Waiting…
What Fresh Hell is This?
Monday, Monday, Monday…
Exclusive: President Trump will announce a Minnesota company’s plan to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa, as he looks to counter voter frustration with the economy ahead of the midterm elections https://t.co/FDR1o03PXW
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 28, 2026
Trump is expected to unveil the proposal Monday afternoon at the White House, joined by executives from Mesabi Metallics, which recently opened the first iron-ore mine in Minnesota in 50 years. Steelmaking at the Iowa plant could begin in 2030, according to a White House official, who said it could support more than 1,700 jobs.
[snip]
Mesabi is part of Indian conglomerate Essar Group. The mine and steel-mill project were first proposed by Essar about 20 years ago. But the project went through years of delays and missed deadlines to repay state aid.
The Minnesota mine project filed for bankruptcy a decade ago. The state withdrew leases for iron ore and transferred them to rival iron-ore miner and steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs.
Mesabi Metallics emerged from the reorganized company in 2017 and a few years ago restarted construction of the buildings and equipment at its northern Minnesota site. The $2.5 billion mine began preliminary production this month, but Mesabi controls just enough iron-ore reserves for about 23 years of mining. The company has asked the state to return the leases given to Cleveland-Cliffs and is suing Cliffs for alleged antitrust violations.
WSJ. 09/28/2026.
Radio Iowa (09/27/2026):
Republican legislative leaders have not provided confirmation, but the House Minority Leader has sent an email to the 33 Democrats in the Iowa House, saying a company is asking the governor and legislators to “consider a special session to pass an incentive package…soon.” The company is not named in the email.
The Des Moines Register has reported some property owners about five miles from the Mississippi River in Lee County said they’ve been contacted about selling their land and they told the paper they believe a steel plant may be built there.
If state incentives are approved in a special legislative session this fall, it would not be the first time lawmakers have taken steps to try to attract a steel plant to Iowa. In 1994, Iowa officials came up with a $75 million package to lure Canadian-based IPSCO Steel to build a plant near Muscatine. It included state sales tax exemptions for construction materials, a 10% investment tax credit, and a property tax exemption for the machinery and equipment inside the plant. The state’s Research Activities tax credit for IPSCO was doubled and the state provided nearly $2 million for access roads to the facility and job training for employees, plus a $1 million loan.
The IPSCO plant near Muscatine opened in 1997 and recycles scrap metal. The plant has been under Swedish ownership since 2007.
Radio Iowa. 09/27/2026.
Months ago, ChatGPT and I created a Discord bot to track Puddle’s Lies Social addiction.
The goal was to create a searchable database. Given Puddle and his Harp’s obsession with posting videos, images, and screenshots of other people’s thoughts, that goal hasn’t been fully realized.
Here’s the total from Friday through what they’d spammed so far Monday.
Puddle and his Harp rapid-fired 132 posts, not including retweets.
The majority of Puddle’s thoughts and feels are shared in video form, where he is either the speaker or the person being praised. Some have words. Others are just images of himself with other people.
I’m taking a sample of his posts, not sharing them all…
Jack Smith is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. It’s the only reason I can find for Puddle to post the same article he posted five days ago.
He went wild posting other people upset over a Republican Rep having a different opinion from Puddle.
The Washington Post (09/23/2026):
In South Florida, Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s latest campaign ad seems to be all voters can talk about.
The Republican’s video, released last week, was shot in front of the White House, not in the sun-blazed streets of Miami-Dade County. Though aimed at frustrated voters, it was framed as a direct appeal to President Donald Trump.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says while looking directly at the camera. She goes on to tell Trump that his advisers are giving him bad advice and that his immigration policies are weakening Republicans’ standing with the Latino voters who helped power GOP gains in 2024.
[snip]
In a statement to The Washington Post, Salazar defended her video, saying it “represents her long-standing conviction on the matter.”
Still, the ad suggests that what initially seemed like a relatively easy race for Salazar in a district Trump won by nearly 15 points in 2024 may be more complicated.
The ad “told me that she’s desperate,” said political analyst Ana Navarro, a former Republican strategist who became a fierce Trump critic, and a resident of Salazar’s district. “This was a pretty much ho-hum race. I think most people weren’t paying much attention to it. And all of a sudden this ad comes out, and it’s like: ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’ And then you look at the polls, and you realize she’s tied.”
Washington Post (09/23/2026).
Stepping away from Lies Social.
Over the weekend our fact-checking friend Daniel Dale published his thoughts on Puddle, Puddle’s lies, and the media’s struggle to cover those lies.
I started fact-checking Donald Trump 10 years ago this month. Here are 15 thoughts on the nature of his lying, how it is received by the public and how it is covered by the media: https://t.co/Ersg0ThYjf
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 27, 2026
Here are a few highlights…
Like a lot of people, I thought Trump would lose the 2016 election.
I was very wrong. And Trump continued to be very wrong, about a dizzying variety of subjects, for the next decade.
[snip]
How frequently? Two months before Election Day in 2020, I had to abandon my four-year-old project of fact-checking each and every Trump statement. He was telling so many campaign lies that I’d become physically unable to look into all of them while living something loosely resembling a healthy life. By then, I’d recorded more than 8,500 false claims since September 2016.
CNN. 09/27/2026.
Two things that stand out to me…
For example, Trump has repeatedly noted that people have pointed out his claim that Biden presided over the very highest inflation in US history as incorrect. But then Trump has immediately gone on to repeat the very-highest-ever claim once more, insisting he still believes it. “Some people will correct me because they always love to correct me, even though I’m right about everything,” he said, piling another lie on top of the initial one, during a December rendition of the routine.
[snip]
Some of Trump’s lies are so bizarre or trivial that I can’t help but laugh. On the whole, though, his lies have been deeply harmful to the country. People died because of the Capitol riot prompted by his lies about the 2020 election. His lies downplaying Covid-19 almost certainly led to deaths, too. Specific people targeted by his lies, including journalists, judges and election workers, have faced threats and harassment. His lies have worsened innumerable public debates around critical policy issues. And American democracy itself is worse off for all the lying, too.
CNN. 09/27/2026.
Well gang, this is where we end today’s post.
I have been working with an internet that has been working against me since last week. Spectrum, our internet provider, has sent us a new modem in the hopes this breaks up the fight between me and my Wi-Fi.
Fingers crossed.
