Monthly Archives: September 2026

When a “Gotcha” Collapses: Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Eric Schmitt, and the Hawks-Hawkeyes Mix-Up

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Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony by, and questioned, often pointedly, former special counsel Jack Smith. The resulting exchanges offered a vivid lesson in the danger of building accusations before checking the basic facts. 

The hearing concerned Smith’s investigations of President Donald Trump, but one of its most memorable, and frankly, tragicomic exchanges of the day centered on an attempt to link Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt, an attorney and former State Attorney General, suggested that Smith had traveled to Atlanta on February 3, 2024, attended an Atlanta Hawks game, and perhaps used the trip to coordinate with Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade. The allegation was presented as a potentially devastating contradiction. Instead, it unraveled due to sloppy research and the apparently (for Schmitt and his team) inscrutable difference between the Hawks and the Hawkeyes. After all, they both include the name of a bird, and in this case refer to basketball teams. Never mind that, staying with this case, one team plays college hoops; the other professional, or the fact that the locations are more than 650 miles apart.  

Schmitt asked Smith whether he had attended a Warriors–Hawks NBA game in Atlanta and warned him about perjury after Smith denied doing so. He displayed internal messages that, in his telling, placed Smith at such a game shortly after Willis disclosed her relationship with Wade. The insinuation was serious: if Smith had secretly met with Willis while federal and state cases involving Trump were proceeding on parallel tracks, it could have raised legitimate questions about coordination and candor. Serious charges, however, demand serious verification—especially when voiced under the authority of a Senate hearing.

Unfortunately, in what had the appearance of an attempted gotcha moment for those assembled, and the MAGA television audience, the available facts pointed somewhere else entirely, completely diffusing the intended rhetorical bombshell. In contemporary parlance, what Schmitt did is called laying a perjury trap. As it were, Smith recalled attending a women’s college basketball game in College Park, Maryland, to watch Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes play the Maryland Terrapins. Iowa did play at Maryland on February 3, 2024, and Clark scored 38 points in the Hawkeyes’ victory. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar highlighted the obvious explanation: a reference associated with the “Hawkeyes” had been transformed into a claim about the Atlanta “Hawks.” The city was wrong, the league was wrong, and the team was wrong. Most importantly, the supposed evidence had been grossly misinterpreted and did not establish a meeting with Willis. So much for the perjury trap; epic fail.

The effort to connect Smith to Willis was misguided from the outset. It began with a conclusion—covert coordination—and then treated an ambiguous basketball reference as proof. Rather than testing the premise first, in a classic rush to judgment, the questioning escalated immediately to suggestions of dishonesty and wrongdoing. 

For any objective observers, this approach did more than embarrass its author. It displaced potentially substantive oversight with spectacle and made it harder to separate legitimate scrutiny from partisan theater. Assuming of course, that was not the point anyway, a committee charged with evaluating prosecutorial conduct should model the evidentiary discipline it expects from prosecutors.

The episode also illustrates how easily a catchy narrative can outrun the record. “Atlanta Hawks” fit a theory involving an Atlanta prosecutor; “Iowa Hawkeyes” did not. Yet resemblance in language is not evidence of resemblance in events. The correction mattered because congressional accusations carry reputational and institutional consequences. Before making the leap to imply perjury or secret collusion, lawmakers should establish where a witness was, what the underlying messages actually said, and whether independent facts support such an inference.

For many observers the hearing will be remembered not because it proved a hidden Smith–Willis alliance, but rather because it showed how quickly confident rhetoric can collapse under elementary factchecking. (Note: This is why Republicans hate factchecking and frequently refer to the media as the enemy of the people.) Smith was not exposed as an attendee at an Atlanta Hawks game; the record instead placed him at a Maryland–Iowa women’s game featuring Caitlin Clark. Conversely, Schmitt was revealed as being a little too eager to gloat over what turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory, at best. The larger lesson is simple: oversight is strongest when it is skeptical, precise, AND fair. When accusation becomes the starting point rather than the conclusion, even a prepared “gotcha” can end up proving only that the questioner got the game wrong.

In case you are keeping score, this was the Senate Judiciary Committee’s first shot at Smith. The House Judiciary Committee held an all-day Closed-Door Deposition of Smith last year, on December 17, 2025, subsequently followed by a public hearing earlier this year, January 22, 2026. As the election nears, the war drags on, gas prices soar, Mike Johnson delays the Pete Hegseth impeachment vote, Republicans overspend to save Texas, the sputtering economy motivates Trump to point to after the midterms for a promised rebound, and Epstein is still on deck, taking another run at Smith feels like destiny; a page out of the proverbial partisan playbook.

The three-steps of said playbook were all on full display in yesterday’s hearing. Deny, deflect, and discredit. The GOP-led Committee first imputed that Trump was faultless. They essentially denied any wrongdoing by him and implied both he, and Republicans writ large were victims of weaponized prosecution. They deflected the attention to Smith and repeatedly endeavored to show him as a purveyor of extra-legal tactics. Finally, as Senator Schmitt did, they made discrediting Smith their work du jour. All in all, it was quite the production. There was solemnity, drama, tension, and thanks to Senator Eric Schmitt, at least one moment of comic relief. “When a “Gotcha” Collapses: Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Eric Schmitt, and the Hawks–Hawkeyes Mix-Up!”

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When a “Gotcha” Collapses: Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Eric Schmitt, and the Hawks-Hawkeyes Mix-Up

The formulation of this post was augmented by the use of AI.

Trump’s United Nations Address: The Latest Threat to Iran

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President Donald Trump’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly placed American power, global instability, and the war with Iran at the center of international attention. Speaking before world leaders, Trump cast himself as a decisive leader willing to act where others had hesitated, especially in confronting Iran’s nuclear ambitions and military power. His address combined familiar themes of national strength, criticism of international institutions, and claims of diplomatic success. Yet the most striking moment came when he warned that, if no agreement emerged, he might “annihilate the Islamic Republic” (Iran)—language that quickly overshadowed much of the rest of the speech.

Broadly, the speech reflected Trump’s long-standing tendency to frame foreign policy as a test of will. He argued that the United States had prevented Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed threat and portrayed military force as a necessary instrument of peace. He also used the setting to defend American dominance beyond the Middle East, including in the Western Hemisphere, and to reject international pressure on issues such as artificial intelligence (which he is rebranding as super intelligence) governance. The address was not simply a policy report; it was a display of authority intended to reassure supporters, pressure adversaries, and remind allies that Washington expected them to follow its lead.

Iran, however, was the subject that gave the speech its emotional and political weight. Trump described the conflict as unfinished business and insisted that his administration would never allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. He called for other nations to enforce the “complete economic isolation of Iran,” framing economic pressure as a way to force negotiations. At the same time, he repeated his prediction that a deal could come after the U.S. midterm elections, suggesting that diplomacy remained possible even as military pressure continued.

That combination of negotiation and threat produced a deeply contradictory message: Trump wanted to appear open to peace, but only from a position of overwhelming coercive power. The tension was sharpened by his earlier claims that Iran’s nuclear capacity had already been obliterated and would take years to rebuild. If that was true, then the continued urgency of the conflict became harder to explain. The result was a speech that presented strength as the path to peace while also suggesting that the conflict remained dangerously unresolved.

Still, the threat to destroy Iran was the defining line of the address. Trump asked whether he should make a deal that would allow Iran to rebuild, or instead “annihilate the Islamic Republic” and “drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness.” In the chamber of the United Nations—a body founded after World War II to prevent catastrophic war and shaped in large part by U.S. leadership—such language carried extraordinary weight. Even if intended as bargaining rhetoric, it raised the specter of destruction on a scale that would extend far beyond Iran’s government, endangering civilians, regional stability, global energy markets, and the credibility of international law.

The broader significance of the speech lies in its stark contrast between diplomacy and devastation. Trump’s supporters may view the remarks as proof that adversaries must take American warnings seriously. Critics, however, are more likely to see the threat as reckless, especially because it was delivered from the world’s most visible diplomatic platform. The United Nations is meant to encourage dialogue among rivals, not normalize threats of national annihilation. By turning the General Assembly into a stage for such a warning, Trump intensified fears that the conflict with Iran could expand rather than move toward settlement.

Ultimately, Trump’s UN visit revealed both the force and the danger of his foreign-policy style. His threat to destroy Iran undercut the diplomacy he claimed to preserve, turning a message of strength into a threat of escalation.

In a forum created to prevent catastrophe, the address will be remembered for showing how quickly language intended to promote deterrence can become the lingua franca that provokes war. “Trump’s United Nations Address: The Latest Threat to Iran!”

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Trump’s United Nations Address: The Latest Threat to Iran

The formulation of this post was augmented by the use of AI.

Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Blocks Trump Mail-In Voting Restrictions: Check the Numbers

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The Supreme Court’s decision to leave in place a lower-court ruling blocking new federal restrictions on mail ballot delivery is significant not only for the 2026 midterm elections, but also for the broader balance between federal authority and state control over elections. The case concerned rules tied to the U.S. Postal Service that would have required states to submit voter information through a federal system and meet specific ballot-mail design requirements before ballots could be delivered. By refusing to lift the injunction, the Court allowed states to continue using their existing mail-voting procedures while litigation continues.

At the heart of the dispute is a practical question with constitutional overtones: who gets to decide how voters receive ballots? Elections in the United States have long been administered primarily by states, while Congress retains authority to regulate federal elections. The Trump administration argued that the Postal Service had authority to regulate ballot mail in the name of security, consistency, and fraud prevention. Opponents, including Democratic-led states and voting-rights organizations, countered that the rules would effectively federalize a major part of election administration and risk disenfranchising voters who rely on mail ballots.

The timing of the proposed restrictions appears to have weighed heavily on the Court. With mail ballots already gone out in some states, including here in North Carolina, and election offices preparing for imminent deadlines, imposing new standards would have forced officials to redesign procedures in the middle of an election cycle. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while suggesting that the Postal Service might ultimately have some statutory authority, emphasized that applying the rule so close to Election Day would be unreasonable because state and local officials lacked sufficient time to implement it.

The decision also reflects a familiar judicial concern known as the “Purcell principle,” the idea that courts should be cautious about changing election rules shortly before voting occurs. Although the Court’s order did not fully resolve the legality of the federal restrictions, it preserved stability for election administrators and voters. That stability matters because nearly one-third of the country votes by mail, and late changes can create confusion, uneven implementation, and legal uncertainty.

Politically, the ruling represents a setback for President Trump’s long-running campaign against mail voting. Trump has repeatedly claimed, without substantiated evidence of widespread fraud, and despite the fact he often votes by mail, that mail ballots are especially vulnerable to abuse. Yet many states, including several that conduct elections largely by mail, have developed verification systems over decades. For those states, the blocked rules would have disrupted established practices rather than merely adding minor safeguards.

The immediate effect is clear: states may proceed with their existing mail ballot delivery systems for the midterms, and the Postal Service may not enforce the challenged requirements while the case moves forward. The longer-term question remains unresolved, because future courts may still decide whether federal postal authority can support such rules in another election cycle. For now, however, the Supreme Court’s action reinforces the importance of predictable election procedures, the limits of last-minute federal intervention, and the central role states continue to play in running American elections. 

The current SCOTUS composition is 2/3 majority conservative. Republicans in general, and Trumpers in particular, hasten to slam Democrats and liberals, whom they now increasingly refer to as socialists, or even communists, for opposing Trump on this issue. Let’s be perfectly clear, Democrats, alone, didn’t affirm this ruling. In fact, only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. 

Meanwhile, coincidentally, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, all Trump appointees, joined Chief Justice John Roberts, another GOP appointee, and the three Democratic Appointees, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, in forming the majority that kept the restrictions blocked for the midterms. Interestingly, that means 2/3 of the 2/3 conservative SCOTUS majority joined with Democrats to rebuke Trump. Rumor has it, someone asked, if the temperature has dropped to 32 degrees in hades?

It’s about that time. There are 48 days until the General Election; less than that before the Primaries, and mail balloting is already underway. Get ready to vote; by mail, by voting early, or by voting on Election Day. Whatever your choice, if you are eligible, be sure to assemble the requisite Identification documents, register, and vote. “Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) Blocks Trump Mail-In Voting Restrictions: Check the Numbers!”

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Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Blocks Trump Mail-In Voting Restrictions: Check the Numbers

The formulation of this post was augmented by the use of AI.

Nine-Eleven: Forever Etched Upon the American Psyche Redux ’26

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This legacy post originally appeared in this space on September 7, 2011, commenting on the 10th Anniversary of Nine-Eleven. It was re-purposed and presented September 11, 2013, September 13, 2017, September 12, 2018, September 11, 2019, September 8, 2021 (20th Anniversary), September 14, 2022, September 13, 2023, September 11, 2024, September 10, 2025, and today, September 9, 2026 (25th Anniversary).

As I re-post this vintage edition, I am reminded that every September, the American calendar pauses before a date that is more than a marker of time. In a couple of days, we will observe Nine-Eleven. September 11 is an open wound, a civics lesson, and a recurring summons to remember. Twenty-five years, a quarter century after the attacks of 2001, Nine-Eleven remains forever etched upon the American psyche because it was not merely an assault on buildings, airplanes, or institutions. It was an assault on the country’s sense of itself: its confidence, its assumptions of distance from foreign violence, and its expectation that ordinary mornings would remain ordinary.

The horror unfolded with stunning compression. In the span of roughly eighty-one minutes, hijacked aircraft transformed familiar places into scenes of devastation: the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The official death toll of the attacks stands at 2,977 victims, not including the 19 hijackers, while thousands more were injured or left to carry the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of that day. The number 2,997, often cited when the hijackers are included, captures the total dead on the day itself, but it still cannot measure the human breadth of the loss.

Those numbers are chilling because each one represents a life interrupted: passengers and crew members, office workers, military and civilian personnel at the Pentagon, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and bystanders whose final acts were folded into a national memory of shock and sacrifice. The losses at the World Trade Center were especially staggering, including hundreds of first responders who entered danger while others were trying to escape. Cantor Fitzgerald lost more employees than any other employer, and the painstaking work of identifying remains continued for years, a reminder that grief after Nine-Eleven did not end when the fires stopped burning.

America’s response was immediate, emotional, and structural. Congress designated September 11 as Patriot Day through Public Law 107-89, asking that the flag be flown at half-staff and that a moment of silence honor those killed. Later, the observance also became associated with a National Day of Service and Remembrance, shifting the day from mere recollection toward purposeful action. The symbolism matters: a nation wounded by spectacular violence chose not only to mourn, but also to serve.

Institutionally, Nine-Eleven remade the architecture of American security. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 marked one of the most consequential reorganizations of the federal government in modern history. Its mission drew together counterterrorism, border security, immigration and customs enforcement, cybersecurity, transportation security, and disaster preparedness under a new umbrella. The change reflected a transformed worldview: security was no longer imagined primarily as something maintained overseas; it became something practiced daily at airports, ports, public buildings, digital networks, and ordinary civic spaces.

The attacks also propelled the United States into the long era of the Global War on Terror. Afghanistan became the first major battlefield after U.S., British, and coalition forces began military operations in October 2001. Iraq followed, and the struggle against terrorism reshaped diplomacy, defense policy, intelligence gathering, civil liberties debates, and the daily lives of service members and their families. The war in Afghanistan ultimately became the longest war in American history, ending for U.S. forces in 2021 after two decades of shifting strategy, sacrifice, frustration, and unresolved questions about what victory can mean in such conflicts.

Nine-Eleven also changed the way Americans spoke about vulnerability. Before the attacks, many citizens understood terrorism as something that happened elsewhere, in distant capitals or contested regions. Afterward, the nation absorbed the knowledge that oceans, military power, intelligence networks, and national confidence could not guarantee immunity. The result was a more guarded America: more vigilant, more suspicious, more prepared, and at times more divided over the proper balance between security and liberty.

Yet the story of Nine-Eleven is not only about injury or fear. It is also about the human instinct to respond. In New York, Arlington, Pennsylvania, and communities across the nation, people donated blood, searched for the missing, comforted strangers, raised families without loved ones, entered military service, volunteered in civic life, and kept telling the stories of those who died. The passengers and crew of Flight 93, who resisted the hijackers and prevented their aircraft from reaching its intended target, remain part of the nation’s moral vocabulary because they demonstrated courage under conditions no one should have to face.

More than two decades later, the absence of another Nine-Eleven-scale attack on U.S. soil is significant, but it should not be mistaken for closure. Prevention has involved vigilance, intelligence work, public awareness, and sometimes simple fortune. At the same time, the long aftermath has included illnesses among first responders and survivors, unresolved trauma, political conflict over war powers and surveillance, and the enduring obligation to remember the victims as people rather than statistics.

It would be irresponsible to tell this story without noting breaking new information. On the eve of the eve of this twenty-fifth anniversary, another hard truth entered the public record. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration released more than 170,000 pages of post-Nine-Eleven air-quality documents suggesting that officials knew conditions around Ground Zero were unsafe even as residents, workers, and responders were reassured that the air was safe to breathe (ABC News; The Guardian). Possible motivations were painfully clear: to restore confidence, reopen Lower Manhattan, project governmental control, speed economic recovery, and limit legal exposure, a concern reflected in reporting on internal city discussions about liability (ABC News; CBS New York). Yet the impacts were profound. People returned too soon; many worked without adequate protection; trust in public assurances was damaged; and illnesses linked to the dust, smoke, asbestos, and toxins of Ground Zero became part of the lasting casualty list of Nine-Eleven (CDC World Trade Center Health Program; National September 11 Memorial & Museum). This revelation does not diminish the heroism of that day. It deepens the moral obligation to tell the whole truth about what followed.

That is why every effort should be made to resist allowing Patriot Day to become routine. If remembrance becomes only ceremony, it risks flattening grief into ritual. If service becomes only a slogan, it risks losing the deeper meaning of civic repair. The better observance is one that holds several truths at once: the attacks were evil; the losses were unbearable; the response was courageous; the consequences were complicated; and the duty to remember belongs not only to those who lived through the day, but also to generations who inherited its world.

On this twenty-fifth anniversary, Nine-Eleven remains a day America will never forget because it changed how the nation sees danger, sacrifice, government, war, and community. It taught, brutally, that history can turn in a single morning. It also taught that remembrance is not passive. To remember well is to honor the dead, tell the truth about the costs, support those still living with the aftermath, and recommit to the work of building a country worthy of the lives it mourns. That is the enduring charge of Nine-Eleven: never forget, but also never stop serving.

In summary, Nine-Eleven endures as both memory and mandate: a day of devastating loss, national awakening, institutional transformation, and continuing responsibility. Its meaning is found not only in the statistics, the wars, or the policy changes that followed, but also in the lives remembered, the service rendered, and the civic obligation to remain vigilant without surrendering compassion, community, or democratic purpose. ”Nine-Eleven: Forever Etched Upon the American Psyche Redux ’26!”

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For further reading and research, consider:
• National September 11 Memorial & Museum — official memorial, museum, educational resources, and stories of remembrance.
• Britannica: September 11 Attacks Facts — concise factual background, casualty figures, and historical context.
• HISTORY: 9/11 Timeline — a chronology of the attacks as events unfolded on September 11, 2001.
• Department of Homeland Security: History — official background on the creation and mission of DHS after 9/11.
• ABC News — reporting on New York City’s release of post-9/11 air-quality records and the Harding Memo.
• The Guardian — reporting on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s release of more than 170,000 pages of municipal records.
• CDC World Trade Center Health Program — background on 9/11 toxins, exposure pathways, and health impacts.
• National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Illness and Advocacy After 9/11 — 

Nine-Eleven: Forever Etched Upon the American Psyche Redux ’26

*This formulation of this post was augmented by the use of AI.

Laura Loomer’s Degrading Attacks Deserve More Than Condemnation: Let’s See How That Goes

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Laura Loomer’s recent attacks on Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon and other Black women in public life were not simply ugly politics. They were an attempt to belittle, degrade, and strip accomplished public officials of dignity by reducing them to racist and sexist caricatures. Reports said Loomer targeted Nixon, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, former Rep. Cori Bush, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson with language that fused racial contempt, gender abuse, and crude stereotypes into a single performance of dehumanization. She described the five women as “ghetto, entitled, race-obsessed, destructive Black b—hes” and claimed they were unfit for the power they hold.

The distinction of fusing those elements matters. Calling the episode “controversial” is accurate but is also far too mild. Loomer’s rhetoric was degrading because it did not argue with these women’s records, ideas, votes, or judicial reasoning. It attacked their humanity. It relied on familiar anti-Black tropes meant to portray Black women as disorderly, unintelligent, angry, or unworthy of authority. The goal was not persuasion; it was humiliation. In that sense, the language functioned less like political commentary and more like a public attempt to put Black women “back in their place.”

Loomer’s criticism appears to have been sparked in part by Nixon’s opposition to resolutions honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Nixon had argued that Kirk’s remarks about Black people were harmful and that honoring him risked validating white supremacist politics. Loomer could have answered that argument with evidence, context, or political disagreement. Instead, she chose degradation. By escalating from a public policy dispute to racialized insult, she revealed how quickly some political actors abandon debate when a Black woman asserts moral authority.

Nixon’s response was notable because she refused to accept the terms of the attack. She insisted on being addressed by her elected title, a demand that cut to the heart of the matter. Loomer’s rhetoric was designed to deny status, seriousness, and legitimacy. Nixon’s insistence on “Representative” restored the basic fact that she is not a prop in someone else’s spectacle. She is an elected official, a Senate candidate, and possibly the first Black person to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate. 

However, when Nixon told Loomer to address her as “Representative,” Loomer responded with another racial stereotype. She escalated the exchange, invoking “Ebonics” and telling Nixon she might need to bark at her and tug her leash for the lawmaker to understand. Moreover, Loomer continued attacking Nixon and on Sunday said she stood by her remarks.

The backlash exposed a political line so blatant that at least one figure not known for delicate rhetoric felt compelled to condemn it. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rejected Loomer’s comments as hateful and racist. 

Meanwhile Maryland Gov. Wes Moore accused Loomer of turning racism into a business model for attention and clicks. Those responses underscored the central problem: when racism is packaged as provocation, it can become profitable, repeatable, and politically useful unless people across the spectrum refuse to normalize it.

Loomer’s refusal to apologize made the degradation even clearer. A sincere critic might clarify, retract, or reconsider. Loomer instead, using the classic Trump model, amplified, using similarly themed remarks and continuing the exchange, treating the outrage itself as proof of relevance. That is the machinery of modern political cruelty: say something demeaning, wait for condemnation, then claim victimhood or free-speech martyrdom while the original targets absorb the cost. Black women are expected to endure the insult, answer it with poise, and then continue governing as if the attack were just another day online.

That expectation is precisely why the episode deserves more than a passing rebuke. Loomer’s rhetoric was not merely rude, excessive, or politically incorrect. It was degrading in its purpose and dehumanizing in its effect. It attempted to convert Black women’s public leadership into an object of ridicule. Nixon’s answer points toward the only adequate response: name the racism, reject the spectacle, and insist that public life cannot function if racial and sexist humiliation is treated as entertainment. Condemnation is necessary, but it is not nearly enough, unless it is paired with a refusal to reward the conduct that made the condemnation necessary in the first place. “Laura Loomer’s Degrading Attacks Deserve More Than Condemnation: Let’s See How That Goes!”

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Laura Loomer’s Degrading Attacks Deserve More Than Condemnation: Let’s See How That Goes

This post was augmented by the use of AI.