(The Center Square) – Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed numerous bills passed by the Arizona Legislature trying to honor Charlie Kirk’s life.

Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s death after he was assassinated in front of an audience of nearly 3,000 people at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University. Kirk was shot in the neck while debating with students at the Orem, Utah campus. Kirk died at 31.

Tyler Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and six other charges. Fourth District Judge Tony Graf ruled the 23-year-old will stand trial for Kirk’s death. Graf set Oct. 23 for a hearing in the Provo, Utah courtroom to determine the trial date.

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, who’s running against Hobbs, a Democrat, in the Nov. 3 gubernatorial race, called Kirk a “generational historical figure.”

He noted Kirk would go to college campuses that were “intolerant of free speech” and have good discussions with anyone who wanted to debate him.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/article_debde2ed-313a-4c10-afb1-81d27231a222.html

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COMMENT

Charlie Kirk is a nobody who rose to some prominence among rightwing nutjobs for travelling to around college and high school campuses, spreading half-truths, simple-minded phrases, and rightwing bullshit.

Unless they were political junkies or right wingers, no one else had ever heard of him until he was shot.

He should not have been murdered but he did nothing to deserve honoraria from state legislatures.

Kirk will not even be a footnote in the histories of the era.

Trump promises $5,000 payout to U.S. adults if Republicans win election

Source: Reuters

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that ​he would issue a $5,000 ‌dividend to every adult in the United States if Republicans ​maintain control of Congress ​in November’s election.

“If the Republicans ⁠win the House of Representatives ​and the United States ​Senate, both of them … because of our tremendous strength and success economically, ​I will issue a ​dividend to every adult citizen in ‌the ⁠United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said at a Republican convention in Dallas.

“The only ​caveat ​I ⁠have is that the dividend that we’re making ​must be spent ​in ⁠the United States of America,” he added.

No further details were ⁠immediately ​available about ​the proposal.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-promises-5000-payout-us-adults-if-republicans-win-election-2026-09-10/

 

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COMMENT

Does anyone remember:

• After appointing Elon Musk to head the fictitious “Dept of Government Effeciency (DOG),” Trump promised that Musk had saved so much money, every American would receive a $5,000 DOGE check. That was over a year ago.  Raise your hand if you have  DOGE check.
• After the Supreme Court ruled that most of his tariffs were illegal, Trump vowed to restore the cost of tariffs to US households – he promised us all a $2,000 tariff relief check.  Have you seen yours?
• In response to thousands of people losing access to healthcare because of his “Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump promised $2,000 checks to all affected.  Did you, or do you know anyone, who received

If you believe Trump’s latest claim about a “$5,000 check to each American citizen if Republicans win in November,” then you are dumber than you look.

As we approach the anniversary of 9/11, perhaps we should review the absolute lies that Trump tells about the events of that day and the aftermath.

Over and over and over Trump has made claims painting himself as some kind of hero of 9/11.  Every single one of his claims is a lie, yet, he continues to tell these lies and his supporters continue to believe him and vote for this vile human ghoul.  Which tells us a lot about the people who support him.

Trump claims he had 125 workers at the WTC, after 9/11. The he claims he dispatched ANOTHER crew of 125 workers there.  So at times 250 workers. There is zero evidence that this happened. Police, fire department, and first responders who managed and controlled all work in and around the Twin Towers site never saw these workers.

These lies are shameful. Trump claimed in a Fox News interview that he brought his own construction crew to Ground Zero the day after the towers fell, and that “we worked long and hard.” The FDNY battalion chief who spent months and who was in charge of assigning work crews on the site says he has no knowledge of Trump ever being down there nor is there any record of Trump dispatching workers to the site.

Richard Alles arrived about twenty minutes after the second tower collapsed. He worked the site for months.

He also pointed out the obvious hole in the story. A hundred-man crew would have left a record, because everyone there worked under direct police and fire supervision. The construction crews came from the trade unions.

The lie has been running for twenty-five years. In September 2001 Trump told a German TV crew he had over a hundred men down there digging, with another 125 coming. In 2016 he said he was there, that he watched, that he helped a little. In 2019, standing in front of real first responders, he told them he had spent a lot of time down there with them.

Here is what Trump  verifiably did on September 11, 2001. From an office four miles uptown, he called a local TV station to mention that his building at 40 Wall Street was now the tallest in downtown Manhattan.

By now we all know that 35-yr-old Natalie Harp is at Trump’s side 24/7, including with him during his 2:00 AM social media posting rants.

And now we learn that Trump has bestowed on her gifts of $45,000 more than once.

As I recall, Bill Clinton paid Monica Lewinsky nothing.

Of course, the Clinton-Lewinski thing was in 1995-95, which is 30 years ago.  I guess inflation has driven up the price of everything.

President Donald Trump used a White House address marking the upcoming 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to tout his administration’s economic record and brag about his own presence in the aftermath of the deadliest of that day’s attacks.

“The United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot. It creaked. It still creaks, but it never came down,” Trump recalled.

“And I’ll never forget two firemen. We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big, strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here!’ And they literally lifted me up.

“This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself,’ but they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down. It didn’t come down,” he added.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-9-11-ground-zero-rescue-b3046756.html

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The article goes on to say that “first responders who were there say they never saw him on the ground” but the headline really should have been “Trump makes false claim that firefighters carried him away from Ground Zero right after 9/11.”

This is what Trump actually did:

America’s most extreme book ban might be coming to MD’s Eastern Shore

Picture a 14-year-old in Somerset County walking into her school library this fall, looking for a book that feels like it was written for someone like her — a kid figuring out who she is. Under a policy her school board is seeking to enact, that book won’t be on the shelf, no matter what its title or pedigree as a coming-of-age classic.

Not this year. Not even when she’s a 17-year-old senior, weeks from graduation.  That’s because the Somerset School Board, on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore, is pursuing a policy that, as drafted, would move all “young adult” books – that is, books classified by publishers and librarians as written for 12- to 18-year-olds – onto restricted, “adults only” shelves.

The board somehow believes this entire genre of books read by children growing up across America is too adult, too mature, too controversial for Somerset students. It would forbid all but a few Somerset students over 18 from browsing (or,perish-the-thought,reading) books on the newly restricted shelves.

And to ensure that, the policy would punish any librarian who allowed under-18 students to see the forbidden books.

What books would be restricted?
By its terms, the policy would restrict treasured classics that young people have come of age reading for generations: To Kill a Mockingbird; The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank; A Wrinkle in Time; The Outsiders; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Little Women. All verboten.

The all-white Somerset board that took office in 2025 (governing a school system that is two-thirds students of color) is fast becoming notorious for its authoritarian streak.

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So — what to do?

Teachers in the county should post a list of all banned books on their classroom bulletin boards with a cover sheet warning DO NOT READ THESE BOOKS.

Assuming there is a public library in the county, the librarians should make a display of the banned books, but extra copies, and reserve them for checkout only by students.

Any bookstores in the county should offer the banned books for sale at discount.

 

 

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Mike Davis, the asshole who posted this is an American lawyer, conservative political strategist, and lobbyist. He was Chief Counsel for Nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and the founder and president of the Article III Project (A3P).

https://digbysblog.net/2026/09/07/influencers-5/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Israel’s defense minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a war crime.

Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration” during a conference hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, by every way possible”.

Trump discussed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip in early 2025 that would have involved removing Palestinians from the territory, but has since pulled back from the idea. A 20-point peace plan the White House drew up last year did not call for Palestinians’ deportation, an act that would be widely seen as ethnic cleansing.

Katz, however, said on Wednesday that he believed US support could tip regional opinion in favour of the forced resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza. He said Trump’s approval was crucial to convince neighbouring countries to accept Palestinian refugees.

Meanwhile, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video in which he mocked Palestinian women prisoners to their faces for complaining about inhumane prison conditions:

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted footage from a prison holding Palestinian women on social media, boasting that he is responsible for the harsh conditions imposed on them.

The video, posted on Ben-Gvir’s X account on Sunday, shows him entering a section holding female prisoners and confronting them about their complaints regarding detention conditions.

One prisoner tells him: “This is our third day without showering. We are not receiving medical treatment, and our clothes are not clean.”

Ben-Gvir responds: “The good conditions in the prisons are over. This is the current situation, and I am directly responsible for everything. I am pleased with these conditions.”

In a post accompanying the video, the far-right minister wrote that the “whining” of prisoners over their conditions would not influence him, arguing that Israeli captives held in Gaza had not enjoyed adequate conditions.

“I’ll continue to lead a policy of the bare minimum of the minimum,” he said.

A couple of days earlier Ben-Gvir (again this is a cabinet minister) posted an AI video of Palestinians being sent by conveyer belt into an industrialized slaughterhouse. I’m not linking but it’s out there if you want to look at it (not recommended).

People who are knowledgeable about Israeli affairs say that Ben-Gvir and his supporters are trying to isolate Israel from the United States, because they believe this will give them the “free hand” they need to deal with the Palestinian question appropriately.

Meanwhile, Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner want most of the population removed from Gaza so they can move in.  You see, Gaza has some beautiful beachfront property on the Mediterranean.  Trump and Kushner want to build condos and luxury hotels on the beaches.  They want enough people left in Gaza to work at the beachfront properties as cleaners, maintenance, hotel staff, and the like.

From The Stupidity Appendix:

Trump:

Threatened to annex Greenland by force, because he didn’t understand the Mercator projection makes it look nearly as big as the continent of Africa.  https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/14/trump-greenland-obsession-map-threats/

Threatened to annex Canada and make it “our cherished 51^st state” for the same reason. https://time.com/7297490/trump-plan-to-annex-canada-51st-state-mark-carney/

Claimed China was negotiating trade agreements with Canada because the Chinese wanted to eliminate the Stanley Cup.  “The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”    https://www.newsweek.com/trump-china-eliminate-stanley-cup-canada-rant-11493556

Blamed Canada for smoke from wildfires that crossed over the US border because they didn’t rake their forest floors.   https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5981743-trump-canada-wildfires-tariffs/ .

Has a long-standing obsession with the idea that raking forest floors is the key to avoiding forest fires.  https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/08/20/trump-blames-california-for-wildfires-tells-state-you-gotta-clean-your-floors-1311059

Ordered the Department of Interior to re-name Lake Ontario “Lake America,” as retaliation for Canada retaliating against his tariffs. This was in the wake of re-naming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.   “We have a gulf, a lake . . .now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and the Pacific.”  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-orders-lake-ontario-renamed-lake-america-canada-trade-war-rcna594750

Floated the idea of changing the name of the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait.  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/trump-hormuz-strait-ontario-iran.html

There are currently 117 equally stupid entries.

Also too LOL whatever:

New: Former US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reportedly met with Trump to inform him that the Iran war was making it impossible to achieve foreign-policy goals, Trump talked exclusively about his ballroom in response, causing Driscoll to resign believing the admin was “doomed.”