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Supreme Court Leaves USPS Mail-Ballot Rule Blocked for Midterms
The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration’s request to lift a preliminary injunction on a U.S. Postal Service rule for mail-in ballots. An unsigned order said the government is unlikely to succeed on the merits and that the equities do not favor a stay. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred. He said there is a fair prospect that the rule falls within the Postal Service's authority, but that applying it for the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious because officials lack time to implement it. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Alito said the plaintiff's statements and the courts caused much of the delay. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts had blocked envelope-design, barcode, and voter-list requirements after USPS published the rule Aug. 21. North Carolina, Alabama, and Wisconsin had already begun mailing ballots. The March executive order directed the creation of citizenship lists and limits on delivering ballots to those on those lists. Existing state procedures remain in place for Nov. 3.
Editor’s Note: Alito is correct. This sends the message that even if the POTUS is within his purview, all opposition has to do is stall, and the Deep State will remove that constitutional presidential power.
🏛️ News & Politics
Anonymous Donor Paid to Cremate Butler Rally Gunman
Federal records given to the Senate say an anonymous donor paid to cremate Thomas Matthew Crooks days after the July 13, 2024, Trump rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. A family attorney told investigators the 20-year-old’s remains were cremated soon after Secret Service agents killed him. The note appears in a summary of an FBI interview with his father, Matthew Crooks. The documents do not name the donor. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) previously objected that the body was released to a funeral home on July 22, limiting further testing. The same files say Crooks used the alias Bob Dole to receive rifle parts and tools at his parents’ home. His father said the name began after a bank hack. Motive remains unexplained. Matthew Crooks later retired. The mother took leave from work.
FBI Arrests Pennsylvania Man With Rifle After ISIS Mission Posts
Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, of Valencia, Pennsylvania, was arrested after FBI agents seized a semiautomatic rifle, five magazines, and 190 rounds at a Cranberry Township hotel. Prosecutors say he used the name Hamza Al Rashid, pledged allegiance to ISIS, offered explosives manuals, and wrote that he was preparing for a mission and only needed a weapon. He is charged with receiving a firearm and ammunition knowing they would be used in a terrorism felony, including material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Agents also found a scope, bipod, prayer rug, pepper spray, about 30 knives, and a note saying not to look for him. The FBI first investigated him in 2023 as a minor in a mass-casualty plot. A March tip after his release from juvenile detention restarted the case. No specific target was named. Prosecutors seek detention. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the arrest came as the country marked the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11.
McConnell Returns in Wheelchair After Three-Month Absence
US Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) returned to the Senate on Monday and cast his first vote since June 11. The 84-year-old fell at home on June 14, was hospitalized, and later treated for mild pneumonia. He was discharged Aug. 6. He arrived in a wheelchair and voted to advance Matthew Byrne’s nomination to a federal district judgeship in Ohio. McConnell said recovery has been long and frustrating and that childhood polio made it harder. He said he is not quite back to 100 percent, but told Leader John Thune (R-SD) he will try to be present for tough votes. He said he is focused on the farm bill. He is not seeking reelection. His office had released hospital photos during his absence, but he had not been seen in public until Monday.
Editor’s Note: Anyone with a set of eyes who sees McConnell during his return understands that he is not all there cognitively. His family and staff should be charged with elder abuse.
House Passes Common Cents Act to End Penny Production
The House unanimously passed the bipartisan Common Cents Act on Monday. The bill would bar the Treasury from minting pennies for circulation except as collector coins. Cash transactions would be rounded to the nearest 5 cents. Cash wages that do not divide by 5 cents would be rounded up. Existing pennies would remain legal tender. The Mint stopped making pennies in November 2025 after 232 years. Production costs more than three times the face value as of 2025. The Treasury estimated $56 million in annual savings. House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI) and US Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) led the bill. It would also let the Mint make nickels from cheaper metal. Treasury would study the effects on low-income, older, and unbanked consumers. President Trump would have to sign it for the halt to become permanent.
Lame-Duck Massie Files Eight Articles to Impeach Hegseth Over Iran War
Lame-Duck US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) read articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the House floor Tuesday. He accused Hegseth of waging hostilities in Iran for more than 90 days without a declaration of war or statutory authorization. Three articles cite the War Powers Resolution of 1973, including continued fighting after the 60-day limit and after Congress directed a withdrawal. Other articles allege an unauthorized Yemen operation, lethal targeting of suspected drug boats that Massie said killed at least 221 people, the seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, and retaliation against critics. Massie said Hegseth remains a threat to the Constitution if he stays. The resolution is privileged. Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said the department is unified behind the secretary. Massie lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
Editor’s Note: Hegseth takes orders. Massie is simply showboating on a measure he already knows will collapse. US Rep. Al Green junior, I guess…
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📢 The American Fifth Column
El-Sayed Told Pro-Islamic Walkout Crowd They “Did Something Good”
Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed helped lead a 2007 University of Michigan protest against three self-described former terrorists who had converted to Christianity. The speakers were Walid Shoebat, Zachariah Annani, and Kamal Saleem. They described past ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Muslim Brotherhood. About a quarter of the audience walked out. El-Sayed, then vice president of the campus Muslim Students Association, said he was elated at the success of the walkout. “We’ve done something good today, and we need to keep that going in the future,” he said. Campaign spokesman Cole Wozniak said El-Sayed has denounced terrorism and that the speakers have been accused of fabricating their stories. A George Washington University researcher told the Senate last month the MSA was a primary Brotherhood vehicle on U.S. campuses. El-Sayed faces former US Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) in November.
Massachusetts Keeps Catholic Parents From Daughter After School Social Transition
Joseph and Arlene Kutzko say Massachusetts removed their daughter Sophie from their Southborough home in December 2024 after they would not treat her as a boy. They are Catholic. They allege Algonquin Regional High School socially transitioned her without telling them and that a counselor reported them to the Department of Children and Families. The school declined to comment. DCF did not respond. The girl is now 17 and a ward of the state. A restraining order bars the parents and her older brother from contact. Physical-abuse claims against the father were deemed unfounded, the family says. A judge last week temporarily blocked high-dose testosterone. The next hearing is Oct. 29. Attorney Vernadette Broyles said a school-to-DCF pipeline started with policies that hide identity changes from parents. The couple is suing to regain custody.
Outgoing Green Forces Privileged House Vote on Fourth Trump Impeachment Bid
US Rep. Al Green (D-TX) notified the House Monday that he will offer a privileged resolution to impeach President Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors. The Rule IX notice requires action within two legislative days. H.Res. 1486 accuses Trump of turning Immigration & Customs Enforcement and Customs & Border Protection into unaccountable forces during Operation Metro Surge. Green cited the deaths of Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in encounters with immigration officers. He said the country should not wait until after the midterms. Green lost his primary and will leave Congress in January. He has filed impeachment resolutions several times since 2025. Republican leaders can table or refer the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has said Democrats have not ruled impeachment in or out if they win the House.
Khalil Sues Columbia After Campus Hosted Anti-Israel Encampment
Mahmoud Khalil sued Columbia University on Monday for alleged indifference to harassment of pro-Palestinian activists. He led the 2024 Gaza encampment that shut parts of campus after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The complaint with Mohammad Ibrahim Zubairi and the SIPA Palestine Working Group claims Title VI violations, doxxing, and that the climate helped lead to his March 2025 ICE detention. The school suspended the group in May 2025. Khalil said Columbia laid the groundwork for his targeting and showed institutionalized bias. Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo is named. Plaintiffs want damages, the suspension lifted, and Khalil’s campus access restored. Columbia declined to comment on the suit. Spokeswoman Samantha Slater said the university aims to keep every member of the community safe and responds when concerns arise. Khalil’s deportation case remains active. The filing asks a court to treat the organizers of those protests as the injured party.
Editor’s Note: This agitator should have been deported. Anyone with awareness understands Columbia to be an institution placed to the left and fully in support of the pro-Islamist movement, a movement that is decidedly anti-American.
Mamdani Sues to Block Public-Charge Rule on Green Cards
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (DS) announced Monday that the city and a coalition including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Clara County, and King County sued to stop a Homeland Security public-charge rule set for Friday. The rule would allow officers to weigh non-cash benefits such as Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, and CHIP when deciding green card and visa cases. Mamdani called it cruelty and said up to 4 million people could drop health coverage and that premature deaths in immigrant communities could rise 10.6 percent in five years. Attorney General Letitia James filed a separate suit with 21 other states and the District of Columbia in Manhattan federal court. The complaints say the rule exceeds statutory authority under the Administrative Procedure Act. A Homeland Security spokesman said the suits show an ideological effort to keep taxpayers funding dependents. Cash benefits already count against applicants under existing law.
Editor’s Note: Take note that all of these litigants are outside their purview. Immigration and everything attached to it are reserved for the federal government and codified as such through the Supremacy Clause.
ON THIS DAY IN 2008:
Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. The global financial firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with $639 billion in assets, triggering the peak of the 2008 global financial crisis as the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
🌐 International
University Study: NY Times Framed Israel as Sole Aggressor in Gaza War
Yale School of Management professor Edieal Pinker analyzed 1,559 New York Times articles from Oct. 7, 2023, to June 7, 2024. The peer-reviewed paper in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, published Sept. 7, found a dominant narrative that assigned near-exclusive agency to Israel and diminished Hamas’s role after the massacre. Hamas killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 that day. Pinker found 1,423 articles that mentioned neither later Israeli deaths nor Hamas fighters killed. About 10 percent of combat stories mentioned Hamas combatant deaths. About 18 percent mentioned Palestinian violence after Oct. 7. Israel appeared more than three times as often as Hamas. Personal accounts of Palestinian suffering ran about every other day. Comparable Israeli accounts were rare. A Times spokesperson said the paper covered the war from all angles and would not change coverage to match entrenched views.
Pipes on Dutch Tracks Halt Trains on Budget Day
ProRail said objects fastened to rails triggered safety systems across the central and northern Netherlands early Tuesday. Workers found pipes from about 5:30 a.m. at more than 20 sites, later more than 30. The devices caused the track circuits to report trains that were not there and to turn the signals red. A train struck a pipe near Steenwijk. No one was injured. Crews later found new pipes at spots already cleared. Routes including Amersfoort-Zwolle, Utrecht-Arnhem and Zwolle-Leeuwarden were hit. Some crossing barriers are stuck down. Spokeswoman Joke van der Cruysen called it sabotage. Police and the AIVD are investigating. No suspect or motive has been named. The disruption fell on Prinsjesdag, when the king opens parliament and the budget is presented. Farmers Defence Force denied organizing the rail acts. Hay fires later burned beside the A2, A7, and A28. Extinction Rebellion denied the rail sabotage. Seven people tied to that group were arrested after painting on the royal route. Infrastructure State Secretary Annet Bertram called the interference extremely concerning.
Canadian Plants Shift South as 50 Percent Tariffs Bite
Canadian manufacturers are opening or planning U.S. plants after 50 percent American tariffs on paper, packaging, beer, and cable. Aeris Protective Packaging of Montreal is adding a U.S. factory. About 70 percent of its customers are American. It will keep some production in Quebec and Ontario. Sapporo said it will move beer made in Canada for the U.S. market south by the first half of 2027. Sleeman later said the plan is not final. Rayonier Advanced Materials postponed an indefinite shutdown of its Témiscaming, Quebec, paperboard mill, affecting about 400 workers, to Oct. 3. Stellantis is talking about selling its idle Brampton, Ontario, plant. Northern Cable of Brockville is considering a U.S. site. Crown Royal already moved bottling to Alabama in April. A July survey found that 42 percent of Canadian manufacturers had moved some production to the United States or were considering doing so. Canada lost 42,000 jobs in August after economists had forecast a gain. The United States takes 78 percent of Canadian exports.
Romanian Farmers Clash With Police Over Livestock Export Ban
Thousands of Romanian sheep farmers and crop growers protested Tuesday outside government headquarters in Bucharest. They oppose an EU ban on live sheep and goat exports, extended through Dec. 31, following outbreaks of peste des petits ruminants and sheep pox. They want National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority chief Alexandru Bociu dismissed, an end to contested herd culls, timely compensation, and restoration of export markets. Crop farmers said drought aid fell from a promised 100 euros per hectare to 19 euros per hectare. Organizers had claimed as many as 200,000 would come. The gathering lacked a full permit. Some protesters broke a cordon, blocked Kiseleff Road, and threw bottles. Gendarmes used tear gas. Four people were detained. About 15 people, including seven officers, needed medical aid. President Nicusor Dan condemned assaults and vandalism. Interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan called the violence regrettable. Farmer Ionică Sterp said they would stay for days. A similar protest occurred on July 30. AUR leader George Simion urged calm.
Indian Police Seized More Than 100,000 Fake Degrees
Kerala Police dismantled a multi-state fake-degree network in late 2025, arresting 11 people and seizing more than 100,000 counterfeit certificates tied to about 22 universities. Investigators said the documents included medical, nursing, and engineering degrees sold for 75,000 to 1.5 lakh rupees. Police recovered forged seals, holograms, stamps, printers, and computers. Printing was traced to Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu after a courier trail from Ponnani through Bengaluru. Authorities estimated as many as 1 million fraudulent degrees from the network could already be in circulation. Buyers sought jobs, admissions, and visas in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the UAE, and Australia. The case later drew political debate in Australia over credential checks. Video of the police display of seized certificates recirculated this week.
