president additional authority to impose punitive tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian fossil fuels. It also includes provisions targeting Iran, which Vlasiuk said is engaged in close military-industrial cooperation with Moscow.But the measure faces a more complicated path in the House, where some Democrats have expressed reservations about provisions that would give President Donald Trump additional authority to impose tariffs.

Republican leaders announced on September 3 that the final two weeks of the pre-election House session are canceled, severely curtailing what had been a full legislative calendar for September.House members are expected to leave Washington no later than September 17 and not return until mid-November. The House will reconvene for one additional week of business after next week’s Labor Day break. The compressed calendar has increased pressure on supporters of the sanctions legislation. Senior Republican aides told RFE/RL that the bill remains a GOP priority, provided Democrats “get their ducks in a row.”

Democratic aides, in response to RFE/RL inquiries, expressed cautious optimism about the measure, underscoring uncertainty over whether Speaker Mike Johnson will bring it to the floor. Vlasiuk said he held roughly 20 meetings with lawmakers and congressional staff during his Washington visit, including discussions with members of both parties. He said the Ukrainian delegation encountered broad support for increasing pressure on Russia and that no lawmaker told him outright that they would oppose the legislation.

“Everyone agreed that it was necessary to increase pressure on Russia,” Vlasiuk said at a briefing at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington. “No one said that he definitely would not support this bill.” He described Ukraine as “quite optimistic” about the level of support for the legislation, including among Democrats. One potentially important route would be for the House to consider the bill under suspension of the rules, a fast-track procedure generally used for legislation expected to command broad support. Vlasiuk said that was among the realistic scenarios for moving the bill forward.

“I think that there is really good chance that this bill will be brought onto the floor,” he said. Vlasiuk has previously identified the week after next as Kyiv’s preferred window for a House vote. With the House calendar now compressed, that period could provide one of the last opportunities for a vote before lawmakers leave Washington. Asked by RFE/RL whether the momentum surrounding the bill was still there, Vlasiuk pointed to what he characterized as continued bipartisan backing for Ukraine.

“There is a lot of support for Ukraine on the Hill,” he said, adding that Kyiv has been “very vocal” in stressing the urgency of passing the bill. “At the same time, well, I mean, let’s wait and see,” Vlasiuk said.

Read more …

“Witkoff and Kushner Met with Putin for Three Hours,..”

We know by now how idiotic the Russian victim numbers are that come from Ukraine and the west.

• General David Petraeus Now Claims 1.4 million Russians Killed or Wounded (CTH)

The longer we review the stuff coming out of the legacy U.S. Intelligence Community, the more I realize how much of a fool I was for ever trusting their nonsense. Today, former CIA Director General David Petraeus claims that Russia has suffered over 1.4 million killed or wounded in action (KIA/WIA). {SOURCE}


For those just recently entering the era of ‘great awakening’, let this type of nonsense propaganda serve as a starting point to realize what CTH has described from the outset of the Ukraine-Russia ‘conflict’ as, essentially, World War Reddit. There are approximately 140 million Russian people living in Russia. Of that population there are approximately 60 million males. Of the 60 million males there are approximately 20 million men aged 18-35. Additionally, 75% of the Russian population lives in urban centers, ie. cities.

If 1.4 million men (out of 20 million) were killed or wounded in the Ukraine conflict, the hospitals and convalescent facilities in around the cities of Kazan, Moscow and St Petersburg would be full; at least significantly beyond ordinary medical capacity. They are not. Not even close.mI have no idea where these western ‘intelligence’ analysts and experts come up with these statistics, but they are so far beyond nonsense the light from where silly stuff originates could not reach them for years. They could have just used the word “eleventy’. There is nowhere near that number of KIA/WIA in Russia; not even close.


[SOURCE – Kremlin]

U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have departed Moscow after roughly three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on ending the war in Ukraine. The two are expected in Kyiv on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the Trump administration’s latest push to revive stalled peace negotiations. Putin has ordered a 72 hour pause in strikes on Kyiv during their visit. Witkoff and Kushner are now aboard U.S. Air Force C-32A SAM934. They will likely travel to Poland before continuing by ground transportation to Kyiv. {Source}

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov says the Kremlin talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were “substantive, extremely frank and conducted in an atmosphere of trust.” He outlined that Moscow offered what he called a “clear and comprehensive” assessment of the situation in the Ukraine conflict, while Witkoff and Kushner presented several ideas on possible routes towards a settlement. The two sides also discussed economic cooperation and the prospect of major joint US-Russian projects. Ushakov added that Putin and Trump remain in direct personal contact. {source}

(VIA DAILY MAIL) – Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff spent over three hours in top-secret talks with Vladimir Putin amid the White House’s renewed bid to end the war in Ukraine. The US envoys landed in Moscow on Saturday morning and were escorted by the Russian President’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, to the Kremlin. Putin met with Witkoff and Kushner for closed-door talks where he described the conflict as a ‘complicated situation,’ but praised his American counterpart for wanting to end the war.

[…] ‘Understanding that he is entering a difficult situation, he nevertheless does not stop his efforts to help bring about a settlement and to make his contribution to resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,’ Putin said of Trump. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both agreed to pause strikes on each other’s capitals while the talks took place. (more)

KREMLIN – Vladimir Putin received in the Kremlin Special Envoy of the President of the United States of America Steve Witkoff and entrepreneur, founder of Affinity Partners Jared Kushner. On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, I heartily welcome you to Moscow. The situation we are to sort out today is, of course, a difficult one. But before we begin, I would like to ask you to convey my best wishes and words of gratitude to the President of the United States, Mr Trump.

While he realizes that he is facing a difficult situation, he nevertheless does not stop his efforts to resolve it and to contribute to the settlement of the Russian- Ukrainian conflict. Today, we will discuss all its components and all its aspects, and for our part, we are also ready to inform you about our view of the situation.

As you informed us, I know that you are planning to go to Kiev after visiting Moscow. In any case, of course, no matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are certainly always beneficial. And here, of course, the quality of mediation and trust in those who are engaged in it are very important. I’d like to tell you that we find it comfortable to work with you, and, of course, we have a very high level of trust during this work.

We are glad to see you. Welcome.

Steve Witkoff: So, first of all, President Putin, thank you so much for having us. We were sitting outside just now, me, Jared and Kirill, and then Yury joined us, and we were all talking about when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Steve Witkoff: President Trump sends you his best wishes. The Gilman family is incredibly indebted to you and thanks you very, very much for Bob Gilman being allowed to come home.

Vladimir Putin: They should be thanking President Trump; it was he who made the appeal.

Steve Witkoff: They have thanked President Trump, but they’ve thanked you also, sir. I want to thank you for endorsing the no shoot policy in Kiev and in Moscow for these three days that allowed us to be able to come here in a safe manner.

Vladimir Putin: We received this request through official channels both through the intelligence services and through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop the strikes on Kiev. I issued the respective order, and since midnight on September 5, these strikes on Kiev have not been carried out. I would like to note that the Ukrainian side has also significantly reduced by an order of magnitude the strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Moscow.

The Ukrainian authorities have published their call for a broader three day truce, but we have never agreed on this with them. Yet we will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and the mediators, represented by you and, perhaps, by those accompanying you.

Steve Witkoff: Thank you.

Read more …

2.3 Million Illegals Gone.

“A late Biden-era internal memo, exposed in July, laid out a plan to expand TPS in the final days of that presidency in a way that would have locked in de facto protection for more than 3 million foreign nationals and boxed the incoming administration into years of litigation.”

• America’s Immigrant Population Plummets For First Time In A Century (MN)

The numbers the open-borders crowd swore were impossible are now in black and white.


A new Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey finds the illegal immigrant population has fallen by about 2.3 million since President Trump returned to office in January 2025. Another 600,000 legal immigrants have left. The total foreign-born population is down 2.9 million.

That is the first sustained drop in America’s immigrant population in nearly a hundred years.

CIS research director Steven A. Camarota and demographer Karen Zeigler tracked the government’s monthly household survey from January 2025 through July 2026. The foreign-born total – naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, long-term temporary visitors and illegal immigrants – fell from roughly 53.3 million to 50.5 million. Camarota’s preliminary estimate puts the illegal population at 13.5 million in July, down from 15.8 million when Trump took the oath. “We’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” Camarota told The Washington Times. “This is big and sustained, as best as we can tell.”

He added: “It is a fundamental change, and it’s profound.” The same dataset shows what happened during the Biden years. From January 2021 to January 2025 the foreign-born population jumped 8.3 million – the largest four-year increase in American history. Catch-and-release, mass parole, asylum abuse and a wide-open southern border did exactly what critics said they would do. The survey now shows that surge going into reverse.

CIS is not counting plane seats. It is measuring net change: new arrivals minus deportations, voluntary departures, legalizations and deaths. That is why the 2.3 million illegal decline can sit beside larger Homeland Security departure figures. At the one-year mark of Trump’s second term, DHS said nearly 3 million illegal immigrants had left the country, including about 675,000 formal removals and 2.2 million self-deportations. CIS is looking at who is still here after new arrivals are subtracted.

Latin American non-citizens who arrived in 1980 or later account for the entire drop in the foreign-born count. That group overlaps heavily with the illegal population. Naturalized-citizen numbers actually rose by about 680,000 over the same stretch. The collapse is among non-citizens who should not have been waved in. Interior ICE removals more than tripled compared with the tail end of the Biden term. Voluntary departures tied to enforcement jumped as well. Camarota put it simply in the CIS release: “The best data we have shows an enormous decrease in the total foreign-born population, with most of the falloff among illegal immigrants.”

He added, “Regaining control of the border and robust interior enforcement has partly undone the huge increase in the illegal immigration that took place during the border surge.” Only 44 percent of those who left were workers. That goes some way to explain why the national jobs numbers have not imploded the way corporate lobbyists predicted. U.S.-born employment has continued to rise even as immigrant workers in the household survey fell by a little less than 1.3 million. Some regional pockets – construction in South Texas is the example Camarota cited – have felt it. The country as a whole has not.

“It’s nothing to panic about,” he told the Times. “First of all, we’re mostly losing low-income workers. But like anything else, it can create challenges. And it creates winners and losers.”Workers competing for jobs and housing are the winners. “On balance, I think it’s a good deal for the country because I think most people are more worried about wages, housing prices, congestion and impact on schools and hospitals.”

Census analysts had already flagged a “historic” drop in net international migration when they reported that overall population growth slowed to 0.5 percent from mid-2024 to mid-2025 – a window that captured only the first months of the new enforcement regime. Camarota now says the country’s total population is likely heading toward an unprecedented decline. That is what happens when an 8.3 million artificial surge is no longer being pumped through the border.

The media spent four years insisting the border was “secure” and that anyone who noticed otherwise was a bigot. Then Joe Scarborough, trying to score points on Trump’s deportation totals, walked straight into the truth on his own show. “They should know when to take the victory. They could have been campaigning on closed southern border this whole time!” Scarborough said. Then: “You’re never going to get the [deportation] numbers that Joe Biden had, right? You’re not going to get those numbers because Joe Biden and his administration were letting in so many illegal immigrants. It was very easy to sweep up 5,000 right on the border and send them back.”

Nobody cornered him. He said it unprompted.

That is the whole scam in one clip. Biden-era “removals” were a revolving door at the Rio Grande. Trump closed the door. Crossings collapsed. The population inside the country started falling for the first time in a generation. The same networks that called that outcome “impossible” or “racist” are now reduced to quibbling over methodology while the survey they usually treat as gospel shows a 2.9 million decline.

The drop did not happen by accident. It happened because the new administration treated Temporary Protected Status as what it had become: a backdoor amnesty, not a temporary shelter.

A late Biden-era internal memo, exposed in July, laid out a plan to expand TPS in the final days of that presidency in a way that would have locked in de facto protection for more than 3 million foreign nationals and boxed the incoming administration into years of litigation. The scheme was designed to run out the clock through activist courts after voters had already chosen mass deportations.

Read more …

Will Europe defend itself vs the EU?

• Masked Men Block Dover Port at Mass Migration Protest (Salgado)

Fury at the endless stream of illegal aliens into European countries with governments ignoring everything their people ask for has reached boiling point in multiple European countries.


A group of masked men in black hoodies marched to Dover to block the offloading of crowds of new migrants, with the protesters simply walking through sparse police barriers without incident, based on video from the Hungarian outlet Visegrád 24. The protesters, who chanted “Stop the boats! Stop the boats!,” seem to be eager to show their friendliness toward locals standing on sidewalks and at least one local was handing water out to them. “Cheers, well done,” shouted the man who took the video enthusiastically, as protesters waved or gave him thumbs up.

GB News reported that the protestors intimidated some people, and people who missed some of their work shifts were understandably upset, but there are no reports of the protesters engaging in violent behavior. The protestors did eventually leave, according to a whiny statement from the UK government. Even one Dover councillor who was bashing the protesters admitted to Metro there was no violence, and the protesters voluntarily left not long after they arrived. Many people have condemned the masks, but given the lack of violence, the likelihood is that they were trying not to get arrested given that the UK will hand out harsher prison sentences for free speech than for rape.

Spanish protesters are turning out in multiple cities, particularly in Ceuta, which is completely overrun with Muslim men. The Spanish government is providing taxpayer-funded freebies and NGO aid to the invaders while condemning the locals. In Madrid, police fired charges at protesters. Police used similar means against protesters in Ceuta. Police did not employ them against the Muslim invaders in Ceuta. Video of Muslim men torturing a baby dolphin in Ceuta for fun has provoked international outrage. But the invaders have also committed many crimes against humans there.

After the people of Iceland rejected a referendum to join the European Union, a group of Irish patriots called for a similar referendum to remove Ireland from the EU, given its horrible mass migration requirements for membership. The people of Europe are waking up. The problem is that their parliamentary systems and their dictatorial governments make it even harder for them to enact major change.

Read more …

Getting complicated.

• We Have New Details on the Maria Bartiromo Situation (Matt Margolis)

On Thursday, Fox News announced that Maria Bartiromo was “no longer with Fox News Media.” This created the impression that she had been fired. Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, pushed back hard on the firing narrative, disputing the reports outright. New reporting from Dylan Byers at Puck gives us some details about what actually happened. From where I sit, it looks less like a firing and more like a slow-motion punishment for trying to do her job.

So what set this all off? It starts with President Trump’s primetime address in July on the 2020 election, in which he laid out allegations of Chinese interference and calling on Congress to tighten voting rules before the midterms. Seeing as how it was a big primetime speech, Bartiromo naturally planned to cover it on her show.

As it turned out, Bartiromo had been planning to cover Trump’s speech on her show, according to sources familiar with her plans. She had also planned to book Peter Navarro, a senior counselor to Trump who has aggressively pushed the voter fraud narrative, to talk about the president’s remarks and the administration’s broader concerns over election integrity. However, the night before the speech, Ralph Giordano, Fox Business Network’s senior vice president of programming, texted Bartiromo’s production team, instructing them not to cover the speech.

When Bartiromo renewed her Fox News Media contract in February of last year, she reportedly negotiated language specifically barring Giordano from having any say over her show. He kept meddling anyway. Navarro told Byers in a Friday interview that Bartiromo sent him a screenshot of Giordano’s instructions to prove management was blocking her coverage, which he described as “censoring” it. Navarro said he passed the information “up the chain” to senior administration officials. An unnamed high-ranking White House official then called Fox News leadership to complain, effectively outing Bartiromo as the source of the leaked guidance.

It came on the heels of a report from the outlet Status claiming Bartiromo had shared internal editorial guidance with the administration, a report both Fox News and a representative for Bartiromo declined to comment on. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace were reportedly furious, though they let her show continue through the summer before pulling her off the air last Thursday. Fox’s reluctance to air the speech in the first place traces back to Bartiromo being named as a defendant in the Dominion and Smartmatic defamation lawsuits, both stemming from 2020 election coverage. Puck also noted that Giordano and Bartiromo already had a tense relationship at the network.

The troubling thing about this story is that the Democrats have long regarded any Republican who questions the 2020 election as a threat to democracy itself, even though there were documented irregularities in several battleground states that year.

However, it was the Democrats who first made it acceptable to question the results of the elections, beginning with George W. Bush’s wins in 2000 and 2004, and then again with Trump’s victory in 2016. The same media outlets that for years promoted the theory of Russia’s collusion in 2016 now regard any examination of 2020 as nonsense proven wrong. The approved story was that 2020 was the safest, most secure election in history, and anyone who said otherwise was undermining “our democracy.”

Bartiromo appears to have learned what happens to people who try to cover a story that contradicts that line.

Read more …

“Maria Bartiromo was not fired for pushing claims about the 2020 election – she was fired for revealing that Fox had told its own staff not to talk about it.”:

• “We Have The Receipts”: Bartiromo Denies Fox Firing (ZH)

New details are rolling in about the Bartiromo situation – as the anchor is denying reports that she was fired from the station. According to The Hollywood Reporter: Bartiromo, who is now repped by Bryan Freedman, who recently repped Justin Baldoni, as well as journalists Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo after their dramatic exits from CNN as well as Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox, denies that she was fired and further claims that she is “still employed by Fox.” Freedman suggests they may pursue the matter in court.


“For many years, Maria Bartiromo hosted three number-one-rated television shows on Fox channels. She has been, without question, one of the hardest-working journalists throughout her award-winning career,” Freedman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false. Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth,” he continued.

* * *

Maria Bartiromo was not fired for pushing claims about the 2020 election – she was fired for revealing that Fox had told its own staff not to talk about it. Fox News Media announced on Thursday it had parted ways with the anchor effective immediately after more than twelve years, thanking her for her work and giving no reason.

The guidance at the center of it went out in July, after President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to tie China to the 2020 result. Fox Business management privately instructed senior staff not to lend credibility to the claims, and killed a China-and-2020 story Bartiromo wanted to pursue. The sensitivity stemmed from legal concerns – Fox paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in 2023 over 2020 election coverage, and Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion claim is still outstanding, with Bartiromo named in both.

Fox did not catch the leak itself. Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that Bartiromo took a screenshot of that guidance and sent it to senior White House officials, which Fox executives learned of after receiving a call from the White House. In a terse statement, Fox News said Bartiromo is no longer with the company, effective immediately and thanked her for her work, while wishing her well in her next chapter.

Status’s Oliver Darcy, who built his brand at CNN by pushing censorship campaigns against conservative media, was first to report that Bartiromo leaked internal guidance after Fox Business management privately directed senior staff not to lend credibility to claims President Donald Trump made in a July address regarding China’s interference in the 2020 election.

However, a new report alleges that Bartiromo was in FOX’s crosshairs for several reasons beyond the alleged leak. Mediaite reports: According to a source familiar with the matter, sharing the memo about Trump’s July comments was “not the only reason” that led to her abrupt defenestration.

The source confirmed that it was “a confluence of factors,” including Fox’s whopping $787.5 million settlement it had to pay to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 over 2020 election fraud claims Fox had aired, plus another similar lawsuit from Smartmatic “still hanging out there.” Bartiromo was among the main on-air personalities cited in these lawsuits and has continued to periodically peddle in election denialism. A Fox News media spokesperson told Mediaite that the move was simply a “business decision” and declined further comment.

Comments Kevin O’Leary made on a May 11 episode of Mornings With Maria also factored in, the source said, in which the Shark Tank star accused nonprofit organizations that opposed his data center project in Utah of being secret agents of the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump blasted Fox’s decision to sever ties with Bartiromo, calling the host a “true warrior.” “I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business. Three different shows, always number one,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!”

Read more …

“Back in 2023, [Fetterman] was a Democrat liberal darling. He was at plus 68 points. Look at how low he has fallen, down to negative 40 points. He’s down there with the Titanic..”

• Reputation Assassins Are Targeting Sen. Fetterman and Elon Musk (Pinsker)

Let’s acknowledge the obvious before spelunking down our rabbit hole: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and Elon Musk might really, truly be guilty of every very nasty, vile, jaw-dropping smear. I mean, I doubt it. Seems extraordinarily unlikely. Our media ecosystem, after all, doesn’t just tilt towards sensationalism; it zooms towards it like a speeding bullet. Sensationalism outsells the truth. (Mostly because it’s more entertaining.) That’s great news for the reputation assassins, because a smear doesn’t need to be truthful to stick. It’s just gotta be memorable — and if you don’t believe me, go ask Richard Gere. (I won’t explain. If you know… you know.)


But it’s also great news for victims, because the media’s credibility is in the toilet: Nobody takes anything at face value anymore. As a result, if the mainstream media can’t quickly overwhelm its target, it usually leads to a frustrating, World War I-inspired cycle of trench warfare, with neither side ceding an inch — or ever gaining an inch. And eventually, everyone runs out of ammo and heads home. Over the past few days, shocking stories have emerged about two men that the radical left despises the most. We’ll begin with John Fetterman: “Wall Street Journal (Sept. 3, 2026): Behind Closed Doors, John Fetterman Shows Little Interest in the Work of a Senator..”

This is the news story that kicked the latest round of Fetterman-bashing into high gear. It paints the picture of a lazy, mentally compromised man who prioritized Fox News interviews over paralyzed military veterans. (A curious allegation, considering that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are both owned by NewsCorp.) Liberals pounced because the WSJ validated every left-wing gripe: Fetterman has changed! He’s lost his damn mind! He’s a stooge of Fox News and the Israeli lobby!

Fetterman is vulnerable to these attacks because his mental struggles are real: He’s had a stroke and was hospitalized for depression. His medical history makes the allegations sticky. Furthermore, there’s a political motive: He’s the Democrat that Democrats hate the most.

Back in 2023, [Fetterman] was a Democrat liberal darling. He was at plus 68 points. Look at how low he has fallen, down to negative 40 points. He’s down there with the Titanic among Democrats in this Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And to put a comparison to it, you always hear about how Chuck Schumer is disliked by the Democratic base nationwide. Chuck Schumer has a net popularity rating of about -2 points. He is net 38 points more popular than John Fetterman with Pennsylvania Democrats.

Some of the allegations, however, lose their wallop when placed under a microscope. For example, Mediaite listed this smear among its “5 Wildest Details from the Wall Street Journal’s Bombshell John Fetterman Report”: Fetterman also backed out of attending the funeral for three police officers killed near his hometown of York last year, according to the report. After an aide explained that the formal ceremony would last at least three hours, Fetterman responded: “3 hours??” Told it was effectively three separate funerals, he replied: “This may be a nonstarter.”

It sounds absolutely deplorable — until you learn that Pennsylvania’s other Senator wasn’t going either, and it would’ve required Fetterman to drive 9+ hours to attend all three funerals. (Which is probably relevant, because previous media hit-pieces have accused Fetterman of being a poor driver.) Another smear in Mediaite’s top five: The Journal reported that Fetterman frequently refused or canceled meetings with constituents and lawmakers. When an aide told him Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia wanted to discuss Medicaid cuts last year, Fetterman allegedly responded: “Why do I have to keep having to meet with chop.”

After being told the hospital was concerned about vaccines and Medicaid, he replied: “Well I’m not,” before adding: “I’m convinced they just want free trips to DC.” It’s a brutal allegation, because it implies that Fetterman is indifferent to the suffering of cancer-stricken kids. (That monster!) But the CBS article makes it clear that Fetterman had already met with the people from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia multiple times! If you’re a Fetterman-hater, the most compelling evidence probably came from Adam Jentleson, the senator’s ex-chief-of-staff, who fed anti-Fetterman stories to New York Magazine in 2025:

Read more …

“.. the “Big Tent” party has little room for moderates.”

• Radicals Scrubbing Social Media of Past Statements (Turley)

A certain pattern is emerging on the far left. Political figures spend years currying the favor of other extremists with outrageous commentary, proudly proclaiming their commitment to eliminating the Senate, opening the border, and other measures. Then, they delete all of the comments and declare themselves mainstream. The idea is to run in the center but govern from the far left, the so-called Spanberger strategy. The latest example is William Lawrence, who is running for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. However, Lawrence’s prior self reveals just how radical this movement could prove.

br/> Like many professors, pundits, and politicians on the left, Lawrence has called for sweeping changes in our constitutional system. Lawrence reportedly has demanded a “fundamental overhaul” of the Constitution while calling for the elimination of the Senate, police, prisons, and borders. He has even denounced the nuclear family as an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society.”

Notably, he is the latest radical to show that the “Big Tent” party has little room for moderates. While establishment figures like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries seek to use this mob, radicals have made clear that they will be next. Darializa Avila Chevalier is the latest Democratic Socialist to mock the establishment’s pitch of a Big Tent party: “A big tent doesn’t pay your rent, lower your grocery bill, or take on the corporations bleeding our country dry. Democratic socialism does.”

In Lawrence’s case, he even put the intent to music, writing a song a few years ago that calls for the death of moderate former Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, declaring, “Our generation says f**k you for everything…Hurry up and die so that we can get started.” He has also denounced capitalism and the very concept of the nation-state= Lawrence was previously arrested for resisting police officers while protesting a pipeline.

As discussed earlier, candidates like James Talarico in Texas have scrubbed their social media accounts or dismissed their earlier radical claims, including attacks on capitalism. Supporters view these candidates as already proving their bona fides and understanding that they are just sanitizing their records for voters who want the illusion of a moderate. Accordingly, many applaud figures such as Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, dismissing her own extremist statements just a few years ago as “Woke 1.,” like some distant childhood stage.

Lawrence’s past positions show little nuance and closely track the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. Destroying the constitutional system, rejecting the nation-state, eliminating prisons, and other radical positions propelled these candidates through the primaries. The effort to now scrub the records shows the utter contempt that many have for average voters.

Lawrence shows the delusion of establishment figures such as Gavin Newsom that they can use a mob to gain power without being eventually devoured by it. In my book Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the French Revolution and its decline into what the Framers called a mobocracy. What became known as “The Terror” was started not by the working class, but by educated lawyers, journalists, and even aristocrats as part of the Jacobin movement.

These are hardcore revolutionaries with an agenda that would destroy the world’s oldest and most successful democratic system in history. Party leaders facilitate them because they can only think about the next election, not the next generation. Lawrence is a cautionary tale that Benjamin Franklin remains correct, this is our Republic but only if we can keep it.

Read more …

He’ll fix it.

• Trump Was Right About the Kennedy Center… In a HUGE Way! (Matt Margolis)

President Donald Trump has spent months trying to return the Kennedy Center to its former glory, and leftists have been trying to stop him at every turn. This week, the building did their work for them. A chunk of the Grand Foyer ceiling came crashing down onto the red carpet. I’m guessing that’s still not enough proof for Democrats that the place needs work.


The collapse hit overnight into Thursday, after a powerful storm tore through Washington, D.C. Meteorologists say it was the strongest system to hit the city since the derecho that flattened trees and power lines back in 2012. This time, it took out part of the ceiling in one of the Kennedy Center’s most recognizable rooms, leaving debris scattered across the carpet where donors and dignitaries usually walk. Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravai wasted no time connecting the dots.

Last month, Justice Department lawyers told a federal court that the building’s “dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit” condition, combined with millions of dollars in financial losses, has put the Kennedy Center in a “financial and structural death spiral.” Fixing it, they said, will take two years of closure. Without that work, they warned, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

The board already voted last month to move forward with a $250 million renovation plan. That plan, and the two-year closure it requires, remains tied up in litigation.The board has been pushing for this renovation for months, and the fight over Trump’s name goes back even further. In July, an appeals court ruled against the administration’s attempt to block Trump’s name from being stripped off the building. Rather than keep fighting that battle, the board pivoted. It voted to have “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” inscribed on the building instead.

The left has given all sorts of excuses for why Trump can’t fix the building or have his name attached to it. Maria Shriver, President John F. Kennedy’s niece, called the building a memorial to her uncle.

“The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F. Kennedy,” she said. “It was named in his honor. He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history. He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists.” She continued, “It is beyond compression [sic] that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not. Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.”

The problem with that, of course, is that the Kennedy Center was never a memorial to begin with. Congress created it in 1958 as the National Cultural Center. It only added JFK’s name to it after his assassination. Calling it a “memorial” gives people the wrong idea about what the place was actually built for, and Shriver knows it.

Further, if Democrats really believed this building were some sacred shrine to JFK, they might have noticed it was falling apart, or cared to do something about it now.

Trump was right. Again.

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle September 6 2026

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  • September 6, 2026 at 8:57 am #249224
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, Brussels 1873 The literary prowess gathered in that photo is insane. • U.S. Central Command Destroys Three Iranian T
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 6 2026]

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