https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkalPSPLlUY
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Spinning out a theme noted earlier in another post.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qe7KB1AqhH4
Watch the video and you do not need to buy the book. Or is that cynical?
UPDATE:
And the Appocalypse can happen before we understand dark matter. While the space probes are still moving and sending back data.
https://minnesotareformer.com headline = Minnesota recreational cannabis sales hit $150M one year in
https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/09/15/minnesota-recreational-cannabis-sales-hit-150m-one-year-in/
The $150 number suggests before the State legalized and taxed and regulated the trade, a hell of a lot of Minnesotans were breaking the law.
It is similar to the nation's experment with Constitutional prohibition of alcoholic drinks, during the early 20th Century. And the repeal because people kept drinking, only it was illegal then to do so.
What the good sign in things is, government nanny state stuff gets ignored, and citizen judgment that way is a solid thing for Libertarians in particular. There today are Flock camera concerns, where readers not familiar with the groundswell objection should search = flock camera unrest
The success in Minnesota of mj legalization is no surprise at Crabgrass, having lived through parallel but earlier legalization in Washington State, with Seattle going from a friendship network thing where someone knew a dealer, to having retail stores. Sanity replacing untaxed, men with guns stuff with licenses and tax income streams. If people do it, legalizing and taxing is best. Tabacco is taxed so high that many have ceased smoking it, with the lung cancer risk being a parallel information channel designed to discourage that practice.
Having in Seattle cleaned glass bongs with salt and rubbing alcohol to keep the tar down, and thinking that's what bubbles through the water is what you lungs get, was an incentive to quit. But there was a time * * *
One wonders about practices in nations still aggressive in regulating/criminalizing mj, which really is not a gateway drug as the disliking fraction of people may believe, having been propagandized into the belief.
What the propaganda did, is make a minor gateway effect boost, because people smoking mj said, "They're bullshitting us," and that led to experimentation which likely would have not happened absent propaganda mention of other drugs.
It is as if there was somebody (CIA or others) motivated to get people to transition to more dangerously addictive drugs, since the CIA in IndoChina and later Afghanistan needed the drug trade income to finance black-op shenanigans that no sane government financing mechanism would tolerate. MKULTRA and such. That being its own story where much is online about speculation where definitive admissions are absent and unpublished online.
Legalizing mj has been a sane thing, and, from government, no less. Tune time. Do note the date.
Monday, September 14, 2026
There are network TV news, there is FOX, but Crabgrass has gravitated to one outlet, and this is Sept. 14, 2026, on that outlet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOsQI8yKDFs
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! giving a daily news summary (beyond special feature programs too).
Sometimes it shows up on YouTube sidebars when other items are being watched, sometimes you do not see it, but a day or two later you might encounter the sidebar link and view it.
This particular item is offered now because of the opening AI segment, and they see beyond it how you like format, presentation and mood. Again, gravitating to it, nice news presenter mode.
It is there. If you like it, keep with it, and if not, you at least know it exists.
Gary, the St. Cloud blogger falls into the trap that a statement of goals, is not a plan. A plan has implementation detail. Aside from Lisa Demuth saying she'd opt into a tax credit voucher provision, no plan. Just hopes.
https://libertyprosperityblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/lisa-demuths-plan-for-education.html
Read all about it. Goals, stated as hoped for to somehow be reached, is not a plan. A plan includes actual steps to be taken to implement clearly stated steps that would be assured of reaching a particular result; as in steps stated that would be reaching the sought after goals. Nothing there - that way.
See: https://zaetsch.blogspot.com/2026/09/politics-in-local-sense-is-normal.html
There the Demuth "plan" was dissected to be shown as less than a real plan, and a reach for vouchers.
Gary in the posted body of opening link fuzzes unnecessarily about the $1700 voucher plan. By not mentioning it, in text. It only gets mentioned in a video he posts, and there, sorry, but it is fuzzed there too. No link, no explanation. Just a vague mention.
She has no plan. Saying she'd like safe schools, sure, everyone would, but what, put a cop in every classroom? Something more or less than that? Teachers armed with handguns? Or AR-15s? What? Perimeter razor wire fencing eighteen feet tall to where only student on student bullying is the concern?
It is an unfortunate fact of U.S. politics that a candidate can get away with empty sound bites, saying nothing concrete or binding. Both parties do it. Republicans more than Democrats.
AJ's latest post on the oil crisis = US says it’s clearing Hormuz traffic: Why are oil futures beyond $100? --- Brent crude crosses $107 as Hormuz disruptions and Saudi pipeline shutdown threaten global oil supply.. [UPDATED]
UPDATE: Latest, EmptyWheel has posted relevant to the Gulf and Red Sea activities = https://emptywheel.net/2026/09/13/the-iran-disaster-will-likely-be-job-one/
The focus there is speculation of Dem priorities should they win the midterm elections.
FURTHER: EmptyWheel embeds a podcast that's quite informative.
That troublesome $9 billion fraud speculation the Republicans love to tout as if fact, not the fictional guess of a single Republican DOJ figure, which is all the figure is.
local content - https://www.twincities.com/2026/09/14/man-accused-of-1-3-million-in-minnesota-medicaid-fraud-surrenders-to-feds/
$1.3 million is not $9 billion, keep that in mind.
The money paragraph in the item =
Last year, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson speculated total fraud in that period could top $9 billion in more than a dozen “high-risk programs” besides housing stabilization. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and administration officials have disputed this number.
Note the yellow highlighting Crabgrass inserted for clarity. That's it. $9 billion is a made-up number, no more, no less. Some single dude's guess. With every motivation to highball the number. Make it sing!
That is precisely what "speculated" in context means.
It is not a fact.
SO -- Stop the bullshit, or prove $9 billion, GOP folks. Otherwise STFU, please.
Especially GOP candidates for office, integrity and truth are important.
AP feed carried locally - "Iran’s nuclear chief not expected to attend IAEA General Conference, official says"
Opening paragraphs -
VIENNA (AP) — The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization is not expected to attend the annual gathering of the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s member nations in Vienna for the first time in years because he is banned from international travel, an official briefed on the matter said.
Mohammad Eslami’s exclusion from the IAEA conference is another sign of rapidly deteriorating relations between Iran and the West. The United States and Iran have resumed fighting, on and off, after a fragile ceasefire collapsed in July.
Austria sought a waiver of the travel ban on Eslami with the U.N. sanctions committee but it was not granted, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
As host of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria can request exemptions from travel bans to enable sanctioned officials to attend international conferences at the U.N.
Since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June 2025, Iran hasn’t given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that were affected by the strikes — even though Tehran is legally obliged to cooperate with the watchdog under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The IAEA has also been unable to verify the status of a stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing. [...]
Pure Bullshit. Not in the headline, but clearly apparent in the opening paragraphs. (It's about Trump)
https://www.twincities.com/2026/09/14/trump-dismisses-ai-guardrails/
- headlining - an AP feed, carried locally -
Trump dismisses new AI guardrails, says there is a ‘SICK conspiracy’ against AI and data centers
Trump pushed back against calls by tech leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft and others to have greater regulation of AI to ensure it is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability and preserve national security
- opening text -
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he would be a sufficient guardrail against rogue artificial intelligence, claiming that any efforts to limit the technology was part of a “SICK conspiracy.”
Trump was pushing back against calls by tech leaders such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk to have greater government oversight of AI. Their goal is to ensure the technology is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability, feed economic growth, advance science and preserve national security.
The president maintained that his presence in the Oval Office should assuage any fears about AI, which has become a source of controversy after a series of hacks in recent months that showed AI agents could be working to deceive humans.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.
No point belaboring the obvious. Readers choice of what to fault.
IMPORTANT FEDERAL CRYPTO LEGISLATION PENDING = Strib has local coverage, "Small banks, including those in Minnesota, at forefront of battle against crypto bill -- The Senate is set to take up the Clarity Act this week as it returns from recess. - Small banks say the legislation puts them at a competitive disadvantage." By Christopher Vondracek The Minnesota Star Tribune
https://www.startribune.com/cryptocurrency-clarity-act-community-bank-opposition-tom-emmer/601868360
Because of Strib's paywall, only a brief excerpt, and then looking to other sources. Beginning paragraphs in Strib's coverage -
A push by the cryptocurrency industry to pass a monumental piece of federal legislation has run into a small, but loud, foe: an army of rural community banks.
Randy Dorn, who leads My Kind of Bank in the small northwest Minnesota town of Battle Lake, is among them and said the legislation as written will create unfair competition for banks like his.
He says he’s not anti-cryptocurrency but he is opposed to a bill that cruised through the House of Representatives — with Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer, the House majority whip, as one of its biggest supporters.
Right, Emmer does not mind screwing community banks, given his crypto ties and such. I use a local community bank based in Elk River, MN, and like it and do not want the Wells Fargo type of game.
There is that bias. Also, full transparent disclosure, I immensely dislike Tom Emmer. Why not?
Strib continues with a clear note of what the dissatisfaction with the bill is about.
The bill, called the Clarity Act, sets guardrails for cryptocurrency companies. Both large and community banks say the bill does not put the same regulatory standards on crypto as it does traditional financial institutions.
Critics cite a loophole in current law that allows crypto companies to offer an interest-like reward that could entice people to move their money out of banks and into digital assets. They want senators to add language to the Clarity Act to repeal that loophole.
The legislation lands in the Senate as members return from recess this week, and will face some opposition because of the bankers’ campaign and an ethics provision some senators want because of President Donald Trump’s family ties to the industry.
Without a level regulatory playing field, small bankers see the cryptocurrency industry as an existential threat — to them and the small businesses and towns they support.
Full disclosure, I dislike crypto touts, Zhou with his Trump pardon, (search = binance money laundering and other offenses) where Zhou had to step aside and Binance payed billions in settlement, crypto having its seamy side (remember - Sam Bankman- Fried).
With crypto touts, including Emmer and Trump, (whose offspring has family grifting operations in crypto; "grifting" being an ethics-aware circumstantial inference -- there are no pending indictments or such); what's to like?
That sets the table. U.S.News carries a Reuters report - no paywall so readers can check it out -
By Hannah Lang
Sept 9 (Reuters) - A fight over major cryptocurrency legislation has spilled into the congressional summer recess, with the crypto industry and the banking sector mounting a final lobbying blitz in senators' home states ahead of a vote on the bill next week.
The industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning to advance the Clarity Act, which it says will put crypto companies on a solid legal footing. The Senate will take a procedural vote on September 15 that could determine the fate of the bill, but with Democrats and some Republicans warning the bill has insufficient safeguards and could destabilize the banking system, its chances look slim, according to analysts.
During the recess, which began on August 8, the crypto industry and banking groups have taken their fight to senators' home states, deploying op-ed pieces, letter-writing drives and in-person events to rally grassroots support and sway lawmakers, according to executives and public materials.
"Our strategy during recess is ... about demonstrating the presence and enthusiasm of our community, in every state and every congressional district," said Mason Lynaugh, executive director of Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group backed by crypto company Coinbase.
[...] Republican U.S. President Donald Trump courted crypto cash on the campaign trail by pledging to promote policies friendly to the $2 trillion cryptocurrency market, and the White House has strongly backed the Clarity Act. The bill would address what the crypto industry says is legal ambiguity by defining which tokens qualify as securities versus commodities, and which regulators oversee them.
Crypto companies are anxious to pass the bill this year because polls favor Democrats to retake the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, likely extinguishing what many see as a once-in-a-generation legislative opportunity. [...]
The Blockchain Association, a Washington group representing crypto companies, in late July launched the website clarityforamerica.com to help individuals and firms write to their senators to urge them to vote for the bill. [...]
BANKING INDUSTRY PUSHBACK
[...] Democrats, whose support is needed to clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold, say the bill lacks robust money-laundering and ethics safeguards. Some Republicans, including senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, have also expressed concerns that the bill would allow certain digital tokens to compete with bank deposits, potentially hurting lending.
The Independent Community Bankers of America, which has been fighting the stablecoin-related provision in Washington, has likewise been mobilizing its members across the country to meet with senators in their home offices to raise their concerns.
They are focused on senators beyond the 24-member Senate Banking Committee, which led the bill and voted to advance it in May, said Paul Merski, ICBA's executive vice president of congressional relations.
[...] Spokespeople for senators Paul, Rounds and Lankford did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Dodson referred Reuters to Stand With Crypto.
GROUP TARGETS WARNOCK IN GEORGIA
Tia Williams, president of the Stand With Crypto Georgia chapter and founder of blockchain-based software platform DocuHero, said she met with staff in the field office of U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, during recess to discuss the bill.
[...] The Georgia chapter is arranging for local college students enthusiastic about crypto and blockchain technology to visit Warnock's office too. The group has also held advocacy events in Athens and Augusta, Williams said.
There is more, and no paywall. One more -
President Donald Trump endorsed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Sunday as Senate Republicans published what they called the legislation's final text, even as banks and the crypto industry remained at odds over stablecoin provisions ahead of a Tuesday procedural vote.
Senators Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman, and Tim Scott said the updated text incorporates 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats, including ethics language drawn from a proposal by Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego. Trump agreed to ethics restrictions that would cover the president, vice president, members of Congress, judges, and their spouses, the senators said. The new version also gives the Treasury secretary authority to restrict stablecoin rewards if deposit outflows from community banks reach a substantial level — a measure designed as an emergency brake for community lenders.
That's Yahoo, which runs a series of related items on the crypto bill (No Paywall).
Related - CNBC, decrypt.com --
Crabgrass did not locate the markup of the package before the Senate for a floor vote on cloture.
If the Republicans somehow get 60 votes there likely will be voting on possible amendments, and a final vote. If the 60 votes on cloture are not there the bill dies; or there could be further negotiations.
Coverage did note that with Dems expected to do well in midterm voting, the Republicans and their crupto lobbying allies will push hard to get what they want now. In quoting sources, there was some Republican coverage saying "it's time" but readers interested in that line of thought should follow up on the linked items and if motivated, do their own further web research.
Again, Crabgrass favors killing the bill until after the midterns, and seeing where that leads.
Sunday, September 13, 2026
AJ, two topics. Houtis and War on Terror.
Houtis
Red Sea nations watch as Houthis seize Bab al-Mandeb strait
Will the Houthi attacks activate the Mecca Pact?
War on Terror
9/11 at 25: How the ‘War on Terror’ helped mainstream Europe’s far right
The dystopian legal architecture of the ‘war on terror’ must be dismantled
The links are given without excerpting or commentary, beyond the Mecca Pact means little unless tested to mean a lot; and the War on Terror was a Republican thing, invading Iraq?? And now a war on Uranium Enrichment, or worded that way in untrustworthy posturing.
4 weeks the dude said. Who trusted that? Hegseth? JD? Bibi? Trump, himself?
Perhaps "nobody" works as good as an answer as any.
Politics in the local sense is a normal narrowing of focus, as an election day gets closer and closer.
|
| a reposting, not an any way whatsoever an endorsement - the mood actually being the opposite |
They both have nice teeth.
Beyond that, minnreformer.com has published:
Demuth proposes teacher performance pay, wants changes to free school meals
Education is the word we use for preparing the next generation for the real world without their committing suicide the senior year of high school. Something like that. The private prep schools to of course train leaders, the public schools to train followers, mortgage holder studen debt facing individuals.
Generating a citizenship spirit is a thought. Wtf that means being a mystery but we know being "woke" is wrong and we can expect demuth or niska to remind us of that if the more strident Republicans fail the task, they remain there wanting our vote and ready to backstop any doub of "woke" whatever that means..
Minnreformer publishes in part-
Demuth, the GOP nominee for governor, cited her decade of experience on her local school board — prior to serving in the Legislature — as a needed qualification for getting student achievement back on track.
“We’ll be focusing on the fundamentals of reading, math and science. We want to make sure that we are spending wisely with fewer mandates. We’ll provide safety for all students in all schools,” Demuth said at a Capitol press conference Thursday.
Demuth is facing Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November. Klobuchar has pledged to raise student achievement, ban cell phones in classrooms and work with school districts to limit screen-time. Demuth said she would encourage school districts to limit screen-time, rather than a blanket ban.
Demuth said the state will also implement teacher performance pay, because “better teachers deserve better pay.” She was unable to say what metric would be used for teachers to receive additional pay. Some states and districts use student academic performance or classroom observations to determine a teacher’s pay, in part.
Minnesota already has a teacher performance-linked payment program, and over 100 school districts participate in it. It’s unclear how Demuth’s proposal is different from what the state already offers.
Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union, has endorsed Klobuchar for governor.
First paragraph a decade of experience is distinct from a decade of getting it right. The two might be congruent, but they might be a distance apart, depending upon much that is subjective.
What might objective getting it right look like? That's a thinking trap if you are fair minded, since goals can be configured to aims in a tortured way, or even dishonestly characterized.
Then, teacher "performance pay" perks. That is a thicket of belief that standardized testing and class average performance means something independent from some people are smart and some dumb and in private schools you can harvest the low hanging fruit, based on a pseudo-genetic argument the wealthy parents are smarter, and kids they have will be, so private school them, and public school teachers take what they get, skill and insight capability varying. There are religious schools and Niska and his voucher liking is grounded in that, he went to one, his kids go to the same one, and his spouse Jen at one point chaired the managing board of that one. It seems to be a shaping experience, that kind of private school where you pay for it for your children, or you jigger up vouchers so that the public pays for private schooling. Back to Minnreformer -
Asked whether she would continue Minnesota’s free school meals program passed during the Democratic-Farmer-Labor trifecta in 2023, Demuth said children from wealthy families shouldn’t be eligible.
“When a family is making six- and sometimes seven-figure incomes, their kids do not need free meals,” Demuth said.
Means testing where six figures these inflationary Trump days is not that big a thing as it was - and you do means testing and what, some kids get meal vouchers, some don't and you have administering costs.
Demuth said as governor she would opt into more federal education funding, like the new $1,700 tax credit for taxpayers who donate to scholarship-granting organizations. The tax credit was passed last year in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it allows nonprofits to use the money donated to offer scholarships for public or private school programs.
Crabgrass did search = big beautiful bill $1700 tax credit is just vouchers tarted up
Surprisingly, my doing that search - biased in its phrasing - and under my generic profiling got top three hits
Democrats try to repeal tax credit from 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Private schools have benefited from vouchers. Now public schools aim to cash in
10 things to know about Trump’s new school voucher program
Under my profiling alone, search = $1700 tax credit voucher
returned top three
The $1,700 Loophole: How the New Federal School Choice Tax Credit Lowers Private Tuition Bills Fact Sheet: President Trump Delivers Affordable School Choice Options
Through Education Freedom Tax Credit (a federal executive branch item)
Crabgrass views any film-flam or direct rerouting of tax money (or provision of biased tax credits) which down funds public education as a burden on some to finance arbitrary depletion of public education money to elsewhere and hence a bad thing. Clearly, opinions vary. Minnreformer continues -
The Minnesota Department of Education has said the tax credit, which is a circuitous form of a private school voucher program long championed by conservative activists, would disproportionately help wealthier Minnesotans.
Demuth’s education plan also says she will remove “‘woke’ standards adopted by the Walz status quo.” Asked what standards the plan refers to, Demuth said her administration will do an evaluation of the state’s education mandates and remove standards that “are pushing our kids away from the basics of reading, math and science.”
Is that side stepping the question, or what?
Demuth’s plan also includes changes to the state’s teacher licensing board to ensure the board is working to “prepare the next generation of workers and not the next generation of activists,” referring to conservative assertions that the schools are being used to indoctrinate Minnesota students in progressive politics.
That's just pure horseshitting and telling something, by her characterization.
So, the opening image, Demuth and Niska together, fits their congruent voucher outlook. Crabgrass has no knowledge of Demuth's offspring, if any, and how their schooling was, but she had a decade on the school board, so public schooling is most likely. Readers can search out the question. Niska, a private religion based school for the kids and spouse a part of running the adventure.
https://educationminnesota.org/ is worthwhile. Professionals with experience - and the idea you'd not want brain surgery done by auto mechanics, nor auto repair by cardiologists - matters.
UPDATE: Demuth wants safe schools. Does she think Klobucher wants unsafe ones? That's not worth even saying, as a given of politics. Safe home, safe streets, safe schools, safe supermarkets, safe sex.
Why say it into the item more than once?? Safe schools can be via National Guard permanant 1:1 guardsman to student ratios, or by some lesser, ideally specified, measures.
As to specificity, Demuth is specific about the $1700 voucher plan, and little else. D-
Not that Klobuchar would score highter on any realistic specificity scoring range.
All I really know about current events and moves is from reading Internet text and watching Internet video. What of the vast content you select will bias what you know and think? So, do the periodic check on ZeroHedge, and include a look at sidebar listed other sites.
https://www.youtube.com/@misesmedia
We kind of know vaguely what to expect from
Breaking Bessent
We learn that three pundits are better than one, since a conversation seems more popular than a lecture.
Also, facial hair is now accepted on a wide scale.
What interests from that 3/4 hr item, criticism without answers begs the question of what the answer could be to a bollixed situation. An interesting "interest" opening discussion, bond yields, all that.
An interesting side effect of going to that item, the YouTube rec. list goes in a direction that is uncommon for it, at Crabgrass, given Google profiling algorithms and wisdom.
The item linked above was reached when ZeroHedge came to mind, somehow, from AJ early morning reading, BRICS summit 2026: What are the key takeaways?
That brought to mind the BRICS effort to distance a bit from IMF and U.S./Europe banking hegemony, and a search = brics alternative to world bank
Try that. The return list seemed to suggest that the distancing from Western banking policy and norms is not really showing traction, with 2014 mentioned as the BRICS start of that alternative banking policy.
While thinking in that direction ZeroHedge came to mind, one item there being "China's 70% EV Target Deals Another Blow To Oil Demand."
Then, the sidebar links ZeroHedg offered, one other looked at, https://www.christophe-barraud.com/blog/
In closing, none of the things explored say whatever, and what they say is their's, not Crabgrass's.
But seeing "Econ-thought" where the offered check-this-next recommender system output drifts from the normal profiled stuff - that is interesting to see, as a pathological look at profile channeling as done by Silicon guru lists of "have a look here." It seems a web exists which channels an awful lot, and each of us should try to jiggle the profile every so often to not be in the regular wagon rut return protocol.
Saturday, September 12, 2026
This was forwarded to me, an email from Tom Emmer. There is the notion of a lie by half-truth. This Emmer email is the "Poster Child" of such a thing. In fact, call it quarter truth, or even 5% truth, because of what Emmer wrote, and what the actual situation is.
Start with the key evicence, what Emmer wrote, full text, no text added, no text left out (images omitted):
Dear Friend,
In the last months of Tim Walz’s failed tenure as governor, he can’t help himself from staging a few more politically motivated stunts. Recently, he signed an executive order to ban mining in Northern Minnesota, which is detrimental to our state’s economy, the Minnesotans who have relied on mining as their livelihood for generations, and our country’s national security.
Mining is the backbone of Northern Minnesota. It creates union jobs, brings billions of dollars of investment back to our state, and aids the nation’s efforts to end our dependence on China, which is crucial to national security. Walz’s ban defies common sense, as it would send more of the mining industry to countries like China and Russia who simply do not care about their environmental impact. Meanwhile, the United States has the most stringent environmental laws in the world, and our domestic mining projects are done responsibly.
This week in Washington, we passed the Protecting Domestic Mining Act, which would provide a streamlined, targeted, and clear-cut permitting process. This legislation strengthens our country’s mineral production and supply and reduces our reliance on foreign adversaries for these critical minerals. Bringing mining back to Northern Minnesota will not only boost Minnesota’s economy, it will provide good-paying jobs for hundreds of Minnesotans.
In Northern Minnesota, mining is a way of life – but Governor Walz continually fails to recognize the interests of our state as a whole. In his mind, “One Minnesota” really means “One Downtown Minneapolis.” His policies only prioritize the most Far-Left extremes of the political spectrum, and Northern Minnesotans deserve better.
I have always supported the mining industry in the great state of Minnesota, and will continue to do so. It is disheartening to have mining consistently under attack from so-called leaders like Governor Walz. The days of the Radical Left handcuffing our state's mining industry are OVER.
Sincerely,
/s/
"Sincerely," but * * * with a bit of slight of hand non-mention of the sole key fact at issue.
Start with a few facts. Taconite is an iron ore, and its mining has been a profit making venture for mining companies in Minnesota for many decades, and a source, the major source at a guess, of employment income to the great majority of Minnesota's "Iron Range" families.
Indeed, Taconite has been continuously mined in Minnesota. yielding profits and jobs, for more than at least half a century, and while the State government and regulators have had a generally favorable outlook toward Taconite mining ventures, they have not been without problems needed to be fixed.
Yet, the problems have not stopped the mining. But over time some grotesque offenses of the mining firms' penny pinching to maximize shareholder rapacious gain-lust have been curbed in the public interest, without coming near to killing the cash cow. The cash cow today is prospering and yielding needed tax income to the state.
See: e.g., Reserve Mining Co. v. Herbst, 256 NW 2d 808 (Minn 1977) for the landmark example of a taconite firm having to have a practice curbed, i.e., dumping asbestos laden mine tailings into Lake Superior. Once stopped, the industry came up with other ways of tailings disposal. Still profitable, but more restrained in terms of public harm.
THE KEY FACT EMMER OMITS
Emmer wrote, "Recently, he [Gov.Walz] signed an executive order to ban mining in Northern Minnesota, which is detrimental to our state’s economy, the Minnesotans who have relied on mining as their livelihood for generations, and our country’s national security. [...]"
Taconite mining, absolutely unaffected by the Walz order.
A never before done in Minnesota copper/nickle mining proposal was curbed, where the public harm and foreseeable dangers were/are magnitudes greater because of sulfide ores being involved, resulting is acidity and heavy metal releases to the watershed housing the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and constrained by treaty with tribes holding by treaty the right to ongoing wild rice harvesting from the wetlands of the watershed, where poisoning the water moots any rights to aquaculture use.
Do note, the word "sulfide" is nowhere in the Emmer missive.
At risk, the integrity of the pristine waters of the country's most visited of our National Parks, and the income of the extended wilderness outfitter trade community which has arisen from the worldwide popularity of the motor-free canoe waters.
Walz correctly determined the mining firms did not need to put the public interest at risk on any accelerated time frame, and his banning order was time restrained so that Minnesota's next governor, with her own senior regulatory staffing in place, could process the question without stress or rush or decisional bias history had Walz acted beyond a postponement, a temporal step only, rather than making some substantive situational choice that might hinder in any way his successor.
(Her being the pronoun because both Parties have women on the November ballot for Governor).
So, what Walz did was eminently reasonable, restrained beyond fault when all is known, so that a slant obscuring all that should be mentioned might confuse and mislead Emmer's readers.
Now, did Emmer tell a structured but partial story because he's too stupid to understand the total situation, and he did not know better, or was some other factor at play?
Bottom line: He is stupid, but not not that stupid!
So go figure. A con by the U.S. House Whip, because he sees the nation's Commander in Chief getting away with shit, and so why not emulate? Could it be?
Or is there some third explanation besides stupid or deliberate con?
Readers, figure it out. It's not as if it's a complicated situation. It's pretty clear.
UPDATE: Related items, here, here and here. Try search = sulfide copper mine tailings storage failures worldwide
Friday, September 11, 2026
AJ has a retrospective upon this 25th anniversary of the downing of the twin towers and building 7.
"War on Terror" was as likely an invented name of the Vice President, Cheney, as being first thought up by W bush.
They were strong-minded graceless people, and in Trump - JD - Hegseth times we can forget that things were very bad earlier.
Aside from death and suffering, what did "War on Terror" result in? Anything good?
Anything bad being prevented? Keeping the Saudi royals in power, or did they do that themselves, bone saw and all? The death toll when the towers collapsed into their footprints seems due to faulty evacuation orders, faulty communication, more than other factors.
At any rate, 25 years ago today, the Twin Towers and Building 7 were brought down in one day.
Then there was the very supervised sorting through and removing the rubble. Security was said to be tight.
In a total long term analysis, War on Terror was not a helpful thing for the world. Or it seems that way, and the U.S. Intelligence machine has not told us much in favor of it that Crabgrass has seen.
Twenty five years later, Iran is surviving U.S. military pressure, some say winning.
We have had unimpressive administrations over that 25 year span. Oil, a lot pumped in 25 years, but in what seems sane thinking, renewables and checking global warming seem sound goals.
W bush said, "We have to win every time, the terrorists only have to win once." WTF does that mean? What has history shown true? Do we miss not having Cheney with us still? Are we better without him?
UPDATE: My 9/11 memorial search today = 9/11 coverage tucker carlson
Readers can try that one, or one of their own making. Not that Crabgrass followed up on any search returns in detail. It was more seeing what the search return list looked like. Which media outlets were in the top returns.
Official versions since Kennedy require belief of credibility and dismissal of cause to doubt or question. Not that they are wrong, that's an unknown, but they require a will to believe and a want to believe.
If JFK was not a lone gunman story, etc. If claims are made of thermite residue showing up after the twin towers and building7 fell, what does Crabgrass know and have access to, beyond official stories and things others publish suggesting cover-up, where who can prove what remains murky.
We do know LBJ became President after JFK's murder, that he covered up the attack on the Liberty, and that minority civil rights were advanced under LBJ. And VietNam did not end until Nixon. And that since that period we have had an all volunteer standing army, warring against terror. No forced enlistments.
But, bottom line, so what? How will history see things two hundred years from now, including in light of intervening events now to then? If the earth makes it that long without nuclear winter killoff, etc.
Of interest, Blogger spell check did not have thermite in its reach, suggesting termite instead.
End of meanderings for today. One post today, This one.
FURTHER UPDATE: https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/09/10/repub/how-9-11-changed-the-way-america-surveils-its-citizens/ -- Not news. We all know that. And accept it anyway. How it is.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
As noted in an earlier Crabgrass post, Timmer has been writing of Repub candidate Demuth.
The earlier Timmer post is here, his new item links to it. The Crabgrass notice coverage, here. The UPDATE part of the Crabgrass item is the part about Timmer's earlier post.
Timmer now writes -
Even Claude recognizes Lisa’s bullshit
In the item Timmer quereys Claude about detail of immigrant gang and crime as part of the waves that happened, and he extols the AI as good at list generation, see that link and its detail.
Bottom line - Somali immigrants are recent and seen as discordant by those not attuned to immigration history Timmer discusses. It is a good read.
Another item Timmer posts is per its opening executive summary paragraph -
There was a spirited discussion last evening on X about the Hennepin County Attorney race. I am very pro-Cedrick Fraizer; there were others in the discussion who were pro-Folk, some of them rather spittle-flecked. Now Tommy wasn’t spittle-flecked; he’s a friend. I am going to pick out one of his
tweetsposts, though, to get this story going [...]
Being ignorant of candidates and issues there, I leave the link and tout it as Timmer always writes well.
All politics is local, and Crabgrass has posted its own very local news on occasion. You have to. It matters. Of the most general interest, the two Timmer items about Demuth.
There is promising. There is delivering. It being Sept. 10, an aniversary and knowing what of, a trip to Breitbart land.
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, broadcasts coast to coast on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on the Salem Radio Network stations. You can listen to the radio show online here. The show also airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel. Marlow’s podcast, The Alex Marlow Show Presented by Breitbart News, is released weekdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. You can subscribe ---
or not.
The headline with that above footer and a bit of the text -
Exclusive — Blake Neff on Alex Marlow Show: Charlie Kirk Was ‘Special’ as He Tried to Implement Solutions
Marlow spoke to Neff as part of his series of speaking with people who were close to Kirk one year after his devastating assassination. Marlow noted that Neff has an interesting story, as he was canceled from his job at Fox News when old anonymous online posts resurfaced. But Kirk quickly elevated him.
“I would say it was – it’s just that three years of working with him, it was just a steadily escalating process of admiring him more and more, seeing all the different ways he was a tremendous person for our country, for our movement, and that he was a consistently growing person,” Neff said. “He was always someone looking to become better, and I think that’s what really struck me in as we got into 2025.”
“Just seeing this is a guy who — he was a profoundly talented person when I first started working for him, but he’d become so much better at podcasting, at speaking, at organizing, at leading a movement of people, and he just endlessly impressed me. And as we hit this one year mark, it still hurts; not just knowing that I lost a great friend and a great boss, but that we lost this great leader and a person who was only reaching the peak of his — who hadn’t yet reached the peak of his tremendous potential,” Neff said, discussing all that Kirk did for him and the movement.
As if the Neff guy would lick the bottom of Charlie's boots. But it was not only just Charlie being Charlie, the Great. There is more to say -
“I took a lot of pride that in ’23 and ’24, when he’s building out Turning Point Action’s ballot chasing operation, when he’s making the pitch to donors, when he’s making the pitch at events why people should vote early, he was using — he was proud to use talking points that I’d hashed with him, and then that won people over, and we saw the result in ’24,” Neff said, noting that Kirk was “very proud that of all the swing states, Arizona, the one he put the most work into, that they built the most operation in, that was the one that moved the most towards President Trump.”
“I think seven or eight points when the nation moved three or four, and I was very glad that I could play a role with him on that, on messaging about the border and immigration, about DEI, so many things,” Neff said.
Jeez, dancing my dance, on Charlie's grave. Sad stuff. And they could not stop there. Headline another.
“I think those people have lost power,” Marlow said of conspiracy theorists. “But it happened, and it’s still happening.”
“As we’re having this conversation, we’re watching a huge chunk of the country run to the defense of a woman who we know slaughtered her children,” Marlow added, referring to the Lindsay Clancy case. “It is very dark, and I just wonder if something snapped in this country.”
The Breitbart News editor-in-chief then asked Kolvet for his take on the way society has behaved in the aftermath of Charlie’s assassination.
“I do believe that we are, as a culture, experiencing some amount of a mass psychosis event,” Kolvet replied. “It’s the crime junkie culture. It’s the TikTok brain. It’s the therapy brain.”
“And I love that you said they’ve lost power,” he continued. “Because I think what people are realizing over time is the lines get clearly drawn.”
“At the very beginning, in the immediate aftermath, I was skeptical of everything,” Kolvet said. “I wanted every lead down — but, eventually, you kind of have to get to the point where, ‘Hey, I have no evidence for any of those things.'”
After being asked to share something from Robinson’s trial that he feels “is not coming through” and that he would want people to understand, Kolvet replied, “I was in the courtroom for the bind-over hearing and it was remarkable being in that room and seeing the process of the legal system play out and feeling the emotions.”
“You can feel the energy of both the state and the defense counsel — the energy of his family, Tyler Robinson’s family. You can feel the energy of Erika and her family,” he added. “And it’s wild when you’re in that room how all that conspiracy nonsense just fades away.”
“It has zero credibility. It has zero currency in that room,” Kolvet asserted. “You have to be based in facts and logic. And that was something that struck me — when you’re in that room, you realize that you’re hemmed in by the process of justice.”
The Turning Point USA spokesperson added, “When you just put it all together, it’s really one of the more remarkable open-and-shut cases,” before revealing that many prosecutors, trial attorneys, and judges have reached out to him to say “this is the most open-and-shut case that they have ever seen just in terms of sheer amount of evidence.”
Kolvet also said he “wasn’t surprised” when Judge Tony Graf ruled last week that Robinson can stand trial for aggravated murder and six other charges.
Robinson, who could face the death penalty if convicted, will appear for a court hearing again on October 23, at which point a trial date is expected to be set.
In responding to conspiracy theorists having noted that Robinson pled not guilty, Kolvet explained that the defense attorneys’ “one goal in all of this” is to “keep the death penalty off the table.”
“The state’s not offering them a deal. They want to go for the death penalty,” he said. “You would never plead guilty if there wasn’t a deal on the table. And the state’s not offering one.”
“So, the only way you can get him off death row is you got to take this thing to trial and try and whittle away a jury’s perception of the aggravating factors,” Kolvet added. “Him pleading not guilty was a procedural move that keeps his leverage to get him off death row. That’s all it was.”
Near the end of their talk, Marlow praised Kolvet and others on staff for continuing on with The Charlie Kirk Show, stressing, “This is how you keep Charlie’s voice alive.”
“A lot of people thought that after Andrew Breitbart died, we should shut down breitbart.com. How do you think Andrew would be feeling now, knowing what Breitbart accomplished?” Marlow asked, to which Kolvet replied, “He would be really proud of you guys.”
Yes. We could have shut it down but there was money on the table, etc. Just like when Andrew died, money on the table is money on the table and you do not just walk. You take.
And on the anniversary, That Tyler guy did it, nothing else to see. Convincing, isn't it? Almost a too easy buy.
UPDATE: Mourning Charlie Day is not the only news at Breitbart. There is this -
The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) was first proposed by Durbin and Marshall in 2022 before they reintroduced it in January, arguing that it would “increase competition in the credit card market and put an end to the Visa-Mastercard duopoly.” Originally, the legislation was cosponsored by then-Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Jack Reed (D-RI).
Under the current system, merchants who accept credit cards get locked into whatever payment system that card runs on, and pays whatever fee that network charges. Visa and Mastercard dominate over 80 percent of the market.
If passed, the CCCA would require banks with more than $100 billion in assets to offer merchants a choice of at least two networks over which a credit transaction can be processed, including one that is neither Mastercard nor Visa.
While proponents argue that the legislation would benefit merchants by lowering operational costs associated with accepting Visa or Mastercard so they could pass on those savings to consumers, opponents of the bill say that those stores will just keep those savings for themselves, and that credit cards companies may take away rewards to make up for their lost revenue.
On top of that, critics of the CCCA have also raised concerns about security risks that consumers could face if merchants use cheaper payment systems.
Okay, let's see the spin on that one.
Speaking with Breitbart News economy columnist John Carney during a Tuesday policy event in Washington, D.C. with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Simpson highlighted vulnerabilities in payment systems that could harm consumers as a result of the bill.
“A lot of people are worried about fraud and cybersecurity, and this could impact the ability of issuers to be able to, especially I think credit unions, but all issuers to be able to deal with fraud and cybersecurity,” Carney said
Simpson replied, “Yeah, that’s what the interchange system is built for — is to establish contracts with the American consumers and reliable protection. Well, that protection comes at the expense of the issuer”
“We look at the biggest data breaches in the history of our country and they tend to come from retailers because they don’t have incentives,” Simpson continued. “They’re not incentivized by the system to protect that data, and so it gives us zero confidence as issuers.”
Hundred billion dollar banks cannot put an alternate secure system together so let's just status quo things? That is kind of like Tom Emmer saying the banking system is insecure and fraught with threats and risk, so crypto is the answer. Not a CBDC. Put it, at least a portfolio part, in crypto.
Emmer in turn rings as true as having credit card profiteer employed folks defend the bona fides of credit card giants, to help and protect you. To keep you secure, always with your best interest in mind. The higher that interest, the better.
And -- Isn't it interesting how Brietbart can get all those excusives? They do wonderful work. Full of wondering. Enough, but if you go to their site, Southcom blew up another Caribbean fishing boat. That's how many now. Excuse, it was a high performance boat on a drug smuggling route. They tell you so. My error.
BRICS op-ed in AJ
Beginning:
Western commentary has already filed the summit under photo opportunity, a bloc too broad to agree on anything. That reading skips an awkward fact about the past six months. Every ceasefire this war has produced was assembled by BRICS members and their partners. Not one was assembled in Washington.
Look at the sequence. On March 31, Beijing and Islamabad issued a five-point initiative calling for an immediate ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. A week later, Iran accepted a two-week truce. Direct American and Iranian delegations then sat down in Islamabad on April 11, the highest-level contact of the war, in talks run by Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif, with his army chief Asim Munir shuttling to Tehran twice. What came out of it was the Islamabad Memorandum, signed on June 17 by Trump at Versailles and Pezeshkian in Tehran, with Qatar, Oman, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt carrying pieces of it. Fourteen points. Sixty days of toll-free passage. A pledge to lift the naval blockade within 30 days. A plan for at least $300 billion in reconstruction and economic development. It expired on August 17 after the two sides read Articles 1 and 5 differently and no mediator could force a common text.
The document failed. The machinery that built it did not. It is the only machinery this war has produced and most of it will be inside one building in Delhi on September 12.
China’s share of that record deserves more than the shrug it usually gets. Beijing buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s exported crude. It also buys heavily from the Gulf states Iran has been shelling and its Gulf imports fell 25 percent year on year in March. No other major power is losing money on both sides of this war at once. That exposure is what made its proposals legible in Tehran and tolerable in Abu Dhabi.
None of which makes Beijing clean. Chinese firms have supplied Iran with dual-use components, radar and navigation equipment, and a commercial reconnaissance satellite; Washington says the list runs longer and Beijing denies the sharper items.
Like it or love it, that kind of coverage is absent in NYT or WaPo, which are more North American slanted in choice of "news" vs what to not even publish. Parochial, is perhaps the term?
What has Trump promised? To loud applause and chants of “USA, USA”, he said: “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” as long as the Republican Party keeps its majorities in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate. “If the Republicans win, you win with us,” he declared. Trump did not elaborate on how or when the payments would be made – or how they would be funded – stipulating only that people would be required to spend it in the US. “We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money.”
The man can grift, if that's a proper verb for a grifter. The purpose of the post is the explain why AJ is a fovored site of Crabgrass for "news." Where the word news is substituted for good stories about people and places for which Crabgrass has no direct experience.
The headline is from AJ's story featuring the earlier posted video (from YouTube there), of the five grand big lie. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/10/trump-promises-5000-payouts-if-gop-wins-midterms-can-the-us-afford-it
There are AJ short video segments: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/9/10/calls-grow-for-investigation-after-ice-attacks-protesters#flips-6404869988112:0 That is similar to TikTok for adult news junkies. As best as Crabgrass understands TikTok, not being a fan.
How Ukraine’s deepest attack in Russia, on Arctic gas, signals new reach tells you a story about Russia at war with Ukraine, a strung out thing being reported, but where we take the pundit word on things because of no direct knowledge.
Houthis, Yemeni forces engaged in fierce battles: Why each front matters together with Houthis capture Yemeni town of Mocha: Why it matters tell you what is going on and why you a world away should know of it.
Algeria says cutting diplomatic ties with UAE -- Relations have been strained for years, as the two countries took differing positions on several regional issues. That tells you something most people worldwhide had not known of, a tension between two nations distanced from each other but viewed by AJ as having "regional issues." Meaning, within the greater Arab world, issues, which AJ then explains.
That is a sampling of today's AJ content. How can you not find it a top site? It tells good stories, and seems credible in the telling. Finally, how can you not like a site posting:
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| LINK - click image to enlarge and read |
Fitting image selection.
After posting as below, it seemed appropriate to tell the search engine: show me something interesting
After futzing a bit with returns, I got this which to me is interesting.
Besides the music being good for state of mind, it amazed me, having finger limitations with touch typing on a laptop. The video does upstage my typing. I am not too proud to deny that.
This morning, after coffee, a question, we have a Web, so what on it is real and what is speaking to us on a level of unreality, slanted, or are we really this bad off?
Start with an image, from the web, with its attached but here unstated context. It's multisourced, but I give where I got it.
 |
| https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/DJA2QTUDZNG2XBIQGB6DJDQWMA.jpg?&w=1080 |
I believe this is fair use, since it is used only to begin and anchor a general post about "Is this real?"
Two heads of state looking as if normally conversant, while insanity is afoot between the two nations.
The unreality begins with the kitsch gold trim, and the unburned wood in the fireplace, there, likely, since Trump 45, unburned. The 747 coffee table trinket, and then the one Qatar supplied, huh?
Now, video on the web, sampled not randomly, but to show a ghost of uncertainty, "Is this real?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs6K_SYCRi0 - AJ video, but the Dallas -it really happened - story widespread. Seeing is believing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRHqRWINWFQ - technocrat conversation over aspects of a part of technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEQZo27IGHU - this one I watched several seconds and wondered why anyone would view more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGNvSK6vSxk - politician politicking, again only tuned in the first half minute of so, then - okay, get it, you are the loyal opposition, and who might care?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdTR2tmU1aY - once you see enough of HCR you get the drift about what the next one might say, and her video - each seems longer than necessary. Better than most, for certain, but still needing to be in the sampling to establish hints of reality or hints of the other possibiliity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApHPZPBdKE0 - one I watched longer before including it in this post because Musk is an interesting subject, and the documentary film form is clearly opinionated, almost always if not totally so, and you need to get enough to be able to guess about how the documentary will be scripted and put together to tell IT'S story, which will be unique, and subjective. I mentioned Leni Riefenstahl in another post, and she's known for the intended story style of documentary. Not even the slowest mind would fail to see intent, and question to her stuff.
That is the sample. WTF is real and worth attention these days when the web, years and years ago, was termed a vast ocean, one inch thick.
What of rational judgment, in the web world? What of level civility, on a yes/no basis more oftent, content wise, than a matter of degree. The screed below this one, then this item, together suggest morning coffee is a leavening thing. That's not an apology for the screed below this item. An explanation perhaps, but the below three or four posts show a personal flaw, possibly that, of intolerance of stupidity and false posturing, where the wonder and scorn is in, "Is this for real? Are these thing not deliberate shows of disdain for our opinions and sensibility. Deliberate provocations, because if not that, how can these peope be so - tainted.
And the above is posted first draft, typos and all, if any, not proofread for any purpose. Raw that way.
Crabgrass is but a web voice, that being worth mentioning, although obvious in context.
The "This bother me" post update below being perhaps too judgmental. But sincere.
That is said as a prelude to --- I cannot state too strongly how I hope Doug Chapin wins the upcoming vote for Minnesots Sixth District House Rep, given Tom Emmer, and his faults.
It is a mini-situation of Western Culture historically intact vs something else, disliked. That being a subjective thing where votes could disappoint.
UPDATE: After completing the above I checked Google Analytics to find, ignoring absolute numbers, that people from four nations other that the U.S. were hitting the blog in numbers above U.S hits. That is posted wholly as a fact, without any interpretation placed to it. Readers, your attention is appreciated.
Trump is being a real pig toward Canada. I hope the Canadians hand him his ass.
The headline captures the opinion. More is not needed. The whole world is watching.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
This bothers me. To the point of posting. Warror Ethos? A pledge of a sort? Or plain thoughtlessness in sartorial dishonoring of the US of A national flag? [UPDATED]
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| https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hegseth-military-testosterone-guidelines-b3044150.html |
Warfighter, whatever; you simply do not wear the flag, or an image or mock-up of it, where you'd fart through it.
Betsey Ross would shit a brick if seeing it, and would tell Hegseth it is quite disrespectful.
And she sewed the first one. As a banner, not as some clown's underpants.
UPDATE: People pledge allegiance to it. Not to the ass of one wearing it. (Contrary to what Hegseth wants and expects.)
The flag, some even kiss it.
___________________UPDATE__________________
Crabgrass is no bastion of flag worship. Hyper flag passion, that was was the Nazi passion for their beloved bedeviling swastica cross. It made them worse than if absent.
Ultra nationalism is a bad thing. That simple. Judgment based on truth is better.
The nettleing part of Hegseth is he is quintisential flag rabid. And he should get a life, instead.
Trump, that video start, hug and kiss phony as it can get. A "fuck you" to the entire world besides himself and kin. The man does not have to be a but wants to be. Loves being one.
Sick is the only real thing to say. Trump in his way, Hegseth in his, both pathological cases without any real hope beyond making it to Jan 20, 2029, after the other nothong-special party has by vote taken back the White House from pathology rampant to pathology with common sense. Not to put much hope into the Democrats, they deserve pure and lasting skepticism when Hakim meets with Jarad to explore common ground, but one boot might weigh less on the throat. Something like that. At its worst prospects.
Given the state of the U.S. of A. nation, right now, today; what else is sane but saying, "Wait it out," because what else is there? Meanwhile, the remainder of the world can adapt, BRICS gaining esteem, as Trump toilets the North American nation some folks voted for, and will suffer from. While a nore northern North American nation is at least half sane.
How things are does not equal how things might be best.
Indeed, forget best. Better at this point would be good enough. Iranians likely agree.
Another cup of coffee this morning, and there might be less bleakness, but for now, calling it discouraging is wrong because courage is needed just to see it through. These people are big-time sick.
(It was written fast and with misspellings. The misspelling has been seen and fixed. The mood shows through even with a hand at spelling things, typing things, more cleanly.)
If this srceed turns off some readers, watch out for the doorknob, is a figure of speech. Track down Tecker or Joe Rogan or somebody. Crabgrass is on the warpath, at least until the November vote.
That vote, which Trump cannot pervert via the postal employees being hammered into spiteful meanness, will turn out to be decisive of something, and a fear is it will be evil in outcome when it should not be.
Trump wants a balcony. Style different than the big M, but intent no different.
Trump wants his Leni Riefenstahl. Ain't gonna have one. Leni was special to her task, and Trump himself is undeserving of any cosmetic super-platitude film-making..Just hope he is limited in his evil aspects.
The most frightening thing. He could be worse. He could be smart, too. On top of the rest. He could be JD. Where the Amendment is there but JD will for the rest of his time never use it. Because he is limited that way.
Trump has no Speer. His changes to DC might be even more offensive if he had one, but no, his architectural record will be simply mediocre. Not with magnitude. Simple and stupid instead.
Time to end the post. Shut it down as enough has been written for people to consider.
He and his Space Force uniforms will be their historical lesson. It is strange living through that, but old age is helpful. The young, seeing it, must be horrified. I'd be if young and confronted with Trumpdom.
Canada under siege is at least sane and apparently resolute. An understatement: Leadership matters.
UPDATE: What did I miss?
FURTHER: This is Hegsethian, just it was before he was born. But the flag. Flags. Marching in step and flags. Kim in North Korea is today's parade master. It's not Carnival in Brazil. It's as scripted as a five thousand dollar dividend promise. Try taking your flag, or a Trump promise to the bank.
Salon: "With this in mind, the underlying question raised by the Space Force’s uniforms is whether Trump was tying the military branch he created to the Nazis by accident or on purpose. An intentional allusion wouldn’t be unprecedented for the administration."
The headline is a sidebar blurb from here.
Space Force’s new uniforms scream fascist supervillain
The “Starship Troopers”-inspired designs take cinematic nods to Nazis and make them real
While the dress blacks looked suspiciously close to uniforms worn by Adolf Hitler’s SS, explanatory text that accompanied the mock-up made the Verhoeven homage explicit. If “Starship Troopers” was just the sci-fi schlock many contemporary critics took it to be, this wouldn’t be a big deal. Trump loves campy things, after all, and his administration has bent pop culture to fit their agenda many times over, unmoved by how often the creators ask them to stop.
But Verhoeven’s Hollywood films are all satires of one aspect of American life or another. “RoboCop” took on Ronald Reagan’s hyperpolicing of urban areas when it was released in 1987. Eight years later, “Showgirls” poked fun at the entertainment industry and America’s cultural prudishness. “Starship Troopers” was the Dutch director’s joke about how quickly the U.S. could slide into unwitting fascism, using author Robert Heinlein’s unironic authoritarian bent as the set-up to his punchline.
[...]
“I don’t know whether or not the actors realised — we never discussed it,” Verhoeven said of playing his propaganda relentlessly straight. “I thought Neil Patrick Harris arriving on the set in an SS uniform might clear it up.”
With this in mind, the underlying question raised by the Space Force’s uniforms is whether Trump was tying the military branch he created to the Nazis by accident or on purpose. An intentional allusion wouldn’t be unprecedented for the administration. In 2025, Trump shared explicit fascist agitprop that accompanied a Washington Times op-ed about military recruitment in his second term and a shift away from messages of inclusivity. The header image was an upside-down pink triangle surrounded by a red “no” symbol. The upside-down triangle was used to identify gay men in Nazi concentration camps.
[...] The “fashwave” aesthetics of the online right and sloganeering around reclaiming “the homeland,” a term used to great propaganda effect by the Nazis, have regularly appeared in posts from the Homeland Security and Labor departments.
The commander in chief's own post of "spiffy" to him is:
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| https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117225350305412391 |
As a thought experiment, that uniform, picture it in your mind on Trump.
With that image in mind, Hegseth might want to give the commander in chief a body mass index calculator test. To check his BMI level, since he's over 30 - but is he combat ready? Not that he'd need any body mass supplementation.
UPDATE: Hegseth in that Space Force uniform, is not hard to imagine. But hair like his just does not look Middle East combat ready. It looks like a dust or sandstorm magnet. Hegseth, if he shaved his head, you'd think he's Joe Rogan with some facial differences.
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
Oct 7 - What did Netanyahu know and when did he know it? This relates to conjecture that Israel's government let it happen as excuse to then methodically ethnically cleanse Gaza.
"Methodically" is a Crabgrass judgment of the aftermath after Hamas attacked on Oct 7.
https://www.facebook.com/teresita.cuentacuentos/videos/this-video-of-charlie-kirk-saying-that-netanyahu-let-oct-7-happen-so-he-could-st/1328698881968341/ --- Charlie Kirk video online several places
That Charlie Kirk speculation has been around since the day of or day after Oct 7 happened. Or within days.
Now- Sept. 8, 2026 - TOI
Also, HAARETZ, Sept 8 -- one TOI report linked to this as originating source
Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn't Brief Israel's Security Chiefs
In September '23, UAE President bin Zayed called Netanyahu to deliver a harsh warning. Netanyahu did nothing. An extensive investigation, conducted for a new book, reveals the PM's failures surrounding Oct. 7. Netanyahu: 'This is an absolute lie'
These were the final days of September 2023. Terrorist attacks inflamed the West Bank, masses of Gazans regularly protested at the border fence, and the country was reeling from internal conflict over the judicial coup laws. Anyone watching the events with clear eyes could sense that an escalation was lurking around every corner.
Investigations and reporting that change the story
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Yes, the paywall cuts off the main text. But how about what's not paywalled?
With the Israeli election upcoming, that old nagging question gets asked again. It, like Epstein, will just not die. Bibi is the sort where such questioning cannot be easily dismissed (contra to how Charlie got easily dismissed). Haaretz is a more left oriented Israeli outlet, i.e., not shining love on Bibi.
It would be nice if the paywall were not there because Crabgrass knows of no more progressive Israeli site than Haaretz. Indeed, no other english language Israeli site known to Crabgrass even comes close.
UPDATE: One TOI item, the first linked to above provides a lengthy report of Haaretz contents, and context -
Days before Oct. 7, UAE leader warned Netanyahu Hamas was planning war, but PM did nothing with the info – report
In month before massacre, Sinwar said to convey message via UAE he was ready to launch ‘earthquake’ amid moribund talks with Israel, PM didn’t inform Shin Bet of Emirati president’s warning; Bennett: Report is true
[... image omitted here and elsewhere in excerpting]
Some 10 days before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned by the leader of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive move against Israel, but did not update Israeli security leaders and did nothing with the information, according to a report on Tuesday.
The Haaretz newspaper report cited a new book, “Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment,” by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, based on interviews with dozens of sources including senior officials in Israel and around the world. It said three senior foreign officials were updated on the contents of the 45-minute phone call at the end of September, and it cited a Palestinian adviser to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed who emigrated from Gaza to the UAE and had direct knowledge of the conversation.
It said Mohammed bin Zayed (known as MBZ) warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning major action against Israel that would lead to bloodshed, unsettle the region and potentially harm the Abraham Accords.
[...]
The Haaretz report said MBZ’s awareness of a Hamas threat had come from Sinwar himself, who in mid-2023 was frustrated by the lack of progress in negotiations for a Palestinian prisoner release deal with Israel.
The contacts for a potential agreement began in 2023. A senior Fatah interlocutor referred to as “Coal Eyes” would exchange messages with Sinwar representative Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas politburo member fluent in Hebrew, so that it would seem that there was no direct contact between Israel and the terror group, Haaretz said.
In reality, conversations, focused on easing the blockade on Gaza and improving conditions in Strip, were “virtually direct.” Hamad and Coal Eyes would sit in a former Palestinian Authority official’s home in Gaza, with a Shin Bet official phoning in.
Hamas at the time held Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who had wandered into Gaza of their own accord, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.
According to Haaretz, a deal was on the verge of completion by the summer of 2023. After backing away from a demand that 500 prisoners be released in exchange for hostages, Sinwar was willing to accept the release of 50, while the Shin Bet was leaning toward accepting the release of 30, 20 of them serving life sentences, which Netanyahu approved.
The report said a Hamas official involved in the talks said Coal Eyes would emerge optimistically from meetings.
However, the prime minister repeatedly delayed convening the ministerial committee for hostages and missing persons, which needed to approve the release of prisoners, according to an Israeli security source.
Haaretz suggested Netanyahu’s hesitancy could have come from fear of reaching a deal with the terror group and backlash from the hardline members of his government, while Shin Bet officials managing the talks said the prime minister would express fear of leaks to the media.
Amid the breakdown in progress, Sinwar cut off contact with negotiators in early September 2023. A senior Shin Bet official told Haaretz that the terror leader “vanished from our radar, evaporated.”
But Sinwar held two private meetings with Coal Eyes, in which he told the Fatah official to warn the Israelis of the consequences if they did not move forward on a deal.
“Tell the Israelis if they don’t advance, I’m preparing a huge surprise for them,” Sinwar was quoted as saying in a conversation with Coal Eyes. “Tell them to expect a zilzal, an earthquake.”
Coal Eyes was “agitated” after the meeting, MBZ’s Palestinian adviser said, according to the book.
[...] “If he says zilzal, he means war,” the adviser reportedly told the Emirati ruler, saying it was his own and Coal Eyes’ interpretation of the comment.
“If we are not sure, we will not convey any warning to the Israelis for now. We will investigate the matter thoroughly until we are certain,” MBZ decided.
In a second meeting in mid-September, Sinwar told Coal Eyes he was preparing “a formidable operation.”
After Coal Eyes told Sinwar he had not informed the Israelis of what he had said at their previous meeting, the terror leader demanded that Coal Eyes send a message that he was readying “the mother of all surprises. A terrifying operation. Something extraordinary,” again reportedly using the word zilzal.
The Fatah official again informed MBZ’s adviser of the details of the meeting, and MBZ took the warning to mean Hamas was intending to launch a war.
Haaretz said the Fatah official and the adviser did eventually convey the warning directly to the Shin Bet in mid-September. Israeli security officials held deliberations about the warning in the following days, but did not understand it as a threat of an assault from Gaza, and no concrete decisions were reached.
“Why did Sinwar send us a warning?” a senior intelligence official rhetorically asked after the fact, according to the report.
“Either it was because he grew tired of Israel’s foot-dragging, wanting to pressure us into an arrangement and not so eager to start a war. Or, as we prefer to think, it was part of his ‘Great Deception’ plan, and he wanted to test the IDF’s readiness,” he added.
MBZ himself was so concerned by the lack of reaction that he then held a direct phone conversation with Netanyahu, who was apparently dismissive of the threat.
“The emir explained that, in his assessment, Sinwar was preparing for a major event,” the adviser, who was present, said, according to Haaretz. “He told Netanyahu that Israel should be ready. Concurrently, he recommended trying to find an economic solution for the Strip and calming the West Bank to prevent escalation.”
The report said MBZ also shared his warning with CIA Director William J. Burns, and said that he had tried to convince Netanyahu that “something there is about to explode.”
The report said that the emir hoped that despite his apparently calm response, Netanyahu would take the warning seriously and act upon it.
Haaretz noted the phone call was similar to another conversation held between Netanyahu and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, who also spoke to Netanyahu only 10 days before the massive attack, that Gazans were likely to do “something unusual, a terrible operation.” The conversation, reported by the Ynet news site days after the massacre, was denied by the premier.
Haaretz noted that on October 1, then-Shin Bet head Ronen Bar once again proposed proactive action against Hamas, including the assassination of top officials, but that Netanyahu made no decision on the matter, saying only that the agency should present its proposals and he would consider them. He made no mention of his talk with MBZ, the report said.
“If we had known about the warnings, there’s a chance it would have given much greater weight to the initial message that reached us from Sinwar,” a senior Shin Bet official told the paper.
[...] In a response to the paper, the Prime Minister’s Office called the report “a total lie! Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the period in question and received no warning from him.”
Bar and then-IDF chief of staff Halevi told Haaretz they had not been informed of MBZ’s warning, while the Emirati ruler did not comment.
Bennett: ‘The report is true’
In a post on X, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the B’Yachad party, said he knew the Haaretz report was correct.
“The report published this morning that Netanyahu was warned 10 days before the October 7 massacre about Sinwar’s intentions is true,” Bennett said. “Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.”
Bennett did not say how he knew the report to be true.
He said Netanyahu’s “disregard for the warnings amounts to criminal negligence, which is why he is doing everything he can to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would expose the truth.”
He added: “He did not go down to the field. He did not alert the heads of the security establishment. He did not prepare Israel for an attack. And he did not convene the cabinet.
“What did he do in those days? He kept Hamas well supplied to stop the demonstrations it was allowing along the border fence, transferred additional funds to buy a little quiet, promised additional work permits for Palestinian workers in response to Hamas threats, and, as usual, dismissed all the warnings from the heads of the security establishment.”
In response to the report, Netanyahu’s main challenger in the election, former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, wrote on X: “More and more signs point to the same conclusion: Netanyahu led Israel blindly into the October 7 disaster.”
“Who failed to wake whom?” the Yashar party leader wondered, referring to the premier’s claims about the morning of October 7. “Those around him are echoing the pathetic conspiracy theory about betrayal, inventing the most ridiculous line a leader could possibly cling to — ‘I wasn’t woken up’ — for two reasons: He knows the truth; he is terrified of it and is trying to evade responsibility.
“Netanyahu received dozens of warnings about October 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit for office. As soon as the next government is formed, we will establish a state commission of inquiry that will investigate the previous decade, clarify what Netanyahu knew and did not know, get to the truth, and prevent the next disaster,” Eisenkot wrote.
The Democrats leader Yair Golan, who rescued multiple people on October 7, wrote on X that “Netanyahu is unfit and illegitimate. His place is in prison for his crimes against the State of Israel.”
“The stories about ‘I wasn’t woken up’ are over. He knew. He was warned,” Golan said.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu denounced Israel’s security chiefs for purportedly choosing not to wake him in the hours before the attack when, he said, “all the signs were there” that Hamas was about to invade, and claimed he would have immediately mobilized the IDF and taken other steps necessary to ensure that October 7 “would not have taken place.”
However, according to a Channel 12 report on Friday, Netanyahu took at least two hours to leave his Caesarea home and head to the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv after being told immediately that Hamas-led terrorists were attacking Israel at 6:29 on the morning of October 7, 2023.
He did not contact the heads of the IDF and Shin Bet in that time, or en route to the Kirya, the TV report further said, asserting an inexplicably sluggish and limited initial response by Netanyahu to the Hamas onslaught.
According to his own published schedule, the prime minister only ordered the Gaza border closed and a full IDF mobilization at 9:55 a.m.
The thread of the story is long and readers should go to the TOI item. Excerpting was hard.
The line between gross negligence, and cooking the plan of let them misstep, then the rage of hell upon them, is a circumstantial line. Some may think one thing, others the other thought.
An unclear thing, normal Shin Bet, IDF, and Netanyahu patterns. Also, unclear, the false alarm frequency in the months leading up to the September warnings. Patterns do matter.
UPDATE: Charlie Kirk Podcast - Dec. 4, 2023, expanding upon earlier contemporary Oct 7 + remarks. Noting the effectuation of the Jericho Wall plan was on the 50th anniversary of start of the Yom Kapur War. As if the 50th Annirversary was not a noteworthy thing to Bibi.
And they were negligent in waking him up from sleep.
Note that the Yom Kipur War was a situation in which the Israelis knew what was brewing, but on Kissinger advice avoided a preemptive strike, as it would look as if Israel had started hostilities.
Some might see a parallel, in Oct 7.
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/08/netanyahu-warned-7-october-hamas-book-haaretz -- parallel coverate to TOI.reporting of "Bibi knew."
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