Brickbat: Wrong Door reason.com/2026/10/07/brickb…

Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal, according to messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Please.” Read story w/ dream team: @rebeccaballhaus @drewhinshaw @JoeWSJ wsj.com/politics/policy/guil…

Extraordinary account from Bloomberg of what it now takes to move oil through Hormuz. One tanker captain describes sailing at night with no navigational lights, phones or AIS, hugging the Omani coast under U.S. military protection, and maneuvering around a vessel that had just been attacked. His own ship was later targeted. The risks are so high that crews are being paid multiples of their normal salaries, with one shipowner reportedly offering six months of extra pay for Hormuz shuttle duty. More oil may be getting through, but at very high risk and cost. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Sales of full-electric vehicles skyrocket 94.7% in Germany in September. Sales of gasoline cars plunge ~30%. Diesel auto sales also fall. giznewsdaily.com/german-ev-s…

"Ms. Whitmer repealed Michigan’s right-to-work law in early 2023. The state has since lost 36,200 manufacturing jobs, and its unemployment rate (5%) is the fourth highest in the nation." wsj.com/opinion/gretchen-whi…

A Chinese-owned mine dumped 50 million liters of toxic sludge into the river that supplies drinking water to 5 million Zambians. Sino-Metals Leach's tailings dam breached in February 2025, flooding the Kafue River. Zambian communities are now suing the company. It's not an isolated accident. Allegations of abuse linked to Chinese mining in Africa doubled in a single year, from 45 to 100. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone recorded 52 cases. Ten Chinese companies account for nearly two-thirds of every allegation tracked. These are the mines feeding the batteries and solar panels sold as the clean energy future. genocidewatch.com/single-pos…

The cost of heating oil in Maine is up 80% from last year. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

"From an environmental standpoint, “there’s nothing useful about ethanol" "The fuel is wildly inefficient compared with competing power sources" “The ethanol supply is only ~4% of the U.S. transportation industry, yet all corn ethanol occupies about 1.24% of U.S. land" "We could power the entire US, 100% of transportation, 100% of electric power (and 100% of industry and buildings with clean renewable energy for just 0.8% of U.S. land.” "Ethanol is more dangerous than gasoline. Ethanol emits carcinogens and compounds that worsen smog and ozone." “Ethanol increases air pollution deaths by increasing ozone" (relative to gasoline). Expanding the sale of fuel made from corn could boost US farmers. But at what cost? san.com/cc/expanding-the-sal…

Putin was offered a deal: Ukraine would stop striking oil refineries, and Russia would stop attacking power, heating and other utilities so ordinary people could get through the winter. He said no. He is counting on breaking Ukraine this winter. I do not believe he will succeed.

A startling fact: it's cheaper to ship fertilizer ingredients to Louisiana from Peru (2,300 nautical miles away) than from Florida (500 nautical miles away). The reason: the Jones Act. Cato's @cpgrabow explains. ow.ly/ze9Y50ZTi40

The U.S. is losing access to critical minerals needed for ... pretty much everything, from medical equipment to weapons systems. All due to this one law. nationalreview.com/2026/09/f… @jberlau @NRcapmatters #DoddFrank #conflictminerals #Congo

“Russia’s offensive has grave implications for Ukraine’s survival… and potentially the course of the war.” There’s been too much long distance happy talk from Kyiv’s allies. My bleak report from Odesa as Russia chokes off exports and bombs away ft.com/content/cc96ac01-7929… via @ft

Mason Miller may have been tipping his pitches against Jackson Chourio 👀 Sal Frelick taps his neck at 2nd base right before Chourio lays off a slider.

Florida: Eight children died in January of 1974 traffic accidents within the first few weeks of Daylight Savings Time being made permanent, including specific victims in: • Jacksonville (an unidentified 14-year-old boy) • Boca Raton (16-year-old Charles Van Iderstyne) • Casselberry (13-year-old Robert T. Allen) • Tampa (6-year-old Richard Toudt) • Gulf County (a 17-year-old girl), as well as 6 other states. You'd think the senior Senator from Florida would care more about the lives of his constituents.

If a local or state government could ban assembly-line robots, automated telephone switchboards, automated teller machines, online shopping, self-operated elevators, and pin boys (the folks who used to reset bowling alley pins by hand), they would do so. In Rhode Island, starting January 1, 2027, any grocery store in the state that provides self-service checkout stations must have a ratio of one manual checkout station for every three self-service checkout stations. Heaven forbid we let the grocery stores decide for themselves how many self-checkout stations and how many manned checkout aisles! Heaven forbid we allow customers to decide which option they want to use!

The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.

"In a record-setting commercial truck deal, international shipping giant FedEx has placed an order for 2,000 all-electric box trucks from American startup Harbinger in a deal that’s reportedly worth more than $300 million" — an investment FedEx expects will save them $800 million in avoided diesel costs ($20k per truck per year!) electrek.co/2026/10/03/fedex…

Milwaukee's Mr. October had a huge opportunity with the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position, but Jackson Chourio bounced out. That might've been the Brewers' shot. Mason Miller has begun to stir in San Diego's bullpen.

This is intentional grounding for 30 other NFL QBs

Breaking: The Omani pilot said during his interrogation that he had planned to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport. That is why he attacked the other pilot only while over Jordan, near Israel. He planned to make a normal landing approach and, in the final seconds, when interception would no longer be possible, crash the plane into the terminal. The plot was thwarted only thanks to the fateful decision of the injured Indian pilot to open the door at all costs.