BLUSTER BOMBS: Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, an organization formed to keep peace in the world, President Donald Trump yesterday said he has a decision to make, whether to reach a peace deal with Iran or annihilate it.

  “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world?” he asked. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”

  He has made big threats before and failed to pay off on them. The President delivered a speech more useful for keeping a grip on his loyal base than fostering world peace and diplomacy.

  Trump’s speech included his usual self-congratulations and exaggerated or outright false claims. He said he ended the Israeli war on Gaza, which has not ended yet, and that he brought the largest tax cut in US history even though it ranks sixth.

  He claimed there are more Americans working than ever … under his watch … which is meaningless but there are more Americans than ever.

PRIVILEGE: The DOJ response to a lawsuit brought by three news outlets kicked out of the press room says covering the White House is a privilege, not a right, and that, “The President concluded that they have failed to maintain basic minimum ‘standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including’ by ‘publishing sensitive or classified information.’”

  The filing cited national security reasons for ejecting the three organizations for reporting about the bunker complex being built under the new White House ballroom and the Iran war. 

  The case is set for a preliminary hearing today.

  The courts have previously ruled that the White House cannot exclude a member of the press for what they have reported. But the DOJ filing says that CNN, MSNOW, and Politico were each sent a letter that included a “non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents, including those that have threatened national security and spread falsehoods.”

BY THE NUMBERS: Sixty-seven percent of voters disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as President, according to a new CNN poll.

  The poll says only 27 percent approve of the job he is doing on the economy. CNN says two-thirds of registered voters call the economy “extremely important” to their vote this fall. In a statistical warning light for Republicans, 57 percent of Americans say they feel uncertain about their own finances. 

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE: The federal government has dropped 750,000 enrollees from the Obamacare insurance marketplaces, Vice President JD Vance announced, claiming that many were receiving premium subsidies they did not qualify for and that some were not even real people.

  That’s about four percent of the 19 million people enrolled under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

  “We’re actually making sure that the people receiving Obamacare subsidies are actually entitled to receive them,” Vance said at a news conference, telling reporters  that removing those people would save the government $2.2 billion.

This is the latest from the anti-fraud task force headed by Vance. The task force has already withheld billions in Medicaid funding from Minnesota and California, claiming that the states have not adequately fought fraud.

WHITE PRIVILEGE: As it ejects non-white immigrants with protected status from troubled and dangerous countries, the Trump administration announced that it will welcome 17,500 mostly white South Africans.  The administration said that the white South Africans, who once ruled the country, face seizures of their land and other forms of persecution.

BIRTHRIGHTS: The Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by a surrogate mother from Alaska who wanted to keep the baby she bore for a Los Angeles couple.

  The baby boy named Rumi was born in a Dallas hospital on August 12th after the surrogate, McKenna West, fled to Texas where abortion is illegal and she would be recognized as the child’s mother under state law.

  The baby at 20 weeks was diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition requiring surgery almost immediately after birth to survive beyond the first week. The birth contract contained a clause that allowed termination … abortion … if there was an “anomaly” during the pregnancy. 

  West refused to have an abortion, carried the baby to term, and tried to keep him. She said her only desire was to make sure he got the medical care he needed.

CHANGING PLANET: For the first time a tropical sea turtle has been seen digging and laying eggs on a beach 30 miles south of Los Angeles in a sign of changing climate. It’s an olive ridley sea turtle, a threatened species usually found in tropical and subtropical waters off the coasts of Mexico and India.

  The turtle comes as an addition to a variety of sea creatures that have been migrating north as the Pacific warms. Her eggs will take about two months to hatch. 

THE SPIN RACK: Hurricane Polo off the coast of Mexico has grown into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades, a Category 5 storm. — The NY Times reports that with the proliferation of school shootings, some parents are giving their children bulletproof backpacks. — CNN contributor Kara Swisher said on a podcast that she just won’t be able to work for the outlet once it is owned by Paramount. “I don’t want to work for them,” she said. “I just don’t.”

BELOW THE FOLD: David George Gordon, who fostered the delights of  dining on insects with “The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook,” died at age 76. He was into deep-frying tarantulas and sautéing crickets.

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