Week in Review

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Week in Review

08/31/2024

For the week 8/26-8/30

[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]

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Edition 1,324

I have to start out on a down note...even more so than I normally do, because events have been on my mind nonstop the last 48 hours impacting my fellow New Jerseyans, and others around the country.

Thursday, an 18-year-old freshman student at the University of Delaware from nearby Clark, N.J., finishing her very first day of school, was struck and killed by a motorcycle who police had signaled for a traffic violation, after which the rider sped off (the police didn’t pursue) and killed the girl in a crosswalk.  Others were also injured.  The suspect, a resident of Newark, Del., was taken into custody.

An unspeakable tragedy.

And then Friday morning, we learned of the death of National Hockey League star, and New Jersey resident, Johnny Gaudreau, along with his brother Matthew (from Carneys Point, N.J.), who were bicycling in South Jersey Thursday night, when both were struck and killed, New Jersey State Police said.

Gaudreau, who was currently with the Columbus Blue Jackets, was a legend coming out of high school who went on to star at Boston College, earning the nickname “Johnny Hockey” as he helped the Eagles to a national title in 2012 before heading to the NHL.  His brother, Matthew, was a good hockey player for B.C. as well.

They were killed by a driver from behind, while trying to pass an SUV on the right that had moved over to make way for the two cyclists.  The driver, 43, was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and was charged with two counts of death by auto, police said.

The suspect told police he had tried to go around the SUV on the right side after thinking the other vehicle was trying to block him from passing.

As if that’s not awful enough, the brothers were slated to be groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding that was scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia.

So, so sad...in both incidents...and so senseless, and infuriating.

To the victim's family and friends in Clark, and the University of Delaware community, and to the Gaudreau family, as well as the National Hockey League fraternity and Boston College, you have my deepest sympathy.

Often life just isn’t fair.  It can be cruel.  Such was the case Thursday.

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Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran....

--Israeli warplanes bombarded dozens of targets in southern Lebanon before dawn on Sunday in what Israel’s military (IDF) described as a pre-emptive attack against Hezbollah, and the armed group responded by firing a barrage of what it said were hundreds of rockets into Israel.

IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said Israel saw Hezbollah preparing to fire missiles and rockets and acted preemptively.

Israel said roughly 100 of its fighter jets bombed more than 40 targets in southern Lebanon, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “thousands of rockets” aimed at Israel had been destroyed.  Some of the rocket launchers hit in the strikes had been programmed to fire at 5 a.m. in the direction of Tel Aviv, according to a Western intelligence official.

Hezbollah then said it had fired more than 320 rockets at nearly a dozen Israeli military bases and positions, followed by drones, one of the largest barrages since the war in Gaza began last October.

Israel said it thwarted Hezbollah’s strikes, and the IDF claimed there had been “very little damage.”

The cross-border strikes were some of the heaviest in months between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, leaving at least three dead in Lebanon, the health ministry there said.

But within hours of the attacks, both sides signaled they were easing, with Hezbollah saying its military operation had “finished for the day.”  Israel reopened Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv after a brief closure, in a sign that officials believed the strikes would be contained, although the Israeli military said it was still carrying out air attacks against Hezbollah targets.

Hours after, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a rambling hour-long speech on Lebanese television that I tried to follow on the BBC and the live translation and much of it was nonsensical to me.

Nasrallah said that while the exchange is over, “If we decide that this initial response isn’t enough and needs completion, that can come later, at another time.”  But “At the current stage, people can take a breath and relax.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu hours earlier had described his country’s preemptive strikes within Lebanon as a “strong action to foil the threats” raised by a potential attack.

“It has eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel,” Netanyahu said as he convened his Security Cabinet for a meeting at 7 a.m. local time. “It is thwarting many other threats and is taking very strong action – both defensively and offensively.” The prime minister added, “Whoever harms us – we will harm them.”

The exchange, for now, fell far short of the major escalation that was feared after an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in a Beirut suburb last month.  Iran has also warned Israel it would strike, which it blamed for the killing of a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on its soil shortly after, but an attack by Tehran hasn’t materialized.

Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr but has yet to comment on Haniyeh.

But Sunday’s attacks had the Biden administration scrambling to close a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza so as to lower the temperature in the region.

At the same time, the U.S. steadily moved Navy forces closer to the area, including two aircraft carrier groups and an attack submarine, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they will remain in the region for an indefinite time.

--Israel continued its actions in Gaza, issuing new evacuation orders in the central region after Hamas rejected Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire on Sunday. Fears of wider war are still growing even as Israel and Hezbollah stood down.

--Israeli security forces carried out “a counterterrorism operation” in the north of the occupied West Bank.  At least ten Palestinians were killed, Palestinian health officials say.

It was a major operation, with at least four Palestinian cities being targets at the same time – Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas – and the first time since a major Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 – that several Palestinian cities have been targeted simultaneously in this way.

Hundreds of troops entered the cities, targeting Palestinian militants.  Drones were used, followed by assaults by helicopter-borne infantry, tanks, and bulldozers.

Hamas said six fighters died in Jenin.

In a second day of the operation, the IDF says it filled five “terrorists” who had hidden in a mosque.

A former senior Israeli minister has defended the IDF’s actions in the West Bank as a “self-defense activity.”

Ayelet Shaked told the BBC World Service’s Newsday program that “the IDF is doing activity to prevent another massacre” akin to October 7.

“We have intelligence that Hamas is losing in Gaza and they are trying to encourage Hamas terrorists” in the West Bank to launch terrorist attacks in Israel, Shaked claims.  “We are doing everything to protect ourselves,” she says.

--The thing about any cease-fire deal is that there might not be enough living hostages for Hamas to meet the expectations of the first stage of a proposed deal.

Under the terms, Hamas is to release 33 hostages who aren’t male soldiers in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.  Of the roughly 250 hostages taken on Oct. 7, 105 remain in Gaza, including 71 who haven’t been declared dead by Israel.  Hamas has said in recent days that it had fewer than 20 living hostages who meet the criteria for the initial swap, Arab mediators said.  Israel and the U.S. believe that the number of those still living is higher and that more than 20 need to come out alive in the first phase, according to mediators.

Israel did rescue an Arab citizen of Israel taken hostage Oct. 7 during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, 52, a member of the country’s Bedouin Arab minority appeared to be in relatively good shape.  But he said he lost 50 pounds due to the lack of nutritious food.

Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants are now mainly confined to an area of roughly 15 square miles – smaller than the footprint of Manhattan.

--The IDF and Hamas agreed to three 3-day humanitarian pauses of about seven hours each in different parts of Gaza to allow children to receive polio vaccinations, the World Health Organization said Thursday.  Last week the WHO confirmed Gaza’s first case of the virus in 25 years, after a baby was found to be paralyzed by the disease.  The campaign, due to begin on Sunday, aims to vaccinate around 640,000 children.

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Russia-Ukraine....

--It was a horrible week for Ukraine as Vladimir Putin finally lashed out in force over the Kursk incursion by Ukrainian forces.

Late Sunday night/Monday morning, Russia unleased a massive drone and missile barrage throughout the country, targeting energy infrastructure and killing at least four.  Power cuts were reported across the country.  It was one of Russia’s biggest attacks of the war.

Russian forces fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 regions – more than half the country, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday morning.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” Shmyhal said, adding Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, had been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.

He called on Ukraine’s allies to provide Kyiv with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said.  “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

Explosions were heard in the capital, Kyiv.  Power and water supplies were disrupted, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

In the wake of the barrage and power cuts, regional officials all across Ukraine were ordered to open “points of invincibility” – shelter-type places where people can charge their devices and get refreshments during energy blackouts, Prime Minister Shmyhal said.  Such points were first opened in the fall of 2022, when Russia began targeting the country’s energy infrastructure with weekly barrages.

Russian attacks since March have targeted thermal and hydro power plants; most of Ukraine’s non-nuclear generating capacity has been destroyed this year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video message posted to social media, said: “The energy sector has sustained significant damage, but in every area affected by power outages, restoration work is already in progress.”

One of the Russian drones damaged the hydroelectric plant of the Dnieper River dam at Vyshhorod, Ukrainian officials said, adding that the dam itself is intact – and indeed, invulnerable to missile attack. 

Zelensky asked European allied pilots to help shoot down Russian missiles and drones.

“Across Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbors operated in concert with our F-16s and air defense systems,” he said Monday. “If such unity has proven effective in the Middle East, it must work in Europe too.  Life holds the same value everywhere.’

He also again asked “America, Britain, France, and our other partners” to be allowed to use donated or transferred weapons to strike inside Russia.  “Ukraine cannot be constrained in its long-range capabilities when the terrorists face no such limitations,” Zelensky said.  “Our defenders cannot be restricted in their weapons when Russia deploys its entire arsenal, including ‘Shaheds’ and ballistic missiles from North Korea.”

And then the next night and morning, Russia launched a second massive drone and cruise and ballistic missile attack toward at least 15 regions, this one killing at least seven, the attack lasting over eight hours, according to President Zelensky.

“And like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as dastardly, targeting civilian infrastructure,” adding later that Putin “can only do what the world allows him to do.”

“What is happening now in Kyiv is unbelievable horror.  Pray for us,” Kira Rudick, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, said on social media. She later added, “What happened today?   Nightmare.”

Following the large-scale attack, reportedly at least 127 missiles and 109 drones, a missile struck civilian infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, killing at least one woman.

President Biden condemned the attacks.

“I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness.  Let me be clear; Russia will never succeed in Ukraine, and the spirit of the Ukrainian people will never be broken,” he said in a statement.

Note to President Biden:  Give Ukraine the freakin’ permission to use our long-range weapons to go after targets deep inside Russia! [Especially use of the ATACMS for such a purpose.]

As Yaroslav Trofimov of the Wall Street Journal wrote on social media Monday: “Unlike Israel, Ukraine is not allowed by the Biden administration to use American weapons to go after the launch sites and airfields, and so its cities burn this morning amid power outages.”

If Washington would greenlight the ATACMS for such a purpose, London and Paris would surely follow with their Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missile.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday it had carried out a “massive strike with long-range precision weapons,” including some that were launched from the sea. Russian drones were sent to strike “crucial energy infrastructure facilities that supported the operation of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.  “All designated targets were hit.”

U.S.-provided F-16 jets helped shoot down some of the Russian missiles and drones, President Zelensky said Tuesday.  “We thank our partners for providing us with the F-16s,” he said, adding, “Of course, this is not enough, we don’t have many of them, and we still need to train pilots.”

But then we learned one of the F-16s went down amid a barrage of Russian missiles on Monday, killing pilot Oleksiy Mes, Ukraine’s military said.  It marks the first loss of its kind since the planes were delivered.

The cause of the crash was not a direct result of an enemy missile strike, the military claims.  It said the pilot, a national hero and Ukraine’s best pilot who went by the call sign “Moonfish,”  destroyed three cruise missiles and one drone in the aerial attack.

“Oleksiy saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles,” the Ukrainian Air Force wrote on social media.  “Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life.”

[Zelensky fired the commander of the air force today.  “We need to protect people.  Protect personnel. Take care of our soldiers,” Zelensky said in an address after the order was published.]

--Back to Tuesday, President Zelensky also announced that Ukraine has successfully tested its first-ever domestic-made ballistic missile.  “It may be too early to talk about it but I want to share it with you,” the president said at a public event in Kyiv Tuesday.  No further details on the weapon were provided.

Previously, Ukraine announced a new long-range missile-drone combo called “Palianytsia” on Saturday.

--Regarding the Kursk incursion, one of the goals was to take Russian soldiers prisoners so as to swap them for Ukrainian POWs, and last Saturday, a swap led to the release of 115 Ukrainians in exchange for the same number of Russians.

But Ukraine has yet to draw a significant number of Russian units from eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces continue to struggle.

President Zelensky said Tuesday that the incursion is part of a larger plan to end the war.  Speaking at a news conference of top officials, Zelensky said he had no intent to permanently annex the region and will present his plan to President Biden – along with presidential candidates Harris and Trump – this fall.

“The main point...is forcing Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said.  “We really want justice for Ukraine.  And if this plan is accepted – and second, if it is executed – we believe that the main goal will be reached.”

Zelensky gave no details of the plan.

In Kursk, Ukrainian forces had reportedly captured nearly 600 Russian troops, according to Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.  He also said Kyiv has dispatched 30,000 troops to Kursk, and more are likely to follow.

--Five people died in Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, officials said Sunday.

--Saturday, a British national who was working in eastern Ukraine as part of a Reuters news team was killed in a missile strike on a hotel in the city of Kramatorsk – which is under Ukrainian control but near the front line.  A number of reporters were staying at the hotel and were injured.

--Ukrainian forces reportedly downed another Russian jet, a ground-attack aircraft known as the Su-25 “Frogfoot.”  It happened in the Kramatorsk sector in Donetsk.

Two more oil depots were reportedly on fire in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, directly east of Ukraine.

--Saturday was also Ukraine’s 33rd Independence Day, as the nation’s war against Russia’s aggression reaches a 30-month milestone.  No fireworks, parades or concerts and instead Ukrainians marked the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.

Ukrainians flooded social media with messages of gratitude and support, thanking the soldiers on the front lines.

“Independence is the silence we experience when we lose our people,” President Zelensky said to the nation. “Independence descends into the shelter during an air raid, only to endure and rise again and again to tell the enemy: You will achieve nothing.”

Zelensky pointed out that the war started by Russia has now spread to its own territory.  “Those who seek to sow evil on our land will reap its fruits on their own soil,” he said, referring to the Kursk incursion.

“And those who sought to turn our lands into a buffer zone should now worry that their own country doesn’t become a buffer federation,” he said.  “This is how independence responds.”

Last Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kyiv.  After hugging Zelensky, Modi offered “as a friend” to help bring peace to Ukraine.  Vladimir Putin could not have been happy with Modi’s presence in the country.

--French authorities detained Pavel Durov, the French-Russian billionaire who founded the messaging app Telegram, at an airport outside Paris Saturday evening.  Officers from France’s anti-fraud office, attached to French customs, took him into custody after he arrived at Bourget Airport on a flight from Azerbaijan.

Durov, 39, was wanted under a French arrest warrant due to the lack of moderation on Telegram which led to it being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and sharing pedophilic content, according to BFMTV.

Telegram said that its boss has “nothing to hide,” after his “absurd” arrest near Paris.  Durov allegedly failed to take action against harmful behavior by users of the encrypted messaging app. Russian lawmakers also condemned the move.  Durov insists Telegram abides by EU laws.

Telegram, in a post, said: “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.  Telegram is with you all.”

Some suspected geopolitical motives, noting the messaging app’s role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, both as a disseminator of information and a military communications tool. When Emanuel Macron, France’s president, insisted that Durov’s detention was “in no way a political decision,” conspiracy theories only proliferated.

Macron said his country “is deeply committed” to freedom of expression but “freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”

Telegram is a popular source of news in Ukraine, where both media outlets and officials use it to share information on the war and deliver missile and air raid alerts.

Many, such as Elon Musk, see this as a battle over free speech.  But Telegram’s hands-off approach to moderation has allowed content to flourish that is straightforwardly illegal, including the sharing of child sexual-abuse material.

French prosecutors on Wednesday then freed Durov after four days of questioning.

“An investigating judge has ended Pavel Durov’s police custody and will have him brought to court for a first appearance and a possible indictment,” a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Wednesday evening, Durov was charged with a wide range of crimes related to illicit activity on the app and barred from leaving the country.  Bail was set at about $5.5 million (5 million euros), and while he was released, he must check in at a police station twice a week.

Laurie Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said legal authorities in Belgium and other European countries, “have shared the same observation” on the “potential criminal liability of executives at this messaging platform.”

If Durov was convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison, Beccuau said.

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The Campaign....

Sept. 6, the first mail ballots get sent to voters.  And early in-person voting in some states begins as soon as Sept. 20.

Sunday, Donald Trump suggested he might skip a Sept. 10 ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, after agreeing to participate as the GOP presidential nominee earlier this month.

“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s (K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump posted Sunday evening.

The Sept. 10 debate is the only one that both campaigns have officially committed to with a network and it is indeed ‘on.’

I must say ABC’s Karl has been incredibly sloppy in his reporting the last few months as I’ve observed.  He’s just not getting facts right.  For that he should be removed as sometime host of “This Week.”

Rich Lowry / New York Times...normally, Mr. Lowry is writing for the New York Post.

“With the defenestration of Joe Biden and the ascent of Kamala Harris, conventional wisdom has gone from asking, ‘How can Donald Trump lose?’ to, ‘How can he win?’

“It’s basically a tossup race, but a successful Harris rollout and convention, coupled with a stumbling Trump performance since Mr. Biden’s exit, have created a sense of irresistible Harris momentum....

“For as long as Mr. Trump has been in the ascendancy in the G.O.P., he will go off on some pointless tangent and Republicans will urge him – perhaps as they hustle down a corridor of the U.S. Capitol – to talk about the economy instead of his controversy du jour.

“A close cousin of this perpetual advice is the admonition that Mr. Trump should concentrate more on the issues in this campaign. Neither recommendation is wrong, but they are insufficient to making the case against Kamala Harris.

“Presidential races are won and lost on character as much as the issues, and often the issues are proxies for character. Not character in the sense of a candidate’s personal life, but the attributes that play into the question of whether someone is suited to the presidency – is he or she qualified, trustworthy and strong, and does he or she care about average Americans?

“Presidential races, in this sense, are deeply personal; they usually involve disqualifying the opposing candidate, rather than convincing voters that his or her platform is wrongheaded....

“(For Trump), everything has to be connected to the deeper case that Ms. Harris is weak, a phony, and doesn’t truly care about the country or the middle class. The scattershot Trump attacks on Harris need to be refocused on these character attributes.

“To wit: Ms. Harris was too weak to win the Democratic primary contest this year.  She was too weak to keep from telling the left practically everything it wanted to hear when she ran in 2019. She is too weak to hold open town-hall events or do extensive – or, at the moment, any – sit-down media interviews.

“She has jettisoned myriad positions since 2019 and 2020 without explanation because she is a shape-shifting opportunist who can and will change on almost anything when politically convenient. Even if what she’s saying is moderate or popular, she can’t be trusted to hold to it once she’s in office.

“She didn’t do more as Vice President to secure the border or to address inflation because she didn’t care enough about the consequences for ordinary people. She doesn’t care if her tax policies will destroy jobs. She has been part of an administration that has seen real wages stagnate while minimizing the problem because the party line matters to her more than economic reality for working Americans.

“You get the point. There is plenty for the Trump campaign to work with along these lines.

“In 2004, the George W. Bush re-election operation basically took one equivocation from John Kerry, his infamous line about an Iraq funding bill – ‘I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it’ – and ran Bush’s entire campaign based on it....

“Surely, the Harris team has kept her under such tight wraps because it wants to avoid a similar ‘inevitable verbal hiccup’ while engaging with people ‘in informal settings.’

“Of course, Mr. Trump doesn’t need much convincing to launch personal attacks.  He said earlier this month that he feels ‘entitled’ to them. But calling Ms. Harris dumb or questioning her racial identity does more to undermine him than her. The point isn’t to be gratuitously insulting, but to make a root-and-branch argument that she shouldn’t be – can’t be – president....

“Mr. Trump’s campaign has been shrewd to begin to hold smaller, thematic-focused events rather than just set him loose at rallies, where there is the most opportunity for self-sabotaging riffs.

“Mr. Trump has said he wants to do to his opponents what they are doing to him. At the end of the day, what they are undertaking is a focused, intelligently designed campaign to disqualify him.  Responding in kind doesn’t mean lashing out in Truth Social posts, but crafting a comprehensive anti-Harris argument that implicates, in turn, her suitability for the highest office in the land.”

Trump, in an interview Thursday with NBC News was asked about a referendum in his home state of Florida that would expand abortion access, which is currently limited to the first six weeks of a pregnancy.  He made the comment ahead of a rally in Michigan in which he announced he intended to mandate the federal government or insurance companies cover the entire costs of in vitro fertilization.

“I think the six-week is too short, there has to be more time,” Trump said. Asked how he would vote on the measure, Trump added that he was “going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

But Trump’s remarks quickly stirred confusion and anger by evangelical allies critical to his decade-long hold over the Republican Party.  Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life American group, issued a statement saying that voting for the Florida amendment “completely undermines” Trump’s stated opposition to abortions after five months of pregnancy.

The Trump campaign then walked back his apparent endorsement of the referendum.

So then Thursday night, we had Kamala Harris’ first sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Tim Walz sitting at the same table, though Bash didn’t take too much valuable time interviewing him.

Throughout, as I watched, I kept thinking of the word “vacuous,” which in Webster’s is defined as empty, vacant, blank, dull, stupid, inane.  Of the six, I was thinking most of “empty.”

And then Friday morning, I saw New York Times opinion writer Bret Stephens’ piece, headlined “A Vague, vacuous TV Interview Didn’t Help Kamala Harris.”

“Kamala Harris didn’t hurt herself in her interview this week with CNN’s Dana Bash. She didn’t particularly help herself, either.

“On the positive side, she came across as warm, relatable and – to recall Barack Obama’s famous 2008 exchange with Hillary Clinton – more than ‘likable enough.’  She refused to be baited into the identity-politics trap, emphasizing that she was running for president ‘for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.’  And she had a nice line of attack against Donald Trump, observing the distinction between leaders who measure their strength according to who they ‘beat down,’ as opposed to those who measure it based on ‘who you lift up.’

“Less positive: She’s vague to the point of vacuous.  She struggled to give straight answers to her shifting positions on fracking and border security other than to say, ‘my values have not changed.’ Fine, but she evaded the question of why it took the Biden administration more than three years to gain better control of the border, which it ultimately did through an executive order that could have been in place years earlier. It also doesn’t answer the question of why she reversed her former policy positions – on whether she has higher values other than political expediency.

“Harris also relied on a few talking points that may not serve her well in the next two months. She mentioned price gouging, but Americans won’t likely believe that grocery chains with razor-thin profit margins are the real culprit when it comes to their rising food bills.  Her $100 billion plan to give first-time home buyers $25,000 in down-payment support is mainly an incentive for ever-higher home prices.  Even Trump may be smart enough to explain just how inflationary the gimmick could be.

“A bigger weakness in the interview was the presence of Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz. Though the Minnesota governor delivered a fine speech at the Democratic National Convention (brightly enhanced by his cheering son Gus), he was transparently evasive in answering Bash’s questions about his misstatement about his military service, false claims about a D.U.I. arrest and misleading statements about his family’s fertility treatment.  If there are other lies or untruths in Walz’s record, the campaign ought to get ahead of them now.

“As for Bash, she is an intelligent and insistent reporter who isn’t afraid to ask follow up questions when she gets flighty answers. But there was too much fluff in this interview to lay to rest doubts about Harris’ readiness for the highest office.  Tougher questions next time, please.”

I totally agree with all the above, including on Dana Bash, who I like, but this was not her finest performance.

And Harris left her herself open for further questioning in the Sept. 10th debate on her response to Bash asking about the phone call from President Biden and her defense of him against claims that he had declined mentally.  Harris said she believes he has the “intelligence, the commitment and the judgment and disposition” Americans expect from their president.

“No, not at all. Not at all,” the vice president said when asked if she regretted saying Mr. Biden was “extraordinarily strong” in the moments following the disastrous debate in June.  “He is so smart and loyal to the American people,” she said.

Look, she’s not going to trash her boss on national TV or at a campaign rally, but the American people know she is being incredibly disingenuous.

On the other hand, the vice president did make it clear it was time to turn the page.  It’s just that she is walking a fine line.  And whether or not she threaded the needle with her interview is for voters to decide.

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Wall Street and the Economy

Following last week’s address at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, we had three key data points for the Fed to examine prior to its Sept. 17-18 Open Market Committee meeting where the Fed is expected to lower its benchmark funds rate by at least 25 basis points, the first of many rate cuts over the next year, the markets, and consumers, hope.

And data point one was today, the July personal income and consumption data, that also contains the Fed’s preferred inflation barometer, the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, and everything was basically in line.  Personal income rose 0.3% and consumption 0.5%.

As for the money numbers, headline PCE rose 0.2%, 2.5% year-over-year, while ex-food and energy, the figures were 0.2% and 2.6%, the latter actually a tick better than forecast, but equal to the prior reading and the lowest since March 2021.

In a nutshell, exactly what the Fed wanted to see.  One down, two to go...that being the August jobs report next Friday and then the August CPI readings Sept. 11.

In other economic data this week, July durable goods rose a much stronger than forecast 9.9%, but ex-transportation fell 0.2%; this being a notoriously volatile data series.

The Case-Shiller home price index for June was up 0.4% from May for the 20-city index, and up 6.5% year-over-year, a little higher than analysts’ consensus.

The Chicago PMI for August was 46.1 vs. 45.3 prior, 50 the dividing line between growth and contraction.

And the second estimate for second-quarter GDP actually rose to 3.0% from a first reading of 2.8%, with consumption up a strong 2.9%.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer for third-quarter growth is at 2.5%.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is a multi-year low of 6.35%.

But one inflation data point the average American deals with, in a big way, that is underreported is home and auto insurance, costs of which have skyrocketed, and it ends up being a big number in terms of the average family’s budget.

We had another example of this the other day when California’s state Department of Insurance granted Allstate approval for an average 34% increase in homeowners insurance rates, starting in November, and I can’t blame Allstate.  It’s about the wildfire risk...and for its sake, California is just looking to keep enough big insurance companies in the state, as so many have exited, not wanting to take on the exposure.

Lastly, each week down below I list the price of a regular gallon of gas, nationwide, now $3.35 vs. $3.82 a year ago.

But I have to factcheck the Trump campaign and its surrogates who keep talking of gas being $1.70 when Trump left office because on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021, it was $2.38.

Europe and Asia

A flash estimate of inflation in the euro area for August fell to a three-year low. The annual rate slowed to 2.2% from 2.6% in July, as reported by Eurostat.  But ex-food and energy, the rate remained unchanged at 2.8%.

Headline inflation....

Germany 2.0%, France 2.2%, Italy 1.3%, Spain 2.4%, Netherlands 3.3%, Ireland 1.1%.

Eurostat also released the unemployment data for July, 6.4% in the EA20, down from 6.5% in June and from 6.6% in July 2023.

Germany 3.4%, France 7.5%, Italy 6.5%, Spain 11.5%, Netherlands 3.6%, Ireland 4.7%.

Turning to Asia...nothing of import from China, though later tonight we get the August PMI readings.

In Japan, July industrial production rose 2.7% year-over-year, retail sales 2.6%.  The July unemployment rate was 2.7%, up from 2.5%.

Street Byes

--The Dow Jones finished the week at an all-time, up 0.9% to 41563.  Otherwise, the major indices were mixed...the S&P 500 adding 0.2%, while Nasdaq lost 0.9%.

September is an historically lousy month, so buckle your seat belts.  You’ve learned to keep them on loosely anyway, even if there doesn’t appear to be any turbulence nearby.

--U.S. Treasury Yields

6-mo. 4.86%  2-yr. 3.92%  10-yr. 3.91%  30-yr. 4.20%

Treasuries didn’t respond much, initially, to the PCE data as it was in line, but the yield on the 10-year did move up 10 basis points this week, while the 2-year was essentially unchanged.  Lo and behold, the 2- and 10-year are close to normalizing. 

--Oil prices jumped at the start of the week after the exchange of heavy fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend, but more importantly due to tensions flaring between factions in Libya, forcing the closure of oil fields in the country’s east.

But the gains faded and once again the key issue was soft demand out of China.

--One stock matters more than any other these days, Nvidia, which after the close Wednesday delivered strong quarterly revenue growth and a robust financial outlook, indicating persistent momentum in the nearly two-year-old AI boom despite concerns that investment has surged too quickly.

The AI chip giant reported sales for the three months ended July more than doubled from a year ago to $30 billion, with profit more than doubling to $16.6 billion.

The company also forecast revenue of $32.5 billion for the current quarter, all three figures topping forecasts.

But the shares fell about 6% because the results weren’t good enough, the Street accustomed to “blowout quarters,” not numbers that just ‘beat,’ and there are production concerns over Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell chips.

The company said production of the chips will ramp up in the fiscal fourth quarter that ends in January, which it expects to add several billion dollars of revenue for the period.

Through Wednesday’s close, the shares had risen more than 150% this year alone, pushing its valuation above $3 trillion and making it the second-largest listed company in the world behind Apple.

But the shares, at $118 with Thursday’s close, were down from their 52-week all-time high of $140.76.

CEO Jensen Huang called demand for Blackwell “incredible” and said that “global data centers are in full throttle to modernize the entire computing stack with accelerated computing and generative AI.”

Nvidia’s chips have become the computational workhorses of the AI boom, essential to the creation and deployment of AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Big tech companies’ outlays on AI have been driving Nvidia’s results.  Google parent Alphabet last month said its capital spending would be elevated through the second half of this year, at least $12 billion a quarter. Amazon.com, Microsoft and Meta have all stepped up spending as well.

But there’s been concern that the amount of infrastructure being put in place exceeds current requirements, while Nvidia has had production issues with the Blackwell chips and recently informed customers of a months-long delay in their rollout.

Plus, Nvidia faces growing competition from the likes of Advanced Micro Devices as well as AI chip startups.

Jensen Huang, however, maintains this is only the beginning of a new era for technology and the economy.

--Speaking of OpenAI, it is getting closer to raising funding at a valuation of more than $100 billion in a round led by Thrive Capital.

Thrive will invest about $1 billion in the round, reports have it, with OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar telling employees in a memo on Wednesday that the company is seeking fresh capital, according to Bloomberg.

Apple and Nvidia are also in talks to invest in OpenAI’s new round.

--Nippon Steel Corp. plans to invest an additional $1.3 billion at plants operated by U.S. Steel Corp. as the Japanese company steps up efforts to secure union support for a takeover bid that’s been opposed by both President Biden and Donald Trump.

I have said since the day Nippon first issued their bid, that those in opposition, especially in the pathetic statements coming from Biden and Trump, as well as members of both parties in Congress, could not be more wrong.  It is absolutely idiotic, and lazy, not to ‘get it!’

Nippon has now announced investments at the Mon Valley Works and Gary Works, as part of its pending $14.1 billion acquisition, the company said in a statement Wednesday, which of course the union immediately blasted.

Cut the jingoistic crap.  The U.S. steel industry has been dying for generations, let alone U.S. Steel Corp.  It is in desperate need of such investment, and Japan is an ally!

How the heck can we ask for Japan’s assistance in the Pacific in our growing conflict with China, and then claim Japan is out to harm U.S. workers and interests by offering to make key investments in the very industry we claim is a national security priority?!

--After a humiliating setback to its space ambitions, detailed below, Boeing Co. faces a dilemma that pits its national duty against strained cash reserves.

The decision whether to continue with the struggling Starliner program now rests with Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, after NASA’s decision Saturday that it won’t use Starliner to bring two astronauts back from the space station.

Just the latest setback for a company still reeling from a near-catastrophic blowout of an airborne 737 MAX jetliner, various federal investigations, and then the shakeup in the ‘C-Suite.’

So, it is up to Ortberg and his lieutenants to decide on the company’s commitment to spaceflight and Starliner.

--Two people were killed and a third seriously injured when a tire exploded as it was being removed from a Delta Air Lines plane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The explosion took place at the airport’s maintenance area early Tuesday, killing a Delta employee and a contractor while leaving another airline worker badly injured.

Delta expressed its condolences to the victims in a statement.  Investigations are underway for the cause.

--TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2023

8/29...105 percent of 2023 levels
8/28...110
8/27...105
8/26...105
8/25...106
8/24...106
8/23...106
8/22...106

--Warren Buffett announced further sales of Bank of America stock, an additional $982 million per regulatory filings the past week.

Buffett has held silent about his reasoning while whittling the highly profitable bet – an investment that began when the stock was trading near $5 in 2011.

--Last Friday I wrote of the difference between “price gouging” and “collusion” as part of my discussion of Kamala Harris’ proposed policy to go after the former on issues such as food prices at the grocery store.  I said she should use the term “collusion.”

So two hours after I posted, I was watching NBC Nightly News and they had a report on how the Department of Justice the same day, which I hadn’t seen prior to WIR, filed an antitrust lawsuit against rental management software company RealPage, accusing it of reducing competition among landlords through its pricing tools; i.e., “collusion.”

“RealPage’s alleged conduct deprives renters of the benefits of competition on apartment leasing terms and harms millions of Americans,” the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the filing. Attorneys general from eight states are also plaintiffs.

Rents in July were about 25% higher than they were in early 2020, according to seasonally adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data.  Rent and rent equivalents remain a significant driver of inflation, as in last month, the CPI’s shelter gauge was responsible “for nearly 90% of the monthly increase in the all items index” last month, the BLS said.

RealPage has rebuffed allegations that it helps landlords collude.

--Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleged that Facebook was “pressured” by the U.S. government to censor content related to Covid-19 during the global pandemic and that he regrets the company’s decision to accede to the demands.

“In 2021, senior official from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee.  And while it was Meta’s decision whether to remove content, he continues, “the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

During the pandemic, Facebook officials drew ire from critics of lockdowns, vaccines and masking mandates because it removed certain posts, saying they contained misinformation related to the virus or otherwise went against its policies.  In all, Facebook took down more than 20 million pieces of content in just over a year. Zuckerberg joins other social media executives, including Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, in lamenting past instances of content moderation that, in their view, went too far.

--IBM reportedly shut down its research and development operations in China, joining a slew of global Big Tech firms in trimming their mainland businesses amid geopolitical headwinds.

IBM, in closing its China Development Lab and China Systems Lab, will be laying off more than 1,000 employees in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and the northern port city Dalian.

IBM’s China-based R&D employees over the weekend found themselves blocked from accessing the company’s intranet system, a Chinese news website reported on Saturday.  The company then announced the job cuts Monday morning.

Other companies to slash their workforces in China this year include Ericsson, Tesla, Amazon.com and Intel.

--Eli Lilly announced a discounted version of its GLP-1 weight-loss drug Zepbound that will compete with pharmacy-compound imitators sold by telemedicine services like Hims & Hers Health.

Lilly unveiled new data showing its drug can prevent the onset of type-2 diabetes.  That builds on positive trials over the past year in sleep apnea and heart failure.  Early evidence has suggested GLP-1 drugs could also help with addiction and Alzheimer’s disease.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration now lists the status of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro as ‘available,’ after nearly two years of shortages.

But all of the optimism over the drugs overlooks a major factor; the healthcare system’s ability to pay for it all. Zepbound currently costs nearly $13,000 a year.

--Enterprise software giant Salesforce.com beat expectations for July quarter revenue and earnings, with $9.3 billion in revenue and $2.56 per share, vs. forecasts calling for $9.2bn in revenue and $2.35 EPS.  Revenue was up 8% year-over-year.  The shares rose in response.

--Dell Technologies posted better-than-expected results for its July quarter, boosted by strong demand for its servers powered by artificial intelligence.

For its fiscal second quarter, the company reported revenue of $25 billion, up 9% vs. the prior year, ahead of the Wall Street consensus of $24.1 billion.  Adjusted earnings of $1.89 per share, also beat forecasts for $1.70.  The shares rose 5% in response.

“Our AI momentum accelerated in Q2, and we’ve seen an increase in the number of enterprise customers buying AI solutions each quarter,” Dell Technologies COO Jeff Clarke said in a news release.

The company said AI servers generated $3.2 billion in revenue for the quarter – up 23% quarter-on-quarter.

--Shares of HP fell after the PC and printer company reported mixed results for the July quarter, beating expectations on revenue driven by PC sales while missing forecasts for earnings per share.

PC sales rose more than forecast, pushing HP’s total revenue to $13.52 billion for the quarter ending in July and beating Wall Street’s estimate for $13.37 billion.  But EPS of 83 cents fell short of consensus of 86 cents.

Declining printer sales were a drag on earnings, down nearly 3% from a year ago, with sales of $4.14 billion. “Office printing is not recovering as planned,” HP CEO Enrique Lores told Barron’s, adding “enterprises have been conservative in their budget.”

But commercial PC sales were up 8% from a year ago, to $6.68 billion.  Consumer computer sales 1% to $2.69bn.

--Shares in Super Micro Computer fell nearly 20% Wednesday after the AI server company said it would delay its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30 because it needs more time to complete an assessment of its internal controls over financial reporting.

The news arrived a day after short seller Hindenburg Research published a report that alleged it “found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.”

As they say, there’s never just one cockroach.

--Huawei Technologies’ net profit climbed 18% in the first half of the year, thanks to strong smartphone sales and robust growth in its car business.

Net profit rose to 54.9 billion yuan, equivalent to $7.70 billion. Revenue rose 34% to 417.5bn yuan, or $58.9bn.

The Chinese tech giant has seen robust growth in its EV business by collaborating with automakers, leveraging its advantage in autonomous-driving technology and in-car software systems.  BYD, for example, said it is teaming with Huawei on autonomous driving.

In the second quarter, Huawei was the No. 2 smartphone seller in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, with an 18.1% market share, according to market-research firm International Data Corp.

--Best Buy raised its fiscal-year guidance Thursday after exceeding earnings and revenue expectations for the most recent quarter.

The retailer now expects to see full-year adjusted earnings per share in the range of $6.10 to $6.35, up from a prior range of $5.75 to $6.20.

The shares surged 14% in response.

“As we look to the back half of the year, we expect our industry to continue to show increasing stabilization,” CFO Matt Bilunas said in the company’s press release.

Earnings for the period ended Aug. 3 came in at $1.34 vs. expectations for $1.16, while revenue of $9.29 billion beat consensus of $9.24 billion.

Net income was $291 million vs. $274 million a year earlier.

Comparable sales declined 2.3% during the quarter, compared with a 6.2% fall a year earlier.  That drop in comp sales was actually the best result since the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, CEO Corie Barry said on the earnings call.

Discretionary merchandise retailers across the board have struggled with softer consumer demand in the wake of unusually high sales during the pandemic and as consumers pulled back due to elevated inflation.

Barry added that AI could continue to boost sales across categories over the next few years.

--CrowdStrike shares rose 3% after the company beat forecasts for the quarter’s revenue and profit, but there were still issues after crashing millions of its customers’ computers, two weeks before the July quarter’s end.

CEO George Kurtz, in the earnings release, acknowledged the July 19 incident. “Our second quarter demonstrates the resilience of our business and platform,” he said.  “Our vision and mission of stopping breaches remains unchanged.”

But in Wednesday’s conference call, while Kurtz said the incident was the most challenging in the company’s history, and promised it would never happen again, some investors thought his explanation was rather lacking.

That said, July quarter revenue jumped 32% year-over-year, to $964 million.  Most of that was subscription revenue, which rose 33%.  CrowdStrike’s annual recurring revenue reached $3.86 billion.

--Kohl’s came out with quarterly earnings of $0.59 per share, beating consensus.  The department store chain posted revenue of $3.73 billion for the quarter ended July, short of the Street’s estimate of $3.9 billion.  The company has not been able to beat consensus revenue forecasts over the last four quarters.

But the shares were so beaten down already, the stock was unchanged.

--Dollar General shares cratered a whopping 32% after the discount retailer reported disappointing earnings and cut its financial forecasts, saying consumers are under pressure.

Second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.70 from revenue of $10.21 billion fell short of consensus at $1.79 and $10.37bn.  Same-store sales increased 0.5% in the quarter.

CEO Todd Vasos said the weakness in sales was partially attributable to a core customer – chiefly lower-income consumers – who “feels financially constrained.”

DG added that in the year ending in January, it now expects adjusted earnings between $5.50 a share and $6.20 for the year, compared with its prior expectation of $6.80 to $7.55, with net sales growth of 4.7% to 5.3%, down from a previous forecast of 6% to 6.7%.

--A Wells Fargo employee was found dead in her cubicle four days after clocking in to her office in Tempe, Ariz., police said.

A Tempe Police Department spokesperson said Thursday in an email that there were no preliminary signs of foul play.  The investigation is ongoing.

The woman, 60, scanned in to work on the morning of Aug. 16, a Friday, and had not scanned out or in since then, police said.

It was not immediately clear how the woman went unnoticed over the four-day period, which included the weekend.  A Wells Fargo spokesperson said she sat in an underpopulated area of the building.

--Red Lobster tapped a recent CEO of Asian restaurant P.F. Chang’s to run the struggling seafood chain. Damola Adamolekun, most recently an operating partner at private-equity firm Garnett Station Partners, would take over as Red Lobster’s CEO pending final approval of the chain’s sale, scheduled for September.

Orlando, Fla.-based Red Lobster filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, one of a string of restaurant chains that have filed for bankruptcy protection or sought buyers in the past year.  The chain has about $2 billion in annual sales across 44 states.

Adamolekun said he aims to improve Red Lobster’s customer experience and reinvigorate the company.  “Red Lobster is an iconic brand with a tremendous future,” he said Monday.

In July, a lender group led by Fortress Investment Group, called RL Investor Holdings, moved a step closer to taking over Red Lobster after no competing buyers showed up to challenge their bid.  The lenders had extended roughly $300 million in loans.

Fortress, an asset manager, has purchased other restaurant chains out of bankruptcy including Krystal Restaurants and Logan’s Roadhouse.

Adamolekun, 35, led highly successful P.F. Chang’s from 2020 to 2023, the privately held chain generating $994.3 million in U.S. sales last year, above prepandemic levels, according to market research firm Technomic.

Meanwhile, Red Lobster announced it was closing 23 more locations across the nation – but not the one I go to on beautiful Rt. 22 in New Jersey – bringing the total number of locations closed to about 129, the goal to scale back from 650 to 500.

--Edgar Bronfman Jr. walked away from bidding for Shari Redstone’s media empire, paving the way for the company to be sold to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.

Bronfman last week submitted a revised bid of $6 billion for National Amusements (run by Redstone) and a minority stake in Paramount, the Wall Street Journal reported.  He formally entered the fray last Monday with a $4.3 billion offer, hoping to scuttle plans for the business to be sold to Skydance.

But Skydance fought back, arguing that Bronfman violated the terms governing its own negotiations with the company.

Paramount Global consists of Paramount Pictures, CBS Entertainment Group (which includes CBS and CW networks), BET, VH1, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CMT and a whole lot more.

David Ellison is the ambitious 40-year-old son of Larry Ellison.

--Going back to the Democratic National Convention’s closing night and Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech, for the record, since the ratings came out after I posted last time, 26.2 million people tuned in, vs. Donald Trump’s 25.4 million for his speech in July.  Nielsen data does not include viewers who streamed the conventions on their phones or laptops.

Just as Fox News crushed its network rivals during the Republican convention, MSNBC was the clear winner for the DNC.  [I swear, I still haven’t tuned into MSNBC in decades.  It’s CNN or Fox News for moi, let alone I’m constantly reading other media sources...but not social media.  And that’s the truth.]

CNN did barely take the most coveted demographic – adults 25 to 54 years old.

--Those of us in the New York metropolitan area were fortunate to have two all-news radio stations...WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS...which have served the region for over 50 years.

WCBS-AM, after 57 years of delivering breaking crime news, political happenings, subway delays and terrific weather forecasts, ceased to exist last week.  Very sad.  This was my station, not WINS, and driving around, you could count on traffic and weather on the 8s....great for pending storms, for example.

Of course, when 9/11 hit, WCBS 880 was invaluable for months after.

But on the top of the hour, you got a terrific world news roundup from CBS News as well.  Picture how one of the traffic reporters, Tom Kaminski, had been filing his reports from up in  his chopper for 36 years.

The station relaunched as WHSQ-ESPN New York.  So, I’ve been trying to get used to WINS.  But at least we have that.

To everyone at WCBS-AM, thank you.  You will be missed.

--Jason and Travis Kelce are receiving a reported $100 million for their podcast, “New Heights,” via Amazon’s Wondery.  “New Heights” skyrocketed in popularity over the last year after Travis started dating Taylor Swift and shared details of their relationship on the program.

Note to self: Start dating the next Taylor Swift.

Foreign Affairs, Part II

China: The U.S. lashed out against Chinese activities in the South China Sea on Tuesday, pledging to “stand with” regional allies as repeated clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels heighten tensions in the vast, disputed waterway.

Rear Admiral Andrew Sugimoto, deputy commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, said the United States “unequivocally” condemned “aggressive” actions such as the ramming of vessels.

“China wants to be seen as a member of the world that has its set of rules and enforces it. But whenever they do things like ramming or water-cannoning unarmed vessels, it does not appear to be so,” Sugimoto said.

He also stressed U.S. resolve to team up with allies to counter China in maritime disputes, saying a growing number of countries were willing to work with the U.S. Coast Guard on this.

China then used 40 vessels to block a Philippine navy resupply mission – with ice cream – in the South China Sea, officials in Manila said on social media, with images.

There were six Chinese Coast Guard vessels, three Chinese warships, and 31 vessels in Beijing’s so-called “Maritime Militia.”  Just pathetic.

The U.S. Navy has said the idea of escorting Philippine ships “is an entirely reasonable option within our Mutual Defense Treaty,” as put forward by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo, speaking in Manila.

China’s embassy in Manila then condemned “irresponsible remarks” made by the Japanese envoy to the Philippines following recent collisions of vessels in the South China Sea.

“Every time there is an incident in the South China Sea, the Japanese ambassador to the Philippines is quick to make the high-profile statements that ignore the facts and wrongly blame China,” the embassy said in a statement published Thursday.

“We urge Japan to deeply reflect on its history, reconsider its actions, and contribute more to regional peace and stability, striving to become a truly independent and trustworthy nation,” it added.

Oh brother.

Japanese ambassador Endo Kazuya said in a post on X last weekend: “Any harassment and actions which increase tensions or obstruct freedom of navigation are not tolerated.”

--U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan landed in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit, the first time a U.S. national security adviser has been in China in eight years, this as tensions between the two show no sign of abating.

There are those saying Sullivan is laying the groundwork for another summit between President Biden and Xi Jinping, to which I’d reply, ‘Why?!’

Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and the two were expected to discuss multiple bilateral issue from Taiwan to the South China Sea, as well as the fentanyl crisis.  China’s alleged support for Russia’s defense industry through the transfer of dual-use goods for the Ukraine war was also to be on the table.

Sullivan then held a one-on-one with Xi, hours after emerging from a rare meeting with a top Chinese army general that he called “very important” for conflict management.

China’s most senior uniformed military official Zhang Youxia has described Taiwan as “the uncrossable first red line.”

Zhang told Sullivan Taiwan was “the heart of China’s core interests” as well as “the foundation of the political basis” and “the uncrossable first red line” of U.S.-China relations, according to an article posted on the Chinese defense ministry’s website on Thursday.

Zhang demanded that Washington stop its “military ties” with Taiwan, “stop arming Taiwan” and “stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan,” the website said.

“Resolutely opposing Taiwan independence and promoting reunification is the mission and duty of the People’s Liberation Army. We must respond to the reckless provocations of the Taiwan independence forces,” Zhang added.

Oh, shut up, General.  [See also Hong Kong.]

Xi had an opportunity to grill the architect of U.S. tech curbs on Washington’s global campaign to block China from advanced chips.  Beijing has accused America of trying to contain its economic rise with curbs that Biden says are aimed at ensuring national security.

Sullivan agreed with Wang Yi to set up a call between their two leaders in the coming weeks, as a prelude to a Xi-Biden meeting just days after the U.S. election, at multilateral events in Peru and Brazil that both have previously attended.

Wang called on Washington to stop suppressing China’s trade and technological development, calling U.S. claims of Chinese overcapacity an excuse for protectionism that hurts the world’s green transition, according to Beijing’s readout.

Sullivan raised concerns about China’s “unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices,” the White House said, referring to claims unfair state subsidies have given Chinese firms an advantage.

The two sides reached no new agreements on the South China Sea, and Sullivan told reporters, “We didn’t discuss the American election.”

--Speaking of Hong Kong, and why I could never travel there again without being taken into custody (or kidnapped...aka disappear), two veterans of Hong Kong’s news media scene who didn’t shy away from publishing pro-democracy voices on their Stand News site, even as China cranked up its national security clampdown to silence critics in the city, were then arrested, and 2 ½ years later, a judge Thursday convicted the two journalists – Chung Pui-Kuen and Patrick Lam – of conspiring to publish seditious materials on the now-defunct news outlet. Both face prison sentences.

There is no press freedom any longer in the city, with many foreign news organizations leaving, or moving out staff amid the increased scrutiny from the authorities.

--The Wall Street Journal reported “Chinese artificial-intelligence developers have found a way to use the most advanced American chips without bringing them to China.

“They are working with brokers to access computing power overseas, sometimes masking their identity using techniques from the cryptocurrency world.

“The tactic comes in response to U.S. export controls that have prevented Chinese companies from directly importing sought after AI chips developed by Nvidia.”

As one former bitcoin miner, Derek Aw, told the Journal, “There is demand. There is profit. Naturally someone will provide the supply.”

Aw’s company got investors in Dubai and the U.S. to fund the purchase of AI servers housing Nvidia’s powerful H100 chips, and soon, his company loaded more than 300 servers with the chips into a data center in Brisbane, Australia. Three weeks later, the servers were processing AI algorithms for a company in Beijing.

--Also from the Wall Street Journal:

“The breakup of a Chinese rocket following a satellite launch generated a fresh field of debris – and new concern over Beijing’s attitude toward space junk.

“The Long March 6A rocket, launched Aug. 6, was carrying the first batch of satellites that aim to form a rival system to Starlink, the satellite broadband service offered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. After releasing those satellites, the rocket broke up into hundreds of pieces, for reasons unknown.”

U.S. Space Command days later detected more than 300 pieces of debris in low-Earth orbit as a result.  The actual total could be closer to 700, making it one of the largest rocket breakups in history.

Neither the International Space Station, nor its Chinese counterpart, were in immediate danger.

--Lastly, according to scientists at China’s deep space exploration program, the best option to minimize the chance that an asteroid someday smashed into Earth – possibly wiping out life – is through the use of nuclear weapons.

“The potential risk of asteroid impacts is much higher than the assessment based on currently discovered asteroid data,” the team wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published this month in the Chinese academic journal Scientia Sinica Technologica.

According to the researchers, the technologies most urgently required include: rapid response ability to launch nuclear warheads from Earth to target asteroids within an ultra-narrow time window from seven days to one month; precise strike ability with a margin of error of less than 100 meters (328 feet) after long-distance flight; and long-term orbital deployment ability that allows nuclear warheads to be safely stored in space for more than 10 years.

In 2013, an asteroid impact damaged more than 5,000 buildings and injured at least 1,500 people in Russia. Scientists were not aware of the asteroid before it hit.

North Korea: Kim Jong Un called for an increase in the use of technology to carry out strikes and incorporating artificial intelligence into the weapons program, as Pyongyang unveiled new suicide attack drones.

“Kim Jong Un said that it is necessary to develop and produce more suicide drones of various types to be used in tactical infantry and special operation units,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday.  South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was the first time North Korea has unveiled its suicide attack drones.

Seoul received a wake-up call in 2022 when the North sent five UAVs across the border, including one that flew near President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office.  South Korea’s military tried and failed to shoot the devices down.  But one complicating factor was a reluctance to fire munitions in heavily populated areas.

Mexico: Washington’s ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, was upbraided by Mexican President Andreas Manuel Lopez-Obrador (AMLO), Lopez Obrador saying Salazar behaved disrespectfully by criticizing the nation’s plans to reform its judiciary.

Mexico doesn’t accept foreign interference in its affairs, AMLO said, after Salazar warned the government’s proposal for judges to be elected is a threat to its democracy.

“Lately, there have been acts of disrespect, such as this unfortunate and imprudent statement made by Ambassador Ken Salazar yesterday, and a diplomatic note of condemnation has already been issued,” the president said during his daily press conference.

Last Thursday, Salazar said drug cartels will find it easier to infiltrate Mexico’s judiciary if a plan to have all judges elected by popular vote is approved, the core objective of Lopez Obrador’s judicial reform proposal being discussed in Congress.

Mary Anastasia O’Grady / Wall Street Journal

“In a report subtitled ‘Downgrade Mexico to Underweight,’ Morgan Stanley Research warned last week that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s proposed constitutional reform of the judiciary is expected to increase the country’s risk premium and limit capital expenditures.  ‘That’s a problem as nearshoring is reaching key bottlenecks,’ the bank said.

“It’s far from the only problem facing investors. There’s also the fiscal hangover from the spending binge Mr. Lopez Obrador went on this year so his Morena party could win the June 2 presidential and congressional elections.  More government largess is built in to the president’s other constitutional reforms. He also proposes amendments that will violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“Investors are backing away....

“The new Congress will convene Sept. 1 and Mr. Lopez Obrador will step down Oct. 1.  He has pledged to use his last month in office to make his antimarket reforms law.  He calls it democracy, but it looks more like mobocracy.”

It’s complicated, but the 500 seats in the lower house of Congress are not all directly elected, and  AMLO has manipulated the allocation of seats to in effect give himself the 2/3s necessary to rewrite the constitution.  There is to be a ruling on the awarding of the other seats, and AMLO controls the tribunal issuing such a ruling.

O’Grady:

“Opponents of one-party rule across the ideological spectrum are alarmed.  Mexican leftist intellectual Roger Bartra, writing in El Universal on Aug. 18, dubbed it ‘a scam’ that is likely to lead the frail, nascent democracy into authoritarianism.”

Venezuela: At least 2,400 government critics are in jail on charges including terrorism and face prison terms of up to 25 years of hard labor in what authorities are calling “re-education centers.”

Strongman Nicolas Maduro is moving fast to crush civil society and political dissidents since he claimed victory in a July 28 election that the international community agrees was stolen, as the opposition first stated in providing evidence from polling stations, saying Maduro lost in a landslide.  In response, Maduro is removing the last vestiges of civil liberties that had distinguished Venezuela from dictatorships with which it has allied itself, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia.

“He’s resorted to just accusing everyone of being a fascist and locking them up,” said Carlos Correa, head of the Venezuelan free-speech group Public Space.  “The tone of the policy now is more radical, more hardline, more confrontational than ever before.”

Last week, Maduro’s handpicked Supreme Court reaffirmed the president as the winner of the election but didn’t provide evidence.

Leaders of the opposition have been doing all they can to flee over the porous Colombian border.

The U.S. has drawn up a list of 60 Venezuelan officials and their relatives who could be sanctioned.  The list includes members of the regime’s electoral council, its Supreme Court and “counterintelligence police” involved in the crackdown against democracy. 

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“But greater pain would come if Treasury pulls Chevron’s license for bringing oil out of Venezuela and bans companies that do business with the regime from doing business in the U.S. Venezuelan production is so low today that global oil output will hardly be affected. But tough sanctions out of Washington would be a disaster for Mr. Maduro’s bottom line.

“Word has it that the White House is worried that sanctions would spur greater migration.  But if Mr. Maduro hangs on it’s likely to be worse.  People who have stuck around for years under his failed government aren’t suddenly leaving because of poverty. They’re giving up on a better future at home. The way to stem the outflow is to restore freedom.

“The time for negotiating is past.  Dictators aren’t known for relinquishing power democratically and Mr. Maduro is no exception.”

Afghanistan: I have expressed my views on the withdrawal from Afghanistan many, many times, and said when it happened, that even just seven months into the Biden presidency, it cemented Joe Biden as being one of the worst presidents in American history.  You can look it up.  I totally stand by that.

Just last week I wrote of the consequences of allowing the Taliban to take over Kabul and what it meant for all the Afghan girls/women now deprived of a basic education.  It did not have to be this way! It was so easy to keep at least Kabul as a safe zone and have a better eye on terrorism writ large in the region...not the ‘over the horizon’ bullshit we’ve been fed by the administration.

Monday was the third anniversary of the terrorist bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 Americans trying to defend the chaotic withdrawal.

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“The Vice President praised the dead servicemen and women.  ‘Today and everyday, I mourn and honor them,’ she said in a statement.

“But if she has any regrets about President Biden’s policy, she isn’t sharing them.  ‘As I have said,’ Ms. Harris noted, ‘President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war.’

“It’s good to know what she thinks, but it doesn’t reflect well on her judgment as a potential Commander in Chief.  The withdrawal decision was arguably the worst of Mr. Biden’s Presidency, as he ignored the advice of nearly all of his advisers that a date-certain, total retreat would likely result in the collapse of the Afghan government and a Taliban takeover.  Keeping a few thousand troops in support of the Afghan forces could have prevented the catastrophe and its consequences.

“Listen to retired Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, who was in charge of Central Command at the time of the Afghan fiasco, speaking recently on the School of War podcast:

“Host Aaron MacLean: ‘What do you think the consequences are broadly of the collapse and us not being there?’

“Gen. McKenzie: ‘Well, I think on several levels, I think Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was directly driven by this.  I think the Chinese were emboldened as a result of it.  I think that more operationally, I think ISIS-K flourishes now in Afghanistan.  The attack in Moscow just a few months ago is only a sign of things to come.

“ ‘Our ability to actually look into Afghanistan, understand what goes on in Afghanistan, is such a small percentage of what it used to be that it is effectively zero.  So we predicted these things will happen, these things are happening.  Our ability to, again, apply leverage here is quite limited.’

“Mr. Biden was indeed warned about all of this – and so was Ms. Harris if she was in the White House Situation Room as she likes to say she has been for all of this Administration’s major security decisions. The needless deaths of those 13 Americans were the worst result, but the withdrawal also marked the end of Mr. Biden’s ability to deter adversaries around the world.

“That Ms. Harris now embraces this failure suggests more of the same ahead if she wins in November.”

The Journal editorial didn’t mention the plight of Afghan women, and it should have repeated, as it has in the past, that Donald Trump was hardly blameless in this fiasco as he called for the full withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was the wrong policy.  But he at least temporarily listened to his generals to allow the residual force that was keeping the peace in Kabul and giving us needed intelligence on what was happening in the terror-ridden frontier of this mess of a country, through our presence at Bagram Air Force Base.

Random Musings

--Presidential approval ratings....

Gallup: 43% approve of President Biden’s job performance, 53% disapprove; 37% of independents approve (Aug. 1-20).

Rasmussen: 43% approve, 55% disapprove (Aug. 29).

--The latest Reuters/Ipsos national poll shows Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 45% to 41%.  The 4-point advantage among registered voters was wider than a 1-point lead Harris held in a late July Reuters/Ipsos survey.

Harris led Trump by 49% to 36% among both women and Hispanic voters, greater than leads Harris had in July.

Trump led among white voters and men, both by similar margins as in July, though his lead among voters without a college degree narrowed to 7 points in the latest survey, down from 14 points in July.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign on Aug. 23, while the poll was still being conducted, had the support of 6% of voters in the survey.

--A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University national poll found Harris with a 48%-43% lead over Trump.  Without rounding, the margin is closer, 47.6% to 43.3%.

Voters 18 to 34 years old moved from supporting Trump by 11 points to supporting Harris by 13 points, 49%-36% since the last survey in June.

Hispanics moved from supporting Trump by 2 points to supporting Harris by 16 points, 53%-37%.

Black voters moved from supporting Biden by 47 points to supporting Harris by 64 points, 76%-12%.

--A new Wall Street Journal national poll, conducted after the Democratic National Convention, has Harris with a 48% to 47% lead.  She leads by 2 points, 47% to 45%, on a ballot including independent and third-party candidates.

The poll marked the first time that the Democratic candidate led Trump head-to-head in any Journal survey dating to April of last year.  Trump had a 2-point advantage over Harris in the Journal’s head-to-head test in late July.

The poll finds little evidence that Trump has succeeded so far in his efforts to tarnish Harris, which have included labeling her agenda of targeted aid for families and new home buyers as “communist” and arguing that she deserves the same poor marks that President Biden earns from voters on handling the economy and immigration.

--A Fox News survey of four battleground states has Kamala Harris improving on Joe Biden’s 2024 election numbers, driven by support among women, Black voters and young voters.  In addition, while Trump leads on top issues, like the economy, more voters see Harris as the one who can unite the country – and who will “fight for people like you.”

The survey included registered voters in the four states, post-Democratic National Convention and just after RFK Jr. dropped out and endorsed Trump.

Arizona...50-49 Harris
Georgia...50-48 Harris
Nevada...50-48 Harris
North Carolina...50-49 Trump

In past Fox News surveys, Biden trailed Trump in each state: by 5 points in both Arizona and Nevada (June), by 6 in Georgia (April) and by 5 points in North Carolina (February).

Overall, in an average of the four states, Harris is ahead by a single point, 50% to 49%.

Harris receives 79% support among Black voters, 56% among Hispanics, 55% among those under age 30 and 51% among voters ages 65 and over. These numbers represent an improvement on Biden’s numbers in the Sun Belt states and approach what he ultimately achieved in 2020, according to Fox News’ Vote Analysis election survey.

Women prefer Harris by 11 points, and men back Trump by 11.

Trump is at 77% among White evangelical Christians, down from 83%.  Yet his support among Black voters has nearly tripled, from 7% to 19%.

When third-party candidates Chase Oliver, Jill Stein and Cornel West are included, Harris keeps her 1-point margin over Trump, 48% to 47%.  Notably, three out of four voters with a favorable view of Kennedy back Trump.

--A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of the seven battleground states most likely to decide the race, conducted after the Democratic National Convention, found Harris leading or tied with Trump.  Across the seven states, overall, she leads by 2 points among registered voters, and by 1 point, a statistical tie, among likely voters.

Arizona...48-48
Georgia...49-47 Harris
Michigan...49-46 Harris
Nevada...49-45 Harris
North Carolina...49-47 Harris
Pennsylvania...51-47 Harris
Wisconsin...52-44 Harris

As we’ve learned the last few election cycles, the polls can be very wrong, but I’m just presenting what I come across as part of the historical record.

--Vice President Harri’s campaign and its affiliates raised $82 million during the Democratic convention in Chicago last week, pushing their total fundraising haul to $540 million since President Biden announced he’d step aside.

--Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump on Friday is best understood as a double-edged political sword. It may help the former President in battleground states, but the price could be high if it includes putting Mr. Kennedy in a second Trump Administration.

“The Kennedy scion’s endorsement remarks included a scathing attack on Democrats for the way they treated him as a candidate.  It’s clear that he and his running mate, Nicole Sheridan, feel Democrats played dirty in trying to keep them off state ballots and limit their reach on social-media platforms. In that sense Democrats can blame themselves for the endorsement since Mr. Kennedy might have dropped out and not endorsed either candidate.

“It’s hard to judge the endorsement’s electoral impact. RFK Jr. has lost about half of his standing in the polls since President Biden dropped out of the race. Most of those voters seem to be disgruntled Democrats who are now returning home for Kamala Harris.

“That means the 5% or so of voters who continue to back him are probably more inclined to support Mr. Trump, if they bother to vote.  The Trump campaign argued in a memo on Friday that there are enough of these voters to make a decisive difference in states like Arizona and Georgia, where Mr. Biden won narrowly in 2020.  In a close election they may be right.

“Mr. Kennedy also said Mr. Trump plans to ‘enlist’ him in government if he wins in November, and that’s the potential rub. RFK Jr. hits some populist notes that Mr. Trump also supports, such as opposition to tech platform censorship and skepticism about the Ukraine war.

“But the former Democrat lives in the fever swamps with his anti-vaccination views, his support for an extreme climate agenda, and his belief that American health ills are largely the result of collusion between big business and government regulators. He’s also the guy who admitted recently to dumping a dead bear in New York’s Central Park. If RFK Jr. is anywhere near the healthcare or environmental agencies in a Trump Administration, look out.

“Mr. Trump’s best response is to thank RFK Jr. for his support, make no promises about the future, and by all means avoid joint campaign appearances.”

Trump then named RFK Jr. and former congresswoman and one-time Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard, as honorary co-chairs of a presidential transition team that will help him select the policies and personnel of any second Trump administration.

--Donald Trump made an appearance at a section of border wall in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, last Thursday, calling the structure “the Rolls-Royce of walls,” while Border Patrol union leader Paul Perez called the unused segments lying to his left the “Kamala wall.”

Turns out the finished segment was built during the administration of Barack Obama.  “Trump added the unfinished expansion up the hillside, an engineering challenge that cost at least $35 million a mile. The unused panels of 30-foot beams were procured during the Trump administration and never erected,” as reported by the Washington Post.

“Where you were, that was kind of a joke today,” John Ladd, a Trump supporter whose ranch extends along the border, said while driving the dirt road along the barrier, the gapped panels making a flipbook out of the shrubby trees and grass on the other side.  “Had to be in front of Trump’s wall, but you went to Montezuma, and that’s Obama’s wall.”

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the barrier next to Thursday’s campaign stop was built during the Obama administration.

In July, illegal border crossings, which rose to record levels during the Biden administration, declined to the lowest levels in almost four years, after the administration enacted sweeping measures to limit asylum access.  Just incredible that the same administration stupidly didn’t put the measures in place even two years earlier.  That’s what Kamala Harris should be grilled on.

--Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment of Donald Trump in the case alleging conspiracy to obstruct the results of the 2020 election – a move that follows a historic Supreme Court ruling granting broad immunity to presidents for officials acts and comes just before an election period window was about to close on filing such charges.

In about 10 days, now seven, a Justice Department policy known as “the 60-day rule” will take effect forestalling any new filing of charges against the former president, running for high office again.

In a written notice to the court, Smith said the indictment was filed “by a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case” and that it “reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions.”

Smith said he will not seek to have Trump arraigned again on the new version of the four-count indictment, and still expects to make a joint proposal later this week about how to schedule a new set of pretrial hearings.

The original 45-page indictment was reduced to 36 pages, after prosecutors removed a series of allegations that the Supreme Court’s supermajority said were wrongly filed.  Specifically, those allegations related to an effort by Trump in late 2020 to make the Justice Department support his false claims of potential voter fraud.

That means Trump is no longer charged with trying to force his Justice Department to conduct sham election fraud investigations and to urge state legislators to meet and choose fraudulent electors over the legitimate ones.  The Supreme Court ruled that interactions between a president and his Justice Department would be considered an official presidential act that is immune from prosecution.

The indictment instead tries to underscore more clearly that Trump and his co-conspirators (now five, not the original six) allegedly acted in their unofficial capacities.  Trump is still facing charges related to his efforts to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, into throwing the election his way during the Jan. 6 certification proceeding at the Capitol.

Trump responded on Truth Social Tuesday.

“In an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt in Washington, D.C., in an act of desperation, and in order to save face, the illegally appointed ‘Special Counsel’ Deranged Jack Smith, has brought a ridiculous new indictment against me, which has all the problems of the old indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote.

“His Florida Documents Hoax Case has been completely dismissed. This is merely an attempt to INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTION, and distract the American People from the catastrophes Kamala Harris has inflicted on our Nation, like the Border Invasion, Migrant Crimes, Rampant Inflation, the threat of World War III, and more,” Trump said.

--Special Counsel Smith also told an appeals court Monday that U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s decision to dismiss Donald Trump’s classified documents case should be reversed, arguing that Attorney General Merrick Garland had clear authority to appoint Smith to lead the prosecution.

Smith wrote that Cannon ignored decades of precedent when she issued her stunning decision to toss out the entire indictment, concluding that Smith was wrongfully appointed and wielded too much power for someone who was not in a Senate-confirmed position.

The ruling halted what was considered by many lawyers to be the strongest criminal case against Trump as he again seeks the White House.

For decades, Smith argued in Monday’s court filing, attorneys general have appointed special counsels, and court after court has upheld those appointments as valid.

--Islamic State claimed responsibility Saturday for a knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed three people and wounded eight others the day before at a music festival.

The group said the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the attack “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

A 26-year-old Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany then turned himself into police early Sunday, saying he was responsible.

--A ship carrying crude oil that caught fire after being attacked in the Red Sea by the Houthis, as I wrote last time, could lead to a massive ecological disaster, the European Union’s naval force in the region said last Saturday, stating the vessel now poses “a significant environmental threat” due to the large volume of oil on board.

The U.S. State Department said in a separate statement: “The Houthis’ continued attacks threaten to spill a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, an amount four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster.”

--Cases of Mpox are ripping through central Africa, killing “hundreds” and infecting thousands.  So worried is the rest of the world that countries are intensely monitoring their borders for the fast-spreading virus that has been assigned the World Health Organization’s highest level of alert.

--It’s the back half of winter in Australia, but blistering heat impacted large parts of the country.  The continent observed its highest wintertime temperature ever on Monday, soaring to 107 degrees (41.6 Celsius) in Yampi Sound on its desolate northwest coast.

There has been an extensive winter heat wave in both the north and south. Southern Australia endured its highest winter maximum temperature (101.3 F) and its warmest overnight low (74.8 F) last weekend.

The hottest Augusts in Australia have all occurred since 2000.

--Washington, D.C., saw a record air temp of 101 on Wednesday, the latest it has hit 100 here since Sept. 2, 1980.

Tuesday was Chicago’s hottest day of the summer, the heat index climbing to 115 (air temp a record high of 99).

--The wildfires that ravaged Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced more planet-warming carbon emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in all but three countries, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

Only China, the U.S., and India produced more emissions from fossil fuels than the Canadian fires.

The wildfires call into question how much carbon the forests will absorb in the future, scientists said. That, in turn, makes it necessary to reconsider calculations of how much more greenhouse gas humans can add to the atmosphere without pushing temperatures beyond current global targets.

Canada’s fires this year have been at a more normal level.

--The 2024 hurricane season is not going as predicted – just yet.

Through the week, just five named storms in the Atlantic basin.  The last time there was no named storm activity in the Atlantic from Aug. 21 to Sept. 2 was 1997.

All preseason forecasts called for a very active season in the Atlantic, with many predicting a “hyperactive” season.

But it’s still early. Some forecasters are expecting things to heat up second half of September as dry air gives way to more wet and humid weather in the tropics.

--If you still have some Boar’s Head lunchmeat products in your fridge, just understand the death toll from listeria that comes from the company’s vaunted meats has hit nine, according to the CDC.  At least 57 others have been hospitalized in the outbreak that started in late May.  It’s the largest listeria outbreak in the U.S. since 2011.

The outbreak has been traced to a plant in Virginia, that inspectors have said was filled with mold and insects.

--As alluded to above, NASA announced Saturday that a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will bring home two NASA astronauts who have remained on board the International Space Station for about 80 days because of issues plaguing the Boeing Starliner spacecraft – marking a stunning turn of events for beleaguered Boeing.

The news came after the space agency’s formal review to determine whether it would deem Boeing’s Starliner vehicle safe enough to return home with its crew – or if SpaceX’s workhorse Crew Dragon spacecraft would have to step in to save the day.

The Starliner vehicle, which carried astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the space station in early June, suffered setbacks with helium leaks and thrusters that abruptly stopped working on the initial leg of its crewed test flight.  Engineers have spent weeks trying to understand what went wrong, and if the spacecraft was safe enough to bring Williams and Wilmore back and the answer was most depressing for Boeing, and the astronauts, who will remain on latrine duty until February, at the earliest.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson, a former U.S. senator (who became the second sitting member of Congress to fly in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia), said NASA considered its extensive experience with spaceflight – both successful and unsuccessful – when making the decision.

“We have had mistakes done in the past: We lost two space shuttles* as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward,” he said.  “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine.”

*Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986; Columbia came apart as it returned to Earth in 2003.  Seven died on each spacecraft.

SpaceX is already slated to execute a routine mission to the International Space Station, carrying four astronauts as part of standard crew rotations aboard the orbiting laboratory. But the mission, called Crew-9, will now be reconfigured to carry two astronauts on board instead of four.

That adjustment leaves two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the Crew-9 flight home.

Starliner, however, is flying home empty, probably early September, and hopefully without incident.  NASA will then be faced with the decision of granting Starliner official certification for human spaceflight – a step that would set up the vehicle to make routine trips to orbit – despite the fact that it did not complete its mission as intended.

NASA wants two options, and funded SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner at the same time in 2014.  Crew Dragon has been in operation for four years, while the Starliner program is hundreds of millions over budget and years behind schedule.

Boeing had software issues with two uncrewed test flights, 2019 and 2022, and the company has recorded $1.5 billion in losses thus far, spurring recurrent rumors that Boeing may not see the Starliner program through.

Nelson said Saturday that he spoke to Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg about Starliner’s status.

“I told him how well Boeing worked with our team to come to this decision,” Nelson said, “and he expressed to me an intention that they will continue to work (on) the problems once Starliner is back safely and that we will have our redundancy and our crewed access to the space station.”

--Lastly, an Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with former President Trump’s staff during a wreath-laying ceremony but declined to press charges, an Army spokesman said Thursday.

A statement said the cemetery employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying were following the rules.

“The employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the statement said.  The Army said it considered the matter closed.

The defense official said the Trump campaign was warned about not taking photographs in Section 60 before their arrival and the altercation.  Section 60 is the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump was at Arlington on Monday at the invitation of some of the families of the 13 service members who were killed in the Kabul airport bombing exactly three years prior.

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the cemetery official’s statement said.  “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.  But the loathsome Cheung said:

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” he said.

The incident should have ended with the campaign issuing an apology for ‘unknowingly breaking the rules and any videos and photos taken will be removed from any campaign-related activity,’ whether this was the actual case or not.  That would have been it. 

But of course it didn’t end there.

Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, said:

“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed.  “Whoever this individual is, spreading these false lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces.”

Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris, said the reports of the altercation were “what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump and his team.”

Because the incident didn’t end as I offered it could have, the Army on Thursday was forced to defend the staff member who found herself in the confrontation with two men working for the Trump campaign, saying in a statement that she “acted with professionalism” and her reputation has been “unfairly attacked” by the former president’s representatives.

The Army refused to identify the woman due to concerns about her safety.

But the Army said staff had laid out guidelines in advance of the visit that included no official photography during the event in Section 60.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” the Army said.  “ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”

Yours truly has been to Arlington countless times.  In the days when I was on Wall Street and I had a lunch meeting in Washington before flying back to Newark and my home, I made sure I had time to visit Arlington before I went on to Reagan National.

This is an example of what I wrote in this space...back on May 3, 2008.

“Finally, I went to Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday to pay my respects as I always do when in town. I ended up more or less following a group of ten Army Rangers around, who were taking their own tour. There were tons of schoolchildren and it was good to see them ogling our heroes. A few times I wanted to chat one of the Rangers up and offer my thanks for their service, but then the kids got in between, which was alright.  A more impressive group of Americans, representing all races, you never did see.

“So after catching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown, I split off from the crowd to seek out Section 60, where they are burying the dead of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Roughly 10 percent of the total who have died in the wars are buried at Arlington and Section 60 is certainly not on any formal tours as yet.

“I mention this because of the thousands of tourists on the grounds Thursday, at least at that moment I was the only one taking a long walk away from the main area to find it.  Along the way I heard taps played twice for two services taking place elsewhere on the grounds. There are often 8 to 10 burials a day at Arlington after all. And then I got to Section 60.

“I have to admit I wanted to see where Paul Smith is buried, Sergeant First Class Smith being the first Medal of Honor recipient of the Iraq War for his actions on April 4, 2003, when he led a battle against over 100 of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard near Baghdad International Airport. The three dozen men Smith commanded were far outnumbered and surprised.  As noted during the award ceremony two years later, ‘From a completely exposed position, (Smith) killed as many as 50 enemy soldiers as he protected his men. Sergeant Smith’s leadership saved the men in the courtyard, and he prevented an enemy attack on the aid station just up the road.  His actions saved the lives of more than 100 American soldiers.’  Smith was shot in the head in the same battle.

“Alas, I was naïve to think Section 60 was like the other parts of Arlington, with walkways and markers.  Let’s pray someday soon that it will be because that would signify a greatly reduced rate of casualties and hopefully the end of the war.

“What I did see, though, were two services, one about to start, the other, far away, having wrapped up. Those in attendance were standing around in a muddy area, it having begun to rain on a day it wasn’t supposed to, and I can’t imagine what their thoughts were. I saw a young woman in black walking away with her cute little kid and instead of heading to a car, parked along the road, or one of the buses that the Army had made available, the two of them just walked over this muddy field and it was as if they disappeared.  Needless to say, it was a depressing moment.

“I also felt like I was intruding by being there (though you can imagine I was as respectful as possible and kept my distance) and I didn’t have the opportunity to try and find Sergeant Smith’s marker.  Next time, because the likes of Paul Smith must never be forgotten, and they won’t as long as I’m alive.”

---

Pray for the men and women of our armed forces...and all the fallen.

Pray for Ukraine.

God bless America.

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Gold $2534...hit new highs of $2560 earlier in week
Oil $73.45

Bitcoin: $58,784 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]...crappy week...down $4,800

Regular Gas: $3.37; Diesel: $3.71 [$3.84 - $4.35 yr. ago]

Returns for the week 8/26-8/30

Dow Jones +0.9%  [41563]
S&P 500  +0.2%  [5648]
S&P MidCap  -0.1%
Russell 2000  -0.1%
Nasdaq  -0.9%  [17713]

Returns for the period 1/1/24-8/30/24

Dow Jones  +10.3%
S&P 500  +18.4%
S&P MidCap  +11.1%
Russell 2000  +9.4%
Nasdaq  +18.0%

Bulls 53.2
Bears 22.6

Hang in there.

Brian Trumbore

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