“Hello,” He Lied: Donald Trump yesterday dropped the falsehood he’s been perpetuating for five years that President Obama was not born in the United States and immediately hatched a new one: that it was Hillary Clinton who started the “birther movement” doubting the president’s citizenship. As he spoke surrounded by men who have been awarded the Medal of Honor, Trump did not apologize for perpetuating a damaging myth or acknowledge how wrong he had been.

“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.” Trump said, “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it.”

In fact, neither Hillary Clinton nor anyone in her 2008 campaign is known to have publicly or privately questioned Obama’s birthplace or citizenship. Despite all evidence that it was not true, Trump perpetuated the foreign birth rumor, and had the gall yesterday to claim that he put it to rest.

Disarmament: Claiming that Clinton wants to take away everyone’s guns, Trump suggested yesterday that her security detail should disarm. “Take their guns away. Let’s see what happens to her,” he said. It’s the second time that Trump has intimated that Clinton could or should be killed.

Critical State: Toni Monkovic writes for the NY Times that Pennsylvania is so critical in the election that the whole vote could be held in that one state. Monkovic quotes David Rothschild of the online forecasting site PredictWise, who says, “It’s unlikely that Clinton loses Pennsylvania and wins either Florida or Ohio or other states to make up for the necessary electoral votes. And Trump could take Florida and Ohio and North Carolina, and go over the top with some other combination of swing states. But Pennsylvania is his most likely route.”

Rothschild bases his predictions on money markets that trade contracts on upcoming events. Right now PredictWise gives Clinton an 80 percent chance of winning Pennsylvania, and a 69 percent chance of winning the general election.

The Obit Page: Edward Albee, who wrote, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and who in his prime was considered in his prime the foremost American playwright, has died at age 88. Through his plays, Albee was a brutal critic of American life who dug under the façade of religion and family. “Virginia Woolf” was a brutal depiction of a life stifled by academia and a marriage dissolved into recriminations and drink. He didn’t offer easy entertainment.

>WP Kinsella, the Canadian novelist who wrote Shoeless Joe, the novel that became the male tear-jerker movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, has died at age 81. Kinsella wrote 30 books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, but his story about having a game of catch with your dead father was the book that proved, if you write it, they will come.

Permawar: The Pentagon says an airstrike has killed “Dr. Wa’il”, the Islamic State’s minister of propaganda near Raqqah, Syria.

The strategy in recent months has been to target senior ISIS leaders. In recent months, airstrikes have killed “Jihadi John,” the British man who cut off the heads of prisoners with a combat knife, and the ISIS head of propaganda.

Leftovers: A North Carolina woman, Marcella Lee, has been arrested after she sold a freezer at a yard sale to a neighbor for $30. When the neighbor got the freezer home and opened it, the body of Lee’s 75-year-old mother was inside. Lee has been charged with failure to report a death.

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