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The Financial Times reports that Trump is poised to slap fresh tariffs on dozens of countries as soon as this week, even though his own advisers are warning they could trigger another economic shock just months before the midterm elections.

U.S. officials have prepared options that would allow Trump to impose new tariffs on dozens of countries as his 10% global tariffs are set to expire later this week.

This comes after Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian goods yesterday, following new 25% tariffs on many Brazilian imports last week.

According to virtually every poll, at least 60% of Americans oppose the tariffs because they understand that tariffs are paid by American importers, who then pass those costs on to consumers.

So why do it now, just before the midterms? Does Trump have some corrupt motive to enrich his family, his businesses, or wealthy donors? Or is he simply so obsessed with tariffs that he can’t help himself?

It just doesn’t make much sense. Then again, we’ve already learned that a lot of what Trump does doesn’t make sense.

No. Mitch McConnell isn't dead.

I really don’t get why so many people are buying into the conspiracy theory that Mitch McConnell has died and the Republican Party is hiding it.

First of all, do you really think his staff, doctors, security team, Republican leaders, Trump, and Trump’s advisers would all know about it and somehow nobody would leak it?

And more importantly, what exactly would they gain by hiding it?

Yes, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is a Democrat, but under Kentucky law he can’t simply appoint a replacement for McConnell. A special election would have to be held to fill the remainder of McConnell’s Senate term, and a Republican would almost certainly win.

So please, folks, knock it off.

That said, there is a real issue here. Other than releasing a photo from the hospital, McConnell has now been there for about 40 days, and we know very little about his condition or whether he’ll be able to return to the Senate anytime soon. That is absolutely unacceptable.

According to The Daily Beast, McConnell’s staff have declined to answer basic questions about what work he is doing, 37 days after he was loaded into the back of an ambulance and disappeared from public view. His staff even refused to say whether the senator had spoken to any of them in recent days.

Can you imagine how Republicans would react if this were a Democratic senator?

When will this war end?

This morning, the Pentagon identified Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, as the third U.S. soldier killed over the weekend.

Swinton was killed while destroying a downed Iranian drone during a controlled detonation at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq.

Two other U.S. soldiers were killed in an Iranian strike on a military base in Jordan, and another service member remains missing. According to CBS News, more than 100 U.S. service members have been injured in July alone in Iranian strikes on military bases across the Middle East.

Seventeen American service members have now died in President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. At least 400 more have been injured, though that figure is only an estimate. The Pentagon has stopped updating the total, and on Monday, The New York Times reported that the department was intentionally withholding information about the true human cost of the war.

That is totally unacceptable. That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from Russia or China. It shouldn’t happen in the United States.

Asked about the deaths of three U.S. service members over the weekend, Trump said:
“We feel very badly, but you know those great people…were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon…So we’ll see what happens”. He doesn’t give a damn

Meanwhile, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to its lowest level in 43 years.

And the national average price for regular gas has climbed back to $4 a gallon as the war with Iran continues to escalate.

You don’t have to be a leftist or a supporter of the Iranian regime to recognize that this war has been a disaster. It’s costing Americans lives, driving up prices, and we have little to show for it.

Meanwhile, Iran is becoming stronger abroad and more repressive at home. The regime has shown no willingness to give up its nuclear program, especially as it watches the United States become increasingly isolated. With the midterms approaching, Tehran also knows Trump is unlikely to risk a major escalation.

Trump has no idea what he’s doing.

And unless something changes, it’s only going to get worse.

Why is the FBI director going to Russia

?

According to Politico, FBI Director Kash Patel is expected to visit Russia in mid-October, with stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He’s reportedly set to be hosted by the FSB, Russia’s main domestic security agency and the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

The last FBI director to visit Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013, before Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

So what’s Patel going there for? To deliver a personal message to Putin? To learn from the FSB how to better crack down on the opposition and the free press? Or is this just another desperate move by Patel to stay in Trump’s good graces and avoid getting fired?

So many questions.