News roundup
(1) Trump names a new press secretary, Katie Zacharia:
Zacharia, a former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson and mom-of-four who left the agency in March, was appointed Friday to take over the high-profile role.
“It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia. Katie currently serves as Senior Communications Advisor to Truth Social (Trump Media & Technology Group), where she has been outstanding!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Zacharia, 41, currently serves as the Senior Communications Advisor for Trump Media & Technology Group, Trump’s Truth Social platform, a role she’s had since June, according to her LinkedIn profile.
(2) After many months free of the “too many requests” bug, this blog succumbed yesterday for a short while. I don’t know why it happened. But for a day or two prior I had noticed an increased number of attacks on the blog. I have all sorts of blocks in place that prevent successful attacks, but sheer numbers can sometimes close the site down for a little while, I guess. Who knows? Hope it doesn’t happen again.
(3) Trump makes a deal:
President Trump announced Russia has agreed to provide the world with millions of tons of diesel fuel over the next several months in a bid to decrease skyrocketing global prices.
In a Truth Social post, the president said he had just gotten off the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had agreed to release 300,000 tons of diesel immediately. He said another 500,000 tons of diesel would be released in November, followed by 1 million tons in December. …
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted the deal in a social media post, saying any easing of sanctions against Russia is a “weakness.”
(4) On refineries:
Why are we importing ANY petroleum products?
BUILD MORE DIESEL REFINERIES AND ?? SHIPS TO MOVE IT
This is a military priority. If Cali and Mass refuse then build DoW refineries on federal land.
If Delta Airlines can own and run a refinery then the USAF can too. https://t.co/d7PkeWbRiF
— John ? Konrad V (@johnkonrad) October 10, 2026
Makes sense to me.
(5) A major earthquake struck Panama, but fortunately the epicenter was in a mostly umpopulated area, although the quake was definitely felt in Panama City.
(6) I freely admit I don’t understand the backlash against Republicans predicted for the midterms. It’s not that the GOP is perfect, nor is Trump, but their accomplishments compared to the Democrats are stark and obvious.
Amen to the call for more refineries.
The Dems and their media are relying heavily on Trump Derangement Syndrome for the midterms. The many and varied accomplishments of the past two years mean nothing to them; power is their only concern, and the graft that goes with it.
That’s a bit confusing.
What is a “diesel refinery”, as apart from an ordinary(?) crude oil refinery to start with? Which, at least as I understand the term “crude oil refinery”, is a large chemistry set aiming to separate the many fractional components of crude oil as such.
So why not simply say: build more crude oil refineries!
Or is there some specially focused “chemistry set” just for diesel fuel — or is it rather (as I’ve heard tell of Venezuelan crude) a matter of processing particularly thick and heavy product as over against another lighter crude from the jump?
sdferr,
I’m hardly an expert on the topic, but yes… refrineries ARE built specifically with an intended heaviness of crude oil in mind, and specifically for an intended end product. For example, 30 or 40 years ago diesel automobiles were very popular in Europe. Now most cars there are gasoline powered.
Also, 30 or 40 years ago, it was assumed that most of the high quality light sweet crude was gone, and heavy and sometimes sour crude was targeted in the refinery construction. THEN, the fracking revolution happened, and light sweet crude is commonplace.
I may be off on the terminology, but refineries have these things called “crackers” which come in two different types. The basic one is a high temperature and high pressure vessel with a catalyst inside. The long heavy molecules break into pieces when they come in contact with the hot catalyst. Heavy is converted to light.
I was surprised by the other type of cracker. Somehow they can convert light oil molecules into heavier ones. Not sure how that works, but it is a very different piece of big and expensive infrastructure.
Politics must be in the ‘eye of the beholder‘ also…
See “(3) Trump makes a deal:” above for why I (for one) am looking for ways to go against the TCS MAGA GOP this mids. Yes, Trans & WOKE is horrid, but a Russian supporter for prez isn’t getting nothing more from me other than the hope that DEMs send his crooked flip-flopping Russian Lovin’ buttocks to prison…broke.
The more I see of the GOP, especially the MAGA crowd, the worse they look, even next to the sorry Democrats. Project 2025 is one example, and the cruel treatment of convicted murderer Christa Pike is another.
”President Trump announced Russia has agreed to provide the world with millions of tons of diesel fuel over the next several months in a bid to decrease skyrocketing global prices.”
Word out of Russia is that the deal includes America providing spare parts to rebuild Russian refineries damaged by Ukrainian drones. The Russians can’t build these refinery components themselves and must import them from the West. But they can’t do that either because of sanctions, so they’ve been using up their pre-existing stock of spare parts at — to them — an alarming rate. Now it’s Donnie to the rescue.
Additional sources say that this deal allows Russian refiners to clear out remaining stocks of summer diesel at a profit, diesel that would normally have to be stored until next year because of the changing seasons in Russia. Refiners are saying this will give them the cash to buy their own drone defense systems so as not to have to rely on the Russian government for that. Needless to say this deal is very popular among Russian warhawks.
So Donnie is now actively assisting the Russian war machine. Another great moment in American history.
On #1
I’ve already seen many calling her a nazi sympathizer. Yawn, sigh…..they never stop with this BS.
#6. TDS is the most serious mental health problem in the history of the US and about 75% of college educated women have it.
— neo
The backlash may or may not be real. We don’t know yet.
It comes down to turnout.
That said, in any midterm election, the party in power is judged not just against the reality of the other party, but also against the expectations of their supporters, and that invariably disappoints.
That in turn said, even if we assume the public polls are accurate, a lot of these races are closer than the press is implying. Some are within margin of error. Even Obama has been cautioning Dems against complacency.
Turnout, turnout, turnout.
#6 – Maybe the polls predicting backlash against the GOP are intended to counteract Trump’s many accomplishments and discourage people from voting.
I suspect the biggest reason for the “backlash” – *If* there is a backlash – is simply the price of gasoline. Even if 1) the economy is otherwise doing well and 2) inflation not as bad as the worst of Biden, it is something that hits people constantly. Not just when they go to the gas station but when they pass by a gas station, IOW just about every day.
What FOAF said…gas price will totally determine the midterms
Shows how much of our fellow citizens are either ignorant or forgetful. The Democrats have shown over and over they do not like American or even North American oil.
It’s pure hypocrisy for Democrat politicians to campaign on fuel prices.
Polls are frequently propaganda.
— selfy
The polls may or may not be. The ‘spin’ being put on them absolutely is just that. We’ve seen this phenomenon with literally every election in my adult lifetime, to one degree or another: they want to send the message to GOP voters that’s it’s hopeless, it’s already over, don’t waste your time on E-day, just accept that you’ve lost.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
— Jon baker
Yes, some voters simply don’t pay attention to politics, they just vote their feelings at the time. If gas prices are high or something else is irritating them, they don’t look at facts, they just lash out at whoever is in power. They’re just saying “Make it stop!”.
However! Those voters are always there. Every election. A fact of life that has to be worked around or past or somehow harnessed. Those voters were there when Clinton and Obama won, they were there when Reagan won in 1980 and 1984, they were there when Bush II and Trump won upset victories in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2016. They aren’t necessarily decisive unless turnout wavers.
Those voters are the same people who get caught when a hurricane is coming ashore, after a week of warnings and police calls to evacuate and say, “What? There’s a hurricane coming?” as it makes landfall. Always there.
Physics guy
If gas prices determine this election, given the issues this country faces, to me, it is final proof that the American voter is incapable of understanding issues and Ben Franklin’s question has been answered.
Richard Cook,
Even in Franklin’s time 50% of the electorate were on the low side of the intelligence bell curve, many like today, did not follow the issues. Too busy just maintaining their lives. Probably why the Founders tried to limit who could vote to landowners etc.
Gas prices are too “in your face” everyday for people. And if one does not follow the issues, then just vote to get rid of those bastards that are causing you problems.
#6.
So is it back to the future? (On steroids?)
Turley:
“Special counsel gone wild: Jack Smith makes a splash at a ‘No Kings’ concert”—
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/6138825-smith-no-kings-shirt/
AKA “Good and hard” (on steroids)…
Physics guy
There is always an excuse for not knowing. The foundation of the country is a knowledgeable electorate. And virtuous. And knowledge meaning some understanding of the issues. If we don’t have knowledge and virtue the present state is pretty predictable.
Article last week at least ago how the refineries have taken a serious hit. Don’t remember all the numbers but California may have lost 3 alone. And last new refinery that matters was built couple decades ago. The bogus push for all EV has done serious damage.
Worse the Marxists push to drive gas prices up will not while screaming about it they will do nothing but continue their agenda.
— Richard Cook
Even so, our republic has endured, sometimes shakily but steadily, for over two centuries and those voters were there all along. Rest assured, retail politics were no more elevated and refined in 1826 than they are in 2026.
— mkent
No question about it, this is a bad look and a bad move on Trump’s part.
AI Sidekicks Claude & Grok helped me put this together and then condense it waaaaayyy down from where Grok and I had it at first. Basically, they both helped to soften my harsh tone—especially for the GOP.
This is also an update on my Karmi on October 4, 2026 at 12:28 pm comment in the Open thread 10/3/2026 post.
My earlier prediction on the GOP is now broken, i.e., Trump’s deal with Russia for diesel was the final straw for me…I had given him far too many chances in the past. Let the chips fall where they may at this point…
A plague on both their houses
I’m a hermit, not a partisan (NPA Florida voter), and I get tired of both camps telling me the other side is the dumb one. From where I sit, there’s plenty of dumb to go around.
The Democrats. The party has drifted a long way left, and the progressive wing openly likes socialism. Most of the party isn’t communist, but it’s not the party I remember either. The gender issue for kids bothers me most. Europe’s own reviews, like the UK’s Cass Review, found the evidence for puberty blockers and hormones in minors pretty thin, and some countries have backed off. Meanwhile, reading and math scores have been sliding for years. Schools should be teaching the basics first.
The Republicans. It’s a mostly white party, and roughly 70% of its voters are white Christians. That’s fine as a fact, but it shapes who they listen to and what they care about. Trump said he had nothing to do with Project 2025, yet plenty of its ideas and people ended up in his administration. Many of his voters just shrug that off. On Russia, I understand not wanting to write blank checks to Ukraine, but I don’t get going soft on a country that has been our enemy for generations.
Then there’s Christa Pike. She did a horrible thing, no question. But Tennessee kept her on death row for nearly thirty years and then botched the execution. When a state can’t carry out its own sentence without a mess like that, people who call themselves small-government and pro-life ought to ask some hard questions.
The voters. The folks in the GOP groups I read say Democrats lack intelligence on the issues. I see the same lack on their side. Most of us pick a team and defend it, whether or not the facts back us up.
I don’t think either party deserves a blank check. Both want your loyalty more than they want your thinking.
Physics guy
I disagree with your argument. Politics has always been rough, tumble and retail. That haven’t changed. The thing that has changed are significant numbers of voters and groups (dsa, islam) that are dedicated to the destruction of this country. It is not politics per se. It is the goals of the groups and the democratic party that has changed.
Karmi is concerned. Oh, noes!
Clouds, fists; some assembly required. AI unnecessary.
Republicans have made a big deal about El-Sayed not being able to differentiate between Israael and Hamas. The president and many republicans have a similar problem with differentiating the evil between Ukraine and Russia.