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S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Friday that Nike is being booted from the S&P 100 after nearly two decades, another sign of how America's most exclusive blue-chip benchmark is being reshaped by the artificial-intelligence spending boom. But that's not the entire story... 

Perhaps what really happened with Nike is that it lost its way. Instead of focusing on basketball shoes and athletic leisure, it pursued the whole woke culture, which damaged the brand.

Injected itself into far-left politics. 

And this ... 

BREAKING: Nike is set to be removed from the S&P 100 after nearly 18 years.

The stock is now down almost 80% from its 2021 peak, turning one of the market’s most iconic consumer brands into one of its biggest recent disappointments. pic.twitter.com/3uJNIxcg4j

— I Meme Therefore I Am ???? (@ImMeme0) September 5, 2026

Via Fox News...

Not surprising whatsoever who accelerated Nike's demise. 

LMAO, look at the marketing & strategy officers for Nike.

Don’t worry, guys; I’m sure Nike will climb out of the huge woke hole they are in ???? pic.twitter.com/7CXinp8VUA

— Mrs B (@attackdogX) September 6, 2026

S&P Dow Jones Indices noted that Nike will remain in the broader S&P 500.

Nike's peak was in late 2021, when it sported a $280 billion market cap that has since crashed to as low as $56 billion following Friday's close, its lowest market capitalization since 2013.

No longer a growth story? 

Nike's upcoming demotion from the S&P 100, set to take effect on Sept. 21, comes after a series of missteps as the sportswear giant struggles to revive sales and has lost market share to rivals including On and Hoka.

Perhaps management should not have focused on left-wing cultural issues but instead on clothing and sneakers.

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Michael Cohen, a key witness in the New York criminal and civil cases against President Donald Trump, has "fully recanted" his testimony in both cases, the Republican president announced Friday via Truth Social.

Previously known as Trump's longtime fixer, Cohen was used by New York Attorney General Letitia James in her controversial civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization and by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his so-called hush money case against Trump.

The civil case against the Trump Organization culminated in a $364 million fine over claims Trump inflated his asset values to secure more favorable loans for his business. The fine was tossed by the New York Appellate Division, which ruled the amount violated Trump's Eighth Amendment rights.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said Cohen was "pressured" and "coerced" into saying "things that were not true."

The fallout between Trump and Cohen began after the 2016 election, after Cohen started cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and served more than a year behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including making false statements to Congress.

Trump and Cohen have made amends in recent months, particularly after Cohen came forward saying he was pressured by New York prosecutors to testify against Trump.

Trump thanked Cohen "for having the Wisdom and Courage to step forward and do the right thing!"

"His Act of Bravery is a Great Credit to the Justice System in New York City and State," Trump added, before demanding that the cases be dismissed.

"I am sure it was not easy for him! Now we are asking that any remnant of those Politically Weaponized Cases against me be immediately terminated and dismissed."

The president said that James and Bragg "broke the law in order to do this in order to prevent me from becoming the President of the United States. Such a thing can never be allowed to happen again!"

Trump appeared to be referring to a Jan. 16, 2026, Substack post in which Cohen accused prosecutors from James' and Bragg's offices of pressuring and coercing him to provide testimony that would help them build their cases against Trump.

TRUMP: Reposts Michael Cohen article claiming political power corrupts justice, citing insider warning pic.twitter.com/FlydWGDuBI

— Trump Truths (@trumptruthsbot) September 4, 2026

Cohen wrote at the time:

"From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA's Office and the New York Attorney General's Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves, I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government's desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump."

He later added:

"I experienced a similar dynamic in the Attorney General's civil case. Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump. Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that. Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking."

A Massachusetts jury deliberated for roughly 38 hours over seven days and failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the case against Lindsay Clancy, resulting in Judge William Sullivan declaring a mistrial on Friday due to a holdout juror. 

Clancy has admitted to strangling her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands inside the family's home in Duxbury, Mass., in January 2023 after sending her husband out to pick up dinner. She then cut her own wrists and neck, then jumped from a window, which left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Reddington built his case on a claim of severe postpartum psychosis, worsened, he argued, by a combination of prescription medications. Prosecutors rejected that framing entirely and argued Clancy understood what she was doing and planned the killings in advance. Clancy had not been diagnosed with psychosis before the murders and reportedly had not told any doctor she was hearing voices.

Judge Sullivan has scheduled a status and trial assignment hearing for Sept. 29.

Lindsay Clancy's supporters are clearly expecting a new trial. The Musgrove Family Fund, a GoFundMe campaign supporting Clancy's parents, Michael and Paula Musgrove, surpassed $1.16 million in donations from more than 33,000 donors within hours of the mistrial. Organizer Brandee Mulligan, a 42-year-old mother of three, raised the fund's goal to $3 million that same day and told supporters the extended legal process means the Musgroves will need help for a while longer.

"The original purpose of this fundraiser hasn't changed - it's simply to take one thing off their plate while they continue to show up for their family. If they have to keep showing up longer, I want to make sure the support does too."

The Musgroves left Wallingford, Connecticut, and moved roughly 150 miles to stay near Duxbury. Clancy's sister, Allison Ozga, appeared at the proceedings alongside them. GoFundMe's page states the Musgroves are the named beneficiaries who receive the money themselves, that Mulligan has no access to any of it, and that both the parents and Reddington knew about the campaign before it went live.

Mulligan, who is from Wisconsin and launched the fund on Aug. 11, previously told the Daily Mail that she had no contact with the Musgroves when she first created it and "did it without even asking permission." A GoFundMe spokesperson has confirmed the campaign is verified and that all funds go to Mike Musgrove as the intended beneficiary.

"In January 2023, Lindsay Clancy was accused of killing her three young children in the family's Duxbury, Massachusetts home," the GoFundMe page reads. "More than three years later, her case is now being tried in court. Throughout those three years, Lindsay's parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, have continued to show up for their daughter."

"And that is who this fundraiser is for, Mike and Paula, who have spent years traveling back and forth, staying in hotels, attending court proceedings and ultimately relocating from Connecticut to Massachusetts so they could remain close to Lindsay," the page continues. "Their lives have largely been put on hold while they have continued doing what parents do: showing up for their child during the unimaginable. That has come at an enormous financial cost. This fundraiser is not asking anyone to agree on Lindsay, her case, or what the outcome of her trial should be. People will have different feelings about all of those things."

The new donations range from five dollars to three hundred, one-time gifts sitting beside recurring monthly pledges, though some of the biggest donations to the fund are in the thousands. One anonymous donor gave $5,000.

One donor wrote that their heart was with Lindsay and her parents and that they could not imagine the pain the family has endured. Another, on a fifth contribution, wrote that they could not imagine what Lindsay and her family are feeling right now.

The fund's success has spawned imitators on the platform, both for and against the family, including pages titled "Lindsay Clancy is an awful person!" and "Against the Musgrove Family Fund." GoFundMe told CT Insider it is monitoring and "reviewing" all Clancy-related fundraisers, and that "any found to be in violation of our terms of service will be removed."

Copycat

The trial appears to have produced at least one copycat. Corie A. Walsh, 38, of Frankfort, Illinois, was charged Friday with three counts of first-degree murder after her 2-year-old son Barrett was found hanging in the basement of the family home, a ligature around his neck. A 17-year-old neighbor was performing CPR when police arrived. Officers found Walsh upstairs in a bathtub, surrounded by bloody water, with cuts to her wrists and thighs. Her three other children were unharmed. Her husband was out of town.

Prosecutors said in a court proffer that Walsh "had recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial" and had been "actively discussing the case via group text message with her friends" until hours before her son was found. The boy died Tuesday afternoon, while the Clancy jury was still deliberating. Walsh told officers she killed him because he was the "devil" and the "anti-Christ."

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Private credit’s reckoning is not arriving with one grand, spectacular crash. It is arriving slowly and steadily, one loan at a time.

For years, one of private credit’s great attractions was the remarkable stability (or perceived stability) of its valuations. Public bonds could fall ten points in a week. Leveraged loans could gap lower after a bad earnings report. But private loans somehow possessed the soothing ability to remain at 98, 99 or 100 cents on the dollar through almost anything, all while paying investors a healthy yield.

Incredible, right? Another financial fairy tale…a proverbial unicorn sh*tting rainbows.

Until reality eventually reared it’s head, and now, to the surprise of no one, we are finding out unicorns don’t exist. Imagine that. We are learning that the absence of volatility in a reported mark does not mean the absence of deterioration in the underlying loan. And that is increasingly where the private credit story gets heinous…and why I’ve been writing about it for 2 years now.

The opacity is unlike any other corner of markets. Some borrowers can weaken for months, even years, while their loans remain marked at levels suggesting that most or all of the money is still coming back.

Eventually, though, something happens that makes the deterioration impossible to finesse away. A borrower stops paying interest. A hoped for refinancing disappears. The sponsor declines to put in more equity. A rescue transaction collapses. Or, most decisively, like we are seeing more and more, the underlying company files for bankruptcy.

That is when the soothing stability of private credit can suddenly disappear. A loan that sat near par through months of worsening fundamentals can plunge to 50, 20, five cents or even zero in remarkably short order. The economic deterioration may have been happening all along. The mark simply waited until reality became too difficult to ignore. You then get headlines like this one from Bloomberg yesterday.

And increasingly, the pattern looks familiar. A company struggles, leverage stays high, liquidity deteriorates and interest becomes harder to pay. Yet there is always a reason not to mark the loan too aggressively. Maybe EBITDA recovers. Maybe rates fall. Maybe the sponsor writes another check. Maybe there is a refinancing, an asset sale or a transformational M&A deal just around the corner. Maybe the guy responsible for marking down the loan has set his “out of office” email response to inform people he is taking 2 month vacation on his yacht in Malta.

?? 85% OFF FOREVER IF YOU SUBSCRIBE TODAY: I am again offering an 85% discount to anyone that wants to become a Fringe Finance annual subscriber today. It’s a discount you can keep and stays applied for as long as you wish to remain a subscriber: Get 85% off forever

Hope, conveniently, has a fair value. It’s always 100 cents on the dollar or damn close to it. But then…painstakingly and eventually…reality catches up and 100 cents quickly becomes 20 cents. Or zero cents.

The latest example is Loparex, a borrower held by Blue Owl Capital Corp., or OBDC. According to Bloomberg, at the end of 2025, its first lien debt was still carried around par and its second lien debt at roughly 88 cents on the dollar. By June, OBDC was carrying portions of the second lien at about five cents and one first lien position at roughly 22 cents. Loparex was also put on nonaccrual. Moody’s has since deemed the company in default and said a Chapter 11 filing is a possibility.

Perhaps recoveries ultimately exceed those marks. That happens in restructurings. But the interesting number is not five cents. It is 88 cents.

The loan did not suddenly become troubled on the day somebody changed the valuation. Loparex had been struggling with its debt load for years, including a 2024 distressed exchange that S&P considered tantamount to default. Yet the second lien still ended 2025 marked at roughly 88.

This gets to the central problem with private credit valuations that I have been harping on non-stop for years. These loans generally do not trade in liquid markets, so managers rely on models, comparable companies, third party valuation firms and their own judgment. That is unavoidable. But it also means that valuation becomes most subjective precisely when the underlying credit becomes most uncertain. If an executive were so inclined, he could figure out a way to model a bankrupt hot dog cart at a $1 trillion valuation. Like the Fed, printing cash, it’s all just made up bullsh*t out of thin air manipulated in seconds on a spreadsheet.

And that’s all good and well. But bankruptcy has a nasty habit of pissing in the proforma punchbowl. Once a company actually files bankruptcy, the comfortable range of hypothetical outcomes (hereinafter referred to as “bulls*it”) gets much narrower. Creditors, restructuring advisers and courts start converting theoretical enterprise values into actual recoveries. At that point, extending and pretending gets considerably harder. 

Bankruptcy does not necessarily create the loss. It can simply make the loss impossible to avoid recognizing.

Here are some recent examples that make the point and what to watch out for.

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and very often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning, meaning if I’m long I could sell or if I’m short I could cover at any time.

Contributor posts, guest posts and curated posts have been hand selected by me, but have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author or reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any or all facts and figures included in this article though I made an effort to get them right. I have been wrong before and will be wrong again, and encourage you to always double check, do your own research and speak to a licensed financial professional, which I am not.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things I’m bearish on. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions.

Starting in 2026, I have been attempting to no longer actively trade as much as I once did (read my story here). My goal is for my investing/saving to be done by recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs and a few select equities, trusted third parties who oversee my accounts, and advisors. Such advisors or funds, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in, exposure to, or holdings of names mentioned herein that I know nothing about. It is possible I could own, have exposure to, or not own anything, at any point. In an attempt to lead a healthier lifestyle, I’ve also excluded myself from fantasy sports, sports betting, online and in-person casinos and prediction markets.

Any of my positions can change immediately as soon as I publish, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullsh*t my way through things easier. Hence, why I am a writer.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Many times I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour.

Also, again I just straight up get sh*t wrong a lot. I mention it multiple times because it’s that important you understand.

Update(1400ET): In a political earthquake, the AfD has taken a massive lead, per exit polls, at the Saxony-Anhalt election in what the party's state leader hailed as sending a resounding "signal to Berlin." This moment marks the first time what has been dubbed a German "far-right party" taking power at a state level since World War II. This is absolutely historic.

"The exit polls, published by German public television stations, suggested that the party, known by its German initials AfD, would win between 39 and 41 seats in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt," NY Times reports. "That would leave it just short of an absolute majority of 42, but far ahead of its nearest rival."

But it remains unclear whether it will be able to form a government. Below is the latest via Deutsche Welle:

Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla  says his party secured a mandate to govern with its strong election result in Saxony-Anhalt.

"We have halved the CDU, so from that point of view it’s a great evening," Chrupalla told journalists in Magdeburg, referring to an earlier remark by Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and chancellor Friedrich Merz that AfD's result could be cut in half.

Chrupalla called the outcome "sensational." 

"Ulrich Siegmund will be the new premier of Saxony-Anhalt," he said. "From here, we will change Germany."

If the party falls short of an absolute majority, Chrupalla said it would be open to talks and even suggested an AfD minority government could be tolerated by other parties.

AfD has signaled it is open to a coalition partner that would be open to changing its migration and energy policy - though this option doesn't seem to be on the political map realistically at this early point.

Youth turn to AfD in droves...

Bei den jungen 5%! pic.twitter.com/W7Mb67WpRc

— Anosteras (@anosteras) September 6, 2026

*  *  *

Voters in Saxony-Anhalt head to the polls today in an election that could deliver Germany's most massive political shock in decades, with the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland on track to beat Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats.

AfD is the only hope for Germany https://t.co/6ONn1LOipE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2026

Final polling estimates put the AfD at 40% to 41%, nearly double the CDU's 23%. The party's lead candidate, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, has ruled out governing in a coalition, suggesting the AfD would need an outright majority to take power of its first German state government.

?? BREAKING: Germany's right-wing anti-mass migration AfD party backed by Elon Musk is poised for a HISTORIC VICTORY in the Saxony-Anhalt elections — with polling showing them over 40% support, a STUNNING LEAD of close to 20 points

CDU at just over 20%, and other parties near… pic.twitter.com/HnYvxgKlQr

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 6, 2026

About 1.7 million people are set to vote today, with polls closing at 6 p.m. local time. AfD's rapid ascent comes as voters are furious over Germany's stagnant economy, deindustrialization, energy costs, and the Third World migrant invasion.

The Polymarket bet on how many seats the AfD is expected to win today assigns a 74% probability to 38 to 41 seats, with 42 to 45 seats at 16%.

Ahead of the historic election, thousands of far-left Antifa crazies took to the streets wearing all black and holding Antifa and LGBT flags. Others were seen carrying signs reading "FCK NZS" and "FCK AFD."

EIL: Schwere Krawalle in Halle, Antifa-Demo eskaliert! ??

Am Vorabend der Landtagswahl hat die linksextreme Szene nach Halle mobilisiert. Die Demo versinkt in Gewalt, es werden Unmengen an Pyrotechnik gezündet und teils auf die Polizei geworfen. Straßenkampf mit Ansage. Und ein… pic.twitter.com/k2bwEQtZ8N

— COMPACT-Magazin (@COMPACTMagazin) September 5, 2026

A reported 15,000 left-wing activists joined a so-called pro-democracy festival in the state capital, Magdeburg, on Saturday, organized by the "Saxony-Anhalt Open to the World" alliance. Yet the whole globalist cult in Germany has likely run its course. It has been nothing more than what some call a nation-killing experiment, pushing uncontrolled mass migration and deindustrialization policies that have sent Europe's largest economy into a tailspin.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday threatened the AfD, saying, "We will not let these people, who trash Germany and everything we have achieved in recent years and decades," before adding, "We will not let these people talk our country into ruin!"

?????? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is once again threatening to ban the AfD?!

"We will not let these people — who trash Germany and everything we have achieved in recent years and decades."

"We will not let these people talk our country into ruin!" pic.twitter.com/3iiyrwBRV2

— Mario ZNA (@MarioBojic) September 6, 2026

German politics coverage:

• Germany Braces For AfD Election Breakthrough In Saxony-Anhalt

• Germany's Anti-Immigration AfD Party Reaches Record Support Days Before Pivotal State Election

• "Citizens Want Political Turnaround": AfD Now Polls At 43% Across Eastern Germany

• Merz Warns Right-Wing Victory Will Hurt Germany, But Nomura Says Investors Aren't Buying It

What Nomura analysts see over the next 18-month election cycle across Europe: 

• "Seeds Of Political Change": Nomura Sees Europe Lurching Right, And Markets Are Fine With It

Yet what did Merz actually achieve? Destroying Germany's economy? That is something he certainly accomplished.

President Trump's diplomatic sprint shifted from Moscow to Kiev over the weekend, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner arriving in Ukraine for talks with senior officials. The visit came one day after the pair met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian state media outlet TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said Putin's meeting with Witkoff and Kushner had created an "atmosphere of trust, at least through this channel of communication."

Putin meets Witkoff and Kushner for peace talks. pic.twitter.com/NqqAelwuEG

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 5, 2026

"The very fact that the meeting is taking place means that an atmosphere of trust does indeed exist, at least through this channel of communication, and that it is strengthening. As a rule, however, expanded exchanges of such welcoming remarks emerge when there are messages that the head of state considers necessary to convey," Peskov explained to the outlet.

A White House official said Witkoff and Kushner's three-hour meeting with Putin "discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks."

Last week, Reuters cited Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who said Putin, Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping may hold a trilateral meeting at the next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

After the Moscow meeting on Saturday, Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Ukraine for the first time during Trump's second term as part of his pledge to bring the conflict to an end.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Ukraine by train.

They were greeted by senior Ukrainian officials. pic.twitter.com/KLRk9796Zf

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 6, 2026

Bloomberg reported early Sunday that Witkoff and Kushner's first round of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other high-level officials had ended.

Witkoff was quoted by the outlet as describing his talks with Ukrainian officials as "substantial," although no further details about what was discussed were released.

"We all want to end the war, and we are on the same page here," Zelenskyy said in brief remarks to reporters after the first meeting. "Every such meeting gets us closer to peace."

Steve Witkoff to Zelensky:

We're having a great time here, and the hospitality is unsurpassed.

The President wanted Jared and I to come here.

We had a great trip, took the train, and as you said, it was a delightful trip. pic.twitter.com/QTFxcdlwdT

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 6, 2026

Zelenskyy was expected to speak to the reporters later in the day alongside the US envoys.

The push for a diplomatic end to the four-and-a-half-year conflict began with CIA Director John Ratcliffe's unexpected visit to Moscow nearly two weeks ago.

Ahead of the weekend meetings, Bloomberg reporters were increasingly less optimistic about a breakthrough peace deal, saying the prospects for ending the war remained low.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday announced a heightened military posture in the war with the US, saying that new attacks on the country will "meet a faster, heavier and more painful response."

"If they haven't understood by now, they should understand before it’s too late that the rules of the game have changed and that from now on, any violation of Iran’s interests and security will receive a ‘faster, heavier, and more painful’ response,” Ghalibaf said in a post on Telegram. He has warned that Iranian retaliation will no longer be "proportionate".

Ghalibaf also conceded that Iran faces severe economic pressures amid US-led sweeping sanctions and the campaign of 'strangulation' and isolation efforts.

"Severe fluctuations in the exchange rate, inflation, unemployment, and market management are fundamental challenges that have put serious pressure on people’s livelihoods," Ghalibaf said.

He also laid out that the Islamic Republic must aim to bolster domestic production and use technology to "devise short-term and permanent solutions." Iran's military has all along touted that it never stopped manufacturing missiles and drones, even as US-Israeli bombs decimated many industrial sites.

Ghalibaf's words come a day after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked three American military ships and three oil tankers using an "unauthorized" route in the Strait of Hormuz. Also, in the latest:

Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that the U.S. military dismissed as a "total lie."

The US military earlier on Saturday had struck three Iranian oil tankers, M/T Downy, M/T Stark 1, and M/T Kylo - in a major first of the conflict (that is, a US attack on civilian vessels).

The Iranian parliament speaker continues to try and troll Trump and Bessent on X:

Wheels up. Warm-ups before liftoff:

Diesel ATH: Short it

Your biggest creditor dumping: Good luck with Yentervention++

NOR cutting $80B: Rename Norway to Americaway

Low recruitment: Debt-to-Service w/ DO[Israel's]W, per your puppeteers

Oh. Fed's dot plot flashing red ?? https://t.co/E1KzG1T6Yf pic.twitter.com/zJb56tsd7p

— ???????? ??????? | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) September 6, 2026

Washington is meanwhile touting more and more energy flow through the Strait of Hormuz, while also appealing for other nations to help:

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says on average nine million barrels of oil a day are getting through the Strait of Hormuz that should help relieve pressure on rising energy prices.

Wright told CNN with oil also moving through pipelines in the region, “we’re probably two-thirds or more of pre-conflict flows”.

Those flows, however, depend on the presence of the US Navy to help escort tankers and provide some protection against possible Iranian attacks. Wright said he expected other countries will eventually support the Navy’s efforts.

But events like this weekend are likely going to continue to escalate the crisis. "There’s going to be more clashes between the Iranians and the Americans. There can be miscalculations. There can be more civilian casualties" especially on the Iranian side, Sina Azodi, the director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University, has explained.

The "small potatoes" conflict according to the Commander-in-Chief...

Reporter: Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly is it?

Trump: A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing.

Reporter: It certainly doesn’t feel like small… pic.twitter.com/a4hvccNCoD

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 4, 2026

"The [US] secretary of defense can send more troops to the region, but I don’t think the Iranians are going to back down. They’re going to resist that blockade and impose further costs on the United States," the analyst said.

Indeed every escalation step ordered by Washington has typically resulted in the Iranians 'answering' with significant missile and drone attacks on US bases in the Gulf, and as far away as Jordan. Some analysts are calling this a successful 'debasification' campaign that has existed since the war's start.

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Contractors working for the State of Illinois took a 470,000-hour paid lunch break on taxpayers' dime.

A company hired during the Covid-19 pandemic to fill staffing shortages at hospitals and long-term care facilities spent more than a third of its time on "standdown," a contract provision that paid them to be on-site and available in case they were needed.

The contractor, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, was supposed to notify the state any time its employees were on standdown for more than 24 hours. There was no evidence those notifications occurred, and the state only conducted limited oversight, according to an Aug. 11 report from Auditor General Christopher Meister.

Key facts: Favorite Healthcare earned $220.3 million from Illinois from 2022 to 2023, including $78.5 million for standdown hours.

The audit found 270 employees who billed for standdown time without actually working a single hour in two years. They earned $7.5 million.

At least eight employees even billed overtime at rates of up to $330 per hour during weeks they were on standdown for five consecutive days, according to the audit. One employee billed for overtime while he was in quarantine and not working.

Other employees billed more than 24 hours in a single day. The state paid their invoices without flagging the discrepancy, the audit found,

Favorite Healthcare was reimbursed $1.4 million for lodging costs, even though its employees were staying in their personal residences.

Upon discovering the issues, Illinois hired the consulting firm Innovative Emergency Management to review Favorite Healthcare's invoices.

But Innovative Emergency Management also had its own billing issues, the audit found. The company billed Illinois using duplicate timesheets and for employees who did not report working any hours.

Illinois later had to hire yet another firm, Crowe, to review Innovative Emergency Management's invoices. Crowe earned $1.3 million.

Summary: The public should not have to pay contractors to sit around and twiddle their thumbs, nor pay consultants to figure out why.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.