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Senate Democrats Block House-Passed Bill on Data Center Rate Hikes
Senate Democrats rebuffed Republicans on Thursday by blocking the Ratepayer Protection Act by unanimous consent after Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) objected. The measure had cleared the House a day earlier, 417-3. It would have directed state utility regulators to consider a federal standard requiring data centers with 100 megawatts or more of peak demand to cover the full incremental cost of generation, transmission and distribution upgrades needed to serve them. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), the Senate sponsor, said working families and small businesses should not subsidize infrastructure for large tech loads. Heinrich said the bill only asks states to consider the standard and lacks enforceable requirements. He proposed his own Grid Savings Act, which would require large-load customers to pay for interconnection facilities. The House has already left town until after the Nov. 3 midterms. The Senate remains in session through the rest of September.
Editorâs Note: Remember which party is to blame when your utility bills explode.
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Rand Paul Revives Amendment to Limit Birthright Citizenship
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) reintroduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would limit automatic U.S. citizenship at birth. The text would treat a person born in the United States as âsubject to the jurisdiction thereofâ only if at least one parent is a citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident living in the country, or a lawfully present alien on active duty in the armed forces. Paul said existing practice awards citizenship regardless of a parentâs legal status and does not match the original intent of the 14th Amendment. The filing follows the Supreme Courtâs ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which left the current rule intact and moved the question from the courts to Congress and the states. An amendment would require two-thirds of the votes in both chambers and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
House Passes Bill Shifting Data Center Grid Costs Off Ratepayers
The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act on Wednesday by a vote of 417-3. Sponsors were US Rep. Gabe Evans(R-CO) and US Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL). The measure amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, requiring states to consider a standard under which data centers using 100 megawatts or more pay the full extra cost of generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades built to serve them. Companies would also post financial assurances if a project is canceled or moved. The bill does not ban data centers or cap their growth. It is the first data-center bill to pass the House in this Congress. Evans said families, farmers and small businesses should not cover power costs driven by those developments. Castor said ratepayers should not subsidize the energy demand of corporate AI data centers. The bill now goes to the Senate. Lawmakers treated it as one of the last votes before the Nov. 3 midterms.
Democrat Activist Congressman Holds $2.8 Billion Israel Bomb Package
House Foreign Affairs ranking Democrat Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said he will not clear a proposed $2.8 billion sale of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. He said he remains committed to Israelâs security and its ability to defend itself against regional threats. He said the munitions raise unresolved concerns about use in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon. He said the administration has not given sufficient assurances that the Netanyahu government will use the weapons in accordance with U.S. law and with protections for civilians. He said the hold does not diminish congressional support for Israelâs legitimate defense needs and reflects a duty to ensure U.S.-funded weapons are used lawfully. The package is among the largest proposed transfers of those bombs in recent years. A committee hold is an informal step in the arms-sale review process.
U.S. Median Household Income Hits Record as Poverty Falls
Census Bureau figures for 2025 show real median household income rose 2.6 percent to $87,460, the highest inflation-adjusted level since records began in 1967. Median post-tax household income rose 3.1 percent to $76,060. The official poverty rate fell half a percentage point to 10.2 percent, covering 34.5 million people. Child poverty fell to a record 13.4 percent. The supplemental poverty measure, which includes noncash benefits and taxes, was 13.1 percent. About 7.9 percent of the population, or 26.7 million people, lacked health insurance. Womenâs earnings rose 3.2 percent while menâs dipped slightly, leaving women at about 84 cents on the dollar. Income for the top 10 percent of earners rose 1.7 percent to about $261,300 at the 90th percentile. Earnings at the 10th percentile were about $20,010 and were little changed. A family of two adults and two children was counted as poor if their income was below $32,649.
McConnell Needed Prompting to Cast Farm Bill Vote After Months-Long Absence
US Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) returned to the Senate this week after a three-month absence following a June fall at his Washington home. The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican, who arrived in a wheelchair and spoke slowly, appeared confused Wednesday when the Senate Agriculture Committee called his name on the farm bill. Video showed him murmuring no before Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Chairman John Boozman (R-AR), and an aide prompted him to vote aye. His vote broke an 11-11 deadlock and advanced the measure 12-11 along party lines. McConnell is retiring when his term ends in January 2027.
Editorâs Note: You cannot have criticized Dianne Feinstein or call for term limits if you arenât also calling out the McConnell camp for elder abuse, like him or not.
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Talaricoâs Church Minister Says Heâs a Fraud, Will Revert After Election
Undercover video shows the Rev. Babs Miller of St. Andrewâs Presbyterian Church in Austin saying James Talarico will change his tune back after he is elected. Miller is minister to the parish at the church Talarico has long attended. She said his campaign convinced him to play a game because Democrats are backing off transgender positions and staff wants the same for the next 50 weeks. She called that bad advice but said it was acceptable if it helps him win. Talarico recently told reporters he would support a national ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors and oppose transgender athletes in girlsâ sports when safety or fairness is at risk. In the Texas House, he voted against Senate Bill 29 on birth-certificate sex in school sports and against Senate Bill 14 restricting surgeries for minors. Miller answered âduhâ when told Republicans were attacking his remark that God is non-binary. Organizer Jennifer Miranda separately said he was trying to be more palatable to Republicans.
Mamdani Names $185,000 Adviser Who Backed Police Abolition
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Lena Afridi as a senior adviser in April at $185,000 a year. A LinkedIn post said the job covers responses to federal intervention in the first deputy mayorâs office. Afridi is listed as an editor at Pinko, which has described itself as a collective for thinking gay communism. Recovered posts from a deleted X account show Afridi in June 2020 calling for abolition of the police, not only defunding. A 2021 post said undoing capitalism was the way to stop climate change. Afridi posted a tribute to Rita Bo Brown, a founder of the George Jackson Brigade who was sentenced in 1979 for firearms and bank robbery. In 2019, Afridi wrote that Gandhi was a racist anti-Black misogynist. Days after Oct. 7, 2023, Afridi signed a Writers Against the War on Gaza statement. City payroll records list the salary. Afridi previously worked at PowerSwitch Action.
Privileged Streamer Says U.S. Military Outpaces Al-Qaeda in Deaths
Hasan Piker, a DSA Islamo-Communist born into privilege, said in an interview published Thursday that, pound for pound by number of deaths, the U.S. military has committed more terrorism than al-Qaeda. He said the United States has caused tremendous terror around the world. He cited an accidental missile strike on a girlsâ elementary school at the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28 and said killing 140 schoolgirls is an act of terror. He said that does not mean all Americans are terrorists and that accountability is needed so it does not happen again. Piker previously said America deserved the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later partially walked that back. Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed had Piker campaign for him in the primary.
York College Students Dragged Off Porch and Beaten After Five 911 Calls
York College of Pennsylvania students sitting on an off-campus porch in the 300 block of West Jackson Street were rushed by a crowd of non-students after asking them to leave the property early Sept. 12. Witnesses said eight to 12 girls grabbed one student by the hair, punched and kicked her, and dragged her from the porch into the street while a larger group filmed. A second student said she was ripped off the porch by her hair, dragged to a stop sign, and jumped by about a dozen people, blacking out twice. Students said they called 911 four times before the first punch and five times before officers arrived. York City Police said they were tied up with a shots-fired, barricaded-suspect call across town. The college said the block is off campus and outside campus safety's jurisdiction. Police are investigating, have identified one suspect, and have announced no arrests. Students said a similar porch attack happened on the same block two weeks earlier.
Editorâs Note: I donât know which is more disturbing: the beating, the fact people chose to film rather than help, or that police are so understaffed in YCPD that it would take so long to respond.
NY Times Pulls Line Casting Israeli Oct. 7 Victimhood as Perception
A Sept. 14 report in the New York Times on the Israeli documentary NAZA originally stated that Israelis remain divided over the policy, military and intelligence failures that preceded the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, then added that Israelis still largely view themselves as the victims of that day. Critics said the wording treated the massacre of about 1,200 people and the abduction of about 250 hostages as a matter of Israeli self-perception rather than fact. The newspaper later deleted the sentence and posted an editorsâ note dated Sept. 16, calling it an editing error that was meant to describe views of the governmentâs wartime response but instead implied that Israelisâ status as terror victims was itself in doubt.
ON THIS DAY IN 1862:
The Battle of Antietam: Fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, during the Civil War, this bloody engagement remains the single deadliest day in American military history, resulting in over 22,000 casualties.
đ International
U.S. Again Denies Palestinian Officials Visas for U.N. Meeting
The State Department said Wednesday it is extending visa sanctions that block Palestine Liberation Organization members and Palestinian Authority officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, from traveling to the United Nations General Assembly for a second year. It said the groups failed to meet commitments to seek peace with Israel. The department cited continued cases against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and stipends paid to families of prisoners convicted of attacks against Israelis. It said those activities undermine prospects for peace and that the sanctions follow standing U.S. law. Palestinian diplomats already accredited to the United Nations will still represent the mission. Abbas addressed last yearâs session by video. The Palestinian foreign ministry called the measure unjustified and contrary to efforts to rebuild trust.
Saudi Coalition Calls Mecca Drone Intercept a Red Line
Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone south of Mecca on Tuesday before it entered restricted airspace, coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said. He called it a hostile terrorist attack by the Houthi militia and said the security of the Two Holy Mosques and pilgrims is a red line. He said it was the second attempt after a 2017 ballistic missile. Houthi officials denied targeting Mecca and called the claim a worn-out lie. They said there is no threat from Yemen to holy sites. Pakistanâs prime minister and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the incident. Air-defense alerts sounded in Mecca on Monday for the first time in nearly a decade. Officials said Saudi Arabia has not invoked the mutual-defense clause of the August Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Turkey and Pakistan. The coalition said it would take deterrent measures.
Editorâs Note: Yeah, but will they actually do anything about it, or will they whine that the US has to do it, as usual?
China Suggests Iran Curb Houthis After Saudi Appeal
Three Iranian sources said China privately urged Tehran to use its influence over Yemenâs Houthis after Saudi Arabia asked Beijing for help. The request followed Houthi advances along Yemenâs Red Sea coast and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that left Saudi oil exports and shipping more exposed. China has publicly called for restraint, dialogue and safe navigation. Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Iranâs Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday and called for stable energy supplies. Tehran replied that regional stability depends on ending what it called the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Beijing did not explicitly threaten economic pressure. China buys most of Iranâs seaborne crude and brokered the 2023 Iran-Saudi diplomatic restoration. Debris from an intercepted drone killed a Yemeni resident in Taif on Thursday. The Houthis denied targeting Mecca after a Tuesday intercept south of the city. A report said Saudi Arabia asked Oman to sound out a two-week ceasefire. That was not publicly confirmed.
German, French and British Warplanes Circle Russian Frontier as NATO Flights Multiply
Flight tracking data on Thursday showed a German air force aircraft that departed Nordholz airfield at 6:12 a.m. GMT later patrolling the Baltic Sea, a French Air Force Airbus A330-243MRTT circling Finnish airspace near the Russian border by 9:42 a.m., and a Royal Air Force Boeing Poseidon MRA1 with call sign RFR7045 orbiting near Russiaâs Kaliningrad region from Polish airspace at 10:30 a.m. The sorties come as NATO members keep reconnaissance and tanker aircraft busy along the allianceâs eastern flank after a string of drone incidents in the Baltics and Poland. Russian officials have repeatedly flagged the stepped-up Western aerial activity near their borders while European governments keep dispatching more jets to the region.
Ottawa Orders Military Chaplains Not to Mention God
The Canadian government issued a July 29 Armed Forces instruction that bars chaplains and others from mentioning God at mandatory public events and requires a religion-neutral spiritual reflection. The order expands a 2023 chaplain-only directive to all service members, defence employees, contractors, students and volunteers who provide spiritual services. Bishop Scott McCaig of the Military Ordinariate said Catholic chaplains feel reduced to generic counselors and issued an August 18 statement opposing the policy. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada said on July 31 that the exclusion rests on the myth of neutrality and should be rescinded. Conservative defence critic James Bezan called the instruction a departure from Canadaâs commitment to religious expression. Defence officials said the policy aims at inclusivity, not rejection of religion, and that voluntary prayer continues. Humanist groups welcomed the change. An interfaith committee is preparing a joint response. Humanism is among traditions that have military chaplains.
The Gateway Pundit, The Government of Canada
