Source: Politico
“The EU’s General Court has rejected Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich’s challenge to sanctions imposed on him following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, upholding asset freezes and travel restrictions against the billionaire. The Council of the EU acted within its powers when it extended the measures against the billionaire former owner of Chelsea Football Club in 2022 through September 2025 and March 2026, judges ruled, according to a statement issued by the Court on Wednesday. Abramovich, who holds Russian, Israeli and Portuguese nationality, is the majority shareholder in Evraz, one of Russia’s largest steel and mining groups. He also owns shares in Norilsk Nickel, a major producer of palladium and refined nickel. The EU Court said the bloc’s sanctions criteria were objective, sufficiently precise and proportionate. They target prominent businesspeople operating in Russia, particularly those active in sectors that provide significant revenue to the Russian government.” (09/09/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-court-hands-another-defeat-to-abramovich-in-fight-against-sanctions/
Source: The Dispatch
“Telephone Killed the Convention | Interview: Chris Stirewalt.” (09/09/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/telephone-killed-the-convention-interview-chris-stirewalt/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Norman Solomon
“A quarter-century has passed since the terrorist attack that killed almost 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. During the first seven years after that mass atrocity, Pentagon spending doubled. The aftermath of 9/11 was also a huge boost for ‘the intelligence community.’ Despite – and because of – their failure to prevent the carnage on that day, the CIA and the National Security Agency as well as 14 smaller spy agencies boomed with enormous jolts of funds. Along the way, some line items paid for torture that persisted during the George W. Bush presidency under the euphemism of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.'” (09/09/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/solomon/2026/09/08/25-years-ago-9-11-triggered-a-us-crusade-of-torture/
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Why It’s So Hard to Make Sense of These Midterms (with Chris Cillizza).” (09/08/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/why-its-so-hard-to-make-sense-of
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Daniel L Davis
“On November 12, 2024, I went on NBC News when Hegseth had been announced as Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense and argued that Hegseth might be just what we need, instead of another standard military-industrial-complex ‘veteran’ who never met a war he didn’t like. But I included two key caveats in my support. First, I argued that he had to be different from his predecessors and not just be a yes-man who prosecutes wars even if a sober analysis reveals we could not win them. Second, I warned that if we continued to support other wars and saw our stocks of key weapons systems plummet – especially missiles – he had to tell the president we could not go down that path (as it would put our own national security in unnecessary peril). Hegseth violated both of those warnings.” (09/09/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-hegseth/
Source: Los Angeles Times
“In the 19th century and much of the 20th century, the quadrennial party conventions were indispensable pieces of political technology. I mean that literally. Traditionally, conventions were where party stakeholders — elected officials, party bosses, etc. — chose the nominee. Factions representing regions, interests, even ideas (how quaint!) would debate and horse-trade with each other, sometimes over days of voting, to name someone the party could get behind. That system started to atrophy in the 1930s, as Michael Barone, the great political analyst, has argued, because of the telephone. … Polling, and then television, further sapped away the function of conventions. … party conventions essentially became infomercials ratifying a fait accompli. The brokered convention — even the prospect for one — is gone now, replaced by a coronation. But at least the coronation still serves a purpose. It’s still a necessary function of our electoral system. A boring, intelligence-insulting, performative function, but a function all the same. This midterm ‘convention’ isn’t even that.” (09/09/26)
https://archive.is/Lf5T5
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen & Zachary Groz
“On the day that the Trump administration announced the importation of 300,000 metric tons of ground beef without tariffs in an attempt to reduce current sky-high retail prices, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its monthly Cattle on Feed Report, which showed growth in the amount of cattle on feedlots but at much lower percentages than estimated. Placements were also historically tight, at the lowest level for July in 30 years. What this means in layman’s terms is that ranchers should have been able to earn higher prices for heads of cattle, since supply was at a premium, for the first time in a while. After decades of falling profitability, over half of cattle ranches have shuttered in the U.S.” (09/09/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/09/trump-meat-cattle-ranchers-beef/
Source: Houston Chronicle
“Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USA Facts shows that while mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, it’s also higher than it was at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, underscoring how his recent attempts to dismantle the federal bureaucracy may have affected public confidence in the executive branch, particularly among Democrats. … About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have low trust in information from the federal government about the environment, foreign affairs, elections and politics, abortion or immigration — saying they trust it ‘only a little’ or ‘not at all.'” (09/09/26)
https://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/mistrust-of-us-government-information-is-rising-22423404.php
Source: Show-Me Institute
“A Better Way to Teach History with Jon Bassett and Gary Shiffman.” (09/09/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/a-better-way-to-teach-history-with-jon-bassett-and-gary-shiffman/
Source: The Dispatch
by Stephen Richer
“On Sunday, the Trump administration made its third appeal in less than six weeks to the Supreme Court, seeking to move ahead with implementing a role for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in overseeing mail ballots as some blue states try to block it. … There’s been lots of talk about election law, the president’s powers, whether the postal service can actually execute the role the president has tasked it with, and whether election administrators could handle the last-minute change. But overlooked in all the discussions is the fact that the administration is pursuing a change that will do nothing to make our elections more secure.” (09/09/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/postal-service-mail-ballots-trump-administration-supreme-court/
