BUY THE VOTE: President Trump declared last night that if the Republicans maintain control of both the House and Senate in the mid-term elections, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”

  Trump is offering to buy the vote at a cost of $1 trillion for the Treasury. 

  Speaking at an unusual mid-term Republican National Convention in Dallas, Trump is clearly worried about losing one or both houses of Congress to the Democrats. Although he is not on the ballot, Trump asked voters to “please pretend that I’m running, and get out and vote on November third, or sooner, because in actuality I really am running.”

  Trump peppered his speech with a spate of lies, including that, “I’m bringing the prices way down.”He promised that the price of gasoline will drop dramatically as soon as the war with Iran ends, but what he did not say is that the war has no end in sight.

  He threatened that, “If we lose you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts, you’re going to lose your safety and security, you’re going to lose your wealth. Our country is going through hell, you will be going through hell just like you did two years ago.”

  The President spoke for nearly two hours. “I’m having a lot of fun,” he said, “because everybody loves me, and I love everybody.”

  He plans to speak again tonight.

CAMEO: Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman made a cameo appearance by video before the Republicans, casting doubt on where his loyalties lie.

  “Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today?” Fetterman said in the video filmed in front of a steel mill. He said he is a “common-sense Democrat” who is “always going to reject the extremes in socialism.”

  Fetterman is somewhat alienated from his own party and recent reports have said that  he is disconnected from his own job. He did say, however, that he has no plans to switch parties. 

COUNT ON IT:  The Census Bureau has developed a proposal to change who is counted in the next census, eliminating millions of non-citizens including undocumented immigrants and people without permanent residence. 

  The census is used to allocate federal funding across the states but President Trump has been calling for this change for years.

  The document published with the Federal Registry says the census would add a citizenship question and eliminate questions about race and ethnicity. 

  The proposal says the “count should exclude any undocumented immigrants and noncitizens without permanent residency because they are “not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons with a ‘usual residence’ in the United States due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance to the United States.” Refugees and asylum seekers would also be excluded from the population count.

BE AFRAID: The out-of-control AI computer HAL 9000 in the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a prescient predicter of the future in which artificial intelligence escapes the grip of human operators.

  A researcher at the artificial intelligence company Anthropic posted a bleak prediction that the systems the company is racing to build risk bringing on human extinction. “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” wrote Evan Hubinger on X. “I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”

  Hubinger said in a separate post, “What I am worried about is superintelligence arising from recursive self-improvement, as we have said is happening faster than we thought.”

  Hal …. Hal ….

THE WAR ROOM: A fleet of eight American F-15 fighter jets sustained light damage and an A-10 Warthog ground support jet lost a wing in an Iranian missile strike in Jordan, CBS News reports.

  The network reports according to unnamed sources that the fighter jets were quickly returned to service condition. The US expended as many as 30 Patriot air defense missiles fending off the attack. 

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— The Department of Justice sent threatening letters to at least 30 top election officials across the country, ordering them not to destroy any records related to the 2024 election, explaining that their chief election officials “are currently under investigation” and subject to “ongoing litigation.” The letters did not describe the investigations or litigation.

— The City of Denver sued to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from serving warrants at polling places this November.

— The head of the special education section at the Department of Education resigned after just four months on the job a day before her office was to be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. Kelly Rogers had been criticized from within the agency for toeing the Trump line. 

 THE SPIN RACK: August tied the record for the Earth’s hottest month. — Remember when you could walk your mother to the plane? The TSA is bringing back gate access for some un-ticketed people 25 years after that custom was shut down following the 9/11 attacks. People granted access would be required to have TSA PreCheck status.

BELOW THE FOLD In-N-Out Burger announced that it has recently removed sesame flour from its buns in 10 states, replaced iodized salt with sea salt in its seasoning packets, and changed its ketchup recipe to use real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

  It’s practically health food now.

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