In multiple images, the words “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” could be seen at the top of what appeared to be a poster viewed by the president. Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times

SOURCE:  NY TIMES

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/us/politics/trump-kennedy-center-photos.html

The lawsuit was filed by Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, who is suing the Kennedy Center as a board member. In federal court, she has objected to the temporary closure of the institution this week for what center officials say are severe safety concerns over fallen ceiling plaster.

A judge on Thursday denied her request for an emergency hearing, allowing the center to remain closed for now. But the judge also reminded the administration that it had promised in another lawsuit over the center to give notice of any plans for demolition. Such notice must be provided 30 days in advance, the judge ordered.

In a filing earlier Thursday, Ms. Beatty’s lawyers had expressed alarm about the photos and asked the judge to make “crystal clear” that officials could not just demolish the center.

The filing also made note of the president’s recent comments that he would withhold funding for much-needed renovations to the building, essentially condemning it, if he was not allowed to add his name to the face of it.

Despite attempts by RFK Jr. and his allies in rural Pennsylvania to deny it, the administration’s anti-vaxx campaign is having exactly the effect it intends (people getting sick and dying) [gift link]:

Following America’s recent measles deaths, anti-vaccine activists have cast doubt on the virus as the culprit. They’ve pointed to a victim’s underlying health conditions or, as they did last year in Texas, blamed hospital error. But the two latest measles deaths in Pennsylvania—bringing the state’s total to four since mid-August—have made the United States’ measles crisis undeniable.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced two measles-associated deaths; both cases were later revealed to be infants too young to have been vaccinated. In response, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who was an anti-vaccine activist for decades before becoming health secretary—wrote on X that the deaths might have been “altogether fabricated.” (He later acknowledged a coroner’s conclusion that one of the deaths had been caused by measles.) Then, last weekend, an unvaccinated 40-year-old woman died in Jefferson County; immediately, people on Reddit and X insisted that her death wasn’t really caused by measles, because she’d had asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, both of which can make breathing difficult. Yesterday, state officials revealed that an unvaccinated 18-year-old died from a rare inflammatory condition of the brain and spinal cord that can be triggered by measles. Some commenters online deemed that death suspicious too.

What the armchair epidemiologists miss is that vulnerability to the infection doesn’t make a death less real. The two infants both tested positive for measles. The Lancaster County coroner’s office determined that one infant died of a ruptured spleen; however, when I spoke with that child’s parents, they told me that the mother had been extremely ill with the disease when she gave birth, the baby was not breathing when he was born, and they believed measles had killed their son. The other infant was born with a rare neurological condition, but the coroner found that measles was ultimately the cause of death. Greg Furlong, the Jefferson County coroner who investigated the 40-year-old woman’s death, told me that although the woman had conditions that made her vulnerable to measles, and was on supplemental oxygen, she was active before she contracted the virus. She cooked for her family and cleaned the house. Measles killed her in about a week. “If she wouldn’t have got the measles, would she still be alive today? I say yes,” Furlong, a Republican who is also the mayor of Summerville, said.

Four deaths in roughly four weeks suggest that the state is in the midst of an enormous outbreak. The Pennsylvania health department lists total cases at 693, with 99 in the past week. But considering that measles kills about one to three of every 1,000 children it infects, the actual number is likely much larger. Milder cases are going unreported. Many who fall ill, particularly in the Amish community, aren’t getting tested; the Amish parents of the infant who died with a ruptured spleen told me that their 13 living children had all caught the virus, but they never got swabbed.

These deaths are occurring after three unvaccinated people, including two young girls, died of measles in Texas and New Mexico last year. Those were the first measles deaths in the country in a decade. The last time the United States experienced four measles deaths in a calendar year was in 1992, at the tail end of a years-long outbreak that killed more than 100 Americans. That resurgence led to a recommendation that children receive two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and prompted a nationwide push to increase vaccination rates. It worked, and measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. But overall kindergarten vaccination rates started declining during the coronavirus pandemic, and some areas, including Lancaster County, have fallen well below the 95 percent needed to maintain herd immunity.

The strategy that RFK Jr. is using to try to deny responsibility for the effects of his measles outbreak is the same one Bari Weiss tried to use to diminish the impact of the food blockade in Gaza — since the people who face the worst consequences are often those with other health problems, pretend that it’s really only the other health problems that matter, The cynicism and amorality in both cases is readily apparent. There are people dead who would still be alive in Pennsylvania if not for RFK Jr.’s tireless anti-vaccine activism, and many many more who have become seriously ill.

Meanwhile, let’s check in on the man in the hot dog costume:

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) on Wednesday said the nation’s worst measles outbreak in the United States in 35 years is “going to be a terrible legacy for this administration,” citingrecent deaths in Pennsylvania.

“Misinformation and misguided policies are leaving children and adults unprotected against disease that we know how to prevent,” Cassidy, a physician and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said at the outset of a hearing for three key administration nominees.

If only Cassidy was in a position of power that would have allowed him to stop RFK Jr. from becoming Secretary of Health and Human Services, which happened through a mysterious process nobody has been able to fully identify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

False information about elections has proliferated since President Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Even today, more than 1 in 4 Americans believe that the election was “rigged” despite national security officials declaring it the “most secure [election] in history.”

The ongoing spread of misinformation not only undermines public faith in elections, but it also endangers election officials and fuels voter suppression legislation. These rumors also risk interfering with voters’ ability to understand the political process. Artificial intelligence may amplify these dynamics. A recent Brennan Center study showed how easy it is to get the most popular AI chatbots to generate content depicting election fraud, which in turn could be used in disinformation campaigns — as has already happened in this election cycle.

With the midterm elections approaching, political leaders will almost certainly use false information to try to influence voter behavior. The good news is that those seeking to undermine elections with false conspiracy theories tend to return to the same set of tropes. Voters can prepare now by familiarizing themselves with recurring themes in false election information and learning the facts.

Five Core Election Rumors

More on

• Election Integrity

During the previous midterm elections, the Brennan Center found that false information about elections revolved around core themes. Repetition helps spread false information more quickly. According to some researchers, the best predictor of whether someone believes a rumor is the number of times they have heard it before (also termed the “illusory truth effect”). “Sticky” rumors often combine tropes that feel familiar, and thus more plausible, with new events, so that they also feel novel and interesting.

Here are five rumors that are likely to persist this fall.

Citizenship and Voting 

States have multiple checks in place to ensure that only eligible Americans vote.

Federal law states that only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections. To register to vote, you must swear you’re a citizen under penalty of criminal prosecution. Ineligible voters who cast a ballot face severe penalties, including jail time or deportation.

Election processes include numerous checks to identify ineligible registered voters. Under federal law, states are required to conduct regular list maintenance to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.

President Trump has recently repeated false claims that large numbers of non-U.S. citizens are illegally registered to vote or have voted. However, the administration has offered no evidence to back that up. In fact, state-led investigations have found almost no instances of noncitizen voting. Similarly, investigations by news organizations, law enforcement agencies, and universities have found that noncitizen voting is extraordinarily rare. In the rare instances where noncitizens have been found on the voter rolls, it is typically the result of clerical errors that have no connection to the false conspiracy theories that President Trump and his allies have perpetuated.

Mail Voting Accuracy 

Mail voting has been used in the United States for more than 150 years, originally to allow soldiers to vote during the Civil War. Today, 36 states allow all voters to vote by mail, and the remaining states offer that option to certain voters, such as those who have disabilities or will be outside their county on Election Day. Every state has multiple systems in place to ensure the security of mail voting, including secure processes to request a mail ballot, signature verification, and unique serial codes on envelopes and ballots.

The Trump administration and other political leaders have used false claims to attack and undermine mail voting. The administration’s attempt to limit mail voting by executive order has been blocked in federal court, though litigation is ongoing.

Just this month, President Trump voted by mail for at least the third time since 2020.

Voting Machine Accuracy 

Elections are complex, technical processes, and election officials know there is no such thing as an invulnerable piece of technology. That’s why officials follow strict security guidelines to ensure voting machines work properly. State protocol varies, but common safeguards include certifying voting machines to federal and state security standards, testing machines before use, and conducting audits after an election to confirm the results. And 99 percent of voters live in jurisdictions where they can cast a ballot with a paper record of their vote, which can be used to confirm machine totals.

In his July speech on election security, President Trump claimed that voting machines are vulnerable to attack, particularly by foreign governments. False accusations targeting voting machine companies have been widely debunked and, in one highly publicized case, even resulted in a successful libel lawsuit.

Poll Workers 

More than 130,000 polling locations in the United States are staffed by 10,000 career election officials and nearly 800,000 poll workers. These personnel are members of your community — at least 44 states require by law that poll workers live in the precinct or county where the polling place is located.

Poll workers receive training on election rules, and in most states, they must swear to uphold the Constitution and adhere to all federal and state laws. Other checks exist to protect elections against interference. Forty-two states require polling places to have teams of workers from opposing parties. And voting is open to observation by poll watchers, who are often partisan appointees, in all 50 states.

In recent years, photos and videos have circulated that allegedly depict wrongdoing by election officials or poll workers. Memorably, Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss won a defamation lawsuit after footage of them conducting routine ballot counting was used to falsely allege they were perpetrating election fraud.

Election Results 

Results reported by election officials on Election Day are never final. In some states, not all valid votes have been received by election night, because mail ballots need only be postmarked by Election Day to count. These include ballots from members of the military deployed abroad. Some states have laws preventing election workers from tallying mail ballots that arrived early until Election Day, which slows down the counting process. Finally, some ballots may also require additional verification before processing, such as those missing a signature or cast by a voter whose eligibility is in question.

Additionally, the time it takes to count ballots cast by different voting methods and in different locations can vary. Because a candidate’s vote share may depend on the type of ballot and where it was cast, releasing one batch of votes that heavily favors that candidate may give the mistaken impression that results have suddenly shifted. For instance, in states that count mail ballots ahead of time and report those totals as soon as polls close, initial results may lean Democratic because Democrats are more likely to vote by mail. In previous elections, President Trump used these so-called “vote dumps” to claim election fraud.

• • •

As the midterm elections approach, false information about elections will only continue to spread. Fortunately, voters can expect the same tired rumors to proliferate, all of which have been widely debunked. Voters seeking clarification on election processes in their jurisdiction should contact their local election officials.

THE PENTAGON JUST PUT NUMBERS ON THE DAMAGE FROM IRAN’S STRIKES.

HUNDREDS
of buildings and structures at U.S. facilities damaged or destroyed.

DOZENS
of U.S. aircraft damaged or destroyed.

Including:

4 F-15Es

1 F-35A damaged

1 A-10

7 KC-135 tankers

1 E-3

HELICOPTERS

UP TO 30 MQ-9 DRONES

A separate Congressional Research Service assessment counted:

42 U.S. AIRCRAFT LOST OR DAMAGED.

And this wasn’t one base.

U.S. facilities were hit across:

KUWAIT
BAHRAIN
QATAR
UAE
SAUDI ARABIA
IRAQ
OMAN
JORDAN

The Pentagon watchdog has now provided the government’s formal accounting.

DOZENS OF AIRCRAFT.

EIGHT COUNTRIES.

EIGHTEEN DEAD AMERICANS.

OVER 600 AMERICANS WOUNDED, MANY OF THEM WITH INJURIES THAT DISABLED THEM FOR LIFE.

IT SEEMS THAT THE IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER WAS NOT A PART-TIME FOX HOST.

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I wonder where Iran get the targeting information from?  Could it be – – –

Mitch McConnell was spotted today being wheeled in a transport chair from his residence into an SUV complete with Capitol Police escort, assumedly going to the Senate to vote.

He managed a feeble wave.

This man is in no shape to be a US Senator, either physically or mentally.

https://video.bsky.app/watch/did%3Aplc%3A5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/bafkreicgv6lr4ljgwfmqmtuf6tyxcj3tlegrc5ochb4kfym3hx7llxpub4/playlist.m3u8

 

 

 

 

Protester: “He’s just everything that is wrong in this kind of society, and he’s here. It’s just not right. I don’t know why we welcomed him here… We are a peaceful nation and he’s coming over here with blood on his hands from all the wars he’s doing.”

 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/12/middleeast/yemen-houthi-saudi-us-blame-intl

By Nic Robertson, Lauren Kent

The desperate pleas for air cover from Yemeni generals started coming mid-morning on Thursday. An advance by the Iran-backed Houthis toward Yemen’s strategic port city of Mocha was in full swing, and backup support from chief ally Saudi Arabia was nowhere in sight.

“The Houthis committed everything they had – waves upon waves of fighters … along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons,” a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured the US was “watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming.”

“But the air support never came,” the source said. “And Mocha has now fallen.”

Hours later, on Friday, the Houthis captured another key coastal asset, Perim Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island splits the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran de facto control over another key shipping route.

The Houthis’ rapid advance amounts to an extraordinary 36 hours in a conflict that had been largely on ice for years. But the kindling for renewed fighting had been laid for months amid the conflict between the United States and Iran, as Tehran seeks to use oil prices – and their impact on the global economy – as leverage.

Now, Yemen and the Red Sea have the potential to become a true second front in the Iran war.

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/11/world/middleeast/houthis-yemen-red-sea-shipping-maps.html

Why the Houthis’ Lightning Advance Threatens Global Shipping
By Sergio Peçanha, Lazaro Gamio and Weiyi Cai
Updated Sept. 11, 2026, 3:20 p.m. ET

In a surge of attacks this week, the Houthi militia struck across Yemen’s border into Saudi Arabia; captured a strategic port on the Red Sea; and seized an island at the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The swift advance tightens the Iran-backed group’s grip on a crucial choke point of global oil and cargo shipping.

The Bab al-Mandab Strait is just 12.5 miles wide at some points, making it a narrow passage for cargo ships heading from Asia and the Middle East to the Suez Canal.

Shipping lanes through the strait run less than three miles from Perim Island, well within range of the Houthis’ missiles and drones.

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THANK YOU, DONALD TRUMP, AND THAT OTHER MORON, PETE KEGBREATH.  AND YOUR TWO “NEGOTIATORS” — KUSHNER AND WIKOFF.

Why does Saudi Arabia need US assistance?  They have a huge air force:  They have 72 Typhoons, 81 Tornados, 232 F-15’s and refueling planes — let them have at it.

Get some help from Eygpt, they make about 10 billion a year off the Suez Canal which will drop to zero with no Red Sea traffic.

Where our military would fight from . . . seeing as how Iran has destroyed all our Mideastern bases and our ships are, well, you know, not very well
supplied.

Send them Barron, Eric, and Jr. to show trust and honest intent in meaningful negotiation.

Meanwhile, Trump is off in Ireland at a golf tournament and Kegbreath is working on his pushups.

 

 

Over the past few days the gang of morons led by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth suffered a devastating defeat in their already disastrous war in the Middle East.

AMMAN, Jordan — A key Saudi Arabian pipeline to the Red Sea was shut down after it was hit by “several drones” launched from Iraq, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement early Saturday, as Iranian-backed Houthi fighters claimed major victories in Yemen, expelling Saudi forces from the country’s Red Sea coast.

The separate attacks posed new challenges to the region’s ability to export oil amid the ongoing U.S. war with Iran, and further unnerved global oil markets. The price of oil briefly jumped above $110 per barrel, its highest level since May.

“This is the first day that Iran really started winning the war,” said a Yemeni official, who is part of the country’s internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government.

The Saudi statement said it would reserve the right to retaliate for the pipeline attack, but in response to a request from Iraq, would give Baghdad the opportunity to prevent such attacks.

The Iraqi government condemned the attack and confirmed that it was launched from Iraqi territory. A statement from the Iraqi prime minister’s office said that the military commander in the southern Iraqi province of Maysan, where the strike originated, had been dismissed.

The Houthis in Yemen and militant groups in Iraq, both allied with Iran, this summer opened new fronts against Saudi Arabia and its alliance with the U.S. In July, the two countries launched joint airstrikes against what they said were militant sites in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries in the region have relied increasingly on alternative, land-based pipelines and sea passages to replace shipments through the traditional Persian Gulf export route, where vessels have come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz during the months-long standoff between Iranian and U.S. military forces.

The Houthi territorial claims, following a large-scale military operation aimed at controlling the Bab al-Mandab Strait entrance to the Red Sea, would mean that Iran and its Houthi proxies can now threaten — if not entirely block — energy and other cargo shipments through two key chokepoints.

 Brent crude is climbing, even hitting $110 a barrel in the past few days:

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We will need to brush up on our geography in the coming days but here is the best map I could find that helps explain the gravity of what is happening:

As of September 11, Houthis had destroyed two sections of the Saudi’s East-West pipeline as well as closing the Bab-al-Mandab.  The Strait of Hormuz is all but closed, with only 6-8 ships a day passing through instead of the 120-150 before Trump’s ignorant war.  The Suez Canal does not have the capacity to replace the Bab al-Mandab.

 By taking control of key areas this week, including islands off the coast, the anti-west Houthis hope to gain a direct presence near the Bab al-Mandab strait, a 20-mile stretch of water and vital trade and energy route that connects Asia with Europe. ​

The strait’s name is roughly translated as “the gate of tears” or “the gate of grief”, and its strong currents and winds made the passage between the Arabian peninsula and Africa’s east coast hazardous for centuries. Modern-day cargo ships have no physical issue passing through.

 But with ​the Houthis close to closing the natural chokepoint, the impact on the global economy could be disastrous. Ships would have to reroute around the southern tip of Africa, adding thousands of extra nautical miles.

The fighting in Yemen, as well as Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, is the most significant violence in the country since the UN-brokered peace plan in 2022.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, told an emergency security council meeting on Thursday that the country faced “a new and more dangerous phase of war”.

“This renewed war should alarm us all,” Grundberg said. “It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce. It not only threatens to plunge Yemen into a prolonged and expanding war, but also risks yet again dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions.”

When your President is a moron with no sense of history and when your Secretary of Defense is a failed alcoholic who was released from the National Guard because he lacked the competence to serve . . . 

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 Gas prices in the US have taken off again:

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Diesel prices have exploded, hitting all times across the country, right as we enter the fall harvest season. In California, our most important agricultural state, diesel is approaching $8 a gallon right now:

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Interest rates are taking off, raising the price of everything for everybody:

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Trump also hit his lowest mark of the cycle in the Civiqs daily tracker, clocking in at -26:

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Congress returns on Monday to this fresh new Trumpian disaster. Calls for Pete Hegseth to step down should become very, very loud.

Trump has had his shot and he has screwed ujp the US and the rest of the world so badly that the US and the rest of the world will be at least a decade recovering from the reign of this moron, supported by the 35% of the American voters who are just as stupid, if not more stupid. 

The most important thing about what is happening now in the US – and it is bad – is that we have the opportunity to set a new course – a new beginning – for the country this November.