White House Dossier's

Biden pays Iran $1.2 billion per hostage . . . Let’s be honest about what’s going on here. We are paying for hostages, and incentivizing the taking of more. Not just by Iran. Americans are for sale. Get one while you can. White House Dossier

Inflation Will Continue Until Morale Improves. Why aren’t Americans happy with the Biden economy? The answer couldn’t be more obvious . . . As Joe Biden’s approval ratings sink deeper into the mire, Democrats and their allies in the media are puzzled and dispirited by the ingratitude of the American people. Here he is, the kindly old man who came out of retirement to save American democracy, cool a burning planet, restore faith in the nation’s global leadership, abolish prejudice, end poverty, and allow us the freedom to choose our own pronouns, and what thanks does he get? Three quarters of Americans say he shouldn’t run again. It’s almost enough to make you want to chuck it all in and make some serious money shaking down foreign governments and companies with members of your family. Wall Street Journal

Crime is so bad in DC that Congress is distributing tips to avoid being carjacked in capital . . . House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, (R-Wis.) on Monday warned would-be visitors to Washington, D.C. of rising crime in the nation's capital and advised people how to respond to criminal acts and to minimize the risk of being victimized by violence like carjackings.

The District of Columbia is currently struggling to contend with increased criminal activity that has many questioning the safety of living in the city at all. Compared to this point in 2022, data from the D.C. Metropolitan Police shows that homicides are up 28% and on pace to reach their highest levels in more than 20 years. Robberies, meanwhile, are up 67%. Residents have testified to increasingly driving for short distances due to fear of going outside.

Amid the crime wave, the Mexican consulate in Washington, D.C., has warned its citizens that "The city of Washington, D.C. is experiencing a significant increase in crime in areas previously considered safe. Take precautions. In an emergency, call 911." Just the News

UAW Strike Collides With Biden’s Manufacturing Agenda . . . The United Auto Workers strike at U.S. carmakers exposes a conflict at the heart of the Biden administration’s economic policy that could be difficult to resolve. On the one hand, President Biden promotes new investment in clean technology and electric vehicles to bring manufacturing back to U.S. shores. On the other, he celebrates labor unions and supports their demands for higher wages. Big wage increases will make it harder for the U.S. to build an electric-vehicle industry that can challenge China’s dominance, said Willy Shih, a management professor at Harvard Business School. Wall Street Journal

Non-Profit Backed By Soros, Foreign Billionaire Bought Nearly Two Dozen Local Newspapers In This Swing State . . . George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and left-wing Swiss Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss are quietly backing a non-profit that acquired nearly two dozen local papers in Maine in July, according to Semafor. The National Trust for Local News acknowledges that it received funding from Soros’ organization, but denies that the Open Society Foundations provided funding specifically for the purchase of the local papers. A source with direct knowledge of the acquisition, however, told Semafor that Soros and Wyss did donate funds so the National Trust could acquire the papers; the donations had not been previously reported. Wyss is also a supporter of States Newsroom, a left-wing network of local news outlets that began as a project of the left-wing Hopewell Fund. States Newsroom is currently expanding operations in Maine. Daily Caller

The breakup: Biden and Adams avoid each other in New York . . . This time last year, President Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams were together at a high-dollar Democratic fundraiser and at the United Nations General Assembly’s marquee reception.

This week, their relationship in tatters over the migrant crisis in New York, Biden and Adams have no plans to cross paths during the president’s three days in the city. Politico

VIDEO: Stunning banalities from Vice President Harris

Mike Pence's Out-of-Touch And Risky Foreign Policy Positions . . . Appearing on Fox News with Shannon Bream two weekends ago, Mike Pence disqualified himself as a GOP candidate for the 2024 nomination by vowing to continue the failed policies of the Biden administration, which have brought America closer to a direct conflict with Russia. 

• Pence's desire to admit Ukraine into NATO is an extreme position, potentially risking NATO involvement and an escalation of conflict with Russia
• Pence's stance on Taiwan contradicts America's official One China policy, which could escalate tensions with China
• His positions on Israel and Iran also have the potential to lead to conflict and heightened tensions
• Considering America's already high defense budget and growing debt concerns, his stance on military spending is fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable

TIPPInsights

The CIA Politicizes Intelligence on China and Covid. A whistleblower says that analysts who favored the lab-leak theory were paid to change positions . . . A Central Intelligence Agency whistleblower claims that the CIA rigged a report on the origins of Covid-19 to exonerate China. According to the allegation, the most senior member of a seven-member CIA analysis team “was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.” His six colleagues thought the intelligence and science “were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment” that the disease came from a lab leak. “The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their positions,” according to a Sept. 12 letter from two House committee chairmen. Wall Street Journal

I wish I were surprised.

Watch Out for Backroom Warmongers Urging NATO Entanglement in Ukraine . . . Recent proposals encouraging initiatives to increase NATO membership for Eastern European nations are antagonistic, ill-timed and of questionable strategic value to the U.S. Specifically, any Ukrainian Road to NATO in the foreseeable future is, at a minimum, dangerous.

It appears a few resurfacing Neocons are back and quietly lining up behind a new crew of presidential candidates and whispering in their ears, with the likely "salute" of an Army-dominated Defense Department. Think of Chris Christie stating he supports NATO membership for Ukraine, and Nikki Haley's recent comments advocating adding Ukraine to NATO now. Those bizarre statements should give one a chill. However, it's a good bet that an inflated Army and the defense industry are likely getting very excited.

A NATO admission of Ukraine will almost certainly suck us into another European war -- the one that our post-1947 Army has trained, equipped and maybe hoped for. Military.com

Huawei’s chip breakthrough poses new threat to Apple in China — and questions for Washington . . . Appleis facing a number of issues in China, with geopolitical risks mounting and the economy still not firing as many would have hoped. But the biggest challenge of all, according to analysts, could be a resurgent Huawei after a purported major semiconductor breakthrough that flew in the face of U.S. sanctions. The latest chip, made by China’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer SMIC, has sparked concern in Washington and raised questions about how it was possible, without the company being able to access critical technologies. CNBC

Ukraine ousts more defense officials and decries grain ban by E.U. neighbors . . . A wide-ranging overhaul of Ukraine’s defense ministry continued Monday as all six deputy defense ministers were dismissed, two weeks after President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced the top minister amid investigations into overspending and corruption.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. The shake-up will allow the new defense minister, Rustem Umerov, the opportunity to install his own team. No specific reason was given for the removals. Washington Post

China’s Former Foreign Minister Ousted After Alleged Affair, Senior Officials Told . . . Senior Chinese officials were told that an internal Communist Party investigation found former Foreign Minister Qin Gang to have engaged in an extramarital affair that lasted throughout his tenure as Beijing’s top envoy to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter. Qin, once considered a trusted aide to leader Xi Jinping, was stripped of his foreign minister title in July without explanation after he disappeared from public view a month earlier. At one point leading up to his ouster, the Foreign Ministry said the absence of 57-year-old Qin was for health reasons. Wall Street Journal

Justin Trudeau says ‘credible allegations’ link India to killing of Sikh leader in Canada . . . Canada’s prime minister has said there are “credible allegations” that India’s government was involved in the fatal shooting in June of a prominent Sikh leader in British Columbia.

Justin Trudeau’s accusations triggered a hostile response from New Delhi and a round of diplomatic expulsions, deepening a rift between the two G20 countries. Citing intelligence from national security services, Trudeau on Monday told members of parliament that Canadian authorities were investigating whether “agents” of New Delhi were behind the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver with a large Sikh community. Financial Times
 

Graft accusations dog top Zelenskiy aides . . . In his years as the chief executive of one of Ukraine's biggest construction firms, Oleh Maiboroda kept rolls of dollar bills in a safe behind his desk. The money, Maiboroda told Reuters, was intended to bribe public officials to approve building projects. The task of handing over the cash, he said, was entrusted to a lawyer named Oleh Tatarov, now a senior adviser to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Reuters

Shocking,

Money

Oil spikes above $91 on supply concerns . . . The price of oil continues to rise as Wall Street traders eye a potential supply deficit after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended supply cuts. Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices have climbed for three straight weeks to reach their highest peak since November and are now targeting their biggest quarterly jumps since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2022. That year, oil prices shot above $100 for the first time since 2014 amid the conflict as demand recovered from COVID-19 lockdowns. Meanwhile, the global benchmark Brent Crude ended 2022 near $86 a barrel on fears of global recession. Fox Business

Coal from Russian-annexed Ukraine sold in NATO member Turkey . . . At least $14.3 million worth of coal produced in areas of Ukraine annexed by Russia has been exported to NATO member Turkey this year, according to Russian customs data reviewed by Reuters. Between February and July 2023, about 160,400 tonnes of coal from the annexed eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk arrived in Turkey, the data showed. Three producers listed in the customs data confirmed to Reuters they had shipped coal from the two regions to Turkey during that period. Reuters

Culture

Virginia Dem who livestreamed racy sex videos says she's a victim . . . . The bizarre story of Susanna Gibson and her candidacy for a seat in the House of Delegates has occupied much of the conversations around Virginia. The Democratic nominee was exposed recently by the Washington Post for streaming sex acts on a site called Chaturbate for money. The tips, she reportedly pledged, would go to a "good cause." Leading Democrats have rallied around Gibson as has the group Emily’s List. According to the Post, Gibson posted more than a dozen videos in September 2022, after she had officially entered the race in suburban Richmond. Virginia State Sen. L. Louise Lucas and other Democrats have defended Gibson of being the target of a hit job by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Republicans. Fox News

Schumer chooses decline for Senate decorum . . . As if Democrats still needed to prove that they are obsessed with lowering or eliminating all standards, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) just scrapped the Senate dress code. There is no good reason to kill the dress code, and he should reinstate it. Until last weekend, men were required to wear a jacket and tie on the Senate floor. The Senate likes to think of itself as the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” with just 100 men and women working there for the 335 million people who inhabit the greatest nation on Earth. They handle tremendous democratic responsibilities. Surely it is not too much to ask that they reflect the gravity of the office granted to them by dressing with dignity. Respect, indeed a degree of reverence, is due for the site and the institution. Too many of our fellow countrymen dress as children — in shorts and T-shirts — and it is reasonable to ask that senators not be among them. Washington Examiner

Susan Collins jokes she will 'wear a bikini' to the Senate while slamming dress code changes . . . Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joked Monday that she would "wear a bikini" on the floor of the Senate following Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y., directive that the body would no longer enforce a dress code for its members. Collins made the comments while slamming the dress code directive, arguing it "debases the institution," which still requires others entering the chamber to comply with the dress code, including coats and ties for men, and business attire for women. Fox News

Outrage as Iran president prepares to address UN: 'Wants to kill American citizens' . . . Following the killing of hundreds of protesters by the Iranian regime, outrage is accompanying potential Senate action to ban future U.N. visits by Iran President Ebrahim Raisi who sponsored planned assassinations of American citizens. Raisi arrived in New York City on Monday and is expected to speak Tuesday afternoon. Fox News

We Can No Longer Hide the Truth About the Russia-Ukraine War . . . As leading American politicians, generals, and pundits continue advocating for open-ended support to Kyiv in their war against Russia, a sober, accurate analysis of Ukraine's nearly completed summer offensive reveals that the heroic sacrifice Ukraine continues to make is producing little to no meaningful progress toward the objective of evicting Russia from Ukraine's territory. Washington should instead employ a necessary course correction and form a new policy, based on the harsh, ground-truth combat realities in Ukraine. Revising the objectives would give Washington and Kyiv a chance to preserve Ukrainian lives and American interests. Washington's current policies do neither. Newsweek

NYC to consider removing statues of George Washington, create reparations task force amid budget cuts . . . As New York City cripples under monumental budget cuts due to a migrant crisis straining public resources, the city council is planning to consider a series of measures that would, among other things, remove statues of major historical figures like George Washington and create a reparations task force. The items are included in New York City’s council agenda for Tuesday, September 19, 2023. The council’s Cultural Affairs Committee will hold a public hearing on a measure to remove works of art on city property that "depict a person who owned enslaved persons or directly benefited economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity." Fox News

Bad Luck: Military Announces Lost F-35 Was Carrying Epstein Client List . . . In a blow to the transparency of information and what could have been a treasure trove of evidence against a global sex trafficking ring, the Pentagon has announced the lost F-35 fighter jet was apparently carrying the only known copy of Jeffrey Epstein's client list. "This is truly unfortunate," said Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby. "The client list that once belonged to the late Mr. Epstein was being transported to an undisclosed location for analysis to prepare to use it as evidence to deliver justice for Epstein's victims. Tragically, with the plane going missing, it is unlikely we will ever see the list again. Such a peculiar happenstance, really." Babylon Bee