SHUTDOWN LOOMING:  A tentative deal on a short-term spending plan reached over the weekend already appears to be in trouble as Republican hardliners are still bent on drastic budget cuts that would never pass the Senate. This leaves the federal government still headed for a shutdown at the end of the month.

  The bill would impose cuts across departments and does not include the White House request for $40 billion in supplemental funding for natural disasters and the war in Ukraine.

SWAP: Five Americans — four men and a woman — jailed for years in Iran are expected to fly back to the US today as part of a prisoner swap. They are expected to be exchanged for five Iranians held in the US. 

ORANGE ALERT: Former President Donald Trump during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” weighed in on the abortion issue, saying that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to sign off on a six week abortion ban is “a terrible thing.” Trump did not come up with a number of his own while making one of his classic baseless promises that as president he would “sit down with both sides” and negotiate an abortion deal that would result in “peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”

  In his interview with Kristen Welker, Trump spewed lies, fictions, and fantasies faster than any human could refute them. He said that US democracy is in tatters following his 2020 election loss and multiple of indictments. “This democracy — I don’t consider us to have much of a democracy right now,” Trump said. The 77-year-old faces an indictment accusing him of trying to overthrow the democratic 2020 election.

  He also complained that the press isn’t fair. “People understand what’s going on,” Trump said. “We need a media that’s free and fair. And frankly, if they don’t have that, it’s very, very hard to straighten out our country.”

  Trump renewed his claim that if he were president the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened and that he could settle the conflict quickly.

  Political scientist Norm Ornstein tweeted, “Oy. Trump says the Capitol Police testified against Nancy Pelosi, and then burned all the evidence. Lie upon lie upon lie. Unchallenged by Welker. Every word out of his mouth is a lie, and he talks over any questioner. Just a colossal mistake to showcase this sociopath.”

OFF KEY: Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner has been kicked off the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because of politically incorrect things he said in an interview with the NY Times.

  Speaking about his forthcoming book, “The Masters,” Wenner was asked why his interviews with musicians were only with white men, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Bono. Explaining why the book did not include interviews with non-white women or people of color and Wenner said, “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”

  He said pretty much the same about Black musicians.  “Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”

  And that’s the level at which Jann Wenner articulates.

PARTY LINES: The Texas Senate on Saturday voted to acquit the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, after a nine-day impeachment trial on allegations of corruption and bribery. Paxton, a three-term incumbent who was suspended after his impeachment in May, was immediately reinstated to his job.

  Paxton claimed he had been the victim of a “kangaroo court” in the Texas House and that, “The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt.” 

  Paxton was impeached by the Republican majority House, but it turned into a rift between the moderates and extremists in the Senate.

  Despite some members of Paxton’s own party involved in the Senate prosecution, the vote was nearly entirely along party lines with only two Republican senators voting to convict on any of the articles. The Texas Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats with a two-thirds vote required to convict.

  Paxton still faces a federal investigation and charges of securities fraud in state court. 

CHANNEL CHANGES: Media entrepreneur Byron Allen has made a $10 billion offer to Disney to buy the ABC television network and its assets including the FX and National Geographic cable channels.  Disney had already been in discussions with Nexstar Media about selling ABC.

  It’s not a surprise. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in July that the company might sell some of its traditional TV assets, which are struggling in competition with streaming services.

THE SPIN RACK: Post tropical storm Lee over the weekend knocked out power for tens of thousands of people in Maine and Atlantic Canada. It’s weakening and heading out to sea. — A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was found dead in his patrol car Saturday night in Palmdale in what authorities say appears to have been a targeted killing. Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, who had been on duty and in uniform was shot while stopped at a red light. —Negotiators are talking, but the United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis has entered its fourth day. — The United Nations has drastically revised the number of people killed in the Libya floods, down from 11,300 to 4,000. But thousands are still missing.

BELOW THE FOLD:  A small French ski resort near Mont Blanc in the French Alps, is shutting down for good because global warming has left the slopes without enough snow for a season of skiing. La Sambuy, a town that runs a family ski operation, decided to dismantle its ski lifts because the season has shrunk to just a few weeks a year and it’s no longer profitable. C’est dommage.