"Disputed"

That fucking newspaper.

Our Country's Gone Awry

Wondering when Canada decides to shut off all the juice (electricity, gas).

The White House responded Tuesday by announcing outright bans on some Canadian products rather than simply imposing higher tariffs. The restrictions on Canadian alcohol, dairy products and motorcycles take effect Sept. 29.

A sundowning narcissist will burn the entire world down before he dies, if he can, and Trump is the rare one who can. Someone should tell John Roberts how this might impact his investment portfolio. 

OK I Apologize, Jake

Some less than perfect things in this segment, but fair enough. 

Coming up next, President Trump's wild new 9/11 related claims. What he claims to remember 25 years later about some sort of big, strong guys who he is now saying rescued him from rubble.

 

Is It OK To Say This Now

The impact of Britain's Israel policies will be minimal, but there is value in their Foreign Secretary making the media rounds and saying things that journalists would have been fired for saying or even platforming for the past 3 years.

Sophy Ridge: "You talked about Jewish settler terrorists who are guilty of ethnic cleansing. Do you stand by that?" Ed Miliband: "Yes I do"

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— Saul Staniforth (@saulstaniforth.bsky.social) 9 September 2026 at 08:28

Morning

Wilted Wednesday

Tuesday Evening

 Enjoy

The Day Most Holy

Isn't Ari Fleischer - self-appointed keeper of the Book of 9/11 - supposed to condemn Trump for lying?

Joke, obviously, but once upon a time such fabrications would have been a major scandal to the trustees of the memory of 9/11, the DC press and their faves.

Of course the creators of America's Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, were always comfortable with their preferred fictions, so maybe things haven't changed much. 

Maybe Tapper's next book will be about Donald Trump, hero of 9/11.

(Jake, if you address this appropriately, I will apologize)

Things That Did Not Happen

he was actually at his home in midtown but it's cool how trump sometimes replaces his memories with the set ups in gay pornography

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— m (@keptsimple.bsky.social) 8 September 2026 at 18:03

Good Resolutions

It is completely unclear just what the Trumpers would think is a good resolution. Maybe headline 2 1 is it?

(from cnn)

You Fucked Up, You Trusted Us

I remember that the response of centrist idol, Christine Todd Whitman, to earlier disclosures of the dishonesty about post-9/11 air quality was, basically, of course the air quality was garbage, you stupid fucks.

In the harrowing months that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe.

But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records being released on Tuesday.

Donald The Dove

Sure it's the right result for catastrophically wrong reasons, but one cheer for Donald, the peace president, if he manages to shrink our global military presence.

In offices across the military and in the intelligence community, there have been recent quiet discussions about cutting the number of people and facilities typically stationed in the Middle East if the Trump administration succeeds in ending the Iran conflict, six sources say. 

If those cuts happen, it would mark another shift in how the US national security apparatus treats a region that successive presidents have sought to leave behind.

How hard have those successive presidents really tried to leave it behind... 

Morning

Totally Tuesday

Tariff Day Already

Canada's retaliatory tariffs kick in at midnight tonight.

I'm not going to claim economists have been fans of Trump's tariff games, but I do know that when lefties propose tariffs, but leftily, a swarm of economists hit the media to explain why it is the most damaging policy ever imagined.

Tom Friedman would have published 8 columns per day. His life's work threatened.

The response has been... muted.

Lunch

Holiday posting schedule.

The Newspaper Shouldn't Be Complicated

I know that most journalists would defend this Haberman special  as obviously highlighting the absurdity of Trump's obsession with his little building projects, but readers shouldn't need a decoder ring for this stuff.

As the war with Iran grinds on, Mr. Trump finds reprieve by focusing on the minutia of an endeavor much more within his grasp: renovating Washington with ornate projects.

“He loves to build,” Mr. Lutnick said, shortly before an emergency hearing about Mr. Trump’s desire to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his own honor. Mr. Lutnick added: “This is what he enjoys. So late at night, 11 o’clock at night, he calls me and wants to talk about things he’s building, because it’s fun for him.”

“If you sat with him, would you have a nice chat with him? No, you’d ask him about Iran, then you’d ask him about this, then you’d ask him about that,” he noted. “Everybody does that. And the one thing he likes to do during the week is construction.”

Writing it up as a piece about his charming eccentricities is a choice. There are other ways to write it.

 

Where's Mitch

It is quite reasonable to ask just how long a senator can be absent.

Morning

Holiday Monday funday.

Sunday Evening

 The fun starts again tomorrow.

How Low Can It Go

Often IRL friends ask me why Trump's poll numbers aren't lower. I explain that absent economic catastrophe, it is unlikely any president gets any lower than where Trump is now.

But implicit in their question is the belief that if his approval is low enough, then Something must happen. 20% approval would trigger... something.

And it really won't.

How Did They Mess This Up

This is a rhetorical question, of course, but given that the 45 year prime mission of the neocons was to conquer Iran, how did they screw it up this badly?