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No downpayment and 97% of U.S. land mass qualifies.

Willie Fritz's Houston Cougars are a live underdog on Friday night in Lubbock.

Will the Giants pull off a second straight upset on Monday night against the Rams? Ryan Dunleavy and Brandon London discuss the tall task that Big Blue’s secondary is facing against Matthew Stafford and the rest of Los Angeles’ dynamic offense. Next up, Brandon heads to the film room to break down how the 49ers...

All Lizzie wants to do is expand the feeling of freedom and beauty she feels in the cherry blossoms to the world beyond, however many whacks it takes.

Stitches is backing the Nationals against the Cardinals on Friday.

Midwest Braces For Diesel Crisis After Exxon's Joliet Refinery Suffers Disruption

A major refinery in the US Midwest went offline this week after a power outage, adding to global refining disruptions as US diesel prices reach record highs.

One of the largest diesel refineries in the Midwest is offline pic.twitter.com/JSwuHrNfBw

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 18, 2026

Exxon Mobil shut its 275,000-barrel-a-day Joliet refinery in Illinois on Sunday after a power failure triggered the facility's safety flare, Reuters reported. A Thursday filing also disclosed that floodwater had overwhelmed a pump at the plant.

Exxon traced the power outage to ComEd's primary and secondary lines supplying the refinery and said it had fully restored electricity by Thursday. Power restoration, however, does not mean fuel production has resumed.

Located about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet can produce about 11 million gallons of gasoline and diesel daily, primarily for Midwest consumers. Its processing capacity represents roughly 6% of Midwest refining capacity and 1.5% nationally. 

UPDATE: $XOM Joliet reported to have suffered a "total power outage". this refinery capacity is 275kbpd, a large facility and it looks bad. https://t.co/IdAgfWhhUz pic.twitter.com/Sb52uXIviK

— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) September 14, 2026

A prolonged shutdown would tighten regional fuel availability and risk further price increases across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan. 

"There's an additional likelihood of further price increases in the Great Lakes. Gas: OH is at *high* risk of largest jump, WI, IN are at *med* risk of moderate jump, MI, IL at low/med risk but could go past $5/gal. diesel: will likely jump in most these areas mod/large jump," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote on X. 

⚠️there's additional likelihood of further price increases in the Great Lakes. Gas: OH is at *high* risk of largest jump, WI, IN are at *med* risk of moderate jump, MI, IL at low/med risk but could go past $5/gal. diesel: will likely jump in most these areas mod/large jump

— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) September 17, 2026

He noted, "spot diesel prices in the Great Lakes are now the highest in the country... $240/bbl."

Nationwide, the latest AAA data show diesel fuel prices at the pump have jumped to a record $6.45 a gallon.

Goldman Sachs commodity experts Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven warned earlier this week that the global diesel crisis could tighten gasoline supplies as refiners prioritize higher-margin diesel production.

Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone warned on Monday that "$6 diesel echoes 2008 gasoline shock."

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:55

"Let's just actually see how much paste did you have to put on your face to get that little weak beard?" El-Sayed taunted Vance in an interview with TMZ.

The Los Angeles Review of Books spiked an interview it commissioned with Shai Davidai, with an editor calling the outspoken academic “a toxic figure,” The Post has learned.

US Drops Venezuela From List Of Countries Failing To Combat Drug-Trafficking

Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The United States has removed Venezuela from its list of countries that it says have failed to demonstrably combat drug trafficking, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, Trump said he may also consider removing Colombia - with whom Venezuela shares a long, open border - as well as Bolivia, if these countries can demonstrate progress following recent changes of government.

Following the U.S. capture and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism in January, cooperation with the country's interim government is paying dividends, Trump said in the presidential determination published by the State Department.

Cooperation on Tren de Aragua

The U.S. president pointed to the killing of the infamous Tren de Aragua cartel leader known as "Niño Guerrero" as an example of how his government is working well with the new Caracas administration, led by Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez.

Venezuela has been on the failed list since 2005, when then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez kicked U.S. drug enforcement agents out of the country, accusing them of spying on his "Bolivarian Revolution."

"I have determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as having failed demonstrably to fulfill its drug control commitments," Trump said, adding that he expected to see "continued, measurable progress" from the interim government in "dismantling narcoterrorist groups and stopping drug trafficking."

Trump said Colombia was "poised to resume its place as our foremost security partner" in the Western Hemisphere following the election of President Abelardo de la Espriella, with whom he is closely allied, in June.

The U.S. president praised the people of Colombia for making the "courageous choice" of De la Espriella, a former high-profile criminal lawyer whose firm represented figures linked to Colombia's paramilitary and narcotics underworld.

'Colombia First' President

De la Espriella took office in August, pledging a crackdown on illegal immigration and crime, stressing a "Colombia first" approach, as the country joined the growing political rightward shift in Latin America.

Trump said that if, as expected, "Colombia makes progress on aggressive coca eradication and dismantling its narcoterrorist networks over the coming year," he would consider lifting the country's "failed demonstrably" status.

Trump put Colombia on the list last year for failing to combat cocaine production, amid a series of verbal exchanges between him and former leftist President Gustavo Petro.

Before then, Colombia had not been on the list since 1997, four years after the death of the infamous leader of the Medellín drug cartel, Pablo Escobar.

Trump said that cooperation between Bolivia and the United States has "significantly expanded" over the past year, since the 2025 election of President Rodrigo Paz, a conservative.

He praised Bolivia's extradition of alleged drug lord Sebastián Marset, described as one of the most wanted men in South America, to the United States in March 2026.

But he said the new government had not yet had sufficient time to reduce the cultivation of the coca plant for drugs, while corruption in Bolivia continued to facilitate trafficking and impede investigations.

If progress can be made, Trump said he would consider revisiting the country's status.

Four countries - Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia - are named as having "failed demonstrably" during the past year to make "substantial efforts" to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.

A total of 23 countries, including the four on the "failed" list, are named by the State Department as major transit hubs or producers of narcotics that end up in the United States.

The other Latin American countries on the list are Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.

Asian countries named are Afghanistan, Burma, India, Laos, Pakistan, and China.

Caribbean nations listed are the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, and Jamaica.

The State Department said that a country's presence on the list is "not necessarily a reflection of its government's current counterdrug efforts, or coordination with the United States."

'Billions Seized' From Cartels

In his determination, Trump referred to his war on drugs, much of which has centered on stemming the flow from the southern border and on bombing smugglers' boats.

He said that narcoterrorists responsible for the drugs "invasion" are either "dead, in jail, or living in fear knowing they will be next to face American justice," adding that he had "unleashed the strongest military in the history of the world to strike narcoterrorists wherever they threaten our country."

The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, an alliance with more than a dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere, has produced "historic results," Trump said, by drastically reducing drug flows and "seizing billions of dollars of illicit cartel finances."

Although progress had been made, Trump said that both Mexico and Canada - which are not on the list - need to "do far more" to prevent trafficking to the United States.

"Canada needs to take meaningful action to dismantle drug labs, strengthen supply chain security, and degrade criminal networks and Chinese gangs operating along our northern border," Trump said, referring specifically to the fentanyl trade.

Turning to China, Trump said the country "continues to be the world's largest producer of many of the precursor chemicals used to illicitly produce fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other deadly synthetic drugs."

He added that he had raised this with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, adding that despite some progress on export licences, China "needs to take more aggressive action" to reduce the flow.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:40

Mugrabi admitted she didn't pay a cent toward the loan on her Bridgehampton mansion, which a hopeful Queens politician Henry Ikezi won last month.

Talk about floating on the AI boom.

At least the Chargers might spare everyone the wait this year. Usually, it takes a while. A few impressive wins. A stretch of brilliant quarterback play from Justin Herbert. Enough promise to convince otherwise reasonable people that this is finally the season the Chargers stop being the Chargers. Then comes the disappointment. If they lose...

Got the munchies? These are for you!

They got it twisted. Just hours ago, Costco posted an Instagram video for its 2.5 million fans with a major announcement: The big box store‘s famous — and much missed — churro will return to store menus for the first time since 2024. At first, fans rejoiced at the return of the prodigal pastry, which...

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia charm as life-long besties in this new film.

After a brief hiatus, basketball is back.

Miami will take on a feisty Wake Forest side on Friday night.

"Viva México!": DSA Shoo-In For NYC House Seat Goes 'Mexico First,' Hails "Comrades In Morena"

A radical Democratic Socialists of America candidate who is poised to waltz into a deep-blue New York House seat used Mexican Independence Day to all but declare that she is Mexico First.

Claire Valdez, a card-carrying DSA member and New York State Assemblywoman who secured the Democrat nomination for the state's 7th Congressional District, posted a tweet on X celebrating 215 years since Mexicans "fought an empire that demanded our land and our labor." Valdez then went one step further, making the kind of declaration that should end the career of any Democrat or Republican who dared to utter something similar about a foreign country.

215 years ago, Mexicans fought an empire that demanded our land and our labor. And we won. I'll carry that fight with me to Congress as New York's first Mexican American representative. And I'm strengthened not just by Mexico's history but its present. Last month I met comrades in Morena who are standing up to the empires and corporations that have always taken from us – and building a government for the working class. ¡Viva la Independencia, Viva México!

— Claire Valdez (@claireforny) September 16, 2026

"I'll carry that fight with me to Congress as New York's first Mexican American representative," Valdez wrote, before gushing that she is "strengthened not just by Mexico's history but its present" and boasting about a meeting last month with her "comrades in Morena," the leftist party that currently rules Mexico.

Valdez lauded left-wing radicals for "standing up to the empires and corporations that have always taken from us" and "building a government for the working class." The DSA lawmakers capped off the post with a triumphant "¡Viva la Independencia, Viva México!"

Notably absent from Valdez's message was any mention of cutting taxes for struggling New Yorkers, securing the southern border, or tackling the soaring grocery prices that have hammered working families. In their place was the rhetoric of a hard-left activist who apparently views the United States Congress as merely one more battlefield in a global class war, complete with "comrades" embedded in a foreign government. Valdez has claimed that she is "a dual citizen of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation and the United States."

Valdez's tweet quickly ignited a firestorm of condemnation online.

"This is disqualifying," wrote Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN). "You are running for Congress in AMERICA."

Andy Ngo wrote: "American leftists elect people who are open about foreign allegiances and their agenda to serve foreign state interests."

"What the fuck," Pirate Wires Editor-in-Chief Mike Solana added.

what the fuck

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 18, 2026 Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:20

Accusing the referee of being on the take and physically challenging him is a surefire way to get 15 yards.

Friday Night Baseball is back in Queens for the final time this season.