A new Wason Center poll in Virginia finds Abigail Spanberger (D) leading Winsome Earle Sears (R) in the governor’s race by 12 points, 52% to 40% among likely voters.
Another 8% remain undecided or don’t know.
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Democrats Barrel Towards a Shutdown with No Endgame
“Democrats are gearing up to reject a GOP stopgap funding bill and potentially spark a government shutdown. What happens then, no one seems to know,” Politico reports.
“Two weeks ahead of the key deadline, party leaders are staking out a rhetorical hard line demanding that their Republican counterparts come to the negotiating table to discuss concessions on health care and other issues.”
When Law Doesn’t Matter
Matthew Segal: “When companies or institutions cave to Trump despite the law being on their side, they are not misunderstanding the law; they are making an educated guess that the U.S. is heading in a direction where, in practice, the law won’t matter.”
Quote of the Day
“Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.”
— Mehdi Hasan, on Bluesky.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Is a Wake-Up Call
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Flashback Quote of the Day
“Should the government censor speech it doesn’t like? Of course not. The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the ‘public interest.'”
— FCC chair Brendan Carr, quoted by Deadline back in 2019.
Satisfaction with American Education Hits Record Low
Gallup: “A record-low 35% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education that K-12 students receive in the U.S. today, marking an eight-percentage-point decline since last year.”
Eric Trump Says Crypto Can ‘Save the U.S. Dollar’
“Eric Trump has said growing demand for cryptocurrencies could ‘save the US dollar’ by attracting investment flows from around the world into America,” the Financial Times reports.
He claimed the digital assets boom would channel “trillions . . . from around the world in wonky currencies” towards the U.S.
Exploiting Male Rage
Paul Krugman: “The thing is, there are real reasons for the upsurge in resentment by young white males. American men have in important ways been hurt by the changes in our society over the past several decades. Richard Reeves published an excellent book about the subject, Of Boys and Men, in 2022… He discusses a wide variety of topics. What I want to focus on, enlarging his analysis, is the economic side of the problem of men in America. The most important aspect of that side is the growing number of men in their prime working years who are not in the labor force…”
“Clearly, something has gone wrong for prime working-age American men. And the demoralization caused by the decline in economic opportunity fuels political radicalization.”
“Despite the unremitting chaos, there is an underlying unifying theme in Trump’s economic policy: that he will avenge men’s loss of status and bring back ‘manly jobs’ by going after those he considers the villains — cheating international trading partners, lying environmentalists and supporters of renewable energy, the federal ‘deep state’, and sneering intellectuals.”
China Hardens Military Stance Against U.S.
“China played down its rapidly rising military might for years. In the past few weeks, Beijing has broadcast a steady drumbeat of firepower displays and muscular rhetoric, carrying an unmistakable warning for the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It began on Sept. 3, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping brandished his country’s full nuclear triad—the means to deliver nuclear weapons by land, sea and air—together for the first time at an extravagant parade of military hardware and personnel.”
The Rich and Powerful Celebrate Trump
New York Times: “There they sat, side-by-side, some of the wealthiest, most influential and best connected people in the world, all together at one long table inside a nearly-thousand-year-old castle. The guest of honor was in the middle of the table, wearing white tie, looking happier than ever. He was being treated like a king by an actual king.”
“The state dinner that King Charles III hosted for President Trump on Wednesday night at Windsor Castle seemed like a new apex for Mr. Trump: a glittering showcase of the powerful outdoing themselves to get (or remain) on the good side of a president whose second term has been marked by demonstrations of brute power. Those demonstrations have increasingly taken the form of retribution against perceived enemies at home and tattered alliances abroad.”
Trump’s Fed Pick Failed to Sway Outcome
“If President Donald Trump hoped that putting a close ally at the Federal Reserve would grab headlines, White House economic adviser Stephen Miran’s dissent and way-below consensus interest rate projection on Wednesday delivered,” Reuters reports.
“If the hope was to have someone on the inside to get the Fed to lower interest rates as sharply as Trump wants, Miran’s lone dissent was evidence the gambit had failed, at least for now.”
Axios: Fed meeting hints at new future of the central bank.
Trump to Headline Charlie Kirk’s Funeral
“President Donald Trump and several members of his Cabinet will speak at a memorial in Arizona this weekend to honor Charlie Kirk, the conservative political organizer killed in a shooting on Sept. 10,” Politico reports.
Playbook: “No fewer than seven of the most senior figures in the U.S. government will speak at the event on Sunday — the president himself; plus Vance; White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and policy guru Stephen Miller; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and DNI Tulsi Gabbard. There may never have been a funeral service quite like it.”
“Indeed, the memorial will serve as a launching point for what now looks likely to be one of the most significant aspects of Kirk’s death — its galvanizing effect on the conservative movement.”
Fears Over RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel’s Looming Decisions
“Vaccine advisers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected this week to consider softening or eliminating recommendations for some routine childhood immunizations — which doctors say could significantly depress vaccination rates and trigger more infectious disease outbreaks,” Politico reports.
Axios: Crunch time arrives for RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisers.
Trump Moves to Make Citizenship Test Harder
“The Trump administration moved again Wednesday to make it harder to gain U.S. citizenship, announcing a slate of changes to the core civics test that immigrants must pass to be naturalized,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The changes would expand the number of questions immigrants need to be prepared to answer, and increase the number of questions they must answer correctly in order to pass.”
Quote of the Day
“Buying and controlling media platforms. Firing commentators. Canceling shows. These aren’t coincidences. It’s coordinated. And it’s dangerous. The GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Trump’s Health Care Cuts May Hit Voters Sooner
Politico: “A full year before anyone casts their vote in November 2026 — meaning now, in the fall of 2025 — the American health care system will begin transitioning from an era of unprecedented expansion of coverage to an era of unprecedented cutbacks. And President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress will be easy to blame.”
“Unless Congress reaches a deal fast on some expiring Obamacare provisions, insurance premiums are set to rise, often by double-digit percentages, in and out of Affordable Care Act exchanges. Hospitals are retrenching ahead of the massive cuts imposed by Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’ Altogether, around 14 million people will lose coverage in the coming decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected in August, with the first wave of losses beginning in months.”
Where CEOs Say What They Really Think of Trump’s Policies
“Corporate leaders regularly praise the Trump administration and its policies in public. Behind closed doors, their mood is darker,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“At a meeting of CEOs and other executives on Wednesday convened by the Yale School of Management, dozens of America’s business leaders sounded off on their concerns about tariffs, immigration, foreign policy matters and what many described as an increasingly chaotic, hard-to-navigate business environment.”
