Trump Watch, 09/08/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Scapegoats for Federal Crises.” (09/08/26)
The Advantage of the Stronger
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Polet
“More is at stake in the US-Canada trade war than just tariffs and revenue.” (09/08/26)
Americans’ satisfaction with schools at a low point, new Gallup poll shows
Source: SFGate
“Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the country has hit a low point, driven by a growing political divide and concerns that schools are not preparing children for college and future jobs. Just 32% of American adults say they are ‘completely’ or ‘somewhat’ satisfied with the U.S. school system, according to an August poll published Tuesday by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation and shared exclusively with The Associated Press. That’s an 11-point drop over the past two years and the lowest since Gallup began polling on the subject 27 years ago. At the same time, dissatisfaction has increased to a high of 67%. Experts on education and school policy say the findings are deeply concerning but not surprising. Democrats are driving the recent slide, with their satisfaction dropping about 19 points since President Donald Trump’s second term began in 2025.” (09/08/26)
Did Bin Laden Defeat America?
Source: The American Conservative
by David Brady
“According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, the military interventions we collectively know as the Global War on Terror (GWOT) led to the deaths of over 900,000 people and cost the United States more than $8 trillion. Afghanistan and Iraq ended in failure. Most Americans (at least, those not named Marc Thiessen or Bill Kristol) believe that the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East were a mistake. Indeed, this was a major part of Donald Trump’s initial appeal: ‘They lied,’ he said of the GWOT’s architects in 2016. We are now a quarter of a century on from the horrific events of September 11. And looking back, it is more important than ever to understand what caused them, and why bin Laden seemed to have gotten what he wanted out of the attacks.” (09/08/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/did-bin-laden-defeat-america/
New Panama Canal chief says El Nino could force further transit cuts
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“The number of ships sailing through the Panama Canal could be cut further due to drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern, the new administrator of the waterway said on Monday. Panama has declared a nationwide emergency over El Nino, a phenomenon developing over the Pacific Ocean that is affecting worldwide weather patterns and pushing up global temperatures. This year’s El Nino is expected to be the strongest since record-keeping began four decades ago. Panama’s restrictions come even as use of the canal has risen …. Each ship requires about 200 million litres of water, which is then discharged into the sea. In 2023, El Nino forced a reduction in daily transits from 38 to 22 due to the dramatic reduction in reservoir levels.” (09/08/26)
Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/07/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Saudi Strike on Yemen Prison Kills 7, US, Japan, South Korea Start Military Drills, and More.” (09/07/26)
Help Workers by Breaking Down Barriers to Labor Mobility
Source: Reason
by Ily Somin
“Labor Day is a great time to remember that we can make workers vastly better off by empowering more of them to vote with their feet, both within countries and through international migration.” (09/07/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/07/help-workers-by-breaking-down-barriers-to-labor-mobility-4/
The Democratic Chicken, or the Socialist Egg?
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson
“The primaries are over, and the November general election looms. Suddenly, the Islamo-socialist podcaster Hasan Piker (who is now infamous for blaming America for 9/11 and warning Jews that ‘someone’s going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews’) is persona non grata on the Democratic stump. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in the Michigan Senate race, once enlisted Piker to jump-start his lethargic candidacy. Now that he is locked in a close general-election race against a strong Republican, El-Sayed dismisses the antisemite, who has suddenly outlived his usefulness, as a mere ‘social media person in California’. Clinton-era Democratic politicos like Rahm Emanuel and James Carville insist that Democrats have ‘divorced’ themselves from the hard-left Democratic Socialists. Really? If that divorce were real, why would so many Democrats be cheering a potential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presidential run in 2028?” (09/08/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/08/the-democratic-chicken-or-the-socialist-egg/
Report Says UAE Explicitly Warned Netanyahu of October 7 Attack
Source: Common Dreams
“Policy experts in the US and Middle East on Tuesday were among those responding to an “astonishing” new investigation from Haaretz, which detailed how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was alerted weeks before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack that a ‘major event’ was being planned by the Palestinian group – an assault that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and which Israel has responded to by slaughtering more than 73,000 Palestinians so far in Gaza. Highlighting revelations contained in an upcoming book called Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment, by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, the Israeli newspaper reported that Netanayahu dismissed a warning about the attack from United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, which came in a phone call in September 2023.” (09/08/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/did-netanyahu-know-about-oct-7
Not stopping 9/11 was catastrophic but bigger mistakes came later
Source: Asia Times
by Greg Barton
“In September 2026 we live in a world of uncertainty and change. Geopolitics, technology and the physical world are experiencing rapid transformation that fascinates and terrifies in equal measure. Much of this would have occurred without September 11, but there is a sense in which that day changed all these things. The collapse of 80 years of global order cannot be said to have simply resulted from the world’s biggest terror attack, but it certainly played a role in triggering a series of responses that changed all the nations involved. Could the September 11 attacks have been foreseen and prevented? Absolutely. … One clear way the September 11 attacks changed the world was as a catalyst for a decades-long global ‘War on Terror.’ This war never had a clear strategic plan or an agreed endpoint.” (09/07/26)
https://asiatimes.com/2026/09/not-stopping-9-11-was-catastrophic-but-bigger-mistakes-came-later/