Doug Burgum will put about a dozen warning signs outside the National Museum of American History, for $84,000 of taxpayer money. The Interior Secretary told Senators Jeff Merkley and Lisa Murkowski in a September 3 letter, obtained by The Atlantic and reported this morning, that the signs will warn visitors of "the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance." And: "We believe the public should enter the museum fully equipped with the information needed to evaluate whether to invest their time." Museum director Anthea Hartig told the House last week: "The museum does not take sides in America's political debates." Trump ordered it in July, after his White House's July 4 report proposed one label: "Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don't want you to love your country." The signs are unwritten. Lonnie Bunch, who founded the African American history museum, announced September 8 he retires at year's end. Murkowski, a Republican, asked the question that produced the letter.
Ursula von der Leyen offered Canada a path into the European Union on Tuesday, with Mark Carney in the Strasbourg chamber. Add Canada to the 27: 493 million people, $23.6 trillion, 151 million more people than the United States. No such category exists in the EU treaties, and nobody asked the 27 capitals. Canada took the part that pays in February, when it joined the €150 billion SAFE defence fund. The world now runs on five powers: America, China, India, Russia and Europe. The G7 made 65.8% of world output in 1990 and makes 44.4% now.
CNN reported Tuesday that fourteen Russian satellites crossed over Prince Sultan Air Base two days before Iran's March 27 strike destroyed an American E-3 radar plane. "Likely" is CNN's word for the help. Zelensky named the overflights on March 28. Narativ mapped China's Beidou feeding Iran's aim in July. Trump learned March 6 that Russia fed Iran targeting, called Putin March 9, and on March 12 waived sanctions on Russian oil — fifteen days before the strike.
Bari Weiss's first "60 Minutes" premiere drew 7.94 million on Sunday, down 21%, the smallest opener since at least 2000. CBS blames the football lead-in. The broadcast held 43% of that audience against 42% last year — the two million left on their own. CBS fired Scott Pelley in May after he accused Weiss of "murdering" the broadcast.
Thomas Massie forced a vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth by Thursday. Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home Wednesday instead, a day early, until after the election. Massie had warned they "might have canceled" voting days. They did.
The world is going from unipolar to multi-polar, and fast. Canada is moving toward Europe and Europe toward Canada, and the numbers say it without anyone having to. What America's weakening means is plainer than it sounds: it is no longer the country the others consult, no longer the dominant voice of freedom it was, and in a world gone mad that makes everything more complicated, not less. And yet America's economic output and its institutions, in their traditional form, still rule and still win when normal democratic government holds. When von der Leyen made the Canada offer, MEP Manon Aubry asked her from the floor: "Who gave you a democratic and popular mandate for that?" Of the five powers on the new map, America is the only democracy born by throwing off a crown, and its Constitution bans titles of nobility outright. Canada's head of state is still a king. Europe keeps six monarchies and an executive nobody elected. India's republic runs on dynasties. Russia and China shed their emperors and replaced them with worse. The map is new. The one country on it that answers to nobody but its voters is the one walking away from the table.
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Russian money reached the Trump family long before Russian satellites reached an American air base.
