Stay there, kitty! Don't come over to be petted. Don't even acknowledge my existence. Good boy!!!

Starbucks to Close Down Hundreds of Underperforming Locations
September 26, 2026

□ [“Iranian President Plays Victim on Fox News After Decades of Terror ‘We Do Not Seek War’"]

This might just be for convenience, Iranian government officials came to the big UN meeting so why not do some tv while they're here.  But it might also be perhaps the first piece of evidence that the regime is ready to break down.  They need to hold out to the midterms and hope that Democrats win big and this will somehow stop Trump, that's the only option left, but they may not be able to hold out anyway.  The Iranian economy is gone so the people don't have much left to lose, so why not overthrow the government?  Or at least try.

And if Democrats do win the midterms, then this is *really* their last chance to fight.  That also goes for the Kurds and Iran's neighbors.  It's easy to stay back when the US is doing all the real work but if they're suddenly going to be gone, someone is going to move so it might as well be your side first.  At this point is must be clear that China and Russia are not reaching out to help.  They may even think a new Iranian government would be easier to deal with at this point.  I doubt they'd mourn the mullahs and IRGC.

President Pezeshkian can't even sound bold or confident about this.  Maybe his speeches are different at home but he's just acting like a leftist, he only wants peace, the US is so mean.  That's fine for the left but they're not going to lift a finger to help either.  All they can do is hope to steal the elections and immediately ditch Iran.  This is on Fox so they're probably not even paying attention anyway, or maybe they overcome that to hear so more "Orange Man Bad!"

German Students on Strike Against Mandatory Military Service
September 26, 2026

□ [“Wisconsin Brewery Promised Free Beer the Day Trump Dies, Will Now Close Madison Taproom"]

I don't get how leftists get to be in charge of companies anyway and a brewery?  The owner has a wikipedia page, an activist, never been poor, purchased an established restaurant that made booze and used that to establish a Super PAC.  He also used to work for Anthony Wiener.  So this is more about attention than running a business.  He's tried to get into politics but couldn't get enough votes.

I still can't figure out how leftists get into high ranking positions but this seems like a standard version of the type.  So of course he's promoting death and thinks it's cool to include beer with that.  Probably doesn't allow anyone around who would say 'that's a stupid idea, don't do it.'  So now his activism can't even help him sell beer.  I guess when people are suffering and desperate, beer is the first thing they quit.

As always, this is anecdotal but I am still getting the impression that if the elections are fair, Dems have already lost and one major reason is that they're always promoting this sort of mentality.  They can't even hide it anymore.  Not that they're incapable, just that they see no reason to pretend otherwise, they want death to bring collective joy.  So now people who work for him will have to look elsewhere to earn a living, that's how much he really cares about the working class.

During Historic Visit to France, Pope Leo XIV Condemns Their Assisted Dying Laws to Macron’s Face
September 26, 2026

□ [“New Star Wars Trilogy Incoming!  Disney and Lucasfilm Bet Big!"]

Just a rumor, not an official announcement.  My guess is they just need to look like they're doing something so this is what they went with.  They can't say when it takes place, what characters are involved, why it needs a "Star Wars" logo if they're doing something totally new.  All their recent attempts have fallen far short of expectations and that's assuming they weren't failures.  Once upon a time, Star Wars wasn't supposed to have failures.

I don't think Disney has learned anything, even if there's evidence to the contrary.  I'm sure they'd still do a Ray trilogy immediately if they saw the opportunity.  I also think she'll appear at the end of next year's movie.  The intention was to set her up in the sequels, 'phase two' was the tv shows and they were supposed to be combined for 'phase three.'  Unfortunately this year's movie failure has made that a problem.  At some point they do have to realize that nobody actually likes Ray.

But as many point out, that's a problem for those who want continuity.  For a franchise to survive, you need to give the audience what they want and if every Star Wars story leads up to Ray, nobody wants to watch it.  But ditching her means cutting off a limb of the franchise.  It's just easier to do stand-alone characters and stories, which means the franchise is dead weight.  They simply have no direction they can go.

I still say the best option is to create a serial adventure of the original characters.  I know there's source material that could be used but since I'm ignorant of that and not being paid tons of money, my top-of-the-head idea is show the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell.  Part 1 is Han and Chewie dealing with some people in a cantina and ends with them being attacked by a monster, whether or not it's the bounty hunter.  Part 2 is Leia comes in to help and we get to see some banter between them.  It ends with them being trapped, this time by the actual bounty hunter.  Part 3 has Luke coming in to help them.  Yay, the gang is back together.  Part 4, the Falcon's not working so they can't just leave.  We also see the droids.  Meanwhile the bounty hunter has another trap ready.  Maybe he's working with the imperials, maybe this is just a separate adventure in the galaxy.  But they have a plan and move out.

Several more parts and there's an adventure.  Even writing the above, I thought of a few plot ideas or character moments that would be easy to build on.  Nothing about continuity, nothing complicated, just treating it like the only Star Wars that matters is in three movies from beginning to end.  And there's no way Disney could permit that.  It would be easier to just change a few names and details and write my own story.

Air Force One Buzzes Over University of Tennessee Football Stadium, Trump High Fives Fans
September 26, 2026

□ [“Al Gore's Inconvenient Lies"]

I've been hearing a bit about Al Gore lately.  I didn't pay attention because, duh, it's Al Gore, but at some point I learned we're at the 20th anniversary of his "Inconvenient Truth" announcement that the world would end soon.  I'm vaguely curious if anyone has asked Gore about that but he'll probably just say it was only a delay, government still needs more power.  Then he'll get in his private jet he bought with money from selling his tv network to oil-producing Muslims.  Maybe he'll bring his massage therapist with him, he likes them.

But the movement set itself up for failure.  If the world didn't end, they'd need to point to something that actually saved it.  'We've made gas more expensive' isn't really a selling point.  There's also the fact that it was just predicting that decades from now the temperature will be two degrees higher which isn't really a change.  He also never explains why he and his rich friends get to burn fossil fuel, they've always done it and never stopped, but the peasants don't.

This movement was born at roughly the same time man landed on the moon.  It's always aimed at elites, people like Gore who was born to a rich and famous father.  I've driven many times on the Al Gore Sr. stretch of interstate.  He's always dealt with others as inferiors, which could explain a lot about his earth-worship.  He doesn't even have to follow his own rules, how convenient.

PETA Ignores Torture of Monkeys Obama-Appointed Judge Reverses Trump’s Harvard Funding Freeze
September 26, 2026