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Debt Rattle September 15 2026

Sep 152026
 
 September 15, 2026  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  No Responses »


Olivier Drot Morning in Downtown Athens June 7 2017


• Oil, Gas and Orange Juice (CTH)
• President Vladimir Putin Explains Why NATO Wants a War Against Russia (CTH)
• Trump Slams “Perfect Little Angel” Dario, Demands Full Steam Ahead For AI (ZH)
• President Trump Announces Obamacare Refunds (CTH)
• A Theory of Everything (James Howard Kunstler)
• Zelensky Sanctions Ex-Press Secretary Turned Fierce Critic (RT)
• Ukrainians Must Leave Germany – AfD Co-Leader Alice Weidel (RT)
• Supreme Court Block President Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Order (ZH)
• The Dangerous Evolution of Gavin Newsom (Turley)
• A Federal Grand Jury Wants Six Years of Gavin Newsom’s Receipts (Manney)
• Charlie Kirk, Rest In Peace (Arthur Schaper)

 


 

 


 


The point here is simple. Oil prices in Europe could be much lower (cheaper). Putin wants them to be.

“Europe wants financial control, not cheap energy.” Expensive energy can be blamed on Putin. That suits them just fine.

• Oil, Gas and Orange Juice (CTH)

Western financial experts have a self-interest to never explain this issue. Instead, they frame the issue as BRICS seeking an alternate currency in the energy markets. However, the currency or petrodollar is not the issue. At least it’s not the core issue. What Vladimir Putin, and by extension BRICS, do not want is corporatism -corporate financial control over govt systems- determining prices. To give you an example of Vladimir Putin’s argument, consider orange juice.


Why should orange juice in California or Florida cost $7/gal, when the oranges are in CA or FL? Shouldn’t the orange juice in FL or CA be cheaper than in, say, Minnesota? Logic would say, yes. However, that would mean the corporations who have purchased the OJ production couldn’t maximize predatory profiting, through nonmarket forces, ie. “Commodity trading.” The same organic supply/demand rule applies to strawberries, or [fill in the blank].

What is setting the price, what the west calls the “market price,” is actually the commodity trading issue. That means Minnesota, Florida and California consumers all pay the same price. Within the energy sector Putin views this as unfair and unworkable. To his credit, under normal supply/demand Putin would be selling oil/gas to Europe at much lower prices than “market prices” because the pipelines are in place, the proximity is near and the delivery is cheap.

However, for Europe that means the financial markets would not control energy prices. Europe wants financial control, not cheap energy. The need for control is a reaction to fear. The financial system, the bankers and the multinational corporations, fears their loss of control.

So, war!

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“Using the reference of the EU recently raising interest rates in an effort to lower energy costs, a seemingly disconnected approach that attaches energy policy to monetary policy, Vladimir Putin outlines exactly why the EU Central Bank approach is used. This is a really important dynamic to understand.”

• President Vladimir Putin Explains Why NATO Wants a War Against Russia (CTH)

Sometimes Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin just nails the issue in a way that is difficult for western voices to deconstruct. This is one of those examples. Using the reference of the EU recently raising interest rates in an effort to lower energy costs, a seemingly disconnected approach that attaches energy policy to monetary policy, Vladimir Putin outlines exactly why the EU Central Bank approach is used. This is a really important dynamic to understand.


For a long time, Russia battled with the EU over the pricing process for oil and gas. Russia, specifically Putin, wanted to sell oil/gas to the EU based on production prices and fair profits. Europe wanted to buy Russian oil/gas based on “market prices” which are manipulated by speculation and traders. Putin doesn’t like this pricing approach because it artificially inflates the price based on speculation, trading and inorganic influences. Instead, Putin always said the “market approach” makes your energy prices go up, even when production capacitary prices go down (productivity).

Producers can provide increases in energy volume at lower per unit levels just by turning a dial on gas volume. Why would Europe want to pay more, when the cost to deliver a higher volume lowers the per unit price. The EU never had a good answer, other than that’s just the way the ‘western market’ works.Concluding the first day of his working visit to India for the BRICS meeting, Vladimir Putin answered a media question about the EU and used this reference to outline why the financial system of the EU is actually the underlying reason for their need to have conflict with Russia. This is really interesting.

Question: You have spoken at length today about the BRICS countries. I would like to raise a question concerning a nation which, though geographically more distant from here, is perhaps closer to you personally – Germany. As is known, elections have recently taken place in Saxony, where the Alternative for Germany secured a decisive victory. It appears a similar trend is emerging in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well. How do you view these developments?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I do not wish to, nor will I, comment on matters of the internal political developments currently unfolding in the Federal Republic.However, there are points which merit attention in this context and I will explain why. In my view, all that is now happening across Europe as a whole is the consequence of systemic errors committed by the so- called West, or, to be more precise, by the globalist circles of the West, in the political, security and economic spheres.

Everyone is prone to mistakes. We, too, have made numerous mistakes, as has the wider world. Yet the difficulty for the globalist West lies here: following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they perceived themselves as standing atop the “summit of Mount Olympus,” and evidently concluded that, firstly, they were permitted everything and, secondly, that they themselves were incapable of error. From then on, these mistakes began to accumulate and snowball.

In the security sphere- the meaning is clear. This has taken the form of attempts to put pressure on the Russian Federation, initially through the use of terrorists in the Caucasus and separatists, then via other methods, and now - by means of the neo- Nazi regime in Ukraine. This process continues unabated.

At one time, we were included in the G8. Yet, as I have previously stated, this did not constitute full- fledged membership. I saw this plainly and saw everything quite clearly. Although, on the surface, all appeared well and all the requisite words were spoken, in practice – I reiterate - they directly supported separatism in the Caucasus and sought to break up Russia. This is a matter of fact. Furthermore, today’s crisis in Ukraine was likewise instigated by them. These are persistent and recurring elements of pressure.

After all, we have repeatedly stated that NATO’s expansion eastward is unacceptable to us. Ultimately, they reached Ukraine. President Yanukovych was removed from office through a coup d’état. I am not now offering any assessment of President Yanukovych’s actions. There were, most likely, numerous mistakes, and probably grounds for the population’s discontent. Yet he was opposed to Ukraine’s accession to NATO. As soon as the regime was changed through, I repeat, a bloody coup d’état, the objective of pulling Ukraine into NATO was immediately set in motion, and this, in fact, became the root cause of today’s tragic events in Ukraine.

They, the Western globalist elites, bear responsibility for this, although they persistently seek to shift the blame onto us. As for the economic sphere, the most pressing issue at present is, naturally, energy. This represents yet another area – namely, the economic domain – in which mistakes have been made. How many times did we discuss with them the necessity of maintaining our established energy relations? We supplied gas to Europe at a price of $150 – well, $180 dollars – per 1,000 cubic metres. “That is too expensive,” they told us, “we must switch to market pricing.” But what does market pricing mean?

Under our long-term contracts, prices were – and indeed still are – indexed to the price of oil and petroleum products, which are determined by market mechanisms. “No,” they insisted, “prices must be set on the exchange.” We warned them that gas is not a market commodity, or at least not a classic market commodity; this approach will yield nothing and your prices will only increase. And so, it has turned out: prices are now at 1,000 dollars or euros per 1,000 cubic metres. And they may well rise even further.

How, in fact, is the price of gas formed on the European exchanges? It is not determined by producers, but by exchange traders. Currently in Germany – as far as I am aware – the current objective is simply to fill the gas storage facilities to 70 percent capacity –the objective is of filling only to 70 percent.

Whether they will succeed in reaching this target remains unclear. The situation in the Netherlands is even worse. And why is this so? Those who engage in exchange trading are unconcerned with the technical condition of these storage facilities and the physical volumes involved. They believe that today, it is more advantageous to extract gas from storage that was purchased at lower prices, and as for tomorrow – well, we’ll see. This will result in prices rising not just to 1,000, but to 1,500. Thus, yet another mistake has been made, this time in the economic sphere.

I have heard, likewise, that in Germany itself, the current authorities claim to be following the course set by the previous leadership, and the name of Helmut Kohl is often invoked in this context. I was personally acquainted with Mr Kohl. I can state with certainty: he did not hold the views that the present leadership of the Christian Democratic Union espouses – he simply did not. I spoke with him when he was still Chancellor, and after he had left office, he visited us.

He believed that the future of Europe, and of the Federal Republic, would be secured only if close, neighbourly, allied relations with Russia were maintained. We must complement one another, he used to say; only thus could the European civilisation preserve itself as an independent centre of intellectual and cultural strength, and, by extension, all that follows in the political and economic domains. Those were Mr Kohl’s words to me.

Yet today’s European elites adhere to a different perspective. They now seek to frighten their populations with a mythical Russian threat, purportedly dating back to the Soviet era. But such a threat does not exist, and never has. We do not threaten, nor do we intend to threaten, European countries – for what reason would we? No one appears to consider that we have no grounds for any conflict with Europe. All issues were resolved by the outcome of the Second World War. Moreover, all that transpired following the collapse of the Soviet Union was undertaken with the consent of the Russian Federation as the successor state. Any actions contrary to these agreements run counter to our interests and are inconsistent with the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter. That is the essence of the matter.

Nonetheless, they persist in this course, demanding certain changes. But what changes do they seek? Are they attempting to revise the results of the Second World War? To what end are they steering their peoples? Toward war with the Russian Federation? Now, they speak of contemplating the dispatch of troops to the territory of Ukraine. This would mean war with Russia. And I presume that European citizens understand what is unfolding. {SOURCE}

Speculation, exchange trading, market pricing, etc. these are the reasons why the EU is presenting an increase in central bank interest rates to try and lower energy prices. The central bank approach has nothing to do with the price of the energy (oil/gas) and everything to do with the financial markets speculating on the prices of oil and gas and profiting from the speculation/trading itself.

As noted by Russian President Putin, allowing hedge funds, financial interests and inorganic market forces to set the prices of an item disconnects that item from the economic principle of supply and demand. The prices that people suffer for oil and gas are being driven by the mechanisms set up by western financial interests. This is manipulative and creates pain on the consumer and the people who have to pay more.

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No slow down.

• Trump Slams “Perfect Little Angel” Dario, Demands Full Steam Ahead For AI (ZH)

Update (1045ET): President Trump on Monday slammed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over his call to ‘pause’ AI and hand governance over to an Anthropic-adjacent cult.


© LUDOVIC MARIN via Gizmodo


“The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,” like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” and will continue to do so!” Trump wrote. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

Trump’s comments come days after Amodei said the industry should ‘pause’ development of the most advanced AI models, while implementing a governance framework using ‘outside safety monitors’ – including METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research), which already works with labs (including reviewing Anthropic risk reports) and has hired former Anthropic staff. Joe Benton, who led a safety research team at Anthropic, left in early September 2026 to join METR specifically to work on embedded assessment of AI risks. Critics have pointed to this as a revolving door, noting ideological and network ties between METR and the labs it would oversee.

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“$500 per person to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states..”

• President Trump Announces Obamacare Refunds (CTH)

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump announced that the federal government will return to the American people hundreds of millions in Obamacare overcharges, collected by the Biden Administration, by issuing refunds of $500 per person to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states. Today’s actions directly refund the Americans most exposed to the higher costs imposed by the Biden Administration’s gross mismanagement of Obamacare.



• The Biden Administration overcharged Americans through Obamacare plan exchange “user fees” that were passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums, funding the operations of the federal Obamacare exchange far in excess of what was needed to run the exchange.bAs a result, the Biden Administration accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used to benefit the Americans who paid these higher premiums.

• President Trump is refunding these excess fees to Americans who do not receive premium assistance under the Unaffordable Care Act – and therefore paid the full cost of Biden’s premium tax – in the 30 states that use the federal exchange for the operations of their Obamacare markets.

• These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Thanks to President Trump’s actions, nearly 1 million Americans will receive a refund check of $500 per person. Checks will be sent to eligible Americans beginning in October 2026.

• LOWERING HEALTHCARE COSTS AND GIVING MONEY TO THE PEOPLE, NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES: President Trump is delivering on promises to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on big health insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and other corporate giants that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans.

• The Trump Administration is cracking down on fraud and corruption, lowering healthcare costs for Americans, and putting the American people over big health insurance companies after the Biden Administration’s mismanagement of Obamacare resulted in massive levels of fraud, higher costs for Americans, and profit windfalls for big health insurance companies.

• The Trump Administration has taken the strongest actions ever to protect the integrity of the exchanges, including by issuing the Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Rule, ending loopholes used by brokers to fraudulently enroll individuals, and signing the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which permanently instituted common-sense eligibility checks for anyone seeking a government-funded subsidy.

• In February 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to empower patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information. Since then, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has ramped up enforcement against hospitals that are out of compliance with price transparency rules, finalized improvements to hospital price transparency rules, and proposed significant improvements to price transparency rules for insurance companies.

• In May 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to bring the prices Americans and taxpayers pay for prescription drugs in line with those paid by similar nations. As of August 31, 2026, the Trump Administration has reached 26 deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, covering nearly 90% of the branded drug market.

• In his historic Working Families Tax Cuts Act, President Trump expanded access to health savings accounts for up to ten million people on Obamacare and took the most significant actions to reduce healthcare fraud and abuse in history, enabling the largest ever investment in rural healthcare – $50 billion.

• President Trump is calling on Congress to enact the Great Healthcare Plan to lower drug prices, lower insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and maximize price transparency. President Trump has been steadfast in putting the American people first over large insurance company profits by ensuring Obamacare funds, to the maximum extent possible, go to Americans: “The government is going to pay the money directly to you… the big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win.”

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“The Thing That Never Happens Keeps Happening.” —Kyle Becker on X

• A Theory of Everything (James Howard Kunstler)

“Everyone is retarded and nothing Works.” Turns out that’s the key to unlock the mystery of this particular Fourth Turning, the one here and now, of our own time. It’s an excellent theory of everything happening these days, formulated by a close colleague of mine. And as far as I know, it’s the only theory that makes sense. It explains, for example how and why consulting US attorney Joe DiGenova quit the grand jury investigation, as conducted by the DOJ in the Southern District of Florida (SDFL), of the treasonous conspiracy against the people of the USA running since 2016.


The most amazing part is that apparently no one in the country seems to give a shit about it. No politician has issued a statement. The blog-o-sphere, Twitter-sphere are mute. The President himself — the main target of the coup — was busy in Ireland this weekend. But let’s face it: he has a duty to steer clear of interfering in juridical proceedings involving himself and his office.

The most diligent investigator of all, Dan Bongino, the podcaster who spent years documenting the serial turpitudes of RussiaGate, ImpeachmentGate, the 2020 election, the J-6 operation, and so on, who wrote several books about these crimes — and then became Deputy FBI director for a year, with access to the entire trove of evidence about all of it — says nothing now about the DiGenova affair. How is that possible? Instead, for months he’s just played an insipid cheerleader on his daily podcast. Just imagine what Bongino really knows. Months ago, when he resigned from the FBI job, he stated publicly that what he saw in the J. Edgar Hoover building shocked him to his core.

I say all this because it looks like the case (or cases) in the SDFL will now go nowhere with diGenova out of the picture. Altogether, it was the gravest set of treasonous crimes against the Republic in our history, and nobody will be held accountable for it, a monumental insult following a possibly fatal injury to the country.

A certain amount of informed scuttlebutt comes may way, and the story I hear is that Joe DiGenova was of a mind to indict former president Barack Obama for his role in many phases of the ongoing coup, and that Todd Blanche blanched at that, in fear of provoking an even hotter civil war than the Red / Blue one currently raging from sea to shining sea (and especially in the three branches of government). Not just a civil war but, in effect, a civil race war, for fear of painting America’s only black president a criminal.

Mr. Obama enjoys certain immunities against criminal prosecution for official actions he took as president — as determined in the SCOTUS decision Trump v. the United States, July, 2024 — but the parameters of what, exactly, official means remains squishy. The boundaries would have to be tested case-by-case in the lower courts. Which is what the grand juries sitting now in Florida might have done (or might yet somehow manage to do).

Was it an official act for Mr. Obama to turn Hillary Clinton’s Russian Collusion campaign stunt into a seditious operation to run Mr. Trump out of office? Once Mr. Obama was out of office in 2017, did he direct continuing seditions through FBI director Wray and CIA directors Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel? Does a record of correspondence exist, classified or otherwise? We know that the intel apparatus captures everything. Tulsi Gabbard might know what’s in there. Perhaps the same things that shocked Dan Bongino to his core.

Once “Joe Biden” was installed in the Oval Office, did Barack Obama direct the cabal that actually ran the executive branch from Jan., 2021, to Jan., 2025 — did he act as a shadow president? What would the law say about that? And is he responsible for “Joe Biden’s” ruinous policies such as the wide-open border and all it has entailed. One of Mr. Obama’s closest insiders, John Podesta (also Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman), became “senior advisor for climate policy” in the final months of “Joe Biden’s” term. He was given $370-billion from the fraudulently-named “Inflation Reduction Act” to distribute as he saw fit, and an awful lot of it landed in Democratic Party adjacent NGOs. Was private citizen Obama involved in arranging any of that?

Is Barack Obama, the 44th President of the US, a true villain? He was a very slick performer during the eight years he was president. But now, the political faction he led — maybe still leads because, look around, who else is there? — has gone batshit crazy since his second term ended. His party beat a path straight into the overt advocacy of communism with a jihad cherry on top, and you don’t hear him complaining about any of it.

What I hear is that Joe DiGenova intended to subpoena Barack Obama to give testimony to that Florida federal grand jury and that Todd Blanche nixed it, so Joe quit. The next day, diGenova told the media that if the Florida team is “allowed to do their jobs” they will “succeed supremely” and that the U.S. Attorney’s office there was doing a “phenomenal job under the worst of circumstances.” He later added, there was “plenty of evidence” but it “just takes time.”

Whatever that means. Yet everybody knows what went down in our country the past ten years, that a vicious blob called the Deep State has been running a continuous coup, just as everybody with half-a-brain knows exactly what Covid-19 was about. The question that remains: does having half-a-brain mean you’re retarded, and does that explain why nothing works in the USA, including the ability to manage the nation’s justice apparatus?

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“Yulia Mendel has accused her former boss of “autocracy” and targeting anyone who speaks out for peace..”

• Zelensky Sanctions Ex-Press Secretary Turned Fierce Critic (RT)

Zelensky and his spoweswoman Yulia Mendel , Kiev, Ukraine, October 1, 2019

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has imposed sanctions on his former press secretary, Yulia Mendel, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of his policies and accused Kiev of turning against its own citizens.


Mendel, who served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, has repeatedly spoken out against what she calls “Zelensky’s authoritarian rule.” In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson last May, she made a series of allegations against her former boss, including corruption, rampant drug use, and the obstruction of efforts to end the conflict with Russia.

The personal restrictions were enacted by Zelensky’s decree published on Sunday and include an asset freeze, a ban on transferring capital abroad, and other financial and commercial measures for the next ten years. Mendel will also be stripped of state honors indefinitely and have her social media accounts restricted inside Ukraine. She was the only Ukrainian citizen among the ten sanctioned individuals.

Zelensky is Ukraine’s main problem – ex-spokeswomanREAD MORE: Zelensky is Ukraine’s main problem – ex-spokeswoman In a post on X on Sunday, Mendel, who is scheduled to address the European Parliament later this week, slammed the sanctions as “unconstitutional, just like many of Zelenskyy’s other decisions,” accusing her former boss of targeting “anyone who advocates for peace in Ukraine.”

“Watch what they’re doing. Zelenskyy isn’t just fighting the war – he’s fighting anyone who questions his version of it,” she wrote in a follow-up post addressing the restrictions on her social media profiles.

“A nation marketed as a beacon of democracy is sliding toward something colder: a wartime state that treats disagreement as disloyalty. No independent opinion. No free expression. No speech for Ukrainians who say they want peace,” she added.

Zelensky’s ex-spokeswoman added to state-linked ‘kill list’READ MORE: Zelensky’s ex-spokeswoman added to state-linked ‘kill list’ During the Carlson interview, Mendel claimed that Zelensky had demanded “Goebbels propaganda” from his communications team after his approval ratings began declining in 2019 or 2020, calling for “thousands of talking heads” to promote a positive image of his government.

Shortly afterward, the former press secretary was added to Ukraine’s state-linked Mirotvorets database for allegedly spreading “Russian propaganda narratives” and advocating Kiev’s “capitulation.” The website is widely believed to cooperate with Ukrainian security services in publishing the personal data of people it identifies as state enemies, including Western journalists and children as young as three. When blacklisted figures are murdered or die for any reason, the database marks them as “liquidated,” reinforcing its reputation among critics as a “kill list.”

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“Alice Weidel mentioned “Ukrainian men of military age” in particular, saying the burden of welfare payments has become “unsustainable”..”

• Ukrainians Must Leave Germany – AfD Co-Leader Alice Weidel (RT)

Ukrainian migrants must leave Germany, the co-leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, has said. She particularly singled out men of fighting age.


Kiev imposed a general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, barring most able-bodied men aged 22 to 60 from leaving the country. Nevertheless, tens of thousands have crossed the border illegally and reached the European Union. Germany has been the top destination for Ukrainian migrants within the bloc, taking in more than a million people, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

In an interview with Austrian right-wing media outlet AUF1 on Friday, Weidel spoke out against the prospect of naturalizing people “who actually ought to be sent back to their home countries,” including “more than one million Ukrainians here who are receiving the ‘citizen’s benefit’ [welfare payments].” The AfD co-chair described the burden of continued state aid to Ukrainian migrants as “simply unsustainable,” insisting that they should return to their home country.

“Especially young Ukrainian men of military age – we are talking about hundreds of thousands of them – those young men really ought to go back,” the right-wing politician said. Weidel also pledged that should the AfD come to power in Germany, it would “halt payments to Ukraine and all forms of war support, and we will demand substantial repayments from Ukraine.” In June, she similarly said that Kiev should pay reparations to Berlin for the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which the German authorities have blamed on a small group of rogue Ukrainian operatives.

Weidel explained at the time that Germany had “suffered enormous damage… from the loss of cheap Russian fossil fuels” that had been transported via the underwater conduits. In recent months, opinion polls have consistently indicated that the AfD is Germany’s most popular party, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents. Last Sunday, the right-wing party won a state election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished second with just 17.2%.

Meanwhile, the incumbent coalition government, which also includes the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has ramped up pressure on Ukrainian draft dodgers.In July, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced that Germany would stop granting automatic temporary protection to Ukrainians fleeing conscription.

Amid mounting casualties, Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly relied on heavy-handed mobilization tactics, colloquially dubbed ‘busification’. Men are being snatched off the streets, from workplaces and residential areas, as evidenced by hundreds of videos circulating online. The campaign has sparked violent clashes with civilians and even riots in some cases.

Moscow has accused the leadership in Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

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Lawfare that makes people run out of time. Ugly.

• Supreme Court Block President Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Order (ZH)

The nationwide injunction stands; the suspended rule would have required unique barcodes and scanner-ready envelopes… The Supreme Court late on Sept. 14 declined to lift a nationwide injunction blocking a United States Postal Service (USPS) rule on federal ballot mail, leaving it on hold for the 2026 midterms. The ruling in USPS v. California took the form of an unsigned order. “The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the order said. “And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion with fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority” but that applying the proposed rules would be “arbitrary and capricious” for the midterm elections as state and local officials “do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule.” Justice Samuel Alito filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. The decision is likely the final say on the rule during this election cycle, with even Talwani saying from the bench earlier this month that it was unclear how the government would implement the plans with November just around the corner.
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“Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet.”:

• The Dangerous Evolution of Gavin Newsom (Turley)

Below is my column in The Hill on the declaration of Gov. Gavin Newsom that he is now officially “evolving.” However, unlike more modest objectives like opposable thumbs over eons, Newsom wants to accomplish a full transformation in one election cycle to appeal to the surging far left of his party. It is a cautionary tale for Democrats who want their party to reposition toward the political center. Here is the column:


California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants you to know that he is evolving. Newsom is facing a rising radical movement among Democrats, including a surging contingent aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. He is struggling in polls and therefore eager to show the skill identified by Darwin that allows certain species to thrive in their environment: adaptation. Newsom has recently declared capitalism a failure. He is now joining his competitors for president in offering up the Supreme Court and its independence to the far left. His free fall into rage politics is a cautionary tale for those who want to return the Democratic Party to more centrist positions.

Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet. Although natural selection takes place over many years and even eons, Newsom does not have the luxury of time. He does not want to be eliminated by the more politically fit opponents to his left. Polls continue to show he receives more media support than public support. He trails Kamala Harris by 15 points in recent polling and is nearly tied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Harris and Buttigieg quickly turned their backs on the norms governing the Supreme Court to support court-packing. Harris dismissed those of us in opposition as engaging in mere “nostalgia.” Newsom had previously tried to offer a sane alternative to these voices. But he has now found himself their quiet companion in a primal scream session. As he began to vanish in political polling, he decided he would not be outcrazied by Democratic opponents.

With candidates like Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico calling for the “dismantling” of capitalism as an “oppressive system,” Newsom finds himself needing to cater to the mob. He has now declared that “nostalgia is not working” while adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.” Newsom has recently been campaigning in blue states such as New Hampshire, repeating his mantra that capitalism as “not working.”

these days, it is not enough for socialists and the far left merely to oppose the most successful economic system in the history of the world. Newsom was still being labeled as an establishment politician. So he tried to dispel that impression with his signature toothy grin and astonished demeanor, claiming that he is really undermining the system from within as “an established insurgent.”

Again, that is not enough for the current political environment. So this week, he changed his position on the Supreme Court, to say that he is now “open” to court-packing. Packing the court is considered essential today for any viable Democratic candidate. Some are openly calling for the imposition of a litmus test for all candidates: As they put it, it is a choice between “packed or sacked.” Even moderate figures such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have now yielded to the mob in expressing a willingness to pack the Supreme Court.

So Newsom wants the far left to know that he is yet again evolving: “My initial instinct — me, a year ago, I would have said no out of concern that it will continue to be expanded. … I’m finding myself evolving on it.” The question is what Newsom and his Democrat opponents will offer next in their political adaptation. These candidates have shown that no institution or value is more important than their securing power. At this rate, we will be fortunate to have anything more than the ship itself after the race to toss institutions and “nostalgic” values over the side.

The danger for Newsom — like the danger of any fast-tracking of evolution — is that the environment can change, leaving you with an adaptation that makes you even more likely to be eliminated. Newsom knows that attacking our constitutional or economic systems will not play well in the general election, but he also knows he will never see the 2028 general election if his opponents on the left outflank him. Moreover, offerings like the Supreme Court or our economic system are unlikely to satiate the far left. As I discuss in “Rage and the Republic,” history shows that establishment figures rarely survive the mob politics they seek to use for their own advantage.

In the meantime, because of the cynical calculations of leaders like Newsom, we face a growing threat of doing lasting harm to our constitutional system. The framers warned us of these voices of “mobocracy” that would tear apart the contemporary revolution in France, which became known as “the Terror.”

The danger is that, while the majority opposes court packing and socialism, the new majority in Congress could force changes without amending the Constitution. That certainly can be done with court packing. Once a new liberal majority is secured, there would then be little barrier to achieving many of the objectives of a radical agenda long discussed by professors and pundits. Some have argued that, with control of the court and radical constitutional changes, Republicans will not be able to win another election.

In other words, the radicals hope to change the environment to prevent further adaptation and future competition. Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are.” After watching the chameleonic Gavin Newsom, it seems that we may be on the cusp of precisely such an evolutionary mistake.

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“Newsom says he has nothing to hide. Pfft! Yeah, right. And I have a full head of hair! Six years of receipts should prove who is right.”

• A Federal Grand Jury Wants Six Years of Gavin Newsom’s Receipts (Manney)

Gavin Newsom has spent months insisting the Trump administration is hunting for a crime that doesn’t exist. A federal grand jury would apparently like to see the receipts before taking his word for it.Federal subpoenas issued this month seek six years of records tied to Newsom’s international travel, outside funding, personal expenses, living expenses, and money connected to his residence.mInvestigators also want records involving donors and fundraisers for the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit that has paid for the governor’s overseas travel. From the San Francisco Standard:


“The documents provide the clearest picture yet of the scope of a federal investigation effort Newsom first disclosed in June, which he said was focused on him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. “The records requested by this subpoena are for use in a criminal investigation pending in the Eastern District of California,” says one of the documents, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Anderson. The records obtained via subpoena will be presented to a grand jury, a group of jurors that acts like a judge, reviewing evidence and testimony to decide if there’s sufficient grounds for an indictment.

Newsom’s office said the investigation is baseless, and there are no crimes to investigate. “Gov. Newsom went after the king — and as he warned in June, the tyrant is now coming after everyone around him. This is what Donald Trump does to his enemies: investigate first, hunt for a crime that doesn’t exist second,” the governor’s office said. “It’s deeply upsetting to see innocent staff, friends, and family have their names dragged through the mud just because they’re associated with the governor.”

The requests reach into Newsom’s inner circle. Investigators are seeking communications involving current and former aides, advisers, foundation board members, and Rebecca Prowda, Newsom’s chief protocol officer, who helps oversee his foreign travel. One subpoena plainly states that the records are being sought for a criminal investigation pending in the Eastern District of California and will be presented to a federal grand jury.From the San Francisco Standard: A spokesperson for the foundation said it could not discuss or verify an investigation but defended its work.

“It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has proudly supported both Republican and Democratic administrations in fulfilling their duties representing all of California through public events and international engagements,” the spokesperson said. The demand extends into Newsom’s longtime political and government circle. One of the subpoenas requests communications with four members of the California State Protocol Foundation’s board. As recently as November 2025, the foundation was headed by Steve Kawa — former chief of staff for Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee — according to state records.

Communications with Kawa and other board members were subpoenaed, including Jim DeBoo, Newsom’s former executive secretary; Matina Kolokotronis, COO of the Sacramento Kings; and Jason Elliott, Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff. The California State Protocol Foundation has received millions in outside contributions during Newsom’s governorship. State records reviewed as part of the investigations show Newsom directed more than $7.5 million in contributions to the foundation since 2019, much of it connected to his inaugurations.

Now prosecutors want donor information, travel records, receipts, and documents involving money used for Newsom’s personal and living expenses. Newsom calls the investigation a political vendetta. In June, he accused President Donald Trump of using the Justice Department against political enemies and said investigators were searching for a crime instead of investigating one already identified. From Gov. Newsom’s press release:

Donald Trump is simply the most corrupt President in American history. He has turned the levers of government into his own personal power ministries to reward cronies and to try to jail his opponents. His personal attorney now runs the Department of Justice, which has repeatedly gone after his political enemies. Ask Jerome Powell. He sent them after James Comey. Tish James. Adam Schiff. He sent them after Tim Walz. And a woman that a jury found Donald Trump had sexually abused.One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list.

And today, I proudly join that list. After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me. And just in the last week, I’ve learned his campaign has reached my own home: to get me, he’s coming after my wife, Jen. A public servant. A woman who has dedicated her life to supporting women and girls. Newsom also said federal agents could take every record and read every page because he had nothing to hide. Excellent! They accepted his terms.

Newsom’s recordkeeping has already caused trouble closer to home. In June, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission fined him $31,500 after finding that he failed to timely file 18 required reports involving behested payments. The state case is separate from the federal investigation, and there is no evidence the two are connected. It does establish something simpler: questions involving outside payments and Newsom’s disclosure obligations didn’t originate in Donald Trump’s White House.

A subpoena isn’t a conviction, and the documents made public so far don’t identify a specific crime. Prosecutors now have the job of following the records wherever they lead. Newsom doesn’t get to substitute political outrage for the records themselves. He has built a national profile accusing Trump and Republicans of corruption, self-dealing, abusing power, and bending government toward wealthy interests. Meanwhile, private donors have helped finance official travel through a foundation closely tied to Newsom’s administration, and federal investigators now want six years of documents showing how that system operated.

Maybe every dollar was proper; the grand jury gets to examine the paper trail rather than accept Newsom’s press releases as evidence.Newsom says he has nothing to hide. Pfft! Yeah, right. And I have a full head of hair! Six years of receipts should prove who is right.

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“Just over a year has passed, and Charlie’s absence still hurts.”

• Charlie Kirk, Rest In Peace (Arthur Schaper)

I didn’t believe it the day that it happened. I dismissed the long-range shot taking out the founder and leader of TPUSA as some AI fever dream from another disconcerted leftist. In reality, the fevered leftist made the nightmare come true.


Sadly, this absence is felt not just in his demise, but in the relative ease with which the world has passed on. How can the world continue as if nothing happened? My hometown of Torrance, CA, to the credit of the city council and staff, flew flags at half-mast in his honor. Yet one of the city council members lamented his “controversial” comments, too.This year, we have witnessed demented, perverted people celebrating his death, including drag queens dressing up as Charlie with fake wounds gushing out of their necks.

Such is the division our country faces in this momentous time. Angry Democrats, embittered socialists, and violent communists don’t care how many lives are lost, how many cities are destroyed, or whether the United States survives another two hundred and fifty years. Such recrimination was unheard of among members of either party thirty years ago. Today, the majority of Democrats hold a dim view of our country, and no doubt a dimmer view of those who love America and want young people to share in that love once again.

Understandably, they trained their ire on Kirk. He was more than counter-cultural. He was counter-revolutionary, undermining the Grand March through the institutions which have poisoned two generations of Americans. Kirk was turning the tide on this mad self-destruction. The left couldn’t stand by and allow that to happen. One militant leftist made sure of that, and hence the fatal shot at Utah Valley University.mHis assassination was tragic, evil, and preventable.

His political enemies rejoiced over his sudden death, exploiting the use of firearms to mock his support for the Second Amendment and his rigorous defense of the right to keep and bear arms. His passing only exposes all the more why law-abiding citizens need firearms, even in the most innocuous and presumably most secure locations. Why did Tyler Robinson take him out? He was a sexually confused, deviant man, enamored with another confused man who thought he was a woman, and an animal. Kirk’s opposition to sexual degeneracy and appeal to moral order offended him.

Charlie embodied the antidote. He married young, had two young children, and wanted a third. Following his untimely passing, darling videos have resurfaced, embracing the warm, fatherly character of this godly man. Kirk focused on rebuilding the man, the family, and the country. The Left and its putrid acolytes oppose all of it, and militantly so.

Charlie was not afraid to push past LGBT-DEI-CRT as a strict identity. He spoke to individuals as such, even those who vehemently disagreed with him. He debated in good faith, seeking to understand his fellow interlocutors from their perspective, then correct them. He was rarely at a loss for words, and not simply because he wanted to fill the air or hear himself speak. When he spoke, when he asked questions, when he engaged with college students (and their professors) with adept aplomb, he was making a case and making the difference.

One year later, commentators, pundits, and podcasters seem less interested in telling the truth, and more invested in getting a reaction. They are harvesting likes, views, shares, clicks, and outrage to pump up their profile and triumph as king of the (Dung)Hill of social media trash talk. Jerry Springer would have been appalled, but only because he hadn’t taken advantage of the broad, new media of social media in such sick, indefensible fashion.

The cause of truth and effective advocacy were well-wedded in Kirk. How to get the truth out, and get people to understand without triggering their immediate defense mechanisms: that is not an easy task. For now, Kirk has possible, likely, or erstwhile successors. Ben Shapiro, certainly. Shortly after Kirk’s murder, Shapiro stared into the camera and said, “F*** You!” to all the nefarious elements celebrating Charlie’s demise in the hopes that such an egregious crime would silence his successors.

Not a chance. Besides Shapiro, Glenn Beck, and Steve Crowder, even Steve Deace could pick up the mantle. Ben is the best bet, in my view, for his long legacy of sticking to his principles, articulating a clear message while arguing cogently with interlocutors, whether they agree or disagree. This is not to say that Crowder, Beck, or Deace don’t have integrity or consistency of message. Ben’s youthful appeal can bridge gaps, I believe.

There’s also the issue of Shapiro’s growing family. What a blessing indeed, one that will inevitably limit the time he can devote to reaching the masses left and right with Restoration of American Greatness through the meeting of the minds. Also, Shapiro is a commentator, not an organizer the way Charlie was. Kirk’s TPUSA organization assembled an unprecedented ground game, working with party leaders and conservative activists alike, connecting citizens with accessible technology to walk precincts, connect with voters, and make the case for Trump.

And get him re-elected.nThis kind of organizational as well as intellectual skill is unparalleled. Can anyone step into the void, fusing all these elements, and advance Kirk’s cause?nnJohn Doyle is another contender, more youthful, but does not have the name recognition or trial-by-fire of interacting with larger audiences. Can he organize voters, activists, and pundits across the country to a greater cause, like electing a sound and effective improvement to President Trump in 2028?

Kirk had an unshakeable knack for drawing together disparate interests, not just among the political left and center, but especially among the right. The right is divided over immigration, Israel, Islam, government intervention in the economy, the limits to force to shape culture, etc. Kirk wrestled with these issues, but he never wavered from the main focus: Making America Great Again, and more importantly, Godly Again.n

The spiritual angle cannot be ignored. John Adams warned the early Republic that the Constitution was written for a moral people. That moral center is fracturing. That moral compass is losing its bearing. And the slog of podcast successors is reveling in the confusion rather than eliminating it.

Kirk’s legacy faces destruction from this bevy of so-called successors, who have sought to obscure, even dirty, his legacy by disparaging his work with others, misrepresenting his statements, or attempting to overtake his leadership and legacy in returning President Trump to the White House.

Candace Owens is the most egregious offender, lying about the circumstances surrounding Charlie’s assassination, unfairly implicating Erika Kirk in his demise, even suggesting that she profits off his violent departure. This is evil, as Jeremy Boreing righteously declared.

Thankfully, TPUSA is stronger than ever, and Erika has displayed an unmatched grace under fire, leading the organization to greater glory that vile opponents had sought to destroy. A grieving widow, she could have ended the operation and turned inward to care for herself. But she knew that Charlie would not have wanted that. She serves despite her suffering, and for that, she deserves nothing but our thanks and praise.

Rest in Peace, Charlie.


Image generated by ChatGPT.
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