Brangelina Breakup, Terrorist Son

The BIG D: Angelina Jolie’s filing for divorce from Brad Pitt is a fade to black for one of the most famous Hollywood marriages of all time. Pitt and Jolie, nicknamed “Brangelina” by the tabloids, have been together for 12 years, but married only in 2014.

A PR statement said the split is for “the health of the family.”

This is the end of the second marriage for Pitt, and Jolie’s third. They met and romanced on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a movie about a couple of professional assassins trying to kill each other. Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time.

Together, Pitt and Jolie have six children, three of them adopted. The gossip website TMZ reports that Jolie didn’t like Pitt’s behavior with the kids and that he drinks too much and smokes dope.

In 2009 she told the editor of The Rooney Report that acting was not her first priority. “I’d say kids first, kids, woman to Brad and then my work internationally.”

The Bomber: The father of accused bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami said he had previously told the FBI he thought his son was a terrorist. “Two years ago I go to the FBI because my son was doing really bad, OK?” Mohammad Rahami told the NY Times. “But they check almost two months, they say, ‘He’s OK, he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.’ I say OK.”

He added, “Now they say he is a terrorist. I say OK.”

Ahmad Rahami, 28, was arraigned yesterday on charges that he used a weapon of mass destruction and attacked a public place, including 23rd St. in New York.

Rahami’s friends have told reporters that he changed and became more serious after several visits to Pakistan. He was born in Afghanistan.

Permawar: The US says it was two Russian jets that bombed a Red Crescent aid convoy in Syria, destroying 18 of 31 vehicles. Both Russia and Syria deny it. Syria declared an end to a brief ceasefire arranged between the US and Russia, and returned to bombing rebel positions around Aleppo.  

Money, Money: The boss of Wells Fargo faced withering fire before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday over the bank’s creation of bogus accounts to boost the numbers of lowly sales people. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused CEO John Stumpf of “gutless leadership.” She asked, “Have you returned one nickel of the money that you earned while this scandal was going on? Have you have fired any senior management, the people who actually oversaw this fraud?”

Stumpf answered, “No.”

The bank fired 5,300 people over several years even while continuing the pressure that forced sales people to create fake transactions to make their quotas. The executive who oversaw the operation, Carrie Tolstedt, retired at age 56 in July with a sendoff totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Dumber and Dumberer: Hillary Clinton has begun an appeal to younger voters, who have not been massively moved by her bid for the presidency. Although she is still statistically the favorite to win, her numbers continue to slip.

In a column titled “Hillary Clinton’s Dumb Campaign,” Charlie Cook writes the following for The Cook Political Report: “Whether it is pre-campaign decisions on handling emails, going eight months without a press conference, or the bumbling handling of her health situation in recent days, the question keeps recurring: Is Clinton not getting good advice or just not taking it? One wonders whether there are enough people willing to stand up to her and tell her what she needs to know but may not want to hear.”

Gordon Gecko Tweets: Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted an image of a bowl of candy with the message: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you that just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”

He commented, “This image says it all. Let’s end the politically correct agenda that doesn’t put America first.”

But let’s correct his grammar. Correctly punctuated, it should go like this: “If I had a bowl of Skittles, and I told you that just three would kill you, would you take a handful?”

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It's Been Said

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